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 The Bible and the Enlightenment A Case Study Alexander
Geddes 1737 1802 Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
377 1st Edition William Johnstone

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JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
SUPPLEMENT SERIES
377

Editors
David J.A. Clines
Philip R. Davies

Executive Editor
Andrew Mein

Editorial Board
Richard J. Coggins, Alan Cooper, J. Cheryl Exum,
John Goldingay, Robert P. Gordon, Norman K. Gottwald,
John Jarick, Andrew D.H. Mayes, Carol Meyers,
Patrick D. Miller
This page intentionally left blank
 The Bible and the Enlightenment

A Case Study-Dr Alexander Geddes (1737-1802)

(The Proceedings of the Bicentenary

Geddes Conference held at the University of Aberdeen,
1-4 April 2002)

edited by

William Johnstone

T8.T CLARK INTERNATIONAL

A Continuum imprint
LONDON • NEW YORK
Copyright © 2004 T&T Clark International
A Continuum imprint

Published by T&T Clark International

The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX
15 East 26th Street, Suite 1703, New York, NY 10010
www.tandtclark.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in

any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Typeset and edited for Continuum by Forthcoming Publications Ltd

www.forthcomingpublications.com

Printed on acid-free paper in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall

ISBN 0-8264-6654-0
 CONTENTS

Preface vii
Abbreviations ix
List of Contributors xiii

WILLIAM JOHNSTONE
Introduction: The Bible and the Enlightenment 1

THOMAS M. DEVINE
Alexander Geddes: The Scottish Context 35

CATHARINA F.M. VAN DIJK

Alexander Geddes and his Unpublished Papers 44

GERARD CARRUTHERS
Scattered Remains: The Literary Career of Alexander Geddes 61

BERTRAM EUGENE SCHWARZBACH

Geddes in France 78

CHRISTOPH BULTMANN
What do we Mean when we Talk about
'(Late) Enlightenment Biblical Criticism'? 119

CHARLES CONROY
The Biblical Work of Alexander Geddes
against the Background of Contemporary Catholic
Biblical Scholarship in Continental Europe 135

JOHN W. ROGERSON
Was Geddes a 'Fragmentist'?
In Search of the 'Geddes-Vater Hypothesis' 157
vi The Bible and the Enlightenment

JEAN Louis SKA

Alexander Geddes between Old and New:
Story and History in the Book of Numbers 168

A. GRAEME AULD
Alexander Geddes on the Historical Books
of the Hebrew Bible 181

Cumulative Bibliography 201

Index of References 222
Index of Authors 227
 PREFACE

The articles in this volume include papers read at a conference held in the
University of Aberdeen from 1 -4 April 2002 to mark the bicentenary of
the death of Alexander Geddes (4 September 1737-26 February 1802). I
should like first and foremost to acknowledge the contribution of the inter-
national, interdisciplinary and interfaith group of distinguished scholars
who so readily accepted the invitation to read papers, so willingly lent
their expertise, and so fully co-operated in the production of this volume.
It is a pleasure too to acknowledge the financial sponsorship of the British
Academy, the Most Reverend Mario Conti, Roman Catholic Archbishop
of Glasgow, the Reverend Dr Reginald C. Fuller, Geddes's modern biog-
rapher, and the Right Honourable the Lord Petre, whose ancestors, the ninth
and, for Geddes's last year, the tenth, Lord Petre, were for over twenty
years the indispensable and generous patrons of his work. But assistance
in organizing the conference spread far beyond the financial: I am indebted
to Reginald Fuller for introducing me to Gerard Carruthers, who in turn
introduced me to Catharina van Dijk; to John Rogerson for proposing the
participation of Christoph Bultmann; and to Andre Lemaire for suggesting
the name of Bertram Eugene Schwarzbach. I am further indebted to Philip
Davies for accepting this volume into the Supplement Series of the
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. I should also like to thank the
Society for Old Testament Study for associating itself with the conference.
Thanks are also due to the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the Univer-
sity of Aberdeen for hospitality and to the Faculty of Arts and Divinity
Research Committee for underwriting the conference. I am most grateful
to the University for providing me with office accommodation and facili-
ties for running the conference during this final, 'extra' year, to Ian Pirie
and his staff in the conference office and to the secretarial staff in the
Divinity and Religious Studies department for their assistance. I am par-
ticularly indebted to Mrs Jacqueline Armstrong for supervising the domes-
tic arrangements at the conference. For the task of editing this volume the
assistance of the staff in Historic Collections in Aberdeen University
Library has been invaluable.
viii The Bible and the Enlightenment

These words are written precisely 40 years to the month since my first
arrival in Aberdeen, as Lecturer in Hebrew and Semitic Languages. It is a
matter for particular satisfaction to me that the moment of severance of
immediate physical association with the University should be marked by a
celebration commemorating a notable son of the northeast of Scotland
who is one of the University of Aberdeen's distinguished honorary gradu-
ates.

