690 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



God for naught ? And the solution of it is Job himself, the man Job. 

 The poem is an epic, not a drama. It is the epic of the inner life; as 

 such its significance extends far beyond national bounds to the universal 

 heart of humanity. 



W. H. Green proposed a new nomenclature for the Hebrew tenses ; 

 he prefers preterit and future as designations of the Hebrew tenses to 

 perfect and imperfect, and holds that these tenses primarily and prop- 

 erly denote the time of action, and not simply its mode as complete or 

 incomplete. He has re-edited his Hebrew grammar, first published 

 twenty-seven years ago ; it has been revised throughout aud the syntax 

 eutirely recast. 



W. E. Harper published Elements of Hebrew Syntax and discussed 

 the Pentateuchal question ; he presented a detailed analysis of the 

 Hexateuch, in parallel columns, giving not only the chapters and verses 

 by sections as they are divided by critics, but also the topics of which 

 each section treats. An introductory note states the points (7) agreed 

 upon by the two schools. Then follow the facts and considerations 

 urged in favor of the analysis of Genesis i, 1,-xii 5, in sections. 



Edward P. Humphrey (in Sacred History, from the Creation to the Giv- 

 ing of the Law) defends the traditional view of the Mosaic records. 

 The difiiculties which are supposed to embarrass the Mosaic account of 

 the creation he classes as follows : (1) All those questions in which the 

 meaning of the text is fully ascertained and opposing sciences are im- 

 mature. (2) The problems in which natural science is mature and the 

 Bible is not understood. (3) Where the results of science are incom- 

 plete and proper explanation of the Bible is not yet reached. 



M. Jastrow, sr., discussed the transposed stems in Talmudic, Hebrew, 

 and Chaldaic, especially the reduplicated stems, the so-called pilpels 

 and palpels of verbs and nouns. 



K. Kohler criticised the arrangement and method of Jastrow's Tal- 

 mudic dictionary, especially the tendency to give up derivations from 

 the Greek and find Semitic etymologies. 



Thomas Lauds rendered Genesis xli, 32, '^ the dream was told or set 

 forth to Pharaoh twice." 



G. F. Moore gave a sketch of the history of Semitic studies in this 

 country from the settlement of New England to about 1875. The author 

 describes the state of learning among the Puritans, and its gradual 

 decadence; then, at greater length, the revival of Biblical science in 

 the early part of this century, with brief biographical notices of Stuart 

 and other leading representatives of this movement; and gives, finally, 

 without any attempt at exhaustiveness, a survey of the more recent 

 literature. A second article is to contain a fuller account of the work, 

 of the last ten years. He pointed out some seeming evidence that the 

 supralinear system of vowels originated under Arab influence. 



Henry Preserved Smith reviewed Victor Rysoels The text of Mi^ah, 

 part I (1887). The book is one of real importance. The text of Micah's 



