How the Bible Grew: The Story as Told by the Book and Its Keepers

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Preface

We have inherited the Bible from a distant past, and many of us have had little opportunity to learn how the inheritance came. We grew up with the Bible frequently in hand and felt its benefit before we knew it to be an inheritance. Because it has helped us we have come to love it.

As the Bible has been an aid, and frequently a comfort, we have learned to revere it. The larger the amoimt of aid received, the larger has become the reverence. This reverence has often been increased, unconsciously perhaps, by the fact that we knew so little concerning the history of the book. One of the natural elements of reverence is mystery, and we have found, from our very first questions about the Bible, that it is a book of great mystery, mysterious in its contents, mysterious as to the way in which it came to our parents and to us.

Along with our use of the Bible we have received the training of the schools, and some of us have been to college, or to a imiversity. As a part of this training there has come a study of astronomy, geology, and other sciences. Somewhere in these scientific studies it has dawned upon us, perhaps even startled us, that our science and our Bible seem not to agree. We recalled that the Bible tells of a day when the sun stood still; the astronomy we were studying had no place for such an event. The Bible appears to make our world only some 6,000 years old; geology indicates that the real

• • Vll viii PREFACE

age of the earth is hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of years. Other similar questions have sometimes given trouble.

Thus a time has come when one does not know how to do without the Bible, for it is the foundation of religious life, the guidebook for Christian living; and he does not know what to do with the Bible, for it appears to be in conflict with things which are taken for granted in the ordinary affairs of life today.

As we have gone farther in thought on the questions which arise, we have become aware that in the Old Testament especially there are customs, such as vengeance for wrongdoing, war, polygamy, which are approved, but we shrink from accepting the approval. We have preserved a reverence for the Bible, and at the same time there is the beginning of distrust concerning it.

The difficulty lies in the fact that the history of the Bible is not known, and especially that the Bible itself has not been given a proper opportimity to tell its own story of how it came into existence, of how it came to be the Bible. There has been too much effort on the part of teachers to talk about the Bible rather than to let the Bible talk for itself; there has been far too much enterprise in preparing theories into which to fit the Bible, and far too little endeavor to gather the facts in the Bible which show its growth, and then let the explanation of the Bible come out of the facts.

There is ample room then, even at this late day, for a history of the Bible which permits the book itself and its keepers through the ages to tell the story of its origin. Such is the aim of this voliune. For the writer the kind of study here pursued has been invaluable, and he has

PREFACE ix

found it so for others. While it has taken away a certain kind of reverence, which, after all, was merely a sort of superstition, it has given the Bible a worth and power which it could not possess before. In exchange for superficial sacredness there has been given knowledge, light, and strength.

The reader will observe that I do not deal with the question of inspiration, nor with that of Bible authority. This leaves the way free to cherish any theory of inspiration which appeals, and to accept any kind and degree of authority that seem good, after the data of Bible growth have been duly considered. It will be natural, I think, to find that the facts of the scripture message and their personal worth in experience are more valuable than any theory of inspiration. Each person may have his own theory, or no theory, and freely allow the same privilege to others. The question of authority also may become an inquiry into the lessons to be learned from the Bible material and their applicability to experience, and the outcome may be nobility of life rather than divisive argimients, with a higher type of authority for the Bible than it has yet known.

I wish to record my obligation to Professor J. M. Powis Smith, of the University of Chicago, who read the manuscript and gave me kind and valuable suggestions concerning my discussion of the Pentateuch in the days of Ezra, the Book of Jashar, the name Jehovah, the Book of Daniel, and the Book of Jeremiah. But he must not be held responsible of course for the language of even the eight or ten paragraphs afifected.

Frank Grant Lewis

Chester, Pa.

March 12, 1919

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Old Testament in the New Testament . . i II. The Old Testament in the Time of Jesus, Son of

SiRACH II

Chapter I The Old Testament In The New Testament

I wish to learn about the growth of a flower. In the springtime, when the new rays of the sun have warmed the soil and the fresh showers have brought new vitality, I plant the seed, watch for it to germinate, and observe how the blade of green increases to the stalk, the branches in due time appear, the buds follow, the full flower opens, and the mature seed completes the cycle of life. If I am a scientist, this study of the flower development has furnished opportunity to discover the scientific meaning of all that the growth of the flower reveals. If I am a naturalist, and especially a lover of flowers, day by day the beauty and glory of the unfolding life have been a source of charm and deep satisfaction.

