and the management of the subject ungainly. But, for the time when he lived, it shows a singular amount of erudition; its manly and direct treatment of the controversies that he touches breathes the true spirit of the sturdy band of Anglican divines to which he belonged; the selection of so large, and at that time so little explored, a field, and the accomplishment of so laborious a task, as a relief under the stress of severe suffering, indicate both a grasp of mind and an energy of will which theological students of later days may well be stirred to emulate.

Of altogether another order is the volume of Ewald's History which covers this time, and to which it is difficult to over-estimate my obligations. He, since these Lectures were begun, has, after a long and eventful life, been called to his rest. Of all those who have treated of the Jewish history, he alone or almost alone seems to have lived (if the expression may be used) not outside, but inside, the sequence of its events, the rise of its characters, and the formation of its literature. Erroneous conclusions, unreasonable judgments, unwarranted dogmatism, no doubt, may abound; but these do not interfere with the light which he has thrown, and the fire which he has enkindled, throughout the passages of this dark and intricate labyrinth. By his removal the Church, not only of Germany, but of Europe, has lost one of its chiefest theologians; and his countrymen will not refuse to a humble fellow-worker in the same paths the privilege of paying this parting testimony of respect to one to whom Christendom owes so deep a debt. It is now more than thirty years ago since I, with a dear friend, sought him out, and introduced ourselves to him as young Oxford students, in an inn at Dresden; and it is impossible to forget the

1 In the translation begun by Mr. Russell Martineau and continued by Mr. Estlin Carpenter, Ewald's History is now accessible to any English

reader; and to this must now be added the like translation of the Antiquities of Israel, by Mr. Henry Solly.

effect produced upon us by finding the keen interest which this secluded scholar, as we had supposed, took in the moral and social condition of our country; the noble enthusiasm with which this dangerous heretic, as he was regarded in England, grasped the small Greek Testament which he had in his hand as we entered, and said: 'In this little book is 'contained all the wisdom of the world.' We spoke to him of the great English theologian then lately departed; and of all the tributes paid to the memory of Arnold none is more full of appreciation than that which appeared shortly afterwards in the preface of the second volume of the "History of the Jewish People.' That history has since been unfolded piece by piece; and assuredly anyone who has watched the progress of his written words can easily understand what was once said of him to me by a German Professor who had attended his spoken lectures, that to listen to him after the harsh and dry instructions of ordinary teachers was like passing from the dust and turmoil of the street into the depth and grandeur of an ancient cathedral.

2. Thoroughly, however, as the ground had been travelled over by these distinguished writers, it seemed to me that there was still occasion, as in the former periods, so here, to draw out the permanent lessons from a story which needs, even more than the familiar narratives which preceded it, to be pressed, as it were, to give forth its peculiar significance.

One main cause of the neglect which has befallen this interval between the Old and the New Testament is that, especially after the Macedonian Conquest, the multiplicity of insignificant details and of obscure names has outweighed and overshadowed the events and characters of enduring interest. To ease the overloaded narrative of incidents which burden the memory without feeding the mind; to disentangle the main thread of the story from unmeaning episodes; to give the most important conclusions.

without repeating the arguments which have been elaborated in the larger works above mentioned, is the purpose of the following pages. 'Considering' (if I may use the language of the author of the second book of Maccabees in regard to the work of Jason of Cyrene) the infinite 'number of facts, and the difficulty which they find that desire 'to look into the narrations of the story for the variety of the ' matter, we have been careful that they who will read may 'have delight, and that they who are desirous to commit to 'memory may have ease, and that all into whose hands 'this book comes might have profit. It was not easy, but a ' matter of labour and watching, even as it is no ease unto 'him that prepareth a banquet and seeketh for the benefit 'of others; yet for the pleasuring of many we will under'take gladly this labour, leaving to others the exact handling of every particular, endeavouring not to stand on every 'point, or to go over things at large, or to be curious ' in particulars, but to use brevity, and avoid elaboration 'of the work, and to seek fit things for the adorning there'of.'1

There are some special branches in which I have adopted this reserve with less scruple. The teaching of the Kabbala requires a study so special as to be inaccessible for one not called to explore it; and its results in connection with the general moral of the history are too slight to afford reason for occupying space or time with its mysteries. The Samaritan literature,3 again, is so completely an episode that it was hardly necessary to do more than notice the few points of direct contact with Judaism.

