The Canon of the Bible : its Formation, History, and
Fluctuations. By Samuel Davidson, D.D. (C. Began Paul and Co.)—Dr. Davidson puts into a brief and convenient form his conclusions about the Canon. The plan of the book precludes the possibility of discussing the many complicated questions which belong to the subject, and compels the statement of results, with but the briefest indication of the process by which they have been reached. The results are not unfrequently such as will not be commonly accepted. The shorter Greek recension of the Ignatian Epistles, for instance, is put by many scholars at a date considerably earlier than A.D. 175, to which Dr. Davidson assigns it, and by which he stigmatises the Epistles as a forgery. And there are many quite as competent to pronounce an opinion as Dr. Davidson who would not allow that "the tide of modern criticism" is " irresistible " as regards the overthrowing of the Johannine authorship of the Fourth Gospel. Dr. Davidson's is a clear and able statement of the views of what may be called the moderately destructive party.
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