TRUBNER & C.0’S 
MONTEHEY: LIST: 
Nov., 1880. 
NOW READY. 
Post 8vo, pp. 128, cloth, price 5.. 
HARLY HEBREW LIFE. 
A STUDY IN SOCIOLOGY. 
By JOHN, PENTON: 
This work ts an application of Sociology to those portions of the Pentateuch which 
deal with social life. The labours of Sir H. Maine, Mr. Herbert Spencer, and others, 
have so far determined the characteristics of the different stages of the development of 
human society as to render the general principles of sociology avatlable for unfolding 
the social history which ts enfolded in traditions of laws and customs. In the case of 
the Pentateuch nothing of this kind has yet been attempted. No endeavour has, 
hitherto, been made to reconstruct the history of Early Hebrew Society by the light 
afforded by research into the early history of man, and, therefore, since literary criti- 
cism has destroyed the traditional estimate of the age of the Pentateuch, tt has not 
seldom been assumed by Hebraists that there is no real history attainable prior to the 
prophetic records, commencing about B.C. 800. Lt is, on the contrary, the object of this 
work to show, by comparison with the results of sociological research, that the Penta- 
teuch contains traditional laws and customs which have gradually accumulated during 
the progress of the Hebrews from nomadism upwards. By grouping these customs, 
therefore, in their sociological order, an outline of Hebrew social life ts obtained from 
the earliest period down to the commencement of the prophetic records. Consequently, 
instead of relying solely upon the prophets for the earlier Hebrew history, their testi- 
mony can be controlled by a valuable independent body of evidence. The work will 
also be useful to students of sociology, since the customs, being arranged in historic 
sequence, can either be added to general collections of data, or, regarded as the history 
of an extinct civilisation, can be studied tn their bearing upon the Science of Man, 
London: TRUBNER & CO., Ludgate Hill. i 
