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Text
FROM “THE ACADEMY,” OCTOBER 33st, 1874.
B The Sacred Anthology.”
A Book of Ethnical Scriptures, collected and edited by M-. D. Conway.
London : Triibner & Co., 18.74. 12s.
This book shows what may be achieved by enthusiasm and perseverance. Mr. Conway tells us that
he is not an Oriental scholar, but he has given us what no Oriental scholar has yet given to the world,
though for many years the world has been expecting and demanding something like a Sacred Anthology,
viz., Bcollection of the most important passages from the sacred writings of the East, translated into
■EnfLWh. As Oriental scholars shrank from the undertaking, Mr. Conway set to work, collecting all the
translations which he could find ready to hand, and extracting from them whatever seemed to him of real
valuqH
*
*
*
But Mr. Conway was not dismayed by these difficulties. He knew
what he could, and what he could not do, and by limiting the scope of his undertaking, and giving to his
collection a purely practical character, he has certainly succeeded in accomplishing a useful and important
task. 1 ®‘e believed,” as he tells us, “that it would be useful for moral and religious culture if the sympathy of religions could be more generally made known, and the converging testimonies of ages and races
to great principles more widely appreciated.” If we may judge by the rapid succession of editions, Mr.
Conway has certainly roused by his Sacred Anthology a wide interest in a subject hitherto strSigely
neglected, and he will have rendered an important service, if it were only by dispelling some prejudices
most detrimental to a true appreciation of the value of all religions.
Those who study the history of the human race in all its various phases, from the lowest savagery to
the highest civilisation, know that neither in the most perfect work of discursive thought, nor in the
grandest achievements of creative art, has the human mind put forth all its powers in greater force or
fulness than in religion. We are, from our very childhood, so familiar with the highest religious concep
tions, that it is difficult for us to appreciate the mental struggles by which they were conquered and
secured for us. We forget that the simplest conception of the Divine requires an almost superhuman
effort, and was therefore among most nations ascribed to a divine revelation. We forget that every name
.of the Deity was the reward of more than one sleepless night at Peniel, and that even in a prayer, such
,as the Gayatri, are hoarded up the scant earnings of the patient labours oi many generations. That
.tribes, even in the lowest scale of civilisation, should address a Being whom they have never seen, as their
Father, that they should never for one moment doubt his existence, should regulate their lives by what
they suppose to be his will, should actually offer to him what they value most on earth, may no longer
strike us as extraordinary, but in itself it is more marvellous than anything else in the whole of human
nature.
And what is more marvellous still, is the striking uniformity with which that power of religion has
manifested itself almost everywhere. There are differences, no”doubt, and profound differences between
.the religions of the world, but the similarities far outweigh these differences. Let readers open Mr.
Conway’s Anthology, without looking at the references, and they will find it by no means easy to say
whether any given extract comes from a Jewish, a Mohammedan, or a Hindu source. Mr. Conway has
arranged his extracts according to subjects. We find passages on Charity, Nature, Man, Humility,
Sorrow and Death placed together, and these passages are taken promiscuously from all the sacred books
of the world. No doubt we at once recognise the extracts from the Old and New Testaments, particularly
when they are given in the authorised version ; but even these, if translated more literally or more freely,
might often be supposed to be taken from the Buddhist Canon orfrom the Chinese King. The same
sentiments, sometimes in almost the same words, occur again .and again in all the sacred books of the
world. * * *
It is hardly surprising that a perusal of Mr. ConwaySacred Anthology should have left on many
.readers the impression of the great superiority of the Biblical extracts, if compared with the rest. The
fact is, that what we call the beauty or charm of any of the sacred books can be appreciated by those only
whose language has been fashioned, whose very thoughts have been nurtured by them. The words of our
own Bible cause innumerable strings of our hearts to vibrate till-they make a music of memories that
passes all description. The same inaudible music accompanies all sacred books, but it can never be
rendered in any translation. To the Arab there is nothing equal to the cadence of the Koran, to us even
the best translation of Mohammed’s visions sounds often dull and dreary. This cannot be helped, but it
is but fair that it should be borne in mind as a caution againsWeclaring too emphatically that nobody
else’s mother can ever be so fair and dear as our own.
One of the most eminent Oriental scholars expressed the following judgment as to the relative merits
of the Sacred Scriptures of the world :—
“ The collection of tracts, which we call from their excellence the Scriptures, contain, independently
■of a Divine origin, more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, purer morality, more important historv,
and finer strains both of poetry and eloquence, than could be collected, within the same compass, from all
other books that were ever composed in any age, or in any idiom. The two parts of which Scriptures
consist are connected by a chain of compositions which bear no resemblance in form or style to any that
can be produced from the stores of Grecian, Indian, Persian, or even Arabian learning ; the antiquity of
those compositions no man doubts ; and the unstrained application of them to events long subsequent to
their publication, is a solid ground of belief that they were genuine compositions, and consequently
inspired.”
Would any Oriental scholar endorse this judgment now?
We have intentionally abstained from all critical remarks with regard to.the translation of single
passages. Such remarks might be addressed to the translators, but not to Mr. Conway. He deserves
our hearty thanks for the trouble he has taken in collecting these gems, and stringing them together for
the use of those who have no access to the originals, and we trust that his book will arouse a more general
interest in a long-neglected and even despised branch of literature, the Sacred Books of the East.
MAX MULLER.
Other works by the same Author.
“The Earthward Pilgrimage.” Chatto and Windus. 5s.
“Republican Superstitions.” H. S. King and Co. 2s. fid.
Mr. Conway’s works may be obtained by addressing “ The Librarian, South Place Chapel, Finsbury,
London,” where also may be obtained his Pamphlets on W. J. Fox (3d.); Strauss (3<l.); Mill (2d.) ■
Sterling and Maurice (2d.) ; and Mazzini (Id.).
�
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Victorian Blogging
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An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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The Sacred Anthology
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Muller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Description
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Place of Publication: London
Collation: 1 leaf unnumbered ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. A review of Moncure Conway's work 'The Sacred Anthology' from 'The Academy', October 31, 1874
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[s.n.]
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The Sacred Anthology), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Moncure Conway
Oriental Literature
Sacred Books
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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[Demonology and Devil-Lore]
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Allen, Grant
Description
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Place of Publication: London
Collation: 6 leaves ; 19 cm.
Notes: Handwritten review on 6 leaves of Savile Club notepaper of Moncure Conway's work 'Demonology and Devil-Lore'. From, 'Mind', July 1879. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
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English
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Conway Tracts
Demonology
Moncure Conway
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THE
NEW BIBLE COMMENTARY
'
-
z
•
AND THE
TEN COMMANDMENTS.
BY
EDWARD VANSITTART
NEALE.
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS SGOTT,
No. 11 The Terrace, Farquhar Road, Upper Norwood,
,
London, S.E.
Price. Threepence.
��THE NEW BIBLE COMMENTARY.
My Dear Mr Scott,
In compliance with your request, I state the
impression produced on me by an examination of
the ‘ New Bible Commentary,’ so far as it has at
present proceeded. I regret to say that it is by
tio means a favourable one. If the work is to be
continued in the spirit indicated by this beginning,
assuredly it will completely fail in its primary
object, of “ giving to every educated man an expla
nation of any difficulties which his own mind may
suggest, as well as of any new objections urged
against any particular book or passage of the Bible
whether or not it may fulfil its second object, of
“supplying satisfactory answers to objections rest
ing upon misrepresentations of the sacred text
(Advertisement, page 1).” For, as you are well
aware, it is not upon misrepresentations of the text,
but upon the faithful presentation of its simple,
natural sense, that the force of the objections
adduced to its statements depends. The misrepre
sentations are to be found in the rationalising exposi
tions of its,so-called,orthodox defenders; who twist
the natural meaning of its words—for instance, the
six days of Genesis with their “ evenings and
A
�4
The New Bible Commentary.
mornings ”—into non-natural significations, sug
gested, not by a careful study of the sacred text,
but by the desire to bring the statements which
they profess to regard as divine into accordance
with the knowledge which they know to be purely
human.
If any one, at the present day, wishes to learn
the simple, natural sense of the words of the Bible,
undisturbed by-any theory, but ascertained by
careful inquiry, by the patient application of all
the resources at the command of the modern science
of language, much more if he would learn all that
can be known with reasonable probability about
the dates, authors, and general character of the
books comprised in it, it is to the critical, not to
the so-called orthodox, schools of commentators
that he must address himself. For these orthodox
commentators, so far as I know their works, are one
and all tainted with the “ original sin ” of Apology.
They are, I say it with regret, essentially untruthful.
Not that I mean to charge them with consciously
asserting what they believe not to be true. What
I complain of is, that they put themselves into a
mental attitude in which the light of truth is shut
out, as effectually as the natural light is by shutting
our eyes. They apply to the Bible a principle
which, if it is applied by the Mahometan to his
Koran, or the Brahmin to his Vedas, they would be
foremost in denouncing as a false principle-^—namely,
the assumption that its statements must be taken
to be absolutely correct wherever they cannot be
demonstrated to be false, by evidence admitting of
no doubt; and that the duty of its expositors is to
rack their ingenuity to discover hypotheses in
justification of these statements, without troubling
�The New Bible Commentary.
$
themselves to inquire whether there is a particle of
evidence adducible in support of them beyond the
fact that they are “ wanted ” to meet objections to
the statements to be defended.
That the New Commentary, from which so much
might reasonably have been expected, considering
the flourish of trumpets by which it was ushered
into the world, should be deeply infected with this
grievous taint, is to me a subject ©f sincere regret.
It is so, because this leprosy of pious falsehood
is, in my judgment, the fatal disease by whose
ravages the great ideas of the Catholic Faith,
which, as you know, I differ from you in holding
I to be essentially true, while you regard them as
delusions, are deprived of their inherent power
over men’s minds. For, that these ideas are
intimately connected with the history of the
Jewish nation preserved to us in the Bible is
unquestionable. Obviously, therefore, it must be
of the first importance to the spread of the
ideas, that their effects should not be impaired by
their association with any matters of a doubtful
nature associated with that history. The spiritual
element must be presented, unmixed with the
slightest particle of detectable falsehood, or un
doubtedly it will be rejected, and rejected, I think,
with entire justice, by the earnest, laborious, truth
seeking generation of thinkers nurtured, at the
present day, in the schools of natural and historical
science.
