1 There is some inconsistency over the actual title of the chair: B&C (p.115) name it “the Chair of Hebrew and Old Testament exegesis” but it is listed in Annals as given above.
2 D655 (25.5.1870).
3 Cf. B&C, p.121: “His father’s efforts in circulating his testimonials, and bespeaking support from fathers and brethren whenever possible, met on the whole with a most cordial and gratifying response”.
4 Cf. B&C, p.126: “Thus Smith’s career as a theological teacher began not merely with the triumph of an election, but also with a sense of consecration to a solemn task implying grave pastoral responsibilities. Enough has been already said to show how sincerely he believed that he could carry out all the obligations of his position as a minister and as a professor”.
5 Smith (1870). Entitled "What history teaches us to seek in the Bible", the address is contained in L&E, pp. 207-234, to which succeeding references are made.
6 B&C, pp.126f.
7 L&E, p.207.
8 Ib., p.209.
9 “And so we find Luther urging, on the one hand, the eternal consistency of God’s Word and on the other complaining bitterly of the way which his opponents read God’s Word, dealing with it, as he says of Tetzel, ‘like a sow with a bag of oats,’ i.e. grubbing in it blindly and unintelligently, seeking only what may serve their own profane uses” (ib., p.210).
10 Ib., p.211.
11 Ib., pp.211f. This illustrates Smith’s insight into the Christian expropriation of the Hebrew scriptures, although he does not develop the argument further. Indeed, as we shall see, his writiings lay him open to the charge of being accessory to this act.
12 Ib., p.218.
13 Ib., pp.214f. Quoting Origen, WRS said: “It is only to the ignorant that the supernaturalness of the thought … does not manifest itself in every letter. These and similar utterances ascribe to Scripture not less, but more, than its due; for they give to an intellectual assent to the doctrines of Scripture the power to mould man’s life without any direct personal relation to Christ. More or less unambiguously they make Scripture not an avenue to approach to Christ but in and by itself a Divine phenomenon magically endued in every letter with saving treasures of wisdom and knowledge”.
14 Ib., p.211. Smith’s “weapon”, it might have been said by his enemies, was to prove as destructive to its wielder as the miner’s petard in Hamlet.
15 Ib., pp.221f.
16 Ib., p.222. As Smith implied in a footnote acknowledgement (p.211) he was indebted to Ritschl’s writings and lectures for the latter’s clear exposition of the doctrine of Justification. Cf. Rogerson 1995) pp. 77-81: “Ritschl … was the vehicle and focus by which Smith found the type of theology with which he could identify and which, to the best of my knowledge, he maintained to the end of his life” (p.81).
17 The manuscript memoir by W.S. Bruce, The Manse of Keig 1862, conveys a graphic picture of WRS’s acquisition of autonomous judgment within the family circle at Keig.
18 L&E, p.225. Smith’s discussion here of the child’s unconditional belief in the magical power of the word as symbol is remarkably advanced and anticipates Freud – not to mention Piaget.
19 Ib.
20 For example, Tyndall’s discussion (RepBA, 1874, p.lxxiv) of “the [medieval] invention of ‘twofold truth’”, whereby “an opinion might be held ‘theologically,’ and the opposite opinion ‘philosophically’”, is anticipated precisely by Smith (L&E, p.220) in his reference to Aquinas’ differentiation (in his introduction to the Summa Theologiae) between philosophical (humana ratione) as opposed to theological modes of explanation.
21 L&E, p.226.
22 Cf. Rel.Sem, p.40: “The relation of a father to his children has a moral as well as a physical aspect, and each of these must be taken into account in considering what the fatherhood of the tribal deity meant in ancient religion”.
23 Ib., p.21: “Religion was a part of the organised social life into which a man was born, and to which he conformed through life in the same unconscious way in which men fall into any habitual practice of the society”.
24 L&E, p.229.
25 Ib., p.230.
26 Ib., p.231.
27 Ib., p.233 (Smith’s italics).
28 Black and Chrystal’s evaluation makes similar points: “The revolutionary character of this pronouncement was masked by the fervour and the transparent honesty with which it was made and by the unconscious ingenuity of the method of presentation” (B&C, p.129).
29 Walker (1895) p.272. Norman Walker devoted a chapter of his book to “The Rise of the Critical Movement” and provides a excellent account of Smith’s trial from the perspective of someone by no means sympathetic to the higher criticism. He wrote (ib., p.291): “The Church, we may say, is now convinced that the advance of criticism is not to be arrested by means of libels. If a man affirms that he believes in the inspiration of Scripture, it will be difficult to prove that he contradicts the Confession of Faith by giving a novel account of its authorship or its composition”. Walker concluded that, on balance, all had been for the best, especially since WRS “did not suffer either in position or in reputation” (ib., p.295).
