Naville, E., The Store City of Pithom, London, 1885.—Neil, J., Pictured Palestine, London, 1893.—Nestle, E., Marginalien und Materialien, Tübingen, 1893.—Neteler, B., Stellung der alttest. Zeitrechnung in der altorientalischen Geschichte, Münster, 1893; Die Zeitstellung des israelitischen Auszugs, Münster, 1895.—Neubauer, A., Mediæval Jewish Chronicles, London, 1887.—Neubauer, A., and Stern, M., Hebräische Berichte über die Judenverfolgungen, Berlin, 1888.—Newman, F. W., A History of the Hebrew Monarchy, London, 1847.
Francis William Newman was born at London, June 27, 1805. Professor Newman had the misfortune to be the brother of a man more famous than himself. His name, partly on this account, is comparatively little known to-day, while that of the Cardinal is almost a household word. Nevertheless, he was a man of distinguished scholarship, and traces of that same stalwart character of mind which characterised his brother are manifest everywhere in his writings. His history of the Hebrew monarchy, written about the middle of the century,—when, as we have already noted, the higher criticism was making itself felt,—remains to this day one of the clearest and most interesting and authoritative accounts of that people. To most readers of the time of its first publication it must have seemed a daringly iconoclastic work, and even now there are many who would follow some of its pages with bated breath. Yet neither its fairness, its lack of prejudice, nor its scholarly foundations can be in question, and combined with these traits it has qualities of style which must give it a lasting value for the popular reader.
Niebuhr, C., Die Chronologie der Geschichte Israels, Ägyptens, etc., Leipsic, 1894; Geschichte des Hebräischen Zeitalters, Berlin, 1894.—Nikel, I., Der Monotheismus Israels in der vorexil. Zeit, Paderborn, 1893.—Nöldeke, Th., Die Amalekiter, Göttingen, 1864; Alttestamentliche Litteratur, Leipsic, 1868: Untersuchungen zur Kritik des Alten Testamentes, Kiel, 1869; Inschriften des Königs Mesa von Moab, Kiel, 1870; Die semitischen Sprachen, Leipsic, 1887.—Novikov, T., Das jüdische Russland, Berlin, 1892.—Nowack, W., Die sozial. Probleme in Israel, Strassburg, 1892; Die Entstehung der israelitischen Religion, Strassburg, 1895.
Öhler, G. F., Theologie des Alten Testamentes; (3 ed.), Stuttgart, 1893.—Oppert, J., Salomon et ses successeurs: solution d’un problème chronologique, Paris, 1877.—Origen, φιλοσοφουμενα (in Jac. Gronovius’ Theasaurus Antiquitatem Græcorum, Vol. X, p. 349, et seq. Leyden, 1697).—Ottley, R. L., A Short History of the Hebrews to the Roman Period, Cambridge, 1901; Hebrew Prophets, London, 1898.—Oxford, A. W., Introduction to the History of Ancient Israel, London, 1887.
Palmer, E. H., History of the Jewish Nation, London, 1874.—Paludan-Muller, B., Bibelhistorien og den gameltestamentlige Kritik, Copenhagen, 1893.—Perreau, P., Gli ebrei in Inghilterra nel secole XI e XII, Trieste, 1887.—Philipson, D., Old European Jewries, Philadelphia, 1894.—Picciotto, J., Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History, London, 1875.—Piepenbring, C., Histoire du peuple d’Israël, Paris, 1898.—Pomeranz, B., La Grèce et la Judée dans l’antiquité, Paris, 1891.—Post, G. E., Essays on the Sects and Nationalities of Syria and Palestine (in Quart. Statement of Eg. Explor. Fund, London, 1890).—Prévost-Paradol, L. A., Essai sur l’histoire universelle, Paris, 1890.
