(I. A.)
[1] On the homogeneity of the population, see further, W. R. Smith, Religion of the Semites (2nd ed., chaps, i.-iii.); T. Nöldeke, Sketches from Eastern History, pp. 1-20 (on “Some Characteristics of the Semitic Race”); and especially E. Meyer, Gesch. d. Altertums (2nd ed., i. §§ 330, sqq.). For the relation between the geographical characteristics and the political history, see G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land.
[2] For fuller information on this section see [Palestine]: History, and the related portions of [Babylonia and Assyria], [Egypt], [Hittites], [Syria].
[3] Or land Israel, W. Spiegelberg, Orient. Lit. Zeit. xi. (1908), cols. 403-405.
[4] It is useful to compare the critical study of the Koran (q.v.), where, however, the investigation of its various “revelations” is simpler than that of the biblical “prophecies” on account of the greater wealth of independent historical tradition. See also G. B. Gray, Contemporary Review (July 1907); A. A. Bevan, Cambridge Biblical Essays (ed. Swete, 1909), pp. 1-19.
[5] See primarily [Bible]: Old Testament; the articles on the contents and literary structure of the several books; the various biographical, topographical and ethnical articles, and the separate treatment of the more important subjects (e.g. [Levites], [Prophet], [Sacrifice]).
[6] On the bearing of external evidence upon the internal biblical records, see especially S. R. Driver’s essay in Hogarth’s Authority and Archaeology; cf. also A. A. Bevan, Critical Review (1897, p. 406 sqq., 1898, pp. 131 sqq.); G. B. Gray, Expositor, May 1898; W. G. Jordan, Bib. Crit. and Modern Thought (1909), pp. 42 sqq.
[7] For the sections which follow the present writer may be permitted to refer to his introductory contributions in the Expositor (June, 1906; “The Criticism of the O.T.”); the Jewish Quarterly Review (July 1905-January 1907 = Critical Notes on O.T. History, especially sections vii.-ix.); July and October 1907, April 1908; Amer. Journ. Theol. (July 1909, “Simeon and Levi: the Problem of the Old Testament”); and Swete’s Cambridge Bib. Essays, pp. 54-89 (“The Present Stage of O.T. Research”).
[8] On the name see [Jehovah], [Tetragrammaton].