Luke, ascribing only the final editing of Luke and the insertion of certain specified passages to the author of Acts. This view was sustained with such ability and supported by arguments of such weight, that it is difficult to explain the comparative silence with which they have been passed over, except on the supposition that their having been presented in a Dutch dress only prevented their finding their way into the general current of theological studies. Prof. Scholten has now recast his earlier work and united it with its corrective sequel, so that Dr. Redepenning's translation presents his views in a more compact and uninterrupted form, as well as in a more widely read language, than those in which they have hitherto been accessible, and we can hardly doubt that they will now produce an impression proportionate to their high critical significance and value.

P. H. W.

THE

EWALD'S 'PROPHETS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.'

THE fifth and concluding volume of Mr. J. Frederic Smith's transla tion of Ewald's "Prophets of the Old Testament" completes a work of the highest importance to Biblical scholarship in England, and we heartily congratulate the publishers and translator on its issue. The present volume contains the feeble and dying echoes of the old prophetic literature, already paralysed by the growing strength of the priestly spirit, together with the great type of the revived prophecy of Apocalypse -the Book of Daniel. The dull and spiritless exhortations of Haggai, the livelier visions and discourses of Zachariah, the son of Berekiah-a finger post on the road that leads from Ezekiel to Daniel-and Malachi's rekindled zeal and passion, together with the scattered and anonymous oracles of the period immediately before them are brought into connec tion on the one hand with the historical circumstances of their origin, and, on the other, with the literary history of prophecy and the deeper religious thoughts which they suggest or embody. Then follows a survey of the prophetic "aftergrowths." Jonah represents a mass of legendary matter grouped round the names of the older prophets; while the Greek Baruc and Epistle of Jeremiah represent the simpler form of the newer prophetic style.

Then comes the Book of Daniel, the most interesting portion of the volume, and a fitting close to the whole work. In an elaborate introduction Ewald explains the significance of this great Apocalypse under all its aspects, and develops his theory of an older prophetic work on the same subject (representing Daniel as living in the court of Nineveh) upon which our present Daniel to some extent rests.

The translation strikes us as most successful where it might be supposed to be most difficult. In point of accuracy Mr. Smith's work is,

* Williams and Norgate. 1881.

of course, above suspicion, but in point of style it leaves much to be desired in the introductions and notes. In the text, however, where Mr. Smith had to contend with the notorious difficulty of making a satisfactory translation of a translation, he has been eminently successful. In spite of an occasional oddity which seems almost wilful, the sustained dignity and beauty of the translation of the text of Daniel will secure quite a new feeling of its fascination to the English reader. Though we may hope that we have not yet bidden farewell to Mr. Smith as a translator of Ewald, he will hardly be able to eclipse the best portions of the great work which he has now brought to a successful conclusion, and for which he deserves the sincere thanks of all English students.

P. H. W.

TWO STUDIES OF THE LIFE OF JESUS.

R. HEBER NEWTON* appears to be a Broad-Church clergyman

means entirely a follower, of Max Müller and Renan. His volume of sermons consists of the last six of a course of twenty-one, preached between Advent and Easter, 1879-80. There is much thought in them, and occasional originality, and there is comprehensive, devout Christianity in every page. It is curious that a preacher, who is evidently well acquainted with the latest New Testament criticism, and appears to accept many of its conclusions, should be so uncritical in his use of the Gospels. Probably so far as the biography of Jesus is concerned, the whole course of sermons must have left his hearers in considerable confusion, but as setting forth the spirit of Christianity they will be found very suggestive, even by those who cannot accept all the preacher's conclusions. The sermon on the Sacrifice of Jesus works out well the great idea that his was but a part, immeasurably great, of the universal self-sacrifice by which man overcomes sin and evil. In The Continued Life of Jesus" the preacher deals with the question of what are the truly Christian characteristics of modern life and civilisation. In "The Christ that is to be" he describes his own vision of a less dogmatic but more spiritual Christianity than that of the churches at the present day. The sermons are sermons on Christianity, rather than Studies of Jesus," as they are entitled. What the earlier ones may have been we cannot say, but in these the writer seems to avoid the difficult questions of Gospel history, and to deal with ideas. The ideas may be more important to us than the facts, but we require to have the facts clear, if possible, to prepare the way for the ideas.

