knowledge of matters incidental to St. Luke and his history gave any countenance to such an idea. It was refreshing to find Harnack refuted by Harnack, if only to remind us that the "accepted conclusions" of mere critics and scholars (based to a large extent on negative evidence) can have to the scientific mind nothing of the nature of finality; and that deductions drawn from them can have no surer value than the nebulous data upon which they too often rest. Dr. T. G. PINCHES.-I have listened to Professor Ramsay's lecture with much interest, but as it refers to the criticism of the New Testament, whilst my own subject has to do with the antiquities of the Old Testament, I did not expect to be called upon to speak this afternoon. Referring to the antiquity of writing, there can be no doubt whatever as to the testimony of the Babylonian tablets upon that point. Among the most ancient documents may be mentioned the archaic tablets published by M. François Thureau-Dangin, of the Museum of the Louvre, in which we seem to see the growth of the sense of the necessity of precision in the matter of dating. Those which seem to be the earliest specimens have no dates, but on some-perhaps later documents-we find names of rulers, sometimes with their titles, but neither month nor day, the necessity for inserting which, however, soon became evident. As time went on, the scribes of Babylonia adopted methods still more precise, indicating the date at first by the event of the year, and finally by giving the regnal year of the king.† Another point in Professor Ramsay's remarks which struck me was his statement that the use of ink to write on pottery implied of necessity the use of some softer material to receive the inscription. From Babylonia and Assyria we get nothing of the nature of a document on either paper, skin, or parchment, but that something of the kind was used is implied by at least one colophon, written in ink of a reddish colour (possibly originally black) upon a fragment of a clay tablet from Nineveh in the British Museum. This reminds us that there are represented on the Assyrian sculptures, scribes, one with a tablet and the other with something of the Estimated date 4500 B.C. The Assyrians used the system of dating by the names of officials, which were chosen yearly, the so-called eponyms. nature of a scroll, writing down the tale of the heads of slain enemies, or lists of the spoil. us. But, as I have said, I cannot speak upon the subject now before I take this opportunity, however, to express my appreciation of the very interesting lecture which Professor Ramsay has delivered upon a subject of much importance. Colonel G. MACKINLAY.—I had not intended to make any remarks, but as a previous speaker referred to Sir William Ramsay's excellent book, Was Christ born in Bethlehem? and to the date of Quirinus' first tenure of rule in Syria, I should like to ask Sir William, if any known historical fact gives a distinct negation to the date 8 B.C. for the Nativity, a date which is distinctly indicated by a certain line of inference ? I beg to join my thanks with those of others for the very useful and instructive paper which we have just heard. Professor RAMSAY.-No known fact absolutely prevents this conclusion; but I await with pleasure Colonel Mackinlay's book upon the subject. The vote of thanks of the meeting having been put from the chair, was carried unanimously; and the meeting separated. ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING.* THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES, ESQ., LL.D., IN THE CHAIR. The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read and confirmed. ASSOCIATE.-Mrs. Charles Chevenix Trench. MISSIONARY ASSOCIATES.-Miss. L. G. Robinson; Rev. W. S. Moule ; The following paper was then read by the Secretary in the absence of the author: RECENT DISCOVERIES IN PALESTINE IN RELATION TO THE BIBLE. By Dr. E. W. G. MASTERMAN. ISCOVERIES in Oriental lands are now accumulating so fast, and excavations are being conducted by so many societies and nationalities, that to keep pace with them requires vigilant and unremitting study, and to report them all would require volumes. There are few discoveries in ancient "Bible lands" which have not some bearing on the Holy Scriptures especially in as far as the Bible claims to be a true history of the progressive revelation of the one and only God. The bearing of all such discoveries may be looked upon as threefold, to confirm, to illustrate, and to interpret the language of the Bible. At one time the first was looked upon as the one thing of consequence, but to-day, to a large extent, the illustration of the Scriptures and its interpretation is generally recognised as at least as important. The kind of man "who will believe anything that is not in the Bible" is disappearing, and it is generally recognised that the Old Testament, as a collection of historical documents, has the highest claims to consideration by secular historians, while, on the other hand, we know that records in clay and stone are by no means free from mistakes and even wilful