Higher Criticism by Earle Albert Rowell

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 21, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 24.

Higher Criticism

By Earle Albert Rowell

VII. Higher Criticism and Archeology

"And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto Him, Master, rebuke Thy disciples. And He answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out." Luke 19: 39, 40.

Coincident with the rapid rise of Higher Criticism have been the important discoveries of archeology. As Sayce put it, every turn of the spade has furnished corroborative evidence of the minute truthfulness of Scripture history. Higher Critics have no sooner established a theory discrediting the Bible history and proving to their satisfaction its impossibility, than some silent worker in far-off Egypt or Palestine or Chaldea unearths some engraved facts which confound their theories and disprove their conclusions.

The Art of Writing

Once it was the fashion to argue that the art of writing was not practised anywhere before 1000 B.C. at the earliest, and hence it was impossible for the finished productions of the early part of the Bible and the psalms to be the work of Moses and David. The composition of the books of Moses was conveniently brought down to a few hundred years before Christ. That the art of writing was unknown in the time of Moses was so boldly asserted that few ventured to dispute it. Higher Critics were rejoicing over their victory, when the spade of the excavator unearthed vast libraries of the time of Hammurabi, a whole half thousand years before the time of Moses! A whole code of the laws of Hammurabi was discovered in 1903, proving that the art of writing was old in the time of Moses. The effect of these marvelous discoveries has been marked on some Higher Critics, who have yielded to the evidence. Hommel, Halevy, and Sayce, to mention only the most prominent, have abandoned their former Higher Critical views.

In Isa. 20: 1 we read that Sargon, king of Assyria, sent his tartan (or commander-in-chief) to besiege Ashod. But who was this Biblical Sargon? This was the only place not only in the Bible but in all literature, ancient or modern, the world over, where his name was mentioned. So of course infidels and Higher Critics did not hesitate to deny his existence, and actually used it as an evidence of the unreliability of the Bible history! Yet one of the very first important discoveries in Assyrian research was the palace of this selfsame king, containing his portrait and name, sculptures and numerous inscriptions giving an account of this very siege of Ashod. From an unknown king relegated to the limbo of oblivion by Higher Critics, he has become one of the best-known kings of all antiquity.

Babylon the Ancient

Not many years ago Gen. 10: 8-12 was held in derision. It affirms (1) that Babel and other cities named existed before Nineveh; (2) that Assyria was colonized from Babylonia; (3) and that the founder of Babylonian civilization was not a Semite, but a Cushite. All these facts were held in contempt by the Critics till the Assyrian excavations; but the monuments confirm the Bible on all these points.

In Gen. 10: 22 Elam is mentioned as the oldest son of Shem. Now this was long denied by Higher Critics, but recent discoveries have proved it. Nothing shows the futile makeshifts of Higher Critics when cornered, better than the statement of Dr. Driver on this very point in his "Genesis," page 128: "It is true inscriptions recently discovered seem to have shown that in very early times Elam was peopled by Semites, . . . but the fact is not one that the writer of this verse is likely to have known!" Not likely to have known! And yet he did know it. Could criticism be more inept than this? And yet this is the kind of reasoning they use to establish most of their baseless theories. And they call it "the sure results of scientific criticism"!

Besides this have been found accounts of not only the Flood, but some tablets of Assur-bani-pal's palace contain an account of the creation resembling that of Genesis in a remarkable degree.

The Sabbath Day

The Sabbath day, so far from being a late Jewish institution, as the Higher Critics would have us believe, is found to have existed in both Babylonia and Assyria centuries before the existence of the Jews, and was called Sabbatu, and was defined as "a day of rest for the heart." On it ordinary work was prohibited to at least the king and the state officials. So it was a state institution, but proves the early existence of the Sabbath and is evidence of its origin in Eden.

On the monuments the Garden of Eden is repeatedly mentioned, and there is a seal with a man and a woman seated on either side of a tree, and reaching out their hands to pluck the fruit, while behind the woman a serpent rears itself, and is whispering in the woman's ear!

There is also a detailed account of the Deluge, that reads in places exactly like the Biblical account. Even the words, "Enter into thy ship, and close thy door," are present.

