Story of Our English Bible
Walter Biggar Scott
Table of Contents
Prefatory Note.
It has been our endeavor in the following pages to impart reliable information upon the external form and internal contents of the matchless volume of inspiration, to furnish help on points and questions of a Biblical character, to record statements and facts, and to present a, condensed but accurate account of the various English translations of the Sacred Scriptures from the days of Wycliffe to the publication of the recent revised New Testament.
We are satisfied from personal knowledge that the Holy Ghost come down as a person from Christ in glory (John 7:39), has been creating in the souls of thousands of saints deep and earnest longings to know more of God and of His blessed Word. The Holy Scriptures are pouring out their inexhaustible treasures to the Spirit-taught and prayerful reader, while the number of “Bible Readings” are increasing to an extent unprecedented hitherto.
In view of the deep and spreading interest in all that relates to the Word of God, and further as a protest, however feeble, against the religious infidelity now so unhappily current in the professing Church, we have prepared “Our English Bible,” with its histories and other helps.
It was in the conviction that the book would prove a blessing and aid to many that we undertook the service. We now lay it down at the Master’s feet as a lowly tribute of love to Him, and of service to His saints, for whom the writer cordially and fervently prays that “grace, mercy, and peace from God, the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior,” may be multiplied.
W. S.
Chapter 1.
The Scriptures Are Divine and the Text Divinely Preserved.
It is now more than a quarter of a century since we began reading the Holy Scriptures with spiritually-opened eyes, and we avow our deep and growing conviction that these imperishable, because divine, records of eternal truths and realities are indelibly impressed with the character of God, and hence of unquestioned authority over the soul.
We can readily understand an unbeliever questioning the truthfulness of the divine oracles, because thus only can the authority of God, so troublesome to a guilty conscience, be set aside. We may also remark that the religious infidelity of the day is characterized by impeaching the veracity of everything divinely revealed, and ends by believing nothing. But what we so earnestly desire for every Christian reader of the Scriptures is, if possible, a deepening moral certainty that these writings, from the first word in Genesis to the “Amen” closing the Revelation, are fully and verbally inspired of God.
The Scriptures Are Either Divine or Human.
To say that the Scriptures are supernatural in character because of the grand subjects they unfold, because of the practical duties they inculcate, because of the divine Savior and magnificent salvation they disclose, is but a feeble, and at best a partial statement of a weighty and profound truth. But if only supernatural, do they reflect angelic intelligence? Were they written by the pen of the archangel? Nay; the Holy Scriptures are either human or divine in their source and character. Just face the difficulty. Could man have forged these sixty-six separate books! Could man have delineated, in every detail, the life of the Holy One? Why, he himself must have been absolutely perfect ere he could have sketched such a divinely perfect life.
Would it not be a miracle to suppose a succession of about forty to fifty impostors, of different nationalities, living at different times, and some residing 1400 miles apart, totally unacquainted with each other—so that many never exchanged word or letter—and this course of systematic deception continued during the long period of nigh 1600 years?—for, mark it well, divine authority is claimed for each book, and the same themes as ruin and redemption, but with ever-increasing fullness of disclosure, run through the entire divine volume. It would just be as easy for man to create and sustain worlds as to have written the Bible. Is it not so? But the Bible is divine.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” is a comprehensive statement, embracing all then penned, as also those then unwritten. Nor must the reader for an instant suppose that the Holy Spirit influenced the minds of the writers merely, leaving thereby the divine truths of revelation to be communicated hi words of man’s choice. The Scriptures, not the thoughts or truths of Scripture, are inspired. Scripture means writing, and writings are composed of words and letters; hence these are inspired. But we are not left to reason it out, however logically this may be done. Let this divine oracle suffice for all who have ears to hear—“Which things also we speak... in the words... which the Holy Ghost teacheth” (1 Cor. 2:13).
Has the reader ever seriously reflected upon the admirably-chosen words in which the Holy Ghost has clothed the doctrines, truths, and facts of divine revelation? Has the inimitable perfection of the word of God, so stamped its character upon his soul that he rises from every fresh reading and study of these precious records, with ever-increasing delight and deepening conviction that they are in deed and in truth the very revelation of God, of Christ, of eternity to man?
Preservation of the Old Testament Scriptures.
The Old Testament oracles were committed to Jewish keeping (Rom. 3:2), and more faithful guardians, even to the least letter of their sacred books, there could not be. We cannot but own the providential care and rich mercy of God in the singular preservation of the text, uncorrupted, of the Old Testament—preserved through sixty centuries of unexampled trial and oppression, of striking and eventful vicissitudes, of persistent and determined efforts to destroy it—making up a story which reads more like romance than reality. The Pharisees, morally blind, as undoubtedly they were, yet scrupulously observant of the least of their traditional observances, were never guilty of tampering with the sacred text; nor were the rival sect of the Sadducees, who held the Pentateuch only to be of divine authority, ever charged with corrupting the text of Moses. We possess the books of the Old Testament in our noble English version substantially as they left the hands of the inspired penman.
Where are the records of antiquity? Where are the Hebrew and the Greek books prior to the times of Christ? Where are the classical MSS. of the ancients? All have perished and are forgotten, save the names of some which have been rescued from oblivion, and fragments, not original, of others. The oldest and only trustworthy documents of the past ages are those of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures.
PROFESSOR GAUSSEN ON THE PRESERVATION ON THE TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
The following weighty extracts, from the French of Professor Gaussen, present some admirable and scholarly statements on the preservation of the sacred text:
“The Lord has miraculously watched over His word. Facts demonstrate this. In the first place, by constituting the Jews its depositaries, and afterward the Christians, His providence thus charged itself with watching that the oracles of God should be faithfully transmitted to us. This has been done; and to attain this result, various causes were brought into operation, of which we shall have to speak hereafter. Recent researches of science have placed this face in the light of day. Herculean labors have been undertaken to collect all the readings, or variations, which could be supplied, either by the diligent examination of the manuscripts of the sacred writings, preserved in the various libraries of Europe, the study of the most ancient versions, or the investigation of the innumerable quotations made from the sacred books throughout the writings of the Fathers of the Church; and this immense labor has furnished a result admirable in its insignificance, imposing by its nullity.
“All this labor has established so convincingly the astonishing preservation of the text, copied, nevertheless, so many thousand times (in Hebrew during thirty-three centuries, and in Greek during 1800 years), that the, hopes of the enemies of religion, in this channel, have been overwhelmed: they have ceased to hope for anything from the critical researches which they were at first so vehement in recommending, because they expected discoveries which have not been made. A learned rationalist himself acknowledges that the different readings of the Hebrew manuscripts scarcely afford enough interest to repay the labor bestowed upon them. But these very miscalculations, and the absence of these discoveries, have been a precious discovery for the Church of God. This was what she expected; but she has to rejoice in owing it to the labors of her adversaries:— ‘In truth,’ says a scholar of our times, ‘if we set aside those admirable negative conclusions at which they have arrived, the obvious result obtained by the lives of so many men consumed in these mighty researches appears to be nothing; and it may be said that to arrive at it they have foolishly squandered time, talent, and science.’
“But, as we have said, this result is immense by its nothingness, and all-powerful by its insignificance. When it is remembered that the Bible has been copied during thirty centuries, as no book of man ever was, or ever will be; that it was borne with Israel in all their vicissitudes and captivities; that it was transported for seventy years to Babylon; that from the days of the Philistines to those of the Seleucidæ it has been so often persecuted, forgotten, interdicted, and burnt; when it is remembered that from the time of Jesus it had to endure the first three centuries of imperial persecutions, in which those convicted of having it in their possession were sentenced to be torn by wild beasts; after which came the, seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, in which were everywhere multiplied false books, legends, and decretals; the tenth century, in which so few men knew how to read, even among princes; the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth, in which the use of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue was punished by death. In the remembrance of all this, it will be well understood how necessary it was that God should always keep His powerful arm uplifted, in order that, on the one hand, the Jewish Church should give us, in full integrity, that word which records their rebellion, predicts their ruin, and testifies of Jesus; and on the other, that the Christian Churches (the most, powerful of which, and especially the Roman sect, prohibited the people from reading the sacred books, and set aside the Word of God for traditions) should, notwithstanding, transmit to us, in all their purity, those writings which condemn all their traditions.
“Now, although all the libraries which possess ancient copies of the sacred books have been summoned as witnesses; although the commentaries of the Fathers of every country have been examined; although the Arabic, Syriac, Latin, Armenian, Ethiopic, and other versions have been compared; although all the manuscripts of all countries, and of every age, from the third to the sixteenth century, have been examined a thousand times by innumerable critics, who sought with ardor, as the reward and glory of their sleepless toil, for some new reading; and although the learned, not content with the libraries of the West, have visited those of Russia, and extended their researches to the convents of Mount Athos, of Asiatic Turkey, and of Egypt, in quest of new records of the sacred text—yet has nothing been discovered, not even a single reading, which can cast doubt upon any of the passages hitherto received as authentic. All the variations, with scarcely one exception, leave untouched the essential meaning of each sentence, and relate merely to points of secondary importance, such as the insertion or omission of an article or conjunction, the position of an adjective before or after its substantive, and the accuracy, more or less important, of grammatical construction.
“It is well known that among the Jews it was the profession of the Masorites, or doctors of tradition, to transcribe the Scriptures. We know to what extent these indefatigable scholars carried their respect for the letter; and when we read the rules under which their labors were carried on, we understand the use that the providence of God (who had ‘confided his oracles to the Jews’) made of their reverence, severe exactitude, and even of their superstition. They reckoned the number of verses, words, and letters in each book. They tell us, for instance, that the letter A occurs forty-two thousand three hundred and seventy-seven times in the Bible; the letter B thirty-eight thousand two hundred and eighteen times; and so on to the end. They were scrupulous of changing the position even of a letter, though evidently misplaced, but limited themselves to noting it in the margin, supposing some mystery was involved. They tell us which is the middle letter of the Pentateuch, as well as of each of the books of which it is composed. They never allowed themselves to correct their manuscript; and if any mistake escaped them, they rejected the papyrus or the skin which they had blemished, and recommenced upon a fresh one; for they were equally interdicted from even correcting one of their errors, and from retaining for their sacred volume a single parchment or skin in which an erasure had been made....
“These facts, we repeat it, together with the astonishing preservation of the Hebrew text (1200 years more ancient than that of the Septuagint), plainly tell us how the intervention of the mighty hand of God was needed in the destinies of this sacred book.
