By Dom BERNARD ORCHARD The Holy Places of the Gospels, by Clemens Kopp (HerderNelson, 52s. 6d.).
THE firm of Nelson have again done the English public a great service in giving it this excellent translation of Fr. Kopp's Die heiligen Saitten de Evangelien in a splendidly produced volume at a reasonable price. The sixty photographic illustrations are also of fine quality and clarity.
Now that pilgrimages to the Holy Land are becoming almost as frequent as pilgrimages elsewhere, there is a greater need than ever for such an authoritative guide book to the sites associated with Jesus in the Gospels. Of course it cannot by itself replace the usual travel guidebooks, but the information it contains should certainly supersede their archaeological dis
cussions about the location of the holy places.
Not that there is anything very revolutionary in Fr. Kopp's conclusions, except that he comes down definitely on the side of those who assert that the pavement found in the basement of the Convent of the Sisters of Sion is not the Lithostrotos, but a later pavement built by Hadrian in 135. But perhaps the last word has not Yet been said on this point.
Certainly Fr. Kopp brings out very clearly that the archaeological evidence for the authenticity of many of the sites is very complicated and very hard to interpret.
As regards the Holy Sepulchre Fr. Kopp avoids committing himself and merely quotes some of the evidence of writers down to AD 614. It is however a pity that he did not categorically declare his own belief that it is in fact the most authentic site in Christendom.