Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AND OF THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL By J. M. POWIS SMITH Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature, University of ChicagoANALYSIS Introduction.—The aim and the process of the study of the Old Testament I. The Process of Translation.—The character of the Hebrew language.—Methods and helps in the study of Hebrew.-—Lexicography. —Obscure passages 2. The Textuat Criticism of the Old Testament.—The existing manuscripts.—The state of the Massoretic text.—Emendation of the text.—Duplicate passages.—Comparison of ancient versions.— The Septuagint and daughter-versions.—Other Greek versions.— The Samaritan Pentateuch.—The Targums.—The Peshitta.—The Vulgate.—Conjectural emendations.—Should the Hebrew language be required of all students of theology ?—How best to study the Old Testament in English 3. The Literary Criticism and Interpretation of the Old Testament. —The function of criticism.—The criteria of poetry.—Varieties of prose.—Composite authorship.—The probtem of authorship.—The problem of date.—The author's purpose.—Comparative study of literature.—The art of interpretation 4. The History of the Hebrews.—Scope of history.—Dating of sources.—Facts vs. interpretation of facts.—The interpretative bias. —Geography as a historical source.—Archaeology and history.-- History of the Semitic world.—Problems in Hebrew history 5. The Religion of the Hebrews.—Religion and history.—Religion and culture.—Hebrew religion and Semitic religion.—Problems in the study of Hebrew religion 6. The Religious Value of the Otd Testament.—The Canon.— History of the interpretation of the Old Testament.—The value of the Old Testament.—The Old Testament in relation to the New.— The Old Testament and systematic theology.—The Old Testament and vital re... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.