Henricus Oort - The Worship of Baalim in Israel

THE TREATISE, which is here laid before the English reader, is one of several, by different authors, that have been occasioned by the publication of the remarkable researches of Professor DOZY of Leyden, into the history of the ancient Sanctuary and Worship at Mecca, which he has traced it would seem, very distinctly to an Israelitish origin. By continental critics, generally, Prof. DOZT'S work has been cordially welcomed, not only as a specimen of most able, ingenious, and very original criticism, but as adding also considerably to our knowledge of the ancient affairs of Arabia, and throwing light upon some obscure points in the early history
of Israel. It is natural, however, that, with respect to some of the details of so wide and difficult a subject, there should be room for difference of opinion, and, at all events, for a yet more close and searching examination. Accordingly, some of these details have been submitted to a separate investigation by more than one distinguished labourer in the field of Modern Biblical Criticism. And, indeed, it is only in this way, by the comparison
of results arrived at by different processes of independent enquiry, and often from different points of view, that we may hope at length to arrive at definite conclusions, which may be ranked among the certainties of Science. In the First Appendix to the Fifth Part of my Work on the Pentateuch I have given some account of Professor DOZY'S researches and, while engaged in passing that Part through the press, I "have had before me several of these Treatises, especially those of OORT, On the Worship of Baalim in Israel, and On. Human Sacrifice in Israel) PIERSON, On the Holy Stones in Israel, and" KUENEN, On Baal-Worship in Israel, all written in Dutch, a language with which English scholars are not generally familiar, though some of the most valuable critical works of the present day, on the Old and New Testaments, are only to be read in Dutch originals. In the course of my own remarks, I have referred occasionally to the above-named writings. But I have felt that I should best serve the interests of Truth, in respect of the cause which I have at heart, and best satisfy the needs and, I trust, also the desires of English students, if I translated one or more of them, with additional notes, either confirming from my own point of view the positions of the writer, or else, where necessary, stating my reasons for dissenting from any of his conclusions. With this view I have for the present selected for translation the very able Treatise of Dr. OORT. It will be seen that he touches all along on questions of great interest in relation to the main points of my own argument, as maintained in my Work on the Pentateuch, and especially in my Fifth Part, just published, that he starts from premisses somewhat different from mine, and arrives at somewhat different conclusions. Yet there is substantial agreement between us; and the differences of opinion, which I have expressed in the notes, are meant rather to qualify, than to contradict, his views, and tend, as it seems to me, to relieve them of some difficulties, and bring them more into agreement with those of Prof. DOZY. At any rate, I shall be satisfied to have thus placed more fully before English scholars for discussion the important questions which Professor DOZY and Dr. OORT have raised.

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