30 Campbell (1930) pp.187f. Campbell properly draws attention also to the peculiar demographic features of the Free Church membership, whereby there was “a sharp difference of opinion within the Free Church between the Conservative opinion of the Northern Highlands and the progressive mind of the South”.
31 B&C, p.129.
32 D458.
33 Dr John Brown (1810-1882) published a series of essays in three volumes under the general title Horae Subsecivae (1858; 1861;1882): their popular appeal at the time lay in a commixture of bracing commonsense, genuine humour and strong sentimentality. The most famous of his essays is the eponymous “Rab and his Friends”, the tale of a faithful mastiff.
34 P.G.Tait had been one of the founders of the club in 1869 and Smith remained a member after moving to Aberdeen. See Knott (1911) p.348 for the names of some of its more illustrious members.
35 Brown (1869). The book’s title is nowhere given in Brown’s letter but there is not the least doubt as to its identity.
36 The DNB entry on Brown notes: “There was a strong countervailing element of melancholy in Brown’s constitution, as in most men largely endowed with humour” and it goes on to indicate that this “became so distressing as to incapacitate Brown from practising his profession for the last sixteen years of his life” (i.e. from 1866).
37 D74.
38 Brown (1869) p.63.
39 Ib., p.69.
40 Ib., pp.71f. Brown seems to be following closely the analogy of a fever, with its progressive symptoms of debilitating malaise, leading eventually to the crisis and subsequent resolution: to death or life.
41 Ib., p.78.
42 Brown’s tenuous grasp of the principles of induction are best exemplified in the closing pages of his book, where he cites Paul (in I Cor. 1:20-25) and writes: “The passage is a singular instance of philosophic acumen … it merely professes to state or proclaim facts… Christianity, then, being merely a statement of facts fully ascertained, is an appeal to men’s observation and experience, and not properly to their reasoning at all – i.e., not to their speculative or theorizing faculty. It therefore leaves no room for disputes, and these are entirely out of place in connexion with it. What St Paul teaches on this point is, in short, nothing else but an anticipation of what has become familiar to us by the writings of Lord Bacon; and if duly attended to and followed out, it would soon be as effective for good in religion as the Novum Organum has long been in science. Before Bacon’s time, what was then called science was made up in great measure of theoretical deduction … But the men of science humbly submitted themselves to Lord Bacon’s instruction, and from that time, science has advanced apace, and disputes among scientific men, at least upon science proper, are nearly unknown”.
43 D74.
44 The two lectures, “On Prophecy”, are printed in L&E, pp.341-366. As in the case of Davidson’s lectures on prophecy, these were subjected to periodic revision between 1870 and 1877 (see B&C, p.134n) so that it is not possible to ascertain precisely the extent or nature of the alterations.
45 L&E, p.341 (Smith’s italics).
46 Cf. EB9, vol.xix (1885) p.819 (s.v.”Prophet”): “… the post-exilic prophets … are only faint echoes of earlier seers”.
47 L&E, pp.342f.
48 Ib., p.343.
49 Ib., p.345.
50 Ib.
51 Ib.
52 Ib., p.346 (Smith’s italics).
53 In “What to seek in the Bible” (L&E, pp.224f.).
54 “On Prophecy”, in L&E, p.347.
55 Ib., pp.349f.
56 Ib., p.350. Smith runs into the difficulty here of referring to the (observable) phenomena associated with conversion. His argument can only be sustained on the assumption that conversion additionally comprises other elements which are noumenal and therefore unobservable.
57 In his 1875 address on “The place of theology in the work and growth of the Church”, Smith castigated “those monotonous sects whose one spiritual weapon is the ever repeated question, ‘Have you believed?’” (L&E p.320). For him, conversion was an almost imperceptible work of divine grace – which rather suggests that he possessed the conviction without having any conscious experience of a tangible process. William Pirie Smith, in his Memorandum on WRS (CUL Add. Mss 7476 M3) wrote that, in the course of his son’s severe childhood illnesses, “we [his parents] had the consolation of learning that a work of grace was wrought upon him and in such a form that he was at length delivered from the fear of death and made partaker of a hope full of immortality. That the change wrought on him was real, we had many satisfactory evidences …”.
58 There is a similarity to be found between Smith’s father’s account of his son’s conversion and the letter written by Philip Gosse to his son: “Before your childhood was past, there seemed God’s manifest blessing on our care; for you seemed truly converted to Him …”. (Gosse, 1949, p.248).
59 L&E, p.351 (Smith’s emphasis).
60 See above, ch.vii.
61 Cf. Punch, vol. lxxi, p.269 (16.12.1876): “Pending the Slade prosecution, it may be unsuitable to discuss the question whether a medium, in accepting fees for any consideration whatsoever alleged to be spiritual, receives money under false pretences”. Slade was charged under the Vagrancy Act with obtaining money by fraudulent means.
