i8 7 7] OLD TESTAMENT STUDY IN 1876 373 



before the eye. Manifestly, however, on this theory any 

 lines in the picture which are new and different from 

 the older ritual must have a special meaning. Thus, 

 on xlv. 23, Dr. Currie remarks, that instead of the 

 graduated scale of sacrifices for the Feast of Tabernacles 

 in Numbers, &quot; the covenant number seven is preserved 

 throughout to indicate a perfect in lieu of an imperfect 

 covenant with God.&quot; But even such arbitrary 

 spiritualising will not cover all the remarkable details 

 of the case. What is the symbolism of the sentence 

 pronounced in chapter xliv. against the Levites ? 

 Here Dr. Currie admits a historical reference ; but, in 

 direct opposition to the plain words of the text, supposes 

 that vers. 10 sqq. speak only of certain apostate Levites, 

 not of the Levites as a body, whom he supposes to have 

 remained faithful. But what Ezekiel distinctly says is, 

 that the Levites as a whole are to be excluded from 

 proper priestly work, which is henceforth to be limited 

 to the house of Zadok ; and this exclusion is not based 

 on any previous law, though it precisely corresponds 

 with the middle books of the Pentateuch, but is set forth 

 as a new ordinance, a punishment for the services offered 

 by the Levites on the high places. What can we think of 

 a commentator who does not even notice the singular 

 problem raised by this passage, and on which Graf and 

 other critics have built arguments which are at present 

 agitating the whole world of Hebrew scholarship ? 



Mr. Fuller s Daniel is a much more thorough piece of 

 work, which incorporates a great mass of valuable material 

 drawn, not only from books, but from MSS. communica 

 tions by Assyrian scholars. Great weight is naturally 

 laid on the testimony of Lenormant to the accuracy of 

 the Babylonian colouring in the book ; but the fullest 

 discussion of the subject by the French scholar in his 

 book, La Divination et la science des presages chez les 

 Chaldeens (Paris, 1875), Appendice. Les six premiers 

 chapitres de Daniel, seems to have appeared too late to be 



