6 NOVEMBER 1909, Page 13

TVE TEACHING OF JESUS ABOUT THE FUTURE.

The Teaching of Jesus about the _Future. By Henry Burton Sharman, Ph.D. (T. Fisher Unwin. 13s. 6d. net.)—This is a book for Biblical critics. The writer accepts the now generally received theory that the Gospel of Mark was employed as a source by the writers of the First and Third Gospels, that Matthew and Luke possessed—perhaps two—other sources in common, and that Matthew had in addition a document "chiefly or wholly made up of discourse material," probably the logia of Matthew spoken of by Papias. Starting from this hypothesis, and turning his mind to the eschatological portion of the Gospels!, he builds upon it a further theory of "editorial expansion," and lays on one side as probably not authentic many hard sayings about the day of judgment and tho Second Coming. Professor Sheerness's con- clusion is that our Lord prophesied the fall of Jerusalem, but not a millennium ; the spread of the truths He had taught, but not a Messianic kingdom; a life after death for the righteous, but not coextensive with mankind, the fate of the unrighteous; being nowhere depicted and the fate of the righteous nowhere localised or foretold with any precision. Professor Sharman's arguments are clearly stated and his theory logically applied.