But is the New Commentary really open to such
an accusation as I make against it ? I am afraid
the answer admits of no doubt. I could easily fill
a volume, were I to attempt to point out in detail
the many sins of omission and commission by which
A 2
’
�6
The New Bible Commentary,
it is already marked. I can only refer those, and
I hope they may form a large body, who desire to
satisfy themselves upon this matter, to the searching
examination into its statements by the Bishop of
Natal, of which the two first parts are already
published. But, ex pede Herculem: I will take one
instance only, a very important one, both from the
matters treated of and the mode of treatment, the
story of the “ Ten Commandments and the Book of
the Covenant.” I will show the difficulties with
which the account is encumbered, and how they
are met, first by the Bishop of Natal, and then
by the Rev. Canon Cook and Mr S. Clark who have
divided this subject between them, as the representa
tives of the critical and the apologetic schools. A
comparison of the two methods by their results
will, I think, show clearly and conclusively which
method best serves the interests of Truth and
Religion.
If we read carefully the nineteenth chapter of
the Book of Exodus, we shall find a succession of
“ goings up ” and “ comings down ” of Moses,
between “ the people ” and “ Jehovah,” which are
so unintelligible, that, divested of the imposing
accompaniment of lightnings and thunders, and
thick darkness, and terrible voices, they become
absurd. 1st. In ver. 3 Jehovah callsup Moses into
the Mount, and gives him a message relating to the
blessings to be obtained by the Israelites through
the observance of a covenant, of which no mention
has previously been made. 2nd. Moses brings this
message to the people, who reply (v. 7) that they
will do all that Jehovah had spoken, though there
is no record of his having ordered them to do any
thing. 3rd. Moses returns with this answer of
�The New Bible Commentary.
y
the people to Jehovah (y. 8), and receives the reply
that He will come to speak with him in a dark
cloud, so that all the people might hear, and believe
in him for ever; and the command to return to the
people and prepare them for this appearance on the
third day.* 4th. This order Moses fulfils, and
brings out the people on the third day to meet
Jehovah (y. 17), to whom Moses speaks, and God
answers by a voice. 5th. But all that He says is
to call Moses up a third time into the Mount; and
as soon as he gets there, to command him to go
down again, to warn the people against doing
’what the execution of the orders previously given
had made it impossible for them to do, as Moses
takes the liberty of reminding Jehovah (y. 21-23);
and to direct the“ priests,” of whose appointment
not a word has been said, to sanctify themselves,
“ lest Jehovah break forth upon them and after
wards to come up into the Mount with Aaron.
No compliance with this last command is recorded;
but, without waiting for the return of Moses,
Jehovah, as soon as Moses has spoken to the
people, utters the Ten Commandments (Ex. xx.
1-17.)
8th. Then the account mysteriously carries us
back to the descent of Jehovah in chapter xix.
The people, who were so little impressed by the
“ smoke which went up as the smoke of a furnace,
and the trembling of the whole Mount, and the
sound of the trumpet louder and louder,” and the
voice of Elohim (xix. 19), that it needed a summons
* I omit, as apparently an accidental mistake, the statement
(y. 9) that Moses reported the words of the people to Jehovah,
which would imply another going down and coming up on his
part not detailed.
�8
The New Bible Commentary.
from Jehovah to Moses, in order specially to charge
them “ not to break through to Jehovah to gaze,” and
who had then heard the awful sounds change to the
distinct voice in which the Ten Commandments
must be supposed to have been spoken, now, all at
once, are so frightened by the thunderings and the
flames, and the sound of the trumpet, and the
mountain smoking, that they shrink back, and stand
afar off, and say to Moses, “ Speak thou with us and
we will hear, but let not Elohim speak with us
lest we die ” (xx. 18,19).
9th. Moses, accordingly, after saying a few
words to quiet their apprehensions, but without the
slightest reference to what they had just heard,
“ draws near to the thick darkness where Jehovah
was ” (y. 20); when he receives, 1st, a mass of laws,
treating of nearly all the subjects comprised in the
Ten Commandments, but in a totally different order,
and mixed up with various regulations concerning
different social or religious matters, which extend
from chapters xx. 22 to xxiii. 18, and are terminated
by promises and threats relating to the future resi
dence of the people in Canaan; 2nd, a command to
bring up Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy
elders of Israel to Jehovah (xxiv. 1).
10th. This command Moses fulfils (xxiv. 9-11) ;
when the elders are said to have seen Elohim, and
eaten and drank in his presence (xxiv. 11), though
not till after Moses had “ written down all the words
of Jehovah in a Book,” and made a solemn covenant
between the people and Jehovah in its words (xxiv.
3-8).
If we now turn to the account of the giving of
the law in the Book of Deuteronomy, this Book of
the Covenant, which plays so important a part in
�The New Bible Commentary.
9
Exodus, disappears. In its place we have, as the
terms of the "covenant made by Jehovah with
Israel,” another version of the Ten Commandments,
differing in several important particulars, especially
the reason given for observing the sabbath, from
that contained in Exodus, but which, nevertheless,
is declared to have been the very words uttered
by Jehovah, neither more nor less, and to have been
written by him on two tables of stone, and given to
Moses (Deut. v. 1-23, ix. 10). Many interesting
observations are made by the Bishop of Natal on
these tables, and those mentioned in the Book of
Exodus, which I have not space to discuss here. I
apply myself to the questions, can any reasonable
explanation be given of the incongruities in the
story in Exodus taken by itself, and of the remark
able differences between it and the story in
Deuteronomy ? The answer given by the Bishop
of Natal to both questions is complete. By an
exhaustive examination of the verbal and gram
matical peculiarities distinguishing different parts
of the Pentateuch, he has shown that the narrative
in Exodus consists of an original story, to which
additions have been made, first by the author of
Deuteronomy, and afterwards by the authors of the
laws which form the Levitical legislation.
The original story narrates one ascent of Moses
only on his arrival at Mount Sinai, when he
receives from Jehovah instructions as to what he
is to do (xix. 3a, 9-13) ; followed by the descent
of Jehovah on the third day (xix. 16-19), the terror
of the people (xx. 18), the approach of Moses to
the “thick darkness where Elohim is” (xx. 21),
the laws contained in the Book of the Covenant,
and the acts by which the covenant is made, on
�io
’The New Bible Commentary.
the basis of these laws. Into this story the
Deuteronomist introduced : 1st. The account of
what now appears as the first going up of Moses
(xix. 8-9) with the answer of the people (v. 8),
very inappropriate where it stands, but quite
intelligible from the pen of one who had lying
before him the laws supposed to be spoken by
Jehovah; “all that Jehovah has spoken we will
do ; ” 2nd. The Ten Commandments, on which alone
he dwells in his own fuller and later composition,
the Book of Deuteronomy ; and 3rd. The warnings
and promises which close chapter xxiii. 24-83, with
matter unfit to be introduced into a covenant as
part of its terms, though very suitable in the mouth
of a prophet, as a statement of its consequences.
Into it also thé later Levitical legislator, in his
desire to magnify Aaron and the priestly order,
introduced the strange passage which now closes
chapter xix., and inadvertently brings the priests
on the scene before any were in existence.
The disjointed, self-conflicting character of the
present narrative is thus fully accounted for, in a
manner which accounts also for the omission of any
notice of the Book of the Covenant in the story of
the Deuteronomist, with whose ideas of Divine
Order, as set forth in Deuteronomy, the laws con
tained in it jarred in many particulars. And the
explanation removes at the same time all conflict
between this story and our present conceptions of
the action of Godin the world. For the reasoning
by which the different parts of the Pentateuch are
distinguished, leads also to the conclusion that this
story was written long after the death of Moses,
probably not before the days of David. Thus the
manifestation of the Divine Being recorded in the
�¥he New Bible Commentary.
11
Book of Exodus, is transferred from that outer world
of natural forces, with which, according to the know
ledge now attained by us, it fits so badly, to that
inner world of imaginative power, where the sort
of action described is quite in place. From an in
coherent account of a series of partial Divine acts,
the story changes into an important link in a
universal process ; it takes a high place among the
efforts of the Divine in man, to present to itself an
adequate picture of that all-upholding Deity whose
presence we dimly feel. When restored to its original
form, the poem of The giving of the Law is not only
freed from the liability to call forth unseemly scoffs,
but becomes for us a magnificent outburst of religious
genius; a vestibule worthy of that Temple of which
the semi-dramatic utterances of the Prophets, and
the logical effusions of the Psalmists form the
abiding materials. The ill-arranged collection of
half-barbarous laws, to ’which it is an introduction,
casts an instructive light upon the state of the
Jewish tribes at the time when they were consoli
dated into a nation under their first kings. While
the interpolations, now marring its original unity,
acquire an interest distinct from their intrinsic
merits, by the insight afforded through them into
the progress of religious thought, between the age
of David and that of Josiah, and the light cast by
them, both upon the action of that great, prophet
to whom we owe the grand Book of Deuter
onomy, and on that later Legislation, which trans
formed the Prophet into the Rabbi.
But what becomes of all this food for intellect and
emotion, .when dished up by our orthodox com
mentators ? Of reasonable explanations, of course
there is not a ¿race. On the strange “goings up ” and
�12
The New Bible Commentary.
“ comings down ” of Moses in chap, xix., Canon Cook
has nothing to say ; he simply ignores the perplexity
attending them. On the equally startling conversa
tion between Moses and Jehovah at the close of that
chapter he has nothing better to suggest than “ the
very probable account of the Rabbinical writers,”
that Jehovah committed a slight blunder, in saying
“ priests who draw near to Jehovah,” when he meant
“the firstborn or heads” of families, whom the
Aaronic priesthood afterwards superseded. Of the
laws forming ‘ The Book of the Covenant,’ which,
according to the tale accepted by Mr Clark as his
torical, were spoken by Jehovah to Moses, as part of a
Divine Legislation, and if so, surely, as the Bishop
of Natal observes, “ might be expected to be divinely
perfect, infallibly just and right,”* Mr Clark says,
“that they cannot be regarded as a strictly sys
tematic whole,” that “ some are probably traditional
rules, handed down from the Patriarchs ; and others,
especially those relating to slavery, seem to have
been modifications of ancient maxims, usages which
may have been associated with notes of such decisions
in cases of difference, as had been up to that time
pronounced by Moses, and the judges whom he had
appointed by the advice of Jethro.” Truly a most
condescending Deity is the Jehovah of Mr Clark,
though a little too much given to theatrical effects ;
who descends in the awful dignity of thunderings
and lightnings, and trumpet-voices on trembling
Sinai, nearly frightening the Israelites into fits,
that he might pour into the ear of Moses a body
of traditional rules and ancient maxims, with
a réchauffée of decisions by Moses himself ; laws,
* ‘New Bible Commentary Critically Examined.’
