THE WESTMINSTER NEW TESTAMENT.
In "The Westminster New Testament" (Andrew Melrose, 2s. net) we have Thessalonians and Corinthians (1 and 2), with Introduction and Notes by the Rev. Professor R. Mackintosh. This is a very serviceable little volume, in which a great amount of matter is compressed into a small space. Dr Mackintosh is a trustworthy guide ; he evidently has the gift of common-sense without which the greatest knowledge may be but of very small use. We see that he thinks Thessalonians the earliest of New Testament writings, putting it before James. The well-known difficulty of "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead ? " he meets with a "perhaps." St. Paul is making use in his argument of a well-known practice. Living Christians received baptism for friends or kinsfolk who had died without receiving it. He does not express any approval ; but he uses it as an argumentum ad hominem. "You would not," he urges, "take this trouble if you did not believe in a future life which will make it useful." As to the fansilisr quotation from lirfenander, it would have reinforced the argument that it does not imply a knowledge of the dramatist in St. Paul if we had been reminded that the line as it stands in the best MSS. is nnmetrical, xparre instead of xpiar. Evidently it was quoted as a proverb, not as a verso.
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