these kings assembled. . . . and the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel, and they smote them;

and Joshua returned and took Hazor, and smote her king with the sword, for Hazor of old was HEAD (rosh) of all these kingdoms." (See Hab. iii. 13, 14.) R. T.

Literary Notices.

Literary Remains of the late Emanuel Deutsch. With a brief Memoir. London: John Murray, Albemarle

street.

THIS is a disappointing work, in more senses than one. When it was first announced, we-in common with many others who take an interest in the departments of literature in which the late Emanuel Deutsch dabbled-imagined that some new hitherto unpublished essays were about to be presented to the English readers. We were not a little surprised therefore to find the stale articles and reviews, which had already appeared in the Quarterly, Smith's Bible Dictionary, Athenæum, Saturday Review, Pall Mall, and the Times, reproduced. We were disappointed at not being favoured with the name of the writer of the memoir which is prefixed to the Miscellany. We should, had we been informed of the name of the biographer, have been able to form an opinion of the intrinsic value of that contribution. We were disappointed at the chronological disorder of the collection. Chronological sequence throws much light on the development of an author's genius.

The Miscellany opens with the notorious article, The Talmud - though chronologically it should have been placed sixth or seventh, for all that the biographer terms it avant-courrier. Our opinion of that performance has been given in the "Introduction to the Talmud," by H. C. Oxoniensis.* That opinion is not altered by the perusal of the memoir, but rather confirmed. The biographer is evidently labouring to intimate that an extraordinary amount of study of the Talmud itself was required in

* See the numbers for September, October, and December of last year; and for January and March of the present year. Several of the chapters on the Talmud itself are ready for the press, but are postponed for lack of space.

Our

order to produce the Essay. We have demonstrated that a bona fide Talmudist would have dealt with his subject more satisfactorily than the writer in the Quarterly Review. We maintain that the writer in the Edinburgh, who is supposed to have possessed inferior opportunities to those which Mr. Deutsch had, has written a far better Essay on the subject,-notwithstanding the many blunders,-which a secondhand critic is liable to make,-which characterise his article. Neither of the writers in the two great Quarterlies have treated the subject as it should have been dealt with, simply because neither of them was a first-rate master of the subject of his theme. readers shall have an opportunity of a practical illustration of our meaning when our articles on the Talmud shall be presented to them. M. Alexandre Weill's Moïse et le Talmud, published at Paris in 1864, might have suggested to both reviewers in the English Quarterlies a mode of doing greater justice to the themes which they set before themselves than they have succeeded in performing. The remainder of the articles and reviews of which the volume is made up, is ordinary and common-place, as every well read scholar and critic must own. We do not belong to those who take a rich Vocabulary and a smart dashing manner of stringing well sounding words together, for solid scholarship. We look for well-matured thoughts; we do not care for well-rounded phrases, if the former are superficial. It will always remain a perplexing problem to us, why this book was made up. The Quarterly, the Athenæum, Macmillan, the Saturday Review, the Times, Pall Mall, abound in as well worded articles as those which the pen of Emanuel Deutsch has produced; but no publishing firm conceives the idea of collecting them and making them into a book, unless the speculation is suggested by the author himself, who has lived to revise some of his opinions, and is desirous to issue a corrected and improved edition of the views and opinions which he has formerly promulgated.

Another consideration staggers us: How is it that-as Mr. Deutsch himself writes, " for nigh twenty years it was my privilege to dwell in the very midst of that Pantheon called the British Museum, the treasures whereof. . . . were all at my beck and call, all days, all hours "

-we

say, how is it that Mr. Deutsch has not contrived within that score of years, with such advantages and privileges as surrounded him, to produce a work at once solid and worthy of a great scholar, instead of those superficial monographs every paragraph of which seem to have inserted between its lines ad captandum, ad captandum.

