Chapter 3 No.3

P. 77, lines 11–12.-Encyclop?dia Biblica.

(My best thanks are due to Mr. C. T. Gorham for permitting me to make a free use of his notes on the Enc. Bib.)

In case the reader may jump to the conclusion that this is a work compiled by collecting the most heretical views from all parts of the globe (as I was informed by the librarian when I inquired for the book in a Cathedral library), let me call attention to the list of contributors, among whom will be found many English ministers of the Gospel. For instance:-

The Rev. Archibald R. S. Kennedy, D.D., Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages, Edinburgh.

The Rev. C. F. Burney, M.A., Lecturer in Hebrew, and Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford.

The Rev. Claude Hermann Walter Johns, M.A., Hon. Sec. Camb. Pupil Teachers' Centre.

The Rev. George Adam Smith, M.A., D.D., LL.D., Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Exegesis, Free Church College, Glasgow.

The Very Rev. J. A. Robinson, D.D., Dean of Westminster.

The Rev. Owen Charles Whitehouse, M.A., Principal and Professor of Biblical Exegesis and Theology in the Countess of Huntingdon's College, Cheshunt, Herts.

The Rev. R. H. Charles, M.A., D.D., Professor of Biblical Greek, Trinity College, Dublin.

The Rev. Samuel Rolles Driver, D.D., Regius Professor of Hebrew, Canon of Christ Church, Oxford.

The Rev. T. K. Cheyne, M.A., D.D., Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oxford, Canon of Rochester.

The Rev. T. Witton Davies, B.A., Ph.D., Professor of Old Testament Literature, North Wales Baptist College, Bangor; Lecturer in Semitic Languages, University College.

The Rev. William E. Addis, M.A., Lecturer in Old Testament Criticism, Manchester College, Oxford.

The Rev. William Henry Bennett, Litt.D., D.D., Professor of Biblical Languages and Literature, Hackney College, London, and Professor of Old Testament Exegesis, New College, London.

The Rev. William Sanday, D.D., LL.D., Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, Canon of Christ Church, Oxford.

The Rev. A. B. Davidson, D.D., Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Exegesis, United Free Church New College, Edinburgh.

The Rev. George Buchanan Gray, M.A., Professor of Hebrew, Mansfield College, Oxford.

The rapid advance of Bible criticism in late years is well seen by comparing articles in Dr. W. Smith's Dictionary of the Bible (1860), in the Encyclop?dia Britannica, signed W. R. S. (between 1875 and 1888), and in the Encyclop?dia Biblica (1899 to 1903). Even the comparatively conservative Hastings's Dictionary (1898–1902, with extra volume 1904) contains articles which would have been condemned as heretical half a century ago. Speaking of the Enc. Bib. and Hasting's Dictionary, Mr. Benn remarks (in his History of Rationalism) that, "as regards the Old Testament, their respective attitudes do not essentially differ, Wellhausen's theory being accepted by both."

P. 80, line 18.-We have note got the stone and read the inscriptions.

For a popular account of this interesting discovery (upon the site of Susa, the ancient city of the Persian kings, in December, 1901) see The Hammurabi Code, by Chilperic Edwards.

P. 103, line 16–17.-A disputed passage in Tacitus.

The sceptical theory is that, had it been genuine, the passage would not have been overlooked by all the early Christian writers in the various disputations with objectors, and especially by Tertullian, who quoted largely from his works, and the ecclesiastical historian Eusebius, who was zealous in his defence of the Faith and greedy of materials with which to support it. (An important French student of Tacitus holds that the whole Annals is medieval!) On the other hand, the style is thoroughly Tacitean, containing a number of words and expressions elsewhere used by the author, and more or less characteristic of him, yet without any such elaborate over-imitation as we should expect to find even in a skilful forgery. Nor is the subject-matter perhaps less characteristic, while the MS. evidence is in favour of the passage being genuine. Taking it to be so, what, after all, does it amount to? Merely this. Christ was put to death by Pontius Pilate, and a very large number of Christians were put to death in a horrible manner by Nero. The passage occurs in Tacitus, Annals, XV., 44, and runs as follows: "Consequently, to get rid of the accusation, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called by the populace 'Christians.' Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Jud?a, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred of mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt to serve as a nightly illumination when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle."

P. 107, lines 19–20.-The true likeness of our Lord had been miraculously transmitted.

Presumably my informant was referring to the legend of St. Veronica, since the equally absurd History of the Likeness of Christ (translated by E. A. Wallis Budge) closes with these words: "And the angel took the likeness from where it was standing, and he removed it; and no man hath ever seen it since."