Page 72.
Part II.
�The New Bible Commentary,
13
too “ in more than one instance,” as the Bishop of
Natal observes, “ iniquitous and inhuman” (Ex. xxi.
4, 7,21); and forming a confused jumble, the more
strange because it follows the orderly classification
of the Ten Commandments into the duty of man to
God, and his duty to other men.
But there is stranger matter behind. “What,”
says Mr Clark, “ were the words of Jehovah that
were engraven on the tables of stone ? We have
two distinct statements of them—one in Ex. xx.
1-17, and one in Deut. v. 1-21, apparently of equal
authority, but differing from each other in several
weighty particulars, each said, with reiterated em
phasis, [and that, according to Mr Clark, by Moses
himself], to contain the words that were actually
spoken by the Lord.” Mr Clark justly rejects, “ as not
fairly reconcilable with the statements in Exodus
and Deuteronomy,” both the supposition “ that the
original document is in Exodus, and that the author
of Deuteronomy wrote from memory / with varia
tions suggested at the time,” and “ that Deuteronomy
must furnish the most correct form, since the tables
must have been in existence when the book was
written.” In their place he adopts a suggestion,
made by Ewald, and, from the point of.view taken
by him, quite appropriate, “ that the original com
mandments were all in the same terse and simple
form of expression as appears (both in Exodus and
Deuteronomy) in the 1st, 6 th, 7th, 8th, and 9 th,
such as would be most suitable for recollection;
and that the passages in each copy in which the
important variations are found were comments added
when the books were written; ” “ slighter variations,
such as keep (or remember) may perhaps be ascribed
to copyists.” That is to say, in the Bishop of Natal s
�14
The New Bible Commentary.
words—“ The New Bible Commentary deliberately
admits that neither version of the commandments,
as they appear in the Bible, gives the genuine Ten
Words uttered by the Almighty on Sinai. Although
in Ex. xx. 1, we read, “ God spake all these words,”
and in Deut. v. 22, These words Jehovah spake. . .
and He added no more ; and He wrote them on two
> tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.” And
it further supposes that, in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th,
and 10th commandments, large interpolations must
subsequently have been made, apparently by Moses
when the books were written, which were thus
added to the words really spoken by Jehovah,
“ unto all the assembly, in the Mount, out of the
midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the darkness,
with a great voice.”* Well may he add, “ This
recognition of the indisputable result of the critical
examination of the Pentateuch strikes at the root
of the whole Pentateuchal story as an historical
narrative. If the Ten Commandments in the Pen
tateuch are not genuine and historical, what is ? ”
Mr Clark, indeed, observes, with touching náiveté,
“ that it is not necessary to unite this theory with
any question as to the authorship, or with any
doubt as to the Commandments being the words of
God given by Moses, as much as the Command
ments, strictly so-called, that were written on the
tables.” He should have said, not expedient: for, if
the facts are as Mr Clark supposes, and Moses
wrote the statements which we find in Exodus and
Deuteronomy, as we read them, there can be no
question at all but that he wrote, in the name of
Jehovah, deliberate lies.
* ‘New Bible Commentary Critically Examined.’
Page 68.
Part. II.
�The New Bible Commentary.
15
Miserable result! and yet just punishment of the
untruthful spirit of apologetic comment, to end by
making that contemptible which it begins by
worshipping. Contrast this issue with the view
sketched above of the place in the history of reli
gion belonging to the Pentateuch, if regarded simply
as the expression of the growth of religious feeling
and thought in the J ewish mind.
Look here upon this picture and on this :
Have you eyes ?
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten on this moor ?
Surely we may legitimately conclude, with the
Bishop of Natal, “ that it is far more dangerous, far
more fatal to the cultivation of an intelligent and
reverent faith in the Bible, to assert that Moses
wrote the Decalogue, but wrote twice over, each
time in different words, what he knew to be untrue,
than to say that the Decalogue, as critical examina
tion plainly shows, is, in each of its forms, the work
of the Deuteronomist in a far later age.”
Believe me,
Yours very truly,
EDW. VANSITTART NEALE.
Hampstead, October, 1872.
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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The new Bible commentary and the ten commandments
Creator
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Neale, Edward Vansittart [Neale]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 15, [1] p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Publisher's list on unnumbered page at the end. A review of Colenso, The New Bible Commentary Critically Examined. Part II.
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Thomas Scott
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[1872]
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G5469
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Bible
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (The new Bible commentary and the ten commandments), identified by </span><span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a></span><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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English
Bible-Commentaries
Book Reviews
Conway Tracts
Ten Commandments
-
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Text
i66
CHRISTIANITY AGAIN CONSIDERED.
no earthly law smites him, he still is sinning against God, inflicts
injury on himself. For he that breaks a law of God, whether it be
a material one—in the physical globe or his own body ; or a spiritual
one, in his own soul, or in society, inflicts damage on his own
being; while he who works righteousness by living in obedience to
the law of God, is the better man for it, in himself, alike in time and
eternity. If there be any reader who rejects these statements, I
can only answer in the words of another, “We believe that con
science exists, just as fully as that we believe all men have bones,
and as it seems to us for the same reasons. Why is that to be
struck out of the list of evidence, any more than any physical testi
mony whatsoever ? Surely a more powerful item of evidence, not
only as to the personality of the First Cause, but as to the character
of that personality, could hardly be conceived.”(/)
(a) History of Latin Christianity, vol. ii., p. 253. Second edition.
(b) Church of England Prayer Book, Article 9: Confession of Faith, chap. vi. 6.
(c) Works, vol. iii., p. igg.
(d) R. H. Hutton.
(e) Duration of Future Punishment, by the Rev. George Rogers, p. 4,
(/) The Spectator.
&gain (EonstWlc
HRISTIANITY” is the title of a new book, by M. D. Conway,
M.A., and it is issued by Trubner & Co., of London. It is a
small but striking book. Indeed whatever comes from the pen of
Mr. Conway is always worth perusal. He has a knack of hitting
his opponents straight from the shoulder, of calling a spade a spade,
of denouncing superstition in unmeasured terms. As a preacher
Mr. Conway prefers an “ unfettered pulpit,” from which he can
fearlessly expose the errors and hypocrisy of the popular creed.
We wish there were more unfettered pulpits in the world, occupied
by men of culture and zeal, and “ no longer bribed by the social or
pecuniary endowments of an established creed.”
The book before us should be in the hands of every one who
wishes to be acquainted with the numerous phases through which
Christianity has passed, and we can confidently say that its perusal
will afford both pleasure and profit.
Mr. Conway considers
Christianity under six aspects : its morning state, its dawn, its day, its
decline, its afterglow, and its mosrow, and each of these divisions
receives masterly treatment.
There are several allusions to English Unitarianism, and the
Unitarian Association comes in for a share of the Author's
criticism. We think, however, that Mr. Conway’s strictures
on what he terms the “ professed liberality ” of the Association
are somewhat strong. No Association can exist without obe
dience to certain laws, and the “ fundamental law” which appears
to be so obnoxious to Mr. Conway is not, in our opinion, such an
obnoxious one as he would make it appear.
Personally, we
should like to see an independent Association formed, which should
e
�ANDREW AYLMER: A SKETCH.
167
include all Theists, whether Jews, Unitarians, Brahmins, or
Rationalists, in fact all who worship a supreme Governor of the
Universe, and wish to assist the extension of a Universal Brotherhood
of Man. But reforms whether social or religious are not carried in
a day, so we must be content to plod patiently alsng that road
which leads to the goal we are all aiming at, and we doubt not it
will be reached e’er many years more have been added to the
world’s age.
There are many-paragraphs having especial reference to the
Unitarian faith which we should like to quote, but our space forbids.
We cannot however conclude this brief notice without giving one
or two extracts. On page 89, Mr. Conway writes : “ Where is the
author of our time who defends the wild notion of an eternal
punishment—a punishment without end, and consequently without
purpose—inflicted on millions for a sin they did not commit, and
who have not even determined their own existence!” On page
124 he says:—“ The English Unitarians have an honorable history,
and no page of it is brighter than the last; but they can retain what
they have wn only by following up their advance.” Mr. Conway
brings his book to a conclusion as follows :—“ The highest religion
of to-day is to look and labour for a nobler day. Nor can I think
that new day so distant. For this matter the world of men means
mainly all those who think. The thinkers of the world are but
thinly divided by veils of language and tricks of expression ; speedily
wii^, they pierce these and discover that round the world hearts
beat with one moral blood, and eyes see by one and the same
sunlight. And as thought moves so will the most motionless
masses gravitate; and every sect in the world be subtly consumed
through and through by that popular disgust of bigotry and
hyprocrisy, which will emanate from the fairly awakened con
science and intellect of humanity.”
winter: &
CHAPTER IV.--- A WORD CONCERNING WILL, AND AYLMER’S INFLUENCE.
ACHEL AYLMER, soon after Andrew left home to attend
Mr. Cuthberton’s class at the Institute, dressed herself for
going out to pay a visit to her brother, Benjamin Harton, who lived
in the village of Ronesburn. As he worked the same “ place ” with
Andrew in the Scottingley mine, she was anxious lest the persecu
tion towards her son had been extended to her brother as well.
And then she wanted a talk with him about the whole matter.
Long had she and Joshua chatted over it, but the thing had not
come out any clearer to their minds. As she stood by her hearth
bound husband, to bid him good-bye for her two-hour visit, she saw
the newspaper was by his side, unused, and she had to touch his
shoulder ere he lifted his eyes from the fire. Responsive to her
touch, he said,—
“ Dinna be lang, wife, for I’m nae owre canny the night. Dis
B
�thoo think the laddie troubles aboot his loss o’ wark ? ”
“ Hinny, An’rew winna let his troubles clood his brow. Let’s
hope he dis’na feel them mair than he shows.”
“ Aye, as Ben said once, ‘ he tabs things philosophically.’ ”
“ Aboot that, I dinna kna,” replied Rachel, thoughtfully, “but
sure, as the boy says in one o’ his ain varses,
*
1 The dew o’ heaven is in his heart,’
an’ he’ll mak’ the best o’t, safe enough.”
The old man was comforted, the cloud passed from his face, the
newspaper was resumed, and Rachel wended her way in the direction
of Ronesburn. Approaching Scottingley, which stands between the
cottage and her destination, she saw a larger crowd of men than
usual at the corner of the road leading towards the colliery. This
would not have taken her attention, but, as she came opposite to
them, one, whom she did not recognise in the twilight, left the
crowd, and, as he neared her, said,
“ Mrs. Aylmer, I want a word wi’ ye.”
