How to know the Bible : mastering the books of the Bible

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Preface

It is the object of this book to aid those who would like to master a book of the Bible as they master a secular classic, to get at its great message and at the same time enjoy its wonderful literature. The author will attempt to give this aid by showing the value, significance, and beauty of Bible literature ; by furnishing materials out of which the student may construct the proper setting, atmosphere and background for his reading; by presenting and explaining a fruitful method of study; and by giving many type-studies to illustrate the application of this method.

It will be observed that the word Bible is used in these pages as if all of the sixty-six books were included in the studies ; but the fact is that the illustrative type-studies are all taken from the Old Testament.

Most of the Bible quotations are from the Authorized Version because it is real English literature; but other versions have been used when the meaning of particular lines and passages could be made clearer.

A large part of the material of the chapters of the book has been accumulated in the form of lectures given in a course of study which has been offered for a number of years at "West Virginia University.

Special thanks are due to my colleagues, Professor Simeon C. Smith, Dr. L. D. Arnett, and Professor David Dale Johnson, who have given the author valuable advice and have kindly read the manuscript.

R. A. A.

Introduction

In the year 1913 the Pennsylvania legislature passed an act requiring in every public school the daily reading of at least ten verses from the Holy Bible and imposing upon school directors the duty of dismissing every teacher who fails to comply with this legislation. "While this legislation was pending, it was predicted outside of the State that its enactment into law would be followed by riots and bloodshed. The prediction has not been fulfilled. The history of Pennsylvania has never been stained by the burning of witches nor by any other form of religious persecution. The teachers have shown themselves to be law-abiding citizens, and the people although professing many and various creeds, have shown a most commendable spirit of religious toleration as well as a most remarkable appreciation of the value of daily Bible reading.

It was of course not the aim of the legislature to introduce religious teaching into the public schools. The duty of teaching religion belongs to the home, to the Sunday school, and to the church with its various agencies. Teachers in high schools and colleges have sometimes been known to go out of their way for the purpose of throwing doubt upon the religious faith of the pupil or the pupil's parents. A worse service can not be rendered by those who are engaged in education. Destroy the sense of obligation to a supreme being and you have robbed the child of one of the strongest incentives to an upright life.

In eight or nine of the States the Bible has been excluded from the public schools either by decisions of the supreme court of the State, or by opinions of its attorney general, or by rulings of the state superintendent of schools. It does not follow that such exclusion necessarily makes the schools godless. The schools become godless when put in charge of godless teachers. As long as the fear of God and the love of righteousness abide in the teacher's heart, so long can it be assumed and asserted that the schools are not godless. Nevertheless, the child loses much if it grows up without the molding influence of the daily reading of the Book of books. Abraham Lincoln had access to few books in his early life. But the marvelous English of King James's version permeated his thinking and molded his diction. A letter from his pen written to a mother who had lost five sons in the Civil War, is treasured at Oxford University as the finest specimen of letter writing in the English language. His Gettysburg speech has been read and studied as a masterpiece of English in thousands of our public schools and bears unmistakable testimony to the molding influence of the literary style of the English Bible. "When Kossuth was preparing to visit England and America, he studied three books, Johnson's dictionary, the writings of Shakespeare, and the King James version of the Bible. His eloquent command of English gave him unrivaled power over the audiences which he addressed in the United States. Father Faber who renounced Protestantism and joined the Catholic Church, says, of our English Bible: "Who will say that the uncommon beauty and marvelous English of the Protestant Bible is not one of the great strongholds of heresy in this country? It lives on the ear like a music that can never be forgotten, like the sound of church bells which the convert scarcely knows how he can forego. Its felicities seem often to be almost things rather than words. It is part of a national mind and the author of the national seriousness. Nay, it is worshiped with a positive idolatry, in extenuation of whose fanaticism its intrinsic beauty pleads availingly with the scholar. The memory of the dead passes into it. The potent traditions of childhood are stereotyped in its verses. It is the representative of a man's best moments; all that there has been about him of soft and gentle and pure and penitent and good speaks to him forever out of his English Bible. It is his sacred thing which doubt never dimmed and controversy never soiled, and in the length and breadth of the land there is not one Protestant with one spark of religiousness about him whose spiritual biography is not in his Saxon Bible."