misstatements. The position of Palestine with regard to all such investigations must ever be unique. In the first place all light thrown on * Monday, May 13th, 1907 Oriental ancient history has made it increasingly evident how important was Palestine as a meeting place of all the great civilisations and races of the ancient world. The tendency of a few years back was to picture the patriarchs as unsophisticated bedawin in a land which was a kind of back water amidst the currents of the ancient stream of civilisation. Now all this has been altered. To quote the words of Professor George Adam Smith*. "Where formerly the figure of the Father of the Faithful' and his caravans moved solemnly in high outline through an almost empty world, we see (by the aid of the monuments) embassies, armies and long lines of traders crossing, by paths still used, the narrow bridge which Palestine forms between the two great centres of early civilization, the constant drift of desert tribes upon the fertile land, and, within the latter, the frequent villages, and their busy fields, the mountain keeps with their Egyptian garrisons and the cities on their mounds, walled with broad bulwarks of brick and stone." It was in no out-of-the-way corner of the earth that the race, through whom revelation came, was located by the Divine purpose, but in the very turmoil of the strife of nations, buffeted between the smaller nations in the immediate neighbourhood, the Philistines, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Edomites, the Syrians and the restless children of the Desert, and ground betwixt the interchange of blow upon blow between Assyria or Babylonia or Græco-Syrian Empire of the Seleucida and Egypt. How small and how weak a race they were in almost all their history we realise as they appear as two small states, among many others, in the monuments. And yet God prepared this race as He moulds the choicest individual characters of His saints in the hot furnace of affliction. What they went through can be clearly traced, as we look back, as a purifying influence on their religion, so that "We are able to look at the history of the North Semites as one great connected series of events co-operating towards the making and discipline of Israel "t an explanation of the philosophy of history which we can understand if we recognise that "Judaism was incomparably the greatest gift to the world in ancient times."† * Modern Criticism and the Preaching of the Old Testament. + J. F. McCurdy, art. "Semites," Hastings Bible Dictionary, ext. vol. And yet though Palestine would at the first thought appear to be the most important land for those investigations which should illuminate the Scriptures there undoubtedly has been a tendency among archæologists to belittle the results of investigations there as compared with those of Egypt, Greece and Mesopotamia. It may be admitted at once that the contributions to the general history of mankind from these three latter sources are vastly greater than have been obtained by the comparatively scanty excavations which have been carried out in Palestine. But the light thrown directly on the Bible by investigations in the Holy Land have been out of all proportion to the extent of the excavations, and without doubt most important discoveries yet lie hidden there under the heaped up dust of many" tells." The earlier scientific explorers concerned themselves with surface surveys, and as a result of their labours the majority of place-names in the Bible has been identified through, in many cases, the survival of ancient Hebrew or Greek names, often under an Arabic form, and even at times translated into Arabic. It may, however, be added that the situation of several of the most important places such as Lachish, Gath, Gezer, Megiddo, Taanach and Mareshah which had been thus tentatively fixed, have through the work of excavators been now rendered certain. Thanks to this brilliant group of military engineers employed by the "Palestine Exploration Fund," the course of the great trade routes, and of conquering armies, and the sites of ancient battles are now carefully mapped out. The climate of Palestine is now known as well as that of England, and is much more easily comprehended; its study has thrown considerable light on many Scripture passages as it is substantially the same as in Old Testament times. The customs of the people of the Holy Land have been recently studied as never before. No people have kept up the primitive type of Oriental habits and customs so unchanged as have the Syrian bedawin-and at least a large proportion of the fellahin. For our new knowledge of ancient customs and habits. of life we are indebted to the recent explorers, Bliss, Macalister, Sellin, Schumacher and Benzinger; for recent information on the modern customs of the fellahîn and bedawin we are indebted to a host of workers. Among them the late Professor S. Ives Curtiss may be particularly mentioned for his special line of research on the survival to-day of PRIMITIVE SEMITIC RELIGION.* * Primitive Semitic Religion To-day, Prof. Ives Curtiss, of Chicago. |