62 Ib., p.355 (Smith’s emphasis).
63 See above, ch.v, n.16.
64 Ib.
65 L&E, p.355.
66 Ib., p.357.
67 Ib., p.359.
68 Ib., p.360.
69 Ib., p.364.
70 The description is that by G.W. Anderson (1975) p.x. Cf. Drummond and Bulloch (1978) p.46, who speak of WRS as “transparently honest, inherently orthodox”.
71 Ib., p.364. To “modern theologians”, says Smith, such a belief is “a delusion”. On that basis (p.365) “The prophets advanced the truth by a lie”.
72 Ib., p. 366.
73 Pr.Is, p.viii.
74 The words are Smith’s, from the Preface to the first edition, published in April 1882 (Pr.Is, p.xlix).
75 B&C., p.457.
76 Smith wrote (p.1): “So far as the Church Courts are concerned, that controversy [i.e. his trial and subsequent dismissal] has for the present been abruptly terminated, by what may fairly be called an act of violence, and without a legal decision having been obtained from the General Assembly of the Church on questions which certainly cannot be permanently disposed of until they have been exhaustively considered in their relation to the doctrine of the Protestant Churches on the one hand, and to the laws of scientific inquiry and the evidence of historical fact upon the other. Ecclesiastical leaders have always been prone to flatter themselves that questions of truth and Christian liberty can be set at rest by an exertion of authority; but those who love truth for its own sake cannot acquiesce in this easy method”.
77 Ib., pp.liii-iv: “… the principles of the oldest prophecy are germinal principles, which unfolded themselves gradually and led to results which, though now familiar to every one, were not contemplated by the earlier teachers of Israel”.
78 Ib., p.lv.
79 Ib., pp.ixf.
80 EB9, vol.xix (1885) pp.814-821. Smith did not write the complementary material (p.822ff.) on “Prophets in the Christian Church”.
81 In Criticism and Faith in Late Victorian Scotland (1985) Richard Riesen comprehensively analyses Smith’s views on prophecy as set out in The Prophets of Israel (but does not refer to the EB9 article “Prophet”). Reference is made below to significant shifts of emphasis on Smith’s part in the later article.
82 EB9, vol.1, Prefatory Notice, p.viii.
83 E.g. EB9 vol.xix (1885) p.814: “In the present article no attempt will be made to follow those speculations about the nature of prophecy which belong to dogmatic theology rather than to history…”.
84 Ib., p,821. Smith now uses the conventional Jehovah throughout rather than Jahveh”.
85 Riesen (1985) e.g. p.170, makes the same criticism of The Prophets of Israel – “It must be confessed that Smith is not absolutely clear at this point”.
86 EB9 vol.xix, p.814. Smith dismisses any intrinsic connection between the O.T. conception of prophecy and that of the “Mohammedan” faith. The two, he insists are “radically different” and prophecy, as understood by the ancient Hebrews, is not “characteristic of Semitic religion in general”.
87 Ib.
88 Ib., p.815.
89 Ib., p.816: “It has always been the evil fate of the Hebrews to destroy their own highest ideals by attempting to translate them into set forms, and the idea of a prophetic guidance of the nation of Jehovah could not have been more effectually neutralized than by committing its realization to the kind of state church of professional prophets … which claimed to inherit the traditions of Elijah and Elisha”.
90 Ib., p.817.
91 Ib.
92 Ib., p.818.
93 Ib.
94 Ib.: “The true Israel of Isaiah is not a historical possibility; it is a transcendental ideal for which he himself demands as a preliminary condition an outpouring of Jehovah’s spirit in king and people, working an entire moral regeneration”.
95 Ib., p.819.
96 Ib.: “Still indeed the New Testament idea of a purely spiritual kingdom of God, in this world but not of it, is beyond the prophet’s horizon, and he can think of no other vindication of the divine purpose than that the true Israel shall be gathered again from its dispersion”.
97 John Addington Symonds (1840-1893) was a self-confessed homosexual, a protégé of Bejamin Jowett, a Platonist, a somewhat indifferent poet, and a prominent late Victorian aesthete. He contributed to EB9.
98 EB9 vol.xix (1885) p.819.
99 Ib., p.820.
100 Ib.
101 Ib., pp.820f.
102 Ib., p.821.
103 Kuenen’s treatment of the subject is given especial praise in the appended Literature note and Wellhausen’s EB9 article “Israel” is afforded multiple references in the text.
104 Cf. (referring overtly to Jeremiah): “The struggle is a sore one; his very life is bitter to him; and yet he emerges victorious” (EB9 , vol.xix, p.819).
105 Cf. (ib., p.817) “No doubt there were many conscious hypocrites and impostors among the professional prophets, as there always will be among the professional representatives of a religious standpoint which is intrinsically untenable …”.
106 EB9 (vol.xix) p.815.
107 Ib., p.815.
108 Ib., p.814.