"our

The compilation produces a painful impression from another consideration -it arises from the colourlessness of the writer's religious sentiments. Some of the articles seem to have been studiously penned to lead the reader to imagine that the writer was a Christian. For instance, who could have perused his review in the Athenæum of May 12, 1866, of Ernest Renan's LES APÔTRES, and in the volume before us, without feeling that the writer was vindicating St. Paul from the insidious insinuations of the modern Gallic freethinker? Even in the article on the Talmud, the essayist wished to pass himself off as a Christian, by apostrophising our Blessed Lord as Saviour." He is not the only clever Jew whom we have known who was desirous to be taken for a Christian professor amongst nominal Christians, and appeared an orthodox Jew amongst the votaries of the synagogue. We read the memoir with positive pity and pain. It is evident that poor Dr. Deutsch was far from resigned in his last days, and therefore anything but happy in the prospect of dissolution. Who can read the extract from one of his last letters printed on page xii. without feeling the tears starting to his eyes, and his heart filled with pity for the unhappy writer. Here is the conclusion of the extract alluded to:-"I cannot take comfort in the thought of death. I want to live there is so much life, hot, full life within-that it shrinks from darkness and deadness. I envy those who can fly on the mind's wings to this harbour of refuge; I cannot follow, but keep tossing outside in my broken craft, through foam, and rock, and mist." Judaism, even such a nondescript Judaism as the schools to which Benisch, Deutsch, and Professor Marks belong have conjured up, is but a broken reed on the threshold of eternity. How wonderfully different from true Christianity under such circumstances! The Hebrew Christian St Paul thus writes to his beloved Philippians :-"To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."* In

* Phil. i. 21.

the last epistle which he had ever written, he thus exhorts his dearly beloved son in the faith:-"I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season: reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing."* How prophetic of the history of the Gospel! How characteristic of true Christianity on the threshold of eternity! Yes, it is the glorious privilege of every true believer to say with the beloved disciple:-" And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them." Well might the poor dying unbelieving Jew write. "I envy those who can fly on the mind's wings to this harbour of refuge; I cannot follow, but keep tossing outside in my broken craft, through foam, and rock, and mist."

::

The Gospels from the Rabbinical Point of View: showing the perfect harmony between the four Evangelists on the subject of THE LORD'S LAST SUPPER; and the bearing of the Laws and Cus-. toms of the Jews at the Time on the Language of the Gospels. By the Rev. G. Wildon Pieritz, M.A., &c. Oxford and London: James Parker and Co.

WE owe our learned brother, as well as our readers generally, an apology for not having published our opinion of his valuable volume ere this. We have already + Rev.xiv. 13.

* 2 Tim. iv. 1-8.

intimated in a former number (see our May issue, p. 242), that a skeleton notice of Mr. Pieritz's work had been ready in manuscript these several months. A recent reperusal of THE GOSPEL FROM THE RABBINICAL POINT OF VIEW determined us not to withhold any longer from our readers our estimate of its author's performance. We termed the volume a valuable one, and so it is; it affords many an important hint with reference to the exegesis of the New Testament, which must prove of great value, especially to Christian expositors, masters, pastors, and teachers. principal object of the work before us is to demonstrate that our LORD'S LAST SUPPER, was not the Jewish Passover. Such of our readers as may be disposed to act on our recommendation, and give the work a fair and attentive perusal, will agree with us that Mr. Pieritz has made his position impregnable. The subjects dissussed in the first and largest part of the book are the following:

6

The

"JEWISH Laws and Customs; Primitive Tradition on the subject of the Last Supper; The Paschal Controversy has no bearing on the Question; On the Day of the Crucifixion; S. John excludes the idea of the Meal being a Passover; Common Misapprehension of Eastern Customs; A Picture of the Last Supper; Our Lord does not make the Traitor known beforehand; The Account in the First Three Gospels; Why the Last Supper could not have been a Passover; Meaning of the expression First Day'; With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;' The Principle of our Lord's Action; S. Luke's aim in speaking of the Last Supper; The Eucharist; The Jewish element in the Gospels; Why S. John is more exact in the use of the term 'Passover;' On the Progressive Nature of the Study of Theology; On some Objections to the above view; The Eucharist and the Agape; Certain Christian Ideas and Usages in their Origin Jewish; Meaning of Thou hast said;' The Lord's use of the expression 'I am;' Our Lord's reserve respecting His Messiahship; The Septuagint Translation; Talmudical Illustrations; Conclusion."

