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Yeah, good morning. My name is Gregory leak . We are. I am um associate professor of Old Testament here at Austin Seminary. It's a great privilege to be with you this morning here on this

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webinar and I'm very excited about the topic. This is a topic that I have been working on For about seven years and was fortunate to bring it to a completion in the form of a manuscript this year

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. So I'm really, I'm excited too present this material to you during this hour and hopefully we can engage in some rich discussion about some of the ideas that I present to you this morning. I'm going

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to go behind a PowerPoint presentation so you'll hear my voice but you'll not be able to see me. I'll try to stop intermittently throughout the presentation to hopefully answer any questions that you may have. So,

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we want to leave space anywhere throughout this time for you to ask questions, um, raise any concerns or issues about what I'm presenting to you this morning . So I'd like to begin first to Talk about

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19th century modern biblical criticism. A lot of what I'm analyzing is the early period or the rise of Western scientific biblical criticism, mainly in the UK. And then also looking at how from the UK,

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it moved over into the U. S. Sort of the broad scope Of my analysis, starting with the UK. but also looking at how the modern biblical criticism in the 19th century made its way over

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to the U. S. And this this relationship between the two countries goes back to the colonial period . So the the transferring of information, the flow of information had already established a route starting in the

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UK and making its way into the Northeast. So when we think about biblical criticism coming to the U . S. It's coming from Germany through the UK , then to play to places like new york and

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then beyond the Northeast into the broader parts of the U. S. So when we think about the 19th century, I'm wanting to focus on one particular site where biblical criticism was. It is part of

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its development. Had to do a lot with the emergence of national museums in europe and one of the national museums that was coming to the fore at that time when biblical criticism was beginning to gain momentum in

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the U. K. Was the british museum. As you as we look at the history of the british, we've done, we see first a very humble beginning where the national um the empire received a

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generous donation from Sir Hans Sloane In the 18th century . Several objects said he had collected over his lifetime , where donated to this national effort to provide the public with um insight to the ancient world, different

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cultures, the natural world. And so Sir Hans Sloane was instrumental and starting out uh in in giving the first substantive collection to the british government to begin exhibiting it um in in a public way. So

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the british government in trying to locate a space to exhibit Sloane's collection and they were again, a combination of books and artifacts, various curiosities that were part of that collection. They had received a donation from

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a french snowball Who gave the Montagu House in the 18th century. And it was there that the british museum had its beginning in this repurposed um summer home for a french noble called the Montagu House. And

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there you can see in 1759 is when they first opened for studying public viewing, there are some various angles that I've been able to capture, just looking at multiple public publications, where you have metal engravings

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of the Montagu house. And here, this map shows a bit of how the museum was divided. And again, these are the beginning uh, moments of um, museum studies the approach to, to

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organizing artifacts, the approach to exhibiting artifacts for public viewing There so that it's still very rudimentary at this stage in the 18th century. But you can, you can see how it's being divided um into these

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various spaces that would make up the national Museum in the 19th century is when the British government initiate a very ambitious building project to construct a, a sizable national museum on the, on the site of the

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Montagu house. So in doing so, they demolished the Montagu house and constructed a very large structure that took several years to complete. And as you look at some of the architectural um, aspects of this

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structure, it speaks a lot about uh it reveals a lot about the the world view of the british government and also how what what they were expecting their visitors to learn and entering into this new space.

