The Quarterly Review 1888. January & April [antikvár]

THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. Akt. I.— The Hol// Bible, according to the Authorized Version (a.D. 1611). iVith an explanatory and critical Commentary, and a Revision of the Translation. By Clergy of the Anglican Church. Apocrypha. Edited by Henry Wace, D.D. 2 Vols. London, 1888. IT was a happy idea, though probably demanding a considerable measure of courage for its practical realization, to extend the plan of the well-known and greatly-valued ' Speaker's Commentary' on the Canonical Scriptures, so as to embrace, in a couple of supplementary volumes, the semi-sacred or deutero-canonical writings which constitute what is commonly called the Apocrypha. Strange as it may at first sight seem, that books which are of authority in matters of Christian faith, and books which are confessedly destitute of any such authority, should be compacted together under a common title, and that the most sacred in all literature: it is nevertheless a fact that the Bible of the Anglican Communion is composed of books of both classes, and would be no more complete without the romance of Judith, or the fables of Bel and the Dragon, than it would be without the prophecies of Isaiah, or the Gospel of St. John. No doubt there is something anomalous in this hybrid character of our sacred volume; but, like most anomalies, it is the result of a long historical development. The English Church at the Reformation, true to her character for moderation and dislike of needless change, shrank from severing the Apocryphal books from her Bible, where they had for ages found a place, and was content to state that they are to be read only for example of life and instruction of manners, and are not to be applied to establish any doctrine. On the whole, this distinction has served its purpose. It has been effectual to prevent the confusion and mischief, which might otherwise have arisen from the continued inclusion of these books in the Vol. 166.—iVo. 332. t Anglican