Gardiner. Biblical Works by Frederic Gardiner, D.D., Professor in the Berkeley Divinity School; viz.

A Harmony of the Four Gospels in Greek, according to the Text of Tischendorf, with a Collation of the Textus Receptus, and of the Texts of Griesbach, Lachmann, and Tregelles. 8vo. $2.50 "The notes of the author are marked by scholarship and good sense. The student will find it a convenient manual for the study of the Gospels, because he sees upon one and the same page the readings of the principal editions and manuscripts, together with the quotations made by the evangelists from the Old Testament."-Princeton Review.

"A very important matter in the preparation of a Harmony is, of course, the choice of a text. The one chosen by Professor Gardiner is that of Tischendorf's eighth edition of the New Testament. This text was chosen because 'it embodied the latest results of criticism, having had the advantage throughout of the Codex Sinaiticus and of a more close collation of the Codex Vaticanus.' Prof. Gardiner would, indeed, have published his Harmony more than a year ago, but waited till opportunity could be given for consulting this last edition of Tischendorf. It is an obvious merit in this Harmony, that the student can see at a glance whether or not the text of Tischendorf agrees or conflicts with that of Griesbach, Lachmann, and Tregelles in places where there is a difference of opinion. It is another excellence of the work that the Greek text is so accurate, evincing the most scrupulous care and thorough scholarship on the part of the editor."— Bib. Sacra. Dr. Gardiner's work has been well done, and he has given us a Harmony of great value."- Quarterly Review Evang. Luth. Church.

"By this scholarly work Dr. Gardiner has rendered all diligent students of the Gospel narrative an invaluable service. In a single volume, and by the most satisfactory arrangement of the several and inspired accounts of the life and doings of our Lord, the book furnishes the best results of the ablest and most laborious investigation of all known sources of knowledge regarding the original sacred text." - Reformed Church Monthly.

"It is a superior work of its kind."-National Baptist.

"

This book, the result of great research and utmost painstaking, is well worthy the consideration of all Bible scholars."-Watchman and Reflector.

A Harmony of the Four Gospels in English, according to the Authorized Version; corrected by the best Critical Editions of the Original 8vo. pp. xliv and 287. Cloth.

$2.00

"The Harmony in English, the title of which is given above, is a reproduction of the Harmony in Greek; no other changes being made than such as were required to fit the work for the use of the English reader who desires to learn some of the improvements which modern criticism has made in the authorized English text." - Bibliotheca Sacra.

We gladly commend this Harmony to every intelligent reader of the Scriptures. The need of such a guide is felt by every thoughtful Churchman at least once a year-in Holy Week- when he desires to read the events of each day in the order in which they happened so many years ago. We do not think that our laymen know how much they will be helped to the understanding of the Gospels by a simple Harmony, perhaps reads as we suggested above, in connection with some standard Life of our Lord."- The Churchman.

Diatessaron. The Life of Our Lord in the Words of the Gospels. 16mo. pp. 256.

$1.00

"It is well adapted to the convenience of pastors, to the needs of teachers in the Bible-class and Sabbath-school, to the religious instruction of families. It bids fair to introduce improvements into the style of teaching the Bible to the young." - Bibliotheca Sacra.

"This little volume will not only answer as a Harmony of the Gospels for the use of those who only care to have results, but it will be an excellent book to read at family prayers, or to study with a Bible-class."- Christian Union.

F

AND THEOLOGICAL ECLECTIC.

1873.

THIS standard Quarterly is devoted to able and elaborate discussions of questions in Theology, Biblical Literature, Church History, Philology, Mental and Moral Philosophy, and Classical Learning. It is a periodical of the highest class, suited to the wants of ministers of all denominations, who value and seek to promote a thorough scholarship among the ministry. It is not sectarian, but admits articles from able writers among many different denominations.

The complete set of the Bibliotheca Sacra forms in itself a library on the most important topics, unequalled, in many respects, by any similar series, and is more frequently quoted as authority by English and American scholars, in the preparation of Cyclopedias, Bible Dictionaries, and other Biblical works, than any other work of the kind; see, for example, Hackett's Smith's Bible Dictionary.

A new Volume commences with the January number, 1873.

Among the contributions for this Volume will be the continuation of the very valuable Articles on the Kingdom of Christ, by Professor Harris of New Haven, and on Rhetoric, by the late Professor George Shepard of Bangor. Professor Park will furnish a series of Articles on the Plan and Structure of a Sermon; and Dr. J. P. Thompson of Berlin, will continue his Articles, on Egyptology.

The work is handsomely printed on fine paper; each volume contains about 800 pages. The subscription price is $4.00 per annum, in advance.

THE

BIBLIOTHECA SACRA.

