DR. WICKHAM ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS.* IN this
volume, one of the series of " Westminster Com- mentaries," we have Dr. Wickham's latest work. He was known as one of the chief of English scholars, and it is easy to see in this book the beneficial effect of a strict classical training. It is a model of lucid exposition. The writer recognises clearly what his readers want and makes sure that they shall find it. In the introduction we have the usual account of authorship, date, purpose, &c. Then comes a " Paraphrase," always a very useful help to the reader, and especially so in the case of a document where details require no small explanation. This is followed by the text and com- mentary. Finally we have three appendices, the first being of special value as dealing with a very important and difficult question,—the Gospel tradition in the Epistle. Had the writer any one of the Gospels, as we know them, before him ? Closely connected with this is the date. Was it before or after the destruction of Jerusalem P The writer seems to speak of the Temple services as still performed. Of course this may be a case, so to speak, of the "historic present." Dr. Wickham distinguishes, we see, between the use of the present tense in the Epistle and that which we find in Clement to the Corinthians. To write to Jews and speak of services as still existing when they had really been swept away is quite different from a general corn. parison of Levitical services with Christian observance. Aa to authorship, Dr. Wickham is clearly inclined to that of Barnabas, a very early tradition which we find in Tertullian. There are one or two points on which we should like to have seen something more definite than we actually find here. At the same time, we recognise the difficulty which one in Dr. Wickham's position must have felt. Is the explanation of the language used about Melehisedek, that it simply dis- tinguishes him from priests who had to have qualifications of birth, sufficient P " Without father or mother " seems a strange way of putting " not belonging to a particular family."
* The Epistle to the Hebrew& With Introduction and Notes by E. 0, Wickham, D.D. London : Methuen and Co. [6s.]
" Without beginning of days or end of life" is still more strange. It certainly seems to describe a supernatuaal personage. Then there is the passage vi. 4.8, "as touching those who were once enlightened," &c. Is this dogmatic, to the effect that apostasy is in itself an unpardonable sin P or is it experimental, the statement of fact that it is practically impossible that a fall so great should ever be recovered P
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