Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/14

vi Jewish spiritual truth beneath, and without consideration of the many significant discoveries and teachings of modern science with regard to Genesis. They have confounded Biblical myths, legends and traditions with what they have mistakenly called Biblical History. Thereby they have, on the one hand, only too frequently worked mischievous confusion and misunderstanding in the minds of those they sought to instruct, and on the other hand, they have missed almost entirely the golden opportunity to impart the really basic truths of Judaism to the most receptive minds.

We have also had numerous scientific interpretations of Genesis, all, with even fewer exceptions, by non-Jewish scholars. Their work has been almost entirely analytic in character. They have picked Genesis, and the entire Bible in fact, to pieces. They have resolved it into its component sources, and have determined with quite reliable accuracy when and under what conditions these were written. They have also determined when, how, and by whom these originally independent sources were gradually combined, until at last our present Bible came into being.

But singularly enough, they have failed almost completely to determine the ends for which these sources were combined, and the thoughts and aims which animated the editors. They have, apparently, tacitly assumed that this was an inevitable and largely purposeless process. Therefore they have failed to realize, except in the most superficial manner, and particularly the Torah, is entirely a Jewish work, written by Jewish authors, and edited by Jewish thinkers, the product of Jewish religious genius, and a unit of Jewish religious thought and doctrine, and that it must be animated throughout by some deep Jewish purpose and can, in the final analysis, be correctly understood only when interpreted from a positive Jewish standpoint. Consequently, while science has taught us much about the Bible, new, unsuspected, significant and valuable truths, it has failed