BRIEF MENTION

OLD TESTAMENT

EISELEN, FREDERICK CARL. Prophecy and the Prophets. In Their Historical Relations. New York and Cincinnati: Eaton & Mains, 1909. 331 pages. $1.50 net.

Professor Eiselen says that in writing the book now under review, he "had in mind especially adult Bible classes in the Sunday school or young peoples' organizations" (p. 6). He arranges the Old Testament prophets in chronological order— the order now usually maintained by the best progressive scholars and then discusses, in paragraphs covering about a half to a whole page each, the chief themes which a popular treatment of the given prophet would require. These themes cover historical, biographical, analytical, theological, and predictive areas of thought. The book presents facts well known to specialists, but designed in this work for the layman in Bible study. To facilitate its use as a textbook, it is provided with a series of review questions covering fourteen pages, also with a list of books for further study on the prophets of the Old Testament.

WARREN, W. F. The Earliest Cosmologies: The Universe as Pictured in Thought by the Ancient Hebrews, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Iranians and, Indo-Aryans. New York and Cincinnati: Eaton & Mains, 1909. 222 pages. $1.50 net.

The author of The Cradle of the Human Race has here made an attempt to introduce the reader to comparative cosmology. He discards the older representations of the Hebrew conception and allies himself with the so-called pan-Babylonian theory. Even Schiaparelli's work practically counts with him for naught. The Babylonian cosmology is so important in his estimation that it "is the key to an understanding of the Indo-Aryan" cosmology. His treatise picks up and treats the Egyptian, Homeric, Indo-Iranian, and Buddhistic universes in the light of the latest utterances of specialists in the several fields. But there is so much conjectural and hypothetical in it all, such a fine display of genius in harmonizing differences, that we must "lay it on the table" until further light bursts in on this perplexing and elusive question of the ancient world-view.

WINTER, J., UND WÜNSCHE, A. Mechiltha: Ein tannaitischer Midrasch zu

Exodus. Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909. xxix+390 pages. M. 11.50.

This is one of the scores of works issued on the occasion of the five-hundredth anniversary of the University of Leipzig. It is dedicated to the theological and philosophical faculties. This Mechiltha derives much of its value from the fact that it contains explanations whose collection dates from the first quarter of the second century, and whose origin reaches still farther back. In fact we find here some of the earliest specimens of biblical exegesis. The real gain from this work is found in its retouching the life and times at the beginning of the Christian era. The authors have provided their work with an instructive introduction on midrashim and on the material presented in the body of the work. The Hebrew text from which their translation was made was published by Friedmann in Vienna, in 1870. Where the translation pure and simple does

not convey the full meaning, explanatory words are added in brackets. This translation covers the midrash of Exodus 12:1-35:3. The rabbinical interpretations, explanations, and disputations are very characteristic, and often give us a flashlight view of Jewish ideas in the centuries far back of the scientific methods of our day.

NEW TESTAMENT

LEWIS, AGNES SMITH. Codex Climaci Rescriptus. Fragments of SixthCentury Palestinian Syriac Texts of the Gospels, of the Acts of the Apostles, and of St. Paul's Epistles. Also Fragments of an Early Palestinian Lectionary of the Old Testament. [Horae Semiticae, VIII.] With Seven Facsimiles. Cambridge: University Press, 1909. xxxi+201 pages. $3.50. Four years ago Mrs. Lewis secured a Syriac parchment manuscript of the Scala Paradisi of John of Sinai, written in the ninth century. For copying this well-known work the Syriac scribe had used six earlier manuscripts, Greek and Syriac, some of them of remarkable interest. These supply considerable parts of the gospels in continuous form, not rearranged as lections, in the Palestinian Syriac; and, still more notably, parts of the Acts and the epistles of Paul in the same language. These leaves are assigned to the sixth century, and show that a Palestinian Syriac version of the greater part of the New Testament existed at that time. These texts are printed with Nestle's Greek text on the opposite page, and the variations of the Syriac noted in Greek in the margin. One of the Greek manuscripts employed by the Syriac copyist contained a harmony of the gospels, written in two narrow columns in a sloping hand. Mrs. Lewis prints sections from Matthew and John, in which the omissions and the marginal section numbers, which reach nearly to 800, seem to confirm her view that the work is a gospel harmony. Yet it does not at all agree with what we have of Tatian's harmony (Ciasca, Fuldensis, etc.), and the question arises whether it represents that hardly less famous ancient harmony made by Ammonius in the third century, on the basis of Matthew. It is to be hoped that Mrs. Lewis will decipher and publish all the pages of her palimpsest that belong to this harmony. Altogether, this work supplies new and important textual materials for the Old and New Testaments.

HAWKINS, SIR JOHN C. Horae Synopticae: Contributions to the Study of the Synoptic Problem. Second edition, revised and supplemented. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1909. xvi+223 pages. IOS. 6d. net.