“ Is’t Will Bardoyle ? Hoo is’t there’s sae mony oot ? Hae
they shut up the public-hoose ? It’s nae a dog-race being made up
or thoo wouldna’ be in’t.”
“Nay, Mrs. Aylmer, we’ve been having a long talk about
Andrew, and I want to see him for the men ; but I suppose he’ll
not be at home for some time, as it is class night.”
“ He’ll no be hame till late, as he’s cornin’ roond for me frae
brother’s after class, but when thoo’s dune here thoo canst find the
way to Ben’s.”
In spite of her concern on Andrew’s account, she could not
help smiling as she said this, for there were a pair of bright eyes at
Ben’s which drew him there, and not against his will.
“ I don’t know if I dare call in to-night,” said Will, in reply,
“ for I have been offered the situation of overman, and I want to see
Andrew first. Ben has’na been out with us, or he would have known
and agreed with what I propose to do, so I’ll just meet Andrew,
and maybe call in with him.”
With a quiet “ good-night ” she passed on toward Ronesburn,
and Will joined the men, who were still talking in clusters.
The men had talked with each other that evening of many
things__ of the franchise, of improvements connected with their work
and their houses, and especially of the treatment Aylmer had been
subjected to; and of these things Will Bardoyle’s mind was full, as
some time after he took the road to Cuthberton, with a view to meet
Andrew. Not meeting him, however, and learning that he had
taken the river-path leading to the Hall, he continued his walk along
the highway, passed Mr.' Pembroke’s villa, and chatted with the old
lodge-keeper until Andrew came out.
Will was some years older than Andrew, but Will could not
have reverenced him more nad he been as aged as he counted him
worthy. Indeed, Andrew had been tne making of Will, for when he
was Aylmer’s present age he was a rough character truly, taking
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Christianity again considered
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: 166-167 p. ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. A review, by an unknown reviewer, of Moncure Conway's work 'Christianity' from 'Free World' February,1877.
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[s.n.]
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[1877]
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G5612
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[Unknown]
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Book reviews
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THREE NOTICES
OF THE
SPEAKER’S COMMENTARY,
FROM THE DUTCH OF DR A. KUENEN,
rROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LEYDEN.
Revised bij the $uthoty
AND TRANSLATED BY J. MUIR, Esq., D.C.L.
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS SCOTT,
NO. 11, THE TERRACE, FARQUHAR ROAD,
UPPER NORWOOD, LONDON, S.E.
Price Sixpence.
�Mottoes
of the
Conservative Theologian.
nX'zjp ye 8'r/ Un ovk aKpi^jj e^eraaT^v xP>r! etvai t&v vir8p rou
Pelov etc iraXaiov fiep-vOevfiivoiv. ra yap roi Ka.Ta to elute %vvri68vn ov TruTTa, 67rei3oir to Belov tis 7rpoa9rj Tip Xbyip, ov irdvry
&ti<tto, (palveTat.—Arrian, Anabasis, v. 1, 2.
“ But only, one should not scrutinize too rigorously the
stories which have been handed down from ancient times
regarding what is divine. For things which, judged by the
test of probability, are not credible, appear to be not alto
gether incredible when their divine element is taken intoaccount.”
ov88v ffo<f>t£o/J.ea6a rolai Salfioffi.
irarplovs irapaboxte, cis 6’ opi'qXiKas xpovip
KeKT"qp.ed', ovSeis airra KaTaflaXel Xoyos,
ov8’ el <5i’ &Kpuv to aocpov evpyrai ippevwv.
Euripides, Bacchse, w. 200ff.
“We never rationalize about the gods. No reasoning can
overthrow the hereditary traditions which we hold, and which
are as old as time itself,—not even although the ingeniousarguments have been discovered by the subtlest wits.”
Replies
of the
ovk
Unbiassed Searcher after Truth.
aih<f>povos 8’ d7ri<TTlas
tenv ovoev xPrl<r'-P-d>Tepov flporois.
Euripides, Helena, w. 1617ff.
“ Nothing is more profitable to mortals than a prudent
distrust.”
irdvTa 88 doKipcd^ere, t8 KaXov Kanye^e.
1 Thess. 5. 21.
“ But prove all things : hold fast that which is good.”
aXKd p.ot \p8v86s re
£uyxw/’Wat
Ka^ dXyOes atyavlaai ov8ap.lte Oep.is.
Plato, Thesetetus, p. 151.
“ But for me,” said Socrates, “it is by no means lawful to
admit falsehood and suppress truth.”
�THREE NOTICES OF THE “SPEAKER’S
COMMENTARY. ”
HE three volumes of the “ Speaker’s Commentary,’
(of which the proper title is “The Holy Bible,
according to the authorized version, with an explanatory
and critical commentary, by Bishops and other clergy
of the Anglican Church; edited by F. C. Cook, Canon
of Exeter.” London : Murray,) form the subject of
three notices from the pen of the eminent Hebrew
scholar and critic, Professor A. Kuenen, of Leyden,
in Holland, which have appeared in the Dutch theo
logical journal (Theologisch Tijdschrift) in January
1872, and May and September 1873. The essential
parts of these articles, as translated from the original,
with the sanction of the author, are as follows.
*
T
Volume I.
The circumstances which led to the composition and
publication of this work are well known. The minds
of many persons were disquieted by the “ Essays and
Reviews,” and by the critical investigations of Bishop
Colenso. The idea occurred to the Speaker of the
House of Commons that the difficulties which had been
raised in regard to the Bible, should be answered by
* Professor Kuenen wishes it to be understood that his
notices were contributed to a scientific journal, and written
principally for theologians. Had they been composed for the
perusal of the general public in England, they would pro
bably have been somewhat fuller, and more popular in their
■character.
�6
Three Notices oj
the Church in a sufficient manner. He entered into
consultation with the Bishops, and received from them
the desired support. A commission was formed, which
divided the entire Bible into eight sections, and for
each section chose the scholars who were most
competent to handle it. The editorship of the whole
work was entrusted to the Rev. Mr Cook, who, as often
as he deems it necessary, is assisted by the Archbishop
of York, and the Regius Professors of Theology at
Oxford and Cambridge. The first portion has now
been published in two parts, which embrace the entire
Pentateuch. The contributors to this are, Dr Harold
Browne, Bishop of Ely, (General Introduction, Intro
duction to, and Commentary on, Genesis); the editor,
Canon Cook, (Introduction to Exodus; Explanation of
Exodus i-xix.; Excursuses on the march to Sinai, on the
Pentateuch and Egyptian History, on Egyptian words
in the Pentateuch); the Rev. Mr Clark, (Explanation
of Exodus xx-xl., and Leviticus, besides an Introduction
to this book); the Rev. Mr Espin, (Introduction to,
and Explanation of, Numbers and Deuteronomy). The
arrangement of the work is this : under the text of the
common translation are printed the notes, in which
also the improvements in the translation are introduced;
whilst the more extensive notes on disputed or im
portant points are placed at the end of the chapters to
which they belong, and are separately referred to in
the index. The whole work has a princely appearance ;
paper and print are excellent; the two parts, making in
all 928 pages, form two handsome volumes : illustrative
woodcuts, too, are not wanting.
Much, indeed very much, is to be learned from
this book, especially by laymen, for whose benefit it
was written. Most of the composers of it are learned
men, well up to the level of their task. The editor,
Mr Cook, possesses great knowledge of Egyptian
matters, and is perfectly familiar with the most recent
geographical researches in the Peninsula of Sinai.
�the “ Speaker s Commentary.'”
7
Messrs Clark and Espin have, in general, shown a
"broad and able apprehension of the work they had to
do. But they lack one thing, and that vitiates the
whole. They are not free. The apologetic aim of the
work is never lost sight of; and constantly operates
to disturb the course of the enquiry. It is, in one
word, science such as serves a purpose that is here
put before us. The writers place themselves in opposi
tion to the critics of the Pentateuch, depreciate their
arguments, make sport, in the well-known childish
manner, of their mutual differences, and try to refute
them with proofs and reasonings which they themselves,
in any other case, would reject as utterly insufficient,
or regard as unworthy of notice. None of them sins in
this respect so naively and so grossly (sterft) as Dr
Harold Browne, the Bishop of Ely. Indeed, it was
no easy task which he had undertaken, the Intro
duction to the entire Pentateuch and to Genesis,
and the explanation of that book.
But they are
miserable demonstrations and farfetched and unna
tural suppositions to which he treats us.
*
As ex
amples, I note his reasoning (pp. 4-15) to prove that
the history of the post-Mosaic period presupposes the
existence of the Pentateuch; his observations (pp.
24-29) on the names of God in Genesis; his notes on
the days of the creation (p. 36), on the genealogies
in the fifth and eleventh chapters of Genesis (p. 64),
on the chronology of Jacob’s life (pp. 177 ff.) In this
last note Dr Browne does not hesitate to cook up again
an almost forgotten conjecture of Kennicot’s, and dis
tinguish the twenty years in Genesis xxxi. 41, from
those inverse 38, and thus to lengthen Jacob’s sojourn
in Haran to that extent! This one instance shows
better than a long demonstration how greatly dogmatical
considerations have clouded soundness of understanding
and exegetical perception in the case of this apologist.
On fitting occasions his fellow-labourers do not fall short
* See the note in p. 28.
�8
Three Notices of
of him in this respect. Thus, for example, the excursus
of Mr Clark on the Tabernacle (pp. 474-79), based, on
the investigations of Mr Ferguson, is an almost amusing
proof how the apologetic art, with the best intentions
and brilliant results, does violence to the text of
Scripture j here, in fact, a very handsome edifice is
constructed, and. delineated, which, however, alas ! does
not at all correspond with the description in Exodus
xxvi. And yet the notes of the same writer, on Exodus
xx. (pp. 335 ff.), and on Exodus xxviii. 30, on the
Urim and Thummim, prove that he is a man with a
clear head, to whom only one thing is wanting, viz.,
that he dare not overpass certain fixed limits—at least
entirely—for he really sets one foot across them. Or
can the position he maintains, that in Exodus xx. and
Deuteronomy v., we have before us not the original
Decalogue, but two expansions of one original, be con
sistent with the ecclesiastical doctrine of inspiration ?
