Pyramide steht im Ganzen unnachgeahmt da und ist vielleicht unnachahmbar.'
This passage occurs in the fifth conversation in his
Geist der Ebräischenn Poesie (Werke, ed. Suphan, xi. 310). The student of Job will not neglect this and also the two preceding very attractive chapters. The description of Elihu is not the least interesting passage. Herder does his best to account for the presence of this unexpected fifth speaker, but really shows how unaccountable it is except on the theory of later addition. Prof. Briggs's theory (p. 93) that the poor speeches of Elihu are intended 'as a literary foil' was suggested by Herder. 'Bemerken Sie aber, dass er nur als Schatte dasteht, dies Gottes-Orakel zu erheben' (Werke, xi. 284). 12. Pages 113, 114.—The latest study on the original Septuagint text of the Book of Job is by Bickell in the Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie, 1886, pp. 557-564. As to the date of the Alexandrine version, Hody's remark, De Bibliorum Textibus, p. 196, deserves attention, viz. that Philo already quotes from it,—(
Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: Tis gar, ôs o Iôb phêsi, katharos apo rhupou, kai an mia hêmera eotin hê zôê) (Sept. of Job xiv. 4 (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: o bios)); De Mutatione Nominum, § 6 (i. 585). 13. Page 131.—The character of Harūn ar-Rashid, in fact, became almost as distorted by legend as that of Solomon. Neither of them were models of civil justice (Weil, Geschichte der Chalifen, ii. 127). 14. Page 148 (Prov. xxvii. 6).—Consult, however, the Septuagint, which seems to have read (Hebrew characters) at the beginning of the second line ('More faithful . . . than' &c.). See Cornill on Ezek. xxxv. 13. 15. Page 162, note 1.—The Mo'tazilites ('the Protestants of Islam') denied the eternity of the Korán because it implied the existence of two eternal beings (Weil, Gesch. der Chalifen, ii. 262). 16. Page 173.—Text of Proverbs. Among the minor additions in Sept., note the (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: mê) in Prov. v. 16 (so Vatican and, originally, Sinaitic MS.), if we may follow Lagarde and Field. The Alexandrine MS., however, and the Complutensian edition, omit (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: mê), which is also wanting in Aquila. Comp. Field's Hexapla ad loc.
17. Pages 176, 177 (Religious Value of Proverbs).—To appreciate the religious spirit of this fine book, we require some imaginative sympathy with past ages. The 'staid, quiet, "douce," orderly burgher of the Book of Proverbs, who is regular in his attendance at the Temple, diligent in his business, prosperous in his affairs, of repute among the elders, with daughters doing virtuously, and a wife that has his house decked with coverings of tapestry, while her own clothing is silk and purple' (Mr. Binney's words in Is it possible to make the best of both worlds?), is not the noblest type of man, and therefore not the model Christian even of our own day.
