Their translations and interpretations were alike erroneous, that they had misread the names of Chedorlaomer and his allies, and that the 'arm of the Mighty King,' in the letters of ebed-tob, meant the Pharaoh of Egypt. Unfortunately, the infallibility of the 'critical' consciousness can be better tested in the case of Assyriology than in that of the old Hebrew records, and the Assyriologist may therefo're be pardoned if he finds in such displays of ignorance merely a proof of the worthlessness of the 'critical' method. A method which leads its advocates to deny the facts stated by experts when these run counter to their own prepossessions cannot be of much value. At all events, it is a method with which the archaeologist and the historian can have nothing to do.