Of course everything depends upon the spirit and the way in which the Bible is read. I have seen it read amid so much noise and irreverence that the reading had better been omitted. The Old Testament may be studied for the sake of finding questionable cases of morality in the lives of David and Solomon and the Patriarchs. Such study may be harmful to youths in the adolescent period. The inhabitants of India study the English Bible in order that they may understand Milton's "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Regained" and other English classics. Surely such study of biblical literature is justifiable. ' Teachers of pedagogy sometimes use the Bible to show the wisdom in the methods of the greatest teacher of all the ages. Such use is very helpful to teachers. But the legislation which prescribes the daily reading of the Bible in the public schools has undoubtedly a different aim. The Bible is the loftiest code of ethics which the human race possesses. It should be read and studied for purposes of moral instruction and devotional uplift.

The parent or the teacher who expects the daily reading of ten verses from the sacred Scriptures to solve the problem of moral training will of course be disappointed. The Bible may be abused. A pious father, when his son was bad, made him learn ten Bible verses by heart, and when the boy was very bad, he had to memorize and recite one hundred verses. He grew up hating the Bible as an instrument of punishment, and his adult years have been very unsatisfactory from the ethical point of view. Moreover, much biblical knowledge does not touch the heart out of which are the issues of life. For instance, the fact that the books of the Bible were originally not divided into chapters and verses, that the division into chapters was made in the early part of the thirteenth century, and that the division of the chapters into verses was made after the art of printing had been invented (about the middle of the sixteenth century) by a printer on horseback fleeing from Paris to Switzerland to escape persecution, — this is interesting information, but it does not shape the life and conduct of the individual nor lift him to higher planes of effort and aspiration. Moreover, for ethical purposes biblical literature should be supplemented by other instruction. The Bible does not tell the reader to brush his teeth or to avoid the cigarette habit, and yet these are, for the youth, duties as imperative as going to church or saying his prayers. The secular literature which the ages have produced contains much which we can not afford to despise or neglect in the ethical training of the young. This admission does not detract one iota from the importance of daily reading of the sacred Scriptures.

The Protestant Reformation is based upon two cardinal principles: 1. Man is justified by faith. 2. The Bible is the only rule of religious faith and practice. If the Bible is to be a guide to faith and conduct, it must be read and studied and understood. Herein lay the prime motives for the establishment of schools for the common people. Schmid's Encyclopaedia is authority for the statement that as early as 1640 it was impossible in Sweden to find any one above the age of ten who was unable to read and write. In the court records of Upland (now Chester) where the Swedes first settled on the Delaware Eiver, there is given the action of a teacher who recovered pay from a father who had agreed to pay two hundred guilders if his children were taught to read the Scriptures in a specified number of months. Facts like these show the stress that was laid by the early settlers upon the knowledge of the Bible. And that stress is being renewed through the attention which the twentieth century is concentrating upon the Old and New Testaments.

The ensuing treatise on the literature of the Old Testament is evidence of the revival of interest in the books of the Bible. A lecturer at a teachers' institute spoke of the beautiful story of Euth, a teacher of English in the high school who had graduated from a university, asked the name of the publisher; she did not even know the names of the books of the Old Testament. How teachers can manage to teach English literature where the Bible has been excluded from the school, is a problem which modern pedagogy has been unable to solve. If this volume serves to point out anew what every intelligent man should know about the Old Testament, if it helps to give parents, teachers, and pupils a better appreciation of the Bible narratives and their value from a literary as well as an ethical point of view, if it brings the reader to a more adequate conception of the thoughts and ideas which lie at the foundation of Christian civilization, and if it succeeds in emphasizing the beauties and verities upon which the saints of all the ages have fed their souls, it will prove, we may confidently hope, a most important contribution to our educational literature. Two quotations must suffice to show the value of such a contribution. "A gilt-clasped Bible, " says Arnold Bennett, "is the secret of England's greatness." "When the history of twentieth-century culture shall be written," adds Professor Rankin, "no feature of that culture will be more noteworthy than the increasingly conscious recognition of the unclasped Bible as an impelling force and guide in the life of men of Anglo-Saxon civilization."

Nathan C. Schaeffer.

Harrishurg, Pa.

TABLE OF. CONTENTS

PAGE

Preface 5

Chapter I Method of Mastery 17

Present-day ignorance of the Bible. Not an open book for the people. Preliminary preparation. General knowledge of value and significance. Circumstances of time and place. Mood and purpose of each author. Correctness and authenticity of texts. Reading books as wholes. Wrong methods of study. The synthetic method. General directions. Four typical analyses: of Genesis, of Judges, of Amos and of The Stories of the Two Prophets.

