The Chronicles of Jcrahnteel. Translated by M. Gaster, Ph.D. (22
Albemarle Street.)—This is a volume published by the New Oriental Translation Fund, the successor of a useful in- stitution which commenced its operations as far back as the year 1828. Dr. Gaster has written an elaborate introduction in which he investigates the probable authorship and dates of the
Chronicles and of the form in which they are now found. Some part he is inclined to put back as far as the years immediately following the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus.. The book itself is a curious supplement, so to speak, of the Bible narrative. It tells us, for instance, the number and the names of Adam's children over and above the three Biblical personages, Cain, Abel, and Seth, who had, according to the Chronicler, twin wives (Qalmana, Deborah, and Naha). He continues to give similar in- formation about all the names in the genealogies of Genesis. Pass- ing on. we have the history of Abram amplified by a legend of how he refused to assist in the building of Babel, was put into a furnace of bricks, and miraculously delivered, the fire consuming a multitude of the bystanders (84,500), for the Chronicles are nothing if not precise. In the story of Moses we hear how the child, being then in his third year, sitting in the lap of Pharaoh's daughter, takes the crown from Pharaoh's head and puts it on his own, whereupon " Balsam the Enchanter" advises that he should be slain. The Biblical story thus amplified is carried on as far as the death of Judah surnamed Maccabee.
Previous page
