4 DECEMBER 1964, Page 24

Epistles and Addresses

The Bible as History in, Pictures. By Werner Keller. (Hodder and Stoughton, 42s.) Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis. By Robert Graves and Raphael Patti. (Cassell, 36s.) The Structure of Luke and Acts. By A. Q. Morton and the late Professor G. H. C. Mac- gregor. (Hodder and Stoughton, 21s.)

WERNER KELLER'S picture book is a fascinating one and gives us a vivid sense of the life and times of the people of the Bible. The Old Testa- ment pictures are less familiar than the New, and probably for that reason there are many more of them. Most evocative of the glory of Babylon is the coloured plate VII of the splendid Ishtar Gate of that city; the Egyptian princess on page 163 and the charming ladies on page 164 help us to understand King Solomon's failings.

The pictures of the same monarch's great stables at Megiddo are an interesting confirmation of a biblical statement often dismissed as un- historical. In Hebrew Myths we find a collec-

tion of all kinds of fantastical stories in the background of Genesis. They leave us with the same sense of surprise at the sobriety and ethical standards of the book itself as we get when we see the Four Gospels in their contem- porary setting. The authors do not refer to this, although in a brief and interesting introduction they compare the influence,of Greek and Hebrew myths on western civilisation.

Of course the computer was bound to come in New Testament studies, and the Reverend A. Q. Morton has been a pioneer in using it, first with the late Professor Macgregor and then with the Reverend James McLeman on Luke and Acts and the Pauline Epistles. Pioneers have ever a difficult path to tread and these writers are no exception; the criticisms have been many ana sharp, and so have the reactions of the pioneers. It is possible to detect in Christianity and the Computer a sense of irritation with those who do not agree that here at last is the solution of many problems of authorship. Computers do not work on their own; they have to deal with what is fed into them. Our authors write strongly about the 'lunatic assertion of the nineteenth-century scholar Hobart that he had found 400 medical terms in Saint Luke'—due to his 'having made up his mind that Luke was a physician,' 'a ridiculous hypothesis.' But are those who use the computer on Luke and Acts altogether free from such evils?

We need not use adjectives like 'lunatic' and `ridiculous'. but certainly there are several un- proved assumptions throughout Chapters 2 to 6 in The Structure of Luke and Acts, and simple examples may be seen in the penultimate para- graph on page 22 of the same book. If these assumptions are correct, then what the com- puter arrives at will be correct, too, but what if they are wrong? New Testament scholars as objective as our authors would say that some, or even all, of their assumptions in their treatment of Luke and Acts are in fact wrong. Nevertheless, they are prepared to say categorically (page 44, Christianity and the Computer): In so far as Saint Paul's personal authority has been the main reason for accepting what he said, a number of documents are now seen to be deprived of that authority.' Is it possible that the com- puter can sometimes behave like Hobart?

Canon Montefiore's Commentary is an austere work of scholarship, fully carrying out the inten- tion he declares in his preface: 'In keeping with the British tradition of writing commentaries I

have tried to confine myself entirely to exegesis and I have not touched on the more•difflcult prob' lems of hermeneutics.' In dealing with such a work as Hebrews this must have required a discipline of the mind which excites wonder. But it means that if one is to get the best out of this Commentary it must be read with another in one's hand, Westcott, still (if one has Greek), or Williatn Manson.

A good deal of space in the introduction is given to the supposed authorship of Apollos and possible consequences of accepting it. But this authorship remains so open to doubt that one cannot help thinking that too much has been made out of it in a work of this kind. Why are theological writers so devoted to words like `anarthrous' (page 115)? Why not be content to say, 'the absence of the definite article here

means . . ? Despite their irritating layout Black's Commentaries are a valuable aid to New Testament studies and Canon Montefiore's con- tribution is a distinguished addition to the series. Miss Cotton's book on Liverpool Cathedral gives us a detailed and fully illustrated record 01 this vast building, 'the biggest white elephant in the Church of England,' to quote the remark of a clergyman from that diocese sailing out of Live- pool en route for Toronto. 'Time alone will show whether this building is the last flare-up of the Gothic revival,' said its architect in an early lee- ture. Fifty years later, says our attthor, he regret. fully admitted that this had proved to be the case• But had it?

Certainly in this country there has been only! flicker, at Guildford and Coventry, but over in the States they are hard at it, stoking up huge Gothic flare-ups in New York and Washington. The story of the development of a building like Liverpool is a fascinating one, and in this book we can trace the changes of design. These are almost always for the better; there was an early and merciful deliverance from the design which won the competition (plate 9). In these develop' ments one of the greatest of Gothic revivalists. G. F. Bodley, played a bigger part than one had suspected. One wonders what, posterity, landed with the upkeep of piles like these, will think• Will they see them as the last flare-up of Christianity as it had appeared for the best Part of a thousand years?

► l+ GLYN LANDAY