Ten years have passed since Sir John Hawkins, at the instance of Professor Sanday, first published his very useful and convenient presentation of the chief facts bearing upon the interrelations of the Synoptic Gospels: a presentation doubly helpful because uncontrolled by any theory of their significance. These tables, lists, and observations, somewhat revised, are now again put forth in a convenient volume, to continue to serve the cause of unbiased synoptic study. Indeed, one of the best ways to approach the Synoptic Problem is through Hawkins' skilfully collected material. On the identity of the Logia of Matthew with the "second source" of Matthew and Luke he is more cautious than in his first edition, out of deference to the growing disposition of scholars to regard it as an anonymous discourse source ("Q"). He is not blind indeed to the difficulty of explaining all the non-Markan common material of Matthew and Luke by

a single source: for a most careful examination has failed to elicit any expressions which he can "definitely label as characteristic of Q" (p. 113). The difficulty suggested by this fact is not lost upon Canon Hawkins, although he does not seem conscious of the solution offered by Professor Burton, in his Principles of Literary Criticism and Their Relation to the Synoptic Problem. It is possible that Hawkins has conceded to oral tradition a slightly larger part in the formation of the gospels than the facts really warrant (p. 217), though here as elsewhere he speaks with scholarly caution. ALEXANDER, GROSS. The Epistles to the Colossians and to the Ephesians. [“The Bible for Home and School."] New York: Macmillan, 1910. vii+132 pages. $0.50.

Dr. Alexander regards both these epistles as authentic works of Paul, written from Rome probably about 62 or 63 A.D. Ephesians was a circular letter to the churches of Asia. In both the author designed to set forth the full significance of the Christian revelation. The introductions are in general concise, and intelligent. Dr. Alexander's affinities are with the older interpreters oftener than might have been expected. His style is occasionally rather too informal (pp. 9, 53). The bibliographies are not always accurate; e. g., H. T. Holtzman, H. J. Holtzman, H. J. Holtzmann (pp. 9, 65).

SICKENBERGER, JOSEPH. Pseudo-Cyprianus De XII abusivis saeculi. Von Siegmund Hellmann. Fragmente der Homilien des Cyrill von Alexandrien zum Lukasevangelium. [Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, XXXIV, 1.] Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909. 108 pages. 75 cents.

The tract De duodecim abusivis saeculi, which has long gone under the name of Cyprian, is really of Irish origin. It was written between 630 and 700, for it shows acquaintance with works of Isidore of Seville on the one hand, and is itself included in the Irish Collection of Canons, of the year 700. This date is the more interesting when it is remembered how slight the literary remains of this particular period, between Isidore and Bede, are. Hellmann discusses the origin and influence of the tract and republishes the text, critically edited on the basis of nine manuscripts, with an apparatus of readings.

The scattered fragments of Cyril's Homilies on Luke are collected and published by Sickenberger. He has supplemented the materials of earlier editors of these Greek fragments by the use of Nicetas' extensive Catena on Luke, in which Cyril's homilies were freely used. The parts of the Homilies recovered deal mostly with the ninth and tenth chapters of Luke. By a misprint the English scholar J. R. Crowfoot is referred to as Crawfoot, p. 68.

SCHWARTZ, EDUARD. Eusebius Kirchengeschichte. Bearbeitet im Auftrage der Kirchenväter-Commission der königl. Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Die Lateinische Uebersetzung: Bearbeitet im gleichen Auftrage von Theodor Mommsen. Dritter Theil: Einleitungen, Uebersichten und Register. Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909. ccxlviii+216 pages. M. 12. The third part of the Prussian Academy's great edition of the Greek text and the Latin version of Eusebius' church history adds to the critical texts already published a series of useful introductions, discussions, and indices. The manuscripts, translations,

and ancient editions, the orthography, and the chronology and arrangement of the work are successively treated. There are also useful indices of the biblical and literary references, of names of persons and places, and of the more important Greek words. The whole forms an invaluable appendix to the edition, which promises to be the standard for many years to come.

Xрvσоσтоμкá: Studi e Ricerche intorno a S. Giovanni Crisostomo. A cura del Comitato per il XV° Centenario della sua morte. Fascicolo I. Roma: Libreria Pustet, 1908. 242 pages.

The fifteen-hundredth anniversary of the death of Chrysostom (407-1907) has been celebrated by the publication of a series of papers relating to his life and works. These studies and essays have been prepared by Italian, English, French, German, Armenian and Austrian scholars, and the topics treated bear additional witness to the vast range of Chrysostom's influence. Four papers deal with Chrysostom in Armenian, Arabic, Georgian, and Russian literature. Naegele discusses his relation to Libanius, Sabatini his social work, and Butler the authorship of the Dialogus de vita Chrysostomi. The whole is handsomely printed and constitutes a notable contribution to the literature that gathers around the great preacher of Antioch and Constantinople, whose influence still operates in the modern world.

