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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2632-h.zip b/2632-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..53d6c30 --- /dev/null +++ b/2632-h.zip diff --git a/2632-h/2632-h.htm b/2632-h/2632-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..53c702b --- /dev/null +++ b/2632-h/2632-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1562 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Lights of the Church and The Light Of Science, by Thomas Henry Huxley + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lights of the Church and the Light of +Science, by Thomas Henry Huxley + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Lights of the Church and the Light of Science + Essay #6 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition" + +Author: Thomas Henry Huxley + +Release Date: December 3, 2008 [EBook #2632] +Last Updated: January 22, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIGHTS OF THE CHURCH *** + + + + +Produced by D. R. Thompson, and David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE LIGHTS OF THE CHURCH AND THE LIGHT OF SCIENCE + </h1> + <h3> + ESSAY #6 FROM "SCIENCE AND HEBREW TRADITION" + </h3> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Thomas Henry Huxley + </h2> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <table summary="" border="3" cellpadding="4"> + <tbody> + <tr> + <td> + <a + href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2631/2631-h/2631-h.htm">Previous + Volume</a> + </td> + </tr> + </tbody> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_FOOT"> FOOTNOTES: </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + There are three ways of regarding any account of past occurrences, whether + delivered to us orally or recorded in writing. + </p> + <p> + The narrative may be exactly true. That is to say, the words, taken in + their natural sense, and interpreted according to the rules of grammar, + may convey to the mind of the hearer, or of the reader an idea precisely + correspondent with one which would have remained in the mind of a witness. + For example, the statement that King Charles the First was beheaded at + Whitehall on the 30th day of January 1649, is as exactly true as any + proposition in mathematics or physics; no one doubts that any person of + sound faculties, properly placed, who was present at Whitehall throughout + that day, and who used his eyes, would have seen the King's head cut off; + and that there would have remained in his mind an idea of that occurrence + which he would have put into words of the same value as those which we use + to express it. + </p> + <p> + Or the narrative may be partly true and partly false. Thus, some histories + of the time tell us what the King said, and what Bishop Juxon said; or + report royalist conspiracies to effect a rescue; or detail the motives + which induced the chiefs of the Commonwealth to resolve that the King + should die. One account declares that the King knelt at a high block, + another that he lay down with his neck on a mere plank. And there are + contemporary pictorial representations of both these modes of procedure. + Such narratives, while veracious as to the main event, may and do exhibit + various degrees of unconscious and conscious misrepresentation, + suppression, and invention, till they become hardly distinguishable from + pure fictions. Thus, they present a transition to narratives of a third + class, in which the fictitious element predominates. Here, again, there + are all imaginable gradations, from such works as Defoe's quasi-historical + account of the Plague year, which probably gives a truer conception of + that dreadful time than any authentic history, through the historical + novel, drama, and epic, to the purely phantasmal creations of imaginative + genius, such as the old "Arabian Nights" or the modern "Shaving of + Shagpat." It is not strictly needful for my present purpose that I should + say anything about narratives which are professedly fictitious. Yet it may + be well, perhaps, if I disclaim any intention of derogating from their + value, when I insist upon the paramount necessity of recollecting that + there is no sort of relation between the ethical, or the aesthetic, or + even the scientific importance of such works, and their worth as + historical documents. Unquestionably, to the poetic artist, or even to the + student of psychology, "Hamlet" and "Macbeth" may be better instructors + than all the books of a wilderness of professors of aesthetics or of moral + philosophy. But, as evidence of occurrences in Denmark, or in Scotland, at + the times and places indicated, they are out of court; the profoundest + admiration for them, the deepest gratitude for their influence, are + consistent with the knowledge that, historically speaking, they are + worthless fables, in which any foundation of reality that may exist is + submerged beneath the imaginative superstructure. + </p> + <p> + At present, however, I am not concerned to dwell upon the importance of + fictitious literature and the immensity of the work which it has effected + in the education of the human race. I propose to deal with the much more + limited inquiry: Are there two other classes of consecutive narratives (as + distinct from statements of individual facts), or only one? Is there any + known historical work which is throughout exactly true, or is there not? + In the case of the great majority of histories the answer is not doubtful: + they are all only partially true. Even those venerable works which bear + the names of some of the greatest of ancient Greek and Roman writers, and + which have been accepted by generation after generation, down to modern + times, as stories of unquestionable truth, have been compelled by + scientific criticism, after a long battle, to descend to the common level, + and to confession to a large admixture of error. I might fairly take this + for granted; but it may be well that I should entrench myself behind the + very apposite words of a historical authority who is certainly not + obnoxious to even a suspicion of sceptical tendencies. <a + href="#linknote-1" name="linknoteref-1" id="linknoteref-1"><small>1</small></a> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Time was—and that not very long ago—when all the relations of + ancient authors concerning the old world were received with a + ready belief; and an unreasoning and uncritical faith accepted + with equal satisfaction the narrative of the campaigns of Caesar + and of the doings of Romulus, the account of Alexander's marches + and of the conquests of Semiramis. We can most of us remember + when, in this country, the whole story of regal Rome, and even + the legend of the Trojan settlement in Latium, were seriously + placed before boys as history, and discoursed of as + unhesitatingly and in as dogmatic a tone as the tale of the + Catilline Conspiracy or the Conquest of Britain.... + + But all this is now changed. The last century has seen the birth + and growth of a new science—the Science of Historical + Criticism.... The whole world of profane history has been + revolutionised.... +</pre> + <p> + If these utterances were true when they fell from the lips of a Bampton + lecturer in 1859, with how much greater force do they appeal to us now, + when the immense labours of the generation now passing away constitute one + vast illustration of the power and fruitfulness of scientific methods of + investigation in history, no less than in all other departments of + knowledge. + </p> + <p> + At the present time, I suppose, there is no one who doubts that histories + which appertain to any other people than the Jews, and their spiritual + progeny in the first century, fall within the second class of the three + enumerated. Like Goethe's Autobiography, they might all be entitled + "Wahrheit und Dichtung"—"Truth and Fiction." The proportion of the + two constituents changes indefinitely; and the quality of the fiction + varies through the whole gamut of unveracity. But "Dichtung" is always + there. For the most acute and learned of historians cannot remedy the + imperfections of his sources of information; nor can the most impartial + wholly escape the influence of the "personal equation" generated by his + temperament and by his education. Therefore, from the narratives of + Herodotus to those set forth in yesterday's "Times," all history is to be + read subject to the warning that fiction has its share therein. The modern + vast development of fugitive literature cannot be the unmitigated evil + that some do vainly say it is, since it has put an end to the popular + delusion of less press-ridden times, that what appears in print must be + true. We should rather hope that some beneficent influence may create + among the erudite a like healthy suspicion of manuscripts and + inscriptions, however ancient; for a bulletin may lie, even though it be + written in cuneiform characters. Hotspur's starling, that was to be taught + to speak nothing but "Mortimer" into the ears of King Henry the Fourth, + might be a useful inmate of every historian's library, if "Fiction" were + substituted for the name of Harry Percy's friend. + </p> + <p> + But it was the chief object of the lecturer to the congregation gathered + in St. Mary's, Oxford, thirty-one years ago, to prove to them, by evidence + gathered with no little labour and marshalled with much skill, that one + group of historical works was exempt from the general rule; and that the + narratives contained in the canonical Scriptures are free from any + admixture of error. With justice and candour, the lecturer impresses upon + his hearers that the special distinction of Christianity, among the + religions of the world, lies in its claim to be historical; to be surely + founded upon events which have happened, exactly as they are declared to + have happened in its sacred books; which are true, that is, in the sense + that the statement about the execution of Charles the First is true. + Further, it is affirmed that the New Testament presupposes the historical + exactness of the Old Testament; that the points of contact of "sacred" and + "profane" history are innumerable; and that the demonstration of the + falsity of the Hebrew records, especially in regard to those narratives + which are assumed to be true in the New Testament, would be fatal to + Christian theology. + </p> + <p> + My utmost ingenuity does not enable me to discover a flaw in the argument + thus briefly summarised. I am fairly at a loss to comprehend how any one, + for a moment, can doubt that Christian theology must stand or fall with + the historical trustworthiness of the Jewish Scriptures. The very + conception of the Messiah, or Christ, is inextricably interwoven with + Jewish history; the identification of Jesus of Nazareth with that Messiah + rests upon the interpretation of passages of the Hebrew Scriptures which + have no evidential value unless they possess the historical character + assigned to them. If the covenant with Abraham was not made; if + circumcision and sacrifices were not ordained by Jahveh; if the "ten + words" were not written by God's hand on the stone tables; if Abraham is + more or less a mythical hero, such as Theseus; the story of the Deluge a + fiction; that of the Fall a legend; and that of the creation the dream of + a seer; if all these definite and detailed narratives of apparently real + events have no more value as history than have the stories of the regal + period of Rome—what is to be said about the Messianic doctrine, + which is so much less clearly enunciated? And what about the authority of + the writers of the books of the New Testament, who, on this theory, have + not merely accepted flimsy fictions for solid truths, but have built the + very foundations of Christian dogma upon legendary quicksands? + </p> + <p> + But these may be said to be merely the carpings of that carnal reason + which the profane call common sense; I hasten, therefore, to bring up the + forces of unimpeachable ecclesiastical authority in support of my + position. In a sermon preached last December, in St. Paul's Cathedral, <a + href="#linknote-2" name="linknoteref-2" id="linknoteref-2"><small>2</small></a> + Canon Liddon declares:— + </p> + <p> + "For Christians it will be enough to know that our Lord Jesus Christ set + the seal of His infallible sanction on the whole of the Old Testament. He + found the Hebrew canon as we have it in our hands to-day, and He treated + it as an authority which was above discussion. Nay more: He went out of + His way—if we may reverently speak thus—to sanction not a few + portions of it which modern scepticism rejects. When He would warn His + hearers against the dangers of spiritual relapse, He bids them remember + 'Lot's wife.' <a href="#linknote-3" name="linknoteref-3" id="linknoteref-3"><small>3</small></a> + When He would point out how worldly engagements may blind the soul to a + coming judgment, He reminds them how men ate, and drank, and married, and + were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and + the Flood came and destroyed them all. <a href="#linknote-4" + name="linknoteref-4" id="linknoteref-4"><small>4</small></a> If He would + put His finger on a fact in past Jewish history which, by its admitted + reality, would warrant belief in His own coming Resurrection, He points to + Jonah's being three days and three nights in the whale's belly (p. 23)." + <a href="#linknote-5" name="linknoteref-5" id="linknoteref-5"><small>5</small></a> + </p> + <p> + The preacher proceeds to brush aside the common—I had almost said + vulgar—apologetic pretext that Jesus was using <i>ad hominem</i> + arguments, or "accommodating" his better knowledge to popular ignorance, + as well as to point out the inadmissibility of the other alternative, that + he shared the popular ignorance. And to those who hold the latter view + sarcasm is dealt out with no niggard hand. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + But they will find it difficult to persuade mankind that, if He + could be mistaken on a matter of such strictly religious + importance as the value of the sacred literature of His + countrymen, He can be safely trusted about anything else. The + trustworthiness of the Old Testament is, in fact, inseparable + from the trustworthiness of our Lord Jesus Christ; and if we + believe that He is the true Light of the world, we shall close + our ears against suggestions impairing the credit of those + Jewish Scriptures which have received the stamp of His Divine + authority. (p. 25) +</pre> + <p> + Moreover, I learn from the public journals that a brilliant and + sharply-cut view of orthodoxy, of like hue and pattern, was only the other + day exhibited in that great theological kaleidoscope, the pulpit of St. + Mary's, recalling the time so long passed by, when a Bampton lecturer, in + the same place, performed the unusual feat of leaving the faith of + old-fashioned Christians undisturbed. + </p> + <p> + Yet many things have happened in the intervening thirty-one years. The + Bampton lecturer of 1859 had to grapple only with the infant Hercules of + historical criticism; and he is now a full-grown athlete, bearing on his + shoulders the spoils of all the lions that have stood in his path. Surely + a martyr's courage, as well as a martyr's faith, is needed by any one who, + at this time, is prepared to stand by the following plea for the veracity + of the Pentateuch:— + </p> + <p> + "Adam, according to the Hebrew original, was for 243 years contemporary + with Methuselah, who conversed for a hundred years with Shem. Shem was for + fifty years contemporary with Jacob, who probably saw Jochebed, Moses's + mother. Thus, Moses might by oral tradition have obtained the history of + Abraham, and even of the Deluge, at third hand; and that of the Temptation + and the Fall at fifth hand.... + </p> + <p> + "If it be granted—as it seems to be—that the great and + stirring events in a nation's life will, under ordinary circumstances, be + remembered (apart from all written memorials) for the space of 150 years, + being handed down through five generations, it must be allowed (even on + more human grounds) that the account which Moses gives of the Temptation + and the Fall is to be depended upon, if it passed through no more than + four hands between him and Adam." <a href="#linknote-6" + name="linknoteref-6" id="linknoteref-6"><small>6</small></a> + </p> + <p> + If "the trustworthiness of our Lord Jesus Christ" is to stand or fall with + the belief in the sudden transmutation of the chemical components of a + woman's body into sodium chloride, or on the "admitted reality" of Jonah's + ejection, safe and sound, on the shores of the Levant, after three days' + sea-journey in the stomach of a gigantic marine animal, what possible + pretext can there be for even hinting a doubt as to the precise truth of + the longevity attributed to the Patriarchs? Who that has swallowed the + camel of Jonah's journey will be guilty of the affectation of straining at + such a historical gnat—nay, midge—as the supposition that the + mother of Moses was told the story of the Flood by Jacob; who had it + straight from Shem; who was on friendly terms with Methuselah; who knew + Adam quite well? + </p> + <p> + Yet, by the strange irony of things, the illustrious brother of the divine + who propounded this remarkable theory, has been the guide and foremost + worker of that band of investigators of the records of Assyria and of + Babylonia, who have opened to our view, not merely a new chapter, but a + new volume of primeval history, relating to the very people who have the + most numerous points of contact with the life of the ancient Hebrews. Now, + whatever imperfections may yet obscure the full value of the Mesopotamian + records, everything that has been clearly ascertained tends to the + conclusion that the assignment of no more than 4000 years to the period + between the time of the origin of mankind and that of Augustus Caesar, is + wholly inadmissible. Therefore the Biblical chronology, which Canon + Rawlinson trusted so implicitly in 1859, is relegated by all serious + critics to the domain of fable. + </p> + <p> + But if scientific method, operating in the region of history, of + philology, of archaeology, in the course of the last thirty or forty + years, has become thus formidable to the theological dogmatist, what may + not be said about scientific method working in the province of physical + science? For, if it be true that the Canonical Scriptures have innumerable + points of contact with civil history, it is no less true that they have + almost as many with natural history; and their accuracy is put to the test + as severely by the latter as by the former. The origin of the present + state of the heavens and the earth is a problem which lies strictly within + the province of physical science; so is that of the origin of man among + living things; so is that of the physical changes which the earth has + undergone since the origin of man; so is that of the origin of the various + races and nations of men, with all their varieties of language and + physical conformation. Whether the earth moves round the sun or the + contrary; whether the bodily and mental diseases of men and animals are + caused by evil spirits or not; whether there is such an agency as + witchcraft or not—all these are purely scientific questions; and to + all of them the Canonical Scriptures profess to give true answers. And + though nothing is more common than the assumption that these books come + into conflict only with the speculative part of modern physical science, + no assumption can have less foundation. + </p> + <p> + The antagonism between natural knowledge and the Pentateuch would be as + great if the speculations of our time had never been heard of. It arises + out of contradiction upon matters of fact. The books of ecclesiastical + authority declare that certain events happened in a certain fashion; the + books of scientific authority say they did not. As it seems that this + unquestionable truth has not yet penetrated among many of those who speak + and write on these subjects, it may be useful to give a full illustration + of it. And for that purpose I propose to deal, at some length, with the + narrative of the Noachian Deluge given in Genesis. + </p> + <p> + The Bampton lecturer in 1859, and the Canon of St. Paul's in 1890, are in + full agreement that this history is true, in the sense in which I have + defined historical truth. The former is of opinion that the account + attributed to Berosus records a tradition— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + not drawn from the Hebrew record, much less the foundation of + that record; yet coinciding with it in the most remarkable way. + The Babylonian version is tricked out with a few extravagances, + as the monstrous size of the vessel and the translation of + Xisuthros; but otherwise it is the Hebrew history <i>down to its + minutiae.</i> (p. 64). +</pre> + <p> + Moreover, correcting Niebuhr, the Bampton lecturer points out that the + narrative of Berosus implies the universality of the Flood. