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KEY. CANON GAREATT, M.A., ON 



hope that when Mr. Garratt becomes a nonagenarian we may have 

 the privilege of hearing him again and seeing how the subject is 

 getting on. He has opened a rich mine which has remained more 

 or less closed. The subject has been touched on, as we hear, by 

 Bishop Eyle and Mr. Spencer. But it is a puzzle. All questions of 

 the various readings of the Hebrew Bible are puzzles ; l)ut investiga- 

 tions are being made of the MSS. in the Bodleian Library. I saw 

 two of them in 1860, one supposed to have been written by Aaron's 

 grandson, I think ; but it does seem a phenomenon that up to this 

 time there should be no possibility of collating it. I am always 

 afraid of somebody else bringing up this and substituting something 

 for it. It is everyone's interest to keep it safe ; for that and a few 

 other such MSS. are most valuable. There may l)e something 

 which we have not yet found, and it may be that God, in His 

 providence, is keeping it against the time it will be needed. 



Rev. F. E. Spencer. — I think we are very much indebted to 

 Canon Garratt for introducing this subject, especially if it should 

 lead to an unprejudiced investigation of it. I have looked into 

 several of the written introductions and the current treatment of 

 the subject, and it seems to me to be quite superficial, and to come, 

 mostly, by way of casual allusion to it, perhaps with a reference, 

 thrown in, to a Latin essay of Gesenius : this essay, I believe, 

 cannot be got at the British Museum. 



The Author. — Yes, I have got it there. 



The Chairman. — I think it is in Zion College also. 



Rev. F. E. Spencer. — Acquaintance with it does not encourage 

 confidence in its finality. But not sufficient allowance has been 

 made, I think, by the author of the paper for the extreme 

 complexity and real diflficulties of the subject, indicated, for instance, 

 by the Essay of Emanuel Deutsch, in Smith's 1st Edition, which is 

 quoted. The best notices known to me on the subject, outside 

 Deutsch, are those of Konig, 1893, and Hengstenberg {Disserfations on 

 the genuineness of the Pentateuch, 1847), of which last Moller says, " It 

 is quite incomprehensible how individual objections of criticism can 

 be brought forward, again and again, as if no answers had ever been 

 made to them." The subject of the Samaritan Pentateuch seems 

 to me to be involved in prejudice, misunderstanding and inherent 

 perplexity. I should like to sum up, briefiy, what I have to say 

 on these points. First, I cannot help thinking, with due deference 