But I must not expatiate further, partly because it
is not my object to take this opportunity of vindicating
anew the rights of modern criticism, and. partly because
I wish to draw attention to the English reviewers of
the ‘ Speaker's Commentary.’ Most of the reviewing
periodicals have already pronounced their opinions upon
it. They are, as was to be expected, more or less
favourable. But even the most favourable notices are
not composed in the tone of triumph which should
have been employed if the ‘ adverse critics ’ had indeed
been defeated. If I am not deceived, this Commentary,
entirely against the intentions of those who planned it,
will before all things have this result, that the intelligent
public will begin to look upon critical questions as open
questions, in the discussion of which the learned will
still have a good deal to do. The maxim nil scire tutissima fides is applicable to this case also. The ‘ believer ’
feels himself strong so long as he thinks that Satan
and his satellites are fighting against his belief. But
when he observes that it is assailed and defended, and
�the lt Speaker s Commentary.”
9
even very badly defended, with human arguments, he
becomes less at ease. I should be very much surprised
if, after the lapse of some years, it did not appear that
the ‘ Speaker’s Commentary ’ had powerfully co-operated
to make criticism indigenous in England.
First of all, this work already exercises influence in
this direction through the reply which it has called
forth. Dr Colenso has recently given to the world the
first part of his work, 1 The New Bible Commentary—
critically examined.’ It is occupied with the portion
contributed by Dr Harold Browne to the new Com
mentary, and adduces formidable objections against it.
Colenso follows the Bishop of Ely step by step, and
exposes the weakness and incorrectness of his criticism
and exegesis pitilessly and often strikingly.
This
examination is not exactly an entertaining piece of
reading. One would have asked any other writer why
he did not rather omit many details, and show, by
some clear proofs, the wrongness of Dr Browne’s
method. Such an essay would certainly have been
more instructive for the general public. But Dr Colenso
has evidently, and not without reason, thought that
he was not at liberty to pass over a single note, and
that he must avoid even the appearance of failing in
any instance to supply the necessary answer. The
succeeding parts of his reply I propose to take up along
with the sixth part of his work on the Pentateuch,
which is soon to appear.”—(Theologiscli Tijdsclvrift
for January 1872).
Volume II.
The second volume contains the explanation of the
books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, first and second Samuel,
and first Kings. Of the contributors to vol. I., we
meet here only with Mr Espin, who has charged him
self with the treatment of Joshua. The following four
books are explained by Lord Hervey, Bishop of Bath
B
�io
Three Notices oj
and Wells; and first and second Kings are entrusted
to Professor G. Rawlinson, the well-known editor of
Herodotus, and author of “ The Five Great Monarchies
of the Ancient Eastern World?’
When, after reading the introductions to the several
books, and the notes on the most important passages, I
reflect how much time, labour, and money, have been
expended on the writing and printing of this work, I
receive a painful impression. Here learned theologians,
and such, too, as are high dignitaries, come forward to
instruct the educated participators in their religious
belief; and all that these learn from them they must
afterwards unlearn. It is a matter of course that in this
commentary many faults in the ‘authorised version’
are amended, and many points of an archseological and
geographical nature are correctly illustrated. But that
is not the question, when we are judging a work like
this. The point of importance here is, whether the
contributors to the work make their learning subservient
to the diffusion of a sound method of regarding and
estimating the Bible. The reverse is the fact. Filled
with reverence for “ God’s Holy Word,” afraid of every
thing that appears to do it injustice, apprehensive of
the consequences which in their opinion every deviation
from tradition must draw after it, they regard it as a
sacred duty to maintain that which appears to them to
be the sound view, and to reject all more reasonable
conceptions as “ unbelieving” and “ sacrilegious.” Now
and then the truth is too powerful for them, and they
have found themselves forced to give up the correctness
of the Biblical narrative or the complete harmony of
its parts. But when they communicate this to their
readers, the thing is done in such a way that the belief
in the infallibility of the Word of God is weakened as
little as possible, or not at all. The deviations which
they allow themselves, even those of the most con
sequence, are described as unimportant, so that the
reader receives the impression that really everything
�the il Speaker’s Commentary’’
11
'continues on the old footing. The concessions, how
ever, form the exception. As a rule, the traditional
view is in fact maintained, even in cases where it may
be said to be absolutely untenable: and then the
difficulties are either passed over in silence, or are not
recognized in their real force, or are answered with
childish arguments. Of course, no one who has once
obtained an insight into the actual state of the questions
at issue, will for a moment be shaken in his convictions
by anything that is thus urged. But the portion of the
public which is conservatively disposed is fortified in
its prejudices by such guides as these. The hindrance
which they occasion by their struggles can, it is true, only
be temporary. It will one day become manifest to every
one that the free, the strictly critical, treatment of the
Old Testament is the only true one, and at the same
■time the only one which renders full justice to the reli
gion of Israel, and either entirely removes, or confines
.within their proper limits, the difficulties which are
alleged against it. That which the “adverse critics”
now already know, must one day become clear to all,
that fearless criticism, and this alone, opens up an
access to Israel’s sanctuaries. Magna est veritas et prcevalebit. But, nevertheless, it is much to be lamented
that the dignitaries of the Anglican Church should
make use of their influence to oppose the general recog
nition of this truth, and waste their powers in throwing
up obstacles which, for the present generation at least,
will prove insurmountable.
But even the appearance of boasting must be avoided.
And therefore I must not omit in some measure to
justify my judgment. For this purpose some specimens,
a few handfuls out of an ample store, will more than
suffice.
The extermination of the Canaanites is discussed in
section seventh of the introduction to Joshua (pp. 13-16).
Mr Espin here proceeds upon the supposition that this
“destruction” is a fact. Are, then, the numerous
�Three Notices of
12
proofs of the contrary unknown to him ? No; lie
allows them a certain weight. 11 Ewald’s idea,” as he
writes in p. 12, “that the early campaigns of Joshua
were in the nature of sudden raids, overpowering for
the moment all opposition, hut not effectually subduing
the country, has probably much truth in it.” Never
theless, we do not perceive how this is to be reconciled
with the recognition of the credibility of Joshua x.
26-43, xi. 10-23, where just the contrary is taught.
The concession to Ewald stands there as the simplest
and most innocent thing in the world, and has then no
further consequences. In section seven, it is Joshua
who destroys the Canaanites. And this procedure,
now, is defended as worthy of God! It can be fully
justified, in its relation both to the Canaanites and to
Israel, and to the rest of mankind. Eor the Canaanites
are described as incarnate devils, who wilfully persevered
in idolatry and immorality, in spite of God’s warnings in
the deluge, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra,
in spite of the examples set them by the patriarchs.
As regards the Israelites, must not God’s command to
*
* [The Old Testament writers who ascribe these commands
to the Almighty, even although they knew that, at the time
when they wrote, these injunctions could no longer be carried
into effect, can hardly escape the charge of inhumanity, and
of conceiving their Creator to be “ altogether such an one as
themselves ” (Ps. L. 21); and to them may be applied the
words in which Iphigeneia charges the Taurians with imput
ing their own bloodthirsty disposition to the goddess Diana,
to whom they sacrificed all the foreigners who landed in their
country :—
p.ev oZv
Oeoiaiv e<mdp.aTa
diriara Kplvw, irat.88s •padriva.t. flopa,
toiis 8’ evOaS’, avroiis tovras av0pwiroKTOVOVS,
is t8v 0e8v to cpavKov avatfripew 8okG>.
oi/oeva yap olp.ai 3atp,6v<i>v etfai kok6v.
—Euripides, Iph. in Tauris,
ra TarrdXou
vv. 386 ff.
“I indeed regard the Tantalean banquet offered to the gods
as incredible—that they should be pleased with feasting upon
�the “ Speaker’s Commentary.”
ij
•exterminate the inhabitants of Canaan have had the
effect of rendering them cruel and bloodthirsty ? 0 no !
■“ No body of men ever acquired, or would be likely to
acquire, a relish for human slaughter, by being con
strained to put to the sword, in cold blood, all the
inhabitants of a country, city after city, even when, as
must many times have been the case in Joshua’s cam
paigns, no resistance had been, or could be, attempted.”
Mr Espin, truly, speaks—and here I have quoted
literally, since otherwise I might easily have been
■charged with exaggeration,—as if any thing were known
to him of the influence which such murdering in cold
blood would exercise!
He adds, that the war of
■extermination against the Canaanites was absolutely
necessary to inspire the people of Israel with aversion
to the sins of these races. But did Israel, then, learn
this aversion by its supposed work of butchery ? What
becomes of the accounts in the book of Judges of this
people’s repeated falling away from Jehovah? The
•entire reasoning of Mr Espin is out and out unreal.
But on another account, also, it makes a painful im
pression. However well meant, it tends in reality to
the recommendation of a morality above which Chris
tians, Mr Espin himself not excepted, are happily far
elevated. And this morality it ascribes to God,, to Him
whom Jesus has preached to us as the Father of the
whole of mankind. In truth, we are fully justified in
protesting, in the name of religion, against dogmatic
principles which lead to such consequences.
But how much soever Mr Espin can digest, the miracle
■of the sun and moon standing still (Joshua x. 12-15,)
is too strong for him. Some years ago, M. Baumgarten
wrote, that since Joshua’s bold prayer was sealed by
a boy. But I think that the men of this country, being them
selves homicidal, have imputed the same wickedness to the god
dess ; for I do not conceive that any of the deities is evil.”
Compare the Bishop of Natal’s Lectures on the Pentateuch,
p. 217.—J. M.]
�14
Three Notices of
Jehovah’s act and word, nothing remained for us butsimply to believe that such an event had actually
happened (“ so ist es an uns dasz solches geschehen
einfach zu glauben).” * This belief is all too huge for
the English expositor, and there is none of us who will
deal hardly with him on that account. But, the credi
bility of Joshua must not be endangered ! The reader is,
therefore, informed (p. 57, f.) that the interpretation of
Joshua x. 12, 13,a as a poetical hyperbole is maintained
not only by Maurer, Ewald, and Von Lengerke, but
also “ what is more important,” is regarded as admis
sible by such men as Hengstenberg, Keil, and Kurtz,
“ theologians whose orthodoxy upon the plenary
inspiration and authority of Holy Scripture is wellknown and undoubted.” So much, preliminarily, by
way of tranquillizing the reader’s mind ! After this
the pruning-knife is taken in hand, and the entire
paragraph,—verses 12-15,—is lopped off as an inter
polation. It is “a fragment of unknown date and
uncertain authorship, interpolated in the text of the
narrative, the continuity of which is broken by the
intrusion.” (p. 56).t Now everything is in order. We
are freed’ from the miracle,—which, nevertheless, would
very well admit of being vindicated—and have placed
the writer of Joshua in safety; he could not, in truth,
prevent another person from interpolating his narrative !