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + It is plain that the waters are represented as prevailing above + the tops of the loftiest mountains in Armenia—a height which + must have been seen to involve the submersion of all the + countries with which the Babylonians were acquainted (p. 66). +</pre> + <p> + I may remark, in passing, that many people think the size of Noah's ark + "monstrous," considering the probable state of the art of shipbuilding + only 1600 years after the origin of man; while others are so unreasonable + as to inquire why the translation of Enoch is less an "extravagance" than + that of Xisuthros. It is more important, however, to note that the + Universality of the Deluge is recognised, not merely as a part of the + story, but as a necessary consequence of some of its details. The latest + exponent of Anglican orthodoxy, as we have seen, insists upon the accuracy + of the Pentateuchal history of the Flood in a still more forcible manner. + It is cited as one of those very narratives to which the authority of the + Founder of Christianity is pledged, and upon the accuracy of which "the + trustworthiness of our Lord Jesus Christ" is staked, just as others have + staked it upon the truth of the histories of demoniac possession in the + Gospels. + </p> + <p> + Now, when those who put their trust in scientific methods of ascertaining + the truth in the province of natural history find themselves confronted + and opposed, on their own ground, by ecclesiastical pretensions to better + knowledge, it is, undoubtedly, most desirable for them to make sure that + their conclusions, whatever they may be, are well founded. And, if they + put aside the unauthorised interference with their business and relegate + the Pentateuchal history to the region of pure fiction, they are bound to + assure themselves that they do so because the plainest teachings of Nature + (apart from all doubtful speculations) are irreconcilable with the + assertions which they reject. + </p> + <p> + At the present time, it is difficult to persuade serious scientific + inquirers to occupy themselves, in any way, with the Noachian Deluge. They + look at you with a smile and a shrug, and say they have more important + matters to attend to than mere antiquarianism. But it was not so in my + youth. At that time, geologists and biologists could hardly follow to the + end any path of inquiry without finding the way blocked by Noah and his + ark, or by the first chapter of Genesis; and it was a serious matter, in + this country at any rate, for a man to be suspected of doubting the + literal truth of the Diluvial or any other Pentateuchal history. The + fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the Geological Club (in 1824) + was, if I remember rightly, the last occasion on which the late Sir + Charles Lyell spoke to even so small a public as the members of that body. + Our veteran leader lighted up once more; and, referring to the + difficulties which beset his early efforts to create a rational science of + geology, spoke, with his wonted clearness and vigour, of the social + ostracism which pursued him after the publication of the "Principles of + Geology," in 1830, on account of the obvious tendency of that noble work + to discredit the Pentateuchal accounts of the Creation and the Deluge. If + my younger contemporaries find this hard to believe, I may refer them to a + grave book, "On the Doctrine of the Deluge," published eight years later, + and dedicated by its author to his father, the then Archbishop of York. + The first chapter refers to the treatment of the "Mosaic Deluge," by Dr. + Buckland and Mr. Lyell, in the following terms: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Their respect for revealed religion has prevented them from + arraying themselves openly against the Scriptural account of it + —much less do they deny its truth—but they are in a great + hurry to escape from the consideration of it, and evidently + concur in the opinion of Linnaeus, that no proofs whatever of + the Deluge are to be discovered in the structure of the + earth (p. 1). +</pre> + <p> + And after an attempt to reply to some of Lyell's arguments, which it would + be cruel to reproduce, the writer continues:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + When, therefore, upon such slender grounds, it is + determined, in answer to those who insist upon its universality, + that the Mosaic Deluge must be considered a preternatural event, + far beyond the reach of philosophical inquiry; not only as to + the causes employed to produce it, but as to the effects most + likely to result from it; that determination wears an aspect of + scepticism, which, however much soever it may be unintentional + in the mind of the writer, yet cannot but produce an evil + impression on those who are already predisposed to carp and + cavil at the evidences of Revelation (pp. 8-9). +</pre> + <p> + The kindly and courteous writer of these curious passages is evidently + unwilling to make the geologists the victims of general opprobrium by + pressing the obvious consequences of their teaching home. One is therefore + pained to think of the feelings with which, if he lived so long as to + become acquainted with the "Dictionary of the Bible," he must have perused + the article "Noah," written by a dignitary of the Church for that standard + compendium and published in 1863. For the doctrine of the universality of + the Deluge is therein altogether given up; and I permit myself to hope + that a long criticism of the story from the point of view of natural + science, with which, at the request of the learned theologian who wrote + it, I supplied him, may, in some degree, have contributed towards this + happy result. + </p> + <p> + Notwithstanding diligent search, I have been unable to discover that the + universality of the Deluge has any defender left, at least among those who + have so far mastered the rudiments of natural knowledge as to be able to + appreciate the weight of evidence against it. For example, when I turned + to the "Speaker's Bible," published under the sanction of high Anglican + authority, I found the following judicial and judicious deliverance, the + skilful wording of which may adorn, but does not hide, the completeness of + the surrender of the old teaching:— + </p> + <p> + "Without pronouncing too hastily on any fair inferences from the words of + Scripture, we may reasonably say that their most natural interpretation + is, that the whole race of man had become grievously corrupted since the + faithful had intermingled with the ungodly; that the inhabited world was + consequently filled with violence, and that God had decreed to destroy all + mankind except one single family; that, therefore, all that portion of the + earth, perhaps as yet a very small portion, into which mankind had spread + was overwhelmed with water. The ark was ordained to save one faithful + family; and lest that family, on the subsidence of the waters, should find + the whole country round them a desert, a pair of all the beasts of the + land and of the fowls of the air were preserved along with them, and along + with them went forth to replenish the now desolated continent. The words + of Scripture (confirmed as they are by universal tradition) appear at + least to mean as much as this. They do not necessarily mean more." <a + href="#linknote-7" name="linknoteref-7" id="linknoteref-7"><small>7</small></a> + </p> + <p> + In the third edition of Kitto's "Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature" + (1876), the article "Deluge," written by my friend, the present + distinguished head of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, extinguishes + the universality doctrine as thoroughly as might be expected from its + authorship; and, since the writer of the article "Noah" refers his readers + to that entitled "Deluge," it is to be supposed, notwithstanding his + generally orthodox tone, that he does not dissent from its conclusions. + Again, the writers in Herzog's "Real-Encyclopadie" (Bd. X. 1882) and in + Riehm's "Handworterbuch" (1884)—both works with a conservative + leaning—are on the same side; and Diestel, <a href="#linknote-8" + name="linknoteref-8" id="linknoteref-8"><small>8</small></a> in his full + discussion of the subject, remorselessly rejects the universality + doctrine. Even that staunch opponent of scientific rationalism—may I + say rationality?—Zockler <a href="#linknote-9" name="linknoteref-9" + id="linknoteref-9"><small>9</small></a> flinches from a distinct defence + of the thesis, any opposition to which, well within my recollection, was + howled down by the orthodox as mere "infidelity." All that, in his sore + straits, Dr. Zockler is able to do, is to pronounce a faint commendation + upon a particularly absurd attempt at reconciliation, which would make out + the Noachian Deluge to be a catastrophe which occurred at the end of the + Glacial Epoch. This hypothesis involves only the trifle of a physical + revolution of which geology knows nothing; and which, if it secured the + accuracy of the Pentateuchal writer about the fact of the Deluge, would + leave the details of his account as irreconcilable with the truths of + elementary physical science as ever. Thus I may be permitted to spare + myself and my readers the weariness of a recapitulation of the + overwhelming arguments against the universality of the Deluge, which they + will now find for themselves stated, as fully and forcibly as could be + wished, by Anglican and other theologians, whose orthodoxy and + conservative tendencies have, hitherto, been above suspicion. Yet many + fully admit (and, indeed, nothing can be plainer) that, as a matter of + fact, the whole earth known to him was inundated; nor is it less obvious + that unless all mankind, with the exception of Noah and his family, were + actually destroyed, the references to the Flood in the New Testament are + unintelligible. + </p> + <p> + But I am quite aware that the strength of the demonstration that no + universal Deluge ever took place has produced a change of front in the + army of apologetic writers. They have imagined that the substitution of + the adjective "partial" for "universal," will save the credit of the + Pentateuch, and permit them, after all, without too many blushes, to + declare that the progress of modern science only strengthens the authority + of Moses. Nowhere have I found the case of the advocates of this method of + escaping from the difficulties of the actual position better put than in + the lecture of Professor Diestel to which I have referred. After frankly + admitting that the old doctrine of universality involves physical + impossibilities, he continues:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + All these difficulties fall away as soon as we give up the + universality of the Deluge, and imagine a <i>partial</i> + flooding of the earth, say in western Asia. But have we a right + to do so? The narrative speaks of "the whole earth." But what is + the meaning of this expression? Surely not the whole surface of + the earth according to the ideas of <i>modern</i> geographers, + but, at most, according to the conceptions of the Biblical + author. This very simple conclusion, however, is never drawn by + too many readers of the Bible. But one need only cast one's eyes + over the tenth chapter of Genesis in order to become acquainted + with the geographical horizon of the Jews. In the north it was + bounded by the Black Sea and the mountains of Armenia; + extended towards the east very little beyond the Tigris; + hardly reached the apex of the Persian Gulf; passed, then, + through the middle of Arabia and the Red Sea; went southward + through Abyssinia, and then turned westward by the frontiers of + Egypt, and inclosed the easternmost islands of the + Mediterranean (p. 11). +</pre> + <p> + The justice of this observation must be admitted, no less than the further + remark that, in still earlier times, the pastoral Hebrews very probably + had yet more restricted notions of what constituted the "whole earth." + Moreover, I, for one, fully agree with Professor Diestel that the motive, + or generative incident, of the whole story is to be sought in the + occasionally excessive and desolating floods of the Euphrates and the + Tigris. + </p> + <p> + Let us, provisionally, accept the theory of a partial deluge, and try to + form a clear mental picture of the occurrence. Let us suppose that, for + forty days and forty nights, such a vast quantity of water was poured upon + the ground that the whole surface of Mesopotamia was covered by water to a + depth certainly greater, probably much greater, than fifteen cubits, or + twenty feet (Gen. vii. 20). The inundation prevails upon the earth for one + hundred and fifty days and then the flood gradually decreases, until, on + the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark, which had previously + floated on its surface, grounds upon the "mountains of Ararat" <a + href="#linknote-10" name="linknoteref-10" id="linknoteref-10"><small>10</small></a> + (Gen. viii. 34). Then, as Diestel has acutely pointed out ("Sintflut," p. + 13), we are to imagine the further subsidence of the flood to take place + so gradually that it was not until nearly two months and a half after this + time (that is to say, on the first day of the tenth month) that the "tops + of the mountains" became visible. Hence it follows that, if the ark drew + even as much as twenty feet of water, the level of the inundation fell + very slowly—at a rate of only a few inches a day—until the top + of the mountain on which it rested became visible. This is an amount of + movement which, if it took place in the sea, would be overlooked by + ordinary people on the shore. But the Mesopotamian plain slopes gently, + from an elevation of 500 or 600 feet at its northern end, to the sea, at + its southern end, with hardly so much as a notable ridge to break its + uniform flatness, for 300 to 400 miles. These being the conditions of the + case, the following inquiry naturally presents itself: not, be it + observed, as a recondite problem, generated by modern speculation, but as + a plain suggestion flowing out of that very ordinary and archaic piece of + knowledge that water cannot be piled up like in a heap, like sand; or that + it seeks the lowest level. When, after 150 days, "the fountains also of + the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven + was restrained" (Gen. viii.2), what prevented the mass of water, several, + possibly very many, fathoms deep, which covered, say, the present site of + Bagdad, from sweeping seaward in a furious torrent; and, in a very few + hours, leaving, not only the "tops of the mountains," but the whole plain, + save any minor depressions, bare? How could its subsistence, by any + possibility, be an affair of weeks and months? + </p> + <p> + And if this difficulty is not enough, let any one try to imagine how a + mass of water several perhaps very many, fathoms deep, could be + accumulated on a flat surface of land rising well above the sea, and + separated from it by no sort of barrier. Most people know Lord's + Cricket-ground. Would it not be an absurd contradiction to our common + knowledge of the properties of water to imagine that, if all the mains of + all the waterworks of London were turned on to it, they could maintain a + heap of water twenty feet deep over its level surface? Is it not obvious + that the water, whatever momentary accumulation might take place at first, + would not stop there, but that it would dash, like a mighty mill-race, + southwards down the gentle slope which ends in the Thames? And is it not + further obvious, that whatever depth of water might be maintained over the + cricket-ground so long as all the mains poured on to it, anything which + floated there would be speedily whirled away by the current, like a cork + in a gutter when the rain pours? But if this is so, then it is no less + certain that Noah's deeply laden, sailless, oarless, and rudderless craft, + if by good fortune it escaped capsizing in whirlpools, or having its + bottom knocked into holes by snags (like those which prove fatal even to + well-built steamers on the Mississippi in our day), would have speedily + found itself a good way down the Persian Gulf, and not long after in the + Indian Ocean, somewhere between Arabia and Hindostan. Even if, eventually, + the ark might have gone ashore, with other jetsam and flotsam, on the + coasts of Arabia, or of Hindostan, or of the Maldives, or of Madagascar, + its return to the "mountains of Ararat" would have been a miracle more + stupendous than all the rest. + </p> + <p> + Thus, the last state of the would-be reconcilers of the story of the + Deluge with fact is worse than the first. All that they have done is to + transfer the contradictions to established truth from the region of + science proper to that of common information and common sense. For, + really, the assertion that the surface of a body of deep water, to which + no addition was made, and which there was nothing to stop from running + into the sea, sank at the rate of only a few inches or even feet a day, + simply outrages the most ordinary and familiar teachings of every man's + daily experience. A child may see the folly of it. + </p> + <p> + In addition, I may remark that the necessary assumption of the "partial + Deluge" hypothesis (if it is confined to Mesopotamia) that the Hebrew + writer must have meant low hills when he said "high mountains," is quite + untenable. On the eastern side of the Mesopotamian plain, the snowy peaks + of the frontier ranges of Persia are visible from Bagdad, <a + href="#linknote-11" name="linknoteref-11" id="linknoteref-11"><small>11</small></a> + and even the most ignorant herdsmen in the neighbourhood of "Ur of the + Chaldees," near its western limit, could hardly have been unacquainted + with the comparatively elevated plateau of the Syrian desert which lay + close at hand. But, surely, we must suppose the Biblical writer to be + acquainted with the highlands of Palestine and with the masses of the + Sinaitic peninsula, which soar more than 8000 feet above the sea, if he + knew of no higher elevations; and, if so, he could not well have meant to + refer to mere hillocks when he said that "all the high mountains which + were under the whole heaven were covered" (Genesis vii. 19). Even the + hill-country of Galilee reaches an elevation of 4000 feet; and a flood + which covered it could by no possibility have been other than universal in + its superficial extent. Water really cannot be got to stand at, say, 4000 + feet above the sea-level over Palestine, without covering the rest of the + globe to the same height. Even if, in the course of Noah's six hundredth + year, some prodigious convulsion had sunk the whole region inclosed within + "the horizon of the geographical knowledge" of the Israelites by that + much, and another had pushed it up again, just in time to catch the ark + upon the "mountains of Ararat," matters are not much mended. I am afraid + to think of what would have become of a vessel so little seaworthy as the + ark and of its very numerous passengers, under the peculiar obstacles to + quiet flotation which such rapid movements of depression and upheaval + would have generated. + </p> + <p> + Thus, in view, not, I repeat of the recondite speculations of infidel + philosophers, but in the face of the plainest and most commonplace of + ascertained physical facts, the story of the Noachian Deluge has no more + claim to credit than has that of Deucalion; and whether it was, or was + not, suggested by the familiar acquaintance of its originators with the + effects of unusually great overflows of the Tigris and Euphrates, it is + utterly devoid of historical truth. + </p> + <p> + That is, in my judgment, the necessary result of the application of + criticism, based upon assured physical knowledge to the story of the + Deluge. And it is satisfactory that the criticism which is based, not upon + literary and historical speculations, but upon well-ascertained facts in + the departments of literature and history, tends to exactly the same + conclusion. + </p> + <p> + For I find this much agreed upon by all Biblical scholars of repute, that + the story of the Deluge in Genesis is separable into at least two sets of + statements; and that, when the statements thus separated are recombined in + their proper order, each set furnishes an account of the event, coherent + and complete within itself, but in some respects discordant with that + afforded by the other set. This fact, as I understand, is not disputed. + Whether one of these is the work of an Elohist, and the other of a + Jehovist narrator; whether the two have been pieced together in this + strange fashion because, in the estimation of the compilers and editors of + the Pentateuch, they had equal and independent authority, or not; or + whether there is some other way of accounting for it—are questions + the answers to which do not affect the fact. If possible I avoid <i>a + priori</i> arguments. But still, I think it may be urged, without + imprudence, that a narrative having this structure is hardly such as might + be expected from a writer possessed of full and infallibly accurate + knowledge. Once more, it would seem that it is not necessarily the mere + inclination of the sceptical spirit to question everything, or the wilful + blindness of infidels, which prompts grave doubts as to the value of a + narrative thus curiously unlike the ordinary run of veracious histories. + </p> + <p> + But the voice of archaeological and historical criticism still has to be + heard; and it gives forth no uncertain sound. The marvellous recovery of + the records of an antiquity, far superior to any that can be ascribed to + the Pentateuch, which has been effected by the decipherers of cuneiform + characters, has put us in possession of a series, once more, not of + speculations, but of facts, which have a most remarkable bearing upon the + question of the truthworthiness of the narrative of the Flood. It is + established, that for centuries before the asserted migration of Terah + from Ur of the Chaldees (which, according to the orthodox interpreters of + the Pentateuch, took place after the year 2000 B.C.) Lower Mesopotamia was + the seat of a civilisation in which art and science and literature had + attained a development formerly unsuspected or, if there were faint + reports of it, treated as fabulous. And it is also no matter of + speculation, but a fact, that the libraries of these people contain + versions of a long epic poem, one of the twelve books of which tells a + story