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THE LIBRARY
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VICTORIA UNIVERSITY
Toronto
A KEY TO UNLOCK
THE BIBLE
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
COMMENTARIES ON ST. PAUL S
EPISTLES.
1. ROMANS. Tenth Edition. 75. 6d.
2. CORINTHIANS. Seventh Edition. los. 6d.
3. GALATIANS. Fifth Edition. 55.
4. EPHESIANS, PHILIPPIANS, COLOS-
SIANS. Third Edition. is.6d.
In Dr. Agar Beet the Wesleyans have now a theologian
who takes his place among the best living expositors. . . .
It is no small achievement to have carried into its ninth
edition a book on so well-worked a theme as the Epistle
to the Romans. This success is the reward of solid and
sober work. The writer has the great merit of knowing
his own mind and of expressing his meaning with lucidity ;
and his literary skill enables him to give his readers most
of the results attained by scholarship without distracting
the unlearned by a parade of Greek. But he is more than
a commentator; he applies the lessons of the Epistle with
impressive earnestness and unfailing good taste. The
Saturday Review.
A KEY TO UNLOCK
THE BIBLE
JOSEPH AGAR BEET, D.D.
Understandest thou what thou readest? 1
How can I unless some one shall guide me?
EIGHTH THOUSAND
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY
56 PATERNOSTER ROW, AND 65 ST. PAUL S CHURCHYARD
1903
OXFORD
HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
22463
CONTENTS
PAGE
i. THE BIBLE AS A BOOK .... 7
2. THE BIBLE AS AN ANCIENT BOOK . . 10
3. THE BIBLE AS THE BOOK OF GOD . . 14
PART I
THE NEW TESTAMENT
4. CONTENTS AND PURPOSE . . . .18
5. AUTHORSHIP AND DATE .... 22
6. CORRECTNESS OF OUR COPIES AND VERSIONS 32
7. THE ART OF INTERPRETATION ... 41
(A) PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS ... 42
(B) THE WORDS OF THE BIBLE . . 47
(c) THE PHRASES OF THE BIBLE . . 61
(D) ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES ... 64
(E) THE LINE OF THOUGHT ... 68
8. METAPHOR AND PARABLE. QUOTATIONS . 72
9. THE NEW TESTAMENT AS BIOGRAPHY AND
HISTORY 85
10. THE NEW TESTAMENT AS DOCTRINE . 99
Contents
PART II
THE OLD TESTAMENT
PAGE
11. CONTRAST OF THE OLD AND NEW . . no
12. CONTENTS, AUTHORSHIP, DATE . . .114
13. THE OLD TESTAMENT AS HISTORY . .121
14. THE RELIGIOUS TEACHING OF THE OLD
TESTAMENT 132
15. THE INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY . 142
16. THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE . . . .152
17. THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH . . .156
E
Tttnloch the Bible
THE BIBLE AS A BOOK
A BOOK is a permanent embodiment of
thought ; and a channel through which the
thoughts of one man may become a mental
enrichment to others, even to some far removed
in space or time. As a medium by which we
may come into mental contact with persons
wiser than ourselves and make their thoughts
our own, books have always been a chief means
of mental culture. A man who cannot read is
shut up to the narrow world of that which he
can himself see and hear and touch. Books are
windows opening to our view that which others
have seen and heard and experienced.
3[ntro&uctorp
All the more developed systems of religion
have sacred books, which are put into the hands,
if not of their worshippers generally, at least
of those appointed to teach the mysteries of the
unseen world. Long before the birth of Christ,
Israel possessed books professing to give an
account of the history of the race and of
supernatural revelations from God to them.
And in all ages the preachers of the Gospel of
Christ have carried with them a collection of
books telling the story of Christ and of the
founding of His Church, and giving an account
of His teaching as understood by His earliest
disciples.
By thus putting books into the hands of men,
the great religions, and especially Christianity,
have greatly stimulated human culture. Many
men and women have learnt to read in order
to read the Bible: and thousands in all ages
have taken their first steps in mental discipline
by careful study of the sacred volume. Thus
have religion and especially the Gospel of
Christ enriched and developed human thought.
Since a book is an embodiment of thought,
&e IBi&le as a IBoofe 9
we must always endeavour to put ourselves on
the writer s mental standpoint, so as to see
things as nearly as possible from his point of
view: for only thus can we understand his
words. This effort will seldom be in vain.
For every hour s study will be mental inter
course with the author, and will make us more
familiar with his words, phrases and modes of
thought, thus bringing us nearer to his point
of view, and enabling us better to understand
the next chapter we read, and to comprehend
his work both as a whole and in its various
parts. All this we must do with the Bible.
We must endeavour to come into close mental
contact with each sacred writer, even to the
extent of sharing his joys and sorrows, his
hopes and fears. For many parts of the Holy
Scriptures thrill with human emotion: and,
unless we feel in his words the beating of
a human heart, we cannot understand the
writer s thought.
We soon notice that, like many modern
volumes, the Bible contains works by various
authors, each living in a world of his own, some
of them widely separated in time and circum
stances. In order to reap the benefits the
sacred volume is able to impart, we must make
personal acquaintance with each of these writers.
Where we have more than one book from the
same writer, a comparison of them will greatly
help us to understand his modes of thought,
and will sometimes reveal a development in his
thought. A comparison of contemporary writers
will help us to understand the thoughts current
in the circles in which they moved ; and a
comparison of books written in different ages
will reveal the progress (or change) of thought
between those ages.
In short the Bible, though divinely inspired
and of divine authority, came to us through the
medium of human thought moulded, as are our
thoughts, by a human and material environment.
^
THE BIBLE AS AN ANCIENT BOOK
The Bible differs from many familiar works
in that it was written, not only in a foreign
language, but long centuries ago in an order
ancient IBoofe u
of thought and social life which has altogether
passed away. This accounts for the difficulty of
fully understanding it, as contrasted with the ease
with which we read and understand most modern
books. Even by students, the sacred languages
are acquired with difficulty, and are not so
familiar as is their mother-tongue ; whereas
others are dependent on translations, and all
translations are imperfect. Moreover, all human
verbal intercourse is full of references to men,
things, and institutions around ; and is thus
coloured by the speaker s environment. Con
sequently an ancient writer can be understood
only so far as we can reproduce the world in
which he lived.
This drawback has, however, a substantial
compensation. The effort to reproduce the
thought and life of a day gone by widens
wonderfully our conceptions, by revealing to
us elements common to, and underlying the
thought and life of, all ages. They who are
familiar only with the literature of their own
day are limited to the modes of thought of one
age. The literature of other ages gives us a
12 3[ntrotwctorp
wider outlook. This explains the immense
benefit derived from study of the literature of
ancient Greece and Rome. It brings us into
mental contact with men of great mental power
who lived, thought, and acted in an order of
things very different from our own ; and reveals
to us the world in which they moved.
This benefit may be derived in similar
measure from study of the Bible. In the Old
Testament we have a picture of the birth,
growth, and partial decadence of a nation much
earlier, and not less instructive, than the story
of ancient Greece ; and in the New Testament
an account of a movement which has changed
the whole course of human life and thought,
and has built up, out of the ruins of the ancient
world, modern Christian civilization. These two
great divisions of the Bible, differing so widely
yet with so much in common, afford, taken
together, a picture of the past history of our
race of incomparable value.
The reader of the English Bible must never
forget that he uses a translation. All trans
lations are imperfect reproductions of the
an ancient IBoofc 13
original; especially translations from ancient
languages. For the words, phrases, and gram
matical constructions of no one language
correspond exactly to those of another. And
the greater the distance of one nation from
another in habits, institutions, and modes of
thought, the greater the difficulty of repro
ducing the thought of the one in the language
of the other. Even theological writers some
times have fallen into serious error by using
and relying upon a translation with the
confidence with which they read a book written
originally in their own language.
The careful student may, however, as we shall
see in 6, do much to lessen the danger
involved in using only a translation of the
Bible, and may indeed to no small extent reap
the advantage to be derived from study of the
original. All the great doctrines are taught so
frequently and so clearly, and in so many different
ways, that, with due care, serious mistake is
needless. The Revised Version of the English
Bible is, in spite of defects, a very careful and
accurate translation of the original. Every hour
14 SIntronuctorp
spent in studying- it, every effort to understand
its words and phrases and to trace the line ol
thought of the sacred writers, will bring- us into
closer mental contact with them and will enable
us better to understand the sense which they
designed their words to convey. There is no
limit to the extent to which a careful student
of the English Bible may lessen the distance
between the sacred writers and himself.
Thus by patiently reading- the English Bible
every one may reproduce the thought and life
of a people far removed from us in time and
circumstances, of a wonderful people to whom
we owe more than to any other nation of the
ancient world.
3
3 ?
THE BIBLE AS THE BOOK OF GOD
The Bible is much more than an ancient book
and a history of the most wonderful nation of
the ancient world. It professes to give an
account of the life and teaching, and death and
resurrection, of One who claimed to stand alone
far above all other men, as in a unique sense
TBoofc of <$oa 15
the Son of God, and as the future Judge of the
world; and of earlier supernatural revelations
from God to man preparatory to this supreme
revelation in Christ. As such it has been
recognized and revered in all sections of the
Church in all ages, holding a place of honour
far above all other literature as a decisive
authority touching the things of God. The
teaching of Christ recorded in the New Testa
ment and the portrait of Him there contained
win at once the lowly homage of whatever in
us is noblest and best, as does much in the
Old Testament. In short, the Bible holds in
our thought and life, as in the universal Church
in all ages, even as compared with the best
Christian literature, a unique place as the
Book of God.
All this will influence our study of the Bible.
Its irresistible moral authority compels us to
listen to it as to the voice of one infinitely
greater than ourselves. And the blessings
already received prompt a hope of still greater
blessings from further study. We come there
fore as worshippers of Him whose voice we
1 6 &e TBifcle as
have already heard in the sacred volume,
hungry for the bread of life which we have
already found there.
This reverence for the Bible will not hinder,
but will stimulate, thorough investigation of its
credentials and its meaning. For if the Book
be from God, it will bear marks of His handi
work ; and these will become more evident the
more carefully we study it. Only by diligent
search can we find the richest truths hidden in
the Bible. Moreover, we are ever liable to
misinterpret the sacred volume. We must
therefore again and again bring back our
interpretations for fresh comparison with the
written word. Especially must we bring to the
Book our conceptions of God and of the things
unseen, in order that thus they may be corrected
and enlarged. All Christian doctrine must give
an account of itself, and be judged, before this
supreme court of appeal.
The differences of opinion among Christians,
which so seriously hinder co-operation in the
work of God, are another reason for searching
study of the Bible. For around the one
C6e IBoofc of OD 17
sanctuary of the Holy Scriptures worship the
sundered tribes of the Israel of God. Modern
biblical research has already done much to
break down ecclesiastical divisions. We may
hope that by submitting all our differences to
the Book of God we shall attain, in doctrine as
in all else, unity in the One Father, the One
Lord, and the One Holy Spirit.
PART I
THE NEW TESTAMENT
4
CONTENTS AND PURPOSE
THE Bible is conspicuously divided into two
parts differing widely in form and contents. As
written nearer to our own time than was the
Old Testament, and in an age much better
known, we will begin our study of the Bible
with the New Testament. Our first step shall
be to take a general view of its contents.
We find four short accounts of the life and
teaching of Christ. Of these, three are very
similar, in events narrated and discourses re
corded and even in the order of these events
and discourses, in phraseology, and in general
tone; in all these points differing widely from
the Fourth Gospel. Then follows a narrative
Contents ana Purpose 19
of the preaching and work of the apostles after
the death of Christ, and of the founding of
Christian Churches among Jews and Gentiles.
In the former part of the book, the chief place
is occupied by Peter: in the latter, by Paul.
After this narrative, we have thirteen letters,
to Churches or to individuals, bearing the name
of PAUL, and professing to have been written,
some while he was engaged in active apostolic
work, others while in prison. Then follows
a most interesting but anonymous letter con
trasting Christ with angels, with Moses, and
with the successive high -priests of Israel, and
the death of Christ on the cross with the Jewish
sacrifices; another letter to the scattered tribes
of Israel by a writer who calls himself JAMES ;
two letters bearing the name of the aposde
PETER; an anonymous letter closely related,
in thought and phrase, to the Fourth Gospel;
two others, to a woman and a man, from a
writer calling himself the elder ; and one from
JUDE or Judah, a brother of James. Lastly
we have a remarkable and beautiful prophetic
and symbolic work from one who four times
B 2
20 Cfte jReto Ce0tament
calls himself JOHN, containing seven letters to
Churches in the Roman province of Asia and
many visions seen by the writer in the ^Egean
isle of Patmos.
This collection of books contains all the
Christian literature which can be securely traced
to the first century of our era. Moreover all
subsequent Christian literature for two centuries,
in worth and even in style, falls far below these
earlier works. Below most of them, all other
Christian literature of all ages falls im
measurably.
Although apparently a casual collection of
independent documents, the New Testament
bears marks of completeness and of organic
unity. It gives a fourfold picture of a Man,
and an account of the origin of a movement.
The Man thus portrayed bears a name infinitely -
the greatest known among men: and the
movement thus described has turned the whole
course of human thought and life from the
helpless ruin into which in Christ s day it was
sinking into the sustained progress of the
Christian nations of our day. This supreme
Contents ana purpose 21
Man and this all-transforming movement could
not have been better described than as we find
them depicted, in wonderfully small space, in
the New Testament. To describe the Man, and
the movement to which He gave birth, are the
aim which dominates the whole collection.
This aim is well stated, in reference to the
Fourth Gospel, in John xx. 31 : These things
are written in order that ye may believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and in
order that, believing, ye may have life in His
name. The motive of another writer is given
in Luke i. 1-4 : Since many have taken in hand
to set in order an account about the matters
fully established among us, even as they de
livered them to us, who from the beginning were
eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it
seemed good to me also, having followed out
all things accurately from the first, to write to
thee in order, most excellent Theophilus ; that
thou mayest understand the certainty of the
matters about which thou hast been instructed.
Such briefly are the contents and aim of the
New Testament.
22 c&e 5l3eto Cestament
5
AUTHORSHIP AND DATE
We have already seen that, in order to
understand a book, we must place ourselves as
nearly as we can on the writer s point of view.
We therefore now ask, What do we know about
the writers of the New Testament and about the
circumstances in which they wrote ?
When a document bears a writer s name, the
question of authorship becomes one of genuine
ness. We ask, Was it actually written by the
man from whom it professes to come ?
Thirteen EPISTLES claim to have been written
by the Apostle PAUL. They were all accepted
as his without a shadow of doubt by all Christian
writers and by not a few opponents of Christi
anity, from Irenaeus who became Bishop of
Lyons in A.D. 180, and his later contemporaries
Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian of Car
thage onwards, and in a still earlier document
giving a list of the books of the New Testament
and known as the Fragment of Muratori.
The First Epistle to the Corinthians is
mentioned, as written by Paul, in a letter from
and Date 23
the Church at Rome to that at Corinth, com
monly known as the Epistle of Clement, and
written apparently at the beginning of the
second century. Moreover the severe con
demnation pronounced in the Epistle on the
Christians at Corinth is decisive proof of its
genuineness. For, if this had been open to
doubt, the Epistle would certainly have been
repudiated by them. Closely connected with
i Corinthians in thought and style, and by the
references in i Cor. xvi. 1-4, 2 Cor. viii, ix,
Rom. xv. 25-28 to the collection for the Chris-
tians at Jerusalem, and by other internal marks, x
are the Second Epistle to the Corinthians and
that to the Romans. With this last, the Epistle
to the Galatians is so closely related in teaching
and phraseology as to banish all doubt that both
are from the same pen. In the Book of Acts no
reference is made to the Epistles of Paul. But
various indications, e.g. ch. xxiv. 17 (cf. i Cor.
xvi. i ; 2 Cor. viii. 9; Rom. xv. 16), suggest or
prove that these four Epistles were written ci
Paul s third missionary journey, / Corinthians
probably from Ephesus shortly before the tumult,
24 C6e I3eto Cestament
2 Corinthians from Macedonia, Galatians and
Romans from Greece during the three months
sojourn mentioned in Acts xx. 3. This fixes the
time and place of writing of these four important
Epistles.
Similar evidence attests the genuineness of
/ and 2 Thessalonians ; and indicates that they
were written on Paul s second missionary journey,
the one very soon after he left Thessalonica as
narrated in Acts xvii. 10, and the other probably
during his eighteen months stay at Corinth
mentioned in ch. xviii. 1 1 .
The letters to Philippi, Colo s SCR, Ephesus,
and to Philemon profess to have been written in
prison. This places them after Paul s arrest
at Jerusalem. And the serene calm which
dominates them, in marked contrast to the eager
activity which agitates the Epistles mentioned
above, suggests irresistibly that they come from
a later period of his life, probably during his
imprisonment at Rome.
The letters to Timothy and Titus are closely
related. And inasmuch as two of them were
evidently written when Paul was free, and we
autf)or06ip ana Date 25
find no account in the Book of Acts of a visit of
Paul to Crete (see Titus i. 5), it seems probable
that Paul was liberated from the imprisonment
at Rome mentioned in Acts xxviii. 30, that he
then went (i Tim. i. 3) to Ephesus, Macedonia,
and Crete, and wrote these three Epistles, the
last of them in a second imprisonment.
Thus the letters of Paul fall into four groups,
written respectively during the spring, summer,
autumn, and winter of his eventful life. The
genuineness and time and place of writing of
the second and third groups, which contain his
most important Epistles, are discussed fully in
my commentaries. We may accept with con
fidence all thirteen Epistles.
The four Gospels were accepted with
complete confidence by Irenaeus, Clement of
Alexandria, Tertullian, and all later writers as
written by the Apostles MATTHEW and JOHN,
and by MARK and LUKE, friends of Peter and
Paul : and no other authors names were ever
connected with them. Either therefore the
Gospels are in some real sense from these four
men, or the actual authors have been utterly
26 Cbe jReto Cestament
forgotten, and others have, throughout the entire
Church in many lands, been put in their place.
