BOOKS.
THE LITERARY MAN'S BIBLE.* MR. W. L. COURTNEY has made an anthology from the literature of the Old Testament, and has called it The Literary Man's Bible. He believes that a large proportion of cultivated • (1) The Literary Man's : a Selection of Passages from the Old Testament, Historic, Poetic, and Philosophic, Illustrating Hebrew Literature. Arranged, with Introductory Essays and Annotations, by W. L. Courtney, M.A., LLD. London: Chapman and IlalL [102. 6d. net.]—(2) The Modern Reader's Bible. Edited, with Introductions and Notes, by Richard G. Moulton, M.A., Ph.D. London: Macmillan and Co. [10s. net.]
people no longer read the Hebrew Scriptures. Arbitrary and, as we now think, mistaken definitions of inspiration have locked them away from the man who has thrown off the dogmatic yoke of former generations. The doctrine of verbal inspiration reduces all the "original features" of the Hebrew writings to " one dead level of uniform doctrinal applicability," and those who have given up the doctrine of verbal inspiration have very often ceased to look in the Old Testament for any inspiration at all. The aim of the writer is " to give back the Bible " to such men as these, who have " ceased to appreciate its unparalleled value."
Mr. Courtney sets himself, accordingly, to treat the Old Testament "purely as literature," and he gives us his selections in ordinary print upon ordinary paper. The result is delightful, and we defy the most con- servative reader not to admit that new splendours disclose themselves in story, prophecy, and poetry when the act of reading is made so easy as to be unconscious. A few pages of literary criticism form an introduction, and some notes of a more technical sort occur throughout the volume. These notes present in succinct form to the reader the conclusions as to date, authorship, &c., of the various books which Mr. Courtney has gleaned from his study of recent Biblical criticism. We think they will strike the student as unduly dogmatic, but had they been less so they must have been more diffuse.
The anthology itself falls naturally into two great divisions, the historic and the prophetic, and it would be difficult to praise too highly the literary discrimination displayed in each half of the book. It seems to the present writer that hardly anything of supreme literary value has been left out of either. In his opinion, the passage in Ezekiel beginning " son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee," should have found a place, and the excerpts from Deuteronomy might have been more copious. After careful reading and much consideration, no other omission occurs to him. To be a little too long is always a good fault in an anthology, and we think it is the only fault which could reasonably be brought against this one. It would not be true to say that the Hebrew Scriptures reach a supreme literary height only when inspired by religion or ethics. The Book of Ruth, the Song of Solomon, David's exploits both in love and war, the stories of the women of " a beautiful countenance" who gained his heart, the record of the chivalrous deeds which have called forth the love of the world, the picture of Joseph's half- humorous tolerance, and Deborah's heroic bloodthirst are sufficient answers to any such theory. Nevertheless we are surprised that pages of merely heroic or graphic narrative should find a place in such an anthology as Mr. Courtney has compiled. Esther, for instance, is quoted at length without, as it seems to the reviewer, sufficient warrant. Is there any- thing of " unparalleled " literary value about the episode of Samson and Delilah? Again, does not the terrible cannibalism of the siege of Samaria offend too grossly against modern sentiment to make its literary value appreciable by modern men and women ? And what literary interest attaches to the Tower of Babel ? The selections which we have deprecated, however, make up all told but a very small fraction of a beautiful whole.
One common pitfall Mr. Courtney is too accomplished a man of letters to fall into. He has left out nothing on the ground that it is too well known,—a mistake which, while it might have attracted superficial students, would have destroyed the critical value of the book. And, indeed, as the ordinary reader turns over the leaves of even the best-known passages in the Old Testament, how little familiar he is apt to find himself with their finest details. Perhaps no portion of the Old Testament is so strongly fixed in every man's memory as verses one to eighteen of the twentieth chapter of Exodus (it contains the Ten Commandments), yet how few people could go on with the chapter after the prohibition to covet their neighbour's goods. The next four verses contain, however, one of the finest passages in Hebrew literature, suggesting as it does to the mind of any thoughtful reader the whole rela- tion of the prophets to that Divine Spirit which we call inspiration, and of the populace to their prophets "And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking : and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear : but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not : for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was."
But apart altogether from the passages which have passed into the laws and into the language, whole tracts of splendid prose lie open in Mr. Courtney's book before every reader who has no first-band familiarity with the Bible. Perhaps the world has been well advised in singling out the Messianic portions of Isaiah as the greatest work done by the two or more prophets who bear this name. But putting on one side the marvellous expression given to the expectation of the Redeemer, there remains much poetry of the highest inspiration in this prophetic book. The passages in denun- ciation of the idle rich could hardly be surpassed. The man who joins " house to house" and lays " field to field," who " getteth riches, and not by right," and who " at his end shall be a fool," is an eternal figure, and the sort of inspired kindness by which the prophet's heart is softened to those who cannot accept the conventional creed of their day remains fresh for ever. " Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light ? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." Or again : " I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not ; I will lead them in paths that they have not known : I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them."
The Book of Job is not, of course, given here in its entirety, but a very large portion—a portion which makes a whole, and leaves no essential element out of the drama—is laid before the reader. In a short essay which makes part of the intro- duction Mr. Courtney gives his own explanation of the philosophy of the poem, which perhaps will never be adequately explained. For our own part, we agree with Mr. Courtney only up to a point. " The two elements of his [Job's] character which are constantly put before us are, first, his undeviating confidence in God; secondly, his determination to plead his cause before Him." • That is, of course, the theme of the book. The upshot in our author's mind is this : " The theophany is so overwhelming that an individual cause is wholly obliterated by its splendour." In other words, " God is the author of a wonderful universe, in which the rights of the individual sink to insignificance." This does not seem to us to be the final impression left upon the reader by the great metaphysical drama of Hebrew literature. To our mind, it is otherwise. Job comes into communion with the author of that universe. " I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee." By this communion his insignificance is done away with, and his thirst for knowledge assuaged. With an extraordinary foresight of a later light thrown centuries after upon the enigma of life, the dramatist suggests that with the vision of God's greatness there came to Job a magnanimity which contributed to his redemption,- " the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends." In the end Job is great and free. He has solved the enigma for himself, but no man can solve it for another.
Space forbids us to quote or to criticise further. A large portion of the reading public owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Courtney, who in reopening their Bibles has done them a service.
In connexion with this hook we may mention another entitled The Modern Reader's Bible, which, though it has been for some years before the public, is now for the first time brought out in a single volume. " The spirit of this work," Dr. Moulton tells us, " is bounded by the idea of literature." Its object is to enable every student of both Testaments to recognise at a glance the historic, dramatic, poetic, or didactic nature of the passage he is reading :- " Its scheme has been, accepting for translation the results of our Revisers, to investigate, from internal evidence of the writings themselves, and by principles of comparative literature, of the exact literary form and detailed structure of the books Scripture ; and then to use all the devices of modern printing for the purpose of indicating such structure to the eye of the reader. Introductions to the books, and notes, have been added, but these are secondary ; the page setting, if only it is correct. is itself the best of commentaries."
Previous page