of a deluge, which, in a number of its leading features, corresponds + with the story attributed to Berosus, no less than with the story given in + Genesis, with curious exactness. Thus, the correctness of Canon + Rawlinson's conclusion, cited above, that the story of Berosus was neither + drawn from the Hebrew record, nor is the foundation of it, can hardly be + questioned. It is highly probable, if not certain, that Berosus relied + upon one of the versions (for there seem to have been several) of the old + Babylonian epos, extant in his time; and, if that is a reasonable + conclusion, why is it unreasonable to believe that the two stories, which + the Hebrew compiler has put together in such an inartistic fashion, were + ultimately derived from the same source? I say ultimately, because it does + not at all follow that the two versions, possibly trimmed by the + Jehovistic writer on the one hand, and by the Elohistic on the other, to + suit Hebrew requirements, may not have been current among the Israelites + for ages. And they may have acquired great authority before they were + combined in the Pentateuch. + </p> + <p> + Looking at the convergence of all these lines of evidence to the one + conclusion—that the story of the Flood in Genesis is merely a + Bowdlerised version of one of the oldest pieces of purely fictitious + literature extant; that whether this is, or is not, its origin, the events + asserted in it to have taken place assuredly never did take place; + further, that, in point of fact, the story, in the plain and logically + necessary sense of its words, has long since been given up by orthodox and + conservative commentators of the Established Church—I can but admire + the courage and clear foresight of the Anglican divine who tells us that + we must be prepared to choose between the trustworthiness of scientific + method and the trustworthiness of that which the Church declares to be + Divine authority. For, to my mind, this declaration of war to the knife + against secular science, even in its most elementary form; this rejection, + without a moment's hesitation, of any and all evidence which conflicts + with theological dogma—is the only position which is logically + reconcilable with the axioms of orthodoxy. If the Gospels truly report + that which an incarnation of the God of Truth communicated to the world, + then it surely is absurd to attend to any other evidence touching matters + about which he made any clear statement, or the truth of which is + distinctly implied by his words. If the exact historical truth of the + Gospels is an axiom of Christianity, it is as just and right for a + Christian to say, Let us "close our ears against suggestions" of + scientific critics, as it is for the man of science to refuse to waste his + time upon circle-squarers and flat-earth fanatics. + </p> + <p> + It is commonly reported that the manifesto by which the Canon of St. + Paul's proclaims that he nails the colours of the straitest Biblical + infallibility to the mast of the ship ecclesiastical, was put forth as a + counterblast to "Lux Mundi"; and that the passages which I have more + particularly quoted are directed against the essay on "The Holy Spirit and + Inspiration" in that collection of treatises by Anglican divines of high + standing, who must assuredly be acquitted of conscious "infidel" + proclivities. I fancy that rumour must, for once, be right, for it is + impossible to imagine a more direct and diametrical contradiction than + that between the passages from the sermon cited above and those which + follow:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + What is questioned is that our Lord's words foreclose certain + critical positions as to the character of Old Testament + literature. For example, does His use of Jonah's resurrection as + a <i>type</i> of His own, depend in any real degree upon whether + it is historical fact or allegory?... Once more, our Lord uses + the time before the Flood, to illustrate the carelessness of men + before His own coming.... In referring to the Flood He + certainly suggests that He is treating it as typical, for He + introduces circumstances—"eating and drinking, marrying and + giving in marriage "—which have no counterpart in the original + narrative. (pp. 358-9). +</pre> + <p> + While insisting on the flow of inspiration through the whole of the Old + Testament, the essayist does not admit its universality. Here, also, the + new apologetic demands a partial flood: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + But does the inspiration of the recorder guarantee the exact + historical truth of what he records? And, in matter of fact, can + the record with due regard to legitimate historical criticism, + be pronounced true? Now, to the latter of these two questions + (and they are quite distinct questions) we may reply that there + is nothing to prevent our believing, as our faith strongly + disposes us to believe, that the record from Abraham downward + is, in substance, in the strict sense historical (p. 351). +</pre> + <p> + It would appear, therefore, that there is nothing to prevent our believing + that the record, from Abraham upward, consists of stories in the strict + sense unhistorical, and that the pre-Abrahamic narratives are mere moral + and religious "types" and parables. + </p> + <p> + I confess I soon lose my way when I try to follow those who walk + delicately among "types" and allegories. A certain passion for clearness + forces me to ask, bluntly, whether the writer means to say that Jesus did + not believe the stories in question, or that he did? When Jesus spoke, as + of a matter of fact, that "the Flood came and destroyed them all," did he + believe that the Deluge really took place, or not? It seems to me that, as + the narrative mentions Noah's wife, and his sons' wives, there is good + scriptural warranty for the statement that the antediluvians married and + were given in marriage; and I should have thought that their eating and + drinking might be assumed by the firmest believer in the literal truth of + the story. Moreover, I venture to ask what sort of value, as an + illustration of God's methods of dealing with sin, has an account of an + event that never happened? If no Flood swept the careless people away, how + is the warning of more worth than the cry of "Wolf" when there is no wolf? + If Jonah's three days' residence in the whale is not an "admitted + reality," how could it "warrant belief" in the "coming resurrection?" If + Lot's wife was not turned into a pillar of salt, the bidding those who + turn back from the narrow path to "remember" it is, morally, about on a + level with telling a naughty child that a bogy is coming to fetch it away. + Suppose that a Conservative orator warns his hearers to beware of great + political and social changes, lest they end, as in France, in the + domination of a Robespierre; what becomes, not only of his argument, but + of his veracity, if he, personally, does not believe that Robespierre + existed and did the deeds attributed to him? + </p> + <p> + Like all other attempts to reconcile the results of + scientifically-conducted investigation with the demands of the outworn + creeds of ecclesiasticism, the essay on Inspiration is just such a failure + as must await mediation, when the mediator is unable properly to + appreciate the weight of the evidence for the case of one of the two + parties. The question of "Inspiration" really possesses no interest for + those who have cast ecclesiasticism and all its works aside, and have no + faith in any source of truth save that which is reached by the patient + application of scientific methods. Theories of inspiration are + speculations as to the means by which the authors of statements, in the + Bible or elsewhere, have been led to say what they have said—and it + assumes that natural agencies are insufficient for the purpose. I prefer + to stop short of this problem, finding it more profitable to undertake the + inquiry which naturally precedes it—namely, Are these statements + true or false? If they are true, it may be worth while to go into the + question of their supernatural generation; if they are false, it certainly + is not worth mine. + </p> + <p> + Now, not only do I hold it to be proven that the story of the Deluge is a + pure fiction; but I have no hesitation in affirming the same thing of the + story of the Creation. <a href="#linknote-12" name="linknoteref-12" + id="linknoteref-12"><small>12</small></a> Between these two lies the story + of the creation of man and woman and their fall from primitive innocence, + which is even more monstrously improbable than either of the other two, + though, from the nature of the case, it is not so easily capable of direct + refutation. It can be demonstrated that the earth took longer than six + days in the making, and that the Deluge, as described, is a physical + impossibility; but there is no proving, especially to those who are + perfect in the art of closing their ears to that which they do not wish to + hear, that a snake did not speak, or that Eve was not made out of one of + Adam's ribs. + </p> + <p> + The compiler of Genesis, in its present form, evidently had a definite + plan in his mind. His countrymen, like all other men, were doubtless + curious to know how the world began; how men, and especially wicked men, + came into being, and how existing nations and races arose among the + descendants of one stock; and, finally, what was the history of their own + particular tribe. They, like ourselves, desired to solve the four great + problems of cosmogeny, anthropogeny, ethnogeny, and geneogeny. The + Pentateuch furnishes the solutions which appeared satisfactory to its + author. One of these, as we have seen, was borrowed from a Babylonian + fable; and I know of no reason to suspect any different origin for the + rest. Now, I would ask, is the story of the fabrication of Eve to be + regarded as one of those pre-Abrahamic narratives, the historical truth of + which is an open question, in face of the reference to it in a speech + unhappily famous for the legal oppression to which it has been wrongfully + forced to lend itself? + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Have ye not read, that he which made them from the beginning + made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man + leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and the + twain shall become one flesh? (Matt. xix. 5.) +</pre> + <p> + If divine authority is not here claimed for the twenty-fourth verse of the + second chapter of Genesis, what is the value of language? And again, I + ask, if one may play fast and loose with the story of the Fall as a "type" + or "allegory," what becomes of the foundation of Pauline theology?— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + For since by man came death, by man came also the + resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in + Christ shall all be made alive (1 Corinthians xv. 21, 22). +</pre> + <p> + If Adam may be held to be no more real a personage than Prometheus, and if + the story of the Fall is merely an instructive "type," comparable to the + profound Promethean mythus, what value has Paul's dialectic? + </p> + <p> + While, therefore, every right-minded man must sympathise with the efforts + of those theologians, who have not been able altogether to close their + ears to the still, small, voice of reason, to escape from the fetters + which ecclesiasticism has forged; the melancholy fact remains, that the + position they have taken up is hopelessly untenable. It is raked alike by + the old-fashioned artillery of the churches and by the fatal weapons of + precision with which the <i>enfants perdus</i> of the advancing forces of + science are armed. They must surrender, or fall back into a more sheltered + position. And it is possible that they may long find safety in such + retreat. + </p> + <p> + It is, indeed, probable that the proportional number of those who will + distinctly profess their belief in the transubstantiation of Lot's wife, + and the anticipatory experience of submarine navigation by Jonah; in water + standing fathoms deep on the side of a declivity without anything to hold + it up; and in devils who enter swine—will not increase. But neither + is there ground for much hope that the proportion of those who cast aside + these fictions and adopt the consequence of that repudiation, are, for + some generations, likely to constitute a majority. Our age is a day of + compromises. The present and the near future seem given over to those + happily, if curiously, constituted people who see as little difficulty in + throwing aside any amount of post-Abrahamic Scriptural narrative, as the + authors of "Lux Mundi" see in sacrificing the pre-Abrahamic stories; and, + having distilled away every inconvenient matter of fact in Christian + history, continue to pay divine honours to the residue. There really seems + to be no reason why the next generation should not listen to a Bampton + Lecture modelled upon that addressed to the last:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Time was—and that not very long ago—when all the relations of + Biblical authors concerning the whole world were received with a + ready belief; and an unreasoning and uncritical faith accepted + with equal satisfaction the narrative of the Captivity and the + doings of Moses at the court of Pharaoh, the account of the + Apostolic meeting in the Epistle to the Galatians, and that of + the fabrication of Eve. We can most of us remember when, in this + country, the whole story of the Exodus, and even the legend of + Jonah, were seriously placed before boys as history; and + discoursed of in as dogmatic a tone as the tale of Agincourt or + the history of the Norman Conquest. + + But all this is now changed. The last century has seen the + growth of scientific criticism to its full strength. The whole + world of history has been revolutionised and the mythology which + embarrassed earnest Christians has vanished as an evil mist, the + lifting of which has only more fully revealed the lineaments of + infallible Truth. No longer in contact with fact of any kind, + Faith stands now and for ever proudly inaccessible to the + attacks of the infidel. +</pre> + <p> + So far the apologist of the future. Why not? <i>Cantabit vacuus.</i> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_FOOT" id="link2H_FOOT"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FOOTNOTES + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-1" id="linknote-1"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 1 (<a href="#linknoteref-1">return</a>)<br /> [ <i>Bampton Lectures</i> + (1859), on "The Historical Evidence of the Truth of the Scripture Records + stated anew, with Special Reference to the Doubts and Discoveries of + Modern Times," by the Rev. G. Rawlinson, M.A., pp. 5-6.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-2" id="linknote-2"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 2 (<a href="#linknoteref-2">return</a>)<br /> [ <i>The Worth of the Old + Testament,</i> a Sermon preached in St. Paul's Cathedral on the second + Sunday in Advent, 8th Dec., 1889, by H. P. Liddon, D.D., D.C.L., Canon and + Chancellor of St. Paul's. Second edition revised and with a new preface, + 1890.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-3" id="linknote-3"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 3 (<a href="#linknoteref-3">return</a>)<br /> [ St. Luke xvii. 32.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-4" id="linknote-4"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 4 (<a href="#linknoteref-4">return</a>)<br /> [ St. Luke xvii. 27.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-5" id="linknote-5"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 5 (<a href="#linknoteref-5">return</a>)<br /> [ St. Matt. xii. 40.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-6" id="linknote-6"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 6 (<a href="#linknoteref-6">return</a>)<br /> [ <i>Bampton Lectures,</i> + 1859, pp. 50-51.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-7" id="linknote-7"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 7 (<a href="#linknoteref-7">return</a>)<br /> [ <i>Commentary on Genesis,</i> + by the Bishop of Ely, p. 77.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-8" id="linknote-8"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 8 (<a href="#linknoteref-8">return</a>)<br /> [ <i>Die Sintflut,</i> 1876.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-9" id="linknote-9"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 9 (<a href="#linknoteref-9">return</a>)<br /> [ <i>Theologie und + Naturwissenschaft,</i> ii. 784-791 (1877).] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-10" id="linknote-10"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 10 (<a href="#linknoteref-10">return</a>)<br /> [ It is very doubtful if + this means the region of the Armenian Ararat. More probably it designates + some part either of the Kurdish range or of its south-eastern + continuation.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-11" id="linknote-11"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 11 (<a href="#linknoteref-11">return</a>)<br /> [ So Reclus (<i>Nouvelle + Geographie Universelle,</i> ix. 386), but I find the statement doubted by + an authority of the first rank.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-12" id="linknote-12"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 12 (<a href="#linknoteref-12">return</a>)<br /> [ So far as I know, the + narrative of the Creation is not now held to be true, in the sense in + which I have defined historical truth, by any of the reconcilers. As for + the attempts to stretch the Pentateuchal days into periods of thousands or + millions of years, the verdict of the eminent Biblical scholar, Dr. Riehm + (<i>Der biblische Schopfungsbericht,</i> 1881, pp. 15, 16) on such pranks + of "Auslegungskunst" should be final. Why do the reconcilers take Goethe's + advice seriously?— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Im Auslegen seyd frisch und munter! + Legt ihr's nicht aus, so legt was unter."] +</pre> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <table summary="" border="3" cellpadding="4"> + <tbody> + <tr> + <td> + <a + href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2633/2633-h/2633-h.htm">Next + Volume</a> + </td> + </tr> + </tbody> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lights of the Church and the Light +of Science, by Thomas Henry Huxley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIGHTS OF THE CHURCH *** + +***** This file should be named 2632-h.htm or 2632-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/3/2632/ + +Produced by D. R. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Lights of the Church and the Light of Science + Essay #6 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition" + +Author: Thomas Henry Huxley + +Posting Date: December 3, 2008 [EBook #2632] +Release Date: May, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIGHTS OF THE CHURCH *** + + + + +Produced by D. R. Thompson + + + + + +THE LIGHTS OF THE CHURCH AND THE LIGHT OF SCIENCE + +ESSAY #6 FROM "SCIENCE AND HEBREW TRADITION" + + +By Thomas Henry Huxley + + + +There are three ways of regarding any account of past occurrences, +whether delivered to us orally or recorded in writing. + +The narrative may be exactly true. That is to say, the words, taken in +their natural sense, and interpreted according to the rules of grammar, +may convey to the mind of the hearer, or of the reader an idea precisely +correspondent with one which would have remained in the mind of a +witness. For example, the statement that King Charles the First was +beheaded at Whitehall on the 30th day of January 1649, is as exactly +true as any proposition in mathematics or physics; no one doubts that +any person of sound faculties, properly placed, who was present at +Whitehall throughout that day, and who used his eyes, would have seen +the King's head cut off; and that there would have remained in his mind +an idea of that occurrence which he would have put into words of the +same value as those which we use to express it. + +Or the narrative may be partly true and partly false. Thus, some +histories of the time tell us what the King said, and what Bishop Juxon +said; or report royalist conspiracies to effect a rescue; or detail the +motives which induced the chiefs of the Commonwealth to resolve that +the King should die. One account declares that the King knelt at a high +block, another that he lay down with his neck on a mere plank. And +there are contemporary pictorial representations of both these modes of +procedure. Such narratives, while veracious as to the main event, +may and do exhibit various degrees of unconscious and conscious +misrepresentation, suppression, and invention, till they become hardly +distinguishable from pure fictions. Thus, they present a transition +to narratives of a third class, in which the fictitious element +predominates. Here, again, there are all imaginable gradations, from +such works as Defoe's quasi-historical account of the Plague year, +which probably gives a truer conception of that dreadful time than any +authentic history, through the historical novel, drama, and epic, to +the purely phantasmal creations of imaginative genius, such as the old +"Arabian Nights" or the modern "Shaving of Shagpat." It is not strictly +needful for my present purpose that I should say anything about +narratives which are professedly fictitious. Yet it may be well, +perhaps, if I disclaim any intention of derogating from their value, +when I insist upon the paramount necessity of recollecting that there is +no sort of relation between the ethical, or the aesthetic, or even +the scientific importance of such works, and their worth as historical +documents. Unquestionably, to the poetic artist, or even to the student +of psychology, "Hamlet" and "Macbeth" may be better instructors than +all the books of a wilderness of professors of aesthetics or of moral +philosophy. But, as evidence of occurrences in Denmark, or in +Scotland, at the times and places indicated, they are out of court; +the profoundest admiration for them, the deepest gratitude for their +influence, are consistent with the knowledge that, historically +speaking, they are worthless fables, in which any foundation of reality +that may exist is submerged beneath the imaginative superstructure. + +At present, however, I am not concerned to dwell upon the importance +of fictitious literature and the immensity of the work which it has +effected in the education of the human race. I propose to deal with the +much more limited inquiry: Are there two other classes of consecutive +narratives (as distinct from statements of individual facts), or only +one? Is there any known historical work which is throughout exactly +true, or is there not? In the case of the great majority of histories +the answer is not doubtful: they are all only partially true. Even those +venerable works which bear the names of some of the greatest of ancient +Greek and Roman writers, and which have been accepted by generation +after generation, down to modern times, as stories of unquestionable +truth, have been compelled by scientific criticism, after a long battle, +to descend to the common level, and to confession to a large admixture +of error. I might fairly take this for granted; but it may be well that +I should entrench myself behind the very apposite words of a historical +authority who is certainly not obnoxious to even a suspicion of +sceptical tendencies. [1] + + Time was--and that not very long ago--when all the relations of + ancient authors concerning the old world were received with a + ready belief; and an unreasoning and uncritical faith accepted + with equal satisfaction the narrative of the campaigns of Caesar + and of the doings of Romulus, the account of Alexander's marches + and of the conquests of Semiramis. We can most of us remember + when, in this country, the whole story of regal Rome, and even + the legend of the Trojan settlement in Latium, were seriously + placed before boys as history, and discoursed of as + unhesitatingly and in as dogmatic a tone as the tale of the + Catilline Conspiracy or the Conquest of Britain.... + + But all this is now changed. The last century has seen the birth + and growth of a new science--the Science of Historical + Criticism.... The whole world of profane history has been + revolutionised.... + +If these utterances were true when they fell from the lips of a Bampton +lecturer in 1859, with how much greater force do they appeal to us now, +when the immense labours of the generation now passing away constitute +one vast illustration of the power and fruitfulness of scientific +methods of investigation in history, no less than in all other +departments of knowledge. + +At the present time, I suppose, there is no one who doubts that +histories which appertain to any other people than the Jews, and their +spiritual progeny in the first century, fall within the second class +of the three enumerated. Like Goethe's Autobiography, they might all be +entitled "Wahrheit und Dichtung"--"Truth and Fiction." The proportion +of the two constituents changes indefinitely; and the quality of the +fiction varies through the whole gamut of unveracity. But "Dichtung" is +always there. For the most acute and learned of historians cannot +remedy the imperfections of his sources of information; nor can the +most impartial wholly escape the influence of the "personal equation" +generated by his temperament and by his education. Therefore, from the +narratives of Herodotus to those set forth in yesterday's "Times," all +history is to be read subject to the warning that fiction has its share +therein. The modern vast development of fugitive literature cannot be +the unmitigated evil that some do vainly say it is, since it has put +an end to the popular delusion of less press-ridden times, that +what appears in print must be true. We should rather hope that some +beneficent influence may create among the erudite a like healthy +suspicion of manuscripts and inscriptions, however ancient; for a +bulletin may lie, even though it be written in cuneiform characters. +Hotspur's starling, that was to be taught to speak nothing but +"Mortimer" into the ears of King Henry the Fourth, might be a useful +inmate of every historian's library, if "Fiction" were substituted for +the name of Harry Percy's friend. + +But it was the chief object of the lecturer to the congregation gathered +in St. Mary's, Oxford, thirty-one years ago, to prove to them, by +evidence gathered with no little labour and marshalled with much skill, +that one group of historical works was exempt from the general rule; and +that the narratives contained in the canonical Scriptures are free from +any admixture of error. With justice and candour, the lecturer impresses +upon his hearers that the special distinction of Christianity, among the +religions of the world, lies in its claim to be historical; to be surely +founded upon events which have happened, exactly as they are declared to +have happened in its sacred books; which are true, that is, in the sense +that the statement about the execution of Charles the First is +true. Further, it is affirmed that the New Testament presupposes the +historical exactness of the Old Testament; that the points of contact +of "sacred" and "profane" history are innumerable; and that the +demonstration of the falsity of the Hebrew records, especially in regard +to those narratives which are assumed to be true in the New Testament, +would be fatal to Christian theology. + +My utmost ingenuity does not enable me to discover a flaw in the +argument thus briefly summarised. I am fairly at a loss to comprehend +how any one, for a moment, can doubt that Christian theology must stand +or fall with the historical trustworthiness of the Jewish Scriptures. +The very conception of the Messiah, or Christ, is inextricably +interwoven with Jewish history; the identification of Jesus of Nazareth +with that Messiah rests upon the interpretation of passages of the +Hebrew Scriptures which have no evidential value unless they possess the +historical character assigned to them. If the covenant with Abraham was +not made; if circumcision and sacrifices were not ordained by Jahveh; if +the "ten words" were not written by God's hand on the stone tables; if +Abraham is more or less a mythical hero, such as Theseus; the story +of the Deluge a fiction; that of the Fall a legend; and that of the +creation the dream of a seer; if all these definite and detailed +narratives of apparently real events have no more value as history than +have the stories of the regal period of Rome--what is to be said about +the Messianic doctrine, which is so much less clearly enunciated? +And what about the authority of the writers of the books of the New +Testament, who, on this theory, have not merely accepted flimsy fictions +for solid truths, but have built the very foundations of Christian dogma +upon legendary quicksands? + +But these may be said to be merely the carpings of that carnal reason +which the profane call common sense; I hasten, therefore, to bring up +the forces of unimpeachable ecclesiastical authority in support of my +position. In a sermon preached last December, in St. Paul's Cathedral, +[2] Canon Liddon declares:-- + +"For Christians it will be enough to know that our Lord Jesus Christ set +the seal of His infallible sanction on the whole of the Old Testament. +He found the Hebrew canon as we have it in our hands to-day, and He +treated it as an authority which was above discussion. Nay more: He went +out of His way--if we may reverently speak thus--to sanction not a few +portions of it which modern scepticism rejects. When He would warn His +hearers against the dangers of spiritual relapse, He bids them remember +'Lot's wife.' [3] When He would point out how worldly engagements may +blind the soul to a coming judgment, He reminds them how men ate, and +drank, and married, and were given in marriage, until the day that Noah +entered into the ark, and the Flood came and destroyed them all. [4] If +He would put His finger on a fact in past Jewish history which, by its +admitted reality, would warrant belief in His own coming Resurrection, +He points to Jonah's being three days and three nights in the whale's +belly (p. 23)." [5] + +The preacher proceeds to brush aside the common--I had almost said +vulgar--apologetic pretext that Jesus was using _ad hominem_ arguments, +or "accommodating" his better knowledge to popular ignorance, as well +as to point out the inadmissibility of the other alternative, that he +shared the popular ignorance. And to those who hold the latter view +sarcasm is dealt out with no niggard hand. + + But they will find it difficult to persuade mankind that, if He + could be mistaken on a matter of such strictly religious + importance as the value of the sacred literature of His + countrymen, He can be safely trusted about anything else. The + trustworthiness of the Old Testament is, in fact, inseparable + from the trustworthiness of our Lord Jesus Christ; and if we + believe that He is the true Light of the world, we shall close + our ears against suggestions impairing the credit of those + Jewish Scriptures which have received the stamp of His Divine + authority. (p. 25) + +Moreover, I learn from the public journals that a brilliant and +sharply-cut view of orthodoxy, of like hue and pattern, was only the +other day exhibited in that great theological kaleidoscope, the pulpit +of St. Mary's, recalling the time so long passed by, when a Bampton +lecturer, in the same place, performed the unusual feat of leaving the +faith of old-fashioned Christians undisturbed. + +Yet many things have happened in the intervening thirty-one years. The +Bampton lecturer of 1859 had to grapple only with the infant Hercules of +historical criticism; and he is now a full-grown athlete, bearing on +his shoulders the spoils of all the lions that have stood in his path. +Surely a martyr's courage, as well as a martyr's faith, is needed by any +one who, at this time, is prepared to stand by the following plea for +the veracity of the Pentateuch:-- + +"Adam, according to the Hebrew original, was for 243 years contemporary +with Methuselah, who conversed for a hundred years with Shem. Shem was +for fifty years contemporary with Jacob, who probably saw Jochebed, +Moses's mother. Thus, Moses might by oral tradition have obtained the +history of Abraham, and even of the Deluge, at third hand; and that of +the Temptation and the Fall at fifth hand.... + +"If it be granted--as it seems to be--that the great and stirring events +in a nation's life will, under ordinary circumstances, be remembered +(apart from all written memorials) for the space of 150 years, being +handed down through five generations, it must be allowed (even on more +human grounds) that the account which Moses gives of the Temptation and +the Fall is to be depended upon, if it passed through no more than four +hands between him and Adam." [6] + +If "the trustworthiness of our Lord Jesus Christ" is to stand or fall +with the belief in the sudden transmutation of the chemical components +of a woman's body into sodium chloride, or on the "admitted reality" +of Jonah's ejection, safe and sound, on the shores of the Levant, after +three days' sea-journey in the stomach of a gigantic marine animal, what +possible pretext can there be for even hinting a doubt as to the precise +truth of the longevity attributed to the Patriarchs? Who that has +swallowed the camel of Jonah's journey will be guilty of the affectation +of straining at such a historical gnat--nay, midge--as the supposition +that the mother of Moses was told the story of the Flood by Jacob; who +had it straight from Shem; who was on friendly terms with Methuselah; +who knew Adam quite well? + +Yet, by the strange irony of things, the illustrious brother of the +divine who propounded this remarkable theory, has been the guide and +foremost worker of that band of investigators of the records of Assyria +and of Babylonia, who have opened to our view, not merely a new chapter, +but a new volume of primeval history, relating to the very people who +have the most numerous points of contact with the life of the ancient +Hebrews. Now, whatever imperfections may yet obscure the full value of +the Mesopotamian records, everything that has been clearly ascertained +tends to the conclusion that the assignment of no more than 4000 years +to the period between the time of the origin of mankind and that +of Augustus Caesar, is wholly inadmissible. Therefore the Biblical +chronology, which Canon Rawlinson trusted so implicitly in 1859, is +relegated by all serious critics to the domain of fable. + +But if scientific method, operating in the region of history, of +philology, of archaeology, in the course of the last thirty or forty +years, has become thus formidable to the theological dogmatist, what may +not be said about scientific method working in the province of +physical science? For, if it be true that the Canonical Scriptures have +innumerable points of contact with civil history, it is no less true +that they have almost as many with natural history; and their accuracy +is put to the test as severely by the latter as by the former. The +origin of the present state of the heavens and the earth is a problem +which lies strictly within the province of physical science; so is that +of the origin of man among living things; so is that of the physical +changes which the earth has undergone since the origin of man; so is +that of the origin of the various races and nations of men, with all +their varieties of language and physical conformation. Whether the +earth moves round the sun or the contrary; whether the bodily and mental +diseases of men and animals are caused by evil spirits or not; whether +there is such an agency as witchcraft or not--all these are purely +scientific questions; and to all of them the Canonical Scriptures +profess to give true answers. And though nothing is more common than the +assumption that these books come into conflict only with the speculative +part of modern physical science, no assumption can have less foundation. + +The antagonism between natural knowledge and the Pentateuch would be as +great if the speculations of our time had never been heard of. It arises +out of contradiction upon matters of fact. The books of ecclesiastical +authority declare that certain events happened in a certain fashion; the +books of scientific authority say they did not. As it seems that this +unquestionable truth has not yet penetrated among many of those who +speak and write on these subjects, it may be useful to give a full +illustration of it. And for that purpose I propose to deal, at some +length, with the narrative of the Noachian Deluge given in Genesis. + + +The Bampton lecturer in 1859, and the Canon of St. Paul's in 1890, are +in full agreement that this history is true, in the sense in which I +have defined historical truth. The former is of opinion that the account +attributed to Berosus records a tradition-- + + not drawn from the Hebrew record, much less the foundation of + that record; yet coinciding with it in the most remarkable way. + The Babylonian version is tricked out with a few extravagances, + as the monstrous size of the vessel and the translation of + Xisuthros; but otherwise it is the Hebrew history _down to its + minutiae._ (p. 64). + +Moreover, correcting Niebuhr, the Bampton lecturer points out that the +narrative of Berosus implies the universality of the Flood. + + It is plain that the waters are represented as prevailing above + the tops of the loftiest mountains in Armenia--a height which + must have been seen to involve the submersion of all the + countries with which the Babylonians were acquainted (p. 66). + +I may remark, in passing, that many people think the size of Noah's ark +"monstrous," considering the probable state of the art of shipbuilding +only 1600 years after the origin of man; while others are so +unreasonable as to inquire why the translation of Enoch is less an +"extravagance" than that of Xisuthros. It is more important, however, to +note that the Universality of the Deluge is recognised, not merely as +a part of the story, but as a necessary consequence of some of its +details. The latest exponent of Anglican orthodoxy, as we have seen, +insists upon the accuracy of the Pentateuchal history of the Flood in a +still more forcible manner. It is cited as one of those very narratives +to which the authority of the Founder of Christianity is pledged, +and upon the accuracy of which "the trustworthiness of our Lord Jesus +Christ" is staked, just as others have staked it upon the truth of the +histories of demoniac possession in the Gospels. + +Now, when those who put their trust in scientific methods of +ascertaining the truth in the province of natural history find +themselves confronted and opposed, on their own ground, by +ecclesiastical pretensions to better knowledge, it is, undoubtedly, most +desirable for them to make sure that their conclusions, whatever they +may be, are well founded. And, if they put aside the unauthorised +interference with their business and relegate the Pentateuchal history +to the region of pure fiction, they are bound to assure themselves that +they do so because the plainest teachings of Nature (apart from all +doubtful speculations) are irreconcilable with the assertions which they +reject. + +At the present time, it is difficult to persuade serious scientific +inquirers to occupy themselves, in any way, with the Noachian Deluge. +They look at you with a smile and a shrug, and say they have more +important matters to attend to than mere antiquarianism. But it was not +so in my youth. At that time, geologists and biologists could hardly +follow to the end any path of inquiry without finding the way blocked +by Noah and his ark, or by the first chapter of Genesis; and it was a +serious matter, in this country at any rate, for a man to be suspected +of doubting the literal truth of the Diluvial or any other Pentateuchal +history. The fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the Geological +Club (in 1824) was, if I remember rightly, the last occasion on which +the late Sir Charles Lyell spoke to even so small a public as the +members of that body. Our veteran leader lighted up once more; and, +referring to the difficulties which beset his early efforts to create +a rational science of geology, spoke, with his wonted clearness and +vigour, of the social ostracism which pursued him after the publication +of the "Principles of Geology," in 1830, on account of the obvious +tendency of that noble work to discredit the Pentateuchal accounts of +the Creation and the Deluge. If my younger contemporaries find this hard +to believe, I may refer them to a grave book, "On the Doctrine of the +Deluge," published eight years later, and dedicated by its author to +his father, the then Archbishop of York. The first chapter refers to the +treatment of the "Mosaic Deluge," by Dr. Buckland and Mr. Lyell, in the +following terms: + + Their respect for revealed religion has prevented them from + arraying themselves openly against the Scriptural account of it + --much less do they deny its truth--but they are in a great + hurry to escape from the consideration of it, and evidently + concur in the opinion of Linnaeus, that no proofs whatever of + the Deluge are to be discovered in the structure of the + earth (p. 1). + +And after an attempt to reply to some of Lyell's arguments, which it +would be cruel to reproduce, the writer continues:-- + + When, therefore, upon such slender grounds, it is + determined, in answer to those who insist upon its universality, + that the Mosaic Deluge must be considered a preternatural event, + far beyond the reach of philosophical inquiry; not only as to + the causes employed to produce it, but as to the effects most + likely to result from it; that determination wears an aspect of + scepticism, which, however much soever it may be unintentional + in the mind of the writer, yet cannot but produce an evil + impression on those who are already predisposed to carp and + cavil at the evidences of Revelation (pp. 8-9). + +The kindly and courteous writer of these curious passages is evidently +unwilling to make the geologists the victims of general opprobrium +by pressing the obvious consequences of their teaching home. One is +therefore pained to think of the feelings with which, if he lived so +long as to become acquainted with the "Dictionary of the Bible," he must +have perused the article "Noah," written by a dignitary of the Church +for that standard compendium and published in 1863. For the doctrine +of the universality of the Deluge is therein altogether given up; and I +permit myself to hope that a long criticism of the story from the point +of view of natural science, with which, at the request of the learned +theologian who wrote it, I supplied him, may, in some degree, have +contributed towards this happy result. + +Notwithstanding diligent search, I have been unable to discover that the +universality of the Deluge has any defender left, at least among those +who have so far mastered the rudiments of natural knowledge as to be +able to appreciate the weight of evidence against it. For example, when +I turned to the "Speaker's Bible," published under the sanction of +high Anglican authority, I found the following judicial and judicious +deliverance, the skilful wording of which may adorn, but does not hide, +the completeness of the surrender of the old teaching:-- + +"Without pronouncing too hastily on any fair inferences from the +words of Scripture, we may reasonably say that their most natural +interpretation is, that the whole race of man had become grievously +corrupted since the faithful had intermingled with the ungodly; that the +inhabited world was consequently filled with violence, and that God +had decreed to destroy all mankind except one single family; that, +therefore, all that portion of the earth, perhaps as yet a very small +portion, into which mankind had spread was overwhelmed with water. The +ark was ordained to save one faithful family; and lest that family, on +the subsidence of the waters, should find the whole country round them a +desert, a pair of all the beasts of the land and of the fowls of the +air were preserved along with them, and along with them went forth to +replenish the now desolated continent. The words of Scripture (confirmed +as they are by universal tradition) appear at least to mean as much as +this. They do not necessarily mean more." [7] + +In the third edition of Kitto's "Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature" +(1876), the article "Deluge," written by my friend, the present +distinguished head of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, +extinguishes the universality doctrine as thoroughly as might be +expected from its authorship; and, since the writer of the article +"Noah" refers his readers to that entitled "Deluge," it is to be +supposed, notwithstanding his generally orthodox tone, that he does +not dissent from its conclusions. Again, the writers in Herzog's +"Real-Encyclopadie" (Bd. X. 1882) and in Riehm's "Handworterbuch" +(1884)--both works with a conservative leaning--are on the same side; +and Diestel, [8] in his full discussion of the subject, remorselessly +rejects the universality doctrine. Even that staunch opponent of +scientific rationalism--may I say rationality?