We have just spoken of the conquest of the whole
of Canaan, and the extermination of all the inhabitants
* Herzog’s Heal Encyclopsedie, vol. vii. 40.
f [It is but proper to add, however, that in Bunsen’s Bibelwerk, which is by no means an orthodox book, these verses are
spoken of as “forming an inserted (eingelegte) passage, with
a fragment from a collection of songs called ‘The Book of
the Righteous,’ and which is only once again quoted in 2
Samuel i. 18. Probably the national heroes in particular were
there celebrated. The original sense of our passage can thus
be poetically understood ; and so all the lies and dreams built
upon it, together with the persecution of honest science based
thereon, fall away of themselves.”—J. M.J
�the “ Speaker s Commentary
15
by, or in. the time of, Joshua. It appeared that Mr
Espin, does not understand too rigorously the very
positive declarations on that subject, in the book of
Joshua, and so can, in some degree at least, do justice
to the conflicting accounts both in Joshua itself and in
Judges. In passing, he recognizes, in reference thereto,
that in Judges, first chapter, events belonging to the
period after Joshua’s death are related. The Bishop of
Bath and Wells could, however, have instructed him
better on that point. From him, we learn (pp. 123-125)
that it was in Joshua’s lifetime that the tribes made
the conquests which are there ascribed to them. Rarely
has a statement fallen under my observation in which
things were represented in so distorted a shape, or
brought into relation with each other in a more wond
erful manner. The matter is otherwise simple enough.
The compiler of Judges himself takes up the story at
chap. ii. 6, connects his narrative with Joshua xxiv.,
and shows the reader the point of view from which he
should regard the history of the period of the Judges.
Or, to express the matter otherwise, chapters ii. 6 to iii.
5 form the introduction, from the compiler’s own pen,
to the book of Judges. That which precedes, chapter
i. 1 to ii. 6, is taken by him from some other source,—
perhaps from the same document as chapters xvii. to xxi.,
(compare Lord Hervey himself, pp. 117, 125,)—and
placed there in order that the passage may serve
to illustrate the history of the Judges. What, now,
does Lord Hervey do ? He brings forward a number
of arguments, in which the point in question—the
credibility of the representation in the book of Joshua
■—is assumed as proved. He points to the circumstance
that chapters i. 1 to ii. 5 precede the account of Joshua’s
death in chapter ii. 8. He calculates that from chapter ii.
8 to chapter i. 1, each following verse presupposes the
purport of the preceding; from which it appears as
clear as noon day that the enquiry made of Jehovah, in
chapter i. 1, is chronologically earlier than the rest, and
�i6
Three Notices of
thus also than the death of Joshua. But meanwhile, it
stands distinctly written in chapter i. 1, “It came to pass
after the death of Joshua,” &c. No matter ! The text
is without doubt corrupt: the mode of emendation
alone is uncertain. Perhaps it should stand, “ It came
to pass after the death of Moses,” &c. All difficulty
disappears at once. Or, let chapter i. la be connected
with chapter iii. 7, and chapters i. lb to iii. 6 be regarded
as a passage wrongly interpolated here.
Prom such wanton mutilation of the text we, negative
and unbelieving critics, shrink. But the apologists
look upon every thing as permitted, if thereby the
difficulties are only removed. In the introduction to
the book of Judges, from which my last specimen was
borrowed, the figures are treated with equal freedom.
The duration of the period of the Judges is reckoned at
150 or 160 years; the accuracy of Judges xi. 26, and
1 Kings vi. 1, is simply denied; the mention made
of the duration of the oppressions, and of the years
during which the individual Judges ruled, is regarded
comme non avenue. How any one who professes to
maintain the credibility of Judges can venture upon
such things, almost surpasses our comprehension. But
the finest thing is that, at the conclusion, a plaster is
applied to the wound. The table composed by Keil—
with the help of the well-known synchronisms—•
furnishes the proof that all the numbers in Judges,
chap. xi. 26, and 1 Kings vi. 1, included, are perfectly
in order. The reader may thus in any case be at ease,
whether the Egyptian chronology is confirmed by
further research, (in which case he throws the Old
Testament figures quam simplicissime overboard), or
whether it is not (because then he has in these figures
all that he can desire).
[Professor Kuenen has, at my request, given a fuller
explanation of the commentator’s procedure in refer
ence to the point just referred to, which I insert
here. Bishop Hervey, he writes, holds the num
�the li Speaker’s Commentary ”
*7
bers in 1 Kings vi. 1, Judges xi. 26, and elsewhere
in that book, to be corrupt, and thus to be rejected.
But after having said, and supported, this, he lays
before his readers the table composed by Keil (which
is to be found in his “Commentary on Judges,” p.
289, English translation). This table is intended to
show that the figures in 1 Kings vi. 1 and Judges xi.
26, are accurate, and harmonize with the numbers in
the book of Judges. With this view, Keil assumes
that in that book the periods described are not always
consecutive, but sometimes the same period is twice
presented, namely, when the writer first narrates the
history of the Transjordanic tribes, and then that of
Israel to the west of that river. Thus Judges x.-xii.
run parallel with Judges xiii.-xvi. (fie., the events
described in these two sets of chapters respectively, are
contemporaneous). This is an arbitrary, purely harmonistic supposition (as is shown more in detail in my
“ Historical and Critical Enquiry,” &c., vol. i. p. 219 f).
*
* [From this work I quote the following details : ‘ ‘ Start
ing from the 480 years which, according to 1 Kings
vi. 1, elapsed between the exodus from Egypt and the
commencement of the building of the temple, some have
endeavoured to reduce the data regarding the duration of
the period of the Judges by supposing that some of these
rulers were contemporary with each other. It is true that
the book of Judges itself gives some support to this sup
position ; but (1) it does not appear where and how it
ought to be applied; and (2) the uncertainty of the round
numbers (40 and 80) is not thereby removed. Besides, the
justness of the calculation which forms the basis of 1 Kings
vi. 1 is itself subject to doubt; above all, because it cannot be
made to harmonize with the genealogies which extend over
this period. An impartial investigation thus leads to the
conclusion that the chronology of the Hebrew history down to
Eli and Samuel, and even to the disruption of the kingdom
after Solomon’s death, is uncertain, except in so far as its
correctness is guaranteed by the history of the nations who
came into contact with Israel (the Egyptians and Assyrians.)”
In a note the author gives some account of the attempts made
to abridge the period of the Judges, by the supposition that
some of these governors were contemporaries. “Thus Keil
�18
Three Notices of
Now, Bishop Hervey takes over Keil’s table without
approving of it; but evidently in order to be, as it
were, safe in all eventualities; or to quiet the reader
who might have a difficulty in rejecting the biblical
figures. This is what I have, in the text, disapproved.
One of two things is plain. Either (1), Keil’s method
and table are good: in that case they should also
(Einl. § 49) makes the Judges follow each other up to Jair
inclusive (x. 3-5), and then regards the periods of the oppres
sion by the Ammonites (x. 8), and of the Judges Jepthah
(xii. 7), Ebzan (xii. 9), Elon (xii. 11), Abdon (xii. 14), as con
temporaneous with that of the forty years’ oppression by the
Philistines (xiii. 1), within which the twenty years of Samson’s
rule (xv. 20 ; xvi. 31) are also made to fall. This calculation
rests on a misunderstanding of the evident intention of the
writer, who, although (x. 6-18) he speaks also of the Philis
tines, yet certainly does not mean the forty years (xiii. 1) to
begin to be reckoned from Jair’s death. (See above, sect. 31,
note 2.) Others hold the data from Othniel to Ehud to be
consecutive, and refer the figures which follow partly to the
northern, partly to the transjordanic, and partly to the
southern tribes, thereby supposing that it was only under
Samuel that the entire nation was again united; Far better
founded is the hypothesis of Hoekstra (Chronology of the 480
years; Godg. Bijdr., 1856, 1-24). He assumes properly only
two sets of contemporaneous periods, 1st, that of Jabin and
Barak (Judges iv., v.) as contemporary with the rest following
on the deliverance by Ehud; and this on the ground of Judges
iv. 1, where mention is made, not of the end of that rest, but
of Ehud’s death. But according to v. 14, Benjamin also took
part in the contest against Jabin; from this tribe was Ehud
sprung: must not therefore the rest of eighty years under
Ehud’s rule have been at an end when Barak came forward ?
The second instance is that of Samson (Eli and Samuel), with
the forty years mentioned in xiii. 1. But in ch. xiii. 5, where
Samson’s approaching birth is foretold, the fact of Israel being
ruled by the Philistines is not announced, but supposed.
According to the intention of the writer Samson did not fill
the office of Judge during, much less at the beginning of, the
forty years of oppression, but only after its close. Let it not
be objected that according to all these calculations the most
perfect harmony is brought about between the chronology of
the book of Judges and 1 Kings vi. 1. Their great mutual
difference, while the result is the same, shews that Bertheau
(p. xviii.) has rightly disapproved the entire method.”—J.M.]
�the “ Speaker s Commentary.”
ig
be unreservedly followed; or, (2), they are of no
value: and then they can be of no service, in case
Bishop Hervey’s own explanation is judged to be
inadmissible. The Bishop himself certainly reasoned
otherwise, and in the following way, as regards the
accounts in the Bible (not as concerns the readings, but
the accounts themselves): every thing is in any case
correct: if this is not made manifest by the one pro
cess, it will be so by the other : if my view is not just,
then Keil’s will be the true one].
Professor Rawlinson, too, has convinced himself that
the numbers in the Old Testament offer no difficulty :
how readily may errors have crept into them! See
“Introduction to the two books of Kings,” p. 475 f.
They can, also, very well be later additions, e.g., the
troublesome synchronisms of the kings of Israel and.
Judah. In the explanation of 2 Kings which is to
follow afterwards, a formidable use is made, as is wellknown, especially in ch. xviii.-xx., of the freedom to
deal with figures at pleasure. And this by a writer who
otherwise holds strongly enough to whatever the text of
the Holy Scripture tells him, and—-to name one small
matter—ventures to deduce from 1 Kings xvii. 18, that
the title “man of God” was in use in Phoenicia also.
But I must be brief, and therefore will only add a
couple of remarks on 1 and 2 Samuel, and the Intro
duction to these books. Here, we immediately come
upon the following bold assertion : “ There are no con
tradictions or disagreement of any kind (N.B.) in the
statements of the books of Samuel, as compared with
each other, or (N.B.) with the books of Chronicles.
The only appearance of two different accounts of the
same event being given is to be found in 1 Sam. xxiv.
compared with xxvi., where see notes. The other
instances given by de Wette have no real existence.
