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of St. Luke's narrative, but as a pattern of sagacious and discriminating historical
criticism . . . . . No candid reader, after a perusal of the work, can escape the full
conviction that the Acts of the Apostles, and the epistles of St. Paul, forming together
nearly one half of the New Testament, could neither be the result of fraud on the part of
contemporary authors, nor have an artificial origin in later times, but are certainly what
they bear upon their face, a genuine history, and authentic letters of the great apostle of
the Gentiles."
Birks carried Paley's method further. He gleaned many coincidences that Paley had
overlooked, and applied the same argument to the four gospels. Birks included the
epistle to the Hebrews in his survey, and his contribution is greater in bulk than the
original work of Paley, but just as interesting. We would suggest that these works be
consulted whenever any serious examination of the N.T. is intended, they are worthy
"tools for the unashamed workman".
No.9.
Some Valuable Books on the Septuagint.
pp. 139, 140
The reader of The Berean Expositor who has been acquainted with its method of
exposition for any length of time, will be aware that the testimony of the Septuagint,
especially for the light that is sheds upon the meaning of N.T. words, is held in high
esteem. In our Index of Volumes I-XX of The Berean Expositor, we devoted two pages
to a special Index of references to the Septuagint Version of the O.T.
A book which we recommend every student to obtain if possible is the work by
E. W. Grinfield, M.A., published in London by William Pickering in 1850, and now only
obtainable at second-hand. He entitled his book:
"An Apology for the Septuagint, in which its claim to Biblical and Canonical
Authority are briefly stated and vindicated."
While we may not follow this writer to the full length of his argument and believe as
he does that the LXX is of equal inspiration and canonicity as the Hebrew originals, we
do certainly value the testimony that he gives to the extreme value and importance of this
great Version. An apology is a justification rather than an excuse, and an apologetic is a
formal defence of a person, doctrine, course, etc., and is first found in use in 1605. An
apologist is a defender, as Lord Broughton wrote "Mr. Hume, the staunch apologist . . . . .
of all Stuarts".
The reader will find no "apology" in the weak and secondary sense of the word in
Grinfield's work. The following extracts will give some idea of the nature of this
"apology".
"This Greek version was received by the immediate successors of the apostles, on
authority which they could not hesitate to acknowledge. They had heard it preached and