On the Preservation of the Text of the New Testament,
“So far the Old Testament; but think not that the Providence which watched over this holy book, and confided it to the Jews (Rom. 3:1-2), has less protected the oracles of the New Testament, which were committed by God to His new people. To these He has not left less reason for gratitude and confidence.
“Such, then, has been the astonishing preservation of the Greek manuscripts which have handed down the New Testament to us, that—after the sacred text has been copied and recopied so many thousand times in Europe, Asia, or in Africa, in convents, colleges, palaces, or in presbyteries, and this almost without interruption, during the long course of 1500 years—notwithstanding during the last three centuries (and especially during the lapse of the last 130 years) so many noble characters and ingenious minds, and so many learned lives have been devoted to labors hitherto unheard of in extent, admirable for their sagacity, and scrupulous as those of the Masorites—after the collation of all the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, which were buried in the private, monastic, or national libraries of the East and West—after comparing them not only with all the ancient Latin, Armenian; Sahidic, Ethiopic, Arabic, Sclavonic, Persic, Coptic, Syriac, and Gothic versions of the Scriptures, but also with all the ancient Fathers of the Church, who have quoted them in their innumerable writings, in Greek or in Latin—after so much research, what have they been able to find?...
“It is calculated that, in the seven thousand nine hundred and fifty-nine verses of the New Testament, there scarcely exist ten or twelve in which corrections introduced by the new texts of Griesbach and Scholz, at the close of their laborious investigations, have any weight. These, moreover, do not, for the most part, extend beyond the difference of a single word, and sometimes even of a single letter.
“Thus, then, all the efforts of the adversaries of inspiration to shake our faith in this channel have in the end only had the effect of strengthening it. They have compelled the Church to follow them in their investigations, and very soon afterward to precede them; and what has been the result? Why, that the text is found more pure than the most pious ventured to hope; and that the opponents of inspiration, and those of orthodox doctrines (at least in Germany), have been compelled to come to the same conclusion. After the labors of Erasmus, Stephens, and Mill, they had hoped to have derived, from among the numerous manuscripts of our libraries, readings more favorable to Socinian doctrines than those which they could gather from Beza and the Elzevirs. Several, indeed, anticipated that the differences would be so great, and such uncertainty would result, that (to use their own terms) all exclusive, positive, evangelical belief would be thereby overthrown. But it has not been thus. It is now a suit terminated; the plaintiffs are cast at their own appeal; the inquest having been held by modern criticism, all the judges—even the bench of Rationalists—have unanimously pronounced that it is a lost cause, and that the objectors must go to some other quarter for arguments and grievances.
“When this question of the integrity of the original text presented itself for the first time—upwards of 120 years ago—to the learned and estimable Bengel, he was dismayed at it, and his upright and pious mind became deeply exercised. Then commenced on his part that work of sacred criticism which gave a new direction to this science in Germany. The English had preceded the Germans; but the latter soon outstripped them. At length, in 1721, after long and laborious research, Bengel, who had become satisfied and happy, thus wrote to one of his disciples—’Eat the Scripture bread in simplicity, just as you have it; and do not be disturbed if here and there you find a grain of sand which the mill-stone may have suffered to pass. You may hereby avoid all the doubts which, for a season, so horribly tormented me. If the Holy Scriptures, which have been so often copied, and have so often passed through the erring hands of fallible men, were absolutely without variations, this would be so great a miracle that faith in them would be no longer faith. I am astonished, on the contrary, that from all these transcriptions there has not resulted a greater number of different readings.’
“How can we avoid recognizing here the powerful intervention of God in this unanimous agreement of all the religious societies of the East and of the West? Everywhere the same Scriptures. What a distance separates in their worship Christians from Jews! and, notwithstanding, enter our schools, examine our Hebrew Testaments, then go into their synagogues, ask of their Rabbins their sacred rolls, you will there find the same books, without the difference of a letter! What a distance separates the reformed Christians from the sectaries of Rome! Yet you will find in our respective schools the same Greek Testament, without the difference of an iota. Again, what a distance separates the Latin Church from the Greek Church, which also calls itself the catholic, but orthodox apostolic, daughter of Antioch, condemning the Romans as rebel and schismatic sons! and yet ask of one and the other their sacred texts, neither will you find any difference here. There are no variations to make two schools; they will bring forward the same manuscripts; priests and popes, Munich and Moscow, will give you the same testimony. We were then to have amongst us—Greeks, Romanists, and Protestants—the same sacred book of the New Testament, without the difference of a single iota.
“We come, then, once more to the conclusion, that not only was Scripture inspired at the time when God caused it to be written, but that this word, which was inspired eighteen centuries ago, is now in our possession; and that, moreover, holding the sacred text in one hand, and all the readings which science has collected from hundreds of manuscripts in the other, we can exclaim with gratitude, ‘I now hold in my hands the eternal word of my God!’”
Chapter 2
The Perfection of and Verbal Inspiration of the Scriptures.
THE Bible does not contain the word of God, but is the Word of God. The Old Testament is the record of God’s actions in government; the New Testament unfolds God’s ways in grace. In the Old we have revelations from God; but in the New we have God Himself revealed. In the Old we have the veil unrent—that is, God in light and man in darkness morally apart; in the New the veil is rent—that is, God is revealed, and man brought nigh to God. In the former revelation the Almighty God sustained the hopes and became the strength of the patriarchs in their path of stranger ship. Jehovah was the chosen title which guaranteed to Israel the fulfillment of prophetic promise and glory; but the higher designation of Father brings us into an intimacy and communion with God utterly unknown by saints, patriarchs, or prophets of old.
Counsels to Readers of the Scriptures.
In order to learn well and according to God, remember that the Holy Ghost, and not intellect or learning, is the only efficient teacher of the Church and of individuals; further, that our English Bible, being in very deed THE WORD OF GOD, “is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:15-17); and lastly, that the perverted mind of man—the pride of the natural man—constitute our greatest hindrance in understanding the Holy Scriptures. Supreme faith in what is written by inspiration of God—namely, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments combined with the simplicity of children, are absolutely needful to every student of the Word of God.
What a moment in the soul’s history when one is consciously maintained in the Lord’s presence! What is man when there! Ah! it is in the presence of Christ, where Mary sat and learned, and will sit and learn forever, that we are preserved from mistakes and are taught according to God.
Should a difficulty (and who has not?) present itself, do not hazard an opinion or give “your thought,” but in patience wait in prayer and communion with God, and He will meet your difficulty. If you are asked a question on any Biblical subject which you cannot answer, be frank and own your ignorance, saying, “I do not know. “Be willing to learn from any child of God, whether a bed-ridden saint or an able teacher. Do not be fault-finding or captious; do not quarrel with unscriptural expressions on the part of others, but be you accurate in the extreme in your statements and quotations from Scripture. Do not be an Ishmaelite (Gen. 16:12) among the people of God, for “the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves” (2 Tim. 2:24-25).
Do not bring “Church truths” before the un-established in the grace of God, nor teach “prophecy” to persons not glorying in the cross of Christ. Seek to get souls right with God, and especially beware of mere sentiment, putting experience in place of Christ, shunning as evil and as destructive of practical Christian life occupation with condition of soul, which is not Christ and His Word. Firmly maintain, as of equal moment, Gospel and Church testimony; do not sacrifice either, for both sinners and saints are around us.
When persons ask you for “evidences,” say to them that they will find these evidences in reading the Bible and prayer to God. Do not argue with skeptical persons, for he that cometh to God must believe that “HE IS” (Heb. 11:6); it is lost time, moreover, and will probably prove hurtful to your soul.
Give yourself to a systematic study of God’s Word; avoid, as a general thing, desultory reading. Study the Bible as a whole. Seek to understand the general bearing of each book, the Holy Spirit’s thought in its composition. Remember that God has subordinated the numerous and interesting details of Scripture to one general purpose, which is to manifest the glory of Christ. Have this purpose constantly before you, and the details, “so difficult to remember,” will fix themselves on your memory. Do not make Scripture of “private interpretation”—that is, do not divorce any subject or detail from the WHOLE. Do not say that facts in the realm of nature confirm the Word of God or establish its truth, nor that scientific facts throw light upon Scripture. The Scriptures never borrow light from man, nor do they need his confirmation; nor does text throw light upon text, as if a single word or letter penned by Him who is light could possibly be dark. One text may throw light into your darkened mind upon another, but the darkness is always in man, never in the Scriptures. “Harmonies” and “evidences” should be rejected by all who have supreme faith in what God has written. We reject all efforts to show that various accounts and different genealogies may be reconciled. Variety, and not sameness, characterize the works and words of God, and hence we look for differences, not of course contradictions. Never allow the breath of suspicion to cross the soul that the facts culled from every department of the kingdom of nature can contradict the least or seemingly obscure statement in the Word of God.
Perfection of the Scriptures.
The Creator of the countless orbs of heaven—God, who created the stones, made the Bible. Why fear? We boldly challenge the science of the nineteenth century to produce one fact at variance with a single statement throughout the entire range of Holy Scripture. On the contrary, we could show, from the earliest of all records, human or divine—Genesis and Job—that the statements in these books as to the earth and heaven are in fullest accord with the certain deductions of science, and have again and again corrected the scientist in his own special department, and those statements were penned ages before ever astronomy or geology or other science had an intelligent votary. We are not surprised at the perfection of Scripture; we expect absolute perfection in every page and every line, for God is its Author.
Its range of subjects—as, heaven, hell, sin, death, time, eternity, law, government, redemption, love, grace, divine and human relationships, God, Christ, man, angels, creation—cover the whole field of human inquiry. Its authors—from forty to fifty—are drawn from all classes of society, as kings, prime ministers, priests, prophets, herdsmen, physicians, tentmakers, fishermen, tax collectors. Amongst the “Various places where its separate portions were composed were the deserts of Arabia, Egypt, Jerusalem, Rome, the court of the Gentiles at Babylon, the river Chebar in Mesopotamia, the dungeons of the Caesars, the rocky isle of Patmos, in places and countries 1400 miles apart, and at intervals of time during the slow progress of nigh 1600 years. The Hebrew for the Jews, the Syriac for the Gentiles, and Greek for the world at large, were the chosen languages selected by God wherein to express His will and word to man.
The Scriptures Imperishable.
