ARTICLE X.

CRITICAL NOTES.

I.

ACTS XXVI. 28, IN THE LIGHT OF LATIN IDIOM.

THE influence of Latin on the Greek of New-Testament times is unquestioned. Not only single Latin words, as Kevrvpíwv,' are found in the New Testament, but translated phrases, as ipyaoíav dovvai (operam dare). The influence of Latin idiom would naturally be looked for in a report of the language of one brought up at Rome and speaking Greek in a Roman court. Such a report we have in these words, Εν ὀλίγῳ με πείθεις Χριστιανὸν ποιῆσαι, This is translated in the Revised Version: "With but little persuasion thou wouldst fain make me a Christian." This is certainly ingenious, but is it not forced? Why cannot Xpioτiavòv moiñσai mean "to act the part of a Christian"? The Latin agere furnishes numerous parallels in writers of the Silver Age. According to Tacitus, Piso says of Otho that his vices ruined the government, etiam cum amicum imperatoris ageret, “even when he was acting the part of a friend of the emperor." Hist. 1. 30. Mucianus is said to be socium magis imperii quam ministrum agens, "acting as an ally rather than a servant of the government." Hist. 2.83. Thrasea is said, agere senatorem, "to act the senator. Annals 16. 28. Quintilian says of Socrates, Agens imperitum et admiratorem aliorum tanquam sapientium, “acting the part of an ignoramus and an admirer of others as if they were wise." Inst. Or. 9. 2. 16. Also II. 3. 91. and 12. 8. 10. The following examples are found in the Letters of Pliny: Sunt qui defunctorum quoque amicos agant, "act the part of friends." 1. 17.1 Amissoque filio matrem adhuc agere, "though the son was lost still to play the mother. III. 16. 6. Patremfamiliae hactenus ago, "I play the householder." IX. 15. 3. Pliny's Panegyric has these two: Tunc,maxime imperator quum amicum ex imperatore agis. 85. 6. Quum agere tam bonum consulem posses. 56. 3. A tragedy of Seneca, a contemporary of Paul, has the following line (Clytaemnestra to Electra): Sed agere domita feminam disces malo, "Tamed by misfortune, thou shalt learn to play the woman." Agam. v. 3. 7, Suetonius has several examples: Non principem sed ministrum egit. Claud. 29. Also Tiber. 12. 26. Valerius Maximus, writing in the reign of Tiberius, gives us at least twelve instances of this usage. Speaking of the first Brutus, and of the execution of his sons, 1 For other words see Thayer's Lexicon, p. 693.

2 Text of the Revisers, as also of Tischendorf, and of Westcott and Hort.

he says, Exuit patrem ut consulem ageret. v. 8. 1. Of the famous Scaevola and his recreations he says, Ut enim in rebus seriis Scaevolam, ita et in [scenicis] lusibus hominem agebat. VIII. 8. 2. In the same way agere is used with amicum IV. 2. 5., consulem II. 2. 4., III. 8. 3., 12. 2. 2., fenerat icem VIII. 2. 2., virum, imperatorem VII. 2. 5., maritum, patrem IX. 13. 4., praetorem, VII. 7. 7., custodem VI. 1. 4., reum, accusatorem IV. 2. 6., civem VIII. 6. 2. Vellius Paterculus, also in the time of Tiberius, has agebat aemulum, Maroboduus was playing the rival," II. 109. I. He says of Tiberius that he was striving ut potius aequalem civem quam eminentem liceret agere principem II. 124. 2. Also II. 92. 2. The fact that these examples are from the later Latin will not detract from their value. The distinction between agere and facere is not important in the idiom. We may add a single example of facere from Plautus, Ferocem facis, "you put on a bold face, liti do the bold man.' Most. iv. i. 32 (44).

If this idiom be disallowed, it is still possible to derive a similar meaning by taking Xporiavóv as neuter, though we should expect the plural, as in Herodotus v. 40, ποιέων οὐδαμῶς Σπαρτιητικά, In either case, the unusual meaning of Toñσα may possibly explain the early change of the text to yevéσ0 (from Paul's answer), from which comes our received rendering, "thou persuadest me to be a Christian."