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Studies of Jesus. By R. HEBER NEWTON. New York: T. Whittaker. 1880.

Mr. Chadwick* certainly leaves his readers in no doubt regarding his opinion as to what is historical and what is not, in the Gospel narratives. His lectures are clear, outspoken, and yet reverent. If only Mr. Chadwick had given copious references in foot-notes, his little volume would have been an excellent little manual of the life of Jesus. It is always a drawback to a work like this if it gives its readers no means of verifying its statements. Still, as a concise statement of the results of the latest and most searching New Testament criticism as affecting the life and character of Jesus, it may be recommended to all who find the greater and more original works inaccessible. The gain to the character of Jesus which arises from our improved knowledge of the formation of our present Gospels is well stated in the first lecture. The description of "The Place and Time" of Jesus is concise and vigorous, and evidently written by a man thoroughly interested in the surroundings of Jesus for their own sake, though we can scarcely believe Mr. Chadwick's own statement that he would “like to dwell upon the character and career of "-Herod the Great. The lecture on the "Birth, Youth, and Training," presents the reader with a suggestive picture of the home and early life of Jesus, concerning which we have no individual facts, but which we may so clearly and safely describe in outline from various sources which give us information, directly or indirectly, as to the life of a Jewish peasant at the beginning of the Christian era. Mr. Chadwick is very outspoken in his rejection of what he regards as the mythical parts of the Gospel, viz., the legends of the infancy and the resurrection, but he accepts with too little question and sifting the other portions of the synoptics. It should scarcely be stated as a simple fact, without reference or note, that Jesus "advised a celibate life," or that he "believed in the resurrection of the body," or that he "had said that his second coming would take place within the lifetime of his disciples." But every student must have his own opinions on these points, and Mr. Chadwick has evidently not reached his hastily or carelessly. The lecture on 'The Resurrection" gives a most careful and thorough comparison of the Gospel narratives with one another, and with the words of St. Paul; that on the Deification contains a plain, concise account of the growth of the doctrine of the deity of Christ. The writer's general view of the teachings of Jesus cannot be better given than in his own words:-" The particular moral precepts of Jesus will not in every instance bear the strain of social science, and of wide experience. His principles, subordinating ceremonial to social conduct, and social conduct to private character, are the same immutable and glorious principles, yesterday, to-day, and for ever."

F. H. J.

*The Man Jesus. By JOHN WHITE CHADWICK. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1881.

MR. SORLEY'S JEWISH CHRISTIANS AND JUDAISM.'

