ess, as all its departments pour their treasures into this basin, where they flow together and become compacted into one organic whole-for Biblical Theology rises from the exegesis of verses, sections, and chapters, to the higher exegesis of writings, authors, periods, and of the Old and New Testaments as wholes, until the Bible is discerned as an organism, complete and symmetrical, one as God is one, and yet as various as mankind is various, and thus only divine-human as the complete revelation of the God-man. In this respect Biblical Theology demands its place in theological study as the highest attainment of exegesis. It is true that it has been claimed that the history of Biblical Doctrine, as a subordinate branch of Historical Theology, fully answers its purpose; and again, that Biblical Dogmatics, as the fundamental part of Systematic Theology, covers its ground. These branches of the sister grand divisions of theology deal with many of its questions and handle much of its material, for the reason that Biblical Theology is the highest point of exegesis where the most suitable transition is made to the other departments; but it does not, it cannot, belong to either of them. As Biblical Theology was not the product of Historical or Systematic Theology, but was born in the throes of the exegetical process of the last century, so it is the child of exegesis, and can flourish only in its own home. The idea, methods, aims, and, indeed, results, are entirely different from those presented in the above-mentioned parts of Historical and Systematic Theology. It does not give us a history of doctrine, although it uses the historical method in the unfolding of the doctrine. It does not seek the history of the doctrine, but the formation, the organization of the doctrine in history. It does not aim to present the systematic theology of the Bible, and thus arrange biblical doc. trine in the form that Systematic Theology must assume for the purposes of the day; but in accordance with its synthetic method of seeking the unity in the variety, it endeavors to show the biblical system of doctrine, the form assumed by theology in the Bible itself, the organization of the doctrines of faith and morals in the historical divine revelation. It thus considers the doctrine at its first historical appearance, examines its formation and its relation to others in the structure, then traces its unfolding in history, sees it evolving by its own inherent vitality, as well as receiving constant accretions, ever assuming fuller, richer, grander proportions, until in the revelation of the New Testament the organization has become complete and finished. It thus not only distinguishes a theology of periods, but a theology of authors and writings, and shows how they harmonize in the one complete revelation of God.* It is only from this elevated point of view that many important questions can be settled, such as the Relation of the Old Tes tament to the New Testament-a fundamental question for all departments of theology. It is only when we recognize the New Testament as not only the historical fulfilment of the Old Testament, but also as its exegetical completion, that the unity and the harmony, all the grander for the variety and the diversity of the Scriptures, become evident. It is only from this point of view that the apparently contradictory views, as, for instance, of Paul and James, in the article of justifica * See author's articles on Biblical Theology, in American Presbyterian Re view, 1870, and in the Presbyterian Review, 1882, and Chapter XI. of this volume. tion, may be reconciled in their difference of types. It is only here that a true doctrine of inspiration can be given, properly distinguishing the divine and human elements, and yet recognizing them in their union. It is only thereby that the weight of authority of the Scripture can be fully felt, and the consistency of the infallible canon invincibly maintained. It is only in this culminating work that the preliminary processes of exegesis are delivered from all the imperfections and errors that still cling to the most faithful work of the exegete. It is only from these hands that Historical Theology receives its true keys, Systematic Theology its indestructible pillars, and Practical Theology its allconquering weapons. Thus Exegetical Theology is a theological discipline, which, in its various departments, presents an inexhaustible field of labor, where the most ambitious may work with a sure prospect of success, and where the faithful disciple of the Lord may rejoice in the most intimate fellowship with the Master, divine truths being received immediately from the divine hand, old truths being illuminated with fresh meaning, new truths filling the soul with indescribable delight. The Bible is not a field whose treasures have been exhausted, for they are inexhaustible. As in the past, holy men have found among these treasures jewels of priceless value; as Athanasius, Augustine, Anselm, Luther, and Calvin, have derived therefrom new doctrines that have given shape not only to the church, but to the world; so it is not too much to expect that even greater saints than these may yet go forth from their retirement, where they have been alone in communion with God through His Word, holding up before the world some new doctrine, freshly de rived from the ancient writings, which, although hitherto overlooked, will prove to be the necessary complement of all the previous knowledge of the church, no less essential to its life, growth, and progress than the Athanasian doctrine of the Trinity, the Augustinian doctrine of sin, and the Protestant doctrine of justification through faith. CHAPTER III. THE LANGUAGES OF THE BIBLE. THE languages of the Bible were prepared by Divine Providence as the most suitable ones for declaring the divine revelation to mankind. Belonging, as they do, to the two great families of speech, the Shemitic and the Indo-Germanic, which have been the bearers of civilization, culture, and the noblest products of human thought and emotion, they are themselves the highest and most perfect developments of those families; presenting, it is true, their contrasted features, but yet combining in a higher unity, in order to give us the complete divine revelation. Having accomplished this their highest purpose, they soon afterward became stereotyped in form, or, as they are commonly called, dead languages; so that henceforth all successive generations, and indeed all the families of earth, might resort to them and find the common, divine revelation in the same fixed and unalterable forms. Language is the product of the human soul, as are thought and emotion, and, therefore, depends upon the constitution of that soul, the historical experiences of the family or race speaking it, especially the stage of development in civilization, morals, and religion. The connection between language and thought is not loose, but an essential connection. Language is not merely a |