The Letters to the Seven Churches by WILLIAM H. RAMSAY. Baker. 446 pages. Price $4.95.

This book is not a new one in modern theological literature. It first appeared in 1904, and Baker did the world of New Testament scholars a distinct service by making this work again available. All ministers who preach on these Seven Letters must consult this work if they would do justice to the teachings of Scripture herein contained.

The strength of the book is its grounding in the archaeological research of the author. One feels instinctively that he is dealing with an authority of the first order. The striking parallelism and inseparable connection between the history of the particular city and the church situated therein is nothing short of astonishing. One at times gets tho impression that the similarity is somewhat far-fetched. But this is beyond this reviewer’s competence to judge. Certain it is that readers will try to understand and relate every expression in these letters to some contemporary phenomena.

However excellent any book may be, questions remain. In the chapter on “The Seven Letters” (pp. 35–50), the author does not hold the commonly accepted idea that these were directly dictated by the Lord himself. Also the expression in the Ephesian Letter, “remove the candlestick out of his place” Ramsay takes to mean that the church would be relocated; “Ephesus was moved to a site about three kilometres distant” (p 443). This does not seem to do justice to the text.

The book remains a scholarly work of the first order. No preacher can preach on these Letters and do them justice without consulting it. It is unreservedly recommended.

C. HUISSEN

The Ten Commandments in Modern Perspective by OWEN M. WEATHERLY. John Knox Press. 154 pages. Price $3.00.

Weatherly, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Philaddphia. has presented us with a very acceptable volume. The book is true to its title. The Ten Commandments lire certainly relevant to our times. Speaking on “The Priority of God,” he makes some telling remarks. Says he, “The First Commandment does not raise the question of God’s existence….To the Hebrews, God was not a premise to be proved, but a personality to be experienced…In the experience of this people, the evidence for the existence of God was too deep for doubt and too personal for proof’ (p. 12). Again, “All the so-called ‘atheists’ I know are not denying the existence of God. What they are denying is the existence of their own caricature of God, in whose existence nobody believes” (p. 13). Speaking on the authority of the First Commandment he says, “He alone has the authority to give such a Commandment, because he alone has the power to transform man into the kind of creature who can and will obey it” (p.23).

This reviewer opines that Weatherly is stronger in the treatment of the commandments of the first table than of the second. In the latter especially the theological implications do not receive their due. For instance, on the Fifth he does not get beyond parental authority, and on the Sixth he says, “Another violation of the Sixth Commandment which lays a heavy burden on the civilized conscience of this generation is the now obsolete and inexcusable practice of capital punishment” (p. 92). All of which demonstrates that this excellent volume would have been even better if the author had been acquainted with or taken cognizance of the exposition of the Ten Commandments in the Heidelberg Catechism.

The book is recommended. Any of our preachers treating this material in the Catechism will enrich his sermons by taking notice of this volume. Here and there one wonders just what the author’s view of inspiration is.

C. HUISSEN