INTRODUCTION

TO THE

OLD TESTAMENT

with a comprehensive review of
Old Testament studies
and a special supplement on the Apocrypha

by

R. K. Harrison

Professor of Old Testament

Wycliffe College, University of Toronto

WILLIAM B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN

Copyright © 1969 by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 64–22030

ISBN 0-8028-3107-9

First printing, September 1969

Reprinted, June 1979

To My Parents

Preface

The present work is an attempt to evaluate the contents of the Old Testament and Apocrypha against the vast background of knowledge that is now available for students of ancient Near Eastern life and culture. The more detailed introduction to the books of the Old Testament is prefaced by seven sections dealing with important areas of Old Testament study; although this procedure results in some repetition throughout the book, it is hoped that it will serve the interests of the beginning student in furnishing a resume of the history of thought in each particular branch of study. The section dealing with the Apocrypha was added at the request of the publishers. Its presence should not be taken to imply that its contents are to be regarded as of equal inspiration or authority with the Old Testament.

Considerable emphasis has been placed upon methodology in an endeavor to permit the Hebrew Scriptures to speak for themselves against their ancient Near Eastern background. Much of what has passed for critical study in this field has in fact consisted largely of the application of a priori literary-critical theories, often in apparent isolation from methodological approaches involving archaeology, comparative religion, sociology, history, linguistics, and aspects of the biological and physical sciences. All of these have a part to play in the proper understanding of the Scriptural record, and must now take their place beside literary and textual criticism as valid means to this end. The methodology adopted in this book is inductive, and the writer has been at considerable pains in resisting temptations to “burke any issue,” to borrow the quaint Victorian phrase favored occasionally by H. H. Rowley.1 The conclusions that appear in the book are tentative and amenable to modification in the light of whatever relevant factual information may emerge in the future.

I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness for permission to quote from copyright works to the following: to Dr. G. E. Wright for allowing the use of material contained in various numbers of The Biblical Archaeologist; to the University of Chicago Press for permission to reprint sections from A. Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels (1949 edition), D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia (2 volumes, 1926); to Y. Kaufmann, The Religion of Israel, translated by Moshe Greenberg (1960); to the American Philosophical Society for their kindness in allowing the use of copyright material in ...