T has occurred to Mr. Sorley that there is still another way of regardhas accordingly given us an essay which goes over a great deal of old ground, and opposes incidentally many of the conclusions of the Tübingen School, but yet seeks to give an independent view of the relation which Jewish Christians bore, not to the Gentile Christians-a subject extensively treated elsewhere-but to non-Christian Jews. Speak ing generally, Mr. Sorley thinks that the gulf between the Christian and non-Christian Jews was much wider than Baur and his followers admit ; that the Apostles occupied from the first an intermediate and mediating position, such as is ascribed to them in the Book of Acts, and that the bitter opposition St. Paul encountered came from unauthorised representatives of the extreme Jewish section of the Church. There is, of course, nothing very new in these conclusions, but there is a certain amount of freshness with which the subject is handled, and a scholarly tone is preserved throughout. A change which came over the meaning of the term Jewish Christian, is well pointed out. "At first the question was one of the relation of Jewish Christians' (i.e., Christians born Jews) to the Gentile converts on one hand, and to the Judaism in which they had been brought up, and with which they had not expressly broken, on the other. Afterwards, when the rights of the Gentile converts had been vindicated, and for St. Paul and many others there was neither Jew nor Gentile in Christ Jesus, the question became one of the relation of 'Jewish Christians' (i.e., Jewish Christians in the former sense who sought to retain their Judaism) to the rest of the Church (whether admitted by Jewish or Gentile gate) on the one hand, and, on the other, to the creed and constitution of that Judaism from which they were unwilling to separate themselves. These different phases of the question correspond broadly in time to the apostolic and post-apostolic ages respectively. And the division between the two periods agrees pretty exactly with the date of the destruction of the Temple and the dispersion of the Jews, events which formed a crisis in the history of Christianity as well as of Judaism." This division separates the two main parts into which the essay is divided. In the First Part, the distinction between the earliest Christians and other Jews is thus brought out. The new creed had from the first an aggressive character unlike that of any other existing Jewish sect. A natural consequence was that the early Christians were persecuted. And the immediate result of missionary enterprise and persecution was the formation of an independent organisation. Mr. Sorley emphatically denies that the persecution to which Stephen fell a victim can have been directed only against the Hellenist portion of the Church, Jewish Christians and Judaism: A Study in the History of the First Two Centuries. By W. R. SORLEY. Cambridge: Deighton, Bell, and Co.

1881.

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because he says that Paul and the others who originated it were Hellenists themselves. This is not a strong reply to one of the cardinal points in Baur's theory. Paul was a Hellenist only in the sense of having been born at Tarsus. Mr. Sorley himself notes that Paul's family were strict Jews (p. 6), and certainly this "Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law a Pharisee," as touching the righteousness which is in the law found blameless," is the very man to have been stirred up to persecute any who disregarded the law and despised the Temple, and there must have been some reason why the Apostles were not " scattered abroad," like the rest, when the Church was so laid waste. However this may be, Mr. Sorley admits that it was only very gradually that the earliest disciples felt that in their Christianity they had something which superseded Judaism, and that it was only the entrance of numerous Gentile converts which at all brought up the question whether a Christian need also be a Jew. His treatment of the subsequent controversy, the Council at Jerusalem, the scene at Antioch, the state of the Churches in Galatia and at Corinth, seems wanting in appreciation of the character and work of St. Paul, such as is inevitable when the Apostle's life is approached first from the point of view of the Book of Acts, and only filled in from a study of his own words in his epistles, and when the general conclusions attained are such as have been already indicated. In his Second Part Mr. Sorley easily indicates how wide the separation between Christians and Jews grew soon after the destruction of the Temple, and how inevitably those Christians who would not go with the times, but tried to retain their Judaism, speedily sank to the condition of heretical sects, despised and rejected by both parties. The Ebionites of this period he considers to have been nothing more than a body of Essenes, who, on the utter collapse of the Jewish State, adopted some Christian beliefs without in the least accepting the spirit and leading of the Church. Perhaps we cannot now give a better idea of the aim of the book than by quoting one of its concluding paragraphs :

"The course this essay has traversed shows how misleading it is to look with Baur on the early history of Christianity as ruled by the conflict of two parties standing over against one another in abrupt opposition, and by their attempts at reconciliation. What we have really had to do with was the development of a single force, which got possession of the minds of the early disciples, which modified and in time was moulded by its environment, and which found its realisation in the Christian Church. We have seen that not one of the Apostles merely, but all the Apostles, were impressed with this new idea, and that it led them by a necessary process beyond the Judaism in the midst of which they had been brought up and it had its origin. Here, as always, there was a conflict between the new and the old. For the customs and ceremonies which had grown up alongside of the Jewish faiths in an earlier stage were not at once given up when it reached its consummation at a higher point. The old ceremonies were indeed broken through by the new step the national life had taken, and the old customs fell away. But they were broken as the bud breaks before the blossom; they fell as the blossom itself falls before the advancing fruit. The whole development was a natural and consecutive one in which the Christian Church worked out into fuller realisation the idea that had been latent in it from the first, and gave birth to institutions originally connected with its own life to replace the antiquated law and ritual of Judaism."