crucifixion will not satisfy all. It is substantially this, that according to the Synoptists, Jesus died on the 15th Nisan, and took His last meal with His disciples on the evening of the 14th, a view not contravened in any way by St Paul, whilst St John agrees with this account in assigning the death to a Friday, but in other respects must be admitted to deviate from the Synoptic tradition. For the purposes of this inquiry, Schaefer's conclusion is probably sufficient, and it is perhaps as well that he did not burden his argument with doubtful speculations. His criticism of the "momentary-inspiration-theory" of Spitta and others, which would rob the Supper of its institutional significance, is conclusive, and his explanation of the differences between St Mark's account of the Supper on which critics have largely relied as a basis for their speculations and the fuller accounts of other writers, is as complete as the circumstances admit. The interpretation given of Kowwvia in 1 Cor. x. 16 foll. is not so satisfactory. But as regards his main object, Schaefer appears to us to have made good his position against recent criticism, in proving the definite institution of the Supper by Christ and its connection with the Jewish Passover; and he will take most of his Protestant readers with him in his protest against the "magical" interpretation of the meaning of the Eucharist, and his conclusion that faith alone can enjoy in its observance the blessing which Jesus promised, the mystical partaking of His "body and blood." The book, as a whole, furnishes an excellent example of sound modern exegesis of Scripture. W. T. DAVISON. 1. The Books of Joel and Amos, By Rev. S. R. Driver, D.D. Cambridge: University Press, 1897. Extra Fcp. 8vo, pp. 244. Price, 38. 6d. 2. The First Book of Maccabees. By W. Fairweather, M.A., and J. Sutherland Black, LL.D. Cambridge: University Press, 1897. Extra Fep. 8vo, pp. 271. Price, 38. 6d. 3. The Myths of Israel. The Ancient Book of Genesis, with analysis and explanation of its Composition. By Amos Kidder Fiske. New York: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co. Cr. 8vo, pp. viii. and 355. Price, 68. 1. DR DRIVER's Commentary on Joel and Amos is not only a valuable addition to the Cambridge Bible series, but will henceforward be reckoned amongst the most notable contributions to the Literature of the Twelve Prophets. Like everything that comes from his pen, this little work is marked by that severe accuracy in the minutest details which we have learned to expect from this author. Not only linguistic knowledge and exegetical skill, but archæological and scientific research mark the pages of this text-book. It may safely be predicted that the elaborate excursus on Locusts" will in future be a favourite mine for commentators on Joel to quarry from. The date of Joel, as is well known, has in the past seriously divided critics, having been fixed at periods hundreds of years apart from each other. There are tokens, however, that the reproach of this uncertainty is about to be taken away, and we have little doubt that ere long a post-exilic date will be generally accepted. After the closest examination of the data, Dr Driver assigns the book to the early post-exilian period, c. 500 B.C. We are glad to find him also accepting the locusts as actual and not allegorical. In this connection he deals very satisfactorily with the "northerner," an expression which we have long felt does not deserve the importance it has been customary to attach to it. In the part of his work dealing with Amos, Dr Driver's characteristic candour and caution find excellent illustration, when he discusses those passages which many modern scholars regard as later interpolations. Upon the whole he fails to discover sufficient grounds for denying their authenticity. This commentary, with its Illustrations and Additional Notes, as well as its carefully prepared Index (including a very useful list of Hebrew words commented on or explained), is the very ideal of what such a work should be. 66 2. Considering that it is a source " of extreme value for our knowledge of a certain period of Jewish history, the First Book of Maccabees has not hitherto received in this country the attention due to it. In some quarters, indeed, the whole Apocrypha was until lately practically a sealed book. It is therefore gratifying to have a commentary on First Maccabees included in such a reliable series as the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges. Mr Fairweather and Dr Black have accomplished their task well, and the publication of this volume should dissipate not a few misunderstandings, and dispel a good deal of ignorance. Very wisely, we think, the text of the Revised Version (published two years ago) has been adopted. The volume opens with a very careful historical examination of the words "Apocrypha " and "Apocryphal," which have so often altered their meaning. Attention is rightly concentrated upon the technical sense which, since the Reformation, the word " Apocrypha " has borne (differing here from the usage of the Greek and Roman "the Churches), as applied to the deutero-canonical works, which had a place in the Greek and Latin Bibles, but not in the Hebrew Canon. The name Maccabaeus is admitted to be of uncertain origin, but, upon the whole, the authors are inclined to interpret it as = hammerer," from makkābāh = hammer. A succinct sketch of the Maccabaean struggle is followed by a discussion of the Authorship, Sources, Original Language, and Unity of the book. On some of these points a good deal of diversity of opinion still prevails, and the materials for arriving at an independent judgment, or, at least, for further study, are placed at the disposal of readers. The book is prefaced by a useful map and enriched with valuable illustrations. The commentary proper leaves nothing to be desired. The printing is marvellously correct; we have noted only one slip, Bandissin, on page 197. 