The inscriptions even give a translation of a man to heaven, but instead of Enoch it is the hero of the Flood story.

The Demonstrated Chedorlaomer

The names of Abraham and Jacob, tho considered myths by the Critics, are found on the monuments as historical personages.

One of the most wonderful discoveries is the confirmation of Genesis 14, which was so long scouted as impossible and absurd, and Chedorlaomer as a myth. But this story, substantially as told in the Bible, has been found on the monuments, with even the name of Chedorlaomer himself, so that even so radical a Higher Critic as Gunkel is compelled to accept Melchizedek as a historical person. And yet in "Genesis," page 172, Dr. Driver gravely assures us, in the teeth of this proof, that "monumental evidence that the narrative is historical is at present entirely lacking!" Everything in the Bible is viewed with the eye of suspicion by Higher Critics, and put under the microscope of doubt. It is held to be a liar till it is proved true; and even positive evidence of its truthfulness, as shown above, is completely ignored in order that a pet theory may stand.

The facts in the history of Joseph in Egypt that were most confidently denied, are the very ones that have received the strongest and weightiest evidence from the monuments. On the authority of Herodotus it was denied that the vine was cultivated in Egypt, that flesh was a food of the higher classes, that the manners of women were so unrestricted as shown in Genesis; and was declared that the elevation of a young Hebrew to prime minister was romance, and that Pharaoh never gave Abraham sheep and oxen, because they were objects of hatred in Egypt. But all of these things have been confirmed, and in fact the making of wine in all its stages is pictured, and flesh is shown to be the principal diet of the upper classes. And most surprising of all are illustrations of sheep and oxen but not of horses, for inscriptions now reveal the fact that horses were first introduced in Joseph's time. Even the story of Joseph's temptation and exaltation appear in their literature; and this year has seen the discovery of an account of the seven years' famine, and it is placed in the same year as that of the Bible record, 1700 B.C.

Israel in Egypt

In 1896 Professor Petrie found the name of Israel on Egyptian monuments saying, "The Israelites are brought so low that they have no seed," which may be fairly interpreted to mean that since they have vanished into the desert there are none left in Egypt. There is even a picture of brickmaking in which masters are standing in threatening manner over the slaves, and in the masters' mouths are put the words, "Be not idle," reminding one of Ex. 5: 8, 17: "And the number of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish aught thereof: for they are

idle;" and "Ye are idle, ye are idle." In the face of this, H. P. Smith in his "Old Testament History," page 54, says: "The Egyptologists as yet have discovered on the monuments no evidence of a Joseph or an Israel in Egypt, as they have discovered none of the oppression or the Exodus. We are therefore obliged to look narrowly at the evidence of the Hebrew sources"! This illustrates how blind Higher Critics are to all evidence that contravenes their theories.

The Hittites

In Joshua and Kings are many references that imply the existence of a very powerful Hittite empire north of Palestine. Since nowhere in the world outside of the Bible was there a single reference to this nation, that was represented as equal in power to Egypt, the Higher Critics sneered at the Bible account, and laughed at those who were simple-minded enough to believe such an empire existed, simply on the unsupported statements of the Bible. But now from both Egyptian and Assyrian inscriptions we learn that the Hittites for a thousand years were a great power in Syria and Western Asia, and were as extensive and as powerful as either Egypt or Assyria, and the history of the Hittite empire now fills volumes. It seems impossible to human reasoning that so extensive and so powerful a nation could exist for ten centuries and escape completely all profane record, yet we now know such to be the case. Verily, the stones are crying out.

Scores of other instances might easily be given showing the utter baselessness of the Higher Critical theories; but the purpose of this article is only to call attention to the fact that the hand of God hovers over every historic page and His handwriting is on every ancient monument; that He never leaves His truth at the mercy of His enemies; that for thousands of years His hand has hidden these marvelous confirmations of His Word, and in these latter days, when they are most needed, He has brought them forth, and has actually made the stones to cry out when His professed disciples ceased to uphold the truthfulness of the Bible. Indeed "the Word of our God shall stand forever." Isa. 40: 8.