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The question of the unity of the Bible's message is one that will never be satisfactorily solved, though it is one which every generation of Christians must seek to solve. We are continually impelled to search for the answer because the unity of the Church's message to the world is at stake.

Theology in large measure is inevitably anthropomorphic. Characteristic of the normal religious mind is the attempt to visualize God and man's relation to him, and the resultant picture is usually derived from social relationships. Thus in modern Christianity, and indeed in the New Testament itself, the relationship between God and man is conceived as one between a benevolent father and his son or children. As the father loves his children, so the children should love their father and honor him.

HE scope of this paper is strictly confined to recent form-critical study of the early traditions of Israel as found in four books, two by Professor Gerhard von Rad of the University of G6ttingen, recently appointed to the University of Heidelberg, and two by Professor Martin Noth of the University of Bonn. These are: von Rad, Das erste Buch Mose: Genesis Kapitel 1-12, 9 (G6ttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1949); and Deuteronomium-Studien (G6ttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1947); Noth, (berlieferungsgeschichte des Pentateuch (Stuttgart, W. Kohlhammer, 1948), which is actually the second part of his (Uberlieferungsgeschichtliche Studien, of which Part I is Die Sammelnden und bearbeitenden Geschichtswerke im Alten Testamnent (Halle, Max Niemeyer, 1943). These books are among the most significant of those published recently which attempt to take seriously the whole question of form criticism and the history of tradition in the early portions of Old Testament. The father of this approach to the early Israelite materials was, of course, Hermann Gunkel. His commentary on Genesis opened up as many new avenues of study as did his subsequent revolutionary work on the Psalms.1 Indeed one might say that these two commentaries are among the most significant of modern times. The principles which Gunkel enunciated in his Genesis were soon applied to New Testament research with very significant results; but for some reason they have been slow to influence the study of the Old Testament. In George A. Barton's survey of "The Present State of Old Testament Studies," published in 1938,2 Gunkel is not even mentioned in connection with Pentateuchal studies. A similar survey by Raymond A. Bowman in 19473 does indeed mention him, but that is about all. Except for occasional monographs in Europe between the wars, the significance of which is only now beginning to become apparent, there was little for these scholars to describe, for the major works were still largely confined to the area of literary criticism, the Introductions of Eissfeldt and Pfeiffer being significant examples.4 The Introduction by Aage Bentzen, published in 1948, is perhaps the first such work to give form criticism a central place in the treatment, except for two Swedish works by Gunnar Hylmo and Ivan Engnell which have not been available to many scholars outside that land.6 In the books before us the orthodox literary analysis of the Pentateuchal material into its component strata is accepted; in fact, Noth spends considerable time in showing the impossibility of the views of Volz and Rudolph, who would eliminate the Elohist document.

FOR many years the writer has wondered about the ancient Israelite claim to a town as far out in the coastal plain as Tell el-Hesi, if that town is correctly identified with Biblical Eglon. During 1964-65, when with graduate students I was able to explore the area in person, thus supplementing the study of maps, my puzzlement with the historical topography and archaeology of the area deepened. It is a disappointment that there never was an opportunity to discuss the matter with Paul W. Lapp, in whose honor this issue is published, because his interest in such topographical matters had been whetted by the same teacher as my own, William Foxwell Albright. Tell el-Hesi is approximately six and one-half kilometers from the Lowlands (Shephelah) of ancient Judah, measuring in a straight line to the point where the land rises to about the 200meter contour. By the same type of measurement it is some thirteen kilometers from Lachish, the main Judean fortress within the Shephelah, along the NE-SW fault line that was the inner communication and defense road within the Lowland. Lachish and its smaller satellite Mareshah, five and one-half kilometers to the northeast, were the guardians of the main pass by which one ascends the high hills to Hebron (see map). This means that, as an Israelite or Judean town, Tell el-Hesi is situated about one-third the distance to the coast from Lachish, for the Wadi el-Hesi emerges into the Mediterranean at a point only some twenty-six kilometers from the tell and ca. eight kilometers south of Ashkelon. When one is present at the tell, one has a feeling of isolation from other ancient cities, vulnerable, low, in a kind of pocket, with open view only to east and south. When standing on the tell I have not been able to escape the impression that this site could never make sense as a defense point

(1937). The Troglodytes of Gezer. Palestine Exploration Quarterly: Vol. 69, No. 1, pp. 67-78.

tempts to teach and to preach biblical faith in a modern setting. No sooner do we present one set of generalizations on the basis of one selection of biblical passages or books than we may be confronted with other passages which seem to say the opposite. When we attempt to present in some systematic way the theology of the Bible, which should be the chief, agent for the presentation of its unity, we are confronted with the seemingly insuperable obstacle that the Bible was never written

With a major campaign from June 4 to July 90, 1968, and a smaller but important operation from June 9 to 920, 1969, the current series of excavations at Shechem has concluded.' In 1968, the Joint Expedition was sponsored by Drew University, McCormick Seminary, Garrett Seminary, Upsala College, and Harvard Semitic Museum (the last through a grant from the Olin Foundation). Austin Presbyterian Seminary and the Claremont Graduate Center were affiliates of the consortium, each contributing financially and sending a staff member. Gifts from the Foundation for Biblical Research and the Preservation of

W MIGHT as well admit at the outset that it is impossible to present an answer to the question regarding the aims of Bible study which will attract a ready and enthusiastic response on the part of all concerned. The reason for this lies in the theological confusion and uncertainty of the modern church. There are those who believe that the critical study of the Bible has betrayed the Church, and who are inclined to take a fairly rigid view regarding the inspiration of both historical and reigious data which the Book contains.' Othlers of more liberal persuasion insist that having once broken away from the shackles of such a view of the Scriptures' inspiration, we should not now return to credulous and uncritical views for which the Bible itself offers no warrant, as though critical study had been of no help whatever. Within this latter group, however, there is in process a profound theological ferment. The movement labelled neo-ortho

An expedition under the writer's archaeological direction and sponsored by Drew University, McCormick Theological Seminary and the American Schools of Oriental Research completed its fourth season of excavation at Tell Balâtah, the ancient Shechem, in 1962. The site lies at the eastern opening between Mts. Ebal and Gerizim, forty-one miles north of Jerusalem. The earlier Sellin expedition had reported two strata of Hellenistic settlement at the site, though the date and extent of the occupation were not clarified. The Drew-McCormick Expedition has been particularly concerned with the Hellenistic occupation for two reasons: (1) The opportunity to clarify an obscure age in the cultural history of Palestine and especially to develop a ceramic typology, with chronologically fixed points, so that a more precise means of dating may be available for the archaeology of the period; (2) the problem of the historical meaning of the Hellenistic ruins at Shechem.

(1940). The Syro-Palestinian Jar from Vounous, Cyprus. Palestine Exploration Quarterly: Vol. 72, No. 4, pp. 154-157.