The Cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Testament; - The Search For ...

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root is exhibited in Hebrew characters and compared
with its Hebrew equivalent, and also frequently receives
illustration from other Semitic languages. This is a depart-
ment of investigation that promises to be fruitful of results
destined to exercise a marked influence on Old Testament
exegesis. Dr. Friederich Delitzsch has already given us the
first-fruits of his investigations on the relation of Assyrio-
logy to some of the more obscure points of Hebrew lexico-
graphy in his "Hebrew language viewed in the light of
Assyrian research" and has thrown a welcome light on the
rendering of some Hebrew words hitherto imperfectly under-
stood.
I now propose to exhibit in a somewhat clearer light a
few of the many points of interest that have been just
enumerated. It has been already stated that Dr. Schrader
occupied a position that might now be called conservative
in relation to the recently developed Pentateuch-criticism
as represented by the names of Graf, Kuenen and Well-
hausen. This position, it will be seen, he still maintains.
The speculations of Graf and Wellhausen have been brought
prominently before English readers in the works of Prof.
Robertson Smith "The Old Testament in the Jewish Church"
and "The Prophets of Israel". The limits and scope of
this preface will only admit of presenting these theories in
general outline in order to show the contrast between the
general position of this school of criticism and the stand-
point of Dr. Schrader , Dr. Noldeke and Dr. Dillmann.
The Biblico-critical views held by the author of the "Cunei-
form Inscriptions and the Old Testament" are stated fully
and cleai-ly in his edition (the eighth) of De Wette's Intro-
duction to the Old Testament (Einleitung pp. 270— 325).
The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua, called the