Beth-Maachah; probably as lying near Beth-Maachab, from which it is distinguished, 2 Sam. 20: 14; being then called simply Abel, as also in v. 18. In 2 Chr. 16: 4 it is called Abel-Maim; comp. 1 K. 15: 20. It is mentioned in 1 K. 15: 20 with other places in the order from north to south: Ijon (Heb. 'Iyyon, Arab. Ayun), Dan, Abel, and all Cinneroth; and again 2 K. 15, 29 in the like order; Ijon, Abel, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, etc. From these passages, Reland long ago drew the correct inference, that Abel was to be sought in the west or south-west of Paneas.1 Gesenius wrongly places it on the east of the Jordan, near the spur of Antilibanus; being probably misled by the remarks of Eusebius, that there was an Abela between Damascus and Paneas.2

There is no reason for doubt, but that the ancient Abel-Beth-Maachah is represented by the modern Abil el-Kamh, as held in the preceding article.3"It is situated on the west side of the valley and stream that descends from Merj 'Ayûn towards the Huleh, and below the opening into the Merj. It lies on a very distinctly marked tell, consisting of a summit, with a large offset from it on the south."4 That this Âbil, and not the place called Ibel el-Hawa, corresponds to the ancient Abel, is apparent from the order of the ancient names, as above cited; and also from its tell, which marks it as a place of strength.

ARTICLE IX.

SELECT NOTICES AND INTELLIGENCE.

We have just received the fourteenth edition of Gesenius's Hebrew Grammar, revised by Prof. Rödiger of Halle and published during the last year. The work has undergone numerous changes of great interest to the Hebrew student. Rödiger was a pupil of Gesenius and associated with him in the prosecution of various literary labors. While he remains true in the main to the principles of his teacher, he shows himself faithful also to the nature of philological science, which must be indebted for its perfection to successive laborers, and to which every one is bound to furnish his contribution. The general reputation of Prof. Rödiger as an orientalist, is well known. He is especially eminent as an exact, scientific grammarian. To the subject of Hebrew Grammar in

1 Palaest. p. 519.

2 Gesen. Lex. Art. bas. Onomast. Art. Abela Vinear um.

* See also Bibl. Res. III. App. p. 137.

4 Manuscript Journal of Rev. E. Smith.

1846.] New Works on Hebrew and Greek Literature.

215

particular he has paid great attention; and is accustomed to lecture upon it, as a part of his University course of instruction. The frame-work of the present grammar remains unaltered; the divisions and paragraphs are the same; but hardly a single section presents itself, which does not discover either enlargement or correction. The doctrine of the aspirates, as well as the theory of the vowels and sheva, will be found to be very considerably modified, as compared with the statements of Gesenius. The sections on the article, the verbal suffixes and several classes of the irregular verbs, have also been subjected to important modifications. The eightyeighth section is entirely new, containing some ingenious speculations in respect to the remains of ancient case-endings in the Hebrew. The mode of designating the principal divisions of the verb has been altered. After the example of Ewald, the terms Praeter and Future are discarded, and those of Perfect and Imperfect substituted for them. The Syntax also shows traces of revision in every part. There was room here for still greater improvement; but the editor did not feel himself at liberty to depart from the original character of the work, to such an extent as would have been necessary in order to bring it into accordance with his own ideas of what is required in this department of Hebrew Grammar. Since the death of Gesenius, a new edition of his Hebrew Reading Book has also been published, under the care of Dr. de Weite, of Basel. This is now the seventh time that this popular work has been re-printed.

A work under the title of Elementary Book of the Hebrew Language has just appeared, 1845, from Dr. G. H. Seffer, teacher in one of the gymnasia at Leipsic. It is, so far as we know, the first attempt which has been made to transfer to the Hebrew a method of study, which has long been pursued with success in Latin and Greek grammars. Each paragraph is followed by a series of exercises, illustrating and applying the principles of the language, so as to combine theory and practice at every step from the beginning. An appendix is added, containing continuous exercises in reading, with a vocabulary. It is thus intended to answer the purpose of Grammar, Chrestomathy and Lexicon, and to supersede the necessity of any other book, till the student is prepared to enter upon the higher and more general study of the Hebrew. The use of such a work, supposes a much longer course of preparatory instruction than is generally pursued in this country. The German students are required to have attended to the Hebrew, more or less, during four years at least in the gymnasium, before they are adjudged qualified to hear lectures upon the Old Testament at the university.

Lobeck's recent work, " Pathologiae Sermonis Graeci Prologomena,” published in 1843, is important for the New Testament as well as the study of Greek in general. It is the production of a veteran scholar, and extends our knowledge of the laws which regulate the formation of words in the Greek language to the utmost limits to which it has yet been carried. It is not so much, however, a complete treatise in itself, as supplementary to the labors of others in the same field of inquiry. Principles already established are assumed as known; and the endeavor of the author is mainly directed either to the correction of what are re

garded as erroneous opinions hitherto received, or to the development of new and more difficult topics pertaining to the investigation, which others have omitted. The careful student may also glean much from this work, casting light upon the synonymy of the Greek language. The scholar who is destined to furnish a regular treatise on this subject, will here find much preparatory work already performed for him. Winer expresses his regret that the too late appearance of the work, put it out of his power to make use of it in the preparation of the last edition of his Idioms of the New Testament. He might otherwise have collected from it numerous, pertinent illustrations of important points in biblical philology. Among other parts of the Pathologia which he designates as particularly rich in such spoils, are the remarks on verbs in auro p. 37, on adjectives in alɛos p. 99 sq., on substantives in ouŋ p. 230 sq., and on the contraction of proper names in as p. 505 sq. The positive "gsMos which occurs in 1 Tim. 2, 2, is not found in the older Greek authors and the comparative ouέorsoos which the Attics also employ, has been referred hitherto to the adverb gua. Winer, however, calls attention to the fact that Lobeck (Patholog, etc. p. 158) has discovered this positive upon Inscript. Olbiopol. n. 2059, v. 24.

Dr. Delitzsch, teacher of theology in the university at Leipsic, has appeared with a new work on the Prophetic Theology of the Bible. The treatise, which we possess on this subject from Knobel and Köster, are written for the most part in conformity with the freer views of the rationalistic critics; and they are, in other respects also, less complete and satisfactory than could be desired. Prof. Delitzsch belongs to a different theological school. He has already written a valuable commentary on Habbakuk, and both here and in other productions has furnished good proof of his ability to serve the cause of sacred learning. The subject of Prophetic Theology embraces, as usually presented, a general view of the return of prophetic inspiration, the institution and office of the Hebrew Prophets, and of the application and fulfilment of the prophecies, especially in their relation to the New Testament.

The new commentary of Tholuck, 1845, on the Sermon on the Mount, appears in a greatly improved form. This has usually been considered, by scholars, as the author's ablest critical performance. The present is the third Edition of the work. The Preface remarks that a greater number of helps will be found to have been used in this revision, and especially that the many important publications on the synoptical gospels, which have appeared since the earlier editions, have received constant attention. The exposition of new passages has been improved in point of simplicity and certainty. The development of the dogmatic and ethical contents of the discourse has continued to be one of the main objects for which the work was undertaken.

BIBLIOTHECA SACRA

AND

THEOLOGICAL REVIEW.

NO. X.

MAY, 1846.

ARTICLE I.

ROMAN PRIVATE LIFE.*

By Prof. J. L. Lincoln, Brown University.

THE labors of German scholars, within the present century, have given a new character to the study of Greek and Roman Antiquities. It is no slender praise, to say of the German manner of discussing this subject, that it is sensible and intelligent and full of life; for exactly in such qualities as these, consists the great superiority of the German authors over all their predecessors. In the text-books of Potter and Adams, which are honored at least by time and long use, we discover not the faintest trace of any true, living conception of Greek and Roman life; it is just as if the people, whose manners and customs are dryly detailed, had never lived at all, but had a mere dim, traditional being. It is far otherwise with the German writers, to whom we now refer. They seem to us more like travellers, coming from a region remote indeed, but yet belonging to our own world, and recording their own impressions of a people, parted from us by the long interval of ages, but yet human beings, like ourselves, who once lived and moved on the earth, and with all their lofty destinies, shared the common allotments of human existence;

Sabina, von C. A. Böttiger. Leipzig, 1806.-Gallus, oder Römische Scenen aus der Zeit Augusts, von Wilh. Adolph Becker, Prof. a. d. Univ. Leipzig, 1838.-Gallus, or Roman Scenes of the time of Augustus, with Notes and Excursus illustrative of the Manners and Customs of the Romans. Translated from the German of Professor Becker, by Frederick Metcalfe, B. A. Late Scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge. London, Parker, 1844.

we behold in their works, intelligent and comprehensive views of the life of the great nations of classic antiquity, from which, as they pass before us, we catch the living spirit of Greek and Roman civilization. It is in this manner, that the department of Classic Antiquities has gathered, in the hands of the Germans, a completely new character. Not only have they given it, by their large and accurate learning, that well-ordered, organic system, which it so much needed; but with the healthful and genial spirit, characteristic of German scholarship, they have animated and informed with a living soul, this hitherto dry and repulsive study. Till comparatively a recent period, the Greek Antiquities had received in Germany a disproportionate share of attention. The labors of Boeckh, Ottfried Müller, Jacobs and others, in particular branches of inquiry, and the more extensive works of Hermann, Wachsmuth and Schömann have left unexplained scarcely a single point in the whole subject of Greek Antiquities. On the other hand, with the exception of the Roman law, which has been investigated with so much success by Savigny and other German jurists, the Roman Antiquities had been in comparative neglect. But the work of Becker, of which we have spoken in a former number of this Journal, promises to supply a want that has long been felt; and to furnish a Manual of Roman Antiquities, not inferior to the well-known books of Hermann and Wachsmuth, on the Antiquities of Greece. In this notice of the literature of this subject, we must not omit to mention the very valuable Dictionary,' which has been recently published in England, under the editorial care of Dr. William Smith. It is the united work of a noble band of English scholars, whose aims and spirit and large attainments are full of promise for classical learning in England. Without neglecting a personal examination of the original sources, they have made themselves perfectly familiar with the labors of the best modern writers, and have thus reproduced in English, and embodied in a single volume,

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, Edited by William Smith, Ph. D., and illustrated by numerous engravings on wood. This work has been republished in this country, under the auspices of Charles Anthon, LL. D. of New York. In this American edition, with some useful changes affecting only its external form, the original work has lost just as much in quality as it has gained in quantity, by the introduction of "numerous additional articles relative to the Botany, Mineralogy, and Zoology of the Ancients!" In our humble judgment, the best service that could have been rendered to the American public in this case by Dr. Anthon, would have been a faithful reprint of the English work.