--Zockler [9] flinches +from a distinct defence of the thesis, any opposition to which, +well within my recollection, was howled down by the orthodox as mere +"infidelity." All that, in his sore straits, Dr. Zockler is able to do, +is to pronounce a faint commendation upon a particularly absurd attempt +at reconciliation, which would make out the Noachian Deluge to be +a catastrophe which occurred at the end of the Glacial Epoch. This +hypothesis involves only the trifle of a physical revolution of which +geology knows nothing; and which, if it secured the accuracy of the +Pentateuchal writer about the fact of the Deluge, would leave the +details of his account as irreconcilable with the truths of elementary +physical science as ever. Thus I may be permitted to spare myself and my +readers the weariness of a recapitulation of the overwhelming arguments +against the universality of the Deluge, which they will now find for +themselves stated, as fully and forcibly as could be wished, by Anglican +and other theologians, whose orthodoxy and conservative tendencies +have, hitherto, been above suspicion. Yet many fully admit (and, indeed, +nothing can be plainer) that, as a matter of fact, the whole earth known +to him was inundated; nor is it less obvious that unless all mankind, +with the exception of Noah and his family, were actually destroyed, the +references to the Flood in the New Testament are unintelligible. + +But I am quite aware that the strength of the demonstration that no +universal Deluge ever took place has produced a change of front in the +army of apologetic writers. They have imagined that the substitution +of the adjective "partial" for "universal," will save the credit of the +Pentateuch, and permit them, after all, without too many blushes, +to declare that the progress of modern science only strengthens the +authority of Moses. Nowhere have I found the case of the advocates of +this method of escaping from the difficulties of the actual position +better put than in the lecture of Professor Diestel to which I have +referred. After frankly admitting that the old doctrine of universality +involves physical impossibilities, he continues:-- + + All these difficulties fall away as soon as we give up the + universality of the Deluge, and imagine a _partial_ + flooding of the earth, say in western Asia. But have we a right + to do so? The narrative speaks of "the whole earth." But what is + the meaning of this expression? Surely not the whole surface of + the earth according to the ideas of _modern_ geographers, + but, at most, according to the conceptions of the Biblical + author. This very simple conclusion, however, is never drawn by + too many readers of the Bible. But one need only cast one's eyes + over the tenth chapter of Genesis in order to become acquainted + with the geographical horizon of the Jews. In the north it was + bounded by the Black Sea and the mountains of Armenia; + extended towards the east very little beyond the Tigris; + hardly reached the apex of the Persian Gulf; passed, then, + through the middle of Arabia and the Red Sea; went southward + through Abyssinia, and then turned westward by the frontiers of + Egypt, and inclosed the easternmost islands of the + Mediterranean (p. 11). + +The justice of this observation must be admitted, no less than the +further remark that, in still earlier times, the pastoral Hebrews very +probably had yet more restricted notions of what constituted the "whole +earth." Moreover, I, for one, fully agree with Professor Diestel that +the motive, or generative incident, of the whole story is to be sought +in the occasionally excessive and desolating floods of the Euphrates and +the Tigris. + +Let us, provisionally, accept the theory of a partial deluge, and try to +form a clear mental picture of the occurrence. Let us suppose that, for +forty days and forty nights, such a vast quantity of water was poured +upon the ground that the whole surface of Mesopotamia was covered by +water to a depth certainly greater, probably much greater, than fifteen +cubits, or twenty feet (Gen. vii. 20). The inundation prevails upon +the earth for one hundred and fifty days and then the flood gradually +decreases, until, on the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark, +which had previously floated on its surface, grounds upon the "mountains +of Ararat" [10] (Gen. viii. 34). Then, as Diestel has acutely pointed +out ("Sintflut," p. 13), we are to imagine the further subsidence of the +flood to take place so gradually that it was not until nearly two months +and a half after this time (that is to say, on the first day of the +tenth month) that the "tops of the mountains" became visible. Hence it +follows that, if the ark drew even as much as twenty feet of water, the +level of the inundation fell very slowly--at a rate of only a few inches +a day--until the top of the mountain on which it rested became visible. +This is an amount of movement which, if it took place in the sea, would +be overlooked by ordinary people on the shore. But the Mesopotamian +plain slopes gently, from an elevation of 500 or 600 feet at its +northern end, to the sea, at its southern end, with hardly so much as a +notable ridge to break its uniform flatness, for 300 to 400 miles. +These being the conditions of the case, the following inquiry naturally +presents itself: not, be it observed, as a recondite problem, generated +by modern speculation, but as a plain suggestion flowing out of that +very ordinary and archaic piece of knowledge that water cannot be piled +up like in a heap, like sand; or that it seeks the lowest level. When, +after 150 days, "the fountains also of the deep and the windows of +heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained" (Gen. +viii.2), what prevented the mass of water, several, possibly very many, +fathoms deep, which covered, say, the present site of Bagdad, from +sweeping seaward in a furious torrent; and, in a very few hours, +leaving, not only the "tops of the mountains," but the whole plain, +save any minor depressions, bare? How could its subsistence, by any +possibility, be an affair of weeks and months? + +And if this difficulty is not enough, let any one try to imagine how +a mass of water several perhaps very many, fathoms deep, could be +accumulated on a flat surface of land rising well above the sea, +and separated from it by no sort of barrier. Most people know Lord's +Cricket-ground. Would it not be an absurd contradiction to our common +knowledge of the properties of water to imagine that, if all the +mains of all the waterworks of London were turned on to it, they could +maintain a heap of water twenty feet deep over its level surface? Is it +not obvious that the water, whatever momentary accumulation might take +place at first, would not stop there, but that it would dash, like a +mighty mill-race, southwards down the gentle slope which ends in the +Thames? And is it not further obvious, that whatever depth of water +might be maintained over the cricket-ground so long as all the mains +poured on to it, anything which floated there would be speedily whirled +away by the current, like a cork in a gutter when the rain pours? But +if this is so, then it is no less certain that Noah's deeply laden, +sailless, oarless, and rudderless craft, if by good fortune it escaped +capsizing in whirlpools, or having its bottom knocked into holes by +snags (like those which prove fatal even to well-built steamers on the +Mississippi in our day), would have speedily found itself a good way +down the Persian Gulf, and not long after in the Indian Ocean, somewhere +between Arabia and Hindostan. Even if, eventually, the ark might have +gone ashore, with other jetsam and flotsam, on the coasts of Arabia, or +of Hindostan, or of the Maldives, or of Madagascar, its return to the +"mountains of Ararat" would have been a miracle more stupendous than all +the rest. + +Thus, the last state of the would-be reconcilers of the story of the +Deluge with fact is worse than the first. All that they have done is +to transfer the contradictions to established truth from the region +of science proper to that of common information and common sense. For, +really, the assertion that the surface of a body of deep water, to which +no addition was made, and which there was nothing to stop from running +into the sea, sank at the rate of only a few inches or even feet a day, +simply outrages the most ordinary and familiar teachings of every man's +daily experience. A child may see the folly of it. + +In addition, I may remark that the necessary assumption of the "partial +Deluge" hypothesis (if it is confined to Mesopotamia) that the Hebrew +writer must have meant low hills when he said "high mountains," is quite +untenable. On the eastern side of the Mesopotamian plain, the snowy +peaks of the frontier ranges of Persia are visible from Bagdad, [11] +and even the most ignorant herdsmen in the neighbourhood of "Ur of the +Chaldees," near its western limit, could hardly have been unacquainted +with the comparatively elevated plateau of the Syrian desert which lay +close at hand. But, surely, we must suppose the Biblical writer to be +acquainted with the highlands of Palestine and with the masses of the +Sinaitic peninsula, which soar more than 8000 feet above the sea, if he +knew of no higher elevations; and, if so, he could not well have meant +to refer to mere hillocks when he said that "all the high mountains +which were under the whole heaven were covered" (Genesis vii. 19). Even +the hill-country of Galilee reaches an elevation of 4000 feet; and a +flood which covered it could by no possibility have been other than +universal in its superficial extent. Water really cannot be got to stand +at, say, 4000 feet above the sea-level over Palestine, without covering +the rest of the globe to the same height. Even if, in the course of +Noah's six hundredth year, some prodigious convulsion had sunk the whole +region inclosed within "the horizon of the geographical knowledge" of +the Israelites by that much, and another had pushed it up again, just +in time to catch the ark upon the "mountains of Ararat," matters are not +much mended. I am afraid to think of what would have become of a vessel +so little seaworthy as the ark and of its very numerous passengers, +under the peculiar obstacles to quiet flotation which such rapid +movements of depression and upheaval would have generated. + +Thus, in view, not, I repeat of the recondite speculations of infidel +philosophers, but in the face of the plainest and most commonplace of +ascertained physical facts, the story of the Noachian Deluge has no more +claim to credit than has that of Deucalion; and whether it was, or was +not, suggested by the familiar acquaintance of its originators with the +effects of unusually great overflows of the Tigris and Euphrates, it is +utterly devoid of historical truth. + +That is, in my judgment, the necessary result of the application of +criticism, based upon assured physical knowledge to the story of the +Deluge. And it is satisfactory that the criticism which is based, not +upon literary and historical speculations, but upon well-ascertained +facts in the departments of literature and history, tends to exactly the +same conclusion. + +For I find this much agreed upon by all Biblical scholars of repute, +that the story of the Deluge in Genesis is separable into at least two +sets of statements; and that, when the statements thus separated are +recombined in their proper order, each set furnishes an account of +the event, coherent and complete within itself, but in some respects +discordant with that afforded by the other set. This fact, as I +understand, is not disputed. Whether one of these is the work of an +Elohist, and the other of a Jehovist narrator; whether the two have been +pieced together in this strange fashion because, in the estimation +of the compilers and editors of the Pentateuch, they had equal and +independent authority, or not; or whether there is some other way of +accounting for it--are questions the answers to which do not affect the +fact. If possible I avoid _a priori_ arguments. But still, I think it +may be urged, without imprudence, that a narrative having this structure +is hardly such as might be expected from a writer possessed of full and +infallibly accurate knowledge. Once more, it would seem that it is not +necessarily the mere inclination of the sceptical spirit to question +everything, or the wilful blindness of infidels, which prompts grave +doubts as to the value of a narrative thus curiously unlike the ordinary +run of veracious histories. + +But the voice of archaeological and historical criticism still has to be +heard; and it gives forth no uncertain sound. The marvellous recovery of +the records of an antiquity, far superior to any that can be ascribed to +the Pentateuch, which has been effected by the decipherers of cuneiform +characters, has put us in possession of a series, once more, not of +speculations, but of facts, which have a most remarkable bearing upon +the question of the truthworthiness of the narrative of the Flood. It is +established, that for centuries before the asserted migration of Terah +from Ur of the Chaldees (which, according to the orthodox interpreters +of the Pentateuch, took place after the year 2000 B.C.) Lower +Mesopotamia was the seat of a civilisation in which art and science and +literature had attained a development formerly unsuspected or, if there +were faint reports of it, treated as fabulous. And it is also no matter +of speculation, but a fact, that the libraries of these people contain +versions of a long epic poem, one of the twelve books of which tells +a story of a deluge, which, in a number of its leading features, +corresponds with the story attributed to Berosus, no less than with the +story given in Genesis, with curious exactness. Thus, the correctness of +Canon Rawlinson's conclusion, cited above, that the story of Berosus was +neither drawn from the Hebrew record, nor is the foundation of it, +can hardly be questioned. It is highly probable, if not certain, that +Berosus relied upon one of the versions (for there seem to have been +several) of the old Babylonian epos, extant in his time; and, if that is +a reasonable conclusion, why is it unreasonable to believe that the +two stories, which the Hebrew compiler has put together in such an +inartistic fashion, were ultimately derived from the same source? I say +ultimately, because it does not at all follow that the two versions, +possibly trimmed by the Jehovistic writer on the one hand, and by the +Elohistic on the other, to suit Hebrew requirements, may not have been +current among the Israelites for ages. And they may have acquired great +authority before they were combined in the Pentateuch. + +Looking at the convergence of all these lines of evidence to the +one conclusion--that the story of the Flood in Genesis is merely a +Bowdlerised version of one of the oldest pieces of purely fictitious +literature extant; that whether this is, or is not, its origin, the +events asserted in it to have taken place assuredly never did take +place; further, that, in point of fact, the story, in the plain and +logically necessary sense of its words, has long since been given up by +orthodox and conservative commentators of the Established Church--I can +but admire the courage and clear foresight of the Anglican divine who +tells us that we must be prepared to choose between the trustworthiness +of scientific method and the trustworthiness of that which the Church +declares to be Divine authority. For, to my mind, this declaration of +war to the knife against secular science, even in its most elementary +form; this rejection, without a moment's hesitation, of any and all +evidence which conflicts with theological dogma--is the only position +which is logically reconcilable with the axioms of orthodoxy. If the +Gospels truly report that which an incarnation of the God of Truth +communicated to the world, then it surely is absurd to attend to any +other evidence touching matters about which he made any clear statement, +or the truth of which is distinctly implied by his words. If the exact +historical truth of the Gospels is an axiom of Christianity, it is as +just and right for a Christian to say, Let us "close our ears against +suggestions" of scientific critics, as it is for the man of science to +refuse to waste his time upon circle-squarers and flat-earth fanatics. + +It is commonly reported that the manifesto by which the Canon of St. +Paul's proclaims that he nails the colours of the straitest Biblical +infallibility to the mast of the ship ecclesiastical, was put forth as +a counterblast to "Lux Mundi"; and that the passages which I have more +particularly quoted are directed against the essay on "The Holy Spirit +and Inspiration" in that collection of treatises by Anglican divines of +high standing, who must assuredly be acquitted of conscious "infidel" +proclivities. I fancy that rumour must, for once, be right, for it is +impossible to imagine a more direct and diametrical contradiction than +that between the passages from the sermon cited above and those which +follow:-- + + What is questioned is that our Lord's words foreclose certain + critical positions as to the character of Old Testament + literature. For example, does His use of Jonah's resurrection as + a _type_ of His own, depend in any real degree upon whether + it is historical fact or allegory?... Once more, our Lord uses + the time before the Flood, to illustrate the carelessness of men + before His own coming.... In referring to the Flood He + certainly suggests that He is treating it as typical, for He + introduces circumstances--"eating and drinking, marrying and + giving in marriage "--which have no counterpart in the original + narrative. (pp. 358-9). + +While insisting on the flow of inspiration through the whole of the Old +Testament, the essayist does not admit its universality. Here, also, the +new apologetic demands a partial flood: + + But does the inspiration of the recorder guarantee the exact + historical truth of what he records? And, in matter of fact, can + the record with due regard to legitimate historical criticism, + be pronounced true? Now, to the latter of these two questions + (and they are quite distinct questions) we may reply that there + is nothing to prevent our believing, as our faith strongly + disposes us to believe, that the record from Abraham downward + is, in substance, in the strict sense historical (p. 351). + +It would appear, therefore, that there is nothing to prevent our +believing that the record, from Abraham upward, consists of stories in +the strict sense unhistorical, and that the pre-Abrahamic narratives are +mere moral and religious "types" and parables. + +I confess I soon lose my way when I try to follow those who walk +delicately among "types" and allegories. A certain passion for clearness +forces me to ask, bluntly, whether the writer means to say that Jesus +did not believe the stories in question, or that he did? When Jesus +spoke, as of a matter of fact, that "the Flood came and destroyed them +all," did he believe that the Deluge really took place, or not? It seems +to me that, as the narrative mentions Noah's wife, and his sons' +wives, there is good scriptural warranty for the statement that the +antediluvians married and were given in marriage; and I should have +thought that their eating and drinking might be assumed by the firmest +believer in the literal truth of the story. Moreover, I venture to ask +what sort of value, as an illustration of God's methods of dealing with +sin, has an account of an event that never happened? If no Flood swept +the careless people away, how is the warning of more worth than the cry +of "Wolf" when there is no wolf? If Jonah's three days' residence in the +whale is not an "admitted reality," how could it "warrant belief" in +the "coming resurrection?" If Lot's wife was not turned into a pillar of +salt, the bidding those who turn back from the narrow path to "remember" +it is, morally, about on a