PREFA CСЕ. 6 THE present work was undertaken with the design of providing the public with a more complete view of the existing state of Biblical literature, both at home and abroad, than it previously possessed. It was felt that former works of the kind, numerous as they are, and useful as some of them may be considered, were built too exclusively upon the old learning' of Calmet and others; and that some recent attempts to give a more modern character to such undertakings had been made too entirely from home materials, and had too exclusive reference to such external facts and circumstances as travellers and antiquarians offer, to meet the demands of the present time. The work, therefore, owes its origin to the Editor's conviction of the existence of a great body of untouched materials, applicable to such a purpose, which the activity of modern research and the labours of modern criticism ha accumulated, and which lay invitingly ready for the use of those who might know how to avail themselves of such resources. It was no task for one man to gather in this great harvest. And as the ground seemed, for the most part, common to all Christian men, it appeared desirable that assistance should be sought from a sufficient number of competent Biblical scholars and others, without distinction of country or religious party, that the field might be the more thoroughly swept, and the greater wealth of illustration obtained, from men of different lines of reading and various habits of thought. The prompt manuer in which the call of the Editor for co-operation has been met by the numerous eminent Biblical scholars and naturalists, whose names appear in the List of Contributors, has been among the highest gratifica tions arising to him out of this undertaking; while the ability, the laborious research, the care and the punctuality, with which they have discharged the various tasks confided to them, demand his warmest acknowledgments. The only drawback likely to arise from co-operation so various and exten sive, lay in the probability that considerably different views might be manifested in the several articles; and that, too, on subjects on which every reader is likely to have formed some opinion of his own, and will be disposed to regard as no erroneous or suspicious every opinion which may not entirely coincide with that which he has been accustomed to entertain. In this lay the sole danger and the greatest difficulty of such an undertaking. Here was to be a book which one man, and not even a very few men, could produce; and which the public would yet probably expect to exhibit as much unity, not only of plan and execution, but of opinion and sentiment, as if it were the produce of a single mind. The Editor, however, felt that he could not undertake to find forty independent thinkers among whom there should be no visible diversities of sentiment. But he thought that much might be done in producing so near an approach to uniformity on matters of real importance as would satisfy every reasonable reader; especially when he should come to consider that the choice lay between taking the work with such diversitics as necessarily arose from the extent of the co-operation employed in its production, or of altogether dispensing with the immense amount of Biblical information which it embodies. Entire uniformity, if attainable at all, could only have been attained at the cost of providing a very different and greatly in ferior work; and a work thus different and inferior could not have established a distinction sufficiently marked from all previous undertakings of the kind to Justify its production. It has not consisted with the Editor's idea of the functions he had undertaken, to dictate to the Contributors the views they were to take of the subjects intrusted to them, or to set up his own views as the standard of correct opinion. This he must have done, had he made it his rule to insert only such statements as exactly coincided with his own sentiments, or to exclude altogether whatever views of particular subjects might differ from those with which his own mind is satisfied. The Contributors were expected to abstain from introducing the opinions peculiar to their nation or to their religious communion; but they have been under slight restraint with respect to the conclusions which they might form as independent thinkers and reasoners, competent by their attainments and studies to form a judgment worthy of attention on the various matters coming under their consideration. In conformity with no other principle could this work have been produced; and such being the nature of its execution, it became necessary that the initials of the several writers should be affixed to their contributions, that the reader might know to whom to ascribe the responsibility of the particular articles, and that no one contributor might be deemed responsible for any other articles than those to which his signature is annexed. The Editor also, who has provided all those articles which bear no signature (except those adverted to at the end of the List of Contributors), does not hold himself responsible for any statements or opinions advanced in any other articles than these. Some of them exhibit opinions in which he is not able to concur, but which have nevertheless been furnished by persons whom he could not regard as less competent than himself to arrive at just conclusions. Yet although some explanation is due to those who may possibly find in this work, in a few articles, opinions in which they cannot agree, and views from which their own differ; it is right that the persons engaged in producing it should claim for it a judgment founded not upon particular articles, but upon its general character, which was intended to be, and is, in accordance with the known standards of orthodox opinion in this country, as may be ascertained by reference to those leading articles which may be regarded as stamping the character of any work in which they are found. In fact, a Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature, as distinct from Theology properly so called, offers less occasion than might at first sight appear for the obtrusion of those matters of doctrine and discipline which Christian men regard with differences of opinion which the Editor would fain believe to be less wide and less important than is too generally supposed. In the dispensations of Divine Providence, he has been by physical privations shut out from many of those external influences and associations which tend to magnify such differences, and to deepen into impassable gulfs the space which lies between them. He has not found this condition a disadvantage in conducting the work which he has now the happiness of having brought to a conclusion; nor will he venture to regard that condition as an unmitigated evil, if, through the complete isolation in which he has thereby been placed, he has been enabled, without any compromise of the views he conscientiously entertains and which his own writings will sufficiently indicate, to realize more extensive co-operation in this undertaking than under pastoral or official connection with any religious denomination he could expect to have attained. It is believed that the English language has no other book which eminent foreign scholars have co-operated with our own in producing; and it is certain that it possesses no other work which embodies the combined labours of writers who, indeed, are of different communions here, and are known by different names among men, but who have the same hope in this world, and but one name in heaven. The nature of the present