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So one of the architectural designs that you find when you enter the british museum is there at the portico of the entrance, the main entrance and there is this very large sculpture in the portico and it's titled

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The Progress of civilization. And here you can see a retelling of the progress of human civilization moving from the west to the um so it's starting from the western end, that's where it commences and then goes

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to the east and beginning with the rude savage state of humanity and then making its way over to what would be a um elevated or advanced civilization of state . And that advanced civilisational state of course involves science

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. So science is becoming A an authority a disciplined with authority in the 19th century and the museum is incorporating that authority as it is progressing and becoming larger . Mhm. In the 19th century Here you can

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see by 1850 for where the Montagu House sad the structure begins to emerge. The new, the new museum begins to emerge and you have much more order . And um there's also A division between two parts

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of the collections. On the right side you have mainly the books, the printed books and manuscripts. And then on the left from the entrance you have mainly the antiquities. And so that deficient will dominate

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how visitors move through the museum. Up until even today is how it is still structured now. As the spaces are enlarging, you also have the acquisition of other collections. So as a museum is growing

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, it's also expanding its operations outside of the museum to fill the spaces that it has created. Oh , so I'm just going to quickly take you through what I've been able to do in terms of uh

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reconstructed tour in the 19th century, using multiple illustrations from Newspapers and other forms of publications, books from the 19th century. But here you can see how those who are visiting that. It was a particular

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class of people and we know that from the registrar , um books and records and press um coverage during the time during its early opening. And what it points to is that is a class of people that

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are mainly middle class and who have time in their their day of time of leisure to visit the museum . So the linkage between the national museum and those who have the status, the economic status two occupy

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that space. And I think that's an important, another important part of how museums are operating and how , you know, it, it has not just a science as central to its development, but also

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a particular class of people to access the, the resources at the museum. And here is a front view of the museum and incorporated a lot of neoclassical architectural elements. And that's intentional. It is mirroring

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the forms of beauty, aesthetic, um forms there , europe thought were advanced and that would be greek and roman. So the picking back up on those architectural forms and showing a new embodiment of an advanced

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civilization was an important part of the message behind the architecture. And so, as you entered in to the british museum, you were immediately given a guidebook , you had a map. So there were there

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were ways of seeing the museum that the museum itself had imposed upon the visitors and that is another aspect of the socialization that's happening two visitors when they enter in and structuring everything that they experience from the architecture

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of the actual building itself, the way there to move in the space, how they're able to um conceptualize various collections and how they are exhibited. That is a comprehensive process of socialization happens once they enter

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into that space and you can see here other views of the main entrance hall. Mhm. So when you go in, the first thing that was where you were directed to was usually the antiquities, so

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that would be left on the left hand side of the entrance. And the antiquities was an area that requires an enormous amount of space because the antiquities that they were bringing in from places like Asia and Africa

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were colossal statues, enormous monuments that were being brought from those parts of the world. So the space needed to not be dwarfed by those statues. And for the grand tour of the space was quite significant

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in comparison to the to the colossal statues that you see here in the Egyptian Gallery. But that's where you would enter first. And for visitors this was an all moment to see you're nation acquiring these artifacts

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at such a rapid pace And then to have them all on display in one cohesive space. It was it was quite an amazing achievement and from the visitors were definitely impacted by the vision that was casted in

00:16:12.890 - 00:16:33.940

that space. one of the things that I argue is that when you come into a space like this , you it has the tendency to to strengthen your nationalist ties and also give you a source of pride

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about what it's doing, right, what what your your government is doing and and how it is able to okay uh huh contribute to at this point the discourse of science. So those are those are a

00:16:48.620 - 00:17:14.190

number of Mhm narratives that are operating at the time of the visit on the visitor that are working to legitimate the operations at the museum. They're also helping to legitimate other forms of power that are outside happening

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outside of the museum. You can see just continuing to walk through on the first floor of the Egyptian Gallery, other artifacts, many of these colossal statues still are present in the same space. Uh huh

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. Um Here at the center of the Egyptian room you see the the Rosetta stone which was a famous artifact that still today attracts a number of visitors to the museum. Yeah, next to the Egyptian gallery

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, you would be led to the nine of a gallery or the Syrian artifacts. You would finish the first floor, go up and continue viewing other artifacts , other Egyptian artifacts, mainly um mummies and smaller

