d by Wellhausen's _Prolegomena to the
History of Israel_. That the arrangement of the Canon was utterly
misleading, that the Prophets were earlier than the priestly code and
that the Psalms for the most part were later than both, was proclaimed
in the writings and lectures of Vatke and Graf, Kuenen and Reuss; but it
was not till their discoveries were confirmed and elaborated by
Wellhausen that they won their way, and it was generally recognized that
their reconstruction alone rendered the religious development of the
Jews intelligible. This outline was shortly after filled in by Stade in
the first critical history of Israel; but his emphasis on the falsity of
tradition was overdone, and subsequent critics, while accepting the late
redaction of the law, have argued that parts of it are far older, in
substance if not in form, than Wellhausen and his disciple were prepared
to allow.

The history of the Jews owes much less to archaeological research on the
arena of their historic life than Egypt or Mesopotamia. No splendid
buildings or sculptures have been brought to light, and the inscriptions
are few. But British, American, and German excavators have flashed light
far back into the third millennium, and a partial excavation of
Jerusalem has revealed a network of prehistoric tunnels and aqueducts.
The historic life of Gezer has been minutely revealed by Macalister,
with the strata of seven cities reaching back to the neolithic age. The
most piquant result of his excavations has been to rehabilitate the
Philistines, the makers of the most artistic objects found in the debris
of two thousand years. Far more light, however, has been thrown on the
religious customs and beliefs of the Jews by discoveries beyond their
borders. The notion firmly held by our fathers that Israel was one of
the oldest of civilizations and formed a world by itself has vanished
into thin air; for an older and vaster civilization has been discovered
to which she owed not only her science but the larger part of her
religion. The dimension of the debt to Babylonia has been and continues
to be fiercely argued by conservative and radical critics; but its
recognition has sufficed to revolutionize the study of early Israel and
to provide a new background for the religious history of the world. The
relation of the beliefs and practices of the Jews to those of other
branches of the Semitic family was boldly explored by Robertson Smith,
and has lately been ill