work, and the place which its conductors desire it should occupy in the Biblical Literature of this country, will be best understood by a sketch of the whole field in which that place is marked out. This will show not only what is here attempted, but how much of this wide and fruitful field remains open to the same process of cultivation. For this sketch we are indebted to the able pen of Dr. Credner, who has enriched this work by several valuable contributions, and by whom it has been prepared expressly for the place which it here occupies. It will be understood by most readers that the term Theological Encyclopædia is technically employed on the Continent, and is beginning to be employed in this country, to describe the whole field of Sacred Literature, of which Biblical Literature, strictly so called, is but a part. - “A comprehensive arrangement of all that belongs to the region of human knowledge has not quite properly been indicated by the term Encyclopædia, 1. Θ, ἐν κύκλῳ παιδεία οι εγκύκλιος παιδεία. Another term, Wissenschafts Kunde (knowledge of science), has also been applied to that arrangement in Germany, when it includes likewise an internal and scientific development of the systems and subjects under discussion. In our title, Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature, it is obvious that the word 'Cyclopædia' cannot be taken in the more extended acceptation of the term, but merely so far as the Bible and Theology are concerned. As the peculiar province of Biblical Encyclopædia can only be clearly understood and defined in its connection with Theological Encyclopædia, it may be requisite to describe at length the meaning of the latter and more comprehensive term. But even the notion of Theological Encyclopædia in general, is yet of too extended range for our purpose, as it might be supposed to comprehend a systematic development of all that refers to the knowledge of God generally; while here cognizance can be only taken of some particular branch of that knowledge, namely, of that belonging to Christianity alone. Our notice must therefore be limited to the Encyclopædia of Christian theology. But Christian theology forms only a special and limited part of general theology. The former, in endeavouring to comprehend scientifically the Christian religion, deals altogether with a subject of experience. For the Christian religion, or the Christian knowledge of God, is not innate and constitutional in man, or something existing in is mind à priori, but is a religion connected with Jesus Christ as its revealer. Christian theology is thus a positive or historical science, which can be traced from its origin at a known point of time. Now, nothing more intimately concerns the spirit of Christian theology than the solution of the question, By what standard are we to determine the tenets of the Christian religion, or from what source must they be deduced? It is in the solution of this important question that the adherents of the Christian religion divide themselves into two large bodies; the one considers the Scriptures, emanating from the Holy Ghost, as the first and last source of knowledge for Christian truth,—a source, however, not bounded by time and space, but continuing to flow, and pour forth new religious truths within the range of the Church formed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This doctrine is usually expressed in the following terms: the Catholic Church assumes a double outward source of the knowledge of religious truth, namely, the Apostolic, both Scriptural and traditional. The other great religious party makes a very marked distinction between the revealed doctrines laid down in the Scriptures and the later views and development of the same by the Church; in other words, they distinguish between Scriptural and traditional revelation. Their leading principle is that the Christian religion can be derived pure and unalloyed from the Bible alone; and they therefore reject, as unnecessary and unauthorised, all professed sources of religious knowledge which are foreign to the Holy Scriptures. As Christians of the latter category we here take the Scriptures as the only external source of revelation for religious truth; and in this point of view we also trace the outlines of theological science. Thus considered, a little examination of the subject leads us to discove. in it a threefold principle:-1. An eternal, ever-prevailing, and therefore immutable, Christian principle; 2. Another, established upon this positive foundation ; 2nd 3. One that is developing itself out of this. Our business is, therefore, not with a revealed doctrine which has long since been completed, which had lived, lost its spirit, and died; but with one which, like the human mind itself, is continually expanding in youthful vigour-one which, when correctly comprehended, exhibits a mutual relationship and equal degree of development with whatever stage of culture and civilization its adherents, the Christians, may have reached. Thus it has happened that in process of time many truths which must ever be most essential to the Christian, have been variously and differently understood and interpreted. Every thinking Christian must strive to bring his religious opinions and actions into a possible, perfect, and continued harmony with a correct view of the doctrines contained in the Bible. Christian Protestantism is the spiritual advancement of humanity at the side of the Bible; and the task of Christian theology must thus be to show, not only how far that end has been aimed at in past times and until now, but also in what manner man is to strive after it in time to come, and to indicate the means by which the teachings of the Scriptures are to be exhibited in their true unison with every advancement which mankind can make in knowledge and civilization. It is thus evident that Christian theology stands in the closest relation to all the departments of human knowledge, and more especially to philosophy, to which, when duly applied, Christianity has ever been much indebted,-while it has caused her great damage and injury whenever its natural and necessary boundaries have been overpassed; and it is not less clear that the efforts of the theologian must, above all, be directed towards a due comprehension and a progressively seasonable development and advancement of the always living Christian spirit contained in the Scriptural doctrines. This task pre-supposes a proper understanding of the Scriptures. Christian theology must, therefore, in the first instance, try to solve scientifically the questions-What is meant by Holy Writ? How have its doctrines been understood until now? And by what laws are we to proceed so as to arrive at a right understanding of their scope and spirit? The results of these inquiries, systematically obtained, form a complete science in themselves. As Christianity, however, is not limited to abstract speculations, but has for its chief aim the enkindling and diffusion of true piety, in thought and in practice, Christian theology has further to display the means by which this Christian conviction may be on the one hand called forth in the soul of man and diffused abroad, and on the other quickened and defended. Christian theology is, finally, required to set forth the course which Christianity has pursued in former ages, and to describe its past vicissitudes and present condition. The foundation of Christian theology must thus be sought in the Scriptures: and, divesting ourselves of all prepossessions and hypotheses, it will, in the first instance, be necessary for us to obtain a clear insight as to the |