CHAPTER XVII

THE APOLOGETIC VALUE OF PROPHECY

Our

Theistic pre-

Introductory. The old argument. Need of restatement.
conclusions thus far provisional; are they true?
suppositions

.

I. Recapitulation. The prophet as we have found him. Pre-
diction as we have found it. Messianic doctrine as we have found
it. The gospel in the Old Testament as we have found it

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. 391

II. The argument. From the presentment of the prophet. The
biblical ideal a true ideal. Apologetic bearings. Its concept of
divine revelation. From the presentment of the national ideal.
The bearing of critical theories. The significance of the ideal.
How is it to be accounted for? A contrasting ideal. The pro-
phetic mode of presentation. From historical verisimilitude. Self-
consistency. The promise-doctrine as a solution of difficulties.
Credibility. Unmiraculous events. Miraculous events. Intelligible
continuity. Bearings in the argument. From fulfilled prediction.
Has the promise been kept? The thing promised exceptional.
Fulfilled in the secular history of Israel. Eternal fulfilment ? Media-
torial suffering. The argument not trivial. Fulfilled in the three
religions of Yahaweh. Their civilizational results. Their spiritual
results. Fulfilled in the person of Jesus. A futile objection. No
need that Apologetics surrender historical fact.

394

THE PROPHETS AND THE

PROMISE

THE PROPHETS AND THE

PROMISE

CHAPTER I

PRELIMINARY

THE prophets of Israel: what manner of men they were, their functions, naturalistic or supernaturalistic, how their messages were given to them and how uttered. by them, their part in the writing of the scriptures, the doctrine they taught concerning Israel's peculiar relations to Deity and to mankind, the messianic kingdom they heralded and its king, and the value of their mission for the current illustration and defence of the Christian religion, this theme and these topics under it are certainly not new. They are familiar, trite, commonplace. Yet it seems to me that in this field a painstaking student may still hope to gather something. The older treatments seem to me inadequate, by reason of a certain lack of insight into the literary character of the sources and into the nature of historical movements, and by reason of too great reliance on traditional interpretations. The newer treatments seem to me yet more inadequate, by reason of the too easy rejection of portions of the testimony, and the too ready substitution of conjecture for evidence. Both leave something to be desired in this field of study, and something that is not beyond the reach of diligence and industry.

3

Without taking time to discuss thoroughly the principles that should govern such an investigation as this, I shall try to present, in this preliminary chapter, a few considerations touching the sources to be used and the interpretation of them, followed by a brief outline of the treatment that will be attempted.

Sources

I. The Old Testament is our one direct source of information concerning the prophets and their teachings. Indirect sources are, first, the New Testament and other later writings, including the evidence of the monuments; second, analogies drawn from other religions, or from later times, or from our theories or opinions.

The scriptures as a source

Of these sources the Old Testament, supplemented at some points by the New, is principal, and all others are subsidiary. Simple as this fact is, it is imperative that we pay it due attention. Our generation is much in the habit of substituting superficial reading for careful study. If a person has read a hundred volumes, in six or seven languages, concerning the prophets, he is in danger of fancying that he has done more work on the subject than if he had carefully examined all that the Old and New Testaments say about them. To avoid being misled, he should have it in mind that the hundred volumes contain very little real information save that which has been drawn from these principal sources. Nineteentwentieths of all that we really know on this subject comes from the bible. Only the other twentieth comes from extrabiblical tradition, or from monuments, or from the analogy of other religions, or by inference from the theories we hold, or from our general knowledge of things and men.

My purpose is, mainly, to reexamine the evidence