CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

THE most beautiful and powerful exemplification of the necessity and sacredness of Man's unceasing Search for the Knowledge of God is contained in the Scriptures themselves, in the Book of Job.

It is well known that there are two branches of criticism, not only of our Bible, but of all other collections of sacred writings, and of every book, sacred or profane, which is old enough to call for critical examination. One of these is called the Higher Criticism, and is concerned with the origin, authorship, place, and period of production of the writings submitted to it; while the other is concerned merely with the text-its correctness, meaning, and translation into other languages. The term Higher Criticism is

an unfortunate one, as it seems to denote that this branch has superseded the other, whereas it is really the complement of it. It is easy to understand how greatly the meaning of a book may be elucidated by a knowledge of the circumstances under which it was written, and how necessary it is to disentangle the parts of a book that had been composed by one author at one period from those composed by another at a different time. I do not propose, however, except incidentally, to enter into any question either of Higher or Lower Criticism in the dissertation which now follows concerning the Book of Job. Mr. Froude's reproach in his article in the Westminster Review in 1853 is no longer applicable, at least to its full extent. "It will be matter some day of curious inquiry," he said, "to ascertain why, notwithstanding the high reverence with which the English people regard the Bible, they have done so little, in comparison with their continental contemporaries, towards arriving at a proper understanding of it." He then refers to

three German Commentaries,1 and continues: "The books named below form but a section of a long list which has appeared during the last few years in Germany on the Book of Job alone. . . . Able men in England employ themselves in matters of a more practical character, and while we refuse to avail ourselves of what has been done elsewhere, no book or books which we produce on the interpretation of Scripture acquire more than a partial or an ephemeral reputation." 2

Plenty of English books are now published, founded on German research and scholarship. Four lie before me on the subject of Job:- Dean Bradley's, which is cautious and devout; Samuel Cox's, which is abundant; Professor Moulton's,3

1 Ernest Renan, in his translation of the Book of Job, cites twenty-one German commentators, and this by no means exhausts the list. Pp. ix, x, and xxxiv, note.

2 See Short Studies on Great Subjects, vol. 1, pp. 281,282. 3 I refer to Professor Moulton's smaller work, in Macmillan's series, The Modern Reader's Bible; but I am also familiar with his larger work, The Literary Study of the Bible.

Sec. (a).

THE GREAT

NESS OF THE
POEM.

which is a model of concise thoroughness; and Professor Cheyne's, which is boldly erudite.

That the people of England do not, however, love the Book of Job as they ought to love it is, I think, not to be gainsaid; for who that has ever studied it-not like Gregory the Great or S. Jerome, in the pride of a preconceived opinion as to what it ought to mean, but with the humility of one to whom it has been promised that he shall be taught all things does not endorse Carlyle's words when he exclaims: "I call that, apart from all theories about it, one of the grandest things ever written with pen. One feels, indeed, as if it were not Hebrew, such a noble universality, different from noble patriotism or noble sectarianism, reigns in it. A noble Book; all men's Book! It is our first, oldest statement of the never ending Problem-man's destiny and God's ways with him here in this earth. And all in such free, flowing outlines, grand in its sincerity and its simplicity; in its epic melody, and repose of reconcilement. There

is the seeing eye, the mildly understanding heart. So true every way; true eyesight and vision for all things; material things no less than spiritual. . . Such living likenesses never since drawn. Sublime sorrow, sublime reconciliation; oldest choral melody as of the heart of mankind;—so soft and great; as summer midnight, as the world with its seas and stars. There is nothing written, I think, in the Bible or out of it, of equal literary merit."

All men's book! How one wishes it were! There is nothing comparable with it except the Prometheus Bound of Aeschylus. It is eternal, illimitable; in magnitude and magnificence it is unsurpassed and unsurpassable. Its grandeur is prophetic and poetic; its scope is the relation between God and Man. It is a vast liberation, a great gaol-delivery of the spirit of Man; nay, rather a great Acquittal.

I do not believe that the book is well known in this intimate sense. No doubt the inadequacies of the Authorised Version 1 Heroes and Hero Worship, p. 49.