[Under this heading we notice such Books of the welt
as haw not Leen. reeerved fur review in other forms.]
Outlines of the Synoptic Record. By the Rev. Bernard Hugh Bosanquet and Reginald A. Wenham, M.A. (Edward Arnold. 6s.)—" Evangelista Marcus," wrote St. Augustine, " Matthaeum secutus est tanquam pedissequus et breviator." "The establish- ment of the priority of St. Mark," say our authors, "may be- regarded as one of the most certain results of Gospel criticism." The conflict of opinion is very significant. That on a matter of such surpassing importance we have been compelled to reverse. the judgments of antiquity is surely a most powerful argument against an exaggerated respect for it in other matters. If the. Fathers read the Scripture with so imperfect a sense of its meaning, why are we to have imposed upon us their conclusions, from it? It will be understood that Messrs. Bosanquet and Wenham's book is not a " harmony " in the accepted sense of that word. The " harmony" of former days was a resolute attempt- to bring the three, or rather the four, Evangelists into line. Such an attempt was sure to necessitate an amount of special pleading which made Biblical commentators almost a byword for leek of candour. No such attempt is made here. The records of the Synoptists—the universal acceptance of the word is itself most significant—are taken as they stand. No conclusion is fixed beforehand; the result is the outcome of a free criticism. We- cannot go into details ; but we may say that Profaner A. B. Bruce's commentary on the three Gospels in the "Expositor's' New Testament" may be advantageously read along with it.
Previous page
