it is interesting to note that Simeon ben Gamaliel (Rector of the School at Jamnia after Bar-Cochba's revolt) considered that Aquila's version was based on an Aramaic Targum.

With regard to Biblical quotations in general, I would point out that inspiration, in the fullest sense, does not necessarily demand verbal repetition. The Bible has its message for every age and race, and contains much more than lies on the surface: cf. Ps. lxxviii, 2; Prov. i, 6; ii, 4: Is. vi, 9, and our Lord's usual method of teaching (Matt. xiii, 34).

If, therefore, a statement or argument is one reinforced by the Old Testament that interpretation (for the sake of lucidity) is necessarily brought forward which explains the apposite teaching contained in the text in question. For instance (Matt. ii, 23), "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene," is not a "quotation " from any prophet, but a brief epitome of apposite Old Testament prophecy. The recognition of this fact is the basis of all expository teaching; and the New Testament is pre-eminently the exposition of the Old Testament.

With regard to translations in general, the consideration arises that words are intended to convey initial ideas, and that the best translation is that which best conveys the ideas in question; parallel verbiage is a secondary matter. Consequently, owing to the differences between languages in genius, idiom, etc. (and especially where the comparison is between an Oriental language and a Western one. or a primitive and a modern language), in order to convey accurately to the ordinary hearer in good idiomatic language the original ideas, the best translation will often partake of the nature of a Targum, as the italicized words of the Authorized Version testify; the brain is reached through the senses, a fact which was grasped by the translators of that Version, appointed to be read in churches, and therefore listened to by the outward ear.

Mr. HOSTE regretted that absence from London prevented his being in his place to hear Canon Williams read his interesting and suggestive paper. He sent a few remarks.

It would have been a great boon for the uninitiated to have had more concrete instances of the presumed misquotations of the New Testament writers, and some more definite explanation of the passages, e.g. Luke iv, 18, our Lord's quotation from Isa. lxi, 1, where

the Hebrew, the LXX, and the Greek Testament are at variance. I remember the late Dr. C. H. Waller saying that Hebrew is so full as a language that it is often difficult to say which of two complementary meanings it contains, if not both. May not the above passage in Luke be explained by the root pā-kăch in the word p❜kách-kōách (" opening of the prison")? Was not the saying of the Rabbis. that giving sight to the blind was a miracle reserved for the Messiah, founded on the LXX of this

very passage?

Philo was no doubt a remarkable man and religious philosopher, but his belief in the equal inspiration of original and translation would to-day hardly be compatible with a sane outlook. I do not see that his gloss out of a consecrated soul for outside the camp" is parallel with the substitution of one geographical locality for another. Amos no doubt refers to the captivity of the ten tribes, and Stephen, addressing the descendants of Judah, brings the quotation up to date by substituting Babylon for Damascus because their ancestors had been carried there.

Is not the point of the quotation in Rom. ix simply the possibility of persons "not the people of God" becoming so? If the lost tribes would one day regain their place, why not Gentiles who had also been "not His people"?

The Canon does acknowledge the difficulty of the whole question of the New Testament quotations from the LXX, and utters such a wise caveat on p. 153 (end of first paragraph) that one cannot repress a feeling of disappointment that he should close upon p. 161 with the hypothesis that the writers of the New Testament regarded the LXX as equally inspired with the original. "This

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seems " he writes to have been the case with the writers of the New Testament,” and then, on a mere “if this be so,” he enunciates a theory of inspiration, compatible with inaccuracies as to matters of fact (which may be otherwise explained) a theory which many will feel to be quite untenable. It seems that we are asked to believe that the Hebrew text as we have it can alone claim infallibility. But is it certain, for instance, that the LXX translator of Deut. xxxii, 43, merely inserted out of his own head the words And let all the angels of God worship Him," and had not before him a Hebrew text containing these words, subsequently quoted in Heb. i, 6?

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LECTURER'S REPLY.

In the course of some remarks by way of reply, Dr. LUKYN WILLIAMS thanked Dr. Thirtle for calling attention to Dr. Gaster's volume on The Samaritans, and intimated that it had been in his mind to study the book, though hardly expecting that it would treat so definitely of the issue raised by his paper.