On the other hand, the close relation between
the three SYNOPTIST GOSPELS reveals a common
source. Probably the traditional narratives and
teaching of Christ crystallized early into definite
form : and from this common stock the writers
or editors of the first three Gospels drew their
materials. Indeed Justin, who died as a martyr
about A.D. 1 66, although he never mentions the
Evangelists by name, quotes from the memoirs
of the Apostles the words of Christ as contained
in the Synoptist Gospels. This unanimous
traditional evidence is not appreciably confirmed,
in the cases of Matthew and Mark, as was the
external evidence for the letters of Paul, by
internal evidence. For we have nothing else
from their pens, and we know little about them.
In the case of Luke, it is confirmed by the Book
of Acts : see below.
The Fourth Gospel contains abundant and
decisive internal evidence of its historic truth
and extreme accuracy ; e. g. the exact specifica
tions of time in chs. i. 29, 35, 39, 43, ii. i, 13 ;
ana Date 27
the vivid pictures of men who in the Synoptist
Gospels are only empty names, e.g. Andrew,
Philip, and Nathanael, in ch. i. 40, 44, 46-51 ;
and details unknown apparently to the other
Evangelists, e.g. ch. xviii. 13, i5f., 24. It has
also indications that it comes from the Apostle
JOHN ; e. g. the absence throughout the Gospel
of any mention of John the son of Zebedee, and
the mention of an unnamed one called the
disciple whom Jesus loved. For it is impossible
otherwise to account for this singular phenome
non. That the Fourth Gospel gives a correct
account of the teaching of Christ, is strongly
confirmed by the profound harmony, underlying
wide diversity of form, between this teaching,
as there recorded, and that of Paul: e.g. John
iii. 1 6 compared with Rom. iii. 21-26.
Closely related to the Fourth Gospel in
phraseology, thought, and tone, and indisputably
from the same pen, is the First Epistle of John.
A reference in Acts i. i, supported by a
unanimous tradition and by much internal evi
dence, attributes the Book of Acts to the author
of the Third Gospel. The first person plural in
28 C6e I3eto Ce.stament
Acts xvi. 10, 15, 1 6, 17, xx. 5, 6, 13, 14, 15, xxi.
1-17, xxvii. i, 2, xxviii. 2, 10-15, implies that
the writer was a companion of Paul. And
a multitude of coincidences with the letters of
Paul attest the historic truth and minute accuracy
of this most valuable narrative.
All the above books were accepted without
a trace of contradiction or doubt by all early
Christian writers, from Irenaeus and the author
of the Muratorian Fragment onwards, as written
by the men whose names they now bear. So
was also the First Epistle of PETER : but we
have no other evidence with w r hich to test this
tradition. Even Peter s speeches in the Book of
Acts do not help us. All the above documents
were called in the early Church, e.g. by Eusebius,
in the earliest Church History, bk. iii. 25, the ac
knowledged books of the New Testament. They
comprise more than six-sevenths of the whole.
The other books were more or less disputed,
as of doubtful authorship.
The writer of the Epistle to the Hebreivs
claims in ch. ii. 3 to belong to the second
generation of the followers of Christ. And
anD Date 29
this early date is confirmed by the reference
to Timothy in ch. xiii. 23. The later tradition
which attributed it to Paul is of no value ; and
the distinguishing" characteristics of the letters of
Paul are absent. But its intrinsic worth, so much
above the literature of the second century, justi
fies abundantly its place in the sacred volume.
Its author is altogether unknown.
The Epistle of JAMES gradually obtained
recognition as written by James, the brother
of the Lord, mentioned in Gal. i. 19, who
occupied, as we infer from ch. ii. 9, Acts xii. 17,
xv. 13, xxi. 1 8, a position of unique influence in
the Church at Jerusalem. The same man,
evidently well known, is mentioned by Josephus,
Antiq. xx. 9. i. Internal indications, and es
pecially the type of teaching, differing most
widely from that of Paul and in some respects
approaching that of the First Gospel, strongly
confirms this traditional authorship.
The Second Epistle of Peter was long doubted
in the early Church : and the careful reader will
notice its great difference in thought and style
from the First Epistle. Close study reveals,
30 Cfte jftcto Cestament
further a remarkable similarity, in words and
matter, of 2 Pet. ii. to the rather better attested
Epistle of JUDE. This last writer is called a
4 brother of James. And in Matt. xiii. 55, Mark
vi. 3, Christ is said to have brothers James and
Jude. Possibly he may be the apostle called in
Luke vi. 16 James Jude. The Second &Q& Third
Epistles of John were counted among the disputed
books. But internal evidence confirms the tra
dition that they were written by the Apostle John.
An early but not unanimous tradition attributes
the Book of Revelation to the Apostle John.
But it presents features which render it very dif-
cult to believe that it comes from the pen of the
writer of the Fourth Gospel. Whatever doubts
may gather round its authorship, the book
unquestionably comes down to us from the
Apostolic Age ; and is a unique and most
valuable part of the divine library of the New
Testament.
The dates of the letters of Paul are determined,
within narrow limits, by decisive internal evi
dence. But the dates and circumstances of the
other books of the New Testament are altogether
anD Date 31
unknown. All of them , however, except perhaps
the Epistle of James, are apparently later, pro
bably much later, than the arrest of Paul at
Jerusalem. Consequently, the first two groups
of Paul s letters, and perhaps the third group,
are the earliest extant Christian documents. And
their genuineness is certain. Moreover, whatever
doubt gathers round 2 Peter, we may accept the
rest of the New Testament with reasonable con
fidence, most of it with complete certainty, as a pro
duct of the Christian thought of the first century.
And most of it is manifestly independent of
the Epistles of Paul. In other words we have
in the New Testament a chorus of witnesses, in
large measure independent, touching Christ and
the Gospel.
The student will do well to note carefully,
in reading the New Testament, indications of
authorship, and of time and place of writing.
For example Acts xiii. 39 is a close coincidence
with the letters of Paul : Matt. xvi. 28, suggests
that when the First Gospel was written some
of the actual disciples of Christ still survived.
These various indications will greatly strengthen
32 C6e jfteto Cestament
our conviction that we have in the New Testa
ment a correct picture of actual life.
6
CORRECTNESS OF OUR COPIES AND VERSIONS
We now ask, To what extent do our modern
copies, Greek and English, reproduce the books
of the New Testament as originally written ?
That our GREEK TEXT is within narrow limits
correct, is proved by the close agreement of
many hundreds of Greek manuscript copies
written in all ages from the invention of
printing upwards, and by the still closer agree
ment of the oldest copies, some of which were
written in the fourth century. Several of these
have been reprinted word for word : of a few,
full-sized photographs have been published,
almost exact reproductions of the original.
These ancient copies have been most carefully
examined. All of them give practically the
same text of the New Testament. They con
tain nevertheless innumerable verbal differences.
But most of these are so trifling as not per
ceptibly to affect the sense. A very large pro-
(Correctness of Copies 33
portion are at once set aside by an overwhelming
mass of other manuscripts as mere mistakes or
vagaries of copyists. The close agreement of
the best manuscripts is proved by the close
agreement of all recent Critical Editions, as
they are called, of the Greek Testament, each of
which gives a text embodying the mature results
reached by scholars who have spent their lives
in studying the subject. In one of these, The
New Testament in Greek, by Westcott and
Hort, on page 561, the writers say: If com
parative trivialities, such as changes of order,
the insertion or omission of the article with
proper names, and the like, are set aside, the
words in our opinion still open to doubt can
hardly amount to more than a thousandth part
of the whole New Testament.
This Critical Text, as it is sometimes called;
embodying the almost unanimous judgement of
modern scholars, underlies our Revised Version,
in contrast to the Received Text, which under
lies the Authorized Version and is much less
correct. The greater correctness of the text
translated is a great gain derived from the
C
34 C6e U3eto Cestamcnt
new version. For the changes, though not
conspicuous, are yet important.
The area still open to doubt in the Greek
Testament is noted in the margin of the
Revised Version. The notes there deserve
careful attention.
Sometimes we are told that many ancient
authorities add to, or omit, or alter, something
in the Revisers text. This formula implies
serious doubt, and warns us not to build doc
trine on passages so marked. A still stronger
form is used in John i. 18, many very ancient
authorities read. Here the margin contains
probably the correct reading. The note marks
the great importance of the reading there given.
In John vii. 53 we read most of the ancient
authorities omit John vii. 53 viii. n. This
expresses the Revisers judgement that these
words are not genuine. But the interest
attaching to this incident in the life of Christ
seemed to claim for it a place in the sacred text.
Notice also the note on Mark xvi. 9.
We frequently find the form some ancient
authorities read. This implies doubt, but with
Correctness of Copies 35
a good preponderance of probability in favour
of the text. These notes are of no great
importance. A still milder form is found in
Rom. v. i, Some authorities read. Here all
the best manuscripts give let us have peace.
But so great has the difficulty of understanding
this reading seemed to be that many able com
mentators have rejected it as a very early, and
for a time almost universal, error.
Where no marginal note is given, the Greek
text underlying the Revised Version may be
accepted as for all practical purposes identical
with the words actually written by the evange
lists and apostles. Consequently the marginal
notes give, within narrow limits, the whole area
of the New Testament open to serious doubt.
The student will do well, before beginning
a study of any part of it, to mark off carefully
these doubtful passages. He will thus see how
few and small they are, and may accept the rest
with reasonable confidence.
We must now ask a second question, To what
extent do our Modern Versions reproduce the
text translated ?
C2
36 C6e 5l3eto Cestament
A partial answer to this question may be
derived from comparison of various versions.
Compare the Roman Catholic Version published
at Rheims in A. D. 1582, the Authorized Version
published in A. D. 161 1, and the Revised Version
published in A. D. 1881. Here are three trans
lations of widely different origin. Yet in the
main they agree. We have the same narratives,
teaching, arguments, and tone, and almost the
same words. Even the theological differences
of Roman Catholics and Protestants are in some
sense a security for the comparative correctness
of that which they agree to accept. We cannot
rely absolutely on the correctness of these ver
sions, even where they agree : but their agree
ment proves that in the main they reproduce
fairly the sense of the original.
As a reproduction in English of the sense
intended by the sacred writers, the REVISED
VERSION is much superior to the familiar A utho-
rized Version. Even the uncouthness which
has done much to bring it into disfavour is in
no small part due to an effort to reproduce,
even at a cost of elegance or grammar, the pre-
C6e EetusetJ Oersion 37
else meaning of the original. In a multitude
of places the gain is very great. As examples
I may mention Luke xxii. 20, where the new
covenant (instead of testament) recalls the same
phrase in Jer. xxxi. 3 1 ; a reference which sheds
a world of meaning on our Lord s words : also
i Cor. ix. 25, where striveth for the mastery
is quite meaningless, whereas the Revised Version
rendering striveth in the games recalls the Greek
athletic contests, to which Paul here refers : and
the words unveiled in 2 Cor. iii. 1 8 and veiled in
ch. iv. 3, which keep before us the veil over
Moses face in ch. iii. 13, 14, 15, a reference
wholly concealed in the Authorized Version.
The more carefully we study it, the more
numerous will appear to us the points of im
provement in the later version. It is a help to
a better understanding of the Bible which no
one who uses chiefly an English version can
afford to neglect.
The new version has, nevertheless, many
blemishes. Among them I may mention its
frequent use of the word imto to denote aim
or purpose, where the word for would have
38 Cfje jBeto Cestament
reproduced accurately and beautifully the Greek
sense. Of this a very bad example is found in
2 Cor. v. 13, 15 : Whether we are beside our
selves, it is imto God ; or whether we are of
sober mind, it is unto you. ... no longer live
unto themselves, but unto Him who for their
sakes died and rose again. This is not English.
What Paul meant was for God . . . for you . . .
for themselves. With strange inconsistency this
last rendering is used by the Revisers four times
in i Cor. vi. 13 for the same Greek construction.
But the other clumsy rendering is much more
frequent. Another similar blemish is the use of
the word of, not only to reproduce the Greek
genitive, its proper use, but to represent two
Greek prepositions signifying respectively by
and from. So Matt. ii. 16, mocked 0/"the wise
men : although in the previous verse the same
proposition is correctly rendered by the Lord."
In i Cor. viii. 6 and 2 Cor. v. 18 we find in the
Revised Version of whom are all things, and
all things are of God ; where the Greek sense
is from whom and from God. The Revisers
thus confound under one English rendering three
C6e iRetrisen Version 39
Greek forms of speech of altogether different
meaning.
Fortunately the above blemishes, irritating as
they are, do not, like some errors in the Autho
rized Version, lead us actually astray. They
conceal the meaning of the original, but they do
not put a wrong meaning in its place. A careful
use of the Revised Version will reveal the mean
ing of the English forms used, and will bring us
into increasingly close contact with the thought
of the sacred writers.
Be careful, in using a version, not to rely
on small grammatical details ; but seek rather
the broad principles underlying the whole para
graph and book. Compare different accounts
of the same events, and different statements of
the same teaching. Take that which is common
to them, and compare it with the rest of the
New Testament. Whatever is needful for our
spiritual good is taught frequently. All sorts
of error have come in through building an
important theological superstructure on the
narrow foundation of one passage in the
Bible.
40 C&e I3eto Cestament
ITALICS, in the Authorized and Revised Ver
sions, denote words not found in the original
but added to give the full sense as the trans
lators understood it. They are therefore not of
authority equal to that of the roman type ; but
must not be omitted. When important italics
are used, e.g. Matt. xx. 23, Rom. v. 18, the
English reader must expound with great caution.
Italics almost always warn us that the original
is obscure.
In using a translation of the Bible we must
also remember that we have before us the Book
of God. Through this translation, in proportion
to our earnestness and our faith, He will reveal
Himself to us. A devout student will understand
a version much better than one less devout will
understand the original. Just so a man familiar
with medicine, using a translation of Hippocrates,
will understand him better than a good Greek
scholar with no medical training. Every sincere
effort to understand the mind of God recorded
in Holy Scripture will bring us into closer
fellowship with its writers and with the Spirit
of God, who through them speaks to us. To
6e art of Interpretation 41
open the treasures of the sacred book is the
prerogative of Him who prompted, and presided
over, its composition : and He will reveal them
to all who earnestly and patiently and believingly
ask Him.
7
THE ART OF INTERPRETATION
We come now to consider how best to reach
the thoughts which the sacred writers intended
their words to convey.
For this end, we must concentrate our
attention for a time on some one part of the
Bible. And no study will bring to the Christian
worker better results than will careful and con
secutive effort to trace the meaning of some
one book of Holy Scripture. For this study
I recommend (a] a preliminary analysis of the
whole book chosen, then a careful investigation
of the meaning of (<5) the words and (c] phrases
there used, followed by (d) a careful gram
matical analysis of each sentence, and (e) an
effort to trace the line of thought in each
sentence and paragraph and division of the
42 f)e jReto Cestament
book. Two special forms of speech will also
claim our attention, metaphor and parable-.
and we shall consider the many quotations in
the New Testament from the Old.
(A) PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS. Commence by
reading, from beginning to end, in the Revised
Version, the book chosen, noting- as you go
along its various turning-points. These may
be detected sometimes by the conspicuous intro
duction of a new topic, sometimes by a change
in grammatical construction, at other times by
the introduction of a new word which remains
and dominates the subsequent line of thought.
It is also important to distinguish between
primary, secondary, and subordinate divisions.
Ah 1 these should be marked. And, inasmuch
as further study will sometimes compel us to
rearrange our divisions, we shall do well to
mark these divisions at first with pencil only.
No part of the work of an interpreter is more
important, or more difficult, than the correct
articulation of the book before him.
These divisions may be taken ready-made
from most commentaries. But it is much more
C6e art of interpretation 43
helpful for the student to begin by reading the
book for himself, and making his own divisions.
By comparing these with those given in a com
mentary, and examining carefully the differences,
he will gain a much clearer and deeper insight
into the structure of the sacred document.
This preliminary analysis I shall illustrate
from a book in the New Testament which is,
more perhaps than any other, one organic
whole, the Epistle to the Romans.
The writer begins by giving his name and
position ; and, after paying homage to his
Master, goes on to send greeting to his readers ;
speaking of himself and them in the third
person. This greeting occupies ch. i. 1-7, one
long sentence.
In v. 8 the writer indicates a turn of thought
by beginning to speak about himself in the first
person and to his readers in the second :
/thank my God . . . about you all, &c. This
continues till v. 16, while the writer deals with
matters personal to himself and them. In v. 16
we have another all-important turning-point.
Personal matters are now pushed aside by an
44 &e iReto Ce0tament
emphatic assertion about the power and purpose
and contents of the Gospel. The first and
second persons disappear; and to the end of
ch. i. the third person only is used.
In v. 1 8, a still more conspicuous change
occurs, not of grammatical form but of subject-
matter. The light of the Gospel suddenly
vanishes from view, and instead of it we find
ungodliness, unrighteousness, and the wrath of
God. This continues till ch. iii. 21, where we
pass out from under the deep shadow as
suddenly as we entered it. When we have
done so, we find ourselves where we were
before we entered the shadow ; among the same
topics, words, and phrases. We have again
righteousness and faith, and even the phrase
righteousness of God, in v. 21 and with con
spicuous repetition in v. 22. This double
transition marks off chs. i. i8-iii. 20 as an
integral and important part of the Epistle. We
may call it the dark background of the Gospel.
The emphatic repetition (cf. ch. i. 17) in
ch. iii. 21, 22 calls attention to the teaching of
these verses as a fundamental element in the
C&e art of interpretation 45
Epistle, as does the repetition of the same ideas
in vv. 24, 26, 28, 30 ; iv. 2-24 ; ix. 30-33 ; x. 1-5.
Evidently ch. i. 16, 17 is the foundation-stone
on which rests the argument of the Epistle.
This foundation is again laid open to view, and
is enlarged, in ch. iii. 21, 22. Another con
spicuous assertion, containing another important
doctrine, is added in vv. 24-26. This basis of
doctrine is confirmed by an Old Testament
analogy in ch. iv. and traced to important
consequences in ch. v. Thus chs. iii. 2i-v. 21
become the second primary division of the
Epistle.
