ence is to the past or to the
present or to the future. There is, indeed, plenty of room for the
most painstaking work of the linguistic critic.

The literary criticism concerns itself with the literary history of Old
Testament books. The Bible may be more than a human production, but in
outward form it has the appearance of an ordinary work of literature;
and, so far as its history as a collection of literary productions is
concerned, it has not escaped the fortunes or misfortunes of other
ancient literary works. It is a well-known fact that extra-biblical
books, religious and secular, have come down from the {72} distant past
bearing the names of men who cannot have been their authors; for
example, the Gospel of Peter, or the Ascension of Isaiah. Some ancient
books have been interpolated and added to from time to time; for
example, the Sibylline Oracles, the religious books of the Hindus.
Some ancient books are compilations rather than original productions;
for example, the Diatessaron of Tatian, or the religious books of the
Babylonians, which give abundant evidence of compilation. The
discoveries of these phenomena in extra-biblical books naturally raised
the question whether similar phenomena might not be found in the books
of the Old Testament. It is the duty of literary criticism to throw
light on these questions; to decide whether all the Old Testament books
are rightly ascribed to the men whose names they bear, whether they are
original productions or compilations from earlier material, and whether
any of the books have received additions or interpolations in the
course of their literary history.

Hand in hand with literary criticism goes historical criticism. The
student of Old Testament history seeks to trace the development of the
history of Israel by combining in a scientific manner the historical
material scattered throughout the Old Testament. In doing this he is
compelled to determine the value of the sources {73} from which he
gathers information. To do this is the duty of historical criticism.
It inquires, for example, whether the records are approximately
contemporaneous with the events they record; if so, whether the writers
were qualified to observe the events accurately, or to record and
interpret them correctly; and, if the accounts were written a
considerable time subsequent to the events recorded, whether they were
colored in any way by the beliefs and practices of the time in which
t