CHURCH HISTORY

CLARK, FRANCIS E. AND HARRIET A. The Gospel in Latin Lands. Outline Studies of Protestant Work in the Latin Countries of Europe and America. New York: Macmillan, 1909. 315 pages. $1.50.

An ambitious attempt to compress a large subject into the limits of a mission study textbook, with not very satisfactory results. The book appears to have been made to order, with no true assimilation of the material. Its usefulness will depend upon the teacher into whose hands it falls. It is equipped with maps, chronological tables, bibliography, "topics for further study," and illustrative selections.

PATON, L. B. (EDITOR). Recent Christian Progress. Studies in Christian Thought and Work during the Last Seventy-five Years, by Professors and Alumni of Hartford Theological Seminary in Celebration of Its Seventy-fifth Anniversary, May 24-26, 1909. New York: Macmillan, 1909. xiv+597 pages. $3.00.

The range of subjects in this volume is wide as the world. They are subsumed under ten general categories, viz.: (1) Preliminary Studies, (2) Old Testament, (3) New Testament, (4) Church History, (5) Systematic Theology, (6) The Modern Churches, (7) Church Work, (8) Allied Agencies, (9) Home Missions, (10) Foreign Missions. The treatment of the themes within the first five of these divisions naturally takes the form of a bibliographical survey of the last seventy-five years. The selection of books worthy of mention in such a noble array of literature is on the whole admirable, and the judgment of the reviewers is for the most part discriminating and well balanced. One can only regret that American scholars have not contributed more that is worthy of enumeration. The remaining divisions call for a historical survey of the work actually

done in the various fields of Christian activity. One rises from the reading of a volume like this with an increased wonder and admiration for the zeal, the ability, and the versatility of the Church of God. It is distinctly worth while to pause occasionally and take stock. Careful study of the labors and progress of the past can but contribute to a more intelligent use of the opportunities of the present and the future.

KUAČALA, J. Thomas Campanella, ein Reformator der ausgehenden Renaissance. Berlin: Trowitsch & Sohn, 1909. xvi+ 164 pages. M. 5.20.

This monograph constitutes the sixth part of Neue Studien zur Geschichte der Theologie und der Kirche, edited by Professors N. Bonwetsch, of Göttingen, and R. Seeberg, of Berlin. The author has devoted several years to the study of the life and writings of Campanella. In 1906-7 he published in Russian seven different treatises on this subject. Campanella is one of the most interesting and one of the most problematical characters of the age of the Counter Reformation. It is the task of Kuačala to trace the sources of Campanella's philosophical and theological opinions, to define. these opinions as accurately as possible by a comparative study of his writings, and to give a just estimate of the man. So far as one can determine without a study of the sources like that of the writer, his methods are correct and his judgments trustworthy. That Campanella was a freethinker of the most pronounced type and utterly at variance with scholastic theology there can be no doubt. It is equally clear that he favored political and social reform to an extent that would have swept away feudalism, and royal absolutism, and would have revolutionized society. Writing as he did under constraint and often seeking by indirection to influence the pope or the king of Spain in his own favor, straightforwardness and consistency could hardly be expected. The most discreditable of his performances, from our point of view, was his provision for the utter extirpation of Protestantism in the world-wide empire which he pictured for the king of Spain. In the same work (De Monarchia Hispanica) he advises the utmost freedom in scientific research and philosophical speculation. It seems clear that he was urging the kind of toleration that would meet his own case and seeking at the same time to make good with the Spanish and Roman Catholic authorities by showing his utter hostility to Protestantism in every form. There is no reason to believe that he sincerely accepted Roman Catholic dogmas or the fundamentals of Christianity. The impression we receive of his ethical principles is highly unfavorable, these having much in common with contemporary Jesuitism. "Although a monk," says our author, "he was verily far removed from sainthood." That he was sincere in his advocacy of social reforms of a revolutionary character there is no reason to doubt. A good exhibit of the literature of the subject follows the preface.

HEITZ, TH. Essai historique sur les rapports entre la philosophie et la foi, de Bérenger de Tours à S. Thomas d'Aquin. Paris: Gabalda, 1909. xv+176 pages. Fr. 3.50.

This fine piece of work seems to be a Doctor's thesis prepared under the guidance of professors of the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and speaks well for the philosophical and theological training given in Roman Catholic universities. Following Scotus Erigena, a century and more in the past, Berengarius of Tours and Roscellinus attempted to apply philosophical conceptions to theological problems with the result, as our author thinks, that they were led into error by giving to philosophy too large a place. But they prepared the way for Abelard and his successors, who more care