00:18:23.380 - 00:18:44.770

smaller objects in the roman period. Of course, you see Greco roman artifacts there in the second floor as you make your weight around to the other side . That's where you have an enormous library. And

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in that library you have old copies of the bible , the codex Alexandra minus. You have rare manuscripts . This is a also a site of all to see knowledge on display in these spaces, the visitors

00:19:11.140 - 00:19:37.840

that would go through. So by Really the late 19th century, the museum expands rapidly. It is set I think fairly in place in terms of all of the collections being given adequate space and they're at

00:19:37.840 - 00:19:56.670

the center, you see the reading room which is built In 1857 and by that time, so by the late 19th century, the museum has expanded to to its current form. So when we think about

00:19:57.840 - 00:20:15.310

This rapid expansion and we think about the accumulation of artifacts during the 19th century, we have to keep in mind what was happening around the world. And of course in the 19th century, the UK was

00:20:15.320 - 00:20:36.380

the largest, had the largest empire in the world . And so if you could look at, you know where Africa is and what central Asia and Southwest Asia are, they had already considerable um inroads into

00:20:36.380 - 00:21:00.630

that part of the world and accumulating artifacts from from those regions um was fairly easy. And you had already a network of military um on the ground who were not just surveying the region for military purposes,

00:21:00.640 - 00:21:18.190

but they also had um, a double vision and keeping an eye out for any ruins or artifacts that they could add to the national museum. So it's , I think it's important to, to keep this

00:21:18.200 - 00:21:40.510

in mind the, the national museum within the context of, of empire. And one particular military personnel , Henry Krezwick Rawlinson, who was the father of kony, a former the study of cuneiform in Biblical

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studies. He would make its way into, you know, Southwest Asia as part of the military. But he also had um an eye for artifacts and he was accumulating artifacts during some of his military expeditions

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. Some of those artifacts include this babylonian brick, which you can still see today. And it's, you know, in the 19th century meant by mid 19th century, the market for artifacts wasn't fully developed

00:22:22.440 - 00:22:41.060

. The uh, many of these objects were entered . Um They were part of the sort of the sacred oral traditions of the various cultures in the region . They they didn't assign to them a scientific value

00:22:41.440 - 00:23:02.830

like those who are coming in from europe. They had a different framework that they were operating under whereby they saw objects as part of a evidentiary processes of bringing support to particular arguments that were being made about

00:23:02.840 - 00:23:26.670

certain cultures in biblical studies. It was being, you know, these objects were being used cooperate certain arguments about the historicity of the bible. Well you know with this new economy of you know artifact finding

00:23:26.670 - 00:23:45.960

and accumulating ruins and statues. You have figures in in europe and the U. K. This is Austin Henry Layard who had heard about this economy and wasn't trained as a Biblical list or an archaeologist.

00:23:45.970 - 00:24:11.250

But he was an adventurer and wanted to take hold of this this new momentum that was being created with science and museums and the accumulation of artifacts. And decided to finance using some donations from his aunt and

00:24:11.250 - 00:24:33.670

some other wealthy um donors to finance an expedition to Southwest Asia and go and excavate for for artifacts. This was in the mid 1800s. These are several publications that came out Later in the 19th century describing

00:24:33.680 - 00:24:56.660

his adventures in places like what is uh modern Iran and Iraq. He would dress in the local dervish dress, disguising himself as as being one of the locals. So you could see in his publications,

00:24:56.670 - 00:25:18.520

uh he had reverted to this this tactic as a way of serving the land and not being suspicious by the locals as someone trying to to acquire ruins and artifacts or objects. So there is, there is

00:25:18.520 - 00:25:40.860

a clandestine element to these sorts of operations and they're not, they there weren't always operating with transparency. So this is something that comes out in the history as we're text contextualizing the expansion of the museum and

00:25:41.240 - 00:26:03.690

the accumulation of objects and those who were involved in that process show some relationships of power and and assumptions that I think are important to understand. And as we we think about artifacts that shed light on the

