ABRAHAM AND THE CRITICS.

Waikato Argus, Volume III, Issue 164, 31 July 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

ABRAHAM AND THE CRITICS.

Was Abraham a myth? Are the chaptors in the book of Genesis which described his life and jourjeyinas entirely unhisio-r'e-il ? So our "advanced Biblical critics " have affirnrd. Some years ago a poor befogg-ed " Bibb-class teacher" wrote to a London contemporary that ho was sadly confused by the declaration of Professor Chcyne that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were " mere mythical personages." Profejsor Cheyne replied that "it cannot at pr» k nit be regarded as a safe opinion that the lives of the three reputed ancestors of Israel in our book of Genesis are what in other departments of ctudy would be described as historical.'" Abraham's history was, therefore, not "historical," but mythical." It is five years since t)r Cheyne wrote this bit of " criticism" to his troubled correspondent. Time, however, has in this, as in so many other instances, amply justified the Biblical narrative. Every yenr which has passed has brought out Abraham and the fathers into more distinct light as historical personages, until now Profrssor S iyce is able to say that " the age of the Patriarchs is after all, one which lies exposed to the full glare of history," and that it is " the critics and not the writers of the Bible who are ignorant of history."