My home is near a great river, where its gathered waters spread out into the vast ocean. In childhood I simply see the water, or am impressed with its expanse and shrink from its mysteries. When youth arrives, I begin to wonder what the river means, whence its waters come, and what there is in the stream beyond the part I have seen. As I become more thoughtful and ask from my parents and older friends about the upper waters of the great stream, there arises a curiosity to visit the sources of the river and see how, from the smaller streams of which I have heard, there grows the mighty current which day after day I have seen move by my home and out into the boundless sea beyond. If this wish should be gratified, and I should travel toward the upper waters, I should notice each branch as it enters the main stream, should perhaps follow some of these branches to their beginnings and learn how each in turn is itself made up of various smaller branches, and, if I journeyed far enough, should finally reach the source of the main brook far up the moimtain side. Even then, however, I might not have seen every source of the great river, for some of those sources are hidden springs, sharing their Kving fountains with those more readily seen and being thus as tnily a part of the great river as those which my eye caught at once. .

The growth of the Bible is like that of the river rather than like that of the flower. As I sow the seed and watch the unfolding of the flower life, so I should delight to sow again the seed of the life of Scripture and observe how the many branches of that life have shaped themselves and entered into the book as a whole. That, however, cannot be done. The Scripture growth is imique, the only one of its kind, and it cannot be repeated. As my home is by the fidness of the river, so I have been bom and my days have been lived by the completed Bible. The only way to learn the sources of the sacred volmne is patiently to trace my way back along the literary currents out of which it arose, until I reach the upper waters of the early life of the people through whom the writings came. And even then I am likely to have overlooked some of the most important of the hidden foimtains from which sprang the biblical life that has become a part of mine. I must at least be ready to recognize that such foimtains have entered into the Bible, whether I discover them or not.

OLD TESTAMENT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 3

In the New Testament we are beside the mighty currents of literary life which combined to furnish the Book of Books. Among these currents we are certain to find important traces of the earlier streams of literary life, and these may very well suggest how we are to retrace the lines of growth through which the Bible has arisen. Let us turn directly to the New Testament.

Even if we begin with the opening of the gospel in Matthew we shall not read far before we find a reference to the Law and the Prophets. Among such references will be that in the familiar verse which we call the Golden Rule, Matt. 7:12, "All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do imto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the prophets."

When we first read the gospel story we probably never asked what Jesus referred to when he spoke of the Law and the Prophets. Later, when that question did arise, it was natural for us to think of the Law as the first five books of the Old Testament, and to assimie that the Prophets referred to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Twelve that we had learned to call the Minor Prophets. Unless someone has told us differently, or we ourselves have had exceptional opportunity to revise that thought, it is still the one which controls when we read of the Law and the Prophets. To be sure of this, one has only to ask himself, or a Sunday-school class, or a body of students, even those entering a theological seminary, what Jesus referred to when he spoke of the Law and the Prophets, for the reply is almost invariably such as that I have mentioned.

Now, however, when the correctness of such answers is questioned we are ready to ask about the reference again and learn in what respects it is wrong.

Let me hasten then to oiffer reassurance, in part at least ; for the reply is correct as far as the Law is concerned. Beyond that perhaps the question will be best answered if we approach the inquiry along a path of comparison.

If I should say to you, "All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do imto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is the Old Testament and the New Testament," you would at once understand that in mentioning the Old Testament and the New Testament I was referring to two collections of sacred writings which together we call the Bible.

So it was in the days of Jesus and the apostles. So it was, in fact, for aU Jews and for any others who knew the Israelitish writings in the days which we call apostolic. So it is indeed at the present time for those who have come to imderstand the language of Jesus and Paul and others as it is before us in the New Testament. The Law was one collection of Israelitish writings; the Prophets was another collection.