He also sends the following notes :—

Since this article was in proof, the first part of a striking essay, on "The pronunciation of Hebrew according to the transliterations in the Hexapla," has appeared in the Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. xvi (April, 1926), pp. 333-382. Some material may also be found in Driver's Samuel, 1913, pp. lxv-lxix.

,,

With regard to the ignorance of Hebrew on the part of Hellenistic Jews, a Hebrew Christian friend who lived some years in Palestine (the Rev. L. Zeckhausen) tells me that he never met there a Jew who could not understand people who spoke to him in Hebrew. "How much more in the first century! He thinks St. Stephen, like a modern maggid (a popular preacher), freely introduced into his speech traditional stories and interpretations, as indeed Rashi does. Further, he adds, if Stephen's speech had been originally spoken in Greek, this would also have been the language of the Ecclesiastical Court (Beth-Din) before which he was tried. But this is unthinkable.

688TH ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING,

HELD IN COMMITTEE ROOM B, THE CENTRAL HALL, WESTMINSTER, S.W.1, ON MONDAY, APRIL 26TH, 1926, AT 4.30 P.M.

WILLIAM COLDSTREAM, ESQ., B.A., LATE I.C.S., IN THE CHAIR.

The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read, confirmed, and signed. The CHAIRMAN then introduced the Rev. H. U. Weitbrecht Stanton, Ph.D., D.D., as one whom he had long known in the Punjab, and valued for his learning and for his missionary work among Moslems, to read his paper on "The Qur'an and its Doctrine of God."

THE QUR'AN AND ITS DOCTRINE OF GOD.*

By the Rev. H. U. WEITBRECHT STANTON, Ph.D., D.D.

"Tot Muslim religious thought. There is tradition (naql),

HREE threads are woven distinctly through the web

there is reason ('aql), and there is the unveiling of the mystic (Kashf). They were in the tissue of Muhammad's brain, and they have been in his church since he died" (Macdonald, Muslim Theology, p. 120). Or, we might put it, Scripture, Theology, Mystical Experience are integral factors in all mature religious thought, certainly in Judaism and Christianity. However men may protest, none of these elements can be entirely absent from such thinking, though the emphasis and the proportion may vary greatly; and the nature of religious teaching

* Quotations are from Rodwell's translation. Fuller references are given in The Teaching of the Qur'an (S.P.C.K.), Subject-Index, pp. 75-110.

will also vary according to the adjustment of the credal and ethical elements.

Accordingly our subject has a twofold bearing; first, on the claim of Islam to be a historical development of Judaism and Christianity, especially in its doctrine of God; and second, on the relation of this doctrine to the developments of Islam forced upon it by modern thought and life.

MODERN MOVEMENTS IN ISLAM.

These movements have been going on for a century throughout the educated Moslem world, in Turkey, Egypt, Persia, Indonesia, and on the largest scale among the seventy million Moslems of India. From a doctrinal point of view the school of Sayyid Ahmad of Aligarh (known as nechari, i.e. upholders of the law of nature) have claimed to revive the Mu'tazila or Moslem Rationalism of the early centuries which abated the asperities of extreme fatalism and the crudities of verbal inspiration, and eliminated the miraculous generally. They have remained rather a tendency than a sect. This movement was followed by a more constructive effort on the part of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian (in the Panjab), founder of the Ahmadiya or Qadiani sect. He claimed to be the Mahdi, or Guided One, who should recall Islam from apostasy, the Christ spiritually returned for the same purpose, and later, even Krishna, reincarnate for the Hindus. Freedom in dealing with the Qur'an was gained by allegorizing. He taught that the command to fight for the faith meant striving by persuasion, not by weapons. It was this that recently brought the sect into collision with the 'Ulama of Kabul, resulting in the martyrdom of several Qadianis. They are found chiefly in the Panjab, but also throughout India and in Central Asia and Africa. The more modernist members of the Ahmadiya broke off from the conservatives at Qadian, and made their headquarters at Lahore. They, too, hold to the literal inspiration of the Qur'an, but gain a modern meaning by rationalist interpretation with an occasional dash of scientific phraseology. Of late this section has reverted to Sunnite orthodoxy. Both branches of the Ahmadiya are active in propaganda among Western nations. The Lahore branch has its mosque and offices in Woking; the Qadianis hope shortly to open a mosque in Putney.

The other organized modern sect is the Persian body known as the Bābī-Bahai. In 1844 Mirza Muhammad 'Ali of Shiraz