level with telling a naughty child that a +bogy is coming to fetch it away. Suppose that a Conservative orator +warns his hearers to beware of great political and social changes, +lest they end, as in France, in the domination of a Robespierre; +what becomes, not only of his argument, but of his veracity, if he, +personally, does not believe that Robespierre existed and did the deeds +attributed to him? + +Like all other attempts to reconcile the results of +scientifically-conducted investigation with the demands of the outworn +creeds of ecclesiasticism, the essay on Inspiration is just such a +failure as must await mediation, when the mediator is unable properly +to appreciate the weight of the evidence for the case of one of the two +parties. The question of "Inspiration" really possesses no interest for +those who have cast ecclesiasticism and all its works aside, and have no +faith in any source of truth save that which is reached by the +patient application of scientific methods. Theories of inspiration are +speculations as to the means by which the authors of statements, in the +Bible or elsewhere, have been led to say what they have said--and it +assumes that natural agencies are insufficient for the purpose. I prefer +to stop short of this problem, finding it more profitable to undertake +the inquiry which naturally precedes it--namely, Are these statements +true or false? If they are true, it may be worth while to go into +the question of their supernatural generation; if they are false, it +certainly is not worth mine. + +Now, not only do I hold it to be proven that the story of the Deluge is +a pure fiction; but I have no hesitation in affirming the same thing of +the story of the Creation. [12] Between these two lies the story of the +creation of man and woman and their fall from primitive innocence, +which is even more monstrously improbable than either of the other two, +though, from the nature of the case, it is not so easily capable of +direct refutation. It can be demonstrated that the earth took longer +than six days in the making, and that the Deluge, as described, is a +physical impossibility; but there is no proving, especially to those who +are perfect in the art of closing their ears to that which they do not +wish to hear, that a snake did not speak, or that Eve was not made out +of one of Adam's ribs. + +The compiler of Genesis, in its present form, evidently had a definite +plan in his mind. His countrymen, like all other men, were doubtless +curious to know how the world began; how men, and especially wicked +men, came into being, and how existing nations and races arose among the +descendants of one stock; and, finally, what was the history of their +own particular tribe. They, like ourselves, desired to solve the four +great problems of cosmogeny, anthropogeny, ethnogeny, and geneogeny. The +Pentateuch furnishes the solutions which appeared satisfactory to its +author. One of these, as we have seen, was borrowed from a Babylonian +fable; and I know of no reason to suspect any different origin for the +rest. Now, I would ask, is the story of the fabrication of Eve to be +regarded as one of those pre-Abrahamic narratives, the historical truth +of which is an open question, in face of the reference to it in a +speech unhappily famous for the legal oppression to which it has been +wrongfully forced to lend itself? + + Have ye not read, that he which made them from the beginning + made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man + leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and the + twain shall become one flesh? (Matt. xix. 5.) + +If divine authority is not here claimed for the twenty-fourth verse of +the second chapter of Genesis, what is the value of language? And again, +I ask, if one may play fast and loose with the story of the Fall as +a "type" or "allegory," what becomes of the foundation of Pauline +theology?-- + + For since by man came death, by man came also the + resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in + Christ shall all be made alive (1 Corinthians xv. 21, 22). + +If Adam may be held to be no more real a personage than Prometheus, and +if the story of the Fall is merely an instructive "type," comparable to +the profound Promethean mythus, what value has Paul's dialectic? + +While, therefore, every right-minded man must sympathise with the +efforts of those theologians, who have not been able altogether to close +their ears to the still, small, voice of reason, to escape from the +fetters which ecclesiasticism has forged; the melancholy fact remains, +that the position they have taken up is hopelessly untenable. It is +raked alike by the old-fashioned artillery of the churches and by +the fatal weapons of precision with which the _enfants perdus_ of the +advancing forces of science are armed. They must surrender, or fall back +into a more sheltered position. And it is possible that they may long +find safety in such retreat. + +It is, indeed, probable that the proportional number of those who will +distinctly profess their belief in the transubstantiation of Lot's wife, +and the anticipatory experience of submarine navigation by Jonah; in +water standing fathoms deep on the side of a declivity without anything +to hold it up; and in devils who enter swine--will not increase. But +neither is there ground for much hope that the proportion of those who +cast aside these fictions and adopt the consequence of that repudiation, +are, for some generations, likely to constitute a majority. Our age is +a day of compromises. The present and the near future seem given over +to those happily, if curiously, constituted people who see as little +difficulty in throwing aside any amount of post-Abrahamic Scriptural +narrative, as the authors of "Lux Mundi" see in sacrificing the +pre-Abrahamic stories; and, having distilled away every inconvenient +matter of fact in Christian history, continue to pay divine honours to +the residue. There really seems to be no reason why the next generation +should not listen to a Bampton Lecture modelled upon that addressed to +the last:-- + + Time was--and that not very long ago--when all the relations of + Biblical authors concerning the whole world were received with a + ready belief; and an unreasoning and uncritical faith accepted + with equal satisfaction the narrative of the Captivity and the + doings of Moses at the court of Pharaoh, the account of the + Apostolic meeting in the Epistle to the Galatians, and that of + the fabrication of Eve. We can most of us remember when, in this + country, the whole story of the Exodus, and even the legend of + Jonah, were seriously placed before boys as history; and + discoursed of in as dogmatic a tone as the tale of Agincourt or + the history of the Norman Conquest. + + But all this is now changed. The last century has seen the + growth of scientific criticism to its full strength. The whole + world of history has been revolutionised and the mythology which + embarrassed earnest Christians has vanished as an evil mist, the + lifting of which has only more fully revealed the lineaments of + infallible Truth. No longer in contact with fact of any kind, + Faith stands now and for ever proudly inaccessible to the + attacks of the infidel. + +So far the apologist of the future. Why not? _Cantabit vacuus._ + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: _Bampton Lectures_ (1859), on "The Historical Evidence of +the Truth of the Scripture Records stated anew, with Special Reference +to the Doubts and Discoveries of Modern Times," by the Rev. G. +Rawlinson, M.A., pp. 5-6.] + +[Footnote 2: _The Worth of the Old Testament,_ a Sermon preached in St. +Paul's Cathedral on the second Sunday in Advent, 8th Dec., 1889, by +H. P. Liddon, D.D., D.C.L., Canon and Chancellor of St. Paul's. Second +edition revised and with a new preface, 1890.] + +[Footnote 3: St. Luke xvii. 32.] + +[Footnote 4: St. Luke xvii. 27.] + +[Footnote 5: St. Matt. xii. 40.] + +[Footnote 6: _Bampton Lectures,_ 1859, pp. 50-51.] + +[Footnote 7: _Commentary on Genesis,_ by the Bishop of Ely, p. 77.] + +[Footnote 8: _Die Sintflut,_ 1876.] + +[Footnote 9: _Theologie und Naturwissenschaft,_ ii. 784-791 (1877).] + +[Footnote 10: It is very doubtful if this means the region of the +Armenian Ararat. More probably it designates some part either of the +Kurdish range or of its south-eastern continuation.] + +[Footnote 11: So Reclus (_Nouvelle Geographie Universelle,_ ix. 386), +but I find the statement doubted by an authority of the first rank.] + +[Footnote 12: So far as I know, the narrative of the Creation is not now +held to be true, in the sense in which I have defined historical +truth, by any of the reconcilers. As for the attempts to stretch the +Pentateuchal days into periods of thousands or millions of years, +the verdict of the eminent Biblical scholar, Dr. Riehm (_Der +biblische Schopfungsbericht,_ 1881, pp. 15, 16) on such pranks of +"Auslegungskunst" should be final. Why do the reconcilers take Goethe's +advice seriously?-- + + "Im Auslegen seyd frisch und munter! + Legt ihr's nicht aus, so legt was unter."] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lights of the Church and the Light +of Science, by Thomas Henry Huxley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIGHTS OF THE CHURCH *** + +***** This file should be named 2632.txt or 2632.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/3/2632/ + +Produced by D. R. Thompson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thompson <drthom@ihug.co.nz> + + + + + +The Lights of the Church and the Light of Science +by Thomas Henry Huxley +This is Essay #6 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition" + + + + +There are three ways of regarding any account of past +occurrences, whether delivered to us orally or recorded +in writing. + +The narrative may be exactly true. That is to say, the words, +taken in their natural sense, and interpreted according to the +rules of grammar, may convey to the mind of the hearer, or of +the reader an idea precisely correspondent with one which would +have remained in the mind of a witness. For example, the +statement that King Charles the First was beheaded at Whitehall +on the 30th day of January 1649, is as exactly true as any +proposition in mathematics or physics; no one doubts that any +person of sound faculties, properly placed, who was present at +Whitehall throughout that day, and who used his eyes, would have +seen the King's head cut off; and that there would have remained +in his mind an idea of that occurrence which he would have put +into words of the same value as those which we use to +express it. + +Or the narrative may be partly true and partly false. Thus, some +histories of the time tell us what the King said, and what +Bishop Juxon said; or report royalist conspiracies to effect a +rescue; or detail the motives which induced the chiefs of the +Commonwealth to resolve that the King should die. One account +declares that the King knelt at a high block, another that he +lay down with his neck on a mere plank. And there are +contemporary pictorial representations of both these modes of +procedure. Such narratives, while veracious as to the main +event, may and do exhibit various degrees of unconscious and +conscious misrepresentation, suppression, and invention, till +they become hardly distinguishable from pure fictions. +Thus, they present a transition to narratives of a third class, +in which the fictitious element predominates. Here, again, there +are all imaginable gradations, from such works as Defoe's quasi- +historical account of the Plague year, which probably gives a +truer conception of that dreadful time than any authentic +history, through the historical novel, drama, and epic, to the +purely phantasmal creations of imaginative genius, such as the +old "Arabian Nights" or the modern "Shaving of Shagpat." It is +not strictly needful for my present purpose that I should say +anything about narratives which are professedly fictitious. +Yet it may be well, perhaps, if I disclaim any intention of +derogating from their value, when I insist upon the paramount +necessity of recollecting that there is no sort of relation +between the ethical, or the aesthetic, or even the scientific +importance of such works, and their worth as historical +documents. Unquestionably, to the poetic artist, or even to the +student of psychology, "Hamlet" and "Macbeth" may be better +instructors than all the books of a wilderness of professors of +aesthetics or of moral philosophy. But, as evidence of +occurrences in Denmark, or in Scotland, at the times and places +indicated, they are out of court; the profoundest admiration for +them, the deepest gratitude for their influence, are consistent +with the knowledge that, historically speaking, they are +worthless fables, in which any foundation of reality that may +exist is submerged beneath the imaginative superstructure. + +At present, however, I am not concerned to dwell upon the +importance of fictitious literature and the immensity of the +work which it has effected in the education of the human race. +I propose to deal with the much more limited inquiry: Are there +two other classes of consecutive narratives (as distinct from +statements of individual facts), or only one? Is there any known +historical work which is throughout exactly true, or is there +not? In the case of the great majority of histories the answer +is not doubtful: they are all only partially true. Even those +venerable works which bear the names of some of the greatest of +ancient Greek and Roman writers, and which have been accepted by +generation after generation, down to modern times, as stories of +unquestionable truth, have been compelled by scientific +criticism, after a long battle, to descend to the common level, +and to confession to a large admixture of error. I might fairly +take this for granted; but it may be well that I should entrench +myself behind the very apposite words of a historical authority +who is certainly not obnoxious to even a suspicion of +sceptical tendencies. + +<quote> +Time was--and that not very long ago--when all the relations of +ancient authors concerning the old world were received with a +ready belief; and an unreasoning and uncritical faith accepted +with equal satisfaction the narrative of the campaigns of Caesar +and of the doings of Romulus, the account of Alexander's marches +and of the conquests of Semiramis. We can most of us remember +when, in this country, the whole story of regal Rome, and even +the legend of the Trojan settlement in Latium, were seriously +placed before boys as history, and discoursed of as +unhesitatingly and in as dogmatic a tone as the tale of the +Catilline Conspiracy or the Conquest of Britain. ... + +But all this is now changed. The last century has seen the birth +and growth of a new science--the Science of Historical +Criticism. ... The whole world of profane history has been +revolutionised. ...<1> +<end quote> + +If these utterances were true when they fell from the lips of a +Bampton lecturer in 1859, with how much greater force do they +appeal to us now, when the immense labours of the generation now +passing away constitute one vast illustration of the power and +fruitfulness of scientific methods of investigation in history, +no less than in all other departments of knowledge. + +At the present time, I suppose, there is no one who doubts that +histories which appertain to any other people than the Jews, and +their spiritual progeny in the first century, fall within the +second class of the three enumerated. Like Goethe's +Autobiography, they might all be entitled "Wahrheit und +Dichtung"--"Truth and Fiction." The proportion of the two +constituents changes indefinitely; and the quality of the +fiction varies through the whole gamut of unveracity. +But "Dichtung" is always there. For the most acute and learned +of historians cannot remedy the imperfections of his sources of +information; nor can the most impartial wholly escape the +influence of the "personal equation" generated by his +temperament and by his education. Therefore, from the narratives +of Herodotus to those set forth in yesterday's "Times," all +history is to be read subject to the warning that fiction has +its share therein. The modern vast development of fugitive +literature cannot be the unmitigated evil that some do vainly +say it is, since it has put an end to the popular delusion of +less press-ridden times, that what appears in print must be +true. We should rather hope that some beneficent influence may +create among the erudite a like healthy suspicion of manuscripts +and inscriptions, however ancient; for a bulletin may lie, even +though it be written in cuneiform characters. +Hotspur's starling, that was to be taught to speak nothing but +"Mortimer" into the ears of King Henry the Fourth, might be a +useful inmate of every historian's library, if "Fiction" were +substituted for the name of Harry Percy's friend. + +But it was the chief object of the lecturer to the congregation +gathered in St. Mary's, Oxford, thirty-one years ago, to prove +to them, by evidence gathered with no little labour and +marshalled with much skill, that one group of historical works +was exempt from the general rule; and that the narratives +contained in the canonical Scriptures are free from any +admixture of error. With justice and candour, the lecturer +impresses upon his hearers that the special distinction of +Christianity, among the religions of the world, lies in its +claim to be historical; to be surely founded upon events which +have happened, exactly as they are declared to have happened in +its sacred books; which are true, that is, in the sense that the +statement about the execution of Charles the First is true. +Further, it is affirmed that the New Testament presupposes the +historical exactness of the Old Testament; that the points of +contact of "sacred" and "profane" history are innumerable; +and that the demonstration of the falsity of the Hebrew records, +especially in regard to those narratives which are assumed to be +true in the New Testament, would be fatal to Christian theology. + +My utmost ingenuity does not enable me to discover a flaw in the +argument thus briefly summarised. I am fairly at a loss to +comprehend how any one, for a moment, can doubt that Christian +theology must stand or fall with the historical trustworthiness +of the Jewish Scriptures. The very conception of the Messiah, or +Christ, is inextricably interwoven with Jewish history; the +identification of Jesus of Nazareth with that Messiah rests upon +the interpretation of passages of the Hebrew Scriptures which +have no evidential value unless they possess the historical +character assigned to them. If the covenant with Abraham was not +made; if circumcision and sacrifices were not ordained by +Jahveh; if the "ten words" were not written by God's hand on the +stone tables; if Abraham is more or less a mythical hero, such +as Theseus; the story of the Deluge a fiction; that of the Fall +a legend; and that of the creation the dream of a seer; if all +these definite and detailed narratives of apparently real events +have no more value as history than have the stories of the regal +period of Rome--what is to be said about the Messianic doctrine, +which is so much less clearly enunciated? And what about the +authority of the writers of the books of the New Testament, who, +on this theory, have not merely accepted flimsy fictions for +solid truths, but have built the very foundations of Christian +dogma upon legendary quicksands? + +But these may be said to be merely the carpings of that carnal +reason which the profane call common sense; I hasten, therefore, +to bring up the forces of unimpeachable ecclesiastical authority +in support of my position. In a sermon preached last December, +in St. Paul's Cathedral,<2> Canon Liddon declares:-- + +<quote> +For Christians it will be enough to know that our Lord Jesus +Christ set the seal of His infallible sanction on the whole of +the Old Testament. He found the Hebrew canon as we have it in +our hands to-day, and He treated it as an authority which was +above discussion. Nay more: He went out of His way--if we may +reverently speak thus--to sanction not a few portions of it +which modern scepticism rejects. When He would warn His hearers +against the dangers of spiritual relapse, He bids them remember +"Lot's wife."<3> When He would point out how worldly engagements +may blind the soul to a coming judgment, He reminds them how men +ate, and drank, and married, and were given in marriage, until +the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the Flood came and +destroyed them all.<4> If He would put His finger on a fact in +past Jewish history which, by its admitted reality, would +warrant belief in His own coming Resurrection, He points to +Jonah's being three days and three nights in the whale's belly +(p. 23)."