Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/304

 296 April Short Notices The excellent series of Translations of Early Documents lately begun under the editorship of Dr. W. 0, E. Oesterley and the Rev. G. H. Box, and published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, only in part falls within the range of this Review. Among them we may notice the Jewish Documents of the Time of Ezra, translated by Dr. A. Cowley (1919). These include the Aramaic Papyri from Elephantine, of which he and Professor Sayce published an edition in 1906. There is no need here to dwell upon the great importance of the discovery then made of a Jewish com- munity in Egypt in the fifth century b. c. which had a temple of its own. This has now long been recognized, and not less the excellent scholarship of Dr. Cowley's work. In the little volume before us he has supplemented his previous collection by a number of new pieces, including * two texts of a literary character, namely, considerable fragments of the story of A^kar and parts of a translation of the Behistun inscription '. The Sayings of the Jewish Fathers gives Dr. Oesterley's translation of the tractate Pirke Aboth, one of the most attractive parts of the Mishna to Christian readers, containing as it does some of the best ethical teaching of post-biblical Judaism. As the sayings are for the most part in an epigrammatic form, there may sometimes be more than one opinion as to the best way to render a particular phrase. The translation, however, is well done and supported by full notes. There is also a short but sugges- tive introduction, dealing with the relation of the sayings to the New Testament, the dates of the Fathers, bibliography, &c. It is altogether a very convenient edition of a work which deserves to be widely read. To the series of Texts for Students Dr. T. W. Crafer contributes The Epistles of St. Ignatius, reprinted from Bishop Lightfoot's edition with short prefaces. Mr. H. P. V. Nunn's Christian Inscriptions will not perhaps be very helpful to beginners, for whom we assume that it is intended. The examples are not always well chosen, or very representative ; and points which might puzzle the uninstructed are left unexplained. It was quite right to give in full the * Fish ' epitaphs of Abercius and Pectorius ; but too much space is devoted to the compositions of Damasus, while the ordinary and typical epitaphs are inadequately represented. We have noticed a few misprints and mistranslations. In the series of Helps for Students of History Professor A. Souter's Hints on the Study of Latin, A.D. 125-750 (1920), is particularly valuable, because it is the work of a scholar who is recognized as one of our chief authorities on the language in its silver and brazen ages. Most useful is