that Moses could not possibly have been its single author under the direction
of God, as the examination clearly pointed to several hands. Biblical philology
entered a new era with the work of the extremely inXuential Heinrich Ewald
(1803–75). He produced a celebrated Hebrew grammar (1827). He also wrote
Geschichte des Volkes Israel(A History of the Israeli People) (1843–59) in which
he developed an account of Israel’s national history that, he argued, had
begun with the Exodus and culminated (and at the same time practically
ended) with the coming of Christ. For this history he examined critically and
arranged chronologically all the available documents then known.
The nineteenth-century discovery of the biblical cities of Egypt, Mesopo-
tamia, Palestine and ancient Phoenicia attempted to corroborate dates pro-
vided by the biblical account—although, in fact, they often managed to
highlight problems, with the result of creating more confusion. Tablets
found in the excavations included the names of Assyrian, Babylonian and
Israelite kings as well as events that were referred to in the Old Testament, and
topographical study revealed sites mentioned in both the Old and the
New Testament. However, scholars were divided on the extent to which the
Bible could be taken as a historical text. Conservatives maintained that
the Bible was infallible as a historical source. Critics, however, raised doubts.
They argued that the archaeological evidence was incomplete and often
hypothetical. Criticism was led by the German scholars such as Julius Well-
hausen (1844–1918) (Moorey 1991: 12–14, 54). Wellhausen had studied with
Ewald (see introduction) and learnt from him the method he later developed
and which became known as Higher Criticism. He was appointed Professor of
Theology in Greiswald, then of Oriental Languages in Halle (moving later to
Marburg and Gottingen). With his uncompromising scientiWc attitude, which
brought him antagonism from the established school of biblical interpreters,
he analysed the Bible from a philological and etymological angle. His out-
put was substantial, and his most important books included a history of
IsraelWrst published asGeschichte Israels (1878) and a book testing the
Hexateuch—theWrst six books of the Old Testament (Die Komposition des
Hexateuchs und der historischen Bucher des Alien Testaments, 1889).
In addition to Wellhausen, it is worth mentioning the work by Eberhard
Schrader (1836–1908), who had also studied under Ewald. Schrader was a
Professor of Theology at Jena and then of Oriental Languages in Berlin. His
bookDie Keilinschriften und das Alte Testamentof 1872 has been described as
a model of nineteenth-century scholarship. In it, Schrader went book by book
through the Old Testament, selecting the passages that could be related to
results obtained by archaeological research. In England this tradition was
observed by William Robertson Smith (1846–94), who occupied the chair
of Hebrew at Aberdeen Free Church College in Scotland in 1870 and later
Biblical Archaeology 161