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less than several pounds and unless the student is very keen and likely to
use it well it would be more of a luxury than a tool.
The bulk of the book is taken up with the illustration of the language
of the New Testament by the Papyri. These consist of private letters,
reports of judicial proceedings, charms, receipts, etc. On page 164 is given
a letter from a woman named Irene to a family mourning the death of a son.
She endeavours to comfort them, but being in the dark and without hope
herself, her efforts are somewhat tragic. She says, at the close:
`But, nevertheless, against such things one can do nothing.
Therefore
comfort ye one another'.
The reader cannot fail to connect this with the message of hope found
in 1 Thessalonians 4:18.
Perhaps the most human document of all that is reviewed by Deissmann,
is the letter of a veritable `prodigal son' to his mother. In this letter
the writer says:
`I was ashamed to come to Caranis because I walk about in rags. I
write to thee that I am naked. I beseech thee, mother, be reconciled
to me ... I know that I have sinned'.
The edict of the Praefect of Egypt, G. Vibius Maximus, a.d. 104
contains the following parallel with the edict that caused Joseph to take
Mary his wife to Bethlehem.
`It is necessary to notify all who for any cause soever are outside
their homes to return to their domestic hearths, that they may also
accomplish the customary dispensation of enrolment and continue
steadfastly in the husbandry that belongeth to them'.
The student will not only see how this illuminates the edict of Luke
2:1 -5, but will also realize that Acts 2:42 `continue stedfastly' appears
more suggestive by its occurrence here.
The presence of such words as `bought with a price', in a document that
sets forth the liberation of a slave, cannot be noted without intense
interest.
A much smaller work by Adolf Deissmann that is useful as an
introduction to the value of the Papyri, is his
New Light on the New Testament, from records of the Graeco -Roman period,
translated by Strachan. The philological, literary and religious
interpretation of the New Testament is discussed. The philological chapter
opens with the following:
`The first great fact that impresses the investigator is that the New
Testament speaks practically the same language as was spoken by simple
and unlearned men of the imperial age'.
A less ambitious, but most useful book on the Papyri is that entitled
Selections from the Greek Papyri by George Milligan, D.D.
Fifty -five different papyri are exhibited, translated and commented
upon in this book ranging from letters on such subjects as `a letter of