Volume - The Clarence Darrow Collection

320 FROM THE DIVINE ORACLES TO THE HIGHER CRITICISM.
lor Le Tellier, and secured an order to stop the publication of
the book and to burn the whole edition of it. Fortunately, a
few copies were rescued, and a few years later the work found
a new publisher in Holland ; yet not until there had been attached
to it, evidently by some Protestant divine of authority,
an essay warning the reader against its dangerous doctrines.
Two years later a translation was published in England.
This first work of Simon was followed by others, in which
he sought, in the interest of scriptural truth, to throw a new
and purer light upon our sacred literature but Bossuet
;
proved implacable. Although unable to suppress
Simon's works, he was able to drive him from the Oratory,
and to bring him into disrepute among the very men who
ought to have been proud of him as Frenchmen and thankful
to him as Christians.
But other scholars of eminence were now working in
all of
this field, and chief among them Le Clerc. Virtually driven
out of Geneva, he took refuge at Amsterdam, and there published
a series of works upon the Hebrew language, the interpretation
of Scripture, and the like. In these he combated
the prevalent idea that Hebrew was the primitive
tongue, expressed the opinion that in the plural form of the
word used in Genesis for God, " Elohim," there is a trace of
Chaldean polytheism, and, in his discussion on the serpent
who tempted Eve, curiously anticipated modern geological
and zoological ideas by quietly confessing his inability to
see how depriving the serpent of feet and compelling him to
go on his belly could be punishment since all this was natural
to the animal. He also ventured quasi-scientific explanations
of the confusion of tongues at Babel, the destruction of
Sodom, the conversion of Lot's wife into a pillar of salt, and
the dividing of the Red Sea. As to the Pentateuch in general,
he completely rejected the idea that it was written by
Moses. But his most permanent gift to the thinking world
was his answer to those who insisted upon the reference bjijSl
Christ and his apostles to Moses as the author of the Penta!
teuch. The answer became a formula which has proved
"
effective from his day to ours : Our Lord and his apostles
did not come into this world to teach criticism to the Jews,
and hence spoke according to the common opinion."
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