148 



NA TURE 



[December 14, 1899 



Transactions o{ \\it. New Zealand Institute. In conse- 

 quence of the want of a good botanical library, some 

 species described in European publications are not 

 included. W, Rotting Hemsley. 



ENCYCLOPAEDIA BIBLICA. 

 Encyclopaedia Biblica. Edited by Rev. T. K. Cheyne, 

 D.D., and J. S. Black, LL.D. Vol. i. A to D. Pp. 

 xxviii + 572. (London : A. and C. Black.) 



IN this work we have an illustration of the fact that 

 similar ideas spring up contemporaneously in 

 different minds. In the same year in which Dr. Hastings' 

 " Dictionary of the Bible " reaches its second volume 

 extending to the letter K, we have the first volume of the 

 work here under review issued to the public. Both have 

 their source and publishers in Edinburgh, testifying to 

 the high interest which Scotland has ever shown in 

 Biblical criticism and Biblical subjects. To us it appears 

 that both works are very much on the same lines, though 

 the writers of the articles are for the most part different, 

 and include those of other nationalities besides British. 

 It would be difficult to say why one of these works takes 

 the title of an " Encyclopiedia" and the other of a 

 " Dictionary," as the articles in both are equally elaborate 

 and comprehensive. Perhaps, in the case of the latter, 

 the idea of a dictionary, as first contemplated, gradually 

 expanded in the minds of the editors, and under force of 

 circumstances, till it became merged in that of an 

 encyclopaedia ; the more recent work has had the 

 advantage of starting with the more ambitious title. 

 Both works, however, have had their origin in the late 

 Dr. Smith's invaluable " Bible Dictionary," which for 

 many years past has been a companion to students 

 of Holy Scripture. But so great has been the advance In 

 the critical study of the sacred pages, as well as in our 

 knowledge of Bible lands, for which we are largely 

 indebted to the labours of the committee of the " Pales- 

 tine Exploration Fund," that a new work embodying 

 these investigations has become a necessity which the 

 authors of both the Dictionary and Encyclopaedia have 

 endeavoured to meet. 



In looking over the subjects bearing upon natural 

 history and topography within the compass of this 

 volume, extending to the letter D, we observe little that 

 requires criticism. The word " adamant " is considered 

 to be corundum rather than the diamond, which was 

 unknown out of India till the time of Alexander's suc- 

 cessors ; at the same time it is not impossible that the 

 stone translated diamond in Exodus xxviii. may have been 

 simply quartz, or rock crystal, which is inferior in hard- 

 ness to either corundum or the diamond, and, therefore, 

 capable of being engraved with the name of one of the 

 tribes. Needless to observe that the rendering into Greek, 

 Latin or English of the precious stones of the Old 

 Testament will ever be attended with much uncertainty. 

 The description of the Dead Sea by Prof. Gautier is 

 lucid and correct as regards its present condition ; and 

 we are glad to observe that he gives no countenance to 

 the view that the waters of the Jordan once ran into the 

 Gulf of Akabah, which would have required that their 

 surface n the position of the Dead Sea must have risen, 

 not only to the level of the Red Sea and Mediter- 

 NO. 1572, VOL. 61] 



ranean, which was the case, but higher by about 650 

 feet ; of this supposed high level there is no evidence in 

 the form of old terraces in the Arabah Valley, as is the 

 case with regard to the Mediterranean level. The geo- 

 logical changes which have brought about the formation 

 of the Dead Sea basin may be looked for in a future 

 volume, under the head of Palestine. 



Under Deluge the various myths and legends found 

 in countries widely separated are related in much detail 

 by Dr. Cheyne and Prof. Zimmern. That the Hebrew 

 tradition, as contained in Genesis, had its origin in 

 Babylonia there can be no doubt, as the late Mr. George 

 Smith has shown in his remarkable work, " The Chaldean 

 Account of Genesis" (1876). But the question still re- 

 mains to be decided — whether the original story had its 

 origin amongst a myth-generating people or in the tra- 

 dition of an actual physical catastrophe, such as a great 

 inroad of the sea due to subsidence of the land in pre- 

 historic times. This latter is the view taken by Lenor- 

 mant in " Les Origines de I'Histoire," supported by Sir 

 J. William Dawson, and more recently by Sir Joseph 

 Prestwich. The Biblical story of the Deluge is necessarily 

 restricted to the Euphrates Valley ; but the more widely 

 extended tradition seems to imply a more extended 

 region wherein there was a submergence of the lands 

 during the human period. Of such submergence we 

 have ample evidence in many countries, including the 

 British Isles, Northern Europe and Scandinavia, the 

 Nile Valley, and Western Palestine. Such movements 

 have left their vestiges in the high-level gravels with 

 existing shells, and are certainly of more recent date 

 than the early Glacial stage, the close of which may be 

 assigned as the age of man. According to Dawson, this 

 subsidence of the land after a period of high elevation 

 brought about the extinction of palteocosmic man, an 

 inhabitant of caves, and a mighty hunter before the 

 Lord, like Nimrod. We must beware of watering down 

 what is really founded on a historic basis in the Bible 

 into legend. When we find the patriarch Abraham 

 treated " not so much an historical personage as an idea! 

 type of character, on the ground of the 'dreamy, grand, 

 and solemn ' impression which this patriarch makes upon 

 us," we may well pause and ask whether this process of 

 idealism is to extend to succeeding characters, such as 

 Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David and the rest ; and whether the 

 whole of the Old Testament is not to be regarded in the 

 same light as the "^neid," the " Odyssey," or " Paradise 

 Lost " ? We protest against this extravagance of criticism. 

 Whatever may have been the mythical origin of the 

 earlier chapters of Genesis, the historical narrative 

 clearly commences with the call of Abraham, and the 

 history of that "grand personage " claims to be treated 

 with as much scrupulous deference as any personality 

 of ancient history. As Prof. H. E. Ryle observes — 



" the endeavour to find in Abraham's story a philosophical 

 description of abstract qualities seems to presuppose a 

 stage of literary development to which the materials of 

 the Hexateuch can make no claim, and to desiderate a 

 literary unity which those materials emphatically contra- 

 dict." 



With such exceptions as the above the work must be 

 accorded very high literary merit coupled with wide re- 

 search. E. H. 



