The most important biblical discovery of our time: William Henry Green and the demise of Ussher's chronology

Church History

Volumn 69, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 257-276

  Numbers, Ronald L ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 62449136879     PISSN: 00096407     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3169579     Document Type: Article

References (78)

1. James Ussher, Annales Veteris Testamenti (London, 1650), 1
2. See also R. Buick Knox, James Ussher: Archbishop of Armagh (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1967), 105-7
3. Charles Augustus Brîggs, General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1899), 284-85
4. See Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (London: John Murray, 1859)
5. Recent Inquiries in Theology, by Eminent English Churchmen; Being "Essays and Reviews" (Boston: Walker, Wise, 1860)
6. John William Colenso, The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua Critically Examined, part 1, The Pentateuch Examined As an Historical Narrative (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1862)
7. Colenso, Pentateuch, vii-viii
8. Green's marginalia, found in his personal copy of Colenso's book in the Speer Library at Princeton Theological Seminary, are quoted in Marion Ann Taylor, The Old Testament in the Old Princeton School, 1812-1929 (San Francisco: Mellen Research University Press, 1992), 218
9. American editions of Colenso included The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critically Examined (New York: D. Appleton, 1863)
10. Abstract of Colenso on the Pentateuch: Showing Who Wrote the Five Books of Moses, and When They Were Written (New York: American News, [1871])
11. Green, Pentateuch Vindicated, 122-24
12. Thomas R. Trautmann, Lewis Henry Morgan and the Invention of Kinship (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), 32
13. and A. Bowdoin Van Riper, Man among the Mammoths: Victorian Science and the Discovery of Human Prehistory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993)
14. and Stiling, "The Genesis Flood in Nineteenth-Century American Thought" (Ph.D. diss, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1991)
15. Mark A. Noll, ed., The Princeton Theology, 1812-1921: Scripture, Science, and Theological Method from Archibald Alexander to Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1983), 291
16. idem, Between Faith and Criticism: Evangelicals, Scholarship, and the Bible in America (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1986), 24
17. and idem, The Unity of the Book of Genesis (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895), 17 (successive periods), 22, 25 (days), 29, 33
18. On Green's relationship withDawson, see Susan Sheets-Pyenson, John William Dawson: Faith, Hope, and Science (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1996), 87-88
19. Review of The Pentateuch Vindicated from the Aspersions of Bishop Colenso, by William Henry Green, Methodist Quarterly Review 23 (1863): 518-19
20. On Green's use of ridicule and humor, see, respectively, "Prof. Green on Colenso," New-York Observer, 26 March 1863
21. Peter Hinchliff, John William Colenso: Bishop of Natal (London: Nelson, 1964)
22. and Jeff Guy, The Heretic: A Study of the Life of John William Colenso, 1814-1883 (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1983)
23. see John Rogerson, Old Testament Criticism in the Nineteenth Century: England and Germany (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1984), 220-37
24. Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (New York: Scribner, 1871-73), 2:40-41
25. On Charles Hodge's attitudes toward science, see Ronald L. Numbers, "Charles Hodge and the Beauties and Deformities of Science," in James H. Moorhead and John W. Stewart, eds., Charles Hodge Revisited: A Critical Appraisal of His Life and Work (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, in press)
26. W. H. Green, The Hebrew Feasts: In Their Relation to Recent Critical Hypotheses Concerning the Pentateuch (New York: Robert Carter, 1885), 13 (compilation)
27. idem, "Prof. Robertson Smith on the Pentateuch," Presbyterian Review 3 (1882): 109 (fancy)
28. idem, Moses and the Prophets (New York: Robert Carter, 1883), 9-10 (unbelievers, radicals, and cowards). Regarding Wellhausen
29. see also W. H. Green, "Pentateuchal Analysis a Failure," Independent, 3 May 1894, 1
30. On Smith, see Bailey, "William Robertson Smith," 285-308
31. David Hoeveler Jr., James McCosh and the Scottish Intellectual Tradition: From Glasgow to Princeton (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), 227 (presidency)
32. For a critical appraisal of Harper's role in this exchange, see Robert Lee Carter, "The 'Message of the Higher Criticism': The Bible Renaissance and Popular Education in America, 1880-1925" (Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1995), 204
33. On Harper, see James P. Wind, The Bible and the University: The Messianic Vision of William Rainey Harper (Atlanta: Scholars, 1987), which mentions Green only in passing
34. For Green's assessment of this landmark study, see W. H. Green to Joseph Henry, 14 March 1866, Record Unit 26, Incoming Correspondence, Office of the Secretary, Smithsonian Institution Archives
35. W. H. Green, "Heresy Hunters," Presbyterian, 15 February 1893, 12
36. Charles Augustus Briggs, General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1899), 289 (Hengstenberg)
