The Pentateuch and Hebrews Analysed and Illustrated. By the Rev.
J. Davidson. (Simpkin and Marshall.)—This little volume is meant to be a sort of guide-book to a portion of the Bible, and a very useful one it will be found. It analyses and classifies the Books of Moses, and pre- sents the history in a clear and consecutive form, very much more effectively than do the brief and meagre headings of the Authorised Version. Wo suspect that many a reader of the Bible fails altogether to apprehend the general structure and drift of its various books. For such Mr. Davidson's analysis will be particularly helpful, and will enable them to a great extent to dispense with learned and voluminous commentaries. The author seems to be a very sensible and judicious man, without any extravagant views, or any perverse determination to ignore recent criticism. The Mosaic record, he admits, contains earlier documents, as well as many interpolations, but on the whole, the theory which attributes its origin to the age of Moses is, on purely critical grounds, the most satisfactory. Such is our author's opinion, and it has a good deal to say for itself. The authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews he regards as an open question, and thinks we can say nothing more do- finite about it than that it was the production of some very able
Christian teacher. Of course this epistle is very appropriately con- nested in such a book with the Pentateuch, which, in great part, it expounds and illustrates. We have maps and plans of the movements of the Patriarchs, and of the route of the Israelites on their way from Egypt to Canaan. These give completeness to the volume, which is well adapted to its author's purpose.
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