The world passeth away, its glory withereth; man is but a fading leaf; but “the word of the Lord endureth forever.” Not one “jot or tittle”—the smallest particle of a letter—penned by inspiration of God will pass away. The Bible, because it is the Word of God, is imperishable. What a rock amidst the shoreless sea of human uncertainty and conflicting opinions! The pagan persecutions of the first Christian centuries; the papal fires of the Middle Ages, in which cart-loads of the Scriptures were cast; nor the gross ignorance which prevailed prior to the Reformation; centuries, too, in which an interdict was laid upon reading the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue; nor the yet more wicked attempts in our own times of so-called Christian men who are laboring with unwonted zeal and earnestness in the sad and hopeless task of undermining the authority and divine character of the Scriptures—these, and the ten thousand attempts of ancient, medieval, and modern times, have covered the enemies of divine revelation with everlasting confusion, while our dear old English Bible is invulnerable as ever. Do we say, it is a faultless version? Nay; but its mistakes and blemishes only display the blundering hand of man, while leaving untouched the peerless perfection and matchless beauty of the sacred Scriptures.
Testimony of the Fathers.
Jerome, the most learned of the early Latin or Greek Fathers, styled the whole collection of sixty-six sacred books The Divine Library. Chrysostom, the most eloquent of the Fathers, spoke of them as The Divine Books. Polycarp, who lived at a still earlier date, having been personally instructed by the Apostle John, spoke of the Bible as The Sacred Scriptures, as also the Oracles of the Lord. Clement of Rome, whom Paul styles his “fellow-laborer” (Phil. 4:3), termed the Scriptures The true sayings of the Holy Spirit. Irenæus, of the second century, makes about 1200 citations or references from the New Testament; Tertullian, also of the second century, refers to or quotes from the New Testament about 2500 times; Clement of Alexandria, another of the second-century Fathers, cites from or refers to the New Testament 800 times; and Polycarp, already referred to, in a brief epistle addressed to the Philippians, quotes from the New Testament about 50 times. Thus the Scriptures, and not misty tradition nor the varying decisions of councils, were the source of all authority. Their verbal inspiration was the ground from which their absolute and divine authority became the settlement of every question, and from which there could be no appeal, for their testimony is the voice of God.
We reject the mysticism of the Fathers; we are strongly opposed to their fanciful modes of interpretation, and are convinced that the “spiritualizing” of Origen has been pernicious and hurtful in the extreme. We meet with the fruits of that system in most of our English Bibles, where the headings of the chapters in Isaiah—chapters which distinctly and exclusively apply to Israel—are applied to the Church; that is, in those headings which are destitute of divine authority the blessings of Israel are applied to the Church, while the judgments are literally used of Israel. But, on the other hand, the constant appeal to Scripture, the numerous citations from the inspired word, in the writings of the Christian Fathers, are worthy of all mention and deserving of the highest commendation.
The Lord, the Jews, and the Written Word.
We rather fear that the thrice-repeated formula of the Master, “It is written” (Luke 4), is getting out of date and out of mind, and argument instead of Scripture is getting fashionable. The extreme reverence of the Lord, as also of the Jews, for the written word demands our rapt attention. With what care, with what minuteness of detail the Lord again and again quoted Old Testament oracles; how, too, in midst of an agony which only God could fathom, He remembered that there was one Scripture lying unfulfilled (Psa. 69:21). He could not die and so lay the foundation of God’s counsels in grace till that one statement, penned a thousand years before, was fulfilled to the very letter (John 19:28). When He rose from the dead He did not give to His own another written Bible, but “beginning at Moses”—for Christ, in His sacrificial and prophetic glories, lay hid beneath the abstract typical system elaborated there—“and all the prophets”—the remaining thirty-four books of the Old Testament in which His regal and messianic glories are the burden of song and prediction—“He expounded unto them in ALL THE SCRIPTURES the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27).
Has the reader ever reflected upon the extreme care, the almost superstitious reverence with which the Jews regarded the inspired Word of God? Ask any of the ancient Jewish doctors how many words or even letters occur in any of the thirty-nine sacred books of the Old Testament—nay, ask even how many times each letter of the alphabet occurs in the whole collection of sacred books, and you would get an immediate answer. So scrupulous were they in transcribing their sacred books that if a mistake was observed the copy was rejected and the work commenced afresh. The perpetuity of the written word is divinely assured us (1 Peter 1:23-25), as also its stability (Psa. 119:89), and its all-sufficiency (2 Tim. 3:15-17), through all times and under all circumstances.
The paramount importance of the written word, even over and above the successive revelations of the name of the Lord, is also distinctly declared in the words, “Thou hast exalted Thy word above all Thy name.”
The Bible the Word of God.
There yet remains one point to which we would briefly advert. Some hesitate to term the Bible “The Word of God,” on the plea that it is merely a translation. But it is well known that the original Hebrew MSS.—immediately proceeding from the pen of Moses, Isaiah, and other inspired writers—were not in existence during the time of our Lord’s sojourn on earth, and further, that the earliest of all translations, the Septuagint or Greek version of the Old Testament Oracles, was then in general use in Palestine; in fact, was the only translation commonly used till the beginning of the fourth century, and was universally regarded in early Christian times as having been translated from the Hebrew under special divine influence.
Origen was but partially acquainted with the Hebrew language. Jerome, however, who was a competent Hebrew scholar—the first of the Fathers who was so—discarded the Septuagint as authority, and studied and expounded the Old Testament from the original in which it was written—the Hebrew.
Now the important fact we bring before our readers is this: That the Lord, the Apostles, and early Christian writers reverently turned over the pages of this venerable translation, reading, citing, and referring to it as the Word of God. Many quotations found in the New Testament are from this Greek translation; others, of course, are from the Hebrew. Now, is there any difference in principle between an English and Greek translation? The question is a simple one. Have we got the very words of God whether expressed in Greek, English, or French? We have. Why, it was this very Greek copy of the Old Testament with which Timothy was acquainted from childhood, and yet the Holy Spirit through Paul terms it “The Holy Scriptures,” declaring their full inspiration, besides coupling them with those then unwritten, “All Scripture given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim. 3:15-16).
Copies of the Septuagint rapidly multiplied through the diligence of scribes, as now the completed Bible by the aid of printing; then it was the Word of God although in Greek; now it is the Word of God although in English. Translations and multiplied copies, whether written or printed, do not in the least affect the question of inspiration, nor the divine character and title of the Bible as being in very deed THE WORD OF GOD.
Chapter 3.
The Books and Canon of the Old Testament.
Titles of the Bible.
In the ecclesiastical writings of the four first Christian centuries we have the Bible frequently referred to as “THE SCRIPTURES,” or “THE SACRED SCRIPTURES”; another common enough title by Jewish and Christian writers was, “THE BOOKS.”
From about the beginning of the fifth century the whole of the sacred writings as in our English version was spoken of as THE BIBLE, from the Greek word biblos, meaning book; previously they were spoken of as “The Books.” The pre-eminent dignity of the Word of God as the book of books is thus signified in the title, “The Bible.” But there was yet wanting a word to denote its divine character, hence “The Holy Bible,” which is the chosen title of the Sacred Scriptures throughout the known world; in England the title has been in general use for about 600 years. Under the pontificate of Julius II—the military and profligate head of the Roman Church—the title “The Holy Bible” first received papal sanction.
It is interesting to trace also how the terms Old and New Testament arose. The expression, “the old testament,” applied in 2 Corinthians 3:14 to the law, led gradually, to the extension of the expression so as to include the whole of the Jewish Scriptures—39 books in all; while “the New Testament” (Matt. 26:28) would as naturally embrace the 27 books of the later revelation. “The Oracles of God” (Rom. 3:2); “The Holy Scriptures,” or, “The Sacred Letters” (2 Tim. 3:15); and “The Word of God,” are scriptural and beautifully expressive titles of the Bible as a whole. The first intimates its authoritative character; the second is the expression of its divine origin; while the third refers to its object—which is God’s revelation of Himself to the race—His voice to the soul of man.
St. Jerome, who flourished during the latter half of the fourth century, beautifully styled the whole collection of sixty-six sacred books, “THE DIVINE LIBRARY.”
St. Jerome and the Vulgate.
A few particulars about St. Jerome, one of the most distinguished and learned Fathers of the Latin Church, may not be uninteresting.
He was born, about A.D. 340, on the borders of the ancient country of Pannonia, one of the provinces subject to the Roman sway. Jerome’s father was named Eusebius, not the celebrated ecclesiastical historian of that name. Eusebius, being a Christian and in affluent circumstances, provided his son with a liberal secular and theological education. Jerome was early sent to Rome, where he studied for several years under various masters, the most noted of whom was Donatus, perhaps the most accomplished grammarian of his age. Jerome seems to have been brought to the Lord when a young man, probably when prosecuting his studies in Rome. He soon gave himself up almost wholly to the study of the sacred Scriptures, and produced a number of commentaries on separate books of the Bible, besides numerous other works. Books in those days were exceedingly expensive. It is said that Jerome ruined himself by purchasing the works of Origen. Having gone to Palestine to make himself personally acquainted with the localities mentioned in Holy Writ, he resolved to become master of the Hebrew language, so as not to be dependent upon translations in the study of the earlier oracles of God—the Old Testament. In a few years he acquired an intimate knowledge of the language, which he soon turned to good account.
From the second century till the days of Jerome, the Bible in use in Western Christendom was a translation from the ecclesiastical tongue—the Greek. The Septuagint, or Greek version of the Old Testament, executed about three centuries before Christ, was in common use even in Palestine in the days of our Lord and of His apostles. From the fact of this old and venerable document being frequently cited by the Lord and writers of the New Testament, it would have been regarded almost as a sacrilegious act to have questioned its exactness; besides which, Hebrew was only known comparatively to the few. The Greek New Testament and the Greek version of the Old, formed the basis of all Latin and other versions of the Bible till the days of Jerome, who was the first Christian scholar who attempted a translation direct from the original tongues. This valuable work, styled the Vulgate, was bitterly opposed at the time, and it was only after a lapse of 200 years that it was accorded general favor. Jerome’s version was commonly spoken of as “The New Translation,” to distinguish it from the Septuagint, the Old Translation. Pope Gregory—the best of the Roman Pontiffs—officially sanctioned the Vulgate of Jerome, who was certainly one of the most pious, and probably the most learned, of the Latin Fathers.
Chrysostom, the Distinguished Greek Bishop.