An important transition, with new words,
phrases, and modes of thought, meets us in
ch. vi. i ; and other still more conspicuous
transitions, introducing topics quite new, in
chs. ix. i and xii. i. In ch. xv. 14, after
completing his exposition of the Gospel, the
writer returns to personal matters, which he
discusses in the first and second persons, as in
ch. i. 8- 1 6. In ch. xvi. 25-27, he closes his
letter with a solemn ascription of glory to God.
Within the larger and primary divisions noted
46 Cfre I3eto Cestament
above, we find others subordinate to them. For
example, in ch. i. 18-32 the apostle speaks, in
the third person plural, about the heathen who
worship (v. 23) images of men and animals. In
ch. ii. i he suddenly accosts in the second
person singular, and thus singles out, a man
whom he conceives to be standing before him,
and whom he charges with both sin and gross
inconsistency. While so doing, Paul goes on, in
vv. 6-1 1, to describe the destiny awaiting all
men, good and bad. In v. 12 he introduces
a new word and topic, law, which dominates the
rest of ch. ii. In v. 25 another word and topic,
circumcision, enters and takes its place alongside
the Law. These new words and topics mark
off three divisions of ch. ii, viz. vv. i-u,
vv. 12-24, W- 2 5~ 2 9- These are subordinate
to ch. ii, which is itself a secondary division
under the primary division, chs. i. 1 8-iii. 20.
In ch. iii. i a series of questions introduces
another secondary division in which, in view of
the levelling teaching of ch. ii, Paul discusses
the value of Jewish privileges and the justice of
punishing Jews for their sins. A question in
Cfie art of 3[nterpretation 47
v. 9 introduces a. series of quotations from the
Old Testament confirming the condemnation
involved in ch. ii : and these are followed, in
vv. 19, 20, by a solemn statement of the practical
result of the great introductory division comprised
in chs. i. i8-iii. 20.
In every part of the Bible, doctrinal or histori
cal, lyric or prophetic, this division of each docu
ment into its organic constituents should be made.
Without it the document becomes an inorganic
mass of rambling thought.
This preliminary analysis should be followed
by a more thorough analysis at the close of our
study of a book. The one is like a view from
some conspicuous elevation of a country we are
going to explore : the other is a view of the
same from a still loftier point, and in clearer air,
after our feet have trodden its highways and
bypaths.
(B) THE WORDS OF THE BIBLE. After this
preliminary analysis, the student must concen
trate attention on, and endeavour to understand,
the first subdivision of the document before him.
In so doing, the meaning of the words there used
48 C6e jfteto Cestament
demands his immediate attention. These are the
very alphabet of theology, as indeed of all human
thought. Each word is an embodiment of
thought, and many words embody a long evolu
tion of thought. Our aim must be to learn, as
accurately and as fully as we can, the thoughts
which the sacred writers intended their words to
evoke.
This study is the more important because
many of the words of the Bible have passed into
the vocabulary of modern religious life, and
have thus gathered around themselves modern
associations of thought alien in some cases to
the writers thought, and have lost other asso
ciations of thought prevalent when the books
were written.
This branch of research I shall best illustrate
by selecting a few representative words, and
discussing their meaning. The methods thus
exemplified the student will apply to other
words.
In Rom. ii. 13 ; iii. 4, 20, 24, 26, 28, 30; iv.
2, 5 ; v. i, 9 ; vi. 7 ; viii. 30, 33, we find the word
jzistify\ in chs. iv. 25, v. 18 the closely related
&e art of interpretation 49
abstract substantive justification ; and in chs.
ii. 13, iii. 26 the cognate adjective just. The
exact meaning of the first of these words has
been much discussed, and is of great importance.
How are the general meaning of this family
of words, and the specific meaning of this member
of it, to be determined ? Just as in childhood
we learnt the meaning of the words of our
mother-tongue by observing the objects to
which they were applied, and the connexions
of thought in which they were used. For the
Bible, this is most easily done by using a good
concordance, which will put before us at once
the whole use of the word in the Old and New
Testaments.
The meaning of the word j ustify is thus at
once made evident. In Deut. xxv. i, Prov. xvii.
15, Isa. v. 23, it is a law term denoting judgement
in a man s favour. In i Kings viii. 32, it is used
of God, the Judge of all men, and is expressly
defined, j ustifying the righteous, to give him
according to his righteousness. 1 In Job xxxii.
2, xxxiii. 32, it describes a man endeavouring to
free himself or others from blame. In Matt. xii.
D
50 &e jReto Cegtament
37, Rom. ii. 13, it denotes approval by God on
the day of judgement. In Rom. iii. 4, Ps. li. 4,
God is represented as standing at the bar of
human judgement, and being there recognized
as just. The use of this not uncommon word
in various parts of the Bible, as laid open to view
by a concordance, shows at once that the word
denoted, not to make actually just, but to reckon,
or declare, or treat one as, just. And, in nearly
all passages, this is the only meaning the word
will bear. This is a very strong presumption
that the word is so used when Paul speaks of
justification by faith.
The above result is confirmed by the word
condemn, which in Deut. xxv. i, i Kings viii.
32, Prov. xvii. 15, Rom. viii. 33, 34, is the
opposite of justify, and cannot mean to make
actually wicked. This illustrates the value of
opposites in determining the meaning of a word.
This method should always be used when
available.
The family of words before us is much larger
than appears in the English Bible. For in both
Hebrew and Greek this family of words is
C6e art of Jnterpretation 51
identical with that comprising the words right,
righteous, righteoiisness. Similarly, the words
holy, hallow, holiness are identical or cognate
with saint, sanctify, sanctification : also faith
and belief. This phenomenon of the English
language is due to its composite origin as a
Latin superstructure on a German foundation.
It has done much to obscure the meaning of the
Bible. The student must always remember that
there these pairs of words have absolutely the
same meaning. A saint is simply a holy person :
to believe is to have _/#//>.
The fact just noted greatly helps us to under
stand Rom. iii. 2o-iv. 13. For the phrase
justified by faith, in ch. iii. 26, 28, 30, is now
seen to be identical with faith reckoned for
righteousness in ch. iv. 3, 5, 9, 23, 24, and
with righteousness of (or by) faith in z>. 13, ix.
30, x. 6: cf. ch. i. 17, iii. 21, 22. This con
firms our interpretation of the word justify.
For faith reckoned for righteousness denotes
evidently a forensic reception of believers as
righteous.
In studying the meaning of a family of words,
D 2
52 C6e U3eto Cestament
it is all-important to discover the root-idea from
which spring its various branches. We must
seek for a central idea common to all the various
uses of the word. And this will usually be found
in its simplest uses. For example, in Lev. xix.
36 we have just weights and measures, and in
Matt. xx. 4, Col. iv. \,just wages. These every
one understands. The just or righteous has
always a standard with which it ought to agree,
and with which it actually agrees. This concep
tion underlies and explains the meaning of the
word wherever found.
The importance of finding the root-idea of an
important family of words may be usefully illus
trated, as may the best method of study, by the
word holy or saint and its cognates. In Rom.
i. 2 we have holy Scriptures or writings, in
27. 4 a spirit of holiness] and in z>. 7 called
saints or holy persons, as in chs. viii. 27,
xii. 13, xv. 25, 26, 31, xvi. 2, 15 : also the Holy
Spirit in chs. v. 5, ix. i, xiv. 17, xv. 13, 16; and
sanctified in the Holy Spirit in ch. xv. 16.
Turning now to a concordance, we find that
the word holy and its cognates are found in the
C8e 3tt of interpretation 53
Old Testament some 800 times, and that they
are a great and conspicuous feature of it. On
the other hand, if we use a Greek lexicon we
shall find that the whole family of words is very
rare in classical Greek. Moreover, if we turn to
a concordance of the Septuagint, the ancient
Greek version of the Old Testament, we shall
find that with rarest exceptions the same Hebrew
word is rendered by the same Greek word:
and from a good English concordance we shall
learn that these families of Hebrew and Greek
words are nearly always reproduced by the two
families of English words noted above. In other
words, the English Bible reproduces fairly the
use of the original Hebrew and Greek words.
Turning again to a concordance, we find this
family of words represented in Genesis only
in ch. ii. 3, in reference to the Sabbath ; in
chs. xiv. 7, xvi. 14, xx. i, as the name of
a town ; and in ch. xxxviii. 2 1 (where see
Revised Version margin) to describe an aban
doned woman. On the other hand, in Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Chronicles, it is very common,
referring to the sacrificial ritual of the tabernacle
54 C6e Jl3eto Cestament
and temple. In these books the word holy and
its cognates are applied to an immense variety
of objects to the Sabbath, the firstborn, Mount
Sinai, the tabernacle, the priesthood, the sacri
fices, and all that belongs to them. In the Books
of Isaiah and Ezekiel they are very frequent,
describing the name and nature of God. All
this makes the meaning of the word at once
evident. The word holy always has reference to
God. The holy objects have been claimed by
God to be exclusively His own : consequently
man may not use or touch them except at His
bidding and to do His work. A good example
is the firstborn of man or beast, which God
claimed for Himself: see Exod. xiii. 2, 12 ;
Num. iii. i2f.,viii. i6f. ; Deut. xv. 19. That the
same word is used to describe the nature of God,
e.g. Isa. i. 4, v. 19, 24, teaches that the devotion
of these objects to the service of God stands
related to a definite element in His essence which
requires this unreserved devotion.
In the Old Testament, when used of the
creature, the word holy very rarely, e. g. 2 Kings
iv. 9, rises above this symbolic meaning.
C6e art of interpretation 55
In Exod. xxvi. 33, 34, xxx. 10, 29, 36 ; Lev.
vi. 17, 25, 29 ; i Kings vi. 16, and elsewhere, we
have a superlative title, most holy or holy of
holies.
This symbolic meaning lived on to the days
of Christ, e.g. Luke ii. 23; Matt, xxiii. 17, 19.
The gold, by becoming part of the temple,
became once for all the property of God ; and
the sacrifices which day by day are laid on the
altar thus become His. Notice here (Revised
Version) the change of tense. This symbolic
meaning, familiar to all the Jews, must have
coloured the significance of the word when used
to describe the new life in Christ. And in this
sense we must understand the words holy and
sanctify when used in this reference.
In Rom. i. 2, Paul speaks of the books of the
prophets as holy scriptures or writings. He
thus puts them among the holy objects of the
Old Covenant as standing in special relation to
God. In vv. 3, 4 Christ is said to have been
marked out as Son of God according to spirit
of holiness This implies that the spirit which
animated the flesh born from David s seed was
56 C6e Jl3eto Cestament
characterized by unreserved devotion to God,
that in Him was realized in visible human form
the consecration symbolized in the ancient priestly
ritual. In v. 7 Paul accosts his readers as saints,
i.e. holy persons. This implies that whatever
sanctity belonged to the ancient priesthood be
longs now in higher degree to all servants of
Christ. So i Pet. ii. 5 : a holy priesthood. 1
This is in marked contrast to Num. xvi. 3, 5, 7,
where Korah s claim that all the congregation
are holy is repudiated by Moses. Compare also
i Cor. i. 2, where even the unspiritual Christians
at Corinth are said to be sanctified in Christ
Jesus, called saints. They were holy in the
sense that God had claimed them for His own.
This solemn claim and the obligation therein
involved was not set aside by their childish
immaturity. In the same sense even Hophni
and Phineas might be called holy; and their
holiness increased the guilt of their shameful
immorality.
This short study of a word illustrates the
benefit to be derived from a study of the words
of the New Testament in the light of their use
C&e art of Jnterpretatton 57
in the Old. And it gives permanent worth to
the symbolic teaching of the earlier covenant.
The words holy and sanctify are a link con
necting the Old and New. And they shed
most important light on the high privilege of
the servants of Christ.
Sometimes the significance of a word deepens
through a deeper comprehension of the nature
or influence of that which it commonly denotes.
For instance the word flesh denotes simply the
soft solid material of our bodies ; then, since
this alone is visible, it denotes our entire
material form : and, since human life is never
found except in human flesh, this last word
denotes frequently the entire man and the
entire race. Now Paul teaches that the body
exerts, or tends to exert, on the spirit within
a powerful and immoral influence. He therefore
speaks in Rom. viii. 4 of some who walk
according to flesh ; and in Gal. v. 1 7 of the
flesh as hostile to the Spirit. He thus gives
to the wordjffes/i a moral significance.
As already seen, the meaning of a word is
sometimes determined by another word with
58 C6e jfteto Ce0tament
which it is contrasted. The word servant or
(R.V. margin) bondservant is in Rom. vi. 18-22,
i Cor. vii. 21-23, Gal. iii. 28, John viii. 32-36,
Rev. vi. 15 contrasted with free. This contrast
implies that the word rendered servant involves
the idea of bondage. It is indeed the common
Greek word for slave. Repulsive as this may
seem, this meaning of the word in the phrase ser
vant of Christ conveys important teaching. We
are not mere hired servants who can give notice
and leave our master s service ; but we belong
to Christ who both created us for Himself, and
bought us with His blood. Yet this bondage
is consistent with absolute freedom. For to
know that we are not our own but His, is the
only true freedom.
Some New Testament words refer to, or receive
important illustrations from, institutions of the
ancient world which have passed utterly away.
In Matt. xiii. 1 1 and its parallels, Christ speaks
about the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven
or of God ; using a word of which its English
equivalent is a transliteration. This word is
a technical term for an institution of ancient
C6e 3rt of interpretation 59
Greece of which the mysteries held at Athens
and Eleusis in honour of Demeter are the best
example. At this sacred festival, amid various
rites, secrets not otherwise to be learnt were
taught to the initiated. The significance of the
word -mystery recorded in the three Synoptist
Gospels as used by Christ was caught by Paul,
accustomed as he was to the life and thought
of the Greeks, and put to good use. Nineteen
times he uses the same word as a description
of the Gospel ; and once speaks of the mystery
of iniquity. In Phil. iv. 12, using a technical
term cognate to the word mystery, Paul writes
I-have-been-initiated-into-the-^jv^O both to
be filled and to be hungry. His use of these
words implies that in Christ is a secret, known
only by those to whom He reveals it, which
enables them to pass through all vicissitudes and
to do all things in Him who makes them
strong.
The important teaching embodied in these
words illustrates the value of the Greek lan
guage and literature for the elucidation of the
New Testament. Unfortunately, this help is
60 Ije jfteto Ce0tament
only in small part available for those who read
only the English Bible.
The above examples illustrate the importance
of a careful study of the words of the Bible,
and the value of a good concordance as an aid
in this study. This last puts before us at once
the various uses of the word, directs our
attention to the parts of the Bible in which
it is most frequently used, and thus often
suggests the origin of the ideas therein
embodied. And sometimes it lays open to our
view the evolution of the deeper significance of
the use of the word in the Gospel of Christ.
Notice carefully that the LORD in the Old
Testament, in small capitals, is equivalent to
Jehovah, the personal name of the one God
who had in a supernatural manner revealed
Himself to Israel. So i Kings xviii. 39:
Jehovah, He is the God. The Lord GOD,
as in Ezek. v. 5, is in the Hebrew The Lord
Jehovah. See Gen. ii. 4, R. V. margin ; also
Ex. vi. 2, 3 ; Isa. xii. 2, xxvi. 4.
In the New Testament, the word Lord, w T hich
is a common Greek word denoting master, is
C6e art of Jnterpretatton 61
an ordinary title of Christ. So i Cor. viii. 6 :
4 One God, even the Father, and one Lord, Jesus
Christ. But it is constantly used, e.g. Rom. x.
13, in quotations from the Old Testament, as an
equivalent to Jehovah. This makes it difficult
sometimes to know whether the word denotes
the Father or the Son.
(c) THE PHRASES OF THE BIBLE, i.e. the
connexion between two or more words, and
especially a frequently recurring- connexion of
the same words, now demand attention.
A conspicuous element in the great statement
of doctrine in Rom. i. 17, iii. 21, 22 is the phrase
rigkteoztsness of God, found again in a similar
connexion in ch. x. 3. Upon our exposition of
this phrase depends in no small measure our inter
pretation of the teaching of the whole Epistle.
In ch. iii. 5 the same phrase denotes
evidently an attribute of God. For it is
contrasted with our unrighteousness, is ex
pounded by a question following, Is God
unrighteous ? and was prompted by a quotation
foregoing, that Thou mayest be justified (i. e.
recognized as righteous) in Thy words. In
62 cjje jReto Cestament
vv. 25, 26 the same phrase twice has the same
meaning, as is evident from the words following,
that He may be Himself righteous and a
justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus.
This meaning, simple as it seems, will not
make sense in vv. 21, 22, i. 17, x. 3. For the
divine attribute of righteousness was not revealed
in the Gospel but long before Christ came, nor
can the revelation of it be said to be from faith
and for faith, nor would this revelation explain
Paul s assertion that the Gospel is a power of
God for salvation, nor would it present an
analogy to the announcement by Habakkuk
that the righteous one by faith will live. A
manifestation of God s attribute of righteousness
could not be said, as in Rom. iii. 2 1 , to be apart
from law ; nor could the Jews be said, as in
chap. x. 3, to be ignorant of it and therefore
refusing to submit to it. In other words, the
impossibility of giving to the phrase before us
its usual significance and of making sense, while
so doing, of the important assertions in which
it is found, compels us to look for another
meaning.
&e art of interpretation 63
Such meaning is suggested in Phil. iii. 9,
where Paul desires to be found in Him, not
having a righteousness of my own, that which
is from law, but that which is through faith in
Christ, the righteousness which is from God on
condition of faith. This righteousness from God
may, in contrast to any righteousness of our
own, i.e. derived from our own obedience, be
described as a righteousness of God. For, as
His gift, it stands in special relation to Him.
It will then be equivalent, as the phrase in
Rom. iii. 21, 22 evidently is, to justified by
faith and faith reckoned for righteousness.
This great phrase illustrates the importance
and the difficulty of investigating the meaning, not
only of words, but of the connexion of words.
Of immense importance for appreciating the
more delicate lines of the theology of Paul is
the phrase in Christ: e.g. Rom. iii. 24, vi. n,
viii. i ; 2 Cor. v. 17 ; Eph. i. i, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10,
13, and frequently throughout all his Epistles.