00:26:03.690 - 00:26:26.480

bible that that's one aspect. But there's also the broader context of how those objects make it to that space. Um that is creating those connections. These are some other publications of layered. Again here,

00:26:26.480 - 00:26:47.410

he is dressed in the local dress, disguising himself trying to operate under a particular radar right where he's going in at night, mainly excavating ruins, sometimes with a firm in sometimes without a firm in um

00:26:47.420 - 00:27:07.270

and trying to find artifacts to help, you know , enlarge the national museum. The areas where he was concentrating mainly. So he was this is an area here that he was quite successful in finding um

00:27:10.040 - 00:27:30.930

large statues and reliefs from the Assyrian period and the assyrians. The Neo Assyrian empire were thinking about the eighth century B. C. E. In his publications. You could see how the the excavation and

00:27:30.930 - 00:28:00.490

the removal of these artifacts occurred and here he is there at the top supervising this entire archaeological dig. This particular palace. The inaccurate palace was found at night without uh without the appropriate permission. And it

00:28:00.490 - 00:28:18.180

wasn't until after he had acquired the legal permission to excavate that it became uh an operation in daylight done in daylight. But this is something that you have to see in context how it arrived to this point

00:28:18.180 - 00:28:41.170

where you mobilize an entire labor force to begin extracting these artifacts and a lot of those who were part of that labor force at least were local workers. Not fully aware of the economy behind accumulating artifacts and

00:28:41.740 - 00:29:03.860

the what their purpose um was within that economy. The locals did have an oral history as to the sacredness of these, of these artifacts were talking about landscapes that were um ancestral landscapes. These were ancestral

00:29:03.640 - 00:29:22.760

um burial sites and so attributed to those burial sites was an enormous amount of sacredness, um religious meaning . And so that I think it's often lost in the narrative as we look at artifacts in the museum

00:29:22.760 - 00:29:44.440

. There is also the, the local perception and understanding of of those ruins that we we don't, we don't often hear in the descriptions. So here again, you can see how these colossal statues are

00:29:44.440 - 00:30:03.660

being removed and then you sing a large wooden wagon or cart how it's tied to it. And then this labor force is dragging it from its original site and making its way over to the british museum.

00:30:03.840 - 00:30:27.130

And I just I find it just interesting and 19th century illustrations to look at those who are on the periphery, seeing these artifacts leave their original site and imagining the what, what was going on with with

00:30:27.130 - 00:30:49.310

their i understanding of this process. Um and here again, we see the continuation of these, the journey of these artifacts two, the british ship and from there they were, they were removed and made

00:30:49.310 - 00:31:06.270

their way over to the british Museum. So here you can see the that same colossal statue and these various publications make its way from its original site to the entrance of the british museum. The part of

00:31:06.270 - 00:31:26.130

what I'm gonna analyzing is that entire process right? The process of acquiring legal permission to extract these artifacts , the relationships forged and needed in order for that process to be successful. The amount of financing that's

00:31:26.130 - 00:31:51.760

going into um supporting these expeditions and the ideology that is giving legitimation to this process. The notion that these artifacts will be better served if they're in the hands of Europeans, that these artifacts can um they

00:31:52.140 - 00:32:08.360

will provide us a better understanding of the bible and so that I think is uh worthy of their extraction and removal. So all these number of features to the ideology are helping to legitimate the removal of objects

00:32:08.840 - 00:32:31.960

from the original location to the to the national museum . And here then it is placed in the name of a room. Are at the entrance. I've been in the room and here's a 19th century publication

00:32:32.740 - 00:32:52.070

showing where they ended up in their final uh place , their final position there on the first floor of the antiquities. Yeah. When I visited the museum in 2013, I took this photo of those same

00:32:52.080 - 00:33:15.920

statues. And so there you are. They still are at the entrance are the same gallery At this time. By the mid 19th century historical criticism, which is a way of interpreting the bible using um

