Review of Patriarchal History
By Editor
Life and Times of the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. By William Hanna Thomson, M.D., LL.D. 12 mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Price $1.20 net. By mail, $1.32. Funk & Wagnalls Co., publishers, New York. Dr. William Hanna Thomson is a son of Dr. William Thomson, who wrote "The Land and the Book," and the object of this work is to supplement the book which his father wrote. The author of this work which we are reviewing traveled with his father when the latter was gathering material for his well-known book, and largely illustrated his father's book. The volume is based on his own personal experiences while traveling with his father. "The Land and the Book" alludes to very few details connected with his father's journeys. This book, however, does, and therefore is supplementary to the first volume. It is largely based, so far as the Biblical story itself is concerned, on the book of Genesis, altho the author gives one chapter to the book of Job. Dr. Thomson does not hold with the Higher Critics, who make it a later production than the time of Moses, nor with the earlier supposition that Moses himself wrote the book. He believes that it was written in times long anterior to those of Moses, and that it was written in Northern Arabia, and not in Palestine. He thinks, however, that it was known and read in Midian long before the Hebrews knew anything about it. The volume is exceedingly instructive regarding the land and people and customs.