The theology of the Old Testament - Tapa blanda

Reseña del editor

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 Excerpt: ...treatment of the nation and His relation to individuals. The elevation of the individual into religious prominence, and the constituting him, so to speak, the religious unit instead of the people, had wide consequences. No doubt the community was made up of individuals, and the teaching of the prophets, though directed to the nation, must at all times have been taken home by individuals to themselves. And in order fully to realise the life of Israel, we have to take into account the Psalms and the Wisdom books as well as the Prophets. It is in these more subjective writings that the life of the individual and his thoughts find expression. It is extremely difficult to place these writings with any certainty in their true historical place. It is also at all times difficult, no doubt, to detect in history the causes that brought into prominence certain questions. But at all events the dissolution of the State as a religious unit naturally brought into prominence the standing of the individual towards God. The extreme hardships also borne by many pious men at this period forced upon men's thoughts the relation of evil in God's providence to sin and to righteousness. Even the destruction of Israel as a nation, and its subjection to heathen conquerors, might have raised this question. No doubt, in many minds the deep consciousness of the sin of the nation was sufficient to allay and remove doubt. These heathen conquerors were but instruments of chastisement iu Jehovah's hand; the Assyrian was "the rod of His anger" (Isa. x. 5). Yet, on the other hand, Israel was, in comparison with these idolatrous, cruel nations, the righteous people, the servant of God. The truth was in Israel; there was a holy stock in it. Such thoughts would arise, perhaps, only lat...