Impelled by the demands for a constructive presentation of the facts regarding the literature of the Old Testament, Professor Kent has undertaken a series of six volumes presenting successively the narrative of the beginnings of Hebrew history, historical and biographical narratives, prophetic sermons, epistles and apocalypses, laws and traditional precedents, songs, psalms, prayers, proverbs, and didactic poems; thus covering the entire Old Testament. This first volume, “The student’s Old Testament,” is a modern and scholarly translation, with a systematic, logical classification of the early narratives found in the books from Genesis to Ruth. Various versions of the ancient stories are presented side by side, so that they can be read like the gospels of the New Testament, in their original form.
“Its information is full and eminently trustworthy. In the notes the editor is careful not to be over-dogmatic.”
| + + | Ath. 1905, 2: 140. Jl. 29. 530w. |
“Its scholarly character, its conservative and constructive spirit, its admirable rendering of the text, its ample helps for proper interpretation, and its large promise of good things to come in the subsequent volumes, assures the reader that a most serviceable work has been added to the apparatus for biblical study.” H. L. W.
| + + | Bib. World. 25: 309. Ap. ‘05. 1020w. |
Ker, William Paton. Dark ages, [**]$1.50. Scribner.
“Professor Ker, of University college, London, presents, under special title of ‘The dark ages,’ the first volume of a series of ‘Periods of European literature,’ to be edited by Professor Saintsbury.... He begins with an attempt to define this much-abused term.... Chronologically he limits his period by the decline of Roman culture on the one hand and the year 1100 on the other.... In the second chapter, ‘The elements,’ we are given a general survey of the whole period.... The main body of the volume is then divided into two parts, treating respectively the ‘Latin authors,’ and ‘The Teutonic languages’; and a short final chapter on the literature of Ireland and Wales completes what is at best but a hasty survey of a vast field.”—Am. Hist. R.
“There are enough learned references here to challenge the literary expert at every turn. Indeed, we can hardly see how any one can understand this book to whom the things it deals with are not already perfectly familiar. To such a one it offers a somewhat confused résumé of matters he should know already. For the young student it is far too abstruse, and for the general reader it lacks the unity and concentration which alone can command his attention. Mr. Ker’s bane is fine writing; he has a certain sense of humor that now and then is useful, but it leads him into long ways around where directness and compactness are prime necessities.” E. E.
| + — | Am. Hist. R. 10: 628. Ap. ‘05. 410w. |
“By wise selection of his materials, lucid exposition, and occasional happy characterization, he maintains the interest even of those who are prepared to find the Dark ages pretty dull and unprofitable. Of actual error we think the work will be found to contain very little.”