00:33:15.930 - 00:33:38.960

inductive methods. Right? So you're it's a it's an approach to the bible that mimics various sciences that are emerging at the time period. And one of the main premises behind science is the use of empirical

00:33:38.970 - 00:34:04.630

evidence to cooperate. An argument relies a lot on on visually visualizing evidence, seeing the evidence. So whether it be in medicine using the microscope, or whether it would be the natural sciences having flora and

00:34:04.630 - 00:34:30.240

fossil has artifacts as evidence to certain arguments that you're making about creation and about nature within the study of the bible. Historical criticism are higher criticism relied on artifacts, so it relied on monuments and inscriptions and

00:34:30.240 - 00:34:51.630

statues as a way of proving certain historical events that we have mentioned in the bible. So this is a scientific move and this is a new strategy. A new approach to bible Prior to the 19th century

00:34:51.640 - 00:35:10.760

, dominating the study of the Bible was of course the Christian Church and an appeal to theology um inter textual readings of the bible, looking at the bible , looking at a verse and connection with other verses

00:35:13.040 - 00:35:28.500

. Allegory. There are, there's a way there was a way of teaching and reading and studying the bible that was out that happened and occurred mainly within the church Here in the mid 19th century. That

00:35:28.500 - 00:35:45.210

shifting where this, with the emergence of historical criticism , you have these national museums providing the evidence that that approach relies on. In order to make arguments . They're pulling the study of the bible away from

00:35:45.220 - 00:36:07.830

its previous location of study the church and moving it now into a separate realm. That's where you see a clear also demarcation and universities between the study of theology and the study of the bible. This is

00:36:07.830 - 00:36:30.490

all happening at this time period. And one of the Seminal Publications in the mid 19th century that started the this um draw our attraction to higher criticism in the UK was an essay published by Benjamin Joy.

00:36:30.490 - 00:37:01.960

Yet the interpretation of scripture. This is a very controversial volume of essays because it was appealing to the scientific approach to studying the bible as as viable and um, authoritative strategy. It made sense. It

00:37:02.530 - 00:37:23.920

it followed a positive trajectory where you what you're seeing is truth. So there's this notion of original context and the intentions of the author that was being made possible, or at least that's what they were claiming

00:37:23.930 - 00:37:45.850

to be made possible within the scientific study of the bible. And so these essays were instrumental in setting that emotion in the UK. So you have artifacts that were being discovered by Henry layered that now had

00:37:45.430 - 00:38:06.670

um a different purpose from perhaps their original purpose. Right. These artifacts are coming out of a a context that had Mhm. There is no sense of modern science or notions of using artifacts to cooperate the

00:38:06.670 - 00:38:20.240

bible. This is this is a modern concept. So these artifacts are being pulled out of their original location and they're being put into a different set of rules, a different way of engaging these artifacts.

00:38:20.620 - 00:38:36.650

And this one here is that the Black Police. I'm just showing you some of them the artifacts that have, I think more of a direct linked to to the Hebrew bible. This one in particular has

00:38:37.520 - 00:39:00.570

the inscription where you see and a relief references to a Israelite king, king of Yahoo. So this was extremely important to these biblical critics, using historical criticism as a way of supporting um the historicity of

00:39:00.570 - 00:39:15.500

scripture and the historical background to scripture. This is this is just one example. And of course the Rosetta stone allowed many scholars to decide for arab politics because you see it in paragraphs, but you also

00:39:15.500 - 00:39:37.670

see it in greek and that was instrumental to the study of hieroglyphics, which would also contribute to higher criticism or historical criticism. Now I asked her um seeing the museum expand in terms of artifacts is also

00:39:37.670 - 00:39:58.990

expanding in terms of manuscripts and books. Here is the early illustration of the first reading room in the british museum before it occupied the product quadrangle in the center of the museum. And that was an initiative

