The Jews under Roman Rule. By W. D. Morrison. (1'.
Fisher Unwin.)—This volume of the " Story of the Nations" series, if it does not add much to our knowledge, summarises very clearly the results of recent research in regard to many interesting points of Jewish history. It is divided into two parts, the first dealing with the history of the Jews under Roman rule, and the second with the structure of Jewish society during the same period. Of these, the latter is much better done. It contains excellent descriptions of the Sanhedrim, the Temple, the Synagogue, and of the Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. Mr. Morrison does not speak very decidedly on the vexed question of the origin of Eesenism, but is inclined to reject the theories of Buddhistic or Pythagorean influence, and to regard it as a purely Jewish growth ; in fact, a more extreme development of the doctrines of the Pharisees. This view seems to ignore the vital differences between the two bodies. The author appears to greater advantage in dealing with the attempted fusion between Jewish and Hellenic ideas, which culminated in the works of Philo Jutheus. Tho assumption on which the Hellenising Jews proceeded, he points out, was that all the learning and philosophy of Greece were con- tained and derived from the Pentateuch, and that the pagan divinities were only Jewish patriarchs disguised under foreign names. They cannot, however, have supposed that Moses was worshipped by the Greeks under the name of Mercury, a purely Roman name, as Mr. Morrison ought to have remembered. As to the intense hatred of the Jews towards Rome, Mr. Morrison points out that it resulted chiefly from the greater vividness with which the Messianic hope began to be held after the exile, and the fact that Rome was the chief enemy it would have to combat. Mr. Morrison necessarily passes over the rise and growth of Christianity as lightly as possible. Indirectly, of course, the whole of his book is devoted to one phase of the subject.
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