Unless Xporavòv ñoñoai be taken to mean "to act the Christian," we seem to be driven to a very awkward connection of ποιῆσαι with πείθεις.

This usage would receive support, independently of the Latin, from one passage in the Septuagint, if the text were undisputed. In 1 Kings (3 Reg.) xx. (xxi.) 7; Jezebel says to Ahab, Σὺ νῦν οὕτω ποιεῖς βασιλέα ἐπὶ Ισραήλ; "Art thou thus acting the king over Israel ? But a variant for βασιλέα is βασιλείαν, which indeed our Hebrew text would require; and Trommius' Concordance has βασιλεύς.

Is there not also a Latin idiom in έv öíy? Roby (Gr. 1975, 1976) gives numerous examples from Livy of in with the ablative, forming phrases equivalent to adjectives and adverbs; as in propinquo, in promiscuo, in facili, in difficili, etc. There may be no literary examples of in parvo, or in paulo, but we have in angusto (=angustus, Celsus, De Med. 8. 4, twice,) and Tacitus, speaking of the dreary monotony of cruelty in his history, says “Nobis in arto et inglorius labor." Ann. 4. 32. 3. So we have in our day the traditional phrases in toto, in extenso. It can hardly be claimed that έv öžíz is a borrowed phrase, but it may possibly have an adverbial force, determined by Latin idiom. It would then be not the same as έv ö^iyo in Eph. iii. 3, but like ὀλίγως in 2 Peter 2. 18 τοὺς ὀλίγως ἀποφεύγοντας, " those that are escap ing a little. Then the whole passage would read, somewhat literally : “Agrippa said unto Paul, A little thou art persuading me to act the Christian. And Paul said, I would to God, that both a little and a great deal, not thou only, but also all that hear me this day, might become such as I am, except these bonds."

Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.

46

L. S. POTWIN.

2.

ASSYRIAN MONTHS.

The influence of a people may be measured by the degree in which their language affects the nomenclature of surrounding nations. Thus the Romans reveal the far reaching influence they exerted on the world in the extent to which their names of the months affected the nomenclature of Europe. Not Italy alone, but France and Germany, Austria and Switzerland, England and Holland, Denmark and Scandinavia, Spain and Portugal, to say nothing of smaller nations further east, adopted more or less entirely their names of the twelve months. It is an interesting enquiry, How far was the influence of Assyria manifested in the same way over surrounding nations?

Previous to the captivity, the Jews generally referred to the months by their number though they had other names for some of them at least. Thus the first month was also known as Abib, or rather The Abib, for it was written with the article. Ex. XIII. 4 et al. The name signified an ear of corn. The second month was also called Zif or Ziv, month of beauty or of flowers. 1 Kings, vi. 1, 37. In the next verse the eighth month is also called Bul,' rain, probably because the autumnal rains began about that time. The seventh month was known also as Ethanim, (gifts?) or rather The Ethanim with the article. I Kings, viii. 2.

In the later years of the kingdom of Judah this was all changed. The Assyrian names of the months were adopted by the Jews as we see in Nehemiah, Esther, Zachariah and Ezekiel. This was the result of the social and political supremacy of Assyria, though literary preeminence belonged more to Babylonia, which however as a part of the empire went to aggrandize the ruling power. Indeed Assyria seems to have had names of her own for the months, which gave place to Babylonian names just as the old Hebrew names did. Were there also Aramaic names superseded in like

manner?

Thus Assyria transmitted the literary influence of Babylonia as Rome also carried with her in her conquests the literary supremacy of Greece.

The Assyrian names of the months are ideograms with an Akkadian basis. Each month contained thirty days and once in six years an intercalary month of the same length was added to conform to the solar year.