00:39:58.990 - 00:40:15.850

done by the principal librarian, Anthony. I mean , I can easy, okay. And this is an ambitious project which, again, architecture here is reflecting how the nation sees itself and what it also

00:40:15.850 - 00:40:40.640

wants the visitors to see and how they want them to be socialist. This is becoming a center of knowledge under a dome structure. And part of the ideology that we find in the architecture is this notion

00:40:40.640 - 00:40:55.950

that knowledge is, it's in all, it's a space that is encompassed all knowledge and to enter into it. one has the potential to acquire all knowledge . So when you're having an institution that is legitimating

00:40:55.960 - 00:41:21.320

the accumulation of artifacts and is claimed to be at the height of human civilization. This notion is this very ambitious notion that patrons and visitors have the capacity to be sort of super intelligent beings in this space

00:41:21.810 - 00:41:44.240

that that I think is being conveyed implicitly in the architecture and just individualization of books surrounding you. As you can see here in some of these early renderings of the reading room, they had the mission to

00:41:45.110 - 00:42:06.610

have a copy of every printed book in the world . So if you think about current day search engines in in the internet, this was early manifestation of a search engine where you enter in and you felt

00:42:07.900 - 00:42:27.640

like you were at the center of all knowledge. And of course, the statuary around the perimeter is pointing to particular philosophers, particular male thinkers, Western male thinkers. So it's also celebrating not just all

00:42:27.640 - 00:42:51.970

knowledge, but also privileging Western knowledge in this space . The arrangement of the desks where this is all this is very intentional. It's about ensuring order and discipline for every reader. So when you entered in

00:42:51.970 - 00:43:07.780

, you had to have a reader's ticket, you were assigned a number of a desk number and you had to orchestrate your movements according to the rules of that room. So this is uh, some,

00:43:07.780 - 00:43:30.120

some renderings of readers studying in the reading room at the very center. You have the catalogs. These catalogues were extremely important because they ultimately became the standard for how libraries across the world would catalog their books

00:43:30.500 - 00:43:50.520

and organized knowledge and british museum was certainly at the forefront of those discussions. Standardizing catalogs. Book catalogs here at the center, you had the principal librarian who stood on a platform with his top hat,

00:43:51.300 - 00:44:19.090

observing everyone in the room, constant surveillance. So there's a level of disciplining that's happening through the policing and ordering of readers and the the admission requirements. All of these multiple uh huh strategies and procedures are

00:44:19.220 - 00:44:43.390

working toward a particular way of socialist socializing readers. Now, we also know that um this So here are some some of the pictures of the, behind the outer walls of the dome, several million books

00:44:43.400 - 00:45:00.930

. Where did knowledge began in this room? It was it began with theology. So that was quite significant when you think about entering into a room and you're given this image that you're in the center of

00:45:00.940 - 00:45:20.440

all knowledge, where where do you begin in that space? So the space guided you and directed you to the first discipline within this scheme of of knowledge . And that was theology and the study of the

00:45:20.440 - 00:45:35.110

bible. So your first and if you were to follow the the order of knowledge in this room, you would go to first studying the bible. And I think that's an important part of how the nation

00:45:35.490 - 00:45:55.630

was understanding Christianity, the importance of the bible and how the bible was certainly working to legitimate not just the expansion of empire, but also legitimating the presence of this, this national museum. So this is

00:45:55.630 - 00:46:20.330

another layer to how order procedure architecture and are contributing to a particular way of thinking. And certainly the bible in this space plays an important role in that process. There is also something very interesting about these

00:46:20.330 - 00:46:35.740

screenings. This really in that okay, so there are some, there's a sort of morita's ticket. So you would be issued a reader's ticket. You had to prove first and foremost that you were a

00:46:35.750 - 00:46:57.570

person of respectability, that you dressed well, that you had a good hygiene that you where either a homeowner or you one of your referees was a homeowner . So there's a multiple layers of requirements in determining