ARTICLE I.

PATRISTIC VIEWS OF THE TWO GENEALOGIES OF OUR LORD.

BY FREDERIC GARDINER, D.D., PROFESSOR IN THE BERKELEY DIVINITY SCHOOL, MIDDLETOWN, CONN.

THE genealogies of our Lord, as given by the first and the third evangelists, are marked by such differences as have called forth a variety of explanations. By some the difficulty is simply passed over as one for the solution of which we have no sufficient data; and among others there is great difference, and even contrariety, of opinion. It seems, therefore, worth while to inquire what view was taken of the matter by Christian antiquity; and if the result of that inquiry shall be to show that for many centuries there was no settled and definite opinion at all, it will leave us the more free to determine the question simply on grounds of probable evidence.

In estimating the value of such explanations as we may find in the Fathers, it is to be noted that the differences between the genealogies are of a character to attract attention whenever the Gospels were carefully compared together. Such comparisons were made at an early date; and if the reasons for the differences had been positively known, they would have been distinctly and uniformly stated whenever the matter was discussed at all. Moreover, unless there

were some explanation generally received, as there evidently was not, we should expect to meet with the statement of these reasons somewhat frequently in the early treatment of the Gospels. This is not the case; and in the investigation of ancient opinion, it soon becomes evident that each writer merely proposes what seems to him the most probable solution of the difficulty, or, knowing nothing better, adopts that of some one who had gone before.

The earliest mention of the subject is in a fragment of Julius Africanus (†232), preserved by Eusebius. He discusses the question at length; and his hypothesis is adopted by Eusebius, who says that Julius had received it from his ancestors (Eccl. Hist. i. 7; vi. 31). Julius himself, however, intimates that his explanation was not altogether satisfactory, and disclaims any authority in its support. From his discussion it is quite plain that in his time say at the close of the second century - there could not have existed any trustworthy tradition on the subject; but that the ancients, like ourselves, were obliged to consider the question on its merits.

Julius Africanus considers both genealogies as designed to show the ancestry of Joseph. This view was taken for granted, apparently without inquiry, by many of the ancients, because both genealogies terminate formally in Joseph; and from these Fathers it has passed on to many modern writers. Julius considers that "the families descended from Solomon and those from Nathan were so intermingled, by substitutions in the place of those who had died childless, by second marriages and the raising up of seed, that the same persons are justly considered as in one respect belonging to the one of these, and in another respect belonging to others." He explains the last three links of the genealogy in detail, thus: Nathan (Matt. i. 15) married a woman named Estha, as tradition records her name, by whom he had a son Jacob, and died; Melchi (Luke iii. 24) now married the widow Estha, and by her had a son Eli. Jacob and Eli were thus halfbrothers by the same mother, and were, of course, next of kin to each other. Eli dying without issue, his half-brother

Jacob married his widow, and by her had a son Joseph, who is thus reckoned by the first evangelist naturally as his son, but by the third, legally, as the son of Eli. After some further discussion, Julius adds: "This is neither incapable of proof, nor is it idle conjecture"; but it does not appear whether he means this to refer to the general law of levirate marriages, or to the particular case of Jacob and Eli. He then relates that the public records of Jewish pedigrees were destroyed by Herod, but the relatives of our Lord — the desponsyni had yet, by memory, "or in some other way," preserved their pedigree, and gave this account of the genealogies in the Gospels. Nevertheless, he closes the whole discussion by saying: "Whether, then, the matter be thus or otherwise, as far as I and every impartial judge would say, no one certainly could discover a more obvious interpretation. And this may suffice on the subject; for, although it be not supported by testimony,1 we have nothing to advance either better or more consistent with the truth." At the close of the letter he reiterates his hypothesis, and Eusebius adds that thus Mary also is shown to be of the same tribe, "since by the Mosaic law intermarriages among different tribes were not permitted"; a very doubtful argument, yet testifying to the desire felt for some knowledge of the genealogy of the Virgin.

It will be observed that Julius finds the natural parentage of Joseph in Matthew's genealogy; his legal, in Luke's. This is not inconsistent with his general view of both genealogies as made up partly of natural and partly of legal descents. But later criticism seems to have established the fact that Matthew gives (as he was bound to do) the official or legal genealogy throughout, whether it concurred with the natural, or not. The shortness of his whole list, with the omission of several known names, its artificial arrangement for mnemonic purposes, his certain adoption of the legal descent in the case of Salathiel, and his adherence to

1 καὶ ἡμῖν αὕτη μελέτω, εἰ καὶ μὴ ἐμμάρτυρός ἐστι, τῷ μὴ κρείττονα ἢ ἀληθεστέραν ἔχειν εἰπεῖν.