Lucien Anatole Prévost-Paradol was born at Paris, August 8, 1829; died by his own hand, in Washington, U.S.A., July 20, 1870. The celebrated author of the Essay on Universal History was not primarily a historian—certainly not a great historian. He was a professional writer and practical politician. But practical politics is, after all, nothing more or less than contemporary history, and from the earliest times the men who have taken part in the events of their epoch have been regarded as the most competent to describe these; one need but mention the names of Thucydides, Xenophon, and Polybius as cases in point. Not that Prévost-Paradol can be justly compared to these great historians, not that it can in any sense be claimed that he wrote a great history, but that the practices of a professional politician in any age necessarily give him, on some accounts, a better point of view from which to look out upon the events of universal history than can be attained by the mere closet student. The great difficulty with the large mass of modern historical literature is that the men who have produced it have been impractical closet students, who knew next to nothing of the actual life of the practical everyday diplomatist and statesman; hence so much infantile criticism and childish credulity in estimating the motives of the men who in all ages have made history; hence also, on the other hand, the value of the estimate of any man who, having had forced upon him a practical realisation of the motives that control men in modern history, shall attempt to estimate, from the point of view thus gained, the deeds of men of other times. Doubly valuable must be such work if the practical statesman who makes it is also an accomplished writer. Such was the status of Prévost-Paradol. His work has the charm of a polished literary style, and his estimate of peoples and of events is that of one who is at once artist and man of affairs. What he says of the Hebrews or any other people is not to be considered as the estimate of a scholar who has devoted his life to studying the original sources for his history, yet it is the estimate of a littérateur of scholarly habits, who is fully in touch with his subject, at least at second hand, and whose skill as a writer enables him to bring it more vividly before his public than the more scholarly investigator is usually able to do.
Price, J. M., Important Movements in Israel Prior to 1000 B.C. (in Bibl. World, 7, II, Chicago, 1896); The Monuments and the Old Testament, Chicago, 1900.—Prideaux, H., History of the connection of the Old and New Testaments, London, 1715-1717, 6 vols.
Rabelleau, M., Histoire des Hébreux, Paris, 1825.—Racah, L., Gl. Israeliti. Storia politico-litteraria, Roma, 1898.—Reinach, T., Histoire des israélites, etc., Paris, 1884.—Renan, J. E., Histoire du peuple d’Israël, Paris, 1887-93, 4 vols.
Joseph Ernest Renan was born at Tréguier, Côtes-du-Nord, France, January 27, 1823; died at Paris, October 2, 1892. Doubtless no other name that we have occasion to cite in connection with Hebrew history is so widely known to the general public as that of Renan. The famous ex-priest, who till the end of his life contended that he was still at heart a priest, early gained the ear of the public and maintained it to the end, partly through the eloquence of his discourse, partly through the seemingly startling character of his message. As a stylist, even in the land of stylists, Renan, from the first, took a foremost rank; as a littérateur, his position was assured, whatever subject he might choose to treat. But he also attained a corresponding distinction as a scholar pure and simple. He devoted himself early to the fullest investigation of Hebrew history, and his whole life was bound up with this task. Starting out with the intention of becoming a priest, he found himself presently lacking in sympathy with some of the dearest tenets of the church, and was led to retire from his prospective profession to devote himself purely to his literary pursuits. He became known, and for a time at least it seemingly pleased him to be known, as a sceptic, and his name has been mentioned with opprobrium from many a pulpit. Yet whoever reads his work from the standpoint of our own generation will find in it but little that is startlingly iconoclastic, and will be almost prepared to admit that Renan was right when he said—perhaps half jestingly—that he was still a priest to the end. In his later years, Renan himself came to feel that he had, perhaps, in so far that he had combated ancient beliefs, been doing little more than to fight a man of straw, and at last regretted that he had not turned his attention to some field of science rather than to the narrower channel of the history of an ancient nation. Yet perhaps this regret was ill-advised; for after all, Renan’s cast of mind was essentially theological, and it must be at least an open question whether he could have accomplished more in any field of science than he was able to accomplish in the field of history and of literature. Had he, on the other hand, chosen a purely literary field, without the hampering weight of historical traditions, he might very probably have produced something of more lasting merit than any of his existing histories. Be that as it may, however, his histories remain as a monument of industry and of artistic presentation which the biblical student of our generation cannot neglect.