00:46:57.570 - 00:47:17.010

whether or not you can have access to that space . This is a sign in book that people who were given issued a reader's ticket would have to sign , acknowledging that they read the directions respecting the reading

00:47:17.010 - 00:47:36.420

room and those among the rules meant that you were you weren't going to dress inappropriately, that you were not going to be loud. Um Some very curious rules typical of victorian period that you find that they're

00:47:36.420 - 00:47:53.950

having to except before entering thomas kelly Cheney is this is one signature that I found in my research and this particular figure was instrumental and the study of Isaiah , right? So he wrote various commentaries on the

00:47:53.950 - 00:48:15.790

book of Isaiah, is the tasks that were given to visitors to readers. And these desks, the design of those desks were taken out of what they , what men used in their studies. So they

00:48:15.790 - 00:48:34.130

wanted to duplicate in some way the victorian house hold , right? And and when it when it when it came to furniture that when men enter the space that they felt that they were in their study in

00:48:34.130 - 00:48:51.630

their in their house, of course it's appealing to middle class um male visitors, no population. And and that's the majority of its of, you know , not only the users, but also those who

00:48:51.630 - 00:49:13.230

were structuring the space and contributing to the existence of the museum are middle class white males. So here you have uh an image of the desk. There's also there was there were spaces that were allocated for

00:49:13.230 - 00:49:31.150

women readers. And so there were two desks to desk areas where women were allowed to go and read their books. And of course it wasn't expected that women would be contributing to knowledge in. The central

00:49:31.150 - 00:49:51.360

part of the room are in a broader part of the room that they their purpose in the room was mainly to to engage um popular novels, leisure reading , but not nothing of serious study and that typical

00:49:51.360 - 00:50:07.390

of the victorian period, and how you're dividing public and private and the private sphere being the domain of the woman and the public being the domain of the mail. So that's playing into how they are organizing

00:50:07.390 - 00:50:30.670

leaders. And we're thinking about female readers reading at the women's tables and here in a space that conveys this sense of all knowledge and yet you're imagined outside of that what that does to a discourse. So

00:50:30.680 - 00:50:50.690

if you're if you're entering in as a biblical critic and you're using the theology section, the room imagines in that process a male, middle class male engaged in that activity, but not a middle class female

00:50:54.860 - 00:51:14.130

. And of course at the women's tables, you had furniture that was typical of drawing room, of a drawing room in a victorian house. So for women, they had cushioned chairs and has sex all

00:51:14.130 - 00:51:32.190

for their use to engage in leisure reading. So the museum wanted them to also feel that they were at home. But in that process, your you're duplicating social um social views about women and their purpose

00:51:32.200 - 00:52:00.680

in in public in society. You're also encouraging or you're reinforcing the role of men in in in in that society. So those are some elements that we find in that space, of course, with that

00:52:00.550 - 00:52:22.500

Those who are going to dominate biblical criticism in the 19th century are white men and they will um hold a place of prominence within the study of the bible . And I think that's uh you know, a

00:52:22.500 - 00:52:45.560

fairly natural outcome given the context in which they are being socialist. So you have the need for artifacts . So you go to a national Museum. The National Museum is privileging particular kinds of people to study

00:52:45.560 - 00:53:04.520

the bible and to study those artifacts for certain reasons . And in that entire process you're creating a particular , a particular profile of who is able to study the bible, who has authority in that process and

00:53:04.520 - 00:53:22.220

in that role. And as you look at the literature In the 19th century, of course you're going to find very little literature being produced by winning all those. Some female figures do assert themselves and in

00:53:22.220 - 00:53:44.110

an effort to try and show their equality in terms of intelligence, right? The society at large, the social system and the discourse. The guild is of course working to marginalize female voices. So book

00:53:44.110 - 00:54:04.700

that most from the british museum to been to particular critics. Biblical critics, um Brooke Westcott, B . F. Westcott, New Testament Scholar. And I study a bit about his use of the reading