We may also add a few particulars of another of the Fathers and an ardent lover of the Scriptures. We refer to John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople. This Greek Father was for many years contemporary with the learned Jerome of the Latin Church. John was surnamed Chrysostom, meaning the golden-mouthed, because of his matchless eloquence. He was not only an indefatigable preacher—daily attracting thousands by his burning words—but he was a most fearless one, regardless alike of the frown or smile of the Emperor Arcadius or his godless consort, Eudoxia. The bishop, in the course of his familiar discourses styled “Homilies”—of which there are about a thousand extant—spoke of the Bible as “THE DIVINE BOOKS.” Chrysostom was much beloved by the people of Constantinople, but hated by many of the clergy, and ladies and nobles of the court, whose ways and lives he unsparingly condemned. He died after much suffering, repeating his favorite—words, “Glory be to God for all events.”
It is somewhat singular that both these distinguished Fathers (Jerome and John) voluntarily secluded themselves for several years, the former in the deserts of Syria, and the latter in a mountain cave near Antioch. The study of the “Divine Library” and of the Hebrew language were the objects of the former; while the latter made such good use of the “Divine Books” that he committed them entirely to memory. Both Fathers were truly eminent men; both loved the Lord Jesus, and both were renowned for their devotion to the Word of God. If Jerome was the more learned, Chrysostom was the more eloquent of the two.
Times, Persons and Places Where the Scriptures Were Written.
The 66 sacred books comprising the Bible were written at different times, by various persons, and in distant places.
We entertain but faint hope of convincing the skeptic or silencing the caviler, but we submit the following statement of facts as demonstrating that the Bible is, indeed, the voice of God to man; that He has imprinted on it divine unity; that God only could have secured such remarkable agreement, such precision of statement, such oneness of mind and plan as are revealed in the Scriptures. Here are sixty-six books, the work of from forty to fifty writers, and their composition occupying a period of about 1600 years, written in the continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe, and in courts, deserts, and dungeons; under circumstances, too, of gladness, sorrow, poverty, pain, and pressure.
Of the writers we number the most illustrious monarchs of Israel, as David and Solomon; two distinguished prime ministers at the court of the Gentiles, Mordecai and Daniel; a cup-bearer—a highly honorable position—in personal attendance on the Persian monarch, as Nehemiah; the adopted Hebrew, Moses, brought up amidst the splendors of the Egyptian court and educated in the wisdom and learning of that truly remarkable people; the learned and pious scribe, Ezra, whose name and deeds are engraven on the memories of the past and present Jewish people; a farm servant, Amos, whose charming simplicity (Amos 7:14-17) accords so fitly with his humble occupation; the prophet and judge, Samuel; many prophets, grand as Isaiah, touching as Jeremiah, vigorous as Ezekiel, powerfully descriptive as Joel; illiterate Galilean fishermen (Acts 4:13); a despised and degraded tax collector in the employment of the Romans, Matthew; the tentmaker of mighty intellect, Paul; the highly educated Gentile physician, Luke; the loving John, the energetic Jude, the fervent Peter, and the practical James.
Of the writings, the first was the Pentateuch, completed fifteen centuries before Christ—that is, 700 years before Rome was founded, and about 1000 years before the work of Herodotus, the first authentic history, was published—centuries, too, before the prince of Greek poets, Homer, flourished, or Hesiod, more ancient still, sang his verses. The Pentateuch and the book of Job are by far the oldest writings in existence. The historical and chronological boasted records of China and Egypt are unworthy of a moment’s serious consideration. The former gives the age of the world as some hundreds of thousands of years, while the Chaldean records, equally unreliable as those of China and Egypt, carry back the age of the world to nearly half a million of years. It has been shown that even were the annals of the Hindus—which exceed in absurdity those of China and Egypt—reliable, the arbitrary mode of computation (months of fifteen days, and years of sixty days), would reduce the chronologies of these peoples to a near agreement with the Biblical chronology. The first recorded date in Scripture is found in that highly important chronological chapter—Gen. 5:3. Neither science nor Scripture determines the antiquity of this globe. All Scripture dates refer to human history.
There is neither book nor monument to which you can refer within several centuries of the time when Moses wrote the first portion of the Bible. Then, after a quarter of a century, Joshua, the second inspired penman, wrote the book to which his name is attached. Then comes another interval, a lengthy and sorrowful one, of more than 300 years, covering the times of the Judges, and well termed “the dark ages” of Israelitish history, when Samuel, the third inspired writer, brought up the Jewish annals to the times of David—the sweet Psalmist of Israel—his coadjutors in the work being the prophets Gad and Nathan (1 Chron. 29:29). Another interval of 300 years, and we listen entranced to the grand and glowing strains of Isaiah—the prince of Hebrew prophets; perhaps the most magnificent piece of writing ever penned is the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah, and of course divinely inspired like every other line and word of Scripture. Yet another period of nigh 300 years, during which the voices of the prophets were lifted up in the land of Immanuel, or amongst the captives in Babylon and Mesopotamia—when their tears bedewed the sacred soil, and their sufferings and exercises are written on high, and Malachi closed the inspired records of the Old Testament; the editor of the whole being Ezra. A long and dreary blank of 460 years, unwritten in the pages of God’s most holy Word—save in a few prophetic passages (Dan. 8;10;11)—brings us to a few years at most after the death of Jesus, when Matthew wrote of CHRIST—His messianic rights, glories, and sufferings. Within thirty years after, the whole of the New Testament was completed, save the Revelation, which was written about A.D. 96. Thus the whole Bible was finished and in the hands of the Christian, and in the keeping of the Church, or rather of God, ere the first Christian century closed.
Of the places where the various parts of the Bible were written, Babylon, the capital of the Chaldean monarchy; Jerusalem, the capital of the kingdom of Israel; Rome, the capital of the fourth Universal Empire; and Ephesus, the capital of Asia Minor, may be instanced. Take Jerusalem as a center, and you have Daniel the calm and measured historian, and Peter the warm-hearted and fervent apostle, both writing in Babylon, 560 miles distant, and Paul penning his prison epistles in the imperial city of Rome, 1450 miles distant. The greater number of the sacred books were of course written in Palestine—regarded by the ancients as occupying the central situation in the known world (Ezek. 5:5).
Chapter 4.
The Books of the Old Testament.
There are thirty-nine books in the Old Testament, but the ancient Jewish writers reduced the number to twenty-two so that the sacred books might correspond in number to the twenty-two sacred letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
Testimony of Josephus.
Josephus, of Jewish historic fame, an unbeliever in Christ, born in Palestine about the time of Paul’s conversion, and thoroughly conversant with Hebrew literature, probably more so than any man then living, thus writes:—“We have only two-and-twenty books which are justly believed to be of divine authority, of which five are the books of Moses. From the death of Moses to the reign of Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes, King of Persia, the prophets who were the successors of Moses have written in thirteen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God, and precepts for the regulation of human life.”
This arithmetical feat was accomplished by regarding the Pentateuch as five separate books...as in the Septuagint and in our English Bibles. The “thirteen books” written by the prophets were, (1) Joshua, (2) Judges with Ruth, (3) Samuel, (4) Kings, (5) Chronicles, (6) Isaiah, (7) Jeremiah with Lamentations, (8) Ezekiel, (9) Daniel, (10) The twelve minor prophets from Hosea to Malachi, (11) Job, (12) Ezra and Nehemiah, (13) Esther. The four remaining books are the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song. It may appear singular to some that the twelve minor prophets should be so grouped, but in most; if not all ancient catalogs, they are regarded as one book, as also in all quotations from them. The reason of this, we suppose, was to facilitate an easy reference to these prophetic books. The modern Jews make up the Old Testament into twenty-four books.
The Pentateuch.
The first five books of Scripture were originally written in one scroll, according to Hebrew custom, and are still so used in Jewish reading in their synagogues. The distribution of the Pentateuch into separate books can be traced up to the days of Ezra, about 450 B. C. Their English titles, which are of Greek origin, are very inexact as descriptive of their character and contents. The Hebrew titles of the books are taken from the opening word or sentence of each, but are not regarded by the Jews as descriptive of their character. Thus the Hebrew Pentateuch, although not arranged in books, has yet fifty-four pretty lengthy sections, and six hundred and sixty-nine very short ones; while the English version has its five books—very ancient, and one hundred and eighty-seven chapters—the latter only dating from the thirteenth century.
It is an interesting circumstance that the Samaritans—the religious rivals of the Jews (John 4)— possessed a copy of the Pentateuch written in the ancient Phoenician or Hebrew characters, hence not a translation, which they regarded with peculiar veneration, and from which the Woman of Samarian race gathered that Messias was to come (John 4:25). There are said to be several complete copies of the Samaritan Pentateuch now in Europe, and one is believed to date from the 8th century—the era of Mohammed. The Pentateuch, as a whole, was from earliest times familiarly spoken of by the Jews as “the law,” or “the law of Moses.”
The Lord, and writers of the New Testament, frequently refer to and cite from the Pentateuch as a whole, as also its several books. The writings of Moses are held to be of equal authority with the words of the Lord Himself (Luke 16:31).
When the Pentateuch was completed Moses directed it to be placed in the side of the Ark (Deut. 31:24, 26). Was this the identical copy of the law found by Hilkiah the high priest seven hundred and fifty years afterward, amongst the rubbish in the Temple (2 Kings 22:8)? or was it a copy transcribed from the original by one of the early kings (Deut. 18)? We believe it was the very copy of the law or Pentateuch written by the hand of Moses (2 Chron. 34:14). That Moses was the writer of these five inspired records is evident from the testimony of the books themselves (Deut. 31:9, 24), by Joshua (chap. 1:7), by Samuel (1 Sam. 12:6-8), by David (1 Kings 2:3), by Solomon (1 Kings 8:53, 56), by Jehovah (2 Kings 21:8), by Josiah (2 Kings 23:2-3,25), by Jehoiada (2 Chron. 23:16-18), by Hezekiah (2 Chron. 30:16), by Ezra (Ezra 7:6), by Nehemiah (Neh. 13:1), by Daniel (Dan. 9:11-13), by Malachi (Mal. 4:4), by Christ (John 5:45-47), by Peter (Acts 3:22-26) by Stephen (Acts 7), by Paul (1 Cor. 9:9), by all the Jewish writers, ancient and modern, and by the Jewish nation in all ages, by apostates as Mahomet and Julian, by heathen writers as Longinus and Tacitus. Yet in the face of this overwhelming testimony, divine, Christian, Jewish, and Heathen, men will be found bold enough and bad enough to impugn the authority of the Pentateuch, and deny, too, its Mosaic authorship!