William Johnstone
1 September 2002
King's College, University of Aberdeen
 ABBREVIATIONS

General Abbreviations
AB Anchor Bible
ABD David Noel Freedman (ed.), The Anchor Bible Dictionary
(New York: Doubleday, 1992)
ADB Allgemeine Deutsche Biographic, hrsg. durch die Historische
Kommission bei der konigl. Akademie der Wissenschaften
(Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1875-1912)
AID Das Alte Testament Deutsch
AV Authorized (King James) Version
BBKL Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, begriindet
und hrsg. von Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz; fortgefuhrt von
Traugott Bautz (Herzberg: Verlag Traugott Bautz, 1975-2001)
[The articles are also available online, in some cases updated,
at www.bautz.de/bbkl]
BZAW Beihefte zur ZA W
EncJud Encyclopaedia Judaica
GNB Good News Bible
Hastings DB James Hastings (ed.), Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols.;
Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1898-1904)
HAT Handbuch zum Alten Testament
ICC International Critical Commentary
IDE George Arthur Buttrick (ed.), The Interpreter's Dictionary of
the Bible (4 vols.; Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962)
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series
KBL L. Koehler and W. Baumgartner (eds.), Hebraisches und
Aramdisches Lexikon zum Alten Testament (Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1967-96, 3rd edn)
KJV King James (Authorized) Version
LCL Loeb Classical Library
NCBC New Century Bible Commentary
NDB Neue Deutsche Biographic. Hrsg. von der Historischen
Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1953-)
NEB New English Bible
NICOT New International Commentary on the Old Testament
X The Bible and the Enlightenment

NIV New International Version

OBO Orbis biblicus et orientalis
OIL Old Testament Library
RGG Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (3rd edn)
TOTC Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries
VT Vetus Testamentum
VTSup Vetus Testamentum, Supplements
WBC Word Biblical Commentary
WMANT Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen
Testament
ZAW Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft

Abbreviations of Alexander Geddes 's Principal Works

Bible I The Holy Bible, or the books accounted sacred by Jews and
Christians; otherwise called the books of the Old and New
Covenants: faithfully translated from corrected texts of the
originals. With various readings, explanatory notes and
critical remarks. I. Pentateuch and Joshua (London: printed
for the author by J. Davis, and sold by R. Faulder &
J. Johnson, 1792)
Bible II The Holy Bible, or the books accounted sacred by Jews and
Christians; otherwise called the books of the Old and New
Covenants: faithfully translated from corrected texts of the
originals. With various readings, explanatory notes and
critical remarks. II. Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ruth,
Prayer ofManasseh (London: printed for the author by
J. Davis, and sold by R. Faulder & J. Johnson, 1797)
CR Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures: Corresponding
with a new translation of the Bible. I. Containing remarks on
the Pentateuch (London: printed for the author by J. Davis,
and sold by R. Faulder & J. Johnson, 1800)
GA Dr. Geddes's general answer to the queries, counsils and
criticisms that have been communicated to him since the
publication of his Proposals for printing a New Translation of
the Bible (London: printed for the author by J. Davis, and sold
by R. Faulder & J. Johnson, 1790)
Psalms A New Translation of the Psalms (1-118) from corrected texts
of the originals, with occasional annotations (ed. J. Disney
and C. Butler; London: J. Johnson, 1807)
Proposals Proposals for printing by subscription a new translation of the
Holy Bible from corrected texts of the originals; with various
readings, explanatory notes, and critical observations (With
specimens of the work) (London: printed for the author by
J. Davis, and sold by R. Faulder & J. Johnson, 1788)
 Abbreviations xi

Prospectus Prospectus of a new translation of the Holy Bible from

corrected texts of the originals, compared with the ancient
versions. With various readings, explanatory notes, and
critical observations (Glasgow: printed for the author, and
sold by R. Faulder, London; C. Eliot, Edinburgh; Cross,
Dublin, 1786)
This page intentionally left blank
 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