It represents Christ as the home in which
His servants rest, the fortress in which they
are safe from all enemies, and the life-giving
64 C6e 5l3eto Cestament
environment of their entire activity. It has a
counterpart in the teaching, e.g. Rom. viii. n,
that by the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of
Christ, Christ dwells in them. The same
thought, but in a slightly different form peculiar
to the Gospel and First Epistle of John, viz.
the phrase abide in Me, &c., is found in John vi.
56, xv. 4-7 ; i John ii. 6, 24, 27, 28, &c. This
remarkable and important element of teaching
is found only in the Epistles of Paul and in the
two books just mentioned and attributed to the
Apostle John. It is an element common and
almost (cp. i Pet. v. 14) peculiar to the two great
theologians of the New Testament.
(D) Having investigated the meaning of words
and phrases, our next step is a grammatical and
logical ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES.
Every complete sentence contains a subject
about which something is said, and a predicate
or something said about it, and usually many
and various and complicated extensions of these.
Grammatically, sentences consist of a main
assertion or exhortation or command and de
pendent clauses. These last should be carefully
C6e art of 3lntetpretation 65
distinguished one from another, and their re
lation to the main assertion, &c., noted. For
example, in Rom. iii. 21, 22, which form one
sentence, the subject is a righteousness of God,
the assertion about it is that it is manifested.
This predicate is extended by the word now,
giving the time of the manifestation, by the
phrase without law, asserting that it was in
dependent of law (in what sense here used, is
matter for investigation), and by a participial
clause informing us that the manifestation was
accompanied by testimony borne to the Gospel
by the Law (evidently, as the following words
indicate, that of Moses) and the prophets.
Then follow a repetition and extension of the
subject telling us that this righteousness of
God comes through faith and is designed
for all that believe/
Sometimes a clause grammatically subordinate
contains the chief matter of the sentence. So in
vv. 23-26, which form one compound sentence.
The main assertion, which indeed includes two
assertions joined by the copula and, is a short
recapitulation of chs. i. iS-iii. 20, added to
E
66 &e Jl3eto Ce0tament
support the great doctrine asserted in vv. 21,
22: for all have sinned; and fall short of the
glory of God. This is followed by a subor
dinate participial clause, then a relative clause,
then others giving the proximate and ultimate
aim of an action of God asserted in the relative
clause. In this relative clause, given to explain
the participial clause preceding it, Paul intro
duces a new topic and a new and all-important
doctrine, viz. that the righteousness which comes
through faith comes also through the death of
Christ whom God set, covered with His own
blood, before the eyes of men in order to
harmonize with His own justice the justification
of believers. This putting of the chief doctrine
into a subordinate clause is rhetorical. By
pointing, while asserting that all have sinned,
to the blood shed on the cross of Christ, Paul
suggests the awful reality of this universal sin.
The student will do well to write out in full
important sentences like the foregoing, and to
put each clause on a separate line, thus con
centrating attention on each one successively.
For example :
Cjje art of interpretation 67
For all have sinned,
and fall short of the glory of God,
being justified freely by His grace,
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ;
whom God set forth
as a propitiation through faith,
in His blood,
to show His righteousness, &c.
This analysis of sentences is much more
difficult in the argumentative parts of the New
Testament, e.g. the Epistles of Paul, than in
other parts. His sentences are very long and
involved, in contrast to the First Epistle of
John and to the didactic parts of the Fourth
Gospel. But long and involved sentences are
a marked feature of the Greek language. Its
writers delighted in grouping together many
thoughts variously related to one central thought,
hiding sometimes, for rhetorical reasons, the
chief thought in a subordinate clause. This
complexity of construction in the New Testament
is a marked contrast to the simpler arrange
ment in the Old Testament and in the Hebrew
language.
2
68 c&e jReto Cestament
(E) More difficult than the grammatical analysis
of sentences is the task of tracing the writer s
LINE OF THOUGHT, i.e. the goal he has in view
and the successive steps by which he pursues it.
This difficult and important task demands the
use of all resources at our disposal.
In Luke i. 3, at the beginning of a memoir of
Christ, we have the writer s purpose, viz. to give
an orderly account of Christian teaching in order
thus to reveal its trustworthiness. But, in most
cases, the aim must be gathered from the course
of the work itself.
Usually a writer s aim is either to assert, to
describe, to prove, to arouse emotion, or in
various ways to move to action. Frequently
all these aims, in various proportions, are com
bined. The argumentative parts of the New
Testament are the most difficult to understand.
For, in argument, every link is important, and in
all argument much is silently assumed as well
understood and admitted. Moreover, much that
was familiar in Christian circles in the time of
the apostles is uncertain to us.
Our first aid in tracing the line of thought
C6e art of 3[nterpretation 69
is the grammatical analysis just described. We
must then endeavour to trace the relation of
one sentence to another. Frequently this is
expressed by a conjunction. But the same
conjunctions are used in different ways. For
instance, the conjunction for sometimes intro
duces a proof, sometimes a cause, at other times
it removes an objection : i. e. in various ways it
supports a foregoing sentence. The word
therefore introduces sometimes a result, at other
times an inference. Not unfrequently clauses
or sentences are without specification of their
connexion. In these cases the connexion must
be inferred from the inherent relation between
the ideas conveyed by the clauses or sen
tences. And this is often our only means of
tracing the line of thought of a paragraph or
document.
Notice always a point on which a writer lays
stress. These points may be detected by the
conspicuous way in which they are stated, and
especially by their repetition. Of such repetition,
Rom. i. 17, iii. 21, 22 are a good example. So
also throughout ch. iv. the recurrence of the
70 C6e U3eto Ce0tament
word reckon, keeps before us the quotation
from Gen. xv. 6.
Our chief aid must be an unwearied retracing
again and again of the same sacred ground.
Take the first sentence with its various members
primary and subordinate, and contemplate the
ideas it embodies. Then call up successively
the second and the third sentences; and so on
with the lesser and greater divisions of the
book. The similarities and contrasts between
the sentences or paragraphs will suggest the
connexion of thought. Every hour s study will
shed some light even on the most difficult
passages. Here and there the writer s meaning
will come out clearly. And every sentence
understood will help to explain the whole.
In the arguments of the New Testament,
notice carefully the facts and principles assumed,
and the conclusions based upon them. En
deavour to feel the force of the argument.
Unless w r e do so, we cannot be sure that we
understand the writer s words. For they were
designed to convince : and, unless they do so,
his aim is not attained in us.
C6e art of interpretation 71
Whatever brings us into sympathy and mental
contact with the writer will help us better to
understand his line of thought. And, above all,
the Spirit of God, who Himself guided the
writers of Holy Scripture and thus made their
words and arguments a permanent embodiment
in literary form of the supreme revelation in
Christ, will in proportion as He dwells and
reigns in us, open our minds to understand the
words He has prompted men to write. Never
theless, just as He prompted and guided them,
not by a mechanical influence, but by filling
their intelligence with divine light, so we can
claim His help to understand the word only
so far as we use the intelligence which He has
given.
The foregoing suggestions apply to the Old
Testament also, and for the more part as much
as to the New. But the greater importance of
the New Covenant as compared with the Old
gives necessarily greater importance to the
language in which it is embodied. But the
method is the same in both cases.
72 C6e U3eto Cestament
8
THE ART OF INTERPRETATION, cont.
METAPHOR AND PARABLE. QUOTATIONS
The above principles of interpretation avail,
and are needful, for all parts of the Bible, and
indeed for all literature removed from us in time
and circumstances. But two special and closely-
related forms of speech, each occupying- a large
and important place in the Bible, need separate
mention.
METAPHOR is a mode of speech in which
a familiar relation is used to illustrate things
or persons similarly related. No small part
of the teaching of the Bible is embodied in
metaphor. Some metaphors are found in
different books by the same writer and show
marks of the development of his thought : some
are used by various writers: and some New
Testament metaphors can be traced back to the
Old Testament. All such deserve careful study.
For their frequency, and their persistence amid
a total change in the outward form of the
anu iparafrte 73
Kingdom of God, reveal a deep and far-reaching
analogy underlying them.
In Hos. ii. and iii. and Jer. ii. 2, &c., Israel is
spoken of as the unfaithful wife of Jehovah.
In 2 Cor. xi. 2, and still more fully in Eph. v.
22-32, the Church is called the bride of Christ.
A similar metaphor is found also in Rev. xxi. 9.
It teaches that we owe to Christ the loyal
obedience a wife owes to her husband; and
that Christ takes delight in, and will protect,
the Church as a bridegroom his bride. Still
more common is the metaphor of God and
Christ as Shepherd of His people : Pss. xxiii. i,
Ixxx. i ; Isa. xl. 1 1 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 2 ; Zech. xiii. 7 ;
Matt. xxvi. 31; John x. 1-16, xxi. 15-17;
Acts xx. 28, 29 ; Heb. xiii. 20 ; i Pet. v. 2-4 ;
Rev. vii. 17. In i Cor. iii. 9-16, vi. 19 ; 2 Cor.
vi. 1 6, and with richer development in Eph. ii.
20-22, the Church is called the temple of God,
of which its members are (i Pet. ii. 5-8) living
stones and Christ the Corner- Stone : see also
Isa. xxviii. 16; Matt. xvi. 18, xxi. 42. Another
persistent metaphor is found in Isa. v. 1-7 ; Jer. ii.
21 ; John xv. 1-6; Matt. iii. 10, vii. 16-20; Rom.
74 &e jReto Cestament
xi. 16-24 > viz- tf 16 people of God spoken of as
a vine or fruit-tree.
A metaphor still more profound and far-
reaching 1 is used in i Cor. xii. 12-27 ; Rom. xii.
4, 5, where the Church is compared to a living
body, in which each member has its own faculty
needful for the common good, and which can
live and prosper only so far as its members
harmoniously co-operate. Of this body, the
Spirit of Christ may be looked upon as the
Soul. This metaphor teaches that the Church
is in health only so far as each member is
animated by the one Spirit, and uses his peculiar
ability for the benefit of the whole. This meta
phor receives an important development in
Eph. i. 22, 23, iv. 1 6, v. 23 ; Col. i. 18, Epistles
belonging to a later group, where Christ is said
to be the Head of the Church. This could not
have been in Paul s thought when he wrote
i Cor. xii. 2i/ the head cannot say to the feet,
I have no need of you. It reminds us that, as
man, Christ is Himself a member of His own
Church, the Head of His own Body, holding in
that Body a place of unique honour.
ana para&le 75
This great metaphor is in the New Testament
peculiar to Paul. But that it was familiar to
Roman thought, we learn from the well-known
fable of Menenius Agrippa narrated by Livy,
book ii. 32, and from Seneca, On Anger, book
ii. 31.
The word mystery, discussed on p. 58 f., in
volves a metaphor derived from an institution
of ancient Greece which has altogether passed
away.
Another metaphor very frequent with Paul,
and in its developed forms peculiar to him, was
derived from the Greek athletic contests. So
i Cor. ix. 24-27; Phil. iii. 12-14; 2 Tim. ii. 5,
iv. 7, 8. The crown here mentioned was the
wreath of olive or pine given to the victor.
The word rendered strive in Col. i. 29, iv. 12 ;
i Tim. vi. 12 ; Rom. xv. 30, was a technical term
for these contests, and suggests intense effort
like that of a racer or wrestler. In Luke xiii. 24
it is used to reproduce a saying of Christ. Two
of the above passages suggest the graphic and
appropriate phrase wrestling in prayer. The
word rendered overcome or victory in Rom. viii.
76 C6e ifteto Cestament
37; i John v. 4; Rev. ii. 7, n, 17, is constantly
used for success in the games.
This metaphor represents eternal life as a prize
to be won only as the wreaths were won by
Greek athletes, viz. by intense and sustained
personal effort. It is thus an important counter
part and corrective to the teaching, e.g. Rom. vi.
23, that eternal life is the gift of God s grace.
He gives us the victory and the reward of
victory, not by shielding us from the conflict,
but by arming us with His own power: so
i Cor. xv. 57 ; i John iv. 4.
Since Bible metaphors teach spiritual truth
by means of analogies between things seen and
unseen, in order to understand them we must
reproduce first as fully as we can the visible
objects and relations thus made use of. Some
of these, e.g. the shepherd and his sheep, are
familiar to us, though perhaps not so familiar as
to the earliest readers of the books of the Bible :
others, like the Greek athletic contests, have
passed altogether away and can be reproduced
only by careful study. After reproducing them
to the best of our ability, we must note carefully
ana jparafcle 77
the points of similarity, and the points at which
the similarity ceases ; also the writer s purpose
in using the metaphor. Otherwise, since every
analogy ceases somewhere, metaphor may lead
us, as it has led many, seriously astray. For
instance, the Greek athlete went down into the
arena knowing that he must rely for victory only
on his own strength and skill, and, while resolute
to do his best, with many doubts whether he
would be able to gain the prize. The Christian
athlete goes into daily conflict against spiritual
foes far stronger than himself, with complete
confidence, and a song of praise to Him who
has already given the victory.
Frequently, the defect of one metaphor is
supplied by another. For instance, in a flock,
the sheep do not help each other; but in
a temple the stones are immovable, because
cemented together. So do the servants of
Christ strengthen one another. On the other
hand, whereas stones are lifeless, each sheep
hears and follows the shepherd s voice.
No subject will better repay study than the
metaphors of the Bible.
Ce0tamcnt
The PARABLES of Christ are metaphors ex
panded into narratives, with or without specifi
cation of their spiritual import, and sometimes
needing explanation. As teaching important
spiritual truth, the parable differs from the fable,
such as that in Judges ix. 8-15, which teaches
only human prudence. It differs further in
that it does not contradict the ordinary course
of Nature, as when Jotham makes trees to speak.
Like metaphors, parables rest on analogy of
things seen and unseen, and use the former to
teach the latter. Consequently the method of
interpreting a metaphor is valid also for a
parable. But the greater complexity of the
parable increases the difficulty of interpreta
tion, and the danger of misunderstanding it.
The difficulty is to distinguish between the
essential points of the comparison, and other
details added to complete and give life to the
picture.
The only safe rule is to base no doctrine on
parable only. This by no means destroys the
value of parable even as a teacher of doctrine.
But its chief use is to confirm and elucidate
6$etapf)or and iparatrte 79
express assertions. In doing this, parable and
metaphor may be of greatest value.
As an example, I may refer to the parable
of the vineyard in Matt. xxi. 33-41 ; Mark xii.
1-9; Luke xx. 9-16. After the servants had
been murdered, the master resolves to send his
son, thinking that, whatever the vinedressers
had done to the servants, they would not venture
to injure him. This recalls the totally different
position, owing to his different relation to the
master, of the master s son as compared with
even the highest of his servants; and implies
that Christ claimed a relation to God different
in kind from that of the greatest of the prophets,
greater than Moses, or Samuel, or John the
Baptist. This important inference is confirmed
by express teaching in Matt. iii. 17, iv. 3, 6, xvi.
1 6, xxviii. 19, 20; cp. Heb. iii. 5, 6. And the
parable does not a little to elucidate the phrase
Son of God, by suggesting irresistibly that Christ
occupies a relation to God as much above that
of the highest of His creatures as the master s
son is nearer to him than his most valued
servant. That this unique relation to God rests
so C6e U3eto Cestament
upon a unique derivation from Him, is asserted
in John v. 26, and is confirmed by much other
teaching of the New Testament.
To what extent the details of a parable have
a spiritual counterpart, must be left to the tact
of the expositor. It is useless and needless to
inquire what was the fatted calf slain for the
prodigal son. Endeavour in each parable to
grasp the great central thought it was designed
to convey ; group around it whatever details lend
themselves easily to interpretation and help to
elucidate the main thought ; and treat other
details as the mere framework of the picture.
Also worthy of note is the PARALLEL struc
ture, frequent in the Old Testament, in which
a sentence is doubled by an addition of similar
thought in similar words. Of this, a good
example is found in Isa. Iv. 6, 7 :
4 Seek Jehovah while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked one forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts ;
And let him return to Jehovah,
and He will have mercy upon him,
duotation.s s i
And to our God,
for He will abundantly pardon.
Notice here the deeper meaning throughout
the second parallel. We are bidden to forsake
not only our ways but our thoughts ; and to
retzirn to Jehovah, who is also our God. He
will not only have mercy, but will abundantly
pardon-, and this is given {for He will, &c.)
as a reason for returning.
Very important, as indicating coincidences
between the two covenants, are the many QUO
TATIONS in the New Testament from the Old.
Of these a conspicuous example is found in Gen.
xv. 6, quoted in Rom. iv. 3 ; Gal. iii. 6 ; Jas. ii. 23.
We notice here that the three quotations are
the same, word for word, Abraham believed
God, and it was reckoned to him for righteous
ness ; differing somewhat from the original,
He believed in Jehovah (see p. 60), and He
reckoned it to him for righteousness. Paul
and James quote, word for word, the Greek
Septuagint translation, wkich inserts the word
Abram, gives believed God instead of believed
F
82 ct)e USeto Ce0tament
in Jehovah, and it was reckoned instead of He
reckoned it. The phrase believe in is Hebrew,
and was not familiar to the Greek translators ;
but became naturalized in the Fourth Gospel.
In all quotations, notice first the original
circumstances and meaning and purpose of
the words quoted. In this case God has just
promised to Abraham seed as numerous as the
stars. This promise Abraham received in faith,
and from that moment looked forward with
confidence to his many children still unborn.
God accepted his faith ; and on that day (see
v. 1 8) made a covenant with him. Of this
covenant the birth of Isaac, the rescue of Israel
from Egypt, the gift of the Law, the possession
of Canaan, and all the special privileges of
Israel, were results. In other words, all the
distinguishing privileges of Israel were won for
them by their father s faith ; and this is con
spicuously taught in their own Scriptures. In
later days God spoke again, and through Christ
announced eternal life for all who believe
His Gospel of pardon. In other words, in each
covenant, faith is a condition of the favour of
duotations 83
God and of infinite blessing 1 . To this remark
able coincidence between the two covenants
Paul triumphantly appeals against those who
reject the Gospel of Christ, because it seemed
to them to set aside God s ancient covenant
with their fathers. The difference between the
justification of Abraham and that of believers
in Christ throws into stronger relief their deep
underlying harmony.
