Story of Israel and Judah

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. It ought assuredly to be possible so to teach the historical parts of the Old Testament to those who have reached the age of fifteen or sixteen that, when they enter into manhood, they may have nothing to unlearn on the ground of either science or history. Such are the words of Professor Driver in his introduction to the Book of Genesis (westminster Commentaries, p. Lxvi, note: the italics are his). This is the ideal, admittedly difficult of attainment, which I have set before myself in writing this book. It is a book intended for use with upper forms only and in conjunction with the Bible. In my opinion, no amount of commentary or explanation can take the place of a sound knowledge of the Biblical text, so far as scripture lessons in school are concerned. Upon this text the scripture teaching in lower forms is usually and rightly based. There are now excellent series of extracts from the Old Testament published, which give the nar rative in continuous form, while omitting matter with which junior students are not concerned. In teaching upper forms, the main principles to be kept in view should be, that there is no hard and fast line dividing sacred from profane history, and that the original records both of Biblical and secular history can be subjected to similar methods of criticism. A sixth form which has.