A. Graeme Auld
Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament in the School of Divinity, Uni-
versity of Edinburgh

Christoph Bultmann
Professor of Biblical Studies in the University of Erfurt

Gerard Carruthers
Lecturer in the Department of Scottish Literature in the University of
Glasgow

Charles Conroy
Ordinary Professor of Old Testament Exegesis in the Faculty of Theology,
Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome

Thomas M. Devine
University Research Professor in Scottish History and Director of the
Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies, University of Aberdeen

Catharina P.M. van Dijk

Researcher in the Christian Cultural Heritage Research Programme at the
Catholic University, Nijmegen

William Johnstone
Professor Emeritus of Hebrew and Semitic Languages, University of
Aberdeen

John W. Rogerson
Emeritus Professor of Biblical Studies, University of Sheffield
xiv The Bible and the Enlightenment

Bertram Eugene Schwarzbach

Independent scholar, based in Paris, specializing in seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century French cultural studies

Jean Louis Ska

Ordinary Professor of Old Testament at the Pontifical Biblical Institute,
Rome
 INTRODUCTION: THE BIBLE AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT

William Johnstone

The aim of the following collection of essays is twofold: to appraise the

work for which Alexander Geddes is best known in biblical circles, his
suggestions about the composition of the Pentateuch; and to try to see that
work in perspective by setting it within the wider context of his other
writings, his life and his times. Both of these aspects touch matters of
continuing interest. The issues raised by Pentateuchal criticism remain un-
resolved, perhaps inevitably so in the nature of the case. As the following
papers make abundantly clear, Geddes's biblical criticism relates to much
wider issues arising from the thinking and events of his period, the
eighteenth-century Enlightenment, issues, among others, about revelation
and authority, the relation between science and religion, and the autonomy
of ethics and philosophy, that are still with us. This Introduction, accord-
ingly, falls into two sections: it begins with that biblical criticism with
which Geddes is most commonly associated, and then sketches something
of that broader Enlightenment framework within which he pursued his
biblical studies.

1. 'The Bible...': Initial Assumptions

...to ascertain the true meaning is often as hard as to ascertain the true
reading...
—Geddes (Prospectus: 61)

In the annals of biblical interpretation it is conventional to ascribe to

Alexander Geddes (1737-1802) an honoured, if minor, place amid the
constellation of biblical critics as the originator of the 'Fragment Hypothe-
sis' of the composition of the Pentateuch: 'although I am inclined to
believe that the Pentateuch was reduced into its present form in the reign
of Solomon, I am fully persuaded that it was compiled from ancient
documents' (Bible I: xix). This ascription is commonplace in standard
2 The Bible and the Enlightenment

'Introductions' to the Old Testament (e.g. Eissfeldt 1965: 162). I myself

was first introduced to Geddes, as I imagine most students the world over
are, by a passing reference in my first term of 'Old Testament Introduc-
tion'.1 Subsequent encounters included the influential discussions in the
'Oxford Hexateuch' (Carpenter and Harford-Battersby 1900,1: 44), with
its cross-reference to T.K. Cheyne's Founders of Modern Criticism, and—
another 'must' for students of the Old Testament in Glasgow and Aber-
deen—in George Adam Smith's Modern Criticism and the Preaching of
the Old Testament (1901: 36), who credits Geddes with providing the
conditions for the extension of scientific criticism in the Pentateuch be-
yond Exodus 6.2 The association of Geddes with the Fragment Hypothesis
is reinforced in H.-J. Kraus's standard history of Old Testament interpre-
tation,3 and continues down to the latest Introduction to the Old Testament
that I happen to have read.4
It was the awareness of this ascription, coupled with the fact that
Geddes was a native of the 'territory' of the University of Aberdeen (he
was born at Arradoul, near Buckie, in Banffshire), and was, indeed, an
honorary graduate of the University (LLD, conferred by both King's and
Marischal Colleges, then separate universities, in 1780 [see Fuller 1984:
129-30]), that led me to cite Geddes, alongside William Robertson Smith,
as one of the major pioneering biblical critics native to the North East of
Scotland in my inaugural lecture in the University of Aberdeen in 1982.51
felt it my duty then that, if circumstances permitted, I should organize a