The author's fitness for the manifold investigations indicated by the above may be gathered from the following account of himself :

cal literature, for years, and from early youth, at a time when I studied nothing else, I studied it for its own sake, as essential to my intended profession, and not merely for the purpose of finding in it what would illustrate other books; and when in later years I came to the New Testament, I was in little danger of imbibing the prejudices of the Commentators whom I from time to time consulted, or of the preachers whom I used to hear (in England), because, to my surprise, I found they gave so little correct information upon such matters, which, though outside of the Gospel, yet are absolutely necessary to be known, in order rightly to understand and expound at least the letter of the writings of the Evangelists. Those who quote Jewish writings at second hand, not unfrequently quite misunderstand their authorities. And so with regard to the Lord's last Supper in particular, not only was it clear to me from the first that S. John left no room for supposing it to have been a Jewish Passover, to me the other three Evangelists left equally little room for such an assumption, though some of their expressions, here and there, continued for some years to puzzle me, but which in due course became as clear to me as the rest; and during some ten years now, or more, I have frequently offered to scholarly friends the explanation now to be given, with what result I cannot say." (Pp. 4, 5.)

There are several minor points mooted, some in the text and others in the notes, on which we differ from the Author; but our difference of opinion on a few unimportant particulars does not affect the very high estimate which we have formed of the performance as a whole. The second and smaller part of the volume treats "On the Inspiration of the Four Gospels," which embraces the following topics:

"Distinction between the Internal Evidence of the Old Testament, and the New Testament; Relation of the Gospels to the rest of the New Testament; On the Accordance, and Discordance, between the several Gospels; The Jewish Traditions no Precedent for an Oral Gospel; On the Value of the differences of Style in the Gospels for the purpose of Instruction; The General Uniformity not Disturbed; The Four Gospels for Four Different Classes of Persons; The Argument from quickened Memory applied to the Evangelists; The Vernacular Lan

guage of Jerusalem in the Time of the Lord.

We sincerely trust that Mr. Pieritz will soon be able to publish his three lectures which, by invitation, he delivered last year before certain members of the University of Oxford. The

different themes discussed in those discourses are of the utmost importance to the Church, especially in her present distracted state. We shall always welcome with pleasure any dissertation from his learned pen.

THE Editor does not hold himself responsible for the expressed opinions of his correspondents.

The Editor has but very little time for private correspondence, and this he applies to old and cherished friends.

Several important articles, Literary Notices, Replies to Queries, &c. are unavoidably postponed.

and. "The drolleries of the Bell Lane jewish world," and "The Vagaries of the Spitalfields Free School Oracle," in a future impression.

-You had better apply to the Editor of the Jewish Chronicle; he will be able to give you "the true reason for his ignoring his young contemporary, the self-styled Jewish World. The probable reason, however, may be that the older Weekly applies to the younger one the Rabbinical adage :

דחציף כולא האי שמא מינה ממזר הוא

We own that we have often looked upon the young upstart in that light.

N-The literal translation of the

Job) וספר כתב איש ריבי,words

xxxi. 35), is, "And the book which my adversary has written." The afflicted patriarch meant to intimate that even his well-known adversary had written a certain book, probably lost, in which the patriarch's life and character had been freely handled. It is hard to say why the translators of the Authorised Version rendered the above simple He

brew expression, "O that mine adversary had written a book!" The probability is that they knew the sorrows of poor authors, which certain printers— such as ours, for instance-inflict upon them. The translators imagined that nothing could so avenge them of their enemies as those enemies becoming authors, and thus subjecting themselves to the plagues which certain printers would be sure to worry them with. We often feel that forty, Jobpower would scarcely be patience enough to enable us to bear quietly the annoyances which printers now and then cause us,

All Communications and Books for Review to be addressed To the Editor of the Hebrew Christian Witness and Prophetic Investigator, Pelham Library, 151, Fulham Road, Brompton, S. W.

The Editor will not, in any case, re ̧ turn rejected communications.

No communication unauthenticated by real name and address-not necessarily for publication-will be noticed. We regret to find that this notification is unheeded by some.

LETTERS RECEIVED.

The Right Hon. Lord Arthur C. Hervey, Bishop of Bath and Wells; Revs. Flavel S. Cook; R. Gascoyne; W. Stone; A. Bernstein; J. Wilkinson; G. Wildon Pieritz; G. Hadow. &c. &c. &c. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED in our

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