<5> +<end quote> + +The preacher proceeds to brush aside the common--I had almost +said vulgar--apologetic pretext that Jesus was using <i>ad +hominem</i> arguments, or "accommodating" his better knowledge +to popular ignorance, as well as to point out the +inadmissibility of the other alternative, that he shared the +popular ignorance. And to those who hold the latter view sarcasm +is dealt out with no niggard hand. + +<quote> +But they will find it difficult to persuade mankind that, if He +could be mistaken on a matter of such strictly religious +importance as the value of the sacred literature of His +countrymen, He can be safely trusted about anything else. The +trustworthiness of the Old Testament is, in fact, inseparable +from the trustworthiness of our Lord Jesus Christ; and if we +believe that He is the true Light of the world, we shall close +our ears against suggestions impairing the credit of those +Jewish Scriptures which have received the stamp of His Divine +authority" (p. 25). +<end quote> + +Moreover, I learn from the public journals that a brilliant and +sharply-cut view of orthodoxy, of like hue and pattern, was only +the other day exhibited in that great theological kaleidoscope, +the pulpit of St. Mary's, recalling the time so long passed by, +when a Bampton lecturer, in the same place, performed the +unusual feat of leaving the faith of old-fashioned +Christians undisturbed. + +Yet many things have happened in the intervening thirty-one +years. The Bampton lecturer of 1859 had to grapple only with the +infant Hercules of historical criticism; and he is now a full- +grown athlete, bearing on his shoulders the spoils of all the +lions that have stood in his path. Surely a martyr's courage, as +well as a martyr's faith, is needed by any one who, at this +time, is prepared to stand by the following plea for the +veracity of the Pentateuch:-- + +<quote> +Adam, according to the Hebrew original, was for 243 years +contemporary with Methuselah, who conversed for a hundred years +with Shem. Shem was for fifty years contemporary with Jacob, who +probably saw Jochebed, Moses's mother. Thus, Moses might by oral +tradition have obtained the history of Abraham, and even of the +Deluge, at third hand; and that of the Temptation and the Fall +at fifth hand. ... + +If it be granted--as it seems to be--that the great and stirring +events in a nation's life will, under ordinary circumstances, be +remembered (apart from all written memorials) for the space of +150 years, being handed down through five generations, it must +be allowed (even on more human grounds) that the account which +Moses gives of the Temptation and the Fall is to be depended +upon, if it passed through no more than four hands between him +and Adam.<6> +<end quote> + +If "the trustworthiness of our Lord Jesus Christ" is to stand or +fall with the belief in the sudden transmutation of the chemical +components of a woman's body into sodium chloride, or on the +"admitted reality" of Jonah's ejection, safe and sound, on the +shores of the Levant, after three days' sea-journey in the +stomach of a gigantic marine animal, what possible pretext can +there be for even hinting a doubt as to the precise truth of the +longevity attributed to the Patriarchs? Who that has swallowed +the camel of Jonah's journey will be guilty of the affectation +of straining at such a historical gnat--nay, midge--as the +supposition that the mother of Moses was told the story of the +Flood by Jacob; who had it straight from Shem; who was on +friendly terms with Methuselah; who knew Adam quite well? + +Yet, by the strange irony of things, the illustrious brother of +the divine who propounded this remarkable theory, has been the +guide and foremost worker of that band of investigators of the +records of Assyria and of Babylonia, who have opened to our +view, not merely a new chapter, but a new volume of primeval +history, relating to the very people who have the most numerous +points of contact with the life of the ancient Hebrews. +Now, whatever imperfections may yet obscure the full value of +the Mesopotamian records, everything that has been clearly +ascertained tends to the conclusion that the assignment of no +more than 4000 years to the period between the time of the +origin of mankind and that of Augustus Caesar, is wholly +inadmissible. Therefore the Biblical chronology, which Canon +Rawlinson trusted so implicitly in 1859, is relegated by all +serious critics to the domain of fable. + +But if scientific method, operating in the region of history, of +philology, of archaeology, in the course of the last thirty or +forty years, has become thus formidable to the theological +dogmatist, what may not be said about scientific method working +in the province of physical science? For, if it be true that the +Canonical Scriptures have innumerable points of contact with +civil history, it is no less true that they have almost as many +with natural history; and their accuracy is put to the test as +severely by the latter as by the former. The origin of the +present state of the heavens and the earth is a problem which +lies strictly within the province of physical science; so is +that of the origin of man among living things; so is that of the +physical changes which the earth has undergone since the origin +of man; so is that of the origin of the various races and +nations of men, with all their varieties of language and +physical conformation. Whether the earth moves round the sun or +the contrary; whether the bodily and mental diseases of men and +animals are caused by evil spirits or not; whether there is such +an agency as witchcraft or not--all these are purely scientific +questions; and to all of them the Canonical Scriptures profess +to give true answers. And though nothing is more common than the +assumption that these books come into conflict only with the +speculative part of modern physical science, no assumption can +have less foundation. + +The antagonism between natural knowledge and the Pentateuch +would be as great if the speculations of our time had never been +heard of. It arises out of contradiction upon matters of fact. +The books of ecclesiastical authority declare that certain +events happened in a certain fashion; the books of scientific +authority say they did not. As it seems that this unquestionable +truth has not yet penetrated among many of those who speak and +write on these subjects, it may be useful to give a full +illustration of it. And for that purpose I propose to deal, at +some length, with the narrative of the Noachian Deluge given +in Genesis. + + +The Bampton lecturer in 1859, and the Canon of St. Paul's in +1890, are in full agreement that this history is true, in the +sense in which I have defined historical truth. The former is of +opinion that the account attributed to Berosus records +a tradition-- + +<quote> +not drawn from the Hebrew record, much less the foundation of +that record; yet coinciding with it in the most remarkable way. +The Babylonian version is tricked out with a few extravagances, +as the monstrous size of the vessel and the translation of +Xisuthros; but otherwise it is the Hebrew history <i>down to its +minutiae.</i> (p. 64). +<end quote> + +Moreover, correcting Niebuhr, the Bampton lecturer points out +that the narrative of Berosus implies the universality of +the Flood. + +<quote> +It is plain that the waters are represented as prevailing above +the tops of the loftiest mountains in Armenia--a height which +must have been seen to involve the submersion of all the +countries with which the Babylonians were acquainted (p. 66). +<end quote> + +I may remark, in passing, that many people think the size of +Noah's ark "monstrous," considering the probable state of the +art of shipbuilding only 1600 years after the origin of man; +while others are so unreasonable as to inquire why the +translation of Enoch is less an "extravagance" than that of +Xisuthros. It is more important, however, to note that the +Universality of the Deluge is recognised, not merely as a part +of the story, but as a necessary consequence of some of its +details. The latest exponent of Anglican orthodoxy, as we have +seen, insists upon the accuracy of the Pentateuchal history of +the Flood in a still more forcible manner. It is cited as one of +those very narratives to which the authority of the Founder of +Christianity is pledged, and upon the accuracy of which "the +trustworthiness of our Lord Jesus Christ" is staked, just as +others have staked it upon the truth of the histories of +demoniac possession in the Gospels. + +Now, when those who put their trust in scientific methods of +ascertaining the truth in the province of natural history find +themselves confronted and opposed, on their own ground, by +ecclesiastical pretensions to better knowledge, it is, +undoubtedly, most desirable for them to make sure that their +conclusions, whatever they may be, are well founded. And, if +they put aside the unauthorised interference with their business +and relegate the Pentateuchal history to the region of pure +fiction, they are bound to assure themselves that they do so +because the plainest teachings of Nature (apart from all +doubtful speculations) are irreconcilable with the assertions +which they reject. + +At the present time, it is difficult to persuade serious +scientific inquirers to occupy themselves, in any way, with the +Noachian Deluge. They look at you with a smile and a shrug, and +say they have more important matters to attend to than mere +antiquarianism. But it was not so in my youth. At that time, +geologists and biologists could hardly follow to the end any +path of inquiry without finding the way blocked by Noah and his +ark, or by the first chapter of Genesis; and it was a serious +matter, in this country at any rate, for a man to be suspected +of doubting the literal truth of the Diluvial or any other +Pentateuchal history. The fiftieth anniversary of the foundation +of the Geological Club (in 1824) was, if I remember rightly, the +last occasion on which the late Sir Charles Lyell spoke to even +so small a public as the members of that body. Our veteran +leader lighted up once more; and, referring to the difficulties +which beset his early efforts to create a rational science of +geology, spoke, with his wonted clearness and vigour, of the +social ostracism which pursued him after the publication of the +"Principles of Geology," in 1830, on account of the obvious +tendency of that noble work to discredit the Pentateuchal +accounts of the Creation and the Deluge. If my younger +contemporaries find this hard to believe, I may refer them to a +grave book, "On the Doctrine of the Deluge," published eight +years later, and dedicated by its author to his father, the then +Archbishop of York. The first chapter refers to the treatment of +the "Mosaic Deluge," by Dr. Buckland and Mr. Lyell, in the +following terms: + +<quote> +Their respect for revealed religion has prevented them from +arraying themselves openly against the Scriptural account of it +--much less do they deny its truth--but they are in a great +hurry to escape from the consideration of it, and evidently +concur in the opinion of Linnaeus, that no proofs whatever of +the Deluge are to be discovered in the structure of the +earth (p. 1). +<end quote> + +And after an attempt to reply to some of Lyell's arguments, +which it would be cruel to reproduce, the writer continues:-- + +<quote>When, therefore, upon such slender grounds, it is +determined, in answer to those who insist upon its universality, +that the Mosaic Deluge must be considered a preternatural event, +far beyond the reach of philosophical inquiry; not only as to +the causes employed to produce it, but as to the effects most +likely to result from it; that determination wears an aspect of +scepticism, which, however much soever it may be unintentional +in the mind of the writer, yet cannot but produce an evil +impression on those who are already predisposed to carp and +cavil at the evidences of Revelation (pp. 8-9). +<end quote> + +The kindly and courteous writer of these curious passages is +evidently unwilling to make the geologists the victims of +general opprobrium by pressing the obvious consequences of their +teaching home. One is therefore pained to think of the feelings +with which, if he lived so long as to become acquainted with the +"Dictionary of the Bible," he must have perused the article +"Noah," written by a dignitary of the Church for that standard +compendium and published in 1863. For the doctrine of the +universality of the Deluge is therein altogether given up; and I +permit myself to hope that a long criticism of the story from +the point of view of natural science, with which, at the request +of the learned theologian who wrote it, I supplied him, may, in +some degree, have contributed towards this happy result. + +Notwithstanding diligent search, I have been unable to discover +that the universality of the Deluge has any defender left, at +least among those who have so far mastered the rudiments of +natural knowledge as to be able to appreciate the weight of +evidence against it. For example, when I turned to the +"Speaker's Bible," published under the sanction of high Anglican +authority, I found the following judicial and judicious +deliverance, the skilful wording of which may adorn, but does +not hide, the completeness of the surrender of the +old teaching:-- + +<quote> +Without pronouncing too hastily on any fair inferences from the +words of Scripture, we may reasonably say that their most +natural interpretation is, that the whole race of man had become +grievously corrupted since the faithful had intermingled with +the ungodly; that the inhabited world was consequently filled +with violence, and that God had decreed to destroy all mankind +except one single family; that, therefore, all that portion of +the earth, perhaps as yet a very small portion, into which +mankind had spread was overwhelmed with water. The ark was +ordained to save one faithful family; and lest that family, on +the subsidence of the waters, should find the whole country +round them a desert, a pair of all the beasts of the land and of +the fowls of the air were preserved along with them, and along +with them went forth to replenish the now desolated continent. +The words of Scripture (confirmed as they are by universal +tradition) appear at least to mean as much as this. They do not +necessarily mean more.<7> +<end quote> + +In the third edition of Kitto's "Cyclopaedia of Biblical +Literature" (1876), the article "Deluge," written by my friend, +the present distinguished head of the Geological Survey of Great +Britain, extinguishes the universality doctrine as thoroughly as +might be expected from its authorship; and, since the writer of +the article "Noah" refers his readers to that entitled "Deluge," +it is to be supposed, notwithstanding his generally orthodox +tone, that he does not dissent from its conclusions. Again, the +writers in Herzog's "Real-Encyclopadie" (Bd. X. 1882) and in +Riehm's "Handworterbuch" (1884)--both works with a conservative +leaning--are on the same side; and Diestel,<8> in his full +discussion of the subject, remorselessly rejects the +universality doctrine. Even that staunch opponent of scientific +rationalism--may I say rationality?--Zockler<9> flinches from a +distinct defence of the thesis, any opposition to which, well +within my recollection, was howled down by the orthodox as mere +"infidelity." All that, in his sore straits, Dr. Zockler is able +to do, is to pronounce a faint commendation upon a particularly +absurd attempt at reconciliation, which would make out the +Noachian Deluge to be a catastrophe which occurred at the end of +the Glacial Epoch. This hypothesis involves only the trifle of a +physical revolution of which geology knows nothing; and which, +if it secured the accuracy of the Pentateuchal writer about the +fact of the Deluge, would leave the details of his account as +irreconcilable with the truths of elementary physical science as +ever. Thus I may be permitted to spare myself and my readers the +weariness of a recapitulation of the overwhelming arguments +against the universality of the Deluge, which they will now find +for themselves stated, as fully and forcibly as could be wished, +by Anglican and other theologians, whose orthodoxy and +conservative tendencies have, hitherto, been above suspicion. +Yet many fully admit (and, indeed, nothing can be plainer) that, +as a matter of fact, the whole earth known to him was inundated; +nor is it less obvious that unless all mankind, with the +exception of Noah and his family, were actually destroyed, the +references to the Flood in the New Testament are unintelligible. + +But I am quite aware that the strength of the demonstration that +no universal Deluge ever took place has produced a change of +front in the army of apologetic writers. They have imagined that +the substitution of the adjective "partial" for "universal," +will save the credit of the Pentateuch, and permit them, after +all, without too many blushes, to declare that the progress of +modern science only strengthens the authority of Moses. +Nowhere have I found the case of the advocates of this method of +escaping from the difficulties of the actual position better put +than in the lecture of Professor Diestel to which I have +referred. After frankly admitting that the old doctrine of +universality involves physical impossibilities, he continues:-- + +<quote> +All these difficulties fall away as soon as we give up the +universality of the Deluge, and imagine a <i>partial</i> +flooding of the earth, say in western Asia. But have we a right +to do so? The narrative speaks of "the whole earth." But what is +the meaning of this expression? Surely not the whole surface of +the earth according to the ideas of <i>modern</i> geographers, +but, at most, according to the conceptions of the Biblical +author. This very simple conclusion, however, is never drawn by +too many readers of the Bible. But one need only cast one's eyes +over the tenth chapter of Genesis in order to become acquainted +with the geographical horizon of the Jews. In the north it was +bounded by the Black Sea and the mountains of Armenia; +extended towards the east very little beyond the Tigris; +hardly reached the apex of the Persian Gulf; passed, then, +through the middle of Arabia and the Red Sea; went southward +through Abyssinia, and then turned westward by the frontiers of +Egypt, and inclosed the easternmost islands of the +Mediterranean (p. 11). +<end quote> + +The justice of this observation must be admitted, no less than +the further remark that, in still earlier times, the pastoral +Hebrews very probably had yet more restricted notions of what +constituted the "whole earth." Moreover, I, for one, fully agree +with Professor Diestel that the motive, or generative incident, +of the whole story is to be sought in the occasionally excessive +and desolating floods of the Euphrates and the Tigris. + +Let us, provisionally, accept the theory of a partial deluge, +and try to form a clear mental picture of the occurrence. Let us +suppose that, for forty days and forty nights, such a vast +quantity of water was poured upon the ground that the whole +surface of Mesopotamia was covered by water to a depth certainly +greater, probably much greater, than fifteen cubits, or twenty +feet (Gen. vii. 20). The inundation prevails upon the earth for +one hundred and fifty days and then the flood gradually +decreases, until, on the seventeenth day of the seventh month, +the ark, which had previously floated on its surface, grounds +upon the "mountains of Ararat"<10> (Gen. viii. 34). Then, as +Diestel has acutely pointed out ("Sintflut," p. 13), we are to +imagine the further subsidence of the flood to take place so +gradually that it was not until nearly two months and a half +after this time (that is to say, on the first day of the tenth +month) that the "tops of the mountains" became visible. Hence it +follows that, if the ark drew even as much as twenty feet of +water, the level of the inundation fell very slowly--at a rate +of only a few inches a day--until the top of the mountain on +which it rested became visible. This is an amount of movement +which, if it took place in the sea, would be overlooked by +ordinary people on the shore. But the Mesopotamian plain slopes +gently, from an elevation of 500 or 600 feet at its northern +end, to the sea, at its southern end, with hardly so much as a +notable ridge to break its uniform flatness, for 300 to 400 +miles. These being the conditions of the case, the following +inquiry naturally presents itself: not, be it observed, as a +recondite problem, generated by modern speculation, but as a +plain suggestion flowing out of that very ordinary and archaic +piece of knowledge that water cannot be piled up like in a heap, +like sand; or that it seeks the lowest level. When, after 150 +days, "the fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven +were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained" (Gen. +viii.2), what prevented the mass of water, several, possibly +very many, fathoms deep, which covered, say, the present site of +Bagdad, from sweeping seaward in a furious torrent; and, in a +very few hours, leaving, not only the "tops of the mountains," +but the whole plain, save any minor depressions, bare? How could +its subsistence, by any possibility, be an affair of weeks +and months? + +And if this difficulty is not enough, let any one try to imagine +how a mass of water several perhaps very many, fathoms deep, +could be accumulated on a flat surface of land rising well above +the sea, and separated from it by no sort of barrier. +Most people know Lord's Cricket-ground. Would it not be an +absurd contradiction to our common knowledge of the properties +of water to imagine that, if all the mains of all the waterworks +of London were turned on to it, they could maintain a heap of +water twenty feet deep over its level surface? Is it not obvious +that the water, whatever momentary accumulation might take place +at first, would not stop there, but that it would dash, like a +mighty mill-race, southwards down the gentle slope which ends in +the Thames? And is it not further obvious, that whatever depth +of water might be maintained over the cricket-ground so long as +all the mains poured on to it, anything which floated there +would be speedily whirled away by the current, like a cork in a +gutter when the rain pours? But if this is so, then it is no +less certain that Noah's deeply laden, sailless, oarless, and +rudderless craft, if by good fortune it escaped capsizing in +whirlpools, or having its bottom knocked into holes by snags +(like those which prove fatal even to well-built steamers on the +Mississippi in our day), would have speedily found itself a good +way down the Persian Gulf, and not long after in the Indian +Ocean, somewhere between Arabia