1. In John Mauchline's lectures on Old Testament Introduction in Candlemas

Term, University of Glasgow, January 1957.
2. See also G.A. Smith in Hastings DB s.v. Joshua.
3. My enthusiasm for that and his other works led to the conferment of the
honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity on Professor Kraus by the University of
Aberdeen and, in turn, to the dedication of the third edition of his Geschichte to the
University. Kraus's discussion of Geddes is in Kraus 1982: 155-56.
4. Hughes 2001: 226 n. 19: 'The Fragmentary Hypothesis found advocates in
scholars like W.M.L. de Wette, A. Geddes, and J.S. Vater. It argues that, instead of
sources or documents, a series of disconnected fragments lay behind the legal section
of the Pentateuch in particular.' Given the dates for these scholars—de Wette 1780-
1849, Geddes 1737-1802, Vater 1771-1826—priority in that list should be given to
Geddes (for the dates see index volume of RGG, 3rd edn). For the corresponding
relative dating of these authors' relevant publications, see Kraus 1982: 155-56. For a
discussion of Geddes's 'Place in the History of Biblical Criticism' see, as on so many
other aspects of Geddes's career, Fuller 1984: 112-22 (Chapter 7), under that title.
5. Republished in Johnstone 1998: 50-73 (58-61, 70-71).
 JOHNSTONE Introduction 3

conference in Aberdeen in the Spring of 2002 to mark the bicentenary of

Geddes's death.
Given the liveliness of the debate in current biblical scholarship, not
least about the processes involved in the composition of the Pentateuch, it
is perhaps timely to re-examine the perceptions of one of the pioneers of
biblical criticism. Problems are never definitively 'solved'; they have to be
thought through again in each generation. It may be that an understanding
of the factors that give rise to critical questions and of the responses that
an early critic gave to them will be illuminating, perhaps even helpful, to
the continuing discussion. There is aprimafacie case that this is so. It is
striking that versions of the Fragment Hypothesis have been developed in
recent times. Werner H. Schmidt (1990: 79) reaffirms it, with specific
citation of the theory 'developed around 1800' for the Pentateuch as a
whole, in connection with the laws of the Pentateuch as collections of indi-
vidual elements of varying antiquity. R.N. Whybray (1987: 222) writes of
his own work: 'This approach, which postulates a single authorship for the
Pentateuch, is in some respects a new version of the Fragment Hypo-
thesis'. More narrowly, on Genesis, G.A. Rendsburg (1986) has proposed
four compilers—or perhaps one—who redacted Genesis in the Davidic-
Solomonic period. There may be a similarity between the thinking of
Geddes and the findings of 'main-line' criticism in the trajectory from
Gunkel through Noth to Rendtorff. I have suggested (1998: 59-60) that
Geddes's account of how traditions were preserved through association
with features of the landscape (Bible I: xix, cited below and in Carpenter
and Harford-Battersby 1900,1: 44) is comparable to Gunkel's account of
topographical aetiologies (Gunkel 1964). Noth has developed Gunkel's
perceptions about the histories of traditions in his affirmation of larger,
once independent, orally transmitted 'themes' which provide the building
blocks of his postulated 'G', the shared basis for the construction of the T
and 'E' documents written in Israel's early to mid-monarchical period
(e.g. Noth 1968: 7). In his wide-ranging review of issues in Pentateuchal
criticism in his own controversial study, Konrad Schmid (1999: 12, 108)
suggests that Rendtorff s account of the growth of the Pentateuch is
essentially a restatement in redactio-historical terms of Noth's traditio-
historical division of the Pentateuchal materials into discrete themes.6
There are no 'sources' running through the Pentateuch; there is only the
'redactional' fitting together of large units to which the other units of the

