A Manual of Biblical Archceology. Translated from the German of
Karl Friedrich KeiL chiefly by the Rev. Peter Christie. Edited by the Rev. F. Crombie, D.D. Vol. I. (T. and T. Clark.)—"Biblical Archceology is the scientific representation of the forms which life assumed among the people of Israel, as that nation of antiquity which God had selected to be the bearer of the revelations recorded in the Bible." The second clause in this sentence is significant. The divine mission of Israel underlies the whole conception of their life, the records and monuments of which must accordingly be regarded otherwise than what correspond to them in the case of other nations. The geography and natural history of Palestine are first treated as bearing on the point of the mission of Israel. Then we have a detailed discussion of the religion of Israel, the places of worship, Mosaic, Solomonic, and post-Exilian, the sacred officials, the acts of worship, sacrificial and liturgical, being suc- cessively discussed. Professor Keil accepts the Mosaic authorship of the Levitical ritual. Indeed, he may be said to ignore the difficulties raised by such criticisms as Colenso's.
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