SCHOOL-Booxs.—In "The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges" (Cambridge University
Press), we have The Revelation of St. John the Divine, with Notes and Introduction by the late Rev. W. H. Simcox, M.A. Though it is scarcely likely that the Revelation will be used as a school-book, it is well that the series should be complete ; and we are particularly glad to have the views of so sober and practical a thinker as was Mr. Simcox on this, the most obscure of all the sacred writings. Mr. Simcox was inclined to think that the earlier date given for the writing of the Apocalypse is to be preferred. He makes an ingenious sup- position that the writer may have been banished at the beginning of Vespasian's reign, when Domitian was the only one of the Imperial family in Rome. The early date helps to remove the difficulty about the style. If the Gospel and Epistles were twenty years later than the Apocalypse, St. John may well have learnt to speak and write Greek more correctly and easily in that time. The commentary is well worth studying; we must leave it with this general estimate, and content ourselves with quoting the admirable sentences which conclude the introduction :—" One thing is plain about the Apocalypse—that it describes a clearly defined moral conflict between good and evil, between Christ and His enemies ; not a controversy in which good men, and men who love Christ in sincerity, are to be found on different sides. It is an idle latitudinarianism which assumes that in such controversies truth is unimportant, or that compromise is the only guide to it; but it is something worse to waste on such controversies the zeal that should be reserved for the true war with the real Anti- christ."—In the same series we have The Epistle to the Galatians, by the Rev. E. H. Perowne, D.D. This book, on the other hand, is eminently suitable for the use of an advanced class. The sub- ject is well defined, the sequence of thought more easily followed than, perhaps, in any other Epistle. There are difficulties, of course—one of them, " Now a mediator is not a mediator of one," &c., apparently insoluble—but the meaning and purpose of the whole is easily grasped. Dr. Perowne's guidance will doubtless be found generally satisfactory. We cannot see why the liavri icrriv 8akiryopo6uera of iv., 24, cannot be translated as they stand, " which things are, being allegorised," i.e., if you choose to allegorise,—St. Paul meeting his Judaising opponents on their own favourite ground. Liddell and Scott quote the passage as an instance of the usage,—" Pass. : to be spoken allegori- cally." But if so, why not tgaaarpoi;yrat? What would be the translation of Artvd &TIP ipunveolueva but " which things are, being interpreted" ? Dr. Perowne takes the wwXuca ypcEuunrct of vi., 11, as letters written large for the sake of emphasising the statement.—St. Luke : Greek Text. With Notes by the Rev. John Bond. (Macmillan.)—Mr. Bond com- presses his annotation into a very moderate compass ; his notes, with the appendices, occupy eighty-six pages as against seventy- four of the text. This suffices sufficiently well for explanation, but illustration has necessarily to be cut somewhat short. Still, the book fulfils its aim of being a handy help for studenta who are making acquaintance with the Greek text for the first time. —We have received Lessons from the Old Testament, by the Rev. M. G. Glazebrook, M.A. (Percival and Co.)—This is the second volume, including from the death of Saul to Nehemiah. The " Lessons," in fact, constitute, so to speak, an " expurgated" Bible. Possibly the compiler might have gone a little further in this way with advantage. But we are aware that the point thus raised is one of great difficulty. More notes might certainly have been given with profit to the reader.—In Lessons from the Old Testament, Junior Course (same publishers), Mr. Glazebrook has put together the substance of his two volumes of the Senior Course, adapting them for the use of younger scholars. —Herodotus, Book III. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by C. G. Macaulay, M A. (Macmillan and Co.)—Mr. Macaulay gives us in his introduction part of Sir H. Rawlinson's translation of the Behistun inscription, which, on the whole, confirms in a remarkable way the statements of the historian. He adds a useful summary of the Ionic forms used by Herodotus. The notes are useful, but somewhat jejune. However, limitations of space had to be considered. —In the same publishers' series of " Elementary Classics," we have Xenophon's Anabasis, adapted for the Use of Beginners, by W. Welch, MA., and C. G. Duffield, M.A. The whole story is compressed into forty-two small pages ; the Greek is cut up into short sentences, which are permitted to become a little longer as the reader advances, and is generally simplified. Exercises are added, and two vocabularies, Greek-English and English-Greek. Altogether, the learning is made as easy as cir- cumstances permit.—Xenophon's Anabasis, IV., edited by the Rev. E. D. Stone, M.A. (same publishers), though belonging to the same series, is intended for the use of somewhat more advanced scholars. The text is given substantially as it stands. A vocabu- lary is added.
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