NOTE ON BUNSEN'S BIBLICAL RESEARCHES. SINCE the Essay on Bunsen's Biblical Researches was in type, two more parts of the Bible for the People' have reached England. One includes a translation of Isaiah, but does not separate the distinguishable portions in the manner of Ewald, or with the freedom which the translator's criticisms would justify. The other part comprehends numerous dissertations on the Pentateuch, entering largely on questions of its origin, materials, and interpretation. There seems not an entire consistency of detail in these dissertations, and in the views deducible from the author's Egypt, but the same spirit and breadth of treatment pervade both. The analysis of the Levitical laws, by which the Mosaic germs are distinguished from subsequent accretions, is of the highest interest. The Ten Plagues of Egypt are somewhat rationalistically handled, as having a true historical basis, but as explicable by natural phenomena, indigenous to Egypt in all ages. The author's tone upon the technical definition of miracles, as distinct from great marvels and wonders, has acquired a firmer freedom, and would be represented by some among ourselves as 'painfully sceptical.' But even those who hesitate to follow the author in his details must be struck by the brilliant suggestiveness of his researches. [The prayer expressed at page 75, which a higher Wisdom saw not fit to grant, was the offspring of a presentiment destined too soon to be fulfilled. Baron de Bunsen died at Bonn in the morning of Nov. 28th, 1860. His end was full of trust and peace. It will, of course, be understood that subsequent continuations of his Commentary, left by him in I know not how prepared a state, could form no part of the subject-matter of the Review contained in this volume.] R. W. THE END. |