See notes on 1 Sam. xvi. 21, xxvii. 2,” &c. After
reading this, one naturally begins with consulting the
notes on 1 Sam. xxiv. and xxvi. That on 1 Sam. xxvi.
�20
Three Notices of
1, specifies no less than thirteen points of coincidence
between the two narratives, and concludes that they
most probably represent the same fact. Excellent.
We expect now to see the points of difference pointed
out, or, if these are supposed to present themselves to
view with sufficient distinctness, then to learn the
result,. which naturally cannot be favourable to the
-credibility, either of both the accounts, or of one of the
two. .Nothing of all this. It seems as if Lord Hervey
has failed to remark that the two accounts, in spite of
the thirteen points, differ toto coelo, and therefore
regards all apology or further explanation as superfluous.
Only he offers us some proposals for a modified inter
pretation of this or that particular, the one as improbable
as the other, ending with the last refuge of harmom’stics : “ If we further suppose that one narrative relates
fully some incidents on which the other is silent, there
will remain no discrepancy of any importance ” (p. 351).
In this one case the premisses of the newer criticism
are recognized as true—and the inevitable conclusions
avoided. In every other case, Lord Hervey sees a
-chance of denying the premisses themselves. Some
times he does not esteem this to be necessary, and
passes by the difficulty in silence, for example, in the
notes to 1 Sam. xiii. 11-14, and xv. 23 ff; in those on
1 Sam. viii.; x. 17-27, compared with 1 Sam. ix. 1 to x.
16. Elsewhere we find him employing the well-known,
and repeatedly refuted, attempts at explanation. So, for
example, the connection between 1 Sam. x. 8 and xiii.
8-13, is denied in opposition to the evidence; the conflict
between 1 Sam. vii. 13, and ix. 16, is acknowledged,
and afterwards disguised with well chosen words; the
appointment of David to be Saul’s armour-bearer, in 1
Sam., xvi. 22, is placed after the combat with Goliath,
and in this way the discrepancy between 1 Sam. xvi.
51, 22, and xvii. 55-58, is explained away. “The
theory”—so it is said in p. 317—“ of two conflicting
traditions being followed here and in chap, xvii., is
�the “ Speaker's Commentary.”
z1
very unsatisfactory in every point of view.” Why ? I
pray. Unsatisfactory for dogmatic prejudice, but in
every other respect perfectly natural, and in harmony
with all the phenomena.
Where Lord Hervey takes his own course, he treats
us to singular hypotheses. In the introduction to
Samuel we are assured that the writer, after having
related Saul’s coronation (1 Sam xi. 14, 15) and stated
the age of the new king (xiii. 1) leaps over twenty
or thirty years of his reign, and communicates to us an
event belonging to its last quarter. We open chapter
xiii. , and find no trace of so remarkable a hiatus between
verses 1 and 2. What is more; at the conclusion of
the narrative which begins chap. xiii. 2, we read (chap.
xiv. 47): “ So Saul took the kingdom over Israel,”—
which thus, according to Lord Hervey, will have
occurred twenty or thirty years after his coronation 1
In the notes we learn that during all this time, he was
only nominally king, in consequence of the supremacy
of the Philistines. “ There is not the slightest indica
tion from the words whether this ‘taking of the
kingdom ’ occurred soon, or many years, after Saul’s
anointing at Gilgal” (p. 309). Indeed, “ not the slightest
indication.” Only it is here left out of sight that there
are some things which are self-evident. What it
was that led the commentator to this most singular
view, he tells us himself. Saul is called in chap. ix. 2, a
youth, and appears in chapters xiii., xiv., as the father of
a full grown son : therefore, between 1 Sam. ix. and xiii.,
many years have elapsed. Throughout, we find assumed
the thing that was to be proved—but at the same time
cannot be proved—that the narratives proceed from one
hand, or at least, are all without exception deserving of
credit.
As regards the text of the books of Samuel, the intro
duction expresses a comparatively favourable judgment.
“There are,” we read in p. 246, “a few manifest
corruptions of the text, such as the falling out of the
�22
Three Notices of
numerals in 1 Sam. xiii. 1; the numerals in 1 Sam.
vi. 19; 2 Sam. xv. 7 ; the putting Michal instead of
Merab, 2 Sam. xxi. 8; the corruption of the names
of Jasobeam, 2 Sam. xxiii. 8 ; and of some of the other
mighty men in the same list, the names Isbi-benob and
Jaare-oregim, in 2 Sam. xxi. 16-19 ; and perhaps
some others.”
I do not deny that these words
strongly raised my expectations: could Lord Hervey
see a chance of explaining satisfactorily the masoretic text of Samuel, except in these few passages?
Great disappointment awaited me. The deviations
from the Masora which in his notes he either esteems
to be absolutely necessary, or strongly recommends,
are very numerous. (See, for example, 1 Sam. i. 24,
ii. 10; 29 ; vi. 4, 18, 19, &c., &c.) Still yet they are not
numerous enough. In the case of 1 Sam. xiv. 18, the
writer might safely have been decided, instead of offer
ing a choice between the true reading and that of the
text; in 1 Sam. xiv. 41, he should have consulted and
followed the LXX, &c., &c. But why, then,—in the
words of the introduction quoted above—is the state of
things described in general terms as far more favourable
than, on investigation of particulars, proves to be
correct ? We have here, in reality, the same fault into
which the apologetic commentators are always falling
anew. Their judgment regarding the whole is not the
combined outcome of what the study of the particulars
has presented. It (their judgment) has been deter
mined beforehand. It controls the study, or remains
unchanged, in spite of the results which this study
offers. It is, in short, a prejudice, a foregone conclusion.
Who can free them from it 1—{fheologisch Tijdschrift
for May 1873.)
Volume III.
Since the first difficulties connected with the issue
of the “ Speaker’s Commentary ” have been overcome,
the work goes prosperously forward. The third volume
�the “ Speaker s Commentary”
23
now lies before us. The whole of it is written by
Professor G. Rawlinson, of Oxford, and embraces the
books of 2 Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and
Esther. What sort of exegesis is here offered, what
kind of criticism is here practised, what description of
apologetics is here carried out, is known to the reader
from our previous notices (“ Theologisch Tijdschrift”
for January 1872, and May 1873). In order to
characterize this volume in particular, it will suffice to
touch upon a few points.
The stand-point occupied by the expositor of the
Old Testament, can at once, and safely, be made out
from the manner in which he judges of the books of
Chronicles. The author of these books is an individual
with sharply defined outlines of character. His con
ceptions of persons and things can throughout be
compared with those of earlier writers. The difficulties
which this comparison reveals are palpable, and have,
besides, been repeatedly presented to view. If any one
shows that he has no eye to detect the unhistorical
element in the Chronicles, we may, without exaggera
*
tion, affirm that such a person is stone-blind on Biblical
ground. Now, Professor Rawlinson cannot escape this
judgment.
He has not, it is true, made himself
acquainted with K. H. Graf’s dissertation, “ The Book
of Chronicles as an historical source,” (‘ Historical
books of the Old Testament,’pp. 114-247,) i.e., with
the most thorough and excellent discussion of this
subject,—but he has read de Wette’s Introduction, and
Theodore Parker’s additions to that work. He has
not, therefore, lacked guidance. Yet, in spite of this,
he maintains—with the single exception which will
be referred to further on—the complete credibility of
the writer of the Chronicles. How is this possible ?
This question puzzles us, until we have learned the
* [Compare the Bishop of Natal’s recently published “ Lec
tures on the Pentateuch and the Moabite Stone,” Lecture
xxiv., “The fictions of the Chronicler.”—J. M.J
*
�24
Three Notices of
method which Rawlinson pursues. Then we are puzzled
no more, because the method explains the thing at once.
In the introduction to the Chronicles (Vol. iii., pp. 155
ff.) the ordinary questions regarding the title, the
object, the author, the sources, of these books, and their
relation to the other books of the Old Testament, are
handled. We there already find one and another thing
that justly creates astonishment, especially in section 5,
on the Sources. Bertheau’s investigation of this subject
(Chronicles, pp. xxxii. ff; and my own Historical
Critical Enquiry, i. 306 f.) appears entirely to have
escaped Rawlinson’s attention: at least, he neither
adopts nor controverts it. But we leave these and
other particulars, and turn to section 10, ‘Authenticity
of the history.’ After some introductory remarks, the
writer ranges the charges brought against the writer of
Chronicles in three groups. He is said, 1st, to con
tradict himself; 2d, to give accounts which conflict
with other books of the Old Testament; and 3rd, to
commit errors arising from ignorance or misapprehension
of his predecessors. This is the first application of
the maxim divide et impera. The second consists in
this, that the doubts which belong to one of these
groups are one after another taken in hand, and—
refuted?
No, not that, but answered by some
hypothesis excogitated in favour of the writer of
Chronicles, which may, in a certain degree, claim to
be listened to, so long as it is kept isolated, but which
at once appears to be inadmissible when we observe
that time after time such a supposition must be
called in and employed, in order to the acquittal, taliter
qualiter, of the Chronicle writer. The result is that
the four inconsistencies, the eighteen or nineteen in
stances of contradiction, and the six errors, are one
after another set aside, with a very few exceptions,
which are too unimportant to prejudice the historian in
the eyes of his readers, and on the other hand, place
the impartiality of the commentator in a clear light.
�the 11 Speaker’s Commentary''
25
Often, too, the exceptions are merely apparent, because
the fault is ascribable not to the author, but to his
copyists. In this way, Professor Rawlinson gives an
account of the discrepance between the figures in 1
Chronicles xxi. 5, and 2 Samuel xxiv. 9; in 1
Chronicles xxi. 25, and 2 Samuel xxiv. 24. In this
manner, he thinks, that he has fulfilled his task as
a critic. ... Is it not clear as noon-day that in this
way truth cannot be found ? That so the peculiarities
of the Chronicle-writer must be obliterated ?
But, let us stop a little to consider the so-called
corruptions of the text, which are sometimes caught at
as the last means of extrication from a difficulty. The
possibility of errors of transcription, particularly in the
figures, cannot of course, in the abstract, be denied. But
the manner in which Professor Rawlinson makes use of
it for his purpose, is, in the highest degree, arbitrary and
uncritical. The study of the Books of Chronicles in
their totality shows, namely, that their author through
out presents us with large figures, not only when he
determines the strength of the Israelitish armies and the
number of the slain in battle, but also when he com
municates the amount of sums of money. We have
thus to do not with a single phenomenon standing by
itself, but with a strongly pronounced peculiarity of
this Jewish historian.
