20 JUNE 1896, Page 25

We have received two additional volumes (the second and third

in the order of publication) of the International Critical Com- mentary, edited by the Rev. S. R. Driver, the Rev. Dr. Plummer, and the Rev. Dr. C. A. Briggs (of Union Theological Seminary, New York) (T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh). These two are Judges, by the Rev. George F. Moore, D.D., and The Epistle to the Romans, by the Rev. William &sudsy, D.D., and the Rev. Arthur C. Headlam, B D The two, differing as they do as widely as pos- sible in the character of the subjects treated in them, may be taken as giving characteristic specimens of what the whole work is likely to be. We are bound to say that we hesitate in following Dr. Moore to the length to which he goes in determining the date of Judges. He sees in the framework of the book, apart from the documents of which the writer or editor has made use, the spirit of what he balls the Denteromonic School. What others had done for the history of the Kingdom, he [the Editor] does for the cen- turies between the invasion and the days of Samuel." " This part of the book can hardly have been written before the beginning of the sixth century." This seems to us a large conclusion from the premisses stated. Is there any other literature in which internal evidence is so pressed ? Of the examination of the text, its exposition and interpretation, it is impossible to speak too highly. Nothing could be more carefully and elaborately worked out. We should be unwilling to commit ourselves to all the views stated by the commentator, but it may safely be affirmed that no student of the book of Judges can henceforth afford to neglect this volume. The volume on the Romans is, as far as we have been able to examine, a thoroughly adequate piece of work. Without touching on the grave theological questions involved in the doctrinal chapters, we would mention the most interesting use made of recent discoveries, inscriptional and other, which bear on the personal greetings of chap. xvi. A prospectus of the series, giving the names of scholars to whom various books of the Old and New Testaments have been assigned, gives a most satisfactory promise for the future of the series.