On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    decision and of doubt with which Mr . Good expresses himself in this part of his Dissertation--v . g " it seems clear—it seems evident— itproves obviously" ! He quotes ch . xv . 18—22 . xvi . 22 . xvii . 'l- xvii . 11 . xxx . 24 , 25 , as the

    principal passages " against the existence ^ of a future life , " But then he adds / immediately , " all these passages rather refer to an insensibility or dissipation of the soul upon death , than to the question of a re-existence at some future period : and hence they cannot strictly be said to annihilate this latter doctrine . " Now ,

    after reading again and again the abovementioned texts , we can discern in them no traces whatever of the distinction which Mr . G . finds it so convenient to suggest . The holy sufferer speaks of the hope of man as destroyed : and though he wishes to retain it , yet he knows that thus much is beyond his power ,

    " Yea , my hopes !—» who shall point theni out ? To the grasp of the grave must they fall a prey . " We are next referred to ch . i . 5 .

    xlii . 8 , 9 , as texts in which are developed " the propitiation of the Crea tor , in the case of human transgressions , by sacrifices , and the mediation and intercession of a righteous person , " These passages we have , accordingly , examined with great attention : and in the former we meet

    with a record of the fact that Job ' s parental affection and habitual piety induced him to offer sacrifices every day for his children ; while from the other we learn that , at God ' s command , he presented intercessory prayers for his three friends , who , however , were specially directed to bring with their

    own hands a prescribed sacrifice . In these instances there was nothing of p ' ropitiationand mediation , in the sense ih which the words are commonly understood . We may as well conjecture that sacrifices were symbolical of Divine mercy as that they were either propitiator ?/ or vicarious .

    On reading B ^ r . Good ' s introductory Dissertation , we have frequently wished that the provinces of the translator of the scriptures and of the doctrinal expositor of them , Were considered as distinct ; the correctness attd fidelity of & ver&oti ot these

    Untitled Article

    writings being unavoidably affected in some degree by the preconceived idea of their containing passages from which certain doctrines may be learned in the way of inference " and deduction . We shall weigh the intrinsic merits of the translation before us with

    its pretensions . Mr . Good assures his readers that he has not been " a niggard in labour ; " and we believe him . We admire his industry and ardour , his attachment to scriptural criticism and oriental learning . Hi « views of the manner in which th «

    book of Job should be rendered from the original , are enlightened and correct ; and , if he has not uniformly succeeded in exemplifying them , It must be remembered that he could command only a few hours in every week ( actively engaged as he is in

    the duties of his profession ) for the execution of his task . Upon our can * dour and forbearance he possesses a yet stronger claim ; inasmuch as he never treats preceding or his contemporary labourers in the field of sacred literature with arrogance and

    illiberality . If we think him sometimes unduly confident in his positions , and sometimes inaccurate in his reasonings , we have , nevertheless , the pleasure of observing that he uniformly avoid * offensive and personal strictures upon those who dissent from his conclusions .

    The style of his Dissertation might be improved . But we content ourselves with pointing out one mark of haste . In page xxiii , Mr . G . speak * of the goad as passing into the soul of

    Job , yet not poisoning it . The metaphor is incongruous . We would attempt to give it consistency , were not our translator an enemy to the conjectural perhaps in matters of verbal

    criticism ! Some of the Hebrew words which he takes occasion to cite in his introductory Discourse , are wrongly printed . Are these errors attributable to the distance of Broxboitm * from

    the metropolis ? Reviewers and their readers will be somewhat deficient in experience and in charity , if they cannot allow for typographical mistakes flowing from this source .

    * This work issues from the Brotboum pre $ 9 in Hertfordshire .

    Untitled Article

    Revieio * —Good'i Translation of the Book of Job . 53

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1815, page 53, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1756/page/53/