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+Project Gutenberg The Lights of the Church and the Light of Science
+#9 in our series by Thomas Henry Huxley
+This is Essay #6 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition"
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+Title:  The Lights of the Church and the Light of Science
+Title:  This is Essay #6 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition"
+
+Author:  Thomas Henry Huxley
+
+May, 2001  [Etext #2632]
+
+
+Project Gutenberg The Lights of the Church and the Light of Science
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+
+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"
+
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