CULTURE VALUE OF THE BIBLE.

Chapter II Its Educational Value 35

Its emphasis on the value of human life. Its solutions of the practical problems of life. Its rich materials: for nourishing the life of the spirit. Its provision for the cultivating of man's aesthetic nature. Its high moral ideals, individual and national.

Chapter III Its Value as Literature 44

The critical study of the books of the Bible not irreverent. Their message made clear by such study. The impress of this literature left on secular literature and everyday speech. Acquaintance with Bible literature the best preparation for the interpretation of secular literature. Interesting reading in rich and satisfying perfection. The best examples of great literature. A literature of power.

THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

Chapter IV Origin and Growth of the Books of the Bible 59

The books have a natural and a supernatural history. Materials and composition. Old manuscript copies. The canon. Ancient versions. English versions.

Chapter V Resume of the Contents of Each Book . . 70 The books of the Pentateuch. The historical books. The books of poetry. The books of the Major Prophets. The books of the Minor Prophets.

Table Of Contents

PAGE

OLD TESTAMENT STORIES.

Chapter VI Characteristics of Old Testament Stories 89 The Great Teacher's use of stories. Valuable for many purposes: To entertain, to instruct, to portray life, to teach moral lessons, to furnish material for the education of children. Illustrative stories: Samson and the Philistines, The Offering of Isaac, The Fable of the Trees, The One Ewe Lamb.

Act V. Love has won. The Shulamite returns to

her lover and her vineyards.

Comments on the form and meaning of the poem. Appreciation of the Song by Canon Driver.

BOOKS OUTSIDE THE CANON.

Chapter XV Old Testament Apocrypha 177

Definition of the term Apocrypha. Brief account of each of the fourteen Apocryphal compositions of the Old Testament. The Book of Ecclesiasticus. Additions to the Book of Daniel: The Story of Susanna, the Story of Bel and the Dragon, Daniel in the Lion's Den. The Book of Judith. The Book of Tobit.

Section 1 Geography of Palestine 193

Section 2 A Brief Outline of Hebrew History . . .196 Section 3 The Chronological Setting of the Books of

the Old Testament 199

Section 4 List of the Great Stories of the Old Testament 202

Section 5 The Bible Student's Library 204

Chapter I Method Op Mastery

Amos, in the eighth chapter of his prophecy, makes the following declaration: "Behold, the day is come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord; and they shall wander from sea to sea and from the North even to the East, they shall ran to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it."

If one were inclined to be pessimistic and satirical, he might interpret this passage by saying that Amos looked forward to these days and had in mind the woeful ignorance of the Bible which prevails to-day. It is hard to explain why such a condition exists but may it not be accounted for partly by the methods we use in studying the Bible ? We do not read it or study it as we do any other book, yet it ought not to be thought irreverent to study it as closely and critically as we do any secular book, and to use the same methods that are used with success in the interpretation of secular masterpieces.

There is no question that the Bible was intended to be an open book for the people, but it does not yield its meaning to a careless or superficial reader, not even to a very earnest one, unless he uses an effective method. It is the object of this volume to present such a method. It may be called the "literary and historical" method as opposed to the "theological and textual" method. It aims to get at the meaning of passages and books as one would interpret the meaning of secular literature. The method requires careful preliminary preparation in order that the student may bring to his study knowledge with which to interpret what is new, and enthusiasm to sustain him in his difficulties.

In the first place, if the student is convinced that there is "pay ore" in the mine he is going to work, he will go at his task with assured zeal. Chapters II and III of this volume are presented for the purpose of showing what a rich mine of material for education and culture is found in the old Hebrew volume. An effort is made to impress the reader with the fact that when he is studying these books he is becoming acquainted with a volume that has influenced the intellectual, spiritual, aesthetic, and practical life of the world as no other volume has ever done. He should approach his study knowing and feeling this wonderful fact.

Another thing of equal importance is that the reader should put himself, as far as possible, in the place of the author of each book, so that the circumstances of time and place, the mood and purpose of the author may aid him in getting at the genuine meaning of the book. The Bible had its origin in antiquity amid Oriental surroundings, and hence has local allusions liable to be misunderstood by people of later ages and Western lands. No other book in the world is more influenced by the surroundings and experiences of its writers. It is important, then, that the student of the Bible should learn something of the land in which it was written. He should be impressed with the fact that this book, which is a world book in its interest and application, came from a land which reproduces almost all the features of world geography. In order that the student may better understand the book, let him first read Section 1 of the Appendix of this volume as a sort of introduction to the geography of Palestine.