The magnificent conclusion to the blessing of the Tribes (Deut. 33:26-29) forms a perfectly beautiful and fitting close to the pen of inspiration by the hand of Moses. The first eight verses of the concluding chapter of Deuteronomy were probably written by Joshua, and the last four verses by an utterly unknown hand, perhaps by Ezra, the editor and compiler of the Old Testament. This last chapter of the Pentateuch (Deut. 34) is, however, as fully inspired as the first chapter (Gen. 1), and we may again remark that the question of authorship in no wise touches the fact of inspiration: “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.”
The next group of sacred writings is from Joshua to Esther, twelve books in our Bibles, but reckoned by the Jews as six.
Joshua.
JOSHUA (the Lord’s Salvation) comprises a period of from twenty-five to thirty years; the first twenty-two chapters cover a period of about eight years. It has been gathered by some from the frequent use of the third person that not Joshua, but a contemporary and eye-witness was the writer of the book. But it must be remembered that it was not an infrequent occurrence on the part of an inspired writer, both to speak and write in the third person (see Ezra 7). Jewish tradition ascribes the authorship of the whole to Joshua save the last five verses which were evidently written after the death of the, “Savior” of Israel, as the name Joshua imports. Jesus, son of Sirach, the writer of Ecclesiasticus about 250 B.C., calls Joshua the successor of Moses in prophecies. Probably one of the elders who out-lived Joshua added these supplementary verses, as also the record of certain transactions which occurred sometime after the death of Joshua (Josh. 15:16-19 comp. with Judg. 1:12-15; Josh. 19:47 with Judg. 18).
Judges.
JUDGES. According to generally accepted Jewish tradition, Samuel was the writer of this book. The remark, “In those days there was no king in Israel,” four times repeated (Judges 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25) would show that the book was written after the establishment of monarchy in Israel, but before the capture of Jerusalem and destruction of the Jebusites by David (for this compare Judges 1:21, with 2 Sam. 5:6-9). The administration of the thirteen Judges from Othniel to Samson embraced a period of about three hundred years. The last five chapters form an important appendix which must be placed historically at a very early period of the book. The reference to Phinehas (Judges 20:28) would prove this. This supplementary part discloses the moral condition of the people—one of lawlessness, anarchy, and idolatry.
Ruth.
RUTH, beauty. From the allusion to a then old custom in Israel “concerning redeeming and concerning changing” (Ruth 4:7), and the historical account of David’s genealogy (Ruth 4:17-22), we gather that the book was written certainly not earlier than the accession of David to the throne of Israel. Probably Samuel was the writer. The counsels of God as to the millennial blessing of the Jew and of the land are disclosed in this typical book of history. Ruth is the connecting link between the times of the Judges and the establishment of royalty in Israel.
Books of Samuel.
1 Samuel. This book covers a period of about one hundred years, from the birth of Samuel to the death of Saul. The first twenty-four chapters only were written by the prophet (compare 1 Chron. 29:29 with 1 Sam. 25:1); the remaining chapters, with the whole of the second book, were probably written by the prophets Gad and Nathan. This is also according to ancient Jewish tradition preserved in the Talmud. Samuel was the first of the regular prophetic order (Acts 3:24).
The main subjects of the book show the connection between God’s great ordinances of priesthood, prophecy, and royalty, and the utter failure of man in maintaining them as means of blessing. The priest met failure under the law; the prophet recalled the people to their obedience to the law; while the king was set to firmly maintain and vindicate the authority of the law.
2 Samuel. Here we have unfolded the history and reign of David for about forty years.
First we have his reign over Judah at Hebron for seven and a half years, then his glorious reign over all Israel in Jerusalem for the remainder of the probationary period, forty years. These books in the ancient Hebrew formed but one. In the Septuagint and Vulgate and in the subtitle of our English Bibles, they are spoken of as 1St and 2nd Books of Kings.
Books of Kings.
1 Kings details the public history of the kingdom, but more especially that of Israel after the disruption of the United Kingdom. The glory of Solomon’s reign for forty years, and its sorrowful decline, form an instructive page of Jewish history.
2 Kings historically traces the kingdom from the conclusion of the Elijah ministry till the subversion of the kingdom of Judah and destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldean in the year 588 B.C. It also records the downfall of the kingdom of Israel or of the ten tribes, and the deportation of the king, princes, and people to Assyria, which took place 130 years previous to the Chaldean attack upon Jerusalem. The decline, idolatry and ruin of both kingdoms are the subjects of the book. The previous book covers a period of about 126 years; this about 300 years.
These books form but one in the Hebrew canon. In the Septuagint, Vulgate, and titles of our English Bibles they are spoken of as the third and fourth books of Kings; consequently, these kingdom records are a continuation of the history contained in the books of Samuel. The Jews assign the authorship to Jeremiah, giving as reason that the last chapter of that prophet covers the same ground as the concluding section of 2nd Kings (chap. 24:18-25). We consider it much more probable that Ezra was the inspired historian of these kingdom histories, which were written during the captivity, and probably in the reign of Evil-Merodach, king of Babylon (2 Kings 25:27).
Books of Chronicles.
In 1 Chronicles the inspired historian—probably Ezra—portrays David not as the man (1 Sam.), nor as the king (2 Sam.), but especially in those circumstances where he stands out pre-eminently as the type of the Lord in the early period of the millennium; hence the grave faults of David, as his adultery, etc., are omitted. Grace and glory shine throughout, and David is everywhere, and made everything of.
2 Chronicles contains the history of David’s house, prominently noticing after Solomon, the reigns of the godly and pious Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Here, too, the sins of Solomon are entirely omitted. The sovereign grace of God is impressed on these Chronicle records with an indelible pen.
These books constitute but one book in the Hebrew; called by the Jews “words or acts of the days,” i.e. journals or diaries, rendered chronicon by Jerome and with us chronicles from the Latin Vulgate. The title by the Septuagint Paraleipomenon, “things omitted,” is a most objectionable one. The special design of these books is manifestly of God and as worthy of its divine Author as any other portion of Holy Writ. The close of the Babylon captivity is indicated more than once, and moreover is regarded as a past historical fact (1 Chron. 6:15). The closing verses (2 Chron. 36:22-23) constitute the opening words of the book of Ezra, in which the history contained in the Chronicles is continued. Ezra therefore may safely be regarded as the writer and compiler of the Chronicles, and the time at or during the restoration to Palestine. In the Hebrew canon these books stand last in order. The books of Chronicles cover the same ground and time as the books of Kings, while having a special character of their own. The first nine chapters contain divine genealogical records from Adam, and which enabled the returned remnants from the Captivity to verify their various Jewish claims.
Ezra.
EZRA (help) covers a period of about eighty years, and records the doings, the work and the worship of the Judah remnants who returned to Jerusalem from the Chaldean exile. The distinguished ecclesiastical historian and ready scribe whose name is attached to this book has ever been highly venerated amongst the Jews, and is generally regarded as the inspired editor and compiler of the Old Testament. When, where, and by whom this book was written are questions easily answered—after the return from the Babylon captivity, in Palestine, and by Ezra. The change from the first to the third person, as in chapters 7 and 10, in nowise affects the authorship; John the Apostle habitually does so in his Gospel. Similar instances might be adduced from Jeremiah, Ecclesiastes, and elsewhere. Yet Professor Smith (in his Lectures on the Old Testament in the Jewish Church, page 321) says, “One asks for proof that any Hebrew ever wrote of himself in the third person.” Is human learning to be trusted in the things of God? What is man in presence of these divine and imperishable records? The books of Ezra and Nehemiah anciently formed but one work; they are still spoken of by Roman Catholic writers as the 1St and 2nd books of ESDRAS. There are two portions of this book written in the Syriac or Aramean language—that spoken in Babylon and Assyria—namely, Ezra 4:8 to 6:18; and Ezra 7:12-26.
Nehemiah.
NEHEMIAH (whom the Lord comforts). The administration of Nehemiah, “the Tirshatha” (Persian title, meaning governor) over Judea lasted about thirty-six years. The rebuilding of the city and generally the civil condition of the returned Jewish remnants are the main subjects of this the last historical book of the Old Testament, written about 420 B. C. The temple and the ecclesiastical state of things are characteristic of Ezra. The one book is thus the counterpart of the other. Work and worship are marked features of Ezra, while work and conflict are as distinctly characteristic of Nehemiah.
The commission granted to Nehemiah concerning the rebuilding of the city and reconstruction of the civil polity according to Moses, recorded in chapter 2, marks the commencement of the seventy weeks or 490 years of Daniel’s celebrated prophecy (Dan. 9:25). The book was written by Nehemiah (Neh. 1:1), after his return from the court of Persia (Neh. 13:6); in Greek and Latin Bibles it is called the “second book of Ezra.”
Review of the Sacred Books From Genesis to Nehemiah.
Now, dear Christian reader, having got to the historical close of the Old Testament, in which we have the sum of all history as connected with the Jews and as bearing upon the glory of Christ, let us briefly review the steps of this wonderful journey. As creatures, we necessarily commence with the inquiry— What about creation? Who created? What, too, are the salient features of the early ages of the world? We get a full and divine answer in the book of Genesis. What next commands our attention? All nature is disturbed; there is agony in the depths and in the heights. Here hearts are broken, tears are shed, and a seething mass of human misery and sin calls aloud for redemption from Satan’s grasp and slavery; yea, and from God’s judgment, too, righteously pressing upon the ruined sinner. God in holiness and righteousness provides redemption in the person and by the work of His beloved Son—the grand theme of Exodus.
Now, by sacrifice and priest, we enter the sanctuary of God—most holy and blessed presence—and worship Him who has thus fitted us to bow before Him; there you have Leviticus. Next comes the wilderness, with its testings, trials, and services, where, too, the faithless, hearts of the redeemed are exposed amidst the circumstances of life; where man is broken, humbled and proved, but where, in presence of sorrow and daily need, the heart of God is told out; these are the lessons of the wilderness book—Numbers. God created worlds, and so displayed His power (Genesis). He gave His Son to die, and so expressed His love (Exodus). He has counted the hairs of our heads, thus manifesting His infinite care (Numbers).
Then comes the practical ground of blessing for the saint. Let no one say, “It is enough; I am dead, and risen with Christ, seated in the heavenlies in Him.” Your path through this world, your ways, conduct and practical enjoyment of your heavenly place are dependent upon and are to be regulated by the written word of God, as the book of Deuteronomy most clearly shows. Then comes conflict with wicked spirits (not with doubts or fears) in heavenly places—the principalities and powers who, under Satan, unceasingly labor to spoil the Christian’s enjoyment of heaven and heavenly things; of this Joshua is the typical witness. Now we pass on to inquire: Has the Church maintained her heavenly standing, testimony, and hope? Has her walk on earth answered to her heavenly calling? The dark clouds of unbelief have covered Israel’s sky. Judges is proof of this, as also figuring the yet darker close of the Church’s earthly sojourn (2 Timothy).