On the other hand, James, while maintaining
that faith without works cannot save, reminds
us that Abraham s faith was put to a severe
test; and that the final words of blessing,
recorded in Gen. xxii. 16-18, were spoken only
after he had, by a supreme act of obedience,
offered his son on the altar. That the faith which
saves is perfected by works, i. e. attains its full
development by producing obedience, is another
far-reaching harmony between the covenants.
In addition to quotations which are more or
less conspicuous, we find not a few references
in the New Testament to the Old, not always
evident at first sight. For example, in Heb.
xi. 5, the writer says that it was by faith that
F 2
84 C6e iReto Cestament
Enoch was translated, and then endeavours to
prove this assertion by saying- that before his
translation he had witness borne to him that he
had been well-pleasing to God. He adds, But
without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing
to God, &c. We ask, How do we know that
Enoch was well -pleasing to God ? The answer
is found in the Greek translation of the Old
Testament, which, instead of Enoch walked
with God, in Gen. v. 22, 24, a phrase not used
in classical Greek, renders Enoch pleased God.
This rendering is imperfect, but not incorrect.
For, to walk with God, implies pleasing God :
consequently the original text of Gen. v. 22, 24
implies that God smiled on Enoch. The writer
of Hebrews then reasons that, if Enoch obtained
the favour of God, he must have sought it, as
he could not have done unless he believed that
God exists and that He rewards those who
seek Him. In other words Gen. v. 22, 24
implies, as the writer to the Hebrews proves,
that Enoch had faith. Thus this reference,
veiled at first to English readers, elucidates
a New Testament argument.
ann pstorp 85
In Jude 14, 15 we have a quotation from the
Book of Enoch, a Jewish work, of which the
part here quoted was written probably early in
the second century before Christ. In Acts xvii.
28; Titus i. 12, Paul quotes Greek poets; and
in i Cor. xv. 33 adopts the words of another
Greek poet.
9
THE NEW TESTAMENT AS BIOGRAPHY AND
HISTORY
We have seen in 4 that the New Testa
ment contains a portrait of a Man, infinitely the
greatest of those who have left their name and
fame as a legacy to men ; and a story of a
movement which has changed for good the
whole course of human history. Moreover, as
depicted in the New Testament, this supreme
personality is surrounded by others influenced
by Him, speaking His words, doing His work,
and thus reflecting, each from his own point of
view, the Light of the world. These pupils
of Jesus were the agents through whom He
exerted the great religious impulse which has
influenced so profoundly all subsequent human
86 Cfje I3eto Cestament
thought and life. Consequently our study of
the New Testament must be biographical and
historical.
Since all human action is moulded by its
material and human environment, these studies
will be greatly helped by whatever sheds light
upon the geography of Palestine and of the
lands visited by the apostles, and upon the con
dition, social, religious, and political, of Jews
and Gentiles during the first century of our era.
Notice carefully the general configuration of
the Holy Land, the descending course of the
Jordan from the slopes of Hermon, past the
crowded shores of the Lake of Gennesaret, to
the deep depression of the Dead Sea, Jerusalem
surrounded by its hills, the plain of Esdraelon ;
the Taurus mountains, the isles of the ^Egean,
and the positions of Antioch, Ephesus, Troas,
Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, and
Rome. Fortunately nearly all the sites of
places mentioned in the New Testament are
known on reliable evidence, most of them be
yond doubt. To gain, by constant reference
to maps, an accurate and ready knowledge of
ant> IjMstorp 87
these, is all-important for intelligent study of the
narratives of the New Testament.
Equally important is chronology. Note care
fully any indications of time, whether in refer
ence (i) to dates known in general history, or
(2) to other events in the New Testament.
Among the former are Matt. ii. 3, which
implies that Christ was born before the death
of Herod, an event determined by decisive
external evidence to have taken place in B. c. 4 ;
and Luke iii. i, which fixes the appearance of
John the Baptist in A. D. 28. In harmony with
these notices, sufficiently near for all practical
purposes, is the approximate statement in v. 23
that Christ began to teach when about thirty
years of age. Other indications of time are
found in (Acts xii. 23) the death of Herod, who
is called by Josephus Agrippa, and who died in
A.D. 44, as we learn from Josephus, Antig. xix.
8. 2 ; and the arrival of Festus as governor of
Judaea, after Paul had been, as we read in
Acts xxiv. 27, two years in prison. Unfor
tunately the exact date of the arrival of Festus
is open to doubt.
C6e ifteto Cestament
Not less important are many indications
throughout the New Testament which enable
us to fix the date of the events there narrated
in relation one to another. This last may be
called its internal chronology.
All four Gospels agree that Christ was cruci
fied about the time of the Passover. The
Synoptists give no indication of the length of
His public ministry. But in John ii. 13, vi. 4,
we find mention of two earlier Passovers. This
implies that His ministry lasted for at least
rather more than two years. We have no
reason to think that it lasted longer than this :
for two years would give abundant time for all
the events narrated. On the other hand, this
absence of evidence cannot be taken as decisive
proof that it did not last longer than this.
Since the feeding of the 5,000 (John vi. 10) is
mentioned also in Matt. xiv. 21; Mark vi. 44;
Luke ix. 14, the note of time in John vi. 4 helps
to determine the place in the lifetime of Christ
of the events narrated in the Synoptists as pre
ceding and following this great miracle. Notice
the close coincidences, and fuller narrative, of
ana J>fetorp 89
John vi. 2-15 as compared with the Synoptist
Gospels. They are characteristic of the Fourth
Gospel throughout.
Very interesting is the mention of successive
days in John i. 29, 35, 43, and of the third day
in ch. ii. i, followed by the reference to the
Passover in v. 13. This preserves for us a
memory, day by day, of nearly a week in the
spring-time at the beginning of the ministry of
Christ. This accurate mention of time, even the
hour being given in John i. 39, is one of many
indications that the Fourth Gospel is from an
eye-witness.
Notice carefully all indications of time in
the New Testament. This will greatly help the
student to reproduce as real the events there
narrated.
In Matt. xxvi. 17; Mark xiv. 12 ; Luke xxii. 7,
we have an apparent discrepancy with John
xviii. 28, xix. 31 : for if the Passover had been
eaten the night before, it could not be a reason
for avoiding pollution the next morning; and
the only way in which we can account for the
special greatness of the Sabbath following the
90 C6e 5l3eto Cestament
death of Christ is that it was also the first and
great day of the feast of unleavened bread. In
such cases we must deal with the conflicting
documents as we should with any other similar
human accounts. For we have nothing else to
guide us. In this case the extreme accuracy of
the Fourth Gospel seems to me to have more
weight than the express statement in the Synop-
tists. We may venture with some confidence
to believe that the Antitype of the ancient sacri
fices was slain at the very time when Israel was
slaying the Paschal Lamb. Probably the note
of time given in the other Gospels was due to
the fact, recorded in Luke xxii. 15, that Christ
definitely placed the supper He was eating, and
the solemn feast He was ordaining, in relation
to the Passover which was to be eaten twenty-
four hours later.
On this chronological framework we must next
endeavour to construct a consecutive narrative of
the events of the life of Christ. Our materials
must be drawn from the four Gospels.
We shall do well to begin, as recommended
on p. 42, with a preliminary analysis of each
an& !J)i0totp 91
of the Gospels, noting in each its chief turning-
points. In all four Gospels the appearance of
the Baptist is a conspicuous landmark : Matt,
iii. i ; Mark i. 4 ; Luke iii. i ; John i. 6. Earlier
than this we have narratives of the birth and
infancy of Christ in Matt. i. and ii ; and in
Luke i. and ii. other accounts of these and a
charming and all-important story about the boy
hood of Christ, these being preceded by an ac
count of the parents and birth of John the Baptist.
The difference between the narratives of the
appearance of the Baptist in the Synoptists on
the one hand and in the Fourth Gospel on the
other, reveals the independence of their sources.
And the harmonious picture derived from these
different sources reveals the historic reality of
the whole.
In the public ministry of Christ the most con
spicuous turning-point is in Matt. xvi. 13 ; Mark
viii. 27 ; Luke ix. 18, where Christ questions the
apostles about the impression touching Himself
in the minds of men, accepts the ready confession
of Peter, announces that on a foundation of
rock He will build His Church, and then
92 &e ifteto Ce0tament
opens a new department of His teaching by
beginning to announce that He must needs go
away to Jerusalem and die, and on the third day
be raised.
We must next fill up, with events and teaching
derived from the four Gospels, the periods
marked off by these turning-points. And, as
we do so, we must combine the whole into one
connected picture of Christ moving and speaking
before us. Every detail in the sacred life is
worthy of study, and each newly observed detail
gives greater fullness to the whole.
When we have thus reproduced and arranged
in order, as accurately and fully as we can, the
events of the life of Christ, it remains to the
student to contemplate with loving and lowly
homage the vision thus obtained of the Incarnate
Son. For this beatific vision we must linger, as
sinners needing a Saviour, in the presence of the
facts determined by our critical study of the
sacred text. Thus will our careful criticism rise
into worship and trust and love; and these in
turn will give us a broader and deeper concep
tion of the historic reality of Christ.
ant) l&fetorp 93
The exact study of the events of the life of
Christ must rest upon careful simultaneous
examination of all four Gospek. But this study
should be not only preceded but supplemented
by attention concentrated on each Gospel succes
sively. This will enable us to reach the peculiar
standpoint of each evangelist, and from these
different points of view to contemplate the one
glorious Person. This careful distinction of
different points of view will immensely enrich
our view of Christ. Just so the distinction
between the colours of the rainbow gives to it
variety, harmony, and beauty.
For this consecutive study we cannot do
better than follow the order of the Gospels in
our Bibles. The First Gospel is the least evan
gelical, i.e. gives least prominence to the dis
tinctive teaching of Christ, and is nearest in
modes of thought to the Old Testament and
to pre-Christian Jewish thought. The Fourth
Gospel gives the greatest prominence to dis
tinctive Christian teaching, e.g. the new birth,
eternal life through faith in Christ, and the
relation of the Only Begotten Son to the Father.
94 C6e Beto Cestament
In distinctive evangelical teaching 1 the Second
and Third Gospels are in advance of the First,
but far behind the Fourth.
The other characters depicted in the New
Testament are also worthy of most careful study.
The portrait of Paul is very full and lifelike.
Indeed we know more about the details of
his life and character than we do about the
human nature of Christ. And, both in pro
found knowledge of all that is best worth
knowing and in personal worth and dignity, he
has no superior and very few equals on the
scroll of fame. Very interesting and true to life
is the character of Peter. His readiness of
speech, his susceptibility to a new influence good
or bad, his resolute courage, and his instability,
once known, are never forgotten. Of his in
stability, even after the new life received at
Pentecost, we have a remarkable proof in the
incident recorded in Gal. ii. 11-13.
The historical record of the founding of the
early Churches, contained in the Book of Acts,
demands treatment somewhat different from the
sacred biography of the Gospels. For we have
ann ^fetorp 95
here the rise of a movement which has become
the supreme factor in human life, and in all
subsequent history. We must trace its causes,
the influences which shaped its course, and its
various results.
As before, we must begin with a preliminary
analysis of the book as a whole, noting carefully
the turning-points of the narrative. At once we
notice that the whole is dominated successively
by two great personalities, of whom the earlier
vanishes to leave room for the exclusive pre
dominance of the latter. Immediately after the
ascension of Christ, at Pentecost, and in the
events following, Peter takes the lead. In ch.
vi. 8 Stephen claims and holds our attention till
ch. vii. 60. Less exclusively we have the work
of Philip in ch. viii. 5-40. In ch. ix. 1-31,
after a short mention in chs. vii. 58, viii. 3, Paul
steps conspicuously to the front. But in chs.
ix. 32 xii. 25 we have further narratives about
Peter. A new era in the spread of Christianity,
viz. the missionary activity of Paul, opens with
ch. xiii ; and the rest of the book is occupied by
his three missionary journeys, his arrest and
96 C6e U3eto Cestament
imprisonment at Jerusalem, and his journey to
and imprisonment at Rome.
An important crisis in the early Church was
the conference at Jerusalem, narrated in Acts
xv. 1-29, which decided an important practical
and theological question, and issued (see ch.
xvi. 4) the first Christian dogma.
Sometimes we find, underlying the sacred
narrative, an important crisis which is not con
spicuously stated, and was possibly not observed
by the historian. Such seems to have been the
work and martyrdom of Stephen. In Acts v. 14
we see the progress of the Gospel in Jerusalem,
and in vv. 26, 28 the growing, and to the enemies
of Christ dangerous, favour with which the
apostles were viewed by the masses. In ch.
viii. i all is changed : a general persecution has
broken out. We seek its cause. From ch. v. 1 7
(confirmed somewhat by Josephus, Antiq, xx.p. i)
we learn that Annas and Caiaphas and the party
of which they were the heads, who were the
centre and chief source of the hostility which led
up to the murder of Christ, were Sadducees ;
whereas the Pharisees were much more popular
ana 5>tetorp 97
among the mass of the people. It is not unfair
to infer that the Galilean apostles, who gave
chief prominence to the resurrection of Christ,
a doctrine much less objectionable (see ch. xxiii.
6-9) to the Pharisees than to the Sadducees, did
not so greatly arouse the enmity of the powerful
Pharisee party ; but that this last was roused, as
by Christ, so also by Stephen, whose teaching
was believed (see ch. vi. 13, 14) to undermine
the distinctive privileges in which the Jews
boasted and which the Pharisees so strongly
asserted. If so, Stephen, whose name is pure
Greek, was a precursor of Paul ; and his death
a sacrifice to the full and free Gospel afterwards
so powerfully preached and defended by Paul.
And, if so, Stephen marks a definite turning-
point in the history of the Gospel.
This example encourages us not to rest satis
fied with the mere narrative, picturesque and
important as it is, of the founding of the Church ;
but to seek the influences, divine and human, good
and bad, which were shaping its development.
Important light is shed on the second, and still
more on the third, missionary journeys of Paul
G
98 &e Jl2eto Cestament
by the first and second groups of his letters,
which were written on those journeys respec
tively. The mutual light thus shed, and the
many undesigned coincidences between these
very different documents, are decisive proofs of
the genuineness of the letters, and of the historic
truth of the Book of Acts.
After the close of this last, we are dependent,
for the subsequent narrative of Paul, on the third
and fourth groups of his letters. These attest
the growth and broadening and deepening of his
thought. The pastoral epistles, if genuine, as
we may believe them to be, bear witness to his
liberation from his prison at Rome, his return to
the scene (cp. i Tim. i. 3) of his former labours,
a visit to Crete, and a second imprisonment.
A careful study of the New Testament as
history, using its various books and testing them
as we should any other documents of the past,
will afford us an abundant harvest of intellectual
and spiritual blessing, by reproducing for us the
world in which Christ and His early followers
lived, and the life they lived in it. And this
reproduction of environment and of life will
a0 Doctrine 99
make much more intelligible to us the Gospel
preached by Him and by them.
10
THE NEW TESTAMENT AS DOCTRINE
The New Testament is not only a picture of
Christ, and a narrative of the founding of the
Church, but a permanent record of His teaching,
of that good news of salvation which is itself
the divinely- ordained means of the salvation it
announces. These things are written in order
that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God, and that, believing, ye may have life
in His name.
In studying the theological teaching of the
New Testament, i.e. its teaching about the unseen
realities which underlie religion, it is all-im
portant to remember that this teaching comes to
us through the human intelligence of its various
writers. We must therefore endeavour to repro
duce each writer s own conception of the Gospel,
putting ourselves as nearly as we can on his own
standpoint. This we shall do most effectively,
as already recommended for our study of the
G 2
Cestament
portrait of Christ, by concentrating our attention
on each one of the various New Testament books
successively, and endeavouring to reproduce its
teaching about Christ, and His message to men.
Where we have more than one book from the
same pen, we are able, by comparing these, to
gain a more comprehensive view of the writer s
conception of the Gospel, as distinguished from
his special purpose while writing; and some
times we can trace the growth of his thought.
By comparing the various conceptions of various
writers, noting differences between them, and the
profound harmony underlying these differences,
and the infinite difference between the teaching
of Christ, thus learnt, and all other non- Christian
theological teaching of the ancient world, we
shall learn the actual message of Christ to
men.
This method of study will place us in line
with the purpose of God, who has given us, not
one official account of the teaching of Christ, but
various accounts different yet harmonious. It
will also give us a system of theology derived
from, and resting upon, documents accepted in
as Doctrine 101
the second century as written by apostles and
their immediate companions.
In this supremely important branch of Bible-
study we cannot, unless we have special reasons
to the contrary, do better than take the various
books in the order in which we find them in our
English New Testament. As already seen, the
four Gospels follow each other in an order
convenient for our study. From the life and
teaching- of Christ, we pass naturally to the
founding of the Church by His apostles. The
narrative of their work receives wonderful illus
tration from the epistles following. And the
sacred volume is suitably closed by a most in
teresting and valuable prophetic work reaching
forward to the far future. Such theological
study of the New Testament, endeavouring to
gain from each book a connected view of its
religious teaching as a whole, and comparing
each new view thus gained with those derived
from books already studied, is within reach
of all Christian workers, and will be to them
of infinite value.
In the First Gospel, as in the others, Christ is
102 c&e I2eto Ce0tament
preceded by the Baptist, who announces a coming
Kingdom of Heaven, i. e. a new and better order
of things in the religious life of men, calls men
to repentance, and announces retribution for all
men good and bad. In the great inaugural
known as the Sermon on the Mount, Christ
speaks as a legislator, claiming from His servants
a morality which reaches to the heart, and
announcing Himself as the coming Judge of
the world. This last is a very conspicuous
feature of Christ s teaching throughout the first
Gospel. It claims for Him a dignity infinitely
above that of every member of the race which
will stand at His bar to be judged. This super
human dignity is involved in the title Son of
God, given to Him by the Baptist and in the
temptation, and solemnly accepted by Christ
from Peter at an important turning-point in
His teaching. Its significance is, as we saw on
p. 79, still further emphasized in the parable of
the vineyard. In ch. xi. 27-30 Christ claims, in
a nation conspicuous above all others for its
knowledge of the One living God, that He only
and those whom He has taught know God ; and
as Doctrine 103
offers to lighten the burdens of all who come to
Him by laying upon them His own yoke. The
honour paid to Christ in the First Gospel culmi
nates in a vision of the Crucified and Risen One
bidding His disciples to baptize all nations in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit. He thus places solemnly His own
aame beside the name of God, or rather claims
Himself to share the divine name.