6. For Rendtorff s own account see, e.g., Rendtorff 1990: 31-42.

4 The Bible and the Enlightenment

Pentateuch pay little attention. Schmid concludes (p. 364) that the model
of 'sources' is being more and more modified or even replaced by ele-
ments of a Fragment or Supplementary Hypothesis. Such a hypothesis
must be increasingly plausible the later the first editorial syntheses are
placed, whether in a 'Deuteronomic' composition during the exile in the
sixth century, as in E. Blum's work (e.g. 1990), or in an early post-exilic
Priestly composition, as in the view of Schmid and others. The question of
how once-scattered 'fragments' were brought together, developed and
edited into their final form still dominates critical discussion of the forma-
tion of the Pentateuch. It is thus hardly surprising that in his magisterial
overview of the state of Pentateuchal studies during the past 25 years at
the conference of the International Organization for the Study of the Old
Testament in Basel in 2001, Thomas Romer heads his §3.2 'Le retour
d'une theorie des fragments?' and in his tentative conclusions affirms that
a return to some kind of Fragment Hypothesis, 'the gathering together of
different legislative codes and of highly diverse narrative traditions',
undoubtedly does justice to the nature of the Pentateuch as, what he calls,
'a literature of compromise'.7
If the gathering, whether early or late, of once independent traditions,
whether written or oral, does indeed reflect the nature of the processes
behind the growth of the Pentateuch, may it be that Alexander Geddes, the
old master, has still some lessons to impart to modern exponents of the
arts of Pentateuchal criticism? That, I suppose, is the basic question with
which I convened the conference: the original subtitle was, 'Old Ideas,
New Possibilities'. As several of the following essays will show, the
answer can only be in highly qualified terms even as far as the Fragment
Hypothesis itself is concerned: John Rogerson engages with the stereo-
typed attribution head-on; Jean-Louis Ska and Graeme Auld carefully, and
sometimes playfully in the best Geddes manner, consider specific sections
of Geddes's work on its own terms. It will become clear that the percep-
tion that Geddes's is a radical, challenging and innovative voice in the
annals of biblical study is a valid one. But whether it is adequate either to
the hypothesis or to Geddes himself to link his name so exclusively to the
Fragment Hypothesis are questions that are ripe for reappraisal.
While not wishing to anticipate or to duplicate material unnecessarily, I
find that a certain amount of overlap with the following essays will be
unavoidable in this introductory overview. Some of Geddes's more vivid

7. I am most grateful to Professor Romer for sending me an advance copy of his

lecture (Romer 2002).
 JOHNSTONE Introduction 5

'quotable quotes' and outrageous remarks inevitably appeal to more than

one contributor; to preserve the integrity of the several contributions some
repetition will be tolerated. Preparatory to the analyses in the following
studies, I shall allow Geddes to speak as far as possible in his own words
(and in his eighteenth-century spelling and punctuation) and at sufficient
length, on the assumption that his oeuvre may not be familiar or available
to every reader, so that the full force of their liveliness and often contro-
versial, sometimes sharply dismissive and polemical, character may be
appreciated.
While, then, it might have been appropriate to begin this Introduction
with a consideration of the material from Geddes that bears on the schol-
arly consensus that he is the originator of the Fragment Hypothesis of the
composition of the Pentateuch, it seems to me that the way more likely to
produce a rounded view of Geddes and his work is to begin from his own
declared intention. Geddes's source critical remarks are only incidental to
the main task that he set out to accomplish: to produce a modern English
translation of the Bible from the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek originals, 'a
faithful version of my corrected originals' (CR: iv; compare subtitle of
Bible I and II, 'faithfully translated from corrected texts of the originals';
and Bible II: xii-xiii: 'we should get rid of a vast and cumbersome load of
useless commentators and biblical criticism would be reduced to one
single object; namely, to ascertain the genuine grammatical meaning of a
genuine text').
A consideration of Geddes's primary purpose of producing a new trans-
lation of the Bible not only displays the extraordinary range and brilliance
of his mind and the equally impressive range of his engagement with the
primary and secondary sources available, as a bibliography constructed
from his works would show. It also makes clear the controversial nature of
his undertaking from the start, the controversial character that only intensi-
fies the longer his project continues. His proposal for a new translation
already implies a challenge to the supremacy of King James's well-loved
Authorized Version (AV) in the English-speaking world. Although familiar
with the AV from his childhood (GA: 2), Geddes had only a qualified esti-
mate of its qualities. He compares it unfavourably with Jerome's Latin
Vulgate in his account of the earliest stirrings of his ambition in 1762: 'the
author of the Vulgate had endeavoured to render his originals, equiva-
lently, into such Latin as was current in his age—"If ever I translate the
Bible", said I then, "it must be after this manner"' (GA: 3). To many
among the overwhelmingly predominant Protestant community it must
6 The Bible and the Enlightenment