and Hindostan. Even if, +eventually, the ark might have gone ashore, with other jetsam +and flotsam, on the coasts of Arabia, or of Hindostan, or of the +Maldives, or of Madagascar, its return to the "mountains of +Ararat" would have been a miracle more stupendous than all +the rest. + +Thus, the last state of the would-be reconcilers of the story of +the Deluge with fact is worse than the first. All that they have +done is to transfer the contradictions to established truth from +the region of science proper to that of common information and +common sense. For, really, the assertion that the surface of a +body of deep water, to which no addition was made, and which +there was nothing to stop from running into the sea, sank at the +rate of only a few inches or even feet a day, simply outrages +the most ordinary and familiar teachings of every man's daily +experience. A child may see the folly of it. + +In addition, I may remark that the necessary assumption of the +"partial Deluge" hypothesis (if it is confined to Mesopotamia) +that the Hebrew writer must have meant low hills when he said +"high mountains," is quite untenable. On the eastern side of the +Mesopotamian plain, the snowy peaks of the frontier ranges of +Persia are visible from Bagdad,<11> and even the most ignorant +herdsmen in the neighbourhood of "Ur of the Chaldees," near its +western limit, could hardly have been unacquainted with the +comparatively elevated plateau of the Syrian desert which lay +close at hand. But, surely, we must suppose the Biblical writer +to be acquainted with the highlands of Palestine and with the +masses of the Sinaitic peninsula, which soar more than 8000 feet +above the sea, if he knew of no higher elevations; and, if so, +he could not well have meant to refer to mere hillocks when he +said that "all the high mountains which were under the whole +heaven were covered" (Genesis vii. 19). Even the hill-country of +Galilee reaches an elevation of 4000 feet; and a flood which +covered it could by no possibility have been other than +universal in its superficial extent. Water really cannot be got +to stand at, say, 4000 feet above the sea-level over Palestine, +without covering the rest of the globe to the same height. Even +if, in the course of Noah's six hundredth year, some prodigious +convulsion had sunk the whole region inclosed within "the +horizon of the geographical knowledge" of the Israelites by that +much, and another had pushed it up again, just in time to catch +the ark upon the "mountains of Ararat," matters are not much +mended. I am afraid to think of what would have become of a +vessel so little seaworthy as the ark and of its very numerous +passengers, under the peculiar obstacles to quiet flotation +which such rapid movements of depression and upheaval would +have generated. + +Thus, in view, not, I repeat of the recondite speculations of +infidel philosophers, but in the face of the plainest and most +commonplace of ascertained physical facts, the story of the +Noachian Deluge has no more claim to credit than has that of +Deucalion; and whether it was, or was not, suggested by the +familiar acquaintance of its originators with the effects of +unusually great overflows of the Tigris and Euphrates, it is +utterly devoid of historical truth. + +That is, in my judgment, the necessary result of the application +of criticism, based upon assured physical knowledge to the story +of the Deluge. And it is satisfactory that the criticism which +is based, not upon literary and historical speculations, but +upon well-ascertained facts in the departments of literature and +history, tends to exactly the same conclusion. + +For I find this much agreed upon by all Biblical scholars of +repute, that the story of the Deluge in Genesis is separable +into at least two sets of statements; and that, when the +statements thus separated are recombined in their proper order, +each set furnishes an account of the event, coherent and +complete within itself, but in some respects discordant with +that afforded by the other set. This fact, as I understand, is +not disputed. Whether one of these is the work of an Elohist, +and the other of a Jehovist narrator; whether the two have been +pieced together in this strange fashion because, in the +estimation of the compilers and editors of the Pentateuch, they +had equal and independent authority, or not; or whether there is +some other way of accounting for it--are questions the answers +to which do not affect the fact. If possible I avoid <i>a +priori</i> arguments. But still, I think it may be urged, +without imprudence, that a narrative having this structure is +hardly such as might be expected from a writer possessed of full +and infallibly accurate knowledge. Once more, it would seem that +it is not necessarily the mere inclination of the sceptical +spirit to question everything, or the wilful blindness of +infidels, which prompts grave doubts as to the value of a +narrative thus curiously unlike the ordinary run of +veracious histories. + +But the voice of archaeological and historical criticism still +has to be heard; and it gives forth no uncertain sound. The +marvellous recovery of the records of an antiquity, far superior +to any that can be ascribed to the Pentateuch, which has been +effected by the decipherers of cuneiform characters, has put us +in possession of a series, once more, not of speculations, but +of facts, which have a most remarkable bearing upon the question +of the truthworthiness of the narrative of the Flood. It is +established, that for centuries before the asserted migration of +Terah from Ur of the Chaldees (which, according to the orthodox +interpreters of the Pentateuch, took place after the year 2000 +B.C.) Lower Mesopotamia was the seat of a civilisation in which +art and science and literature had attained a development +formerly unsuspected or, if there were faint reports of it, +treated as fabulous. And it is also no matter of speculation, +but a fact, that the libraries of these people contain versions +of a long epic poem, one of the twelve books of which tells a +story of a deluge, which, in a number of its leading features, +corresponds with the story attributed to Berosus, no less than +with the story given in Genesis, with curious exactness. Thus, +the correctness of Canon Rawlinson's conclusion, cited above, +that the story of Berosus was neither drawn from the Hebrew +record, nor is the foundation of it, can hardly be questioned. +It is highly probable, if not certain, that Berosus relied upon +one of the versions (for there seem to have been several) of the +old Babylonian epos, extant in his time; and, if that is a +reasonable conclusion, why is it unreasonable to believe that +the two stories, which the Hebrew compiler has put together in +such an inartistic fashion, were ultimately derived from the +same source? I say ultimately, because it does not at all follow +that the two versions, possibly trimmed by the Jehovistic writer +on the one hand, and by the Elohistic on the other, to suit +Hebrew requirements, may not have been current among the +Israelites for ages. And they may have acquired great authority +before they were combined in the Pentateuch. + +Looking at the convergence of all these lines of evidence to the +one conclusion--that the story of the Flood in Genesis is merely +a Bowdlerised version of one of the oldest pieces of purely +fictitious literature extant; that whether this is, or is not, +its origin, the events asserted in it to have taken place +assuredly never did take place; further, that, in point of fact, +the story, in the plain and logically necessary sense of its +words, has long since been given up by orthodox and conservative +commentators of the Established Church--I can but admire the +courage and clear foresight of the Anglican divine who tells us +that we must be prepared to choose between the trustworthiness +of scientific method and the trustworthiness of that which the +Church declares to be Divine authority. For, to my mind, this +declaration of war to the knife against secular science, even in +its most elementary form; this rejection, without a moment's +hesitation, of any and all evidence which conflicts with +theological dogma--is the only position which is logically +reconcilable with the axioms of orthodoxy. If the Gospels truly +report that which an incarnation of the God of Truth +communicated to the world, then it surely is absurd to attend to +any other evidence touching matters about which he made any +clear statement, or the truth of which is distinctly implied by +his words. If the exact historical truth of the Gospels is an +axiom of Christianity, it is as just and right for a Christian +to say, Let us "close our ears against suggestions" of +scientific critics, as it is for the man of science to refuse to +waste his time upon circle-squarers and flat-earth fanatics. + +It is commonly reported that the manifesto by which the Canon of +St. Paul's proclaims that he nails the colours of the straitest +Biblical infallibility to the mast of the ship ecclesiastical, +was put forth as a counterblast to "Lux Mundi"; and that the +passages which I have more particularly quoted are directed +against the essay on "The Holy Spirit and Inspiration" in that +collection of treatises by Anglican divines of high standing, +who must assuredly be acquitted of conscious "infidel" +proclivities. I fancy that rumour must, for once, be right, for +it is impossible to imagine a more direct and diametrical +contradiction than that between the passages from the sermon +cited above and those which follow:-- + +<quote> +What is questioned is that our Lord's words foreclose certain +critical positions as to the character of Old Testament +literature. For example, does His use of Jonah's resurrection as +a <i>type</i> of His own, depend in any real degree upon whether +it is historical fact or allegory? ... Once more, our Lord uses +the time before the Flood, to illustrate the carelessness of men +before His own coming. ... In referring to the Flood He +certainly suggests that He is treating it as typical, for He +introduces circumstances--"eating and drinking, marrying and +giving in marriage "--which have no counterpart in the original +narrative" (pp. 358-9). +<end quote> + +While insisting on the flow of inspiration through the whole of +the Old Testament, the essayist does not admit its universality. +Here, also, the new apologetic demands a partial flood: + +<quote> +But does the inspiration of the recorder guarantee the exact +historical truth of what he records? And, in matter of fact, can +the record with due regard to legitimate historical criticism, +be pronounced true? Now, to the latter of these two questions +(and they are quite distinct questions) we may reply that there +is nothing to prevent our believing, as our faith strongly +disposes us to believe, that the record from Abraham downward +is, in substance, in the strict sense historical (p. 351). +<end quote> + +It would appear, therefore, that there is nothing to prevent our +believing that the record, from Abraham upward, consists of +stories in the strict sense unhistorical, and that the pre- +Abrahamic narratives are mere moral and religious "types" +and parables. + +I confess I soon lose my way when I try to follow those who walk +delicately among "types" and allegories. A certain passion for +clearness forces me to ask, bluntly, whether the writer means to +say that Jesus did not believe the stories in question, or that +he did? When Jesus spoke, as of a matter of fact, that "the +Flood came and destroyed them all," did he believe that the +Deluge really took place, or not? It seems to me that, as the +narrative mentions Noah's wife, and his sons' wives, there is +good scriptural warranty for the statement that the +antediluvians married and were given in marriage; and I should +have thought that their eating and drinking might be assumed by +the firmest believer in the literal truth of the story. +Moreover, I venture to ask what sort of value, as an +illustration of God's methods of dealing with sin, has an +account of an event that never happened? If no Flood swept the +careless people away, how is the warning of more worth than the +cry of "Wolf" when there is no wolf? If Jonah's three days' +residence in the whale is not an "admitted reality," how could +it "warrant belief" in the "coming resurrection?" If Lot's wife +was not turned into a pillar of salt, the bidding those who turn +back from the narrow path to "remember" it is, morally, about on +a level with telling a naughty child that a bogy is coming to +fetch it away. Suppose that a Conservative orator warns his +hearers to beware of great political and social changes, lest +they end, as in France, in the domination of a Robespierre; +what becomes, not only of his argument, but of his veracity, if +he, personally, does not believe that Robespierre existed and +did the deeds attributed to him? + +Like all other attempts to reconcile the results of +scientifically-conducted investigation with the demands of the +outworn creeds of ecclesiasticism, the essay on Inspiration is +just such a failure as must await mediation, when the mediator +is unable properly to appreciate the weight of the evidence for +the case of one of the two parties. The question of +"Inspiration" really possesses no interest for those who have +cast ecclesiasticism and all its works aside, and have no faith +in any source of truth save that which is reached by the patient +application of scientific methods. Theories of inspiration are +speculations as to the means by which the authors of statements, +in the Bible or elsewhere, have been led to say what they have +said--and it assumes that natural agencies are insufficient for +the purpose. I prefer to stop short of this problem, finding it +more profitable to undertake the inquiry which naturally +precedes it--namely, Are these statements true or false? If they +are true, it may be worth while to go into the question of their +supernatural generation; if they are false, it certainly is not +worth mine. + +Now, not only do I hold it to be proven that the story of the +Deluge is a pure fiction; but I have no hesitation in affirming +the same thing of the story of the Creation.<12> Between these +two lies the story of the creation of man and woman and their +fall from primitive innocence, which is even more monstrously +improbable than either of the other two, though, from the nature +of the case, it is not so easily capable of direct refutation. +It can be demonstrated that the earth took longer than six days +in the making, and that the Deluge, as described, is a physical +impossibility; but there is no proving, especially to those who +are perfect in the art of closing their ears to that which they +do not wish to hear, that a snake did not speak, or that Eve was +not made out of one of Adam's ribs. + +The compiler of Genesis, in its present form, evidently had a +definite plan in his mind. His countrymen, like all other men, +were doubtless curious to know how the world began; how men, and +especially wicked men, came into being, and how existing nations +and races arose among the descendants of one stock; and, +finally, what was the history of their own particular tribe. +They, like ourselves, desired to solve the four great problems +of cosmogeny, anthropogeny, ethnogeny, and geneogeny. The +Pentateuch furnishes the solutions which appeared satisfactory +to its author. One of these, as we have seen, was borrowed from +a Babylonian fable; and I know of no reason to suspect any +different origin for the rest. Now, I would ask, is the story of +the fabrication of Eve to be regarded as one of those pre- +Abrahamic narratives, the historical truth of which is an open +question, in face of the reference to it in a speech unhappily +famous for the legal oppression to which it has been wrongfully +forced to lend itself? + +<quote> +Have ye not read, that he which made them from the beginning +made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man +leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and the +twain shall become one flesh?" (Matt. xix. 5.) +<end quote> + +If divine authority is not here claimed for the twenty-fourth +verse of the second chapter of Genesis, what is the value of +language? And again, I ask, if one may play fast and loose with +the story of the Fall as a "type" or "allegory," what becomes of +the foundation of Pauline theology?-- + +<quote>For since by man came death, by man came also the +resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in +Christ shall all be made alive (1 Corinthians xv. 21, 22). +<end quote> + +If Adam may be held to be no more real a personage than +Prometheus, and if the story of the Fall is merely an +instructive "type," comparable to the profound Promethean +mythus, what value has Paul's dialectic? + +While, therefore, every right-minded man must sympathise with +the efforts of those theologians, who have not been able +altogether to close their ears to the still, small, voice of +reason, to escape from the fetters which ecclesiasticism has +forged; the melancholy fact remains, that the position they have +taken up is hopelessly untenable. It is raked alike by the old- +fashioned artillery of the churches and by the fatal weapons of +precision with which the <i>enfants perdus</i> of the advancing +forces of science are armed. They must surrender, or fall back +into a more sheltered position. And it is possible that they may +long find safety in such retreat. + +It is, indeed, probable that the proportional number of those +who will distinctly profess their belief in the +transubstantiation of Lot's wife, and the anticipatory +experience of submarine navigation by Jonah; in water standing +fathoms deep on the side of a declivity without anything to hold +it up; and in devils who enter swine--will not increase. +But neither is there ground for much hope that the proportion of +those who cast aside these fictions and adopt the consequence of +that repudiation, are, for some generations, likely to +constitute a majority. Our age is a day of compromises. The +present and the near future seem given over to those happily, if +curiously, constituted people who see as little difficulty in +throwing aside any amount of post-Abrahamic Scriptural +narrative, as the authors of "Lux Mundi" see in sacrificing the +pre-Abrahamic stories; and, having distilled away every +inconvenient matter of fact in Christian history, continue to +pay divine honours to the residue. There really seems to be no +reason why the next generation should not listen to a Bampton +Lecture modelled upon that addressed to the last:-- + +<quote> +Time was--and that not very long ago--when all the relations of +Biblical authors concerning the whole world were received with a +ready belief; and an unreasoning and uncritical faith accepted +with equal satisfaction the narrative of the Captivity and the +doings of Moses at the court of Pharaoh, the account of the +Apostolic meeting in the Epistle to the Galatians, and that of +the fabrication of Eve. We can most of us remember when, in this +country, the whole story of the Exodus, and even the legend of +Jonah, were seriously placed before boys as history; and +discoursed of in as dogmatic a tone as the tale of Agincourt or +the history of the Norman Conquest. + +But all this is now changed. The last century has seen the +growth of scientific criticism to its full strength. The whole +world of history has been revolutionised and the mythology which +embarrassed earnest Christians has vanished as an evil mist, the +lifting of which has only more fully revealed the lineaments of +infallible Truth. No longer in contact with fact of any kind, +Faith stands now and for ever proudly inaccessible to the +attacks of the infidel. +<end quote> + +So far the apologist of the future. Why not? <i>Cantabit +vacuus.</i> + + +FOOTNOTES + +(1) <i>Bampton Lectures</i> (1859), on "The Historical Evidence +of the Truth of the Scripture Records stated anew, with Special +Reference to the Doubts and Discoveries of Modern Times," by the +Rev. G. Rawlinson, M.A., pp. 5-6. + +(2) <i>The Worth of the Old Testament,</i> a Sermon preached in +St. Paul's Cathedral on the second Sunday in Advent, 8th Dec., +1889, by H. P. Liddon, D.D., D.C.L., Canon and Chancellor of St. +Paul's. Second edition revised and with a new preface, 1890. + +(3) St. Luke xvii. 32. + +(4) St. Luke xvii. 27. + +(5) St. Matt. xii. 40. + +(6) <i>Bampton Lectures,</i> 1859, pp. 50-51. + +(7) <i>Commentary on Genesis,</i> by the Bishop of Ely, p. 77. + +(8) <i>Die Sintflut,</i> 1876. + +(9) <i>Theologie und Naturwissenschaft,</i> ii. 784-791 (1877). + +(10) It is very doubtful if this means the region of the +Armenian Ararat. More probably it designates some part either of +the Kurdish range or of its south-eastern continuation. + +(11) So Reclus (<i>Nouvelle Geographie Universelle,</i> ix. +386), but I find the statement doubted by an authority of the +first rank. + +(12) So far as I know, the narrative of the Creation is not now +held to be true, in the sense in which I have defined historical +truth, by any of the reconcilers. As for the attempts to stretch +the Pentateuchal days into periods of thousands or millions of +years, the verdict of the eminent Biblical scholar, Dr. Riehm +(<i>Der biblische Schopfungsbericht,</i> 1881, pp. 15, 16) on +such pranks of "Auslegungskunst" should be final. Why do the +reconcilers take Goethe's advice seriously?-- + "Im Auslegen seyd frisch und munter! + Legt ihr's nicht aus, so legt was unter." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg The Lights of the Church and the Light of Science +This is Essay #6 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition" + diff --git a/old/6saht10.zip b/old/6saht10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7db6d25 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/6saht10.zip |