It is an easy matter for one to see this for himself today. He has only to look into a copy of the Hebrew Bible and find the evidence. This Hebrew Bible, if one does not already possess it, may be purchased through the local bookseller, or may be foimd in a well-ordered library ready for reference use, or will be among the familiar volimies at the home of a Jewish friend. And this friend will be more than pleased to open the book and explain the order of the Law and the Prophets as they stand.

OLD TESTAMENT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 5

For any who are not acquainted with the Hebrew language, or are not interested in receiving the information through others, or live in a community where none of the sons of Israel happen to make their home, or desire to have the material easy of access at any time for themselves, there is now a happy solution of the question for only slight trouble or expense. This solution is foimd in an English translation of the Hebrew scriptures, made by English-speaking Israelites in a form so similar to the ordinary English Bible that the reader will hardly be aware of the real character of the volmne in his hand imtil he has begun to examine its contents. This important and useful volimie was published in 191 7, at Philadelphia, by the Jewish Publication Society, with the title. The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text; a New Translation.

The Masoretic text is the ordinary standard edition of the Hebrew Bible. In the new translation just mentioned this text is faithfully reproduced in an English dress, the Hebrew divisions, the order of the books, the titles, and other distinctively Jewish features being preserved, some of these in the Hebrew characters accompanied with English equivalents explaining their meaning. It is a volume, accordingly, that anyone interested in the Old Testament may well have for himself and thus become familiar with the Bible as it was arranged in the early days, and as it has come down through the centuries, the only change being that it is carried over from the original Hebrew language into familiar and pleasing English.

Acquaintance with this English translation of the Hebrew Bible, or with the Hebrew Bible itself, if one cares for the original language of the Old Testament, is both interesting and valuable. The acquaintance reveals that the full title of the Israelitish scriptures is significant, carrying us beyond the Law and the Prophets. One does well, first, to note merely a transliteration. This, as nearly as it may be reproduced in English characters, is Torak, Nehiim u-Kethubim (pronounced torah, nevee-eem oo-kethoo-veem). When it is translated into English, we have "Law, Prophets, and Writings." We do well to remember, however, that the term "Law" in this title means not so much legislation, or statute, as teaching, or instruction, or information.

We have seen above that each of the first two terms of this title refers to a separate and distinct collection of writings, as does also the third; so that the Bible of Israel is composed of three parts, each a carefully limited collection of sacred books. We shall be aided, therefore, if we notice what is included in each collection, as the names of the several books in each of the three divisions of the Hebrew volume inform us.

As already mentioned, the books included in the Law are those we have long known as composing the Pentateuch, and their names are familiar: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

When, however, we turn farther the leaves of the Hebrew Bible or the English translation to ascertain the names of the books which are included in the Prophets, the list is quite other than familiar, for the names which appear are: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve, this last being the brief and inclusive title for the twelve Minor Prophets regarded as a single book. All together, therefore, the

OLD TESTAMENT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 7

Prophets is a collection of eight writings, all of Samuel being treated as a single book, and all of Kings held in like form ordinarily, though in some editions of the Hebrew and in the English translation mentioned above these two books are divided as in our ordinary Christian translations of the Old Testament.

As we observe the Prophets further we find that the eight books are separated into two subdivisions; Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings are called the "earlier prophets,'' and Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve are grouped together as the "later prophets." Just why the Twelve were brought together and regarded as a single book is not evident. Apparently the mmiber twelve had come to signify some idea of completeness, so that the twelve smaller prophetical writings together made a prophetical whole. Possibly there is more significance in the fact that these twelve briefer writings together furnished the material for a manuscript roll nearly equivalent to one of the longer prophetical books, such as Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or Ezekiel. The combining of the twelve writings under one name may have been brought about to some extent also by the thought that it would be appropriate to have in the second division of the Prophets a fourth book corresponding to the fourth book of the first division, thus making the "later prophets" equal in mmiber to the "earlier prophets."

The titles of the books included in the Writings are equally interesting, for we read: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles, altogether eleven in number.