have seemed an audacious enterprise by a member of a then tiny minority

and disparaged sect. Among Catholics themselves his project was a direct
challenge to the existing Douai version; produced by English refugee
Catholics (the Old Testament in Flanders in 1610), it is, says Geddes, 'a
literal and barbarous translation from the Vulgate...accompanied with
acrimonious and injurious annotations' (Prospectus: 110). It was equally a
challenge to the moves afoot among the Vicars Apostolic to undertake
their own revision of the Challoner Bible (Fuller 1984: 28); as always,
Geddes was falling foul of his ecclesiastical superiors. The academic goals
of Geddes's plan, to produce 'a faithful version of my corrected originals'
(CR: iv), sound uncontroversial enough. But, in the process of evaluating
the witnesses to the original text and meaning of the Bible, he has some
trenchant, sometimes gratuitously offensive, comments to make on the
trustworthiness or otherwise of the Christian and Jewish traditions that
have hitherto been relied on. These traditions, in his view, have to be criti-
cally, even sceptically, appraised and, if need be, by-passed altogether.
But Geddes also hoped by his translation to commend the Bible to the
cultured reader of his day. Most controversial of all to his religious con-
temporaries must have seemed the implications of this appeal to the
educated uncommitted outsider. As a man of the Enlightenment hoping
ultimately to address an Enlightened audience, Geddes proposes to remove
the Bible from its privileged status as revealed Scripture written by
inspired individuals and to see it as a human product of the ancient world
to be studied no differently from the Classics of Greece and Rome and on
an equal footing with them. So read, it is Geddes's belief, the Bible's
intrinsic qualities will become clear on their own merits and will be
enough to commend it to a fair-minded rational audience; it has no need of
special protection. Geddes's credo as figure of the Enlightenment, owing
allegiance ultimately to reason, not to any extraneous authority, however
long-established and entrenched, is defiantly stated in, for example, CR
(pp. iv-vi):
I have throughout acted the critic, and occasionally the commentator... In
both these characters I have freely used mine own judgment (such as it is)
without the smallest deference to inveterate prejudice or domineering
authority. The Hebrew scriptures I have examined and appretiated, as I
would any other writings of antiquity... I am well aware, that...the cry
heresy! infidelity! irreligion! will resound from shore to shore. But my
peaceful mind has been long prepared for.. .such harsh Cerberean barkings:
and experience has made me (not naturally insensible) callous to every
injury, that ignorance and malice may have in store for me... [RJeason,
 JOHNSTONE Introduction 1

reason only is the ultimate and only sure motive of credibility; the only
solid pillar of faith.

Many of these terms resonate with heated eighteenth-century debates, the

background against which Geddes worked. The significance of'infidelity',
for instance, is vividly conveyed in terms of the equally heated debates in
the contemporary established Church of Scotland by Sher (1985 [Sher,
incidentally, in his justly acclaimed work, makes no mention of Geddes,
little of the Bible, and, apart from the controversies and civil disturbances
surrounding relief legislation in the late 1770s, not a great deal about
Catholicism]): 'The first major ecclesiastical challenge to the Scottish
Enlightenment and the Moderate party [in the Church of Scotland] was the
campaign of 1755-1756 to censure the writings of David Hume and Lord
Kames [in the General Assembly] for their alleged infidelity'. This move
was precipitated by the publication of the first volume of Hume's History
of England (1754), 'which indirectly undermined the historical founda-
tions of the Presbyterian establishment in Scotland and boldly proclaimed
the "enthusiasm" and "fanaticism" of the Scottish Reformation to be worse
than anything that occurred "during the darkest night of papal super-
stition"'. George Anderson, chaplain to Watson's Hospital, Edinburgh
(Mclntosh 1998: 69), published
Five days before the opening of the assembly in May [1756]...a short
pamphlet with a long and informative title: Infidelity a Proper Object of
Censure. Wherein is shewn, The indispensable Obligation that lies upon
Church-rulers to exercise the Discipline instituted by Christ, upon such
avowed Infidels as have been solemnly initiated Members of the Christian
Church by Baptism; and, if irreclaimable, to cast them out of Christian
society.
These moves against Hume and Kames came to nothing; Hugh Blair, for
instance, minister of St Giles and later also Regius Professor of Rhetoric at
Edinburgh University, had published an anonymous pamphlet in 1755
defending, with David Hume in mind, 'freedom of inquiry and debate'
(Sher 1985: 65-71) and he and his fellow Moderates carried the day in the
General Assembly. But the battle-lines had been clearly drawn and the
intensity of the controversy, if in a different denomination, illustrates the
provocation of Geddes's vehemence: rational debate vs. entrenched, but
threatened, authority. It is within this context of hoped-for appeal to the
educated outsider that Geddes's discussion of the question of the author-
ship of the Pentateuch arises: viewed rationally according to the evidence,
the Pentateuch must be the work not of one inspired writer, Moses, but of
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