Book excerpt: Excerpt from An Introduction to the Old Testament, Critical, Historical, and Theological, Vol. 1: Containing a Discussion of the Most Important Questions Belonging to the Several Books The following work is offered to the public with the view of supplying a want in English theological literature. Since the year 1856 the idea has gradually strengthened in the author's mind that there is room for an Introduction to the Old Testament, in which processes should be given as well as results. The space allotted to him in a volume published in that year was too limited to satisfy the necessary requirements. He did for the Old Testament then what appeared right and proper. But he felt that he had not done full justice either to the subject or himself. Longer time, deeper reflection, and repeated investigation were demanded, because difficult themes cannot be satisfactorily settled without protracted study. Accordingly since 1857 his mind has been occupied with the chief questions relating to the books of the Old Testament; with the view of arriving at such results respecting them as the evidence seems to justify. The process has been slow and gradual, because he has often striven against new views and tried to uphold traditional sentiments as long as he could. He has thought it a duty to maintain conservative opinions whenever he could honestly do so. In cases where they could not stand the test of true criticism they had to be abandoned. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.