Such then are the three divisions of the Hebrew Bible, our ordinary Old Testament, and the names of the several books of each division as they commonly appear in the Hebrew Scriptures. I say "as they commonly appear," for, while there are always three divisions of the Scriptures, and the total nimiber of books within each division always remains the same, the order of the books within the second part of the second division sometimes varies, and the same is true of the books within the third division. In the second part of the second division, for example, Isaiah does not always have the first place; in the third division Psalms sometimes )delds the position of honor, and other variations occur. The lists as I have given them, however, are the ordinary ones and are convenient to remember, if one desires to have the order of the books at immediate call, as we frequently memorize the names of the books in the English Bible. For our purpose in this study, however, it is most important to keep in mind that there are three divisions in the Hebrew Bible, and particularly to remember that the Prophets, as referred to by Jesus and Paul, are the eight books in the preceding list beginning with Joshua.

We are now ready to take another important step. We shall take it most easily if we recall how often in reading the New Testament we find a reference to the Law alone, for example. Matt. 5:18, "One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law''; Luke 2:23, "As it is written in the law of the Lord"; Rom. 2 .-23, " Thou who gloriest in the law." With this put the easily observed fact that the phrase "the Law and the Prophets" is much less common, occurring altogether only some fifteen times (Matt. 5:17; 7:12; 11:13;

OLD TESTAMENT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 9

The step we take then is one to bring us where we can see, from the above-mentioned proportions of the different classes of references, that the Law was, for the New Testament writers, the most important portion of the Jewish Scriptures. The same fact may be seen in another way. In the New Testament as a whole there are somewhat more than one thousand references to the Old Testament books. Of these, nearly three himdred are to the Law and less than five himdred to all the Prophets, with about two himdred to the Psalms, nearly seventy to the Bpok of Daniel, and only scattering allusions to all the other books, namely, the nine of the Writings besides Psalms and Daniel.

In short, the Bible of the New Testament times was practically the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms, and the Book of Daniel. This needs to be modified perhaps by saying that the Psalms was rather a hynm book of the early Christians, quoted much as a preacher of today uses our hymns, though often with somewhat greater authority than that with which our hymns are employed. Perhaps the most striking fact in the proportion of references used is the large number of times Daniel is quoted. That disproportion takes a new meaning, however, as soon as we become aware that more than two-thirds of the nearly seventy quotations from Daniel are made in the single Book of Revelation, which raises interesting questions.

lO HOW THE BIBLE GREW

Reserving those questions, however, for a later page, and holding ourselves now close to the great current of sacred literary thought called the Law and the Prophets, let us discover where it leads and the opening of sources which it brings.

CHAPTER n

THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE TIME OF JESUS,

SON OF SIRACH

(About 200 B.C.)

We turn the leaves of our Bible until we are back to that portion of the Old Testament called the Apocrypha, and particularly to the book called Ecclesiasticus, or, by the longer title, the Wisdom of Jesus, the Son of Sirach. Many of the more recently printed Bibles omit the Apocrypha and so do not contain this very valuable book, but it may be found in almost any of the older editions, or may be secured as a separate volume with the title The Apocrypha Translated out of the Greek and Latin Tongues^ and published by the University Press at Oxford.

In the Prologue to this Book of Ecclesiasticus, which was written by the grandson of the author of the book itself, we read the following important and suggestive language:

Whereas many and great things have been delivered unto us by the law and the prophets, and by the others that have followed in their steps .... my grandfather Jesus, having much given himself to the reading of the law, and the prophets, and the other books of our fathers, and having gained great familiarity therein, was drawn also himself to write somewhat pertaining to instruction

and wisdom You are intreated therefore to read with

favor and attention, and to pardon us, if in any parts of what we have labored to interpret, we may seem to fail in some of the phrases. For things originally spoken in Hebrew have not the same force in them, when they are translated into another tongue:

II and not only these, but the law itself, and the prophecies, and the rest of the books, have no small difference, when they are spoken in their original language. For having come into Egypt in the eight and thirtieth year of Euergetes the king, and having continued there some time, I found a copy affording no small instruction. I thought it therefore most necessary for me to apply some diligence and travail to interpret this book: applying indeed much watchfulness and skill in that space of time to bring the book to an end, and set it forth for them also, who in the land of their sojourning are desirous to learn, fashioning their manners beforehand, so as to live according to the law.