37. idem, The Higher Criticism of the Hexateuch (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1893), 143
38. Regarding the Briggs affair, see Mark Stephen Massa, Charles Augustus Briggs and the Critics of Historical Criticism (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1990)
39. For British and German criticism of Green, see J. A. Selbie, "Critics and Apologists," Expository Times 10 (1898-99): 221-23
40. and C. Steuernagel, "Dr. W. H. Green of Princeton: A Reply to Dr. Dunlop Moore," Expository Times 10 (1898-99): 476-80
41. For criticism of Green's critics, see Dunlop Moore, "Critics and Apologists," Presbyterian and Reformed Review 10 (1899): 533-42
42. G. Frederick Wright, The Ice Age in North America: And Its Bearings upon the Antiquity of Man, 5th ed. (Oberlin, Ohio: Bibliotheca Sacra, 1911)
43. For a second account of Wright's visit with Green, see Wright, "The Flood and Genesis," Independent, 8 August 1901, 1858-59
44. On Wright, see Ronald L. Numbers, "George Frederick Wright: From Christian Darwinist to Fundamentalist," Isis 79 (1988): 624-45
45. and Numbers, The Creationists (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992), 20-36
46. W. H. Green, Primeval Chronology," Bibliotheca Sacra 47 (1890): 285-303, quotations on 300 (needed relief), and 303 (precise date)
47. idem, "Pre-Abrahamic Chronology," Independent, 18 June 1891, 1-2
48. John William Draper, History of the Conflict between Religion and Science (New York: Appleton, 1874)
49. Frank Cramer, "The Theological and Scientific Theories of the Origin of Man," Bibliotheca Sacra 48 (1891): 511(margin)
50. G. Frederick Wright, "The Harmony of Science and Revelation," Homiletic Monthly 33 (1897): 210
51. idem, Scientific Confirmations of Old Testament History (Oberlin, Ohio: Bibliotheca Sacra, 1906), 190-97
52. idem, Origin and Antiquity of Man (Oberlin, Ohio: Bibliotheca Sacra, 1912), 443-44
53. For additional tributes to Green by Wright, see, for instance, Wright, "Recent Discoveries Bearing on the Antiquity of Man," Bibliotheca Sacra 48 (1891); 298-309
54. idem, "Adjustments between the Bible and Science," Bibliotheca Sacra 49 (1992): 153-56
55. and idem, "Present Aspects of the Questions Concerning the Origin and Antiquity of the Human Race," Protestant Episcopal Review 11 (1989): 301-3. 24. See Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary; Macloskie to Wright, 23 November 1904
56. A Biblical Inerrantist as Evolutionist," Isis 91 (2000): in press
57. Dyson Hague, "The History of Higher Criticism," The Fundamentals (Chicago: Testimony Publishing, [1910-15]), 1:120
58. M. G. Kyle, "The Antiquity of Man According to the Genesis Account," Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute 57 (1925): 134-35
59. See also Alexander Hardie, Evolution: Is It Philosophical, Scientific or Scriptural? (Los Angeles: Times-Mirror, 1924), 185, 198
60. and A. Rendle Short, Modern Discovery and the Bible (Chicago: Inter-Varsity, 1955; first published in 1942), 97-98
61. For an example of scholars struggling over Green's authority, see Stephen R. Schrader and Davis A. Young, "Was the Earth Created a Few Thousand Years Ago?" in Ronald Youngblood, ed., The Genesis Debate: Persistent Questions about Creation and the Flood (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1986), 56-65
62. Numbers, The Creationists, 105-16
63. Byron C. Nelson, Before Abraham: Prehistoric Man in Biblical Light (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1948), 1, 5-6, 16
64. Bernard Ramm, The Christian view of Science and Scripture (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerd-mans, 1954), 313-14
65. Donald L. Wilson, "How Early Is Man?" Christianity Today, 14 September 1962, 1175-76
66. [Carl F. H. Henry], "American Evangelicals and Theological Dialogue," Christianity Today, 15 January 1965, 395-97
67. James O. Buswell III, letter to the editor, Christianity Today, 12 March 1965, 618
68. idem, "Homo Habilis: Implications for the Creationist," Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation 17 (1965): 74-78
69. and Buswell, "Creationist Views on Human Origin," Christianity Today, 8 August 1975, 1046-48
70. Schaeffer, Genesis in Space and Time, 122, 134
71. Ronald Youngblood, How It All Began: A Biblical Commentary for Laymen: Genesis 1-11 (Ventura, Cal.: Regal Books, 1980), 89-91
72. Davis A. Young, Christianity and the Age of the Earth (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1982), 59, 152
73. John C. Whitcomb Jr. and Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and Its Scientific Implications (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1961), 476
74. Morris, The Genesis Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Book of Beginnings (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1976), 45-46, 285, 309 (modified)
75. Whitcomb, The Early Earth (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1972), 107-10 (absurdity)
76. Morris, Many Infallible Proofs: Practical and Useful Evidences of Christianity (San Diego: Creation-Life Publishers, 1974), 290 (much-maligned)
77. On the "impropriety" and "absurdity" of using Green to justify a great antiquity for humans, see Marvin L. Ludenow, Bones of Contention: A Creationist Assessment of Human Fossils (Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Books, 1992), 227-29
78. idem, Two Men Called Adam, 4-6 (thin edge)