But God, ever mindful of His people, has laid the roots of time and eternal blessing, for Israel and the Church, in the Son of His love. Christ, the Christ of God, our well-known and loved One, is the mighty Redeemer, the Elimelech in whom is lodged the sure and unfailing counsels of God, whatever the failure on man’s part, and this is unfolded in the book of Ruth. Now, God’s three great ordinances of blessing for man, for Israel, but according to their responsibility, are next developed. Priesthood in Eli; prophecy in Samuel, and kingly power in Saul, each in turn breaks down; for what is man but a broken cistern, a leaking vessel? such are the subjects and truths of 1 Samuel. But all is stable and-enduring in Christ, and so the typical David (beloved), Jehovah’s elect, maintains the glory of God; and secures blessing, combining the regal, prophetic, and priestly glories, characteristic of the Messiah and millennial times—2 Samuel.
Next follows the peaceful and glorious reign of Solomon (peaceable), foreshadowing the blessed reign of Christ with His heavenly saints, and their dwelling with Him in their Father’s house (John 14:2); for here the Temple is seen as typical of heavenly scenes and persons, without “a veil” and without an “altar.” Neither distance to God, nor approach to God, as signified by the veil and altar, can apply to a people already brought to God, and whose place is prepared for them in the Father’s house. These and other lessons are typically taught us in 1 Kings. Then the kingdom history of Israel is pursued down to the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities—a history fraught with instruction and of deepening interest to the saint on whom the ends of the world or ages are come—2 Kings. If we have had the public history of the kingdom in the previous books, we have now the inner history—God’s grace and sovereign call—blessedly presented in these genealogical records of Jehovah’s earthly elect people, and the earthly side of the millennium, in connection with Solomon; all this is prefigured in 1 Chronicles. God will have an earthly people, with whom He will put Himself in relationship in millennial glory and blessing, as the throne and temple of Solomon here bear witness. The Chronicles account of the Temple, with its “veil” and “altar,” respect an earthly people, who will need the altar of approach. In fine, we have Solomon’s throne and temple, in their aspect toward Israel and man, as the main theme of 2 Chronicles.
But the fine gold becomes dim, and the flower fades, and all flesh is grass, and so the kingdom glory is exchanged for captivity in Babylon. Again, however, God works, and a remnant, chastened and broken in spirit, return “together as one man to Jerusalem.” The “altar” and the “word”—worship and obedience— then characterized the returned people of Judah. Do they morally mark off the present saints of God from the professing mass around? Of this and other themes and subjects we are instructed in Ezra. This is fitly followed by the hearty service and freewill offerings of the remnant, who are then left in their land under Gentile protection—left to wait in patience for the coming in of the Messiah, in whom their hopes were placed. Thus we are brought to the fitting conclusion —the last historical book of the Old Testament being Nehemiah.
Esther.
ESTHER (star) comprises a period of about twenty years. We utterly reject the thought advanced by some, that this book is a mere compilation from the Persian records—a page of eastern romance—on the ground that the name of God does not once occur in it. There is a divine reason for such an important omission. It will be remembered that only a small portion of the nation availed themselves of the edict of Cyrus, granting permission to the Jews to return to the land. The mass of the people were indifferent to Jehovah and His interests, and did not choose to avail themselves of the offer. Yet God watched over them, but secretly, because of their state, thus withholding the very mention of His name.
The scenes of this book come in historically between chapters 6 and 7 of the book of Ezra.
We believe on internal evidence that the book was written by “Mordecai the Jew,” and in the metropolis of the Persian Empire. But we would again observe that the questions of When, Where, and by Whom the books of Scripture were written are altogether irrespective of their inspiration and divine character. The origin of the Jewish feast of Purim or of lots has its historical origin stated here—a feast yet observed and from time immemorial by the Jews. The Persian monarch Ahasuerus is the renowned Xerxes, whose history is so familiar to most readers of ancient history.
Job.
JOB (treated with hatred). This is a book or poem in dramatic form upon the moral government of God, and consists of seventeen speeches, with an introduction in which Jehovah, Satan, and Job mainly figure (chap. 1-3) and a weighty and instructive appendix, in which Jehovah and His broken-hearted servant alone appear (chap. 38-41.). The book is without dates, and hence not characteristically dispensational, nor is it at all prophetic. Volumes have been written to prove (as if that were possible) the non-existence of the patriarch, and that the book is merely a page of Arabian romance. Ezekiel among the prophets (Ezek. 14:14,20), and James among the apostles (James 5:11), guarantee the life, trials, and death of Job, while Paul authenticates the divine character of the book by citing from it, introducing the quotation with the usual formula “it is written” (1 Cor. 3:19, with Job 5:13).
The scenes of this book belong in point of antiquity to the patriarchal age: this we gather from the following considerations:—Job must have been nigh a century old, if not more, when the Lord opened the controversy with Satan respecting His servant. The patriarch then had seven grown-up sons, for they had houses of their own, and three daughters, while after his trial he lived a hundred and forty years (Job 1, 42). Does not this long age conclusively point to a time, certainly not later, if not, earlier than, the days of Abram? This is further confirmed by a reference to the earliest form of idolatry, that of the heavenly bodies (Job 31:26-27), the only kind mentioned in the book, and further by the frequency of the patriarchal title “the Almighty” occurring oftener than in any other book of Scripture. Job, too, like his contemporaries prior to the days of Moses, is seen in household priestly action (Job 1:5). According to many—Jews and Christians—Moses was the writer of the book; if so, it was probably written forty years at least before the Pentateuch, the former in the land of Midian (Ex. 1), and the latter subsequently on the plains of Moab (Deut. 31:22,26).
The five books from Job to the Canticles constitute the third divisional title of the Old Testament, “the Psalms” (Luke 24:44); so termed because they record the exercises, feelings, sorrows, and emotions of the heart of man.
The Book of Psalms.
THE BOOK OF PSALMS. This inspired collection of sacred songs, and of compositions of various character, has evidently the impress of God upon their arrangement. He selected them, gave them their present shape and form, gave one hundred and sixteen of them those un-translated headings or titles which are rarely read and still less understood. He gave to the whole collection its title, “The Book of Psalms” (Luke 20:42), and caused them to be numbered, too, for more easy reference, as “the Second Psalm” (Acts 13:33). The Psalms are inspired, and their arrangement is divine. “Selah,” that word of so frequent occurrence —about seventy times—signifies to pause or consider. Uniform tradition—Jewish and Christian—ascribes the compilation of the Psalms to Ezra on his return to Palestine after the Babylon-captivity. Human arrangement would have set the Psalms in chronological or historical order; but God has classified them in a manner befitting His glory. Whoever were the authors—and they are numerous (David, of course, principally)—the composition of the whole extended through a period of about a thousand years, commencing with Moses (Psa. 90) and ending with the return from Babylon (Psa. 137).
The Jews—ancient and modern—not only regarded the Psalms as divided into five books, ending respectively with Nos. 41, 72, 89, 106, 150, as a divine arrangement, but also considered each book to correspond with the separate books of the Pentateuch, having the same distinguishing characteristics. We will in as few words as possible trace the parallelism.
The first book of Psalms (Nos. 1-41) stands in the same relation to the whole collection that Genesis does to the Bible, both books being introductory and in both are unfolded the counsels of God as to this earth. The second book (Nos. 42-72) brings in God as Redeemer, as in the former He is revealed as Creator; hence the future blessing and redemption of the people on the ground of sovereign grace alone—all being utter ruin on man’s side—is the lesson as distinctly graven here, as it is in Exodus the second book of the Pentateuch. In the third book (Nos. 73-89) we have God made known as Sanctifier, and the whole nation SET APART for God—the root idea in Sanctification. The “Sanctuary” and the “House” characterize these 17 psalms throughout as they do Leviticus, the third book of Moses. The fourth book (Nos. 90-106) commences with what has been termed “the funeral psalm of the wilderness”—No. 90. Here too we have the patriarchal title “God Almighty,” faith’s resource in wilderness circumstances, and “Most High” the millennial title so as to sustain the hopes of the pilgrim and journeying host. The frailty and mortality of man and of Israel are solemnly chanted in the opening of this series of 17 psalms. But we have also the righteous ground unfolded in the death of the Messiah, and the glory and eternity of His being (No. 102), on which God will yet set His people in Canaan blessing, after the truths of death and, resurrection have been practically learned. And are not these the very truths and characteristics of the fourth book of Scripture—Numbers? There we behold the generation of Israel dying in the wilderness, there too we see the cross (chap. 21) man’s only hope and refuge! there also we witness the testing of man. But why amplify, with the teachings of both books before our very eyes? The fifth book (Nos. 107-150) is a book of review, a book in which the moral element largely prevails. Here God in His character, ways, and works is unfolded in strains —sublime and rapturous. Is the correspondence to Deuteronomy difficult to perceive? Have you ever compared the song (chap. 32) and blessing of Moses (chap. 33) with the closing five Psalms? We consider therefore that the Jews had a divine thought in holding that parallelism existed between the separate books of the Pentateuch with the separate books of the Psalms.
It will be observed that the first, second, and third books of the psalms end with the words, “Amen, and Amen”; while the fourth and fifth close with a “Hallelujah,” or “Praise ye the Lord.” The expressive note attached to the second book or 72nd Psalm, “The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended,” was probably the work of the inspired compiler. What more could be desired? Immanuel’s land is filled with glory and the praise of the once despised Nazarene, the Man of sorrows, engages the heart and tongue of the millennial earth, for “daily shall He be praised.” The last five psalms each begin with a “Hallelujah,” and also close with it, while the last of the five is a “Hallelujah psalm” throughout.
THE GREAT HALLELUJAH or Passover Hymn of the Jews consisted of that group from Nos. 113 to 118 inclusive. The first three were sung while the sacrificial lambs were being slain: the latter three were sung on the conclusion of the feast. Probably this second part, or Psalms 116-118, formed the hymn sung by the Lord and His apostles at the close of the celebration of the last Passover (Mark 14:26).
