his father Isaac, or the story of the spies, the two are completely
amalgamated; short passages, verses, and parts of verses are taken in
turn from each. In other cases the editor introduced the different
versions--as, for example, the two accounts of the flight of Hagar--into
different settings. From subsequent allusions to two versions, of which
only one survives in the Old Testament, it is to be inferred that
sometimes he simply preserved the fuller, usually the Judean. As a rule,
however, there is clear evidence that he made every effort to retain
all that he found in his original sources, even though the resulting
composite narrative contained many inconsistencies.

[Sidenote: _Practical value of the rediscovery of the original histories_]

To the careful student, seeking to recover the original narratives in
their primal unity, these inconsistencies are guides as valuable as the
fossils and stratification of the earth are to the geologist intent upon
tracing the earth's past history. Guided by these variations and the
distinctive peculiarities in vocabulary, literary style, point of view,
religious conceptions, and purpose of each of the groups of narratives,
Old Testament scholars have rediscovered these two original histories;
and with their recovery the great majority of seeming inconsistencies
and many perplexing problems fade into insignificance. Supplementing
each other, as do the earliest Gospels, these two independent histories
present with new definiteness and authority the essential facts in
Israel's early political, social and religious life. Like eye-witnesses,
they testify to the still more significant fact that from the first God
was revealing his character and will through a unique race.

[Sidenote: _The brief late prophetic history_]