The Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts. By Frederic G. Kenyon.
(Eyre and Spottiswoode.)—Mr. Kenyon has given us in this
volume exactly what many readers of the Bible have long been wanting,—a plain, intelligible account, brought home to the under- standing by facsimile illustrations, of the sources from which we
get our Bible. It is naturally divided into two parts, dealing with the Old and the New Testaments respectively. The Hebrew text, the Targums and the Talmud, the Septuagint, and other versions of the Old Testament, are successively treated. An intelligible account is given of a matter which is often alluded to with an unjustifiable presumption of knowledge in the reader, the Massoretic text. The same method is pursued with the New Testament, the manuscripts here occupying a far more important place, because, while of the Old Testament no codex goes back beyond the tenth century, in the case of the New we have two copies belonging to the fourth, two to the fifth (besides a number of fragments), no less than twenty-seven, though fragmentary, to the seventh. By the time we reach the tenth century, cursive writing being now general, the number of copies is very large indeed. On Dr. Hort's theory of the text Mr. Kenyon, while not neglecting to give due weight to the objections, pronounces a distinctly favourable opinion. " The Vulgate in the Middle Ages " is of course an important and most interesting chapter. On the Tridentine dealing with the Vulgate ho has of course to be silent, and indeed, it does not come within the scope of his work. Not the least interesting chapters to English readers will be those in which he tells the history of English translations, from Adhelm and Bede down to the Revised Version. The facsimiles are excellent.
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