confined to 'apologists.' As I pointed out, it
is adopted by M. Neubauer also, who (unless I much mistake his position)
would altogether disclaim being considered an apologist, but who
nevertheless, being an honest man, sets down his honest opinion, without
considering whether it will or will not tend to establish the
credibility of the Evangelist.

But after all, the really important question for the reader is not what
this or that person thinks on this question, but what are the facts. And
here I venture to say that, when our author speaks of 'assertions and
conjectures' in reference to Delitzsch's article, such language is quite
misleading. The points which the Talmudical passages quoted by him
establish are these:--

(1) A place called 'Suchar,' or 'Sychar,' is mentioned in the Talmud.
Our author speaks of 'some vague references in the Talmud to a somewhat
similar, but not identical, name.' But the fact is, that the word
[Greek: Suchar], if written in Hebrew letters, would naturally take one
or other of the two forms which we find in the Talmud, [Hebrew: Sukh'r]
(Suchar) or [Hebrew: Sykh'r] (Sychar). In other words, the
transliteration is as exact as it could be. It would no doubt be
possible to read the former word 'Socher,' and the latter 'Sicher,'
because the vowels are indeterminate within these limits. But so far as
identity was possible, we have it here.

(2) The Talmudical passages speak not only of 'Sychar,' but of
'Ayin-Sychar,' _i.e._, 'the Well of Sychar.'

(3) The 'Well of Sychar' which they mention is in a corn-growing
country. This is clear from the incident which leads to the mention of
the place in the two principal Talmudical passages where it appears,
_Baba Kamma_ 82b, _Menachoth_ 64b. It is there stated that on one
occasion, when the lands in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem were laid
waste by war, and no one knew whence the two loaves of the Pentecostal
offering, the first-fruits of the wheat harvest, could be procured, they
were obliged ultimately to bring them from 'the valley of the Well of
Sychar.' Now the country which was the scene of the interview with the
Samaritan woman is remarkable in this respect--'one mass of corn,
unbroken by boundary or hedge'[136:1]--as it is described by a modern
traveller; and indeed the prospect before Him suggests to our Lord, as
we may well suppose, the image which occurs in the conversation with the
disciples immediately following--'Lift up your eyes, and