The purpose of this book is to try to help the common man to understand the Bible better. That there is still a lively interest in the Bible is evidenced by the fact that more than two and a half million copies of the Revised Standard Version have been sold. The book begins, accordingly, with a look at the place of the Bible in our culture, then a.
Of course one should read the Bible, because it is the word of God and a breeding ground for the Christian life. First, our entire Western culture is steeped in the Bible. Fulton Oursler's The Greatest Story Ever Told has given many newspaper readers a new understanding of the Bible.
Despite an appalling ignorance of the Bible in our time, it remains the world's best seller. To be ignorant of the Bible is to have a blind spot too much, as every educated, as well as every religious person should have. There is no hint here of the use of Scripture, for the Bible itself was only in the process of being created.
The word inspiration means "breathing in". The Bible is inspired in the sense that the inbreath of the divine appears on every page.
Toward Understanding the Bible by Georgia Harkness
The World of the Bible
Each of these sections had a culture and, on the back of the culture, physical features that played a very important role in the destinies of the Jewish people. In this section, the size of Rhode Island, some of the most important events in the history of the world took place. Down a steep road to the northeast lies Jericho, in the fertile Jordan Valley, near where the river flows into the Dead Sea.
The Phoenicians were quite pushed into the sea by the proximity of the Lebanon mountains, while the Hebrews never entered the sea. In the southeastern part of the Nile Delta, about halfway between Cairo and the sea, lay the land of Goshen. Nevertheless, it is part of the biblical world, and in the founding days of the early Church it was a very important part.
Some Old Testamentists believe that the message of the Second Isaiah, which begins with chap. There was little wealth, and most of what existed was in the hands of the publicans and other foreign officials.
How the Old Testament Was Written
In both these respects, much of the writing of history in the Bible is radically different from that of today. We must now go back to the ninth century, about 850 B.C., the period of the divided kingdom. Much of the early Old Testament had long been in preparation before any of it was written.
After the fall of the Northern Kingdom, when the Assyrians in 722 BC n. no. captured Samaria, the literary treasures of the north passed into southern hands. A reading of the Joseph cycle in Moffatt's translation, found in Genesis 37 to 48, will give a clear idea of how these two threads are interwoven. The original formulation of the Ten Commandments under God's direction may indeed have come from his hand.
But the greater part of the Pentateuch in its elements, and the whole in its present form, is later. We have now traced the emergence of the most important historical writings from the Old. Third, that God moved in these writers and in people's experience in a marvelous way.
We must now look at another large part of the Old Testament, the writings of the prophets. One of the most beautiful passages in the Bible is that in which Hosea God says,. There is little if anything else in the Old Testament that comes as close to the spirit of the New as these words which he represents Yahweh as speaking:.
His allegory of the eagles and the vine in the seventeenth chapter not only introduces a new literary type, but also implies Isaiah's doctrine of the remnant. The second Isaiah was a poet of the highest order, and some of the most moving verses of the Bible are from his pen. And the voice of the dove is heard in our land (Song of Sol A.S.V.).
The greater part of it is religious in nature, as we have it in the sacred poetry of the Psalms and the passionate words of the prophets. This includes the books of Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes, all of which were probably written in the fourth and third centuries B.C. Some of the Psalms are also of this nature.
Chapter: 4: How the New Testament was Written
No one knows which day of the year, but since the fourth century December 25, celebrated in the Mithra cult as the winter solstice and the sun's. These letters, like the entire New Testament, were written in the Greek vernacular. throughout that part of the world. The writing of the letters that we know were Paul's began around the year 50, during his second missionary journey.
It is generally believed that he was executed by order of the emperor Nero, probably in the year 64. At least in the case of the letter to the Colossians, the occasion was the elimination of the heresy of Gnosticism by which Christ was simply made one. of many intermediate powers. All of these letters were written before any of the historical records in the New Testament were compiled.
More than a third of the whole is devoted to the events of Jesus' last week in Jerusalem, which shows what he certainly thought was most important. The splendor and wonder of the new life through Christ, whether in the life of Jesus or in the early Church, must have taken over Luke, because with his words he captures us today. Chapter thirteen and beyond contain the great discussion of the Last Supper and the events of the crucifixion and resurrection.
To read it is to drink of the Water of Life which our Lord proclaims it to be. The Book of Revelation (not Revelations, as it is often mistakenly called) is one of the most difficult books in the Bible to understand. It was probably written towards the end of the first century or the early part of the second, thereafter.
They do not give us so much in the way of personal inspiration—not even many positive statements of the faith which, says Jude, "was once for all delivered unto the saints." (Judas vs. 3, R.S.V.). But when the letters as a whole are carefully examined, it seems more likely that they were written in the middle of the second century than in the first. Perhaps some of Paul's notes were included, somewhat as the gospel writers drew on earlier sources, but it is virtually certain that these letters in their finished form stand at or near the end of the New Testament writings.
Chapter: 5: The Great Ideas of the Bible
Its reality is simply confirmed, and all the rest of the Bible rests on this great confirmation. The Eternal God, the Lord, Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint or grow weary; there is no search for it. In former days, much was said about the wrath of God and his punishment of sinners both on earth and in the fires of hell.
Israel's sense of nationhood and of being a chosen people with a great destiny begins with the creation of the covenant. This sense of God's loving-kindness and protective care is that. the background of the way their story is told, of the messages of their prophets and of the great devotional poetry that we find in the Psalms. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them the light shone.
Then follows the picture of the righteous, peace-bringing reign of such a liberator, with God's promise to a war-weary world. First of all, let us note that the Bible opposes the common idea that man is simply a complex physical organism, like one of the lower animals, only slightly more intelligent. The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord (Prov. 20:27) or the words of the creation story.
It is based not only on the authority of the Bible, but also on our own observations and experiences. It was undoubtedly influenced by the Zoroastrian religion of the Persians, although it was not entirely derived from it. Since they did not deal with the relationship between soul and body, as we must, the resurrection for them meant God's continuation of the whole man.
If we consider the sequence in which the New Testament books were written, what do we find regarding the growth of the idea of the Incarnation. The change of the disciples' utter discouragement to a burning new hope and faith confirms this. In the Gospel of John, there is a wonderful promise of the mission of the Holy Spirit to replace Christ's earthly presence.