In Matt.ix. 2 Christ announces pardon of sins,
and works a miracle in order to prove that He
has authority so to do. Similarly, in ch. xii. 3 1
He declares that all sin and blasphemy shall be
forgiven to men ; and in ch. xxvi. 28, on the eve
of His betrayal, He speaks of His own blood as
being shed for pardon of sins. All this implies
that pardon of sins was an essential element of
His message to men.
In chs. viii. 10, 13 ; ix. 2, 22, 28, 29 ; xv. 28 ;
xvii. 20 ; xxi. 21, 22, we notice that faith is very
conspicuous as a condition of the saving work of
Christ.
After receiving Peter s testimony about Him
self, Christ began, as we learn from Matt. xvi.
104 C6e Jfteto Ce0tament
2 1 , to show to His disciples that He must needs
go away to Jerusalem . . . and be killed, and on
the third day be raised. 1 In ch. xx. 28 He
declares that He came to give His life a ransom
for many. On the eve of His betrayal He
instituted a simple rite to commemorate His
approaching death, and spoke, in ch. xxvi. 28,
of His own blood as the blood of the Covenant
which (being shed) was for many for pardon of
sins. This implies clearly that His approaching
death stood in close relation to the pardon of
sins proclaimed by Him.
In ch. xvi. 1 8, in circumstances giving to His
words the utmost prominence, Christ is reported
to have said to Peter, on this rock I will build
My Church. This implies that to erect a
Church, i. e. to found a community differing
from all others, and standing in unique relation
to Himself, was an essential part of the work He
came to do. For this community He ordained,
by commands recorded in chs. xxvi. 26-28 and
xxviii. 19 in the one case the evening before
His death, in the other after His resurrection
two simple rites.
as Doctrine 105
In some such way as this the student will do
well to summarize the teaching of each book on
which he concentrates his attention. This mode
of study will enable him, as he passes from book
to book, to compare their theological teaching ;
and this comparison will give him, step by step,
a fuller and more accurate knowledge of the
teaching of the New Testament as a whole.
Very different from the theological teaching
of the First Gospel is that of the Fourth. It
begins with a far loftier picture of Him about
whom the evangelist wrote, as with God in the
beginning, and as Himself God, the Maker of
whatever has been made. This is followed by
a statement that they who receive the true Light,
and believe in Him whom His own received not,
become children of God and are born from God.
In conspicuous contrast to the great inaugural
in Matt, v-vii, we have a remarkable private
discourse in John iii. 1-21, announcing the need
of a new birth from water and Spirit, and re
vealing the love of Him who gave His only
begotten Son in order that every one who be
lieves in Him may have eternal life. This
Cestamcnt
teaching- dominates the whole Gospel, giving
to it a distinctive colour. Notice also, in ch. vii.
38, a promise of fruitfulness for all who believe
in Christ ; referring, as the evangelist says in
v. 39, to the Spirit afterwards to be given to
those that believe.
In the Epistle to the Romans we have a closely
reasoned account of the Gospel as it was under
stood by the most conspicuous of the apostles.
Throughout the epistle the writer bows before
Christ with lowly homage as the own Son of
God. He announces in ch. i. 17, and with
conspicuous repetition twice in ch. iii. 21, 22,
a righteousness of God through faith in Christ,
which he further describes in vv. 26, 28, 30 as
justification through faith, in ch. iv. 5, 9, 24 as
faith reckoned for righteousness, and in ch. v. i,
10, n, as peace with God, or reconciliation to
God. He teaches, in chs. iii. 25, iv. 25, v. 6-10,
&c., that our justification comes through the
death of Christ, which is a wonderful proof of
God s love to us. In chs. vi.-viii. Paul teaches
that this justification is to be followed by a new
life of separation from sin and unreserved devo-
as Doctrine 107
tion to God, a life inbreathed and guided by the
Spirit of God.
This teaching is, amid much difference in
phrase and modes of thought, in close harmony
with, and in its main lines practically equivalent
to, the teaching of the Fourth Gospel, and is
a needful complement to that of the Synoptists.
For eternal life for all who believe, when all
are sinners, involves pardon. And justification
through faith is but pardon expressed in Hebrew
legal phrase. Moreover faith, as the condition
of pardon and of eternal life, is needful to give
practical value to the promises of pardon and
life in the Synoptist Gospels. Thus, under con
spicuous differences, we find profound harmony.
Also very useful is comparison of various
documents by the same author. The First
Epistle of John is evidently a pious meditation
on the words of Christ recorded in the Fourth
Gospel. The student will do well to note the
many parallels verbal and real. The great
words in ch. iv. 8, repeated in v. 16, God is
Love, give us a deeper and loftier view of God
than do any other words in the Bible or in
io8 Cfre ifteto Cestament
human language. For they teach that Love and
God are co-extensive ; that whatever comes from
God is an outflow of infinite love.
The first group of the letters of Paul, containing
those to the Thessalonians, have not a few cha
racteristic features of his teaching. In the second
group, i and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Romans,
we find teaching much more developed and dis
tinctive. The third group, including Philippians,
Colossians, Ephesians, and Philemon, written
within the narrow walls of a prison, embodies
the maturest thought of Paul, and a view of the
eternal realities much further reaching and loftier
than perhaps was possible while he was hasting
over land and sea, and caring for the interests of
the churches. The last group has also distinc
tive features of its own. Two letters, i Timothy
and Titus, were written when Paul was again
free, and busy with church matters. They give
us the most developed view in the New Testament
of church order. Last of all comes 2 Timothy,
containing the great Apostle s farewell, when the
conflict is over, the victory won, and the crown
clearly in view.
as Doctrine 109
The value to all Christians, and especially to
all Christian workers, of this careful consecutive
and comparative study of the New Testament, in
order to learn from it the actual teaching of
Christ and its significance for us, cannot be over
rated. By bringing us into direct contact with
the thoughts of evangelists and apostles it gives
a sure foundation for faith and hope, and enables
us to learn the Gospel of Christ from men com
missioned by Him to teach it. And, since in the
Gospel He is Himself present, distributing the
Bread of Life, this study affords the richest
nourishment of the spiritual life.
PART II
THE OLD TESTAMENT
.
CONTRAST OF THE OLD AND NEW
A common binding in one volume, and a new
title-page, mark the unity and the distinction,
in the thought of Christians, of these two parts
of the Bible. That the earlier part is of less
importance to us than the later, is made con
spicuous by the fact that this last is frequently
circulated alone, whereas, except for Jews and
Hebrew scholars, the Old Testament is in no
demand apart from the New.
The Old Testament is frequently quoted in
the New as historic fact, as a correct record of
supernatural revelations from God to Israel, and
as a decisive authority touching the will of God :
e. g. i Cor. x. 1-12 ; Gal. iii. 8 ; John x. 35. It
is spoken of in Acts xxviii. 25, Heb. x. 15, as
Contrast of t&e flDin ann
a voice of the Spirit of God ; and in Rom. i. 2
the books of the prophets are called Holy
Scriptures or writings. This last term puts
the Old Testament among the holy objects
mentioned therein, as, like the Sabbath, the
sacrifices, the priesthood, standing in special
relation to God. Abundant quotations and
references throughout the New Testament leave
no room for doubt that all the immediate
followers of Christ looked upon certain earlier
books with special reverence, as in some real
sense divine ; and that the books thus recognized
were practically identical with the Old Testament
as we now have it.
That the books of the New Testament were
written by men already possessing the Old
Testament, and prizing it as an inspired record
of supernatural revelations from God to their
race, gives to the Old Testament special value
for students of the New ; both as a record of an
earlier revelation, and as a means of determining
the significance of much in the New Testament
which cannot otherwise be explained.
Like the New Testament, the Old Testament
H2 C6e HDID Cestament
is wholly religious, and in part historical, the
history containing many valuable biographies.
The Old differs from the New in that, whereas
this latter was written almost or altogether
within less than a century, and narrates only the
events of a still shorter period, the Old Testa
ment narrates events of many centuries and was
written evidently by men living centuries apart.
The New Testament is a product of one age
and like conditions : the Old Testament lays
open to us the life, social, intellectual, and
political, of many ages under circumstances
widely different. The one affords a picture of
one supreme Person, and an account of the
beginning of the greatest movement in the
history of the world ; the other traces the evolu
tion of the Kingdom of God during long earlier
ages, and preserves for us pictures of many men
who, at various periods, guided the course of the
nation which was more or less consciously pre
paring a way for the great Deliverer, and for the
eternal Kingdom He came to set up.
The Old Testament differs also from the New
in that, while this last takes little note of con-
Contrast of t&e Din ana U3eto 113
temporary history, the Old Testament opens to
us a wide political outlook and brings into view,
not only the tribes immediately around Israel,
otherwise little known to us, but also the great
world- empires on the banks of the Nile and in
Mesopotamia. From the rise and fall of these
powers and from their relation to Israel and
to the Kingdom of God, we learn most valuable
lessons political and religious.
Another contrast is that, whereas the Old
Testament was except a few chapters in Ezra
and Daniel in a cognate language which we
may call Aramaic written in the language of
Israel, known only to one small people and sur
rounding tribes, the New Testament was written
in Greek, a language spoken by a great part of
the civilized world, and containing a literature
of great extent and of immense literary worth.
The language of the earlier Scriptures was in
harmony with the narrow national limits of the
earlier revelation ; that of the New Testament
is in harmony with the world-wide destiny of
the Gospel of Christ.
These contrasts we shall best appreciate by
H
H4 &e flDto Ctstament
taking- up, in our consecutive study of the Bible,
a book of the New Testament, and then one of
the Old, alternately. This transition from one
to the other will do more than anything else can
to bring home to us both the differences between
the two covenants and their deep underlying
continuity.
I2
CONTENTS, AUTHORSHIP, AND DATE, OF
THE OLD TESTAMENT
By the Jews, the Old Testament was divided
into four parts :
1 . THE LAW, i. e. the Pentateuch.
2. THE EARLIER PROPHETS, viz. Joshua to
2 Kings, excluding Ruth.
3. THE LATER PROPHETS, viz. Isaiah to
Malachi, excluding Lamentations and Daniel.
4. THE WRITINGS, or Hagiographa : all other
books, including Ruth, Lamentations, and Daniel.
A somewhat similar division is found in
Luke xxiv. 44, in the Law of Moses, and the
Prophets, and Psalms, where the most important
part of the Hagiographa is put for the whole.
Contents 115
We notice now that the first two divisions,
taken together, form one continuous history
from the creation of the world to the destruction
of Jerusalem. The regular sequence of books,
each taking up the story of Israel where the
preceding one lays it down, yet evidently written
by different hands, reveals the unity of the
whole. We have also, within the Hagiographa,
another history extending, at first as a mere
genealogy, but from the accession of David
expanding into a full narrative, from Adam to
the rebuilding and dedication of the wall of
Jerusalem. This later work is contained in the
Books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah.
And we notice that the last two verses of
2 Chronicles are reproduced at the beginning of
Ezra, where a sentence broken off in 2 Chronicles
is completed.
Each of these histories is permeated and
dominated by a distinctive tone and character of
its own. The earlier work may be called pro
phetic : for it expounds the spiritual significance
of the history of the nation, after the manner of
.the prophets. The later one is priestly: for it
H 2
Ce0tament
pays special attention to all that concerns the
outward forms of worship.
The Books of the Prophets shed important
light, from contemporary sources, on the history
and condition of Israel and Judah ; occupying,
in relation to the Books of Kings and Chronicles
a place similar to that of the Epistles of Paul to
the Book of Acts. They afford vivid pictures of
national and religious life extending over three or
four centuries before, during, and after the exile.
In the Book of Psalms the inner life and
thought of Israel find permanent and varied
expression ; as does its pious shrewdness in the
Book of Proverbs, and its profounder thoughts in
that otljob. Other interesting forms of literature
are found in what were called the Five Rolls,
comprising the Song of Songs, R^tth, Lamenta
tions, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. The Book
of Daniel stands alone, widely separated in
thought and mental outlook from the rest of
the Old Testament, and forming a type of
religious literature prevalent among the Jews in
the period between the completion of the Old
Testament and the appearance of Christ.
ann Date n;
The Book of Genesis is anonymous. In the
time of Christ, it was by the Jews attributed to
Moses. But this tradition was far removed from
the time of writing, and might be accounted
for by the greatness of Moses and the common
desire to find an author for a well-known anony
mous work. Moreover, we notice that the book is
never attributed to him in the many quotations
found in various books of the New Testament.
Certain parts of the later books of the Pentateuch
(cp. Exod. xxiv. 4 ; Deut. xxxi. 9) are there said
to have been written by Moses. And frequently
(e. g. John i. 1 7) the Law is in the New Testa
ment attributed to him ; justly attributed, as we
shall learn in 13. Various indications, especi
ally double narratives of the same events marked
by different words and phrases, suggest strongly
that the Pentateuch is from different sources :
e. g. Gen. ii. 4 b iv. compared with chs. i-ii. 4 a
and ch. v. 1,2.
The historical books, Joshua, Judges, Samuel^
Kings, and Chronicles are anonymous. The
books of the prophets contain the writers
names, and frequently the names of the kings
us C&e flDto Cestament
under whom they prophesied, these last involving
their dates. In most or all cases, these dates are
confirmed by the contents.
Many of the Psalms are attributed to David
and to some other writers: but the titles are
evidently from later hands; and we have little
or no means of verifying them. The Book of
Proverbs is attributed to Solomon and others.
Job is anonymous, and contains no indication
of authorship. The five rolls are anonymous ;
except that Ecclesiastes is entitled The words
of the Preacher, the son of David, king in
Jerusalem. This and much else in the book
suggest irresistibly the name of Solomon. But
the entire contents of the book prove decisively
that this is an assumed authorship. Parts of the
Book of Daniel are written in the first person,
as by Daniel: but various indications suggest
that the book, as we now have it, is much later
than his day. Parts of the Books of Ezra and
Nehemiah (Ezra vii. 27 x. 14 ; Neh. i-vii,
xii. 27-43, xiii. 4-31) are in the first person,
and may have been written by them. But in
the Book of Nehemiah are notes of time (e. g.
ano Date 119
ch. xii. 10, n, 22) which point to the century
after that in which he lived.
For the correctness of the TEXT of the Old
Testament, we have not abundant evidence like
that which leaves no room to doubt that we
possess the New Testament in a form practically
the same as that in which it was originally
w r ritten. We have no copies of the original
Hebrew text earlier than A. D. 700, and very few
earlier than A.D. 1000. But we have copies of
the Greek translation known as the Sept^l,ag^nt
from the fourth century after Christ onwards.
This translation was begun probably about
B.C. 280. We have also Tar gums, or trans
lations and paraphrases in Aramaic, the lan
guage spoken in Palestine in the time of Christ ;
and translations into Syriac, a cognate dialect
spoken by the early Syrian Church; and into
Latin. To these must be added many quo
tations from the Old Testament in the New
Testament, and in early Christian writings.
The general agreement of these various sources
of information assure us that, in the main, we
have the Jewish Sacred Books in a form prac-
120 cje 2DID Cestament
tically the same as that possessed by the Jews
after the exile, and indeed as that in which they
ivere written.
The Old Testament, as we now possess it,
embraces all the earliest literature of the Jews
still extant. The whole of it was accepted by
both Jews and Christians without doubt as a
true narrative of actual fact, and as in a unique
sense the Book of God.
Along with the books mentioned above, all of
which we now have in Hebrew or Aramaic, the
oldest Greek copies of the Old Testament con
tain, interspersed among them, other books now
existing only in Greek, not recognized by the
Jews as belonging to their Sacred Canon, and
now called the Apocrypha. Some of these are
of great value: e.g. the First Book of Macca
bees, a reliable history of a most serious crisis in
the history of the Jews ; Ecclesiasticus, or the
Wisdom of the Son of Sirach ; and the so-called
Wisdom of Solomon, a most interesting em
bodiment of the developing religious thought
of Israel a century before the birth of Christ.
These are worthy of careful study.
13
THE OLD TESTAMENT AS HISTORY
Since the Old Testament is in great part
historical, we must apply to it the methods of
study noted in 9 as helpful for the historical
parts of the New Testament, and indeed for any
other narratives of a distant past. But the
much longer time covered by the Old Testa
ment, and the wider outlook into the social and
political condition and development and de
cadence of Israel, and of the nations around,
afford abundant materials for profitable historical
study not found in the New Testament.
The geographical configuration of Palestine
and the countries around assumes, in the Old
Testament, much greater importance than in
the New. For its influence on the history and
development of Israel is much more important
during the long period covered by the Jewish
Scriptures than during the one lifetime which
embraced the entire activity of Christ and His
apostles, while the nation, restless under the
dominion of Rome, was going further and
further into decay. For instance, the position
122 c&e DID Cestament
of Palestine, a narrow strip of inhabited land,
bounded on one side by the Mediterranean Sea,
and on the other by the desert, itself the only
route from the broad plains of Mesopotamia,
containing the seats of the empires of Assyria
and Babylon, to the rich civilization on the
banks of the Nile, made the land of Israel a
bridge over which travellers, commerce, and
armies passed from the one to the other. Under
a strong government, like that of Solomon, this
brought wealth : under the weak rulers of the
divided kingdom, it brought the invading armies
of Sennacherib, Pharaoh Necho, and Nebuchad
nezzar : see especially 2 Kings xxiii. 29. Thus
were Israel and Judah buffer states between
great empires. And this explains very much
of their history and politics.
The Old Testament contains a complete
chronology, without parallel in ancient literature,
from the creation of Adam down to times in
which dates are determined by indisputable evi
dence. In Gen. v. and xi. we have a chain of
genealogy, giving the age of each father when
his son was born, from Adam to Abraham.
as 5)i0tor 12
This is continued, in chapters xxi. 5, xxv. 26,
xlvii. 9, to Jacob s going down into Egypt.
In Exod. xii. 40 we have the length of the
sojourn in Egypt ; and in i Kings vi. i the
length of time from the Exodus to the begin
ning of the building of the temple in the fourth
year of Solomon s reign. From this time to the
fall of Jerusalem, in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar,
the length of each reign of the kings of Judah
and Israel is given in the Books of Kings. And
the date of Nebuchadnezzar is fixed by external
contemporary history.
In the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septua-
gint the numbers in Genesis differ from those
of the Hebrew copies, which are reproduced in
our English Bibles. But these last claim respect
as embodying the Jewish tradition. From the
time of David onwards, we have not only a
connected history of the nation, but a reliable
chronology.
Many other notes of time in Exodus, and
again in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, give interesting
details in the chronology of important epochs
in the history of the nation. A careful study of
124 CJje DIU Ce0tament
these details, which is not difficult, adds greatly
to the clearness and accuracy of our conception
of the rise and fall of the Israelite state.
The narratives of the Old Testament contain
many most interesting- and instructive bio
graphies, some of colossal greatness. In his
faith, Abraham was the forerunner and father
of all who put faith in Christ. The use made
of his faith by Paul, not only illustrates the
Gospel of Christ, but reveals the essential one
ness of spiritual life under both covenants. In
Moses we see a man of highest natural endow
ments and educational advantages casting in his
lot with a nation of bondmen, because they were
the chosen and covenant people of God, and
thus sacrificing, for things unseen, all earthly
good ; and we see him, with gifts thus conse
crated, used by God to create a new and all-
important epoch in the spiritual history of the
world. These characters, and others similar
though on a smaller scale, have no parallels in
ancient history till the time of Christ ; and they
are a permanent enrichment, even to those who
walk in the light of the supreme example of
as )0torp 125
Christ. Most instructive, also, is the strangely
complex character of David. As pictures of
human life in the dim morning of our race, in
fluenced more or less by an historical and super
natural revelation of God, the various biographies
of the Old Testament are of utmost value.
In studying the Old Testament as history,
we shall do well to take it in the order of time
of the events narrated ; i. e. to begin with
Genesis and go down to 2 Kings, comparing
/ and 2 Chronicles as we pass along, using for
the captivity the narrative parts of Jeremiah
and Ezekiel, and for the subsequent period
Ezra and Nehemiah. This will give us the
history of Israel as it was understood by the
nation at the time of the exile ; some light on
the exile ; and the events which followed the
return. The actual dates of the historical books
are quite uncertain ; but they give an intelligible
narrative, bearing abundant marks of general
truthfulness. The main object of our study is
to learn the great lessons of this narrative.
We shall, however, do well to notice, while
thus following the narrative, any indications of the
126 c&e DID Ce0tament
date of the document before us. For example,
Gen. xxxvi. 3 1 could scarcely have been written
before the time of Saul. On the other hand,
the absence of any reference in ch. xlix. 5-7
to the great honour afterwards conferred on
the tribe of Levi, and the unmitigated curse
pronounced in these verses, in marked contrast
to Deut. xxxiii. 8-n, seem to indicate that the
blessing of Jacob comes down from a time
earlier than the Exodus. These conflicting
marks of time need not surprise us. For, in
the course of transmission, the Book of Genesis
may, like our Greek MSS. of the New Testa
ment, but to a far greater extent, have received
many modifications.
Our first task, when reading the Old Testa
ment as history, is to get before our mind the
events in their order of time, and in their local
environment. Where our main narrative is
supplemented by another, as Num. xiii. and xiv.
are supplemented by Deut. i. 22-45, anc ^ tne
Books of Kings by / and 3 Chronicles, the
accounts must be compared. In some cases this
will give additional facts ; as in 2 Chron. xxxiii.
as $)i0torp 127
12, 13, compared with 2 Kings xxi. 17. Any
discrepancies must be dealt with as we should
treat those in other ancient documents; for,
indeed, we have no other resource. For
example, we shall prefer the statement in 2 Sam.
xxiv. 24 to the later account in i Chron. xxi. 25.
A careful comparison of all the documents will
leave no room for doubt that in the main, with
trifling exceptions like that just noted, the Old
Testament gives us a correct account of the
actual history of the nation.
We shall notice the deep impression made
upon the thought, and even upon the religious
life, of the nation by its past history, especially
by the story of the Exodus, and in less degree
by that of the patriarchs, as seen in the Book
of Psalms and in the writings of the Prophets.
The definite and harmonious accounts of the
rescue from Egypt, the giving of the Law, and the
conquest of Canaan, bear witness to the reality
of the events narrated. In other words, the Old
Testament contains in itself, tested as we should
test any other documents of the past, abundant
and decisive proof of its own substantial truth.
128 5e flDto Cestament
Having thus determined the course of events,
we must endeavour to trace the various influ
ences from within and from without, personal
and material, human and superhuman, which
have moulded the course of the history of Israel.
Thus to read the inner significance of national
events, raises narratives into history, and makes
the story of one nation an illustration of human
life as a whole. In this way we trace up details
to broad principles ; and history becomes, not
merely a tale told, but a means of highest
culture.
In this deeper study of the history of Israel,
very great help is derived from the books of
the Prophets, which shed light, from independent
and contemporary points of view, upon the
consecutive narrative of the historical books.
We shall do well to read them along with the
Books of Kings and Chronicles. We shall
notice that Isa. xxxvi-xxxix. are almost iden
tical, except the Psalm in ch. xxxviii. 9-20,
with 2 Kings xviii. i3~xx. 19 ; and shah 1 observe
the close relation between Jer. lii. 1-27 and
2 Kings xxiv. i8-xxv. 21. In the books of
129
the prophets we have men living, moving,
speaking, and feeling, among the events narrated
in the historical books. This gives us another
point of view, enriching immensely the picture
before us. Of this enrichment the Book of
Jeremiah is a very good example. From the
point of view of the prophet s sad heart, sad
because patriotic and devout, we see the ruin
of Judah from within, as we cannot see that of
any other ancient nation.
Our historical study of the Old Testament
should be supplemented by that of the First
Book of Maccabees, a reliable narrative of a
most important crisis in the history of the nation
between the periods covered by the Old and
New Testaments respectively.
For effective historical study of the Bible we
need first careful examination of the documents,
one by one, so as to learn the facts recorded in
each, and to catch its tone and spirit; and
afterwards, as we pass from one to another,
a general survey of the whole, so as to read
the significance of each stage of the nation s
development as a part of its whole history.
I
HDID Ce0tament
This will involve, and it will abundantly repay,
the work of years. But it is within the reach
of all. Two or three hours a week, continued
for as many years, will produce wonderful results.
It will introduce us into a world far removed
from the prosaic things of daily life, and will
give to us a broader and deeper view of that
human life which is common to men in all ages
and nations. This wider outlook will be a
stimulus to further study.
The story of Israel stands alone as the earliest
and most wonderful in the ancient world. The
inscriptions and papyrus MSS. of Egypt, al
though revealing a civilization older than that
of Israel, and very important beliefs touching
a life beyond the grave, do not afford materials
for history. We have annals announcing the
great deeds of the Pharaohs; but very little
about the condition and development of the
people, or about the influences moulding their
development. But in the Old Testament we
find living pictures of Israel in Egypt, of their
waywardness and rebellion in the wilderness,
and of the chaos and the subjection to foreigners
as >:0torp 131
into which they fell after the death of Joshua.
We can trace the rescue of the nation from
foreign interference, and its consolidation, under
Samuel and David ; its splendour under Solomon,
revealing-, however, even before his death, marks
of decay ; and its disruption under Rehoboam.
Very true to life are the many revolutions, the
general instability, and the earlier captivity, which
followed the revolt of the Ten Tribes, in contrast
to the kingdom of Judah, where the dynasty of
David held the throne till more than a century
after the fall of Samaria.
We have then the tragedy of the destruction
of Jerusalem and the captivity in Babylon ; the
wonderful return from exile, the rebuilding of
the temple and of Jerusalem ; and lastly, most
wonderful of all, as narrated in the New Testa
ment, the uprising in the restored Jewish com
monwealth of a movement which has changed
for good the whole course of human life, and
which could not have been but for the return
from Babylon.
With this marvellous story, so interesting in
itself, laying open to view influences which have
I 2
132 &e flDto Ce0tament
moulded the whole subsequent history of our
race, no other national history can for a moment
be compared.
The Old Testament takes us even further back
than the birth of the nation in Egypt. Earlier
than Moses and the Exodus we have the story
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, apart from whom
the subsequent history of Israel would be
unintelligible. And, even before the birth of
Abraham we have a genealogical chain coming
down, through a great catastrophe witnessed to
by the legends of nearly all nations, from the
creation of man and of the world. So consistent
and instructive an account of the origin of a
nation and of the world is not found, nor is any
thing worthy of comparison with it, in the entire
literature of man.
H
THE RELIGIOUS TEACHING OF THE
OLD TESTAMENT
A conspicuous element distinguishing the
historical parts of the Old Testament from all
other ancient history is the personal and super-
CeacWng; 133
natural presence and activity of God as Himself
the chief actor in history, and the directive prin
ciple of all that is best in human action. The
great historical work contained in Genesis-
2 Kings begins appropriately with the creation
of the world and of man by an intelligent Person
absolutely distinct from all that He made. He
speaks to Adam and Eve, and afterwards to Cain.
With Him walk Enoch and Noah. He made
with Abraham and his descendants a covenant
promising blessings for all mankind. With
supernatural power He brought Israel out of
Egypt, renewed with them the covenant given
to Abraham, and gave them a moral and civil
law and a complicated ritual. In later days,
throughout the whole history, prophets appear
speaking in the name of God, recalling Israel
from sin, and announcing deliverance for the
faithful and punishment for the disobedient.
This important element in the Old Testament
demands careful and systematic attention.
Our method of research must be the same as
for the New Testament ; see 10. We must
take each book separately, and endeavour to
134 C6e Din Cestament
reproduce its writer s conceptions about God
and man, and about God s relation to man ; and
compare one with another these reproduced con
ceptions, so as to reach the religious teaching of
the Old Testament as a whole in its relation to
that of other contemporaneous and subsequent
literature. And, as before, we shall do well, in
view of the uncertainty of the dates of the his
torical books, to take them in the order in which
we find them in our Bibles.
We notice throughout the Old Testament the
clear and confident knowledge of one Personal
God, the intelligent Creator of whatever exists,
the righteous Ruler and loving Helper of all
men. In this conception we find no signs of
development, and no room for development. It
is as clearly presented in the Decalogue, which
is undoubtedly one of the earliest parts of the
Bible, as in the Psalms and the Book of Daniel.
In this respect the Old Testament anticipates
wonderfully the teaching of Christ.
This clear and unanimous teaching of one
personal Creator and Ruler of men, rising some
times into joyful confidence in Him, raises the
Ceac&ing; 135
Old Testament infinitely above all ancient litera
ture until the time of Christ, even above the
wonderful literature of Greece. There can be
no greater contrast than that between Gen. i.
and the Timaeus of Plato, which deals with the
same subject, or between Ps. xxiii. and all the
hymns of the Indian Veda. This infinite contrast
can be explained only as the Old Testament
explains it, viz. that the Creator of the world
revealed Himself to Abraham and his descendants
in a way altogether different from that in which,
in nature, He reveals Himself to all mankind.
Notice carefully in Genesis the various mani
festations of God to men, the commands and
promises given, and the religious life thus evoked
in man, e.g. Enoch walking with God, the
building of the Ark, the faith and obedience of
Abraham, and the rudimentary worship of the
patriarchal age.
In Exodus we find another type of religious
life differing conspicuously from that in Genesis,
but resting on the same knowledge of God, and
indeed on God s covenant with Abraham. God
has now become the Saviour and Leader of the
136 Cfje DID Ce0tament
nation which sprang from Abraham. He there
fore claims their allegiance, and prescribes for
them a complicated ritual. He bid them erect
for Him a sacred tent, in which He dwelt and
journeyed in their midst, revealing Himself in
the pillar of cloud and of fire ; ordained for
Himself an order of priests to be His domestic
servants, and sacrifices to be the bread laid daily
on His table. In that complicated ritual with its
various holy objects the service of the unseen
God was set conspicuously before the eyes of
Israel. This symbolic teaching is worthy of
careful study. Its real significance for us is
taught in Rom. xii. i ; Heb. ix. 11-14, 2 3~ 2 6;
i Pet. ii. 5, &c.
A much higher type of religious teaching is
found in Deuteronomy, resting however upon
the same basis as that of Exodus Numbers.
The unity and spirituality of God are again
asserted ; and Israel is bidden to love Him with
all their heart, to ponder His words, and to teach
them to their children. The highest point is
reached in ch. xxx. 6, where God promises to
work in His people the devotion He requires:
EUltgious Ceaclnng 137
Jehovah thy God will circumcise thy heart and
the heart of thy seed to love Jehovah thy God
with all thy heart and with all thy soul that thou
mayest live.
The chief religious teaching of the Pentateuch
is that there is one God, the Creator of heaven
and earth ; that He is the covenant God of Israel,
and claims the obedience and devotion of all His
servants ; that He will reward obedience with
abundant blessing, and will punish severely all
disobedience and unfaithfulness.
This general teaching is applied by the pro
phets to the specific circumstances of their own
day. They denounce the idolatry prevalent
even in Israel, and warn of coming punishment.
And, in times of peril, e. g. Isa. xxxvii. 21-35,
they encourage trust in God and promise deliver
ance. In the Book of Psalms we have re-echoes,
in the hearts of men, of the revelations of God to
Israel. We have in various forms a deep con
sciousness of sin, a cry for pardon and purifica
tion, assurance of pardon granted, and joyful
confidence in God: e. g. Pss. li. 1-5, 7-12, xxxii.
i, 2, xxiii, Ixiii. i-S. Notice also, e.g. Ps.
138 C6e SDIU Cestament
Ixxviii, that the events of the history of the
nation mould its religious thoughts, and evoke
praise to God. This intimate connexion of
history with religion is without parallel in the
ancient world.
The prophets look forward with confidence
to great blessings to come, which they depict
with glowing colours : e.g. Jer. xxxi. 31-34;
Ezek. xxxvi. 24-34 ; Isa. Ix. In this vision of
the future, and in its general theological teaching,
the BookofZ?<2mV/isin some respects in advance
of the rest of the Old Testament. The writer
foresees the rise and fall of great empires,
a greater empire set up by God which shall
cover the earth and stand for ever, resurrection
of the dead, judgement committed to One in
human form coming with the clouds to reign
for ever, eternal life for some of the risen ones,
and shame and eternal abhorrence for others.
This teaching comes nearer to that of Christ than
does any other in the Old Testament. Indeed
the terms Son of Man and eternal life, used
in the Book of Daniel, are conspicuous elements
in the teaching of Christ.
Ceacfring; 139
We shall do well to note, throughout the Old
Testament, rudimentary teaching more fully
developed in the New, the elements in which
the Old anticipates the New, and others in which
the New surpasses the Old. Throughout the
earlier Scriptures we have one personal God,
who has entered into covenant with Israel, which
covenant He faithfully keeps, and on the ground
of which He claims their unreserved allegiance,
the Ruler and righteous Judge of all men. Occa
sionally He is spoken of, or compared to, a father:
e.g. 2 Sam. vii. 14; Pss. Ixviii. 5, Ixxxix. 26,
ciii. 13. But that God is the Father of His
servants is a new and conspicuous feature of the
teaching of Christ. Similarly we have in Deut.
vii. 8 ; i Kings x. 9, and in a few other places,
God s love to Israel. But in the New Testament
the love of God holds a unique place as the cen
tral attribute of God : e. g. John iii. 16 ; Rom. v. 5,
8; i John iv. 8-16. We have here a marked
development in man s knowledge of God.
A still more conspicuous feature of the New
Testament as compared with the Old Testament
is Christ s claim to be, and the homage paid to
140 8e HDID Cestament
Him as, infinitely greater and nearer to God than
the greatest and best of men. This gives to us
an entirely new and all-important conception of
God, viz. as embracing a plurality of persons,
this involving eternal society, order, harmony,
and love. Of this divine plurality the earlier
Scriptures contain only scanty and uncertain anti
cipations. This new conception of God, which
has dominated the thought of the followers of
Christ in all ages, is proved, by its almost com
plete absence from the Old Testament, to be due
to Jesus Christ.
In Isa. Iv. 7 ; Ps. xxxii. i, 2, &c., we have the
pardon of sins ; but the references to it are few
and indefinite. In the New Testament, e.g.
Matt. ix. 6, xxvi. 28 ; Mark i. 4 ; Luke xxiv. 47 ;
Acts ii. 38, xiii. 38, xxvi. 18 ; i John ii. 12, it is
a conspicuous element of the Gospel of Christ.
Similarly the faith of Abraham, so prominent in
Gen. xv. 6, is appealed to in Rom. iv. 3 as an
anticipation of the faith in Christ which is the
condition of salvation in the New Covenant.
Holiness, which is in the Old Testament in some
sense a prerogative of the family of Aaron, is in
Ceaciring
the New Testament a privilege of all believers :
with Num. xvi. 3, 5 contrast i Cor. i. i. And
the external symbolic holiness of the ancient
priesthood receives its spiritual realization and
its explanation in the consecration of all the ser
vants of Christ, e. g. i Thess. v. 23 ; i Cor. vii. 34.
In contrast to the gift of the Spirit of God
to certain persons in the Old Testament, a uni
versal gift of the Spirit in days to come is in
Joel ii. 28, 29 promised to all servants of God.
Similarly, in Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26, we have a pro
mise of purification and of a new heart ; and in
Jer. xxxi. 31-34 a promise of a new covenant
involving pardon of sins. Of this last we have
a remarkable fulfilment in Matt. xxvi. 28 ; Mark
xiv. 24 ; Luke xxii. 20 ; i Cor. xi. 25.