The Assyrian names occur in "The Inscription of Western Asia," iv. 33. foot of col. I, also in vol. v. 29. I., and more fully on p. 43. Also in George Smith's Assurbanipal, pages 325 and 326. This list he composed from several unpublished tablets in the British museum. Translations or rather transliterations of these names may be found in "Records of the Past," i. 166 and 167, also vii. 169 and 170.

Though only seven of the Assyrian months are referred to in Scripture, the probability is that all were used in the intercourse of daily life. The other five are mentioned in the Talmud, but there was no occasion for mentioning more than seven of them in the sacred writings. The names mentioned with the places where they occur are as follows: Nisan, Esther iii. 1 This month is mentioned in the Phoenician inscription of King Ishmanezer discovered at Sidon. "The Land and the Book," II. 644.

7, Neh. ii. 1; Sivan, Esther viii. 9; Elul, Neh. vi. 15; Kisleu, Neh. i. 1, Zech. vii, 1; Tebet, Esther ii. 16; Shebat, Zech. i. 7, and Adar, Ezra vi. 15 and Esther iii. 7. The name Tammuz appears in Ezek. viii. 14, but only as the name of a person.

The Assyrian months overlap ours a little, e. g., Nisan, though mostly in our April, extends a little into May, and so on through the rest.

The following table shows that the Babylonian or Assyrian gave form to the Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic names, thus indicating the extensiveness of its influence. Mohammedanism sought to substitute a calendar of its own, but it never succeeded in displacing the Assyrian, which holds its own throughout the Turkish empire to this day. The Mohammedan months are lunar, and retrograde back to the starting point in thirty-three and one-half years. Their names are Mokharram, Sufar, Rabeea el Owwal, Rabeea et taneh, Joomad el Owwal, Joomad et taneh, Rejeb. Shaaban, Ramadan, Showwal, Zuel Qadeh, Zu el Khejjeh.

ARTICLE XI.

NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

IN DEFENCE OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH CONCERNING THE SATISFACTION OF CHRIST AGAINST FAUSTUS SOCINUS. By Hugo Grotius. Translated, with Notes and a Historical Introduction, by Frank Hugh Foster, Ph. D. (Leipzig) Professor of Church History in the Theological Seminary at Oberlin. Andover: Warren F. Draper. 1889. (p. p. vii. and 315) 6583). The publication of this work is a valuable service to the cause of theology in this country. "The Grotian Theory" is a familiar phrase with all who are conversant with the history of Christian doctrines, yet that theory is known, mainly through essays and criticisms, by very few through Grotius' own words. We have in the book before us a translation into good English of the great jurist's defence of the doctrine of the atonement. It is to be hoped that it may be extensively read, for he has not, on the whole, been fortunate in his reviewers; they have generally assailed him for perverting, as they think, the orthodox doctrine, instead of crediting him with an able reply to Socinus. Professor Foster has sought to do him justice as an opponent of error, and, still more, to point out his position in the long line of those who have discussed this theme. He holds that Grotius occupies an important place among those who have contributed to bring the doctrine of the atonement to its present state. Of course many hold with uncompromising tenacity to certain forms of this doctrine, yet all grant that it has been more slow than other doctrines to take form, and with many minds it is still held in a modifiable form. Into the views of this latter class the influence of Grotius, to some extent, enters.-Professor Foster has traced the effects produced by this reply to Socinus with a good deal of careful investigation and with a true historical acumen. The result of his studies is given in his valuable introduction which of itself makes this book a desirable acquisition for any minister, especially for any one interested in New England speculations. We also commend the translator's supplementary notes to the reader's careful perusal. We should be obliged, however, to take exception to one or two of them, e. g. that on page 282. We think the federal theology may rely upon its doctrine of justification through Christ's active and passive obedience to the law, to rescue it from the charge of making God's personal relation to sin the ground of his judgment concerning it. But this has to do only with personal views of the translator; his expositions and citations are all of high value.

Two things should be borne in mind in the study of Grotuis' defence: First, that he is defending the doctrine of the Satisfaction of Christ against