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MEN OF THE BIBLE,

Their Lives and Times.

Edited by Rev. J. S. EXELL, M.A.

Author of The Biblical Illustrator

"We commend the volumes of this series as useful contributions to the popularization of the results of Biblical scholarship-a tendency and movement of our time of the utmost interest and promise."-New Englander.

17 Volumes, 12mo, cloth.

Price reduced to 75 cents, each, postpaid.

Abraham. By Rev. W. J. Dean, M.A.

Daniel. By Rev. H. Deane, B.D.
David. By Rev. W. J. Dean, M.A.

Elijah. By Prof. W. Milligan, D.D.

Ezra and Nehemiah. By Rev. Canon Rawlinson. Gideon and Judges. By Rev. J. M. Lang, D.D. Isaac and Jacob. By Rev. Canon Rawlinson.

Isaiah. By Rev. Canon Driver, M.A.

Jeremiah. By Rev. Canon Cheyne, D.D.

Jesus Christ the Divine Man. By J. F. Vallings, M.A.

Joshua. By Rev. W. J. Dean, M.A.

Kings of Israel and Judah. By Rev. Canon Rawlinson.

Minor Prophets, The. By Rev. Dean Farrar, D.D. Moses. By Rev. Canon Rawlinson, M.A.

Samuel and Saul. By Rev. W. J. Dean, M.A. Solomon. By Rev. Dean Farrar, D.D.

St. Paul. By Rev. Prof. Iverach, D.D.

OTHER VOLUMES TO FOLLOW SHORTLY.

Fleming H. Revell Company,

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PREFACE.

THE materials for the facts of the life of Abraham are found in Holy Scripture, in the Book of Genesis, and in some of the later writings. I have taken it for granted that these statements are authentic, and have not thought it necessary to follow Ewald and his school in distinguishing the various authors of them, assigning this to "the Book of origins," and that to the First narrator, and that to the Second, and so on. Nor have I esteemed the details thus given as accretions that have grown up round a great central figure in the lapse of centuries, the outcome of hero-worship, the resv't of a natural desire to accumulate on a great forefather anything that would tend to elevate his personal character or exalt the favour with which he was regarded by God. The narrative appears to me to be consistent, derived doubtless from different sources, but worked up by the compiler into a fairly complete biography, which, taken in conjunction with hints afforded by the later Scriptures, leaves on the mind a finished picture of the "Father of the Faithful." Accessory to the Scripture account are the history of Josephus and some treatises of Philo, which contain additional facts more or less mythical, derived from certain histories or Jewish tradition. Eusebius in his "Præparatio Evangelica," adds some circumstances, and a few of the Fathers afford a little further information. Ephraem Syrus is said to have composed a work on Abraham's sojourn in Egypt, which however, if existing in MS., has not been published. A plentiful crop of legends has, as was natural, risen around the true story of this celebrated man. Many of these will be found in "The Book of Jubilees," which under the name of Kufale has been discovered in an Abyssinian dress, and translated in Ewald's "Jahrbücher," ii. and iii. The most copious collection, however, gathered from the Talmud and other sources, has been made by Beer in his "Leben Abraham's nach Auffassung der jüdischen Sage." The Koran has contributed largely to this legendary lore. Other Mussulman traditions are found in Weil's work, "The Bible, the Koran, and the Talmud." Immense assistance to the understanding of the various phases of the Patriarch's life has been derived from the interpretations of the cuneiform inscriptions of the East and the hieroglyphs of

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