A comparison of the Old Testament with all
contemporary literature reveals to us the immense
benefit derived by Israel from the historical reve
lation therein recorded. This benefit is confirmed
by the great spiritual help derived from the Old
Testament even by those who have learnt in the
school of Christ : a remarkable proof of the con
tinuity of the spiritual life under both covenants.
142 C6e flDto Ce0tament
The immense superiority of the New Testament
to the Old reveals the transforming influence of
the teaching of Christ. Thus the Scriptures of
each covenant contain within themselves decisive
proof of a supernatural revelation of God to man.
15
THE INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY
In ancient Israel we find, as a conspicuous
feature of the life of the nation, men called
prophets, who spoke to the kings and people
under a special divine inspiration as a mouthpiece
of God to His covenant people, rebuking sin,
exhorting to righteousness, encouraging to trust
in God in times of peril, announcing the awful
punishment awaiting sinners in Israel and among
the Gentiles, and sometimes foretelling the erec
tion of an eternal and glorious Kingdom of God.
Many of these predictions were in due time ful
filled: others still await fulfilment. In close
harmony with them we find predictions also in
the New Testament, in part fulfilled, in great
part awaiting fulfilment.
The chief interest of prophecy is with unful-
interpretation of iprop&ecp 143
filled predictions. But the only safe method of
interpreting these is to examine those already
fulfilled, and to compare as well as we can the
prediction with its fulfilment. A few examples
will illustrate this method.
In time of national peril, as recorded in Isa.
xxxvii. 1-5, the King of Judah sends for help
to the prophet Isaiah, and receives in reply, as
recorded in vv. 6, 7, and 21-35, assurances from
God that He will defend Jerusalem, and that the
King of Assyria shall return and die in his own
land. The complete fulfilment of these promises
is recorded in vv. 36-38. On the other hand,
after Hezekiah had ostentatiously displayed his
treasures to messengers from Babylon, Isaiah
foretells, as recorded in ch. xxxix. 6, that these
treasures will be carried as plunder to Babylon,
which was then no seat of empire, but subordinate
to Assyria.
The Book of Jeremiah is a pathetic example
of a prophet rebuking idolatry, immorality, and
forgetfulness of God in Israel, pleading with the
people to repent, and announcing the ruin which
will follow continued disobedience.
Ct)e 2DID Ce0tament
Another conspicuous element in Old Testa
ment prophecy is the announcement of the utter
destruction awaiting the godless and trium
phant enemies of Israel. Among these Babylon
holds a unique place. Its tremendous fall is
depicted with dramatic grandeur in Isa. xiii,
xiv, and again in Jer. 1, li. Similar is the
destruction of Edom in Isa. xxxiv ; of Tyre in
Ezek. xxvi-xxviii. 19 ; and of other ancient
nations elsewhere.
The moral significance of these prophecies is
at once evident. For the apparently irresistible
victory of Babylon was a triumph of godless
brute force. It was needful to assert that she
was only an instrument in the hand of God, and
that even His instruments will receive just
punishment for their sins. The prophet s fore
sight was prompted by his moral intuition. In
the moral turpitude of the conqueror he read his
approaching doom.
The destruction threatened to Babylon in
Isa. xiii. 19-22 has found literal and conspicuous
fulfilment in the desolation which for long ages
has enshrouded the site of the once populous
Jnterpretatton of ipropjjecp 145
and powerful city. But, although the doom of
Edom in Isa. xxxiv. has been abundantly fulfilled
in the desolation which has long reigned there,
we have no exact fulfilment of vv. 9, 10. Evi
dently these last are but the drapery of the
picture. Taken as a whole, the fate of Edom
could not have been better described than it is
in this chapter. But the correspondence is in
broad outlines, not in small details.
The terrible prophecy, in Deut. xxviii. 15-68,
of the punishment awaiting Israel in case of dis
obedience has received in the whole history of
the Jews a terrible fulfilment. In the destruction
of Jerusalem by the Romans not a few details of
this prophecy were reproduced. But even here
points of difference warn us that its significance
is to be found, not in details, but in broad moral
principles.
Very remarkable is the description in Isa. lii.
i3-liii. of the suffering Servant of Jehovah. The
precise thought of the writer we cannot now
determine. But its close agreement, recognized
already in i Pet. ii. 22-24, with the sufferings
and death of Christ cannot, in view of the great
K
146 C6e Din Cestament
importance attributed to His death in the New
Testament, be accidental. This remarkable and
all-important coincidence, which no one could
foresee even at the latest date possible for the
prophecy, reveals in this human writing the
guiding hand of God.
Beyond the varying fortunes of Israel and
the surrounding nations the prophets foresaw, as
a development of God s covenant with their race,
an era of infinite blessing; a new covenant sur
passing far that given to their fathers, pardon
and moral purification, and blessings beyond all
earthly prosperity : so Jer. xxxi. 31-40 ; Ezek.
xxxvi. 24-38, xxxvii. 21-28 ; Isa. Ix-lxvi.
The exact interpretation of these prophecies
is very difficult. Much is evidently figurative:
and we cannot distinguish between the figurative
and the literal. Some prophecies suggest fulfil
ment in the present order of Nature: others, e.g.
Isa. Ixv. 25, suggest (cp. v. 17) new heavens and
a new earth. We must seek, and I think we
can find, light in other and later Scriptures.
The Book of Daniel differs greatly, in form
and matter, from the other prophecies. Its
interpretation of Prop&ecg 147
pictorial symbols have analogies in Ezekiel and
Zechariah. But its general outlook is different.
Beyond the rise and fall of successive empires,
and upon their ruins, the writer sees a Kingdom
which shall never pass away, and over it One
distinct from the Supreme and bearing human
form: chs. ii. 34, 35, 44, 45; vii. 13, 14, 27.
And he announces that many who sleep in the
dust will awake, some to eternal life, and some
to shame, to eternal abhorrence. This implies
resurrection and judgement and endless splendour
beyond the grave.
The above prophecies of blessing to come
are already receiving, in the rise and spread of
Christianity and Christian civilization, a partial
fulfilment. For indisputably Christianity arose
out of Israel ; and the immense superiority of the
Christian nations, material, moral, and spiritual,
reveals the greatness of the benefits it has already
conferred on mankind, benefits increasing every
year and rapidly overspreading the world. And,
to the faith and hope of the servants of Christ,
these present blessings are precursors of eternal
glory in the City of God. In that glory, the
K 2
148 C6e interpretation of
ancient prophecies will find complete fulfilment.
In other words, amid national decadence and
ruin, the prophets of Israel foresaw a salvation
and blessing- surpassing all earthly good, and
a Kingdom of peace and glory which will abide
for ever. This expectation, far beyond reach of
human foresight, reveals in them the Hand and
Voice of God.
In Matt. xxiv. 1-22; Mark xiii. 1-20; Luke
xxi. 5-24, we have a definite prophecy of the
destruction of the temple at Jerusalem ; and in
the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, its fulfil
ment.
Closely following this prophecy, and elsewhere
frequently in the New Testament, we have, in
remarkable agreement with Dan. vii. 13, 14
(notice the term the Son of Man, recalling the
less definite term One like a son of man ), an
announcement that Christ will suddenly return
from heaven to earth, to raise the dead, to judge
all men, to close the present order of things,
to receive His servants into eternal life, and to
inflict tremendous punishment or. the wicked:
so Matt. xxv. 31-46 ; John v. 28, 29 ; i Thess. iv.
149
I4~v. 5; 2 Thess. i. 7, 8 ; i Cor. xv. 51-54, and
elsewhere frequently. This remarkable doctrine,
found with practical agreement in various books
of the New Testament, was evidently a con
spicuous element in the teaching of Christ and
His Apostles. The comparison with the flood
in Matt. xxiv. 37, &c., and with the destruction
of Sodom in Luke xvii. 29, 30, suggest very
strongly that Christ, on His return, will find the
world in sin : and in 2 Thess. ii. 8 we read that
His coming will be preceded by some new and
awful form of evil, which He will destroy.
What this last will be, no one knows. And
conjecture is of little value.
The Book of Revelation presents special diffi
culties, due in part to its obscure symbolism, and
in part to the fact that much of it refers to
matters still future even to us. Our chief aid in
its interpretation is a careful comparison of its
many coincidences with the prophetic parts of
the Old Testament, and especially with the books
of Daniel and Ezekiel, which evidently greatly
influenced the writer s thought and phrase.
These coincidences may be detected by using-
150 5e interpretation of
the Revised Version with references. Cf. Rev.
i. 13 with Dan. vii. 13 ; v. 15 with Ezek. i. 7,
Dan. x. 6 ; Rev. iv. 3 with Ezek. i. 28 ; vv. 6-8
with Ezek. i. 5-11 and Isa. vi. 2, 3; Rev. xiii.
i, 2 with Dan. vii. 2-8 ; Rev. xx. 8 with Ezek.
xxxviii. 2, xxxix. i ; Rev. xxi. i with Isa. Ixv.
17, Ixvi. 22 ; and much else. Amid many things
which we cannot understand the main teaching
of the book is clear and helpful ; and in full
harmony with the rest of the New Testament.
In the immediate future we see storms and con
fusion ; beyond these, the new heaven and earth,
the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven
as a bride adorned for her husband, the river of
the water of life, bright as crystal, the tree of life
whose leaves are for the healing of the nations,
and tears and sorrow and death disappearing
at the dawn of endless day.
The visions of glory in Rev. xxi. and xxii,
which evidently describe a blessing beyond the
grave, are the best key to Isa. Ix. 18-21, Ixv. 25,
and other similar passages. Although we have
no right to limit the blessings which God will
bestow during the present order of things, which
151
possibly may exceed all our expectations, the
teaching of the entire New Testament compels
the servants of Christ to look for the full realiza
tion of their hopes, to the new earth and heaven
which Christ at His coming will create.
A peculiar difficulty in the Book of Revelation
is the thousand years in ch. xx. i-io, during
which Satan is to be bound, followed by his
liberation and a great apostasy, and this by
a universal judgement and the eternal glory.
This difficult topic is beyond the scope of this
volume. But it must be dealt with on the
general principles here laid down. These ten
verses, in which atone in the entire Bible we
read of a long period of blessing followed by
apostasy, must be interpreted in harmony with
the rest of the New Testament ; not the rest of
the New Testament by these verses.
Another difficulty is the expectation of an
early return of Christ expressed in Matt. xvi. 28,
and less definitely in chs. x. 23, xxiv. 24; and
which may be traced in i Thess. iv. 15; i Cor.
xv. 51 ; i John ii. 18. This expectation is a sure
note of the very early date of these documents :
152
for it could not have been cherished after the
whole generation which listened to Christ had
passed away. It cannot be further discussed here.
Prophecy becomes intelligible and helpful, in
Old Testament and New Testament, if we keep
in view the circumstances in which it was spoken
and its moral purpose. It was given, not to
gratify our curiosity about events still future,
but to assert and emphasize great moral principles
which underlie God s administration of the world
and will determine our own destiny. The future
is in His hand : and only so much is disclosed to
us as is needful to guide our steps. Recognition
of these limits will save us from the vagaries
which have done so much to discredit the study
of unfulfilled prophecy, and will make this study
both safe and helpful.
16
THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE
Some parts of the Bible, especially Gen. i-iii,
deal with topics which fall in part within the
domain of Natural Science. How are we to
understand them?
ant) Science 153
Reproduce first from his own words, without any
attempt to harmonize, the ideas which the sacred
writer intended to convey; and then compare
them with the assured results of modern Science,
noting carefully points of agreement and differ
ence. The writer of Genesis anticipated modern
Science by teaching that the world was not
always as it now is, that it existed before life
appeared upon it, and that the various forms
of life arose successively, the lower before the
higher, culminating in the life of man. He goes
far beyond all Natural Science by teaching that
both life and the universe sprang from, and are
controlled by, an intelligent Creator, who after
wards entered into covenant with Abraham and
with Israel, and in later days sent His Son into
the world to become its Saviour and Lord. This
teaching is far more valuable to us than all
Natural Science. For the forces of Nature are
crushing us to death. We therefore anxiously
ask whence came these forces and ourselves,
and whether there is One greater than they to
whom we can look for help. The seriousness
of these questions explains why the Bible, the
154 Cfie IMtfe
record of the supernatural and historical revela
tions of God to man, contains an account of the
origin of the universe and of man.
Such account needs, as its literary clothing,
certain rudiments of Natural Science. But, to
anticipate the Science of a later day, would be
contrary to all analogy of revelation. Conse
quently, the inspired teacher must use the
Science of his own day. Fortunately, this was
sufficiently extensive and accurate for the re
ligious lessons he had to convey. Indeed, if the
writer of Genesis had had before him all results
of modern Science, he could not have written
an account better fitted for the religious needs
of men than that which he has given us. It no
more needs to be brought up to date than do
the phrases sun-rise and sun-set, which are
sufficiently accurate for popular use, to be
adapted to the Copernican astronomy.
The points in which Genesis differs from the
assured results of Science have no bearing on its
spiritual lessons ; and must be interpreted as the
drapery of the picture, as are many details in
parables and in prophecy. Although light is
ana Science 155
probably earlier than the sun, we cannot con
ceive a succession of days and nights before the
sun existed. Evidently, the six days of creation,
followed by the day of sacred rest, were the
beautiful and helpful form into which the writer
cast the great truth that the world and the
universe and all the various forms of life, culmi
nating in man, sprang step by step from the
hands of one intelligent First Cause.
The story of the rib made into woman calls
attention to sex as a definite part of God s
creative purpose ; a lesson confirmed by the
infinite benefits, material, intellectual, and spiri
tual, flowing from the distinction of man and
woman. Similarly, the death -penalty threatened
in paradise proclaims the ruin which follows sin.
These lessons are not weakened by the fact that
both death and sex existed in animals long
before man. For evidently the lower animals
are steps leading up to man ; and receive from
him their real worth. Moreover, as we are well
taught in Gen. ii. 7, in man two worlds meet,
a body akin to animals and a spirit akin to
God. Each of these elements claims to rule
156 C6e IBitJle in
man s life. As matter of fact, he followed the
lower. We therefore need not wonder that,
acting like an animal, he fell under the doom
of animals. What would have happened if man
had not sinned, we do not know ; and Science
cannot tell us. In the above sense, we may
accept the teaching in i Cor. xv. 22 ; Rom. v. 12
that all men die because Adam sinned.
These examples help us to understand the
passages in the Bible which touch, or enter
within the boundaries of, Natural Science. We
must endeavour to reproduce the writer s thought,
test his references to Science as we should any
other similar references, and seek the spiritual
purpose which underlies them.
*7
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH
A few words now about the place of the Bible
in the Christian life, in the communities in which
that life has taken organized and visible form,
and in the still wider Kingdom of God.
The Bible contains records of supernatural
revelations from God to men, including the
tfje Cfwrcf) 157
supreme revelation in Christ and certain pre
paratory revelations leading up to, and opening
a way for, it ; also records of facts needful to
explain these revelations and to prove that they
are from God ; and various expressions of
spiritual life evoked in men by these revelations
from God and helpful for the enrichment of the
spiritual life of subsequent ages.
The correctness of these records must be
tested as we should test any other records of
the past. And, the more searching the exam
ination, the more evident will their substantial
historic truthfulness appear. The moral teaching
of the Bible, with a few exceptions which bear
witness to the imperfection of the preparatory
revelations, secures at once the homage of our
moral sense, and, by raising and strengthening
it, still further attests its divine authority, and
thus confirms the historical evidence that it came
from God.
These records, and the revelations recorded,
are sufficient, in their extent and in the certainty
they afford, for all our spiritual needs. And the
fitness and sufficiency of the records are no small
158 &e TMrte in
attestation of their divine origin. On the other
hand, apart from such records, we should not
have the firm historical foundation needful for
intelligent faith. In that case, the purpose of
mercy for which God gave the Gospel, and gave
up His Son to die, would not have been attained.
We therefore infer that the record also is from
God ; that He who gave His Son to die for man s
salvation, did all that was needful to secure the
attainment of the purpose for which He died, or,
in other words, that the needful record is itself
an integral part of God s purpose of salvation.
Moreover, the great and abiding usefulness of
the Old Testament, as a record of earlier and
preparatory revelations and a picture of the
spiritual life thereby evoked in men, in contrast
both to the heathen world which had only the
universal revelation of God in Nature and to
the fuller teaching given by Christ, is complete
proof that it also is a gift from God. This is
not disproved by the lower moral tone found
here and there. For these imperfections are
necessary parts of a correct picture of an im
perfect spiritual life such as we may expect
t&e Ciwrc}) 159
under a preparatory revelation. Nor is it
disproved by occasional historical discrepancies :
for these cannot set aside the abundant evidence
for its general truthfulness, which is all that
really concerns us.
Since the sacred records were written by
human fingers, and since the Holy Spirit is the
divine Person who comes into immediate contact
with the mind of man, we infer with certainty
that these records are due to His agency ; i. e.
that they are a result of a special divine influence
resting upon the writers of the Bible, prompting
them to write and guarding and directing them
while writing. In this sense the writers of the
New Testament sometimes (e. g. Acts xxviii. 25 ;
Heb. x. 15, 1 6) quote the Old Testament as a
voice of the Spirit of God ; and once (2 Tim.
iii. 1 6) as divinely-inspired.
To this special divine influence must be
attributed the wonderful fitness of the Bible to
maintain and develop the spiritual life of men,
or, in other words, its sufficiency for the purpose
for which it was given.
This special inspiration and the above-men-
160 C6e 16tWe in tbe Cfwrci)
tioned divine purpose of Holy Scripture must
be ever kept in view. We read in order to
learn and understand the most wonderful teach
ing- ever spoken by human lips or embodied in
human literature, and to learn all we can about
the most wonderful events which ever took
place on earth ; in order to hear the voice of
Him who made both earth and heaven, from
whose face some day both earth and heaven
will vanish, in order that from Him we may
receive eternal life and enter the Kingdom which
shall never pass away.
In this study, our Teacher will be the great
Spirit who knows all the deep things of God,
who guided the sacred writers, and will guide
us into the meaning of their words. Thus will
the sacred book become a holy temple irra
diated by the presence of God : and every hour
of study will be worship of its unseen Inhabitant,
and a revelation of His glory.