The traditions of the Talmud might, no doubt, directly

12 Macc. ii. 24-31.

A summary of the Kabbala is given in Munk's Palestine, 519-524; and it has also been treated at length

by Dr. Ginsburg in a separate work on

the subject.

3 For the Samaritans see Geiger, Zeitschrift der Morgenl. Gesellschaft, xx. 527-573, and Jost's History, i. 44-90.

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or indirectly, be expected to illustrate this period. For long it might have been hoped that the gifted Hebrew scholar, Emanuel Deutsch, would have been enabled to fulfil the promise of his life by bringing out of his treasure all the things new and old of which he had given us a few specimens in his published essays. This hope has been cut short by his untimely death. But there are two compensations for the loss of a more independent and complete knowledge of this literature. The first is the abundant material furnished by others who have mastered the subject -by Dr. Ginsburg in his numerous articles in Kitto's Biblical Cyclopædia,' and in the Prolegomena to his various works; by Professor Neubauer in his Geography of the Talmud,' by M. Derenbourg in his "History of 'Palestine,' purposely constructed with the view of bringing together all the Talmudical passages which bear on this portion of the history. To these and to like works I have, for the most part, been content to refer, not burdening my pages with citations from the original, unless where I have myself consulted it. But, secondly, the excellent edition of the Mishna by Surenhusius (I venture to call the Dutch scholar by his Latin name) enables any ordinary reader to appreciate the general value of the authoritative Rabbinical teaching of this period. However uncertain must be the date of some of its treatises, those which relate to the Temple, the sacrifices, and the sayings of the great teachers, necessarily contain the traditions of the time preceding the Christian era. But whilst the historical and antiquarian references are often of profound interest, yet it must be freely admitted that on the whole, however striking these purple patches, the wearisomeness and triviality of the great mass of its contents baffle description. And that this impression is shared by Jewish scholars themselves is evident from the trenchant, though covert, irony with which the Mishna

is introduced to the English reader by its modern editors.1 As in the Jewish Church so in the Christian Church, it is well known that vast and groundless pretensions have been put forward, by strange and fantastic speculations, to a divine origin and to special importance. But no historian of the Christian Church would now think it necessary to dwell at length on the fable of the Donation of Constantine, or on the intricate discussions of the Seraphic or Angelic doctors. And no historian of the Jewish Church need be ashamed to pass over the fable of the Oral Tradition,' or the casuistry ascribed to the Masters of the Rabbinical Schools, except so far as they are needed to illustrate the undoubted narrative or the important issues of the actual history.

3. It is hardly necessary to repeat what has been said in the Prefaces to the two previous volumes, on the advantage and the duty of availing ourselves, as far as possible, of the light of modern criticism in the elucidation of the sacred books. It is true that in so doing we deviate considerably from the method of interpretation pursued in many former ages of the Church. But this is a deviation in which the whole modern world has shared. When Augustine repeatedly insists that the Psalms ascribed in their titles to Korah are descriptions of the Passion, and that the sons of Korah are Christians, because Korah' in Hebrew and Calvary' in Latin may be translated 'bald head,' and because Elisha was derided under that name; when Gregory the Great sees the twelve Apostles, and therefore the clergy, in the seven sons of Job, and the lay worshippers of the Trinity in his three daughters, it is impossible not to feel that the gulf between these extravagances and the more rational explanations of later times is wider than that which parts any of the modern

1 English translation of part of the Mishna by De Sola and Raphall. Introduction, p. 14, iv. It must be added that, by the omission of those

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parts which relate to the practices of the Jewish Temple and to the sayings of the Rabbis, the most interesting parts of the Mishna are dropped.