00:54:04.700 - 00:54:25.920

room and how he was being socialized in that reading room. And of course he's being drawn to the codex Alexandra minus. His study is mainly textual criticism . And then the other I look at is Samuel

00:54:25.920 - 00:54:47.210

Rose Driver and he becomes very instrumental And the 2nd Congress Orientalists as I study a bit of his relationship to this organization that that organizations relationship to the british museum. This is an illustration of a tour that

00:54:47.210 - 00:55:07.650

was was done when the Congress met in London and the tour guy with Samuel birch, who is the at that time was the keeper of the End of Antiquities at the british Museum. So looking at some

00:55:07.650 - 00:55:27.960

of the proceedings, you can see here how they're there. Congress was being scheduled and they had a time allotted to visit the british museum. Well, I think I come to a a stopping point here

00:55:27.970 - 00:55:44.320

. I want to make sure there's a bit of space for you to ask any questions. Were any of the women successful in entering into the biblical criticism ? I think that's a good question. You find

00:55:44.320 - 00:56:08.570

that there are uh there's some efforts that's never that they were never formally formalized or recognized, I should say officially within, you know, the the established guild one very interesting finding that that I made it

00:56:08.580 - 00:56:31.180

at Union Theological Seminary had to do with the american side of biblical criticism. So, through Samuel Rolle's driver, he is in communication with um Charles Briggs at Union Theological Seminary and they form a relationship and

00:56:31.180 - 00:56:53.880

Charles Briggs is he becomes very attracted to higher criticism , starts to teach that method at Union Theological Seminary , even to his detriment, the presbyterian church at that time. They thought that that that's way of

00:56:53.880 - 00:57:15.970

reading scripture with heretical. And so he was, he he was ex community was exposed from the the Presbyterian Church because of his teaching of higher criticism. And there's a there's a uh you know, uh

00:57:15.980 - 00:57:36.780

literature on the story of that and the whole court proceedings about um his heresy and removal. But the thing is that he was going he was going blind towards the latter end of his life and found it

00:57:36.780 - 00:57:52.130

very hard to see small letters. And so when he was doing this lexicon, which is the, you know, it's still the lexicon that we use in studying Biblical Hebrew english lexicon that we use in

00:57:52.130 - 00:58:07.780

studying biblical Hebrew. It was his daughter who is doing all of the annotations and she was the one that was actually doing the definitions of the Hebrew terms . So a lot of the work that is in

00:58:07.780 - 00:58:22.740

that lexicon is actually the work of his daughter, who is never officially recognized as a biblical scholar, but she uh and they wouldn't even give her a degree. She had all the requirements. She even

00:58:22.750 - 00:58:42.980

she even wrote her dissertation and was never awarded a PhD, but she was the one behind her father's work in that That lexicon that ultimately, I mean , I think we're on the 16th edition of that

00:58:42.990 - 00:58:59.450

, that lexicon. So yes, they made their way they entered into those friends, but they often had to do so um in disguise behind the scenes , behind other figures, in this case who was

00:58:59.450 - 00:59:20.340

behind the authority of her father, that she was able to have some contribution to the discourse. It's not until the early 1960s that you start to see more uh formal acknowledgement of female contribution to biblical criticism

00:59:21.120 - 00:59:39.070

, which I think is um tragic because there was a lot of uh scholarship being produced, just, it just never reached the same level of uh white european male scholarship. Yeah. And it's it's among

00:59:39.070 - 00:59:53.900

them, you know, the guild is controlled and dominated. Okay, well, it's been a great pleasure to be with you. And I thank you for taking the time to To listen and take a

00:59:53.910 - 00:00:00.000

19th century tour of the British Museum. And of course, I'm here on campus. If you find yourself in this area, you want to talk a little bit more about what I've discussed. Feel free

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

to email me. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah