3. Hastings. A Dictionary of the Bible
Dealing with its Language, Literature and Contents, including the Biblical Theology. Edited by James Hastings,
M.A., D.D. Vol. I: A—Feasts. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. 1898. 1 he first volume of Dr. William Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible" was
T published at the end of 1863, and was reissued in America four years later in a thoroughly revised form, under the editorial care of Dr. H. B.
Hackett and Mr. Ezra Abbot. Before the close of the year 1870, the four volumes of the American edition were in the hands of the public. Of course there were other works of the kind in the field, the most valuable of which were probably Dr. Patrick Fairbairn's "The Imperial Bible-Dictionary" (2 vols., London, 1866) and Dr. W. Lindsay Alexander's edition of Kitto's
"Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature" (3 vols., Philadelphia, 1866).
McClintock and Strong's "Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature," the publication of which was begun in 1867,
sought to occupy so much wider a field that it hardly came into direct competition with the specific "Bible Dictionaries." It is true to say, at all events, that the "American Smith" immediately took its place on the tables of scholarly American ministers and students of the Word as the standard work of the kind. That place it has worthily and almost undisputedly held ever since. Meanwhile a generation of years has passed, and in these days of restless research a generation is a very long time, in which many changes of opinion must needs occur, and some not inconsiderable advance in knowledge may haply be made. It is easy, to be sure, to overestimate the "increase of knowledge" that has come with "the process of the years."
Augustine points out that all the knowledge best worth having is acquired by the human animal in its infancy: it is the puling metaphysician who accomplishes the task set us by the oracle and learns to know himself, and, wiser than he may afterward become, separates off from himself the external world, and discovers about him other spirits like himself: it is in our earliest youth that we learn to think and speak and read: and what are all other acquisitions but relatively unimportant growths of these fruitful roots? Similarly what is best worth knowing about the Bible has not been reserved for the aging Church of the last third of the nineteenth century to discover. It is all duly set down in our Smith and Kitto and Fairbairn, and in our Calmet, too, and in whatever before that served to inform men what the Bible is, what it contains, and what one must know in order to understand and appreciate its message. Whatever else the last thirty years have discovered, they have not discovered the Bible, nor anything about the Bible of the first importance. Nevertheless the diligent labors of Bible students during this period have not been in vain: a considerable body of fresh information has been accumulated, sometimes of a corrective, sometimes of a supplementary character. The time has fully come to garner this new material and put it within the reach of all.
The most natural way of doing this was to build on the old foundations, and we were accordingly promised a revised edition of Smith.
After the publication of its first installment, however, that project seems to have fallen through. In its stead, we have been bidden to look for two completely new Bible Dictionaries. The one of these, projected first by Prof. W. Robertson Smith, is being completed under the editorship of Prof.
T. K. Cheyne, with the assistance of Dr. J. Sutherland Black; and its first part is announced to appear in the approaching October. It is expected to occupy what is known as a very "advanced" standpoint; to scorn "average opinion" and start out from "the latest that has been written" on each subject; and to apply the "most exact scientific methods" and thoroughgoing critical solvents to all that is Biblical. The other of our two promised Dictionaries, undertaken by the great firm of Messrs. T. & T.
Clark, of Edinburgh, was understood to be laid out on less extreme lines and to aim at presenting rather what is known about the Bible than the latest conjectures concerning it by the least sober of scholars. It has outstripped its rival in speed of preparation, and its first volume now lies before us. Those who had looked forward to it, however, as throughout a reliable guide to what is really known of Biblical matters will be in some measure disappointed. The editor speaks of the care that has been exercised to exclude "unaccepted idiosyncrasies" from its pages. The success of the effort has been only partial. The trouble has been in the standard assumed.
"Unaccepted" is a good word, but its value can be estimated only when we ask further, By whom? "Unaccepted" by a narrow circle of critical scholars which has acquired temporary vogue among us, has been the practical answer. And the consequences are that the sober reader finds the book characterized by the abundance of idiosyncrasies which crowd its pages and is offended by its apparent lack of coherence as a whole; and that the distinction between the two new Bible Dictionaries sinks at last very much
into a question of details. The interval that separates the two is indeed just the interval that divides from one another the two Oxford colleagues, Drs.
Cheyne and Driver. There is no need to minimize this interval; it is perceptible: but there is no difference in principle between the two; it is only a matter of a little more or a little less. The Edinburgh Dictionary both profits and loses by the difference. It loses by it in internal consistency and unity and in stability and hold upon the future—for, after all, the "moderate criticism" which it has elected to represent wavers between two opinions and must advance in one direction or the other through rapid changes; while for an extremer scepticism there is always a constituency— few perhaps but fit—it being true in this sphere too that the "poor we have always with us." It profits by it, in so much as the frying pan, after all said, is a better place than the fire; and in so much as the essentially mediating and inconsistent character of the standpoint of "moderate criticism" which it assumes has naturally justified the insertion of many articles of a more conservative tendency (although these are mostly on the "safe" topics, that is, on such subjects as impinge only indirectly on matters of "criticism") and especially has demanded a tolerably conservative attitude in matters connected with the New Testament. Despite its unsatisfactory critical point of view, accordingly, this new Dictionary is not only a rich record of, but also an important contribution to our present knowledge of the Bible: it has been edited with the highest skill and gathers in the most scholarly manner the results of modern research into Biblical matters: it is full, thorough, learned, and bids fair to be the student's vade mecum for the next few years.
From the book-maker's point of view, the new Dictionary has been modeled on "Chambers's Encyclopædia," and its page is a very close reproduction of that of that work. Perhaps the impression of the type is a little less clear, and certainly it falls short of "Chambers" in the matter of
illustrations. Here indeed is the weakest point of the new Dictionary from a formal point of view. The illustrations are very few (only some forty-four separate figures occur in this whole volume, and only two articles
—"Agriculture" and "Dress"—can be called "illustrated" at all), and also (we fear we must add) very poor. The Preface tells us that "the illustrations
… are confined to subjects which cannot be easily understood without their aid." We should never have discovered for ourselves that this was the principle that governed their occurrence. Could we not, then, have been spared the odd inksplotch which is labeled "A 'Lodge in a Garden of Cucumbers' " (p. 532)? We could not, on the same ground perhaps, ask to be relieved from the "Cedar from the Besherri Grove" (p. 364), but we have our doubts whether it illustrates anything. This Cedar of Lebanon and the Porcupine (p. 304) are the only natural history subjects that are figured. In our judgment every animal and plant mentioned in the Bible should have been presented to the eye. In the matter of illustrations the new Dictionary falls lamentably not only behind what was to be expected of it, but also behind its predecessors. 2
The strength of the volume lies in what we may speak of as the scholarly character of its contents. Here we are specially struck with the admirable quality of the numerous short articles, particularly those on the obsolete and obsolescent words of the English Versions, which are mostly written by the editor and leave nothing to be desired. The proper names of the Bible are very thoroughly worked out, and a special word of commendation is due to the geographical terms. The same is to be said of the ethnological, geological, and natural history articles, the last of which, forming a very notable series of some sixty articles, we are proud to say are from the pen of an American scholar, Dr. George E. Post, professor in the American College at Beyrout. Along with Dr. Post some thirteen other
American writers appear in this volume. Of these Dr. Willis J. Beecher has
contributed the largest number of articles, which seems to be partly due to his having undertaken the article "Giant" (to appear in the next volume) with all subsidiary titles; we have from him at any rate the following twelve articles: "Anak," "Arba," "Avva," "Beth-Dagon," "Dagon," "Delilah,"
"Drunkenness," "Dwarf," "Ekron," "Emerods," "Emim," "EphesDammim." Needless to say these are thoroughly satisfactory, the most extended one—that on "Drunkenness"—being a useful historical study of a rather neglected subject. Dr. Ira M. Price contributes seven articles:
"Abrech," "Accad," "Assurbanipal," "Bayith," "Belshazzar," "Chaldæa,"
"Evil Merodach"—chiefly, as will be seen, on subjects connected with Assyriological learning. Four articles come from the hand of Prof. J. H.
Thayer: "Abba," "Bar," "Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani," and "Ephphatha," all of which concern the Aramaic element in the New Testament. Three each are contributed by Profs. F. C. Porter, E. L. Curtis, G. T. Purves, and H.
Porter. Prof. Frank C. Porter's contribution consists of the extended and valuable article "Apocrypha," along with short accompanying notes on Achior and Chelod: Prof. Curtis' of the important articles on the Chronology of the Old Testament and Daniel, man and book; all written from the standpoint of the presently fashionable sceptical criticism, the historical character of the book of Daniel being denied and indeed even the historical existence of a "Daniel" left in doubt. Prof. H. Porter writes about "Cupbearer," "Distaff," and "Dyeing"; and Prof. Purves most satisfactorily on "Crown," "Diadem," and "Darkness." Two articles each are contributed by Profs. W. A. Brown ("Cross," "Excommunication"), B. B. Warfield
("Doubt," "Faith"), and Lewis W. Batten ("Ezra," and "Ezra-Nehemiah"— from the standpoint of the sceptical criticism). Dr. Selah Merrill contributes a short note on Chorazin; Prof. J. Poucher a long account of Crimes and Punishments; and Prof. Francis Brown a long article on Chronicles, in which with great minuteness he gathers together all that can
tend to break down confidence in the historical trustworthiness of the books—his general conclusion being that "it is plain that the character of the Chronicler's testimony, when we can control it by parallel accounts, is not such as to give us reason to depend on it with security when it stands alone." In all, the American contribution to the Dictionary consists of some one hundred and four articles. It is not such as to render the book an "international" book; but in point of scholarship it is a creditable aid to a British enterprise; and to it is due some of the longest and most important articles in the volume—such as those on "Apocrypha" (thirteen pages),
"Chronology of Old Testament" (six pages), "Chronicles" (eight pages), "Crimes and Punishments" (seven pages), "The Book of Daniel" (six pages), "Faith" (twelve pages). Perhaps we can scarcely speak of it as fairly representative of American scholarship: American Old Testament scholarship, for example, is not only prevailingly but overwhelmingly
"conservative," or, as it would be better called, historical, while the adherents of the school of sceptical criticism are here thrown prominently forward. Nevertheless, from the standpoint of the Dictionary, it cannot be said that American aid has been despised, and certainly the American contribution does not in quality fall below the general standard of the work.
Fullness and thoroughness being among the objects which the editor has set before himself, quite a number of the articles have been allowed to "extend to considerable length." We have counted some seventy-five which extend to a length exceeding two pages, that is to say about three thousand words, each. One article—Mr. C. H. Turner's comprehensive paper on the Chronology of the New Testament—attains the dimensions of a treatise, filling twenty-two of these large pages. Two others exceed fifteen pages each, viz., Prof. Hommel's notable paper on Babylonia, and Mr. Crum's perhaps equally notable paper on Egypt. Prof. Hommel's paper on Assyria almost
equals in length and quite equals in value the paper on Babylonia. Other papers exceeding ten pages are Mr. Headlam's careful study of the book of Acts (ten pages), Prof. Porter's article on the "Apocrypha" (thirteen pages),
Prof. Stewart's article on "Bible" (thirteen pages), Mr. Gayford's article on "Church" (fifteen pages), Mr. White's article on "David" (thirteen pages),
Mr. Strong's admirable paper on "Ethics" (twelve pages), and Prof.
Warfield's paper on "Faith" (twelve pages). Some twelve more papers exceed seven pages: Dr. Plummer's "Baptism," Prof. Francis Brown's
"Chronicles," Mr. Kilpatrick's "Conscience," Principal Robertson's "I Corinthians," Prof. Poucher's "Crimes and Punishments," Prof. Ryle's
"Deuteronomy," Prof. Lock's "Ephesians," Prof. Davidson's "Eschatology of the Old Testament," Mr. Charles's "Eschatology of the Apocryphal and Apocalyptic Literature," Prof. Salmond's "Eschatology of the New
Testament," Mr. Thackeray's "Books of Esdras," and Prof. Bernard's "Fall."
Fifteen others exceed five pages, viz., Prof. Mayor's "Brethren of the Lord,"
Prof. Curtis' "Chronology of the Old Testament," Principal Robertson's "II Corinthians," Principal Whitehouse's "Cosmogony," Prof. Davidson's
"Covenant," Prof. Curtis' "Book of Daniel," Mr. Mackie's "Dress," Prof.
Peake's "Ecclesiastes," Prof. Kennedy's "Education," Mr. Forbes Robinson's "Egyptian Versions," Mr. Strachan's "Elijah," Mr. HarfordBattersby's "Book of Exodus," Prof. Skinner's "Ezekiel," and Principal
Harding's "Feasts and Fasts."
It will not fail to be observed how many of the titles thus incidentally mentioned concern matters of Biblical Theology. The effort to give proper treatment to these subjects forms one of the special features of this
Dictionary. We have noted in the volume such articles as the following which fall under this head: "Adoption" (J. S. Candlish, one and one-half pages); "Angel" (A. B. Davidson, four pages); "Anger (Wrath) of God" (J.
Orr, one page); "Ascension" (J. Denney, one and one-half pages);
"Assurance" (A. Stewart, one-quarter page); "Atonement" (J. O. F. Murray, one and one-half pages); "Baptism" (A. Plummer, seven pages);
"Blessedness" (W. F. Adeney, one-half page); "Brotherly Love" (J. Denney, one-half page); "Calling" (J. Macpherson, one-fifth page); "Chastening" (J.
Denney, three-quarters page); "Christology" (J. Agar Beet, three pages); "Church" (S. C. Gayford, fifteen pages); "Communion" (J. A. Robinson, two pages); "Conscience" (T. B. Kilpatrick, seven and one-half pages);
"Conversion" (J. S. Banks, one-half page); "Corruption" (J. Massie, onethird page); "Cosmogony" (Owen C. Whitehouse, six pages); "Covenant"
(A. B. Davidson, six pages); "Creed" (J. Denney, one page); "Curse" (J.
Denney, one and one-half pages); "Demon, Devil" (Owen C. Whitehouse, four and one-half pages); "Election" (J. O. F. Murray, four pages);
"Eschatology—Old Testament" (A. B. Davidson, six pages); "— Apocrypha" (R. H. Charles, eight pages); "—New Testament" (S. D. F.
Salmond, seven and one-half pages); "Ethics" (T. B. Strong, twelve pages); "Faith" (B. B. Warfield, twelve pages); "Fall" (J. H. Bernard, seven pages);
"Fasting" (V. H. Stanton, one and two-thirds pages); "Fear" (W. O.
Burrows, one-half page). Many of these articles are admirable; all of them are carefully written; some of them are adequate. But they certainly are not consentient; and our pity follows the man who seeks to learn what the teaching of the Bible is by reading consecutively these topics in the Dictionary. The individualistic and idiosyncratic character of the volume comes out here no more strongly than elsewhere; but it is disturbingly present here as elsewhere; and it makes the reader wonder what the editor can mean by speaking of the book as a whole as "reliable and authoritative."
If Dr. Orr is "reliable and authoritative" on the "Wrath of God," for example (as he certainly is), then Dr. Murray cannot possibly be "reliable and authoritative" on the "Atonement"—for he leaves no place for wrath in God. And if we rise beyond the question of mere harmony among the
several writers, and ask after some general standard of doctrinal truth which has governed the admission of views, we shall ask in vain. All sorts of theological conceptions here struggle together and label themselves alike
"Biblical." We can only say that as in criticism the standard of the book is mainly what can only be described as "sceptical," in theology it is mainly
"Socinianizing"—though both terms must be taken here, of course, not in their precise, but in their broader connotations. It cannot be said, either, that the space allowed for the treatment of the topics under the rubrics of Biblical Theology is at all nicely proportioned to their relative importance.
Surely, in any case, for example, the space allotted to the topics of Atonement and Baptism is not adjusted to the relative importance of the subjects. Nor indeed is the list of topics treated as complete as it might well be. We miss for instance any proper discussion of such topics as Creation and Fatherhood—the cross-references given in neither case fill the need.
And we miss altogether such entries as Absolution, Age (the present and to come), Apocatastasis, Apostasy, Asceticism, Bearing Sin, Benediction,
Beelzebub, Birth (new), Blood of Christ, Ceremonial, Communion, Conception (miraculous), Consummation, Descent to Hell, End (other than the mere term), Eternity, Exaltation, Example. In the interests of fullness and accessibility such topics should not be passed over.
We have set down frankly the impression the new Bible Dictionary has made on us at first sight. Space would fail us to undertake detailed criticism of the separate articles. Its characteristic mark seems to be accuracy, and it is obviously a book which has information to give with a lavish hand. The student will seldom consult it in vain: though he may sometimes refuse its leading, he will be always stimulated and instructed by its presentation. It is a book, moreover, which will beyond doubt improve with acquaintance.
We congratulate the editors and publishers alike on the successful launching of so great an enterprise.
1. 1 The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, ix. 1898, pp. 515–520. For review of vol. ii. cf. ibid., xi. 1900, pp. 174 ff.; vol. iii., ibid., xii. 1901, pp.
151 ff.; vol. iv., ibid., xiii. 1902, pp. 641 ff.; extra vol., The Princeton Theological Review, iii. 1905, pp. 136 ff.
2. 2 The following are the only illustrations in the volume: Articles "Agriculture," seven figures (pp. 49–51); "Amulets," eight figures (p. 89);
"Anklets" (p. 99); "Art," two figures (p. 158); "Axe," two figures (p. 206); "Bag," two figures (p. 232); "Balance" (p. 234); "Battering-Ram" (p. 258);
"Bell" (p. 269); "Bit" (p. 303); "Bittern" (p. 304); "Bonnet" (p. 310); "Brick" (p. 326); "Cedar" (p. 364); "City" (p. 446); "Cosmogony" (p. 503);
"Cucumber" (p. 532); "Dead Sea" (p. 575); "Drawer of Water" (p. 621); "Dress," thirteen figures (pp. 624–628); "Ear-rings" (p. 633); "Engraving"
(p. 704); "Eye" (p. 814). Under the letter A alone, Smith has some sixty-two illustrations, and they are both far better selected and far better executed than those that meet us here.