I have quoted this Prologue nearly entire, in order that its important information may easily be considered. Two or three things furnished by the Prologue and bearing on the history of the Old Testament stand out with special prominence. We want to give them attention at once.

In the first place, we observe that the writer refers three different times to the sacred writings used by his grandfather, and that in each of the three references the first part of the language is the same, or essentially the same; in each instance he speaks of the Law and the Prophets, or, varying his term in the third reference, of the Prophecies, which is manifestly equivalent to the Prophets. To this extent his language is the same as that of the New Testament. From it we see that the two collections of writings which were the main portion of the Israelitish Scriptures in the days of Jesus and Paul were likewise definite collections some two centuries before Jesus and Paul were bom. It is not strange, therefore, indeed it is nfost natural, to find the writers of the New Testament regularly usiug these terms in referring to their Scriptures and using them with perfect

OLD TESTAMENT IN THE TIME OF JESUS 13

definiteness. The Law and the Prophets were as definite and specific to Jews of the apostolic times as the Old Testament and the New Testament are to us.

A second point is perhaps even more interesting. It is the fact that the writer of this Prologue, in each of the three references he makes to the Law and the Prophets, adds a reference to some other writings which he seems to regard in the same manner in which he regarded the Law and the Prophets, but for which he had no single name or title, since his phrase in each of the three instances is different. He first speaks of these writings, or their authors, as "the others that have followed in their steps," that is, in the steps of the writers of the Law and the Prophets. In his second reference he varies the phrase to "the other books of our fathers,'' that is, in addition to the Law and the Prophets. And in the third case he merely mentions "the rest of the books." He was familiar then with a considerable collection of sacred writings for which he had no single title.

This reference to a third collection of sacred books is of interest because the completed volimie of Israelitish Scriptures, as we have already noted, has a title showing three divisions. Law, Prophets, and Writings, the title of the third division remaining, even to the present, without any such specific name as either the Law or the Prophets, which so happily designate the first and second divisions. Whether the Writings of the present Hebrew Bible are the same books as those referred to by the writer of the Prologue to Ecclesiasticus perhaps we cannot say; at least we shall do better not to undertake to say this at present. That some of the books are the same, however, there need be little doubt.

It is worth while noting also that the writer of the Prologue, though he was careful to mention each time each of the three collections of sacred writings, appears to have had a peculiar regard for the Law. This is brought out at the close of the Prologue, where he says he undertook the important task of translating the work of his grandfather in order that his readers might learn "to live according to the law," leaving the impression, without doubt, that the Law was of pre-eminent import. The same idea is revealed in one of the sentences of the Prologue which I have omitted in the quotation. This special regard for the Law corresponds to the distinction accorded the Law in the New Testament. To live according to the Law not improbably would have been assumed to include living according to the Prophets and the other writings.

We observe also that the writer of the Prologue definitely dates the time when he went to Eg3rpt and began to give attention to his important task; it was in "the eight and thirtieth year of Euergetes the king," that is, Euergetes II, an honorary title of Ptolemy IX, whose thirty-eighth year was about 132 B.C. From this it is easy to see that the grandfather of the writer of the Prologue hved about two hundred years before the birth of Jesus, and that some two centuries before the beginning of our Christian Era the Old Testament, among the Israelites in Egypt, consisted of the Law, or our Pentateuch, the Prophets, and at least several other books which were held in similar esteem.

Considering what we have gathered up to the present, it will be seen that the Jews in Egypt accepted a larger number of writings as sacred than did their brothers in

OLD TESTAMENT IN THE TIME OF JESUS 15

Palestine. This is particularly evident when we remember that a third division of the Old Testament was already recognized in Egypt some two centuries before the time of Jesus and Paul, while no such recognition appears in the New Testament; the nearest approach to it is in Luke 24:44, where the evangelist quotes Jesus as speaking of the things which were written "in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms." Since the Psalms frequently had the first place in the third division of the Hebrew Bible, these words of Jesus may be a reference to the entire third division, the Writings. The reference may be only to the Book of Psalms, however. Perhaps this is more likely to have been the intention, since, as we have seen in chapter i, only the Psalms and Daniel, among the books of the third division, received any considerable recognition from the New Testament writers.