SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this Heading we intend to notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.]
The Epistle to the Hebrews : an Exegetical Study: By A. B. Bruce, D.D. (T. and T. Clark. 7s. 6d.)—" The First Apology for Christianity" is Professor Bruce's description of the Epistle. The author may, he thinks, have been Apollos, though he does not insist upon the identification ; he certainly was not St. Paul. The date of writing was probably a little before the siege of Jerusalem. The persons addressed were Jewish Christians who found great difficulty in divesting themselves of legal conceptions of priesthood. He does not feel, as some Commentators would have it, that "his readers are with him." On the contrary—and here the notion a apology comes in—he is doing his best to corn- - bat-strong adverse prepossessions. We cannot pretend to give anything like an adequate appreciation of Professor Bruce's exegesis. We would specially mention his account of ii. 10, where the explanation of "make perfect" (rase:sal) sug- gests an interesting parallel to the teaching of Hilary of Poitiers, of the Melchizedek priesthood, of the comparison in chap. ix. between the Mosaic sacrifices and the sacrifice . of Christ. The concluding chapter, too, is specially note- worthy. Professor Bruce occupies, it will be seen, a stand- point very different from that of Archdeacon Wilson's Hulsean lectures. The writer to the Hebrews "firmly believes in the sacrificial character of Christ's death ; it is a cardinal tenet in his -theology." The steps of the argument are very clearly set
forth. They are five (1) Christ died once, as all die. He underwent the common lot. (2) He died as a testator who, by His will, bequeaths an inheritance. (3) His death was the culminating point of an experience which fitted Him to be the Captain of Salvation.' (4) His death, sinless as He was, broke the connection between sin and death. (5) His death was a priestly act of self-sacrifice." Professor Bruce keeps up in this book to his own high standard of work.
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