3. This book has undoubted merits, but it has also serious defects. Its author has the gift of clear exposition, his style is bright and flowing, and his aim is praiseworthy, "to set forth for the common understanding the view of the Old Testament which modern knowledge justifies." But Mr Fiske strikes one as hardly adequately furnished for his self-imposed task. Neither in knowledge of the literary analysis of the Hexateuch nor in acquaintance with recent archæological discoveries does he appear to be up to date. Genesis he partitions between two authors, whom he calls by the misleading titles, the Jehovist and the Elohist. By the first he apparently means J (of E, so far as appears, he has never heard), whom, contrary to all probability, he assigns to the northern kingdom, further throwing out the "fascinating conjecture" that this writer may have been identical with the personality veiled behind the names of Elijah and Elisha. In dealing with the narratives of Genesis, our author's method is very drastic. We are not of those who pin their faith to Sayce or Hommel, and would rescue the literal historicity of these stories at all costs, but we must protest against the reduction of everything to myth. This work will not have been written in vain if it leads to the study of works (e.g., those of Ryle and Driver) which supply its defects. J. A. SELbie. Twelve Indian Statesmen. By George Smith, C.I.E., LL.D. London: John Murray, 1897. Svo, pp. 324. Price, 10s. 6d. THIS book has come as a surprise to readers. We all knew that great men had been among us; our empire-building, especially on the continent of India, could not have been done without expendi ture both of genius and energy. But we did not all know, or many of us had forgot, how much of that shaping and moulding energy has been distinctively Christian. This book has revealed it, in the biographies of twelve men who "subdued kingdoms and wrought righteousness" in India. One of these twelve, Sir Herbert Edwardes, wrote the life of another, Sir Henry Lawrence, and prefixed to it a Dedication, which Dr George Smith has borrowed, as expressing his own purpose in this volume : "To all my countrymen who care for India, and especially to the young whose lot is to be cast there: "To show how possible and good it is to unite the statesman with the soldier, the philanthropist with the patriot, and the Christian with all, in the government of a subject race." Not many books are successful, and even of those which succeed few attain their intended and proclaimed object. But we really think that the present volume has done this. It would have attained it, had it only contained the sketches of the first three: Charles Grant, "the first and greatest of Indian philanthropists," and the two Lawrence brothers. All these were men of the most pronounced personal piety and Christian belief; and the fact that modern India is so largely their monument makes one look back with deeper respect to the early evangelicalism of this century, as well as, with a somewhat anxious hope, to the larger and laxer faith of the present. But it is well that the volume does not stop with them. All the others are interesting-Outram, M'Leod, Durand, Mackenzie, Edwardes, Marshman, Maine, Ramsay, and Aitchison; and of the whole twelve, Dr Smith says, "Except the first, I had the good fortune to know them all, and to count some of them as intimate friends." They did not all agree in opinion: the two Lawrences, for example, were divided by "the conflicting policies of the two Afghan and two Sikh wars of the last halfcentury, which have resulted in the Russo-Afghan peace, and the present subjugation of the independent tribes of the frontier" policies even which, to judge from recent vacillations, may still to some extent divide men. Dr Smith has his own opinion on these matters. But such dividing questions do not bulk in the book : the moral and religious interest of the imperial story is undoubtedly what arrests us as we open it, and what predominates till the close. We are glad to learn, too, that our distinguished countryman is not to be content with these rough cameos (for with all their excellencies they are undoubtedly rough and careless in their execution). He has it in prospect "to review historically the acts of the whole series of Governor-Generals," from Lord Dalhousie to the present Lord Elgin. And in this larger enterprise he hopes incidentally "to do justice to other workers with whom I have been associated -some dead, such as Sir Henry Yule and Sir Henry Daly, Sir George Campbell and Sir Bartle Frere, Dr John Muir and Sir William Mackinnon; and some living, such as the other great Field-Marshall who is not Lord Roberts, Sir Donald Stewart, Mr Meredith Townsend, Dr William Miller, Sir William Muir, Sir Henry Norman, Sir Richard and Sir John Strachey, and others. We congratulate Dr Smith and his readers on the prospect of so large a canvass, which (without losing the attractive personal and biographical element) will justify him in the use throughout of the bigger brush and the stronger sweep of arm. A. TAYLOR INNES. Ethics: An Investigation of the Facts and Laws of the Moral Life. By William Wundt, Professor of Philosophy in the University of Leipzig. Vol. I.: The Facts of the Moral Life, translated by Julia Gulliver, Professor of Philosophy in Rockford College, and Edward Bradford Titchener, Sage Professor of Psychology in the Cornell University. 8vo, pp. xii. 339. Price, 78. 6d. Vol. II.: Ethical Systems, translated by Margaret Floy Wash- Introduction to Philosophy. A Handbook for Students of Psychology, Logic, Ethics, Esthetics and General Philosophy. By Oswald Külpe, Professor of Philosophy and Esthetics in the University of Würzburg. Translated from the German by W. R. Pillsbury, Instructor of Psychology in the Cornell University, and E. B. Titchener, Sage Professor of Psychology in the Cornell University. London: Swan, Sonnenschein & Co., 1897. Crown 8vo, pp. x. 256. Price, 6s. Two Lectures on Theism, delivered on the Occasion of the Sesquicentennial Celebration of Princeton University. By Andrew Seth, M.A., LL.D., Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in the University of Edinburgh. William Blackwood & Sons, 1897. 28. 6d. Edinburgh and London: |