Smith Robertson Professor Oriental Languages (4 results)

Binding copy. xiv, 458 p.; 20.5 cm. [First printed in 1881; reprint of second edition, revised and much enlarged, 1892] Contents -- I Criticism and the theology of the reformation -- II Christian interpretation and Jewish tradition -- III The scribes -- IV The septuagint -- V The septuagint(continued)--the composition of biblical books -- VI The history of the canon -- VII The psalter -- VIII The traditional theory of the Old Testament history -- IX The law and the history of Israel before the exile -- X The prophets -- XI The pentateuch: the first legislation -- XII The deuteronomic code and the levitical law -- XIII The narrative of the hexateuch -- Additional notes-- A. The text of 1 Sam. xvii; B. Hebrew fragments preserved in the septuagint; C. Sources of psalm 86; D. Maccabee psalms in books 1.-3. of the psalter; E. The 51st psalm; F. The development ofthe ritual system between Ezekiel and Ezra -- Index of passages discussed -- General index. -- From Preface: `The great value of historical criticism is that it makes the Old Testament more real to us. Christianity can never separate itself from its historical basis on the Religion of Israel; the revelation of God in Christ cannotbe divorced fromthe earlier revelation on which our Lord built.The current treatment ofthe Old Testament has produced a widespread uneasy suspicion that this history cannot bear to be tested like other ancient histories. The old method of explaining difficulties and reconciling apparent contraditions would no longer be tolerated in dealing with other books. The increasing influence of critical views among earnest students of the Bible is not to be explained on the Manichaean theory that new views commend themselves to mankind in proportion as they ignore God.' Worn, lacking spine and front cover. Text clean and complete.

Hardcover. xii, 622 p.; front. (port.); 22.5 cm. Contents -- I Scientific papers (1869-1873) I. Theory of geometrical reasoning (February 1, 1869); II. Hegel and the metaphysics of the fluxional calculus (May 17, 1869); III. On the flow of electricity in conducting surfaces (February 21, 1870); IV. Note on Professor Bain's theory of Euclid I. 4 (June 6, 1870); V. Dr. Stirling, Hegel, and the mathematicians (April 1873) -- II Early theological essays (1868-1870) I. Prophecy and personality: a fragment (January 1868); II. Christianity and the supernatural (Jan. 1869); III. The work of a theological society (Nov. 1869); IV. The question of prophecy in the critical schools of the Continent (April 1870) -- III Early Aberdeen lectures (1870-1874) I. What history teaches us to seek in the Bible (November 1870); II. Extracts from early lectures (1870-1872); III. The fulfilment of prophecy (January 1871); IV. The place of the Old Testament in religious instruction (September 1871); V. Introductory lecture on the psalms (1872) -- IV Later Aberdeen lectures (1874-1877) I. The place of theology in the work and growth of the church (March 1875); II. Two lectures on prophecy (June 1876); III. On the study of the Old Testament in 1876 (July 1877); IV. On the poetry of the Old Testament (July 1877) -- V Arabian studies (1880-1881) I. Animal tribes in the Old Testament (July 1880); II. A journey in the Hejaz (1881) -- VI Reviews of books: I. Wellhausen's Geschichte Israels (May 17, 1879); II. Renan's Histoire du peuple d'Israel (1887) VG orig. olive cloth, backstrip faded.

32 p.; 20.5 cm.

Pamphlet. 64 p.; 21.5 cm. Following the appearance of Smith's article `Bible' in vol. 3 of the 9th edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica on 7 Dec. 1875, in which he wrote: `In this long struggle, which began with the foundation of the theocracy in the work of Moses, and did not issue in conclusive victory until the time of Ezra, the spiritual faith was compelled to show constant powers of new development' (Black & Chrystal, p. 182), in the Edinburgh evening courant for 15 April 1876 the reviewer (A. H. Charteris) hoped that `the publisher and the editor will look after the contributors--or after each other--and cease to pass off rationalistic speculations as ascertained facts.' (p. 189). After growing agitation, a College Committee reported to the General Assembly of the Free Church in May 1877 which then suspended him from his academic duties. Smith then asked the Presbytery of Aberdeen to reduce the charges into a formal libel which after delay was sent to Smith on 12 Feb. 1878, of ways in which he was `denying, tending to deny,or not sufficiently asserting the Divine inspiration of the Bible' (p. 242). Though his Answer (`I have acted on the conviction that loyalty to the Bible, in a Protestant sense, is inseparable from loyalty to the approved laws of scholarly research; for if they are inapplicable to the language of Scripture, God no longer speaks to us in words that we can understand.' (p. 64) was received as `first rate',the case proceeded through Presbytery and General Assembly, resulting in Smith's dismissal from his chair at Aberdeen in 1881. He went on to a distinguished career at Cambridge until his early death in 1894. Good, sidesewn, thumbed and corners worn. Lacks wrapper.