That interesting series of 15 psalms (Nos. 120-134) entitled SONGS OF DEGREES, are supposed to have been sung by the males of Israel on the occasion of their journeys to Jerusalem to observe their three national and compulsory feasts (Deut. 16:16). These “songs of ascents” (not “degrees”) imply Jerusalem’s historical and moral elevation; see Ex. 34:24; 1 Kings 12:27-28.
The Book of Proverbs.
THE PROVERBS. The whole of these proverbs were spoken by Solomon, save those contained in the two last chapters. We may regard these wise principles and maxims as part of the three thousand uttered by the illustrious monarch of Israel (1 Kings 4:32), and as the fruit of that wisdom he asked from the Lord at the commencement of his reign (1 Kings 3:12); his name is introduced at the beginning of each of the three divisions of the book (see chapters 1, 10, 25), and which are here selected and arranged by inspiration of God. The compiler was probably one of the prophets living in the days of Hezekiah, if, indeed, that monarch himself did not do so; we know at least that his servants copied out a number of these proverbs (Prov. 25:1). We know nothing of Agur (Prov. 30:1), nor of King Lemuel (Prov. 31:1); their names alone have been handed down to posterity.
Ecclesiastes.
ECCLESIASTES (the preacher). The opening words of the book are conclusive as to its authorship, “The words of the Preacher, the son of David, King in Jerusalem.” The boundary of Solomon’s horizon is the sun, beneath it all is pronounced “Vanity.” Read the book, and you will say that it was evidently written by Solomon at the close of his reign, in the evening of his life; probably too in Jerusalem, at least in Palestine.
One class of critics boldly tell us that the book was not written by Solomon, but that some unknown author assumed the name, and personified the character, of Israel’s wisest and richest monarch, because they have discovered that the style is not that of Solomon’s, nor the circumstances in the book in accordance with his reign. “Knowledge puffeth up;” and so these wise men in their own conceit regard with a sneer and with supreme contempt the fact that God has settled the question of the authorship of the book (Eccl. 1:1), and further that it always held its present place in all Hebrew Bibles, and formed part of the Sacred Scriptures in the days of Christ and writers of the New Testament. We suppose, moreover, that the Jewish mind is quite as capable as any modern critic in estimating the value of differences in style and diction—of Hebrew writers especially; yet the Jews ancient and modern fail to see a difficulty in assigning the authorship to Solomon. As to style, the Holy Ghost has none of His own. He is free to use the style and character of any human vessel He sees fit. But enough, God has spoken (Eccl. 1:1), and we would reverently bow and implicitly believe.
The Song of Solomon.
THE SONG. Solomon was not only a Preacher (Ecclesiastes) and a Moralist (Proverbs), but a Song-composer (Canticles). Of the 1005 Songs (1 Kings 4:32) written by Solomon, all have perished save this one which is styled by way of pre-eminence “The Song of Songs,” unless we include in the number of 1005 the two Psalms 72 and 127 attributed to Solomon. The book was written in Palestine, probably Jerusalem, by Solomon in the early period of his reign, about 1014 B.C. Its typical application is to the Jew of the future; its moral bearing is all-important for the Christian now. This divine poem is in the form of a dialog between Solomon, his spouse, and her companions. No doubt Solomon’s marriage with the lovely Egyptian princess formed the historical ground on which is based the moral and prophetic teachings of the book. Some arrange it in seven portions, answering to the seven days of the Jewish marriage feast. All Jews and Jewish writers in ancient times regarded the book as a sacred one, and it has always formed part of the Hebrew canon unquestioned till modern times. It also received the seal of the risen Lord as contributing its quota of testimony to Himself—His sufferings and glories (Luke 24:44).
The Prophets.
Prophecy and God’s government of the earth, having Palestine as the land, Jerusalem, then Babylon, and again Jerusalem as city and center, Judah or Israel as the people, and the glory of Christ as the object, form the ground-work and basis of the prophetic revelations contained in the books from Isaiah to Malachi. The Prophets are divided into “four greater” and “twelve minor prophets,” Lamentations being included in the prophecies of Jeremiah. These books are so divided and termed because of the extent of their writings. Prophetic utterances and prophetic signs were generally communicated by “vision” (Isa. 6) or “word of the Lord”‘ (Jer. 2:1).
“The Hebrew word for a prophet is NABI, which comes from a word signifying to boil up, and hence to pour forth, words as under divine inspiration.”—Dr. Kitto.
Isaiah.
ISAIAH (salvation of the Lord). This is the grandest, sublimest, and most comprehensive of the prophetical books; and because of its fullness of subjects and wide sweep of the prophetic future, occupying itself with the whole scene of God’s purposes respecting Israel and the nations, is first in order in all Hebrew and English Bibles. If Isaiah lived to the close of Hezekiah’s reign, then he must have worn the prophetic mantle for a period of at least sixty years, dating his introduction to the prophetic office from the last year of Uzziah’s reign (Isa. 6). Being a Judah-prophet, and standing in high repute in the royal court, these magnificent prophecies were mainly uttered in Jerusalem. Jewish tradition asserts that the aged prophet, then about ninety years old, was, “sawn asunder” during the reign of Manasseh, and that to protract his sufferings a wooden instrument was used for the cruel purpose. Many suppose that Hebrews 11:37, “sawn asunder,” refers to the barbarous martyrdom of our prophet. Isaiah too being their favorite prophet must have a royal parentage; so they tell us that Amoz the father of the prophet was a brother of king Amaziah. These traditions are not supported by a particle of evidence. We do not say they are false, neither can we affirm their truth.
This great prophecy is divided into two main portions, the first occupying chapters 1-35, the second part consists of chapters 40 to the end; the historical four chapters which divide the two great portions of the book are needful, as supplying the main subjects of the prophetic future. Now in this latter portion (Isaiah 40-66) the prophetic intimations respecting Babylon and other nations are remarkably full, and have been fulfilled to the letter. Even Cyrus, the deliverer of the Jews from their Chaldean exile and the destroyer of Babylon, was prophetically appointed for the work, and surnamed about one hundred and fifty years before he was born (Isaiah 44 and 45).
Here then our modern critics are on the horns of a dilemma. If this latter part of the prophecy be really the work of the “Evangelical Prophet,” or of the “Fifth Evangelist,” as some have termed Isaiah, then the authority of Holy Scripture is supreme, for God alone can reveal the future. But then this portion of Isaiah is an integral part of the book. How then can it be got rid of? Well, it is said that the last twenty-seven chapters were written after the events, and by Ezra, who is thus made the author of a stupidly arranged imposition. Can our denunciations of such unfounded suppositions be too scathing or severe? When our Lord went into the synagogue at Nazareth, there was handed to him “the book of the prophet Esaias” (Luke 4:17-21). Ah! did the Lord of heaven and earth not know what our modern infidel scholars have found out, that only the first thirty-nine chapters in general constituted the book of Isaiah. He read a portion of Isaiah 61, that is, one of the so-called spurious chapters, and when finished, He said “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Was Christ reading, applying to the consciences of His hearers, and fulfilling what falsely professed to be written by Isaiah? But the theory is baseless, and absolutely false, for Paul, too, cites from the “great unnamed” author. The one to whom this absurd title is applied by certain German and English divines, was Isaiah to Paul (Rom. 10:20; Isa. 66) and Isaiah and Scripture to the Lord (Luke 4). Why these persistent efforts to set aside the historical Moses and the prophetic Isaiah? Just this, dear reader, that you may doubt everything and believe nothing. The full verbal inspiration of the Scriptures is the ground of all authority. Hold fast, then, the written word of God.
Jeremiah.
JEREMIAH (exalted or established of the Lord). This is the second of the “greater prophets”—so called because of the largeness and extent of their written prophecies—the other two being Ezekiel and Daniel. Jeremiah was of priestly descent, his father being Hilkiah, one of the priests residing in the Levitical town of Anathoth, four miles north-east of Jerusalem. The name Hilkiah was a common enough one among the Jews, so we cannot say that the high priest of that name who found the copy of the law in the Temple was the father of our prophet.
Jeremiah was ordained a prophet to the nations before his birth, and was early called to the office (Jer. 1:5-7), which he occupied for the long period of forty-two years-about one hundred and thirty years after the call of Isaiah. Jeremiah uttered his predictions in and about the metropolis of Judea; then, on the capture of Jerusalem; by the Chaldeans, among the people spared by the clemency of the Chaldean conqueror, and who, after the murder of Gedaliah, the governor of Judea, and in spite of the faithful remonstrances of the prophet, went down into Egypt (Jer. 43, 44), and nearly all perished there.
These prophecies, in our English Bibles, as also in the Hebrew, are arranged (by whom we cannot tell, probably by Ezra) without regard to chronological order. But whoever was the editor of Jeremiah’s weeping prophecies, for almost “every letter is written with a tear, and every word is the sound of a broken heart”—especially so of the Lamentations—must have been divinely directed; for the moral order, and connection of the various prophecies to each other are evidently of God. In the Septuagint they are arranged chronologically. The last verse of the fifty-first chapter ends with “Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.” The last chapter of the book is not written by Jeremiah, but is an historical appendix substantially the same as 2 Kings 24:18-20, 25 and equally given by inspiration of God, and needful in its place. The predictions of the prophet respecting Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, were fulfilled to the letter, as this historical appendix, probably written by Ezra, conclusively prove. It is only in this book, so far as we know that the duration of the Chaldean kingdom is given, as in the duration of Judah’s captivity in Babylon (Jer. 25:9-14; 29:10). Daniel was a devout student of these very prophecies, especially of those portions just referred to (Dan. 9:2). We may observe that Jeremiah 10:11 Contains a message to the heathen written in their own language—the Aramean or Syriac.
The Lamentations.
LAMENTATIONS. It is self-evident that this book is from the pen of Jeremiah. The Septuagint has the following passage:—“And it came to pass after that Israel was taken captive, and Jerusalem was laid waste, that Jeremiah sat weeping and lamented this lamentation over Jerusalem.” These strains of anguish uttered over the success of the Chaldean attack upon Jerusalem, and the consequent desolation of city and people, are most touchingly expressed. The death of the godly Josiah (2 Chron. 35:24-25) was the immediate occasion of these strains of unrivaled pathos, as the last hope of Israel died in the death of the godly monarch.
The book originally constituted one work with the prophecies of Jeremiah. The structure of the book is worth noticing. The first, second, and fourth chapters each contain twenty-two verses, and are, in the original, arranged alphabetically according to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The third chapter of sixty-six verses is also alphabetic in structure, only there are three verses to each letter. The fifth chapter, consists of twenty-two verses, but is not similarly arranged. Several of the Psalms, as the 119th, etc., are constructed in like manner, proof of God’s tender compassion for the feeble minds and failing memories of His poor people.