Although the Bible sets forth eternal truth, that truth is presented in the words and literary forms of particular ages, according to the modes of thought of particular periods of history and of a particular country.

So, if the student would discover its true meaning, he must put himself in the circumstances of the authors and try to think and feel as they did. As an aid to such sympathy and understanding Section 2 of the Appendix is offered. Here will be found a brief outline of Hebrew history and a condensed statement of that history as related to the different books of the Bible. There is given, also, a scheme of Hebrew chronology into which are fitted all the books of the Bible, each in its proper place. The chronology and circumstances of a book's origin are important because each epoch has its own special characteristics, and any national literature can not be understood except with a knowledge of the times which produced it. Of course biblical literature is different from other literatures in its wonderful inspiration, but it bears also the stamp of the general laws which influence any national literature ; and acquaintance with the times in which it was produced is necessary to an accurate interpretation of its meaning and spirit. (Since these sections are for reference rather than for reading, they are placed in the Appendix.)

It is not necessary to say to the intelligent Bible reader that no man living has read the original copy of a single book of the Bible; but it is true, and all readers must depend upon copies, indeed upon copies of copies made through the centuries. It is somewhat reassuring, however, to know that we have a few copies of the Bible in manuscript form dating back more than 1500 years. Chapter IV, the Origin and Growth of the Books of the Bible, gives an account of three of these most precious manuscript copies, and the story of its origin, and miraculous preservation through its many linguistic transformations down the centuries.

Since the truths of the Bible are presented to us in the same literary forms that are used in secular literature, it is well that each book should be approached in somewhat the same way that a student approaches the study of a secular masterpiece. The first important thing to know, then, about a book of the Bible is its general literary character. What sort of literature is it? Is it prose or poetry? If poetry, is it epic, lyric, or dramatic poetry? Is it historical narrative, drama, or proverbial philosophy? Does it set forth law, or parables, or prophecies? All these forms and many more are found in the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament. To give the reader information concerning the nature and general character of the books of the Bible Chapter V of this volume is presented.

But the feature of the method here presented which needs most to be emphasized, is the reading of the books of the Bible as wholes. Very few readers, even conscientious and devoted students, have ever read a book of the Bible straight through. They fail to recognize the literary continuity of the books, though there most certainly is such continuity. "When one reads secular books he begins at the beginning and takes things in their order. If he is studying Shakespeare's "Hamlet" he begins with the first scene of the first act, then takes the second, the third, the fourth, and the fifth scene in order, then the scenes of the second, third, fourth, and fifth acts, to the conclusion. He never thinks of reading a scene in the middle of one of Shakespeare's plays out of all connection with what goes before and what comes after, at least if he expects to get at the author's meaning. Yet that is the very thing he does in his study of the Bible.

The reader may try to persuade himself that he is doing conscientious work by studying isolated chapters and verses anywhere in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Can it be possible that these books of the Bible are not constructed like other books, with a beginning, a middle, and an end, with introduction, development, and conclusion, with order and arrangement, so that the first part lays the foundation for what follows, and the last part is better understood in the light of what has gone before? The fact is that these books of the Bible are just like other books in this respect. They are to be taken as units; there is the connecting thread which runs through from the beginning to the end; and it is absolutely necessary for one to study them in a logical way to keep from misunderstanding or misinterpreting many of the isolated passages. The light of the whole chapter, the whole book, must be thrown on the individual passage or verse.

