1844 – 1913

James Orr

Worth knowing

A Scottish theologian who taught in Glasgow.
His Problem of the Old Testament (1906) challenged the critical theory about how the Old Testament was put together at its starting assumptions.
He was general editor of the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia and wrote for The Fundamentals.

In Scholar’s Dream, James Orr has one book

The Problem of the Old TestamentJames Orr, The Problem of the Old Testament (1906)Biblical TheologyRationality

James Orr’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from James Orr that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“The critical treatment breaks down the Biblical narratives, disintegrates them, causes them to crumble to pieces. But there are features in the narratives which resist this treatment, and constitute a standing protest against it.”
James Orr, The Problem of the Old Testament III (1906), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move The Text Refuses

Biblical TheologyArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

In the gameRead the seams the other way. The doublets are older than the scheme that dates them, and a book edited as clumsily as this one is alleged to be would not have kept the things that embarrass it.

Learned byThe Problem of the Old Testament (Lv 44)

Strong against

×3The Documentary Hypothesisan argument · why?

Orr’s other half, and the one the scheme has no answer for: an editor as clumsy as this theory needs would not have kept the passages that embarrass him.

×2The Tübingen Thesisan argument · why?

Orr points to features of the stories that resist being broken into pieces. The narratives hold together better than the theory says they should.

“…the persistent reading into the history, in the interest of some fancy, of a meaning which it cannot be made to bear.”
James Orr, The Problem of the Old Testament V (1906), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move The Scheme, Not the Text

PresuppositionArgument · power 100 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe developmental ladder was not found in the Old Testament. It was carried in from comparative religion and the text was cut to fit it — and where the text will not sit on the ladder, it is the text that gets redated.

Learned byThe Problem of the Old Testament (Lv 48)

Strong against

×4The Documentary Hypothesisan argument · why?

The ladder was never in the text. It was brought to it.

×3The Tübingen Thesisan argument · why?

Orr shows that the scheme came first. Scholars brought a theory of development to the text and cut the text to fit it.

“To a large and influential school of critical inquirers… this question of a supernatural origin for the religion of Israel is already foreclosed; is ruled out at the start.”
James Orr, The Problem of the Old Testament I (1906), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move Ruled Out in Advance

PresuppositionArgument · power 104 · 95% accurate

In the gameA miracle was impossible before a single page was opened. Everything after that is not a finding about the documents; it is the consequence of a decision taken before the documents were read.

Learned byThe Problem of the Old Testament (Lv 52)

Strong against

×4The Life of Jesus Examinedan argument · why?

Myth was the only category left once the other one was shut.

×3The History of Religionsan argument · why?

Orr notes that this school ruled out anything supernatural before looking. Once that is decided, every parallel looks like a source.

×3The Life of Jesusan argument · why?

Orr notes that miracles were ruled out before the first page was read. Renan’s gentle Jesus is the result of that decision, not of the evidence.

×2The Documentary Hypothesisan argument · why?

The ladder is one assumption. Underneath it is an older one, and it was made before the Pentateuch was opened.

Words James Orr’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

How it works in the game: the move Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

Learned byThe Problem of the Old Testament (Lv 20)

Who else was alive

James Orr against everyone else in the game.

A.D. 450A.D. 700A.D. 950A.D. 1200A.D. 1450A.D. 1700A.D. 1950

Boethius Boniface John of Damascus Daniel of Winchester Timothy I Alcuin of York Pope Leo III Eulogius of Córdoba Paul Alvaro of Córdoba Rimbert Humbert of Silva Candida Michael Cerularius Peter III of Antioch Anselm of Canterbury Ari Thorgilsson Ebo and Herbord Thomas Aquinas John Wyclif Lorenzo Valla Girolamo Savonarola Pope Paul III Martin Luther Miles Coverdale William Tyndale Emperor Charles V John Calvin Teresa of Ávila John Jewel The Council of Trent The English exiles at Geneva Hugo Grotius René Descartes John Owen Blaise Pascal John Bunyan Louis XIV of France Pierre Bayle Joseph Butler Jonathan Edwards Thomas Reid George Campbell William Paley John Henry Newman J. C. Ryle Friedrich Nietzsche James Orr B. B. Warfield Herman Bavinck W. R. Sorley James Denney J. Gresham Machen

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate51 authors sit outside this window