See only my “ Historical
Critical Enquiry,” &c., i. 323 f. What now, does
Professor Rawlinson do ? When there is a possibility
of maintaining the exaggerated data, he maintains
them : if not, then the text is declared to be corrupt.
This last course is followed, for example, in 2 Chron.
xvii. 14-18; 1 Chron. xxii. 4; xxix. 4.
Every
where else, by the help of reasonings, which may not
see the light, the author of Chronicles is acquitted.
Can such procedure be vindicated 1 Does not the
dogmatic prejudice which leads to such a misconcep
tion of the requirements of the true method of criticism,
stand condemned before the tribunal of science ?
The value of the harmonizing process which is
�i6
Three Notiees oj
applied in the notes to Chronicles, does not require to
he illustrated by examples. The simple fact, that in
no passage is any disagreement acknowledged to exist
between this book and those of Samuel and Kings,
speaks with sufficient distinctness. Here and there
the difficulty is not solved even in appearance, but
simply passed over in silence. The difficulties con
nected with the narrative in 1 Chron. xvi. 7 ft. are
well-known, and, one would say, of sufficient importance
to be at least mentioned, and judged of. For Professor
Rawlinson they seem to have no existence. With the
greatest possible naivety he calls the hymn which is
there communicated “ apparently a thanksgiving service
composed for the occasion out of psalms previously
existing.” Indeed, it is no doubt of subordinate im
portance that those psalms, if not all, yet nearly all, are
post-exilic !
But where should I end if I should seek to char
acterize completely the critical work of Professor
Rawlinson? Any one who desires more, has only
to open the book. Let him not omit, then, to consult
the notes on 2 Kings xviii. to xx., where, on one
hand, the truth of the Assyrian accounts, and on the
other, that of the Biblical narrative, is maintained—•
of course, again at the expense of the copyists, who,
in 2 Kings xviii. 13, have put the 14th for the 29th
year of Hezekiah; and further, by the supposition
that 2 Kings xx., is chronologically prior to 2 Kings
xviii. and xix., and that this was not unknown to the
author himself.
*
Let him, then, also consider the
* I avail myself of this opportunity to draw attention to a
dissertation of A. H. Sayce, on 2 Kings xviii. to xx., in the
Theological Review for 1873, pp. 15-31. The writer judges
that the expeditions of Sargon and Sanherib are confounded
and mixed up with one another by the author of Kings, but
that at the same time his sources, in which these expeditions
were duly distinguished, may still be distinctly pointed out
in his narrative. The same scholar treats in the same journal,
pp. 364-377, the Chaldean account of the deluge discovered by
G. Smith.
�the li Speaker’s Commentaryip
introductions to Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, and the
notes on the most important passages of these books.
They made upon me a peculiarly painful impression,
e.y., the notes on Ezra iv., where Ahasuerus is identified
with Cambyses, and Artasahsta with the PseudoSmerdis. But why adduce individual examples ? The
whole method is utterly defective. Rawlinson repeatedly
requests attention to the circumstance that the negative
critics bring no objections against the credibility of
Ezra and Nehemiah, because in these books no miracles
are related. This is, in point of fact, incorrectagainst
more than one particular in Ezra i., ii. f., vii. 12 £,
Nehemiah viii. £, just objections are alleged, among
which some are of great importance. Rawlinson, never
theless, was not aware of them, and had, consequently,
full freedom to slumber. For when the “rationalists”
are not under arms and in the vicinity, the “ believers”
need not mount guard. They have nothing more to'
do than to repel assaults. That there is any thing to
investigate in reference to the Biblical narratives; that,
for instance, the chapters which have just been referred
to, on careful study present to the expositor all sorts of
problems—this cannot once occur to their minds. The
credibility of the books stands fast a priori: so long as
it continues uncontested, or, at least, so long as they
have no cognizance of its being contested—they have,
as critics, no further duty to perform. They may confine
themselves to the illustration of the text of the narrative.
This, then, is done in the notes to Ezra and Nehemiali.
But what does this avail to the reader ? In what
respect does all this learning, regarding Persian words,
for example, bring him any further ? It is, indeed, in
the highest degree saddening, as I expressed myself on
a former occasion, that so exceptionally fine an oppor
tunity to instruct the public as the “ Speaker’s Com
mentary ” offers, should be so badly used, or rather, sogreatly misused. Inspired by the best intentions, but
governed by their system, the writers dispute that
�28
The “ Speaker's Commentary f
which they ought to complete and to improve, and they
shut out from the sight of their readers the light by
means of which it would be possible for them to value
and love the Old Testament. Would that they could
at length learn to perceive that they have disowned
their true friends, and against their own will have
become the antagonists of truth and piety !—(Theologisch Tijdsclirift for Sept. 1873).
Note on p. 'I, line
21.
[a.7rXous 6
p.vf)os rrjs dX-rjOelas &j>v,
Koi ttoikLXuv Sei ravSif epp.7pvevp.aTwv'
fyei yap avrct, Katpov o S’ ttSi/cos Xoyos
voawv ’ v atrip (papp.dKwv Serai iroipwv.
e
Euripides, Phoenissae,
469 ff.
“ The language of truth is simple ; and a just cause requires
no subtle expositions, for it has an inherent propriety. But
an unjust claim, being in itself infirm, stands in need of arti
ficial supports, applied with skill.”
“ The words of truth will ever simple be ;
And justice, strong, scorns aid from subtlety.
But wrongful claims, by nature sick and weak,
The help of far-sought strengthening drugs must seek ”
J. M.]
TURNBULL AND SPEAKS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Three notices of the "speaker's commentary", from the Dutch of Dr. A. Kuenen
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Edition: Rev ed.
Place of publication: London
Collation: 28 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway, Printed by Turnbull and Spears, Edinburgh. Reviews from Theological Tidschrift (January 1872, May and September 1873) of vols 1-3 of The Holy Bible edited by F.C. Cook. Revised by the author. Date of publication from KVK.
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Kuenen, A.
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Thomas Scott
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[1873]
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G5488
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Muir, J. (John) (tr)
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Bible
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Bible-Commentaries
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Conway Tracts
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8o
Notes.
Mr. Conway’s “ Earthward Pilgrimage ” seems to have produced a
strong impression on both friends and foes in England. In a recent
debate in the House of Commons, Mr. Bouverie, a conservative, spoke
of it as a work of remarkable ability, and quoted passages from it to
show that a revolutionary school of thought on social subjects is grow
ing to strength in Great Britain. “ The Theological Review ” says,
“The book is full of suggestive thoughts, poetically and pointedly
expressed: and though, to a thoughtful and judicious reader, he may
seem extravagant, one-sided and unfair in his statements and represen
tations, the general impression left by the whole is that it is the earnest
and healthy skepticism of a man of real genius.” “ The Academy ”
: peaks of Mr. Conway’s style as possessing “ high intellectual vitality,
the subtle, pointed, exquisite manner, the fertility in sparkling conceits,
striking analogies and similes, happy historical allusions and anec
dotes,” and his charges against the traditional religion, though violent,
as “ so refined and cultivated, so cool, disengaged, full of well-bred
restraint, as almost to persuade us of their moderation.”
“The New York Tribune” says of Mr. Weiss’s new book: “From
the specimens we have given of Mr. Weiss’s trains of thought, our readers
may obtain an idea, correct, although inadequate, of the main drift of this
remarkable volume, which we do not hesitate to pronounce one of the most
original and suggestive which have ever appeared in our native literature.”
“The Modern Epoch in Politics” is a new work by D. A. Wasson,
which will, when published, if we do not mistake, create a “ sensation ” of a
wholesome character.
“The Spiritual Annalist and Scientific Record” is the name of
a new magazine, edited by J. H. W. Toohey, and published in Boston by W.
F. Brown & Co. It is ably conducted.
We shall publish in our next number a carefully prepared paper on “ The
French Commune,” by W. J. Linton, who has had favorable opportunities
for an impartial review of the whole subject.
A friend sends us “ a few new subscribers to help the ‘ boiling pot.’ ”
We wish many others may be as thoughtful, and not forget us during this
“hot weather,” persuaded that the pot will boil itself.
�Notes.
79
and hear the voice of reason everywhere. Do you see Jesus walking
among men as himself only a man, and so lose your heaven-born
Lord? You are restored to your own birthright, and have the priv
ilege of being a son of God yourself. God becomes your present
source of supply, and is no longer “ a Hebrew tradition.” To this in
visible Well you may go and drink and thirst no more.
What then is the burden of all this protest and passion ? It is that
all those hindrances of Church and State which, under pretense of
mediating, are separating mankind from God, shall be removed. Men
claim the present and shining light of God to show them what they
may do for themselves and each other.
The questions of the moral or spiritual life are not affected by the
intellectual or moral stature of Jesus, and no Radical can take other
interest in the discussion than is prompted by the desire to rightly
estimate the characters of all who have lived on the earth and left
their fame to posterity. There seems to be no excuse, however, for
any to set him up, lawyer-like, and try him as a prosecuting attorney
would a criminal. His name has suffered enough from the treatment
of Orthodoxy. Radicals can afford, in all justice, to show him a little
personal sympathy, and especially since they do not propose to ride
into heaven on his back.
Father Taylor’s little prayer, as prayers go, is quite refreshing:
“Blessed Jesus, give us common sense, and let no man put blinkers on
us, that we can only see in a certain direction, for we want to look
around the horizon; yea, to the highest heavens and to the lowest
depths of the ocean.”
Robert Collyer finds a hearty welcome among the Unitarians of
England, in spite of the “ loose way ” of saying things to which he
is adicted. At their Festival he told them, “ I like to meet a company
of Unitarians that will speak out their convictions, and show, as we say
in the West, that they ‘ain’t nothing else, nohow.’” “We are no bet
ter for being Unitarians and at the same time tasting very strongly of
Orthodoxy. “You have a right to feed your hearts on the story of
the past. But I tell you it began to be a (Question whether Egypt was
going to live much longer, when she paid more attention to embalming
her grandfathers than she did to inspiring her children.” He rejoiced
that the Unitarians were not “going to tumble the cream back into
the blue milk.”
Are the signs as hopeful this side the water ?
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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[The Earthward Pilgrimage]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[c.1871]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5714
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: p. 80 ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. A review of Moncure Conway's work 'The Earthward Pilgrimage'.
Creator
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[Unknown]
Publisher
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[s.n.]
Subject
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Book reviews
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work ([The Earthward Pilgrimage]), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Book Reviews
Conway Tracts
Moncure Conway