The division of the chapters of the English Bible into paragraph verses was an unfortunate thing. Although the Hebrew Bible had some such division, the Geneva Bible was the first English version that split up the chapters into paragraph verses and numbered them in order. It is evident that this method of printing the Bible has been productive of much ignorance concerning the real meaning, the larger truth, of many of its books. It has led to the use of the Bible as a sort of dictionary of religion, such an arrangement being admirably suited for this use. Indeed, to a great many persons, the Bible is simply a collection of texts to which they may go to gather ammunition now to bombard an enemy, now to defend themselves. The multiplication of sects and creeds in the world proves that almost any sort of doctrine can be supported, if one is allowed to select isolated passages and regard verses as having complete meaning when taken out of connection with chapter and book. It is too often the case that texts are interpreted without regard to their setting. A good illustration is the case of the Universalist divine who preached a sermon on immortality from the text "Thou shalt not surely die/' entirely oblivious of the fact that these were the words which the Devil spoke to Eve, and that his sayings are not usually considered to be of unimpeachable orthodoxy. One may, for instance, quote a text from the Book of Job without explaining whether the words were spoken by Job or by one of his friends. For example, take these two passages: "Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine' '; and "Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea are mighty in power? Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God against them." There is no reconciling these two passages unless there is taken into consideration the character of the Book of Job. The part of the book from which these quotations are taken is a debate. What Job affirms his friends deny ; what they affirm he denies ; they are fencing with one another. In such composition one would expect contradictions. The only way to understand and reconcile the conflicting statements and opinions is to remember the character of that part of the book.

To illustrate the necessity of paying heed to the context in interpreting any passage, take a familiar quotation: "Conie unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. XI: 28). That is a beautiful and comforting text, but it has only the beauty of a fragment and the comfort of a misapprehension ; for comfort is not promised on such easy terms. The context shows that there are other conditions that must be met: "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me." The invitation is not complete without these two additional sentences. Only one condition has been complied with when we have come to the Master; two others are necessary: submission and discipleship ; we must bear His yoke and must learn of Him. Both of these things are included in the teaching. Coming and learning and service are equally important conditions in the attainment of the coveted rest.

While the Bible has many short, terse sayings packed with thought, many luminous texts, it is by no means a string of aphorisms. The reader can not be sure of his interpretation of sentence or verse until he has seen what leads up to it and to what subsequent thoughts it is linked. Much more satisfactory is his study if he extends his vision over the sentences of the context of a verse, over a whole chapter, a whole book; if he studies the Book of Job as a complete masterpiece ; if he studies the Book of Revelation as a unit; if he looks upon the Gospel of Luke as being a continuous and complete narrative to be studied all together.

No one reads the lines of secular masterpieces as if they were complete in themselves and independent of setting and context; no one expects a single scene from "Hamlet" to give the author 's meaning in that great play; no one expects a sentence from one of Burke's great speeches to supply an adequate notion of his statesmanlike grasp of thought; no one expects to get even partially a true impression of Daniel Webster unless he should read at least one of his great speeches. Why

METHOD OF MASTEKY 23

should he not study the books of the Bible in the same way? Why should he not read Joshua as he reads Caesar's '" Commentaries"? Solomon's Song as he reads ' ' Romeo and Juliet ' ' ? Job as he reads ' ' Hamlet ' ' ? A great literary product is like a great masterpiece of architecture : the whole must stand out and be taken into account to reveal the master's thought.

"Walk about Zion, and go round about her; Tell the towers thereof.

Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; That ye may tell it to the generations following."

The method of studying the Bible here recommended may be called the synthetic method. Such a method is both logical and pedagogical. In the study of geography, while it is proper to commence with a little home geography, after such a basis has been laid, the correct method is to begin with the globe itself, then study the hemispheres, continents, nations, and smaller divisions, in order. If one desires to get the best knowledge and the best view of a mountain region, he should go to the highest peak first, look out upon the whole range, and then he can intelligently and enthusiastically study the features of the lower levels in their relation to the whole area. Martin Luther said that he studied the Bible as he gathered apples. He shook the tree first, then the limbs, then the branches, and after that he reached out under the leaves for the remaining fruit. Such is the best method of study for the mastery of the books of the Bible.

The following suggestions will be helpful to any one who desires to follow out a plan of systematic study of the Bible for a year or longer, reading a few pages every day and a whole book when possible.

1. Begin at the beginning. It is much better to begin with Genesis and take the books in their regular order.

2. Eead the book. It is not asked that it be studied in the ordinary sense, or memorized, or even understood fully at first ; simply read it. The purpose is to make the task as easy and natural and pleasant as possible. It does not matter much how rapidly you read, for the time being, if you only read. There is a great deal of study of the Bible by simply reading books that tell about the Bible.

3. Bead it continuously. By continuously two things are meant: read the book uninfluenced by its division into chapters and verses ; and second, read it at a single sitting if it is not too long. The reason for reading a book at a single sitting is that many of the books of the Bible have a single thread running through the whole and it is necessary to follow this thread continuously and unbrokenly.