SOME good people have a distaste to archaeological studies. Old ruins and old stones make no appeal to them. To them they are nothing but stones, they cannot read any history in them and, in their opinion, any study given to them is a sheer waste of time. Whatever may be said of this attitude of mind towards certain departments of archaeology it certainly should not be encouraged in reference to Biblical Archaeology for in this department, within living memory, discoveries have been made which are of the greatest importance in confirming the historicity of the Bible—Old and New Testaments. Sir William Ramsay, who, to begin with, had accepted the views of the destructive critics, was forced by his own brilliant discoveries to renounce them and bear striking testimony to the historicity of some of the New Testament books which had been questioned by the critics. It is in the field of Old Testament history, however, that archaeologists have done some of their finest work. It is a striking fact that when the literary critics were attacking the Old Testament books with an air of condescending superiority they were confronted with the labours of the archaeologist. Never, perhaps, was there an age when such brilliant discoveries were made and the story of these reads like a romance. The archaeologists are driving the literary critics from pillar to post and there is scarcely a department of ancient archaeology whether in the field of Egyptology, Assyriology or Semitic history where the attack is not being made on the citadel of the Higher Criticism.
Unfortunately these scholars are like the men stationed at Ear-gate in Mansoul by Lord Will-be-will—all stone deaf. They do not hear the many voices calling to them to vacate their untenable positions. They do not realise how strongly and swiftly the tide is flowing against them. The extraordinary activity of the archaeologists within recent years, the vast sums of money spent by learned societies and wealthy men on excavations in Biblical countries, has surely something more behind it than the mere desire to unravel the past. Is it not significant that at a time when the higher critical attack against the historicity of the Old Testament books was at its height that it should be then that Archaeology with its treasures from the dust-heaps and ancient ruins should strike at the “assured” results of the literary criticism of the Bible? We are surely blind, indeed, if we do not see the Lord’s hand in this marvellous movement. The multiplicity of the archaeologists’ discoveries renders it almost impossible to keep in touch with their work. So, in presenting us with a summary of these discoveries the Rev. T. Christie Innes has done excellent service in his recently issued book—Thrilling Voices of the Past.
* Thrilling Voices of the Past by T. Christie Innes, M.A., M.R.A.S. Glasgow: Pickering & Inglis, Bothwell Street. Price 2/6.
Mr. Innes deals in a masterly way with his subject and his loyalty to God’s Word is most refreshing. Added to all this he is a master of his subject and is gifted with a captivating style so that the story he has to tell reads more like a romance than a book on archaeology. Our author deals some heavy and well-deserved blows to the Higher Critics and shows from the writings of eminent anthropologists, scientists and Biblical scholars that the “assured” results of the Higher Critics is a dream and a delusion. In passing, though it does not come within the scope, strictly speaking, of Biblical Archaeology he tells the wonderful story of Cleopatra’s Needle now on the Thames Embankment. It seems Thotmes III. under whose rule Egypt became a world empire had two obelisks set up in Heliopolis. One of these granite stones was brought to Alexandria in B.C.12 and it was while here it received the name of Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen. In 1878 it was erected on the Thames Embankment. The story of the brilliant discoveries of Champollion, Rawlinson, Hrozny, in unlocking the language of ancient nations is one of the wonders of archaeology.
Mr. Innes does not find in anthropology any evidence of the evolution of man and he quotes with approval the verdicts of Dr. Schmidt, the distinguished German anthropologist, and Sir Ambrose Fleming, the aged and brilliant English scientist. Sir Ambrose says: “Adherence to the doctrine of Evolution is entirely inconsistent with belief in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, and New Testament teaching as regards human sin, redemption and future life, which alone have power to explain and remedy the past, inspire the present, and dissipate the deep shadows that otherwise surround the termination of human life.” In course of his discussion he quotes a statement from Dr. Robertson Smith, the man who opened the floodgates of destructive criticism in Scotland, and who is still one of the idols of the Higher Critics, to show that his “totemic” theory of religion has the history of the oldest religion against it. The words of Nicholas Berdyaev, a distinguished modern thinker, are also quoted by him: “The naturalistic view of man as a product of evolution in the animal world is the feeblest of all anthropological theories. . . The only theory that is eternal and unsurpassed is the Jewish-Christian view of man as a being created by God in His own image and likeness” (The Destiny of Man, pp. 63, 64-5). The chapter dealing with the Flood is interesting as affording conclusive evidence of its existence from the excavations of Professor Langdon at Kish and Sir Leonard Woolley at Ur. The story of the excavations at Ur has a special chapter devoted to it and also the excavations at Jericho. The light cast by archaeology on the Phoenicians and the Hittites is told in an interesting way. For 2000 years nothing was known about the Hittites except what was said in the Bible and as it only occurred there it was rejected by the Higher Critics as unhistorical and, according to their view, the Hittites never existed. Archaeology has had no mercy on this learned ignorance and has rescued the Hittites from oblivion and thus confirmed the Bible. A chapter is devoted to the MSS. of the New Testament which gives a higher place to Codices Aleph and B (Sinaiticus and Vaticanus) than they deserve. Summing up the main lessons of archaeology Mr. Innes enumerates them as follows: (1) A powerful rebuke to human pride. (2) Archaeology by no means approves the general theory of evolution. (3) It maintains that man is a destructive animal. (4) It speaks volumes concerning the precarious nature of human civilization. (5) It teaches its greatest lesson in the trustworthiness of the Bible. The author truly says that the Higher Criticism was begun in rationalistic circles and we may add it has, in turn, bred many rationalists. All who wish to know how the Bible is being vindicated by archaeology should procure this book. We promise them an interesting and instructive hour or two in its reading. The book contains photographs of men whose names are household words in the archaeological world.