Recent criticism goes to show that there is a very considerable body of biblical material, more important for its attitude to the history than for its historical accuracy, the true meaning of which cannot as yet be clearly perceived. It raises many serious problems which concentrate upon that age which is of the greatest importance for the biblical and theological student. The perplexing relation between the admittedly late compilations and the actual course of the early history becomes still more intricate when one observes such a feature as the late interest in the Israelite tribes. No doubt there is much that is purely artificial and untrustworthy in the late (post-exilic) representations of these divisions, but it is almost incredible that the historical foundation for their early career is severed from the written sources by centuries of warfare, immigration and other disturbing factors. On the one hand, conservative scholars insist upon the close material relation between the constituent sources; critical scholars, on the other hand, while recognizing much that is relatively untrustworthy, refrain from departing from the general outlines of the canonical history more than is absolutely necessary. Hence the various reconstructions of the earlier history, with all their inherent weaknesses. But historical criticism is faced with the established literary conclusions which, it should be noticed, place the Deuteronomic and priestly compilations posterior to the great changes at and after the fall of the northern monarchy, and, to some extent, contemporary with the equally serious changes in Judah. There were catastrophes detrimental to the preservation of older literary records, and vicissitudes which, if they have not left their mark on contemporary history--which is singularly blank--may be traced on the representations of the past. There are external historical circumstances and internal literary features which unite to show that the application of the literary hypotheses of the Old Testament to the course of Israelite history is still incomplete, and they warn us that the intrinsic value of religious and didactic writings should not depend upon the accuracy of their history.[47] Future research may not be able to solve the problems which arise in the study of the period now under discussion; it is the more necessary, therefore, that all efforts should be tested in the light of purely external evidence (see further § 24; and PALESTINE: _History_).