Ezekiel.
EZEKIEL (may God support or strengthen). Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel were contemporary prophets; the two former were priests, while the latter was of the seed royal of Judah. Jeremiah prophesied amongst the poor of the people who were spared and left in the land through the mercy of the Chaldean conqueror, and afterward in Egypt, whither the miserable remnant of the nation fled after the murder of Gedaliah the Babylonian governor of Judea. Ezekiel lifted up his voice, and by sign and word warned the exiled portion of Judah in the land of Mesopotamia, as also to considerable numbers of the ten tribes transported thither at an earlier period. Daniel interpreted the visions and dreams of the heathen monarch in Babylon itself, and there, too, were communicated to him those visions and prophecies which most of all concern the European and other Gentiles in relation to the Jews—past, present, and future.
The subversion of the kingdom of Judah and the deportation of her king, princes, priests, and people were effected by the Chaldeans on three separate occasions. In the year 599 B.C. Jehoiachin, second last king of Judah, after a brief reign of but three months, was taken captive along with the principal people of the land, including Ezekiel (2 Kings 24). Seven years previously Jehoiakim, with Daniel and other members of the royal family, had been removed to the proud and haughty court of the Gentile in Babylon. The third captivity (2 Kings 25) eleven years after the second, and eighteen years after the first, completed the ruin of Judah. Our prophet was located on the banks of the river Chebar, 400 miles from Babylon.
The most distinguished of the Judah exiles flocked again and again to the prophet’s dwelling at Tel Abib (Ezek. 8:1; 16:1; 21:1; 33), and there the burning and eloquent lips of the exiled seer and priest uttered the word of the Lord. The prophecies contained in the book were proclaimed during a period of twenty-two years (Ezek. 1:2), although the prophet’s forced exile lasted twenty-seven years (Ezek. 29:17). Christ, Daniel, and Ezekiel are the only persons termed “Son of Man” in the Scriptures, the latter nearly one hundred times.
We do not agree with those who consider this book a difficult one to understand; in our judgment it is the reverse. The first twenty-four chapters contain chronologically-arranged prophecies bearing upon the Chaldean invasion of Judea and capture and sack of Jerusalem, 588 B. C. Then you have the destruction of those nations who participated in the attack or rejoiced in the ruin of Judah (Ezek. 25-32). Lastly, Israel herself and her future great enemy Gog, or the northern power (Russia), are judged, while particulars of the millennial temple and throne, and details of an interesting kind, occupy the closing chapters of the book (Ezek. 33-48). We know nothing certain of the death of the prophet; probably he died or was martyred in Egypt.
Daniel.
DANIEL (God my judge). This prophet was taken to Babylon nearly twenty years before the final Chaldean attack upon Jerusalem and sack of the city; and, as he survived the captivity, which was seventy years, even to the third year of the reign of Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Empire (Dan. 10:1), he must have been taken captive when very young, and hence could not have shared the national guilt to any considerable extent; but this very consideration gives weight and solemnity to his confession of national sin (Dan. 9.). From the setting aside of Jerusalem and substitution of Babylon as the center of divine government on the earth, we date “the times of the Gentiles,” that is, until the Jew is again taken up in sovereign grace, the government of the earth has been handed over to the Gentiles. This government, exercised through the four successive Gentile monarchies, is the great subject of the book; that government, as also the combined history and prophecy respecting Jew and Gentile, will close at the introduction of the millennial kingdom of Christ.
It is an interesting circumstance that that portion of the book from verse 4 of chapter 2 Till the close of chapter 7 is in the Syriac or Aramean language, that being the tongue spoken by the Babylonians and the Assyrians—the two powers employed in the captivity of all Israel. In that portion we have divinely sketched the rise, progress and doom of Gentile power. Thus not Hebrew, but Syriac is the selected tongue, so that the Gentiles could read for themselves, and were thus left without excuse as to the exercise of the governmental power divinely entrusted to them.
Style of the Prophets and Classification of the Twelve Minor Books.
The style and character of the four greater prophets present striking contrasts. Isaiah is grand, Jeremiah is tearful, Ezekiel is energetic, Daniel is calm. When the Spirit of God selects any instrument to accomplish His work, the individuality of the chosen vessel is in fullest accord with the Spirit’s inspiration. The “several ability” of those to whom “talents” are entrusted is ever recognized (Matt. 25:15).
By Jewish arrangement the twelve minor prophets were grouped in one volume. Thus in the enumeration of the sacred books by Josephus and others, and in all ancient catalogs, they are classed together, and cited from, as one book. The Hebrew arrangement of the first six minor prophets differs from the Septuagint. The order in which they stand in our English Bibles follows the Hebrew, which is the moral order. In the Septuagint they are represented thus—Hosea, Amos, Micah, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, which is not strictly chronological.
We would classify those twelve books under three divisions. 1St. Those which relate to the overthrow of the kingdom of Israel by Assyria, and of Judah by Babylon. 2nd. Those which unfold the judgment of the Gentiles. 3rd. Those which relate to the people restored from the Babylon captivity. Under No. 1 we place the books of Hosea, Joel, Amos, Micah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah,, six books in all. Under No. 2 we have the three books of Obadiah, Jonah, and Nahum; while under No. 3 we place Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, which along with Ezra and Nehemiah are termed “the Books of the Restoration.”
We may here add that the sixteen prophetical books from Isaiah to Malachi (Lamentations included in Jeremiah) are, in our English Bibles, arranged in the main in chronological order; the first four are strictly chronological, although preceded by some of the lesser prophets. But what is of more value to us, and manifests moreover the hand of God, is the moral arrangement of these writings. The last historical book of the Old Testament is Nehemiah, while the last prophetic book is Malachi. Thus from Genesis to Nehemiah you have sixteen books, the sum of Old Testament history; while from Isaiah to Malachi you have sixteen books, the sum of Old Testament prophecy.
Hosea.
HOSEA (deliverance). From the first verse of the book we gather that Hosea must have prophesied for a period of about sixty years. We cannot with certainty say whether the prophet resided in Samaria or Judea; probably the former, as Israel or the kingdom of the ten tribes is more especially the burden of these prophecies. But while Judah and Israel for judgment, as also for millennial blessing, are directly regarded in this book, it is to be observed that the Gentiles are entirely passed over both for judgment and blessing, save perhaps in Hosea 1:10, which study and compare with Romans 9:24-26.
Joel.
JOEL (the Lord is at hand). In this book we have no historical data or chronological notes whatever to guide us as to the place or time when the prophecy was uttered. But judging from the internal character of the book, and also from the fact that the closing words of our prophet (Joel 3:16) are the opening words of Amos (Amos 1:2), we gather that Joel uttered “the word of the Lord” in Judea, perhaps Jerusalem, and further, as preceding Amos, must have been one of the earliest of the Judah prophets, probably about 800 B.C. The then present circumstances of Judah, the harvests utterly destroyed, the sacrifices withheld from the house of the Lord, while famine and desolation wrapped the land and all classes of the people in mourning owing to the dreadful ravages of countless swarms of locusts and other insects, form the text on which Joel enlarges and announces “the day of the Lord.”
Judah and Jerusalem—people and city—are specially remembered for millennial blessing (Joel 3:1,20). “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh” (Joel 2:28) is a blessed intimation that grace will overstep the narrow limits of Judaism in the happy years at hand. The descriptive powers of our prophet (see Joel 2) are unequaled by anything found in Scripture or elsewhere.
Amos.
AMOS (bearer). This prophet was a Jew residing in Tekoa, a small town six miles south-east of Bethlehem, and followed the very humble occupation of a herdsman and gatherer of sycamore fruit (Amos 7). From thence he was called to utter “the word of the Lord” in Israel, especially in Bethel, the southern seat of idolatry in the kingdom of the ten tribes (1 Kings 13). The charming simplicity of the prophet’s account of himself and of his peasant life, his striking images and metaphors drawn from nature and the animal creation, with which he was familiarly acquainted, are beautiful and very striking. The native eloquence of the shepherd of Tekoa characterizes the book throughout.
Judgment upon the Gentiles in external relationship to Israel—as Damascus, Syria, Tyrus, and the Moabite nations bordering upon the land of Israel—is the burden of the first eighteen verses of the book. Then the prophet denounces the wickedness and hypocrisy of Israel, even under the splendid reign of Jeroboam II, and predicts her captivity to Assyria, and that of Judah to Babylon, announced in language and symbols both striking and original. The last five verses of the prophecy are beautiful, and we are not surprised at their frequent quotation by prophetic students in describing millennial blessedness. Amos was contemporary with Hosea (Hosea 1:1), and probably followed Jonah. The latter may have lived in the early part of Jeroboam’s reign, and Amos in the latter part.
Obadiah.
OBADIAH (servant of the Lord). This is the shortest of the prophetical books; and unless we regard Obadiah as an historian, writing after the capture and sack of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, 588 B.C. (actively assisted by the Edomites who exulted in Judah’s overthrow), we must place him among the early prophets and discard the date of the accomplished chronologist Usher, namely, 587 B.C. The burden of this book is the doom of Edom, a people proverbial for their pride, wisdom, power; and whose rage against the people of Jehovah’s choice found vent at the Chaldean destruction of Jerusalem. Alas! the Babylonians needed not the encouraging cry of the Edomite in wreaking their vengeance upon the poor Jew: “Rase it, rase it even to the foundation thereof” (Psa. 137:7).
The land of Edom is about a hundred miles in length, lying between the Dead Sea and the eastern arm of the Red Sea, and strong in its natural strength and rocky position, and is prophetically destined to be the scene of one of the most appalling judgments noted in the divine records (Isa. 63:1-6). Here the character, doings, and thoroughness of the overwhelming desolation yet awaiting Edom by the hand of conquering Judah are calmly and sternly announced. The prophecy was probably uttered in Judea, and at a very early period of Jewish regal history.
Jonah.
JONAH (dove). It was probably because of the Gentile mission to which Jonah was separated, and which he so disliked, that the ecclesiastical leaders of Judah conveniently forgot that a prophet had arisen out of Galilee (John 7:52). Jonah was born in Gath-hepher, in the northern part of Palestine, and was probably a contemporary of Elisha, or at least immediately succeeded him. This piece of information we glean from 2 Kings 14:25-27, where we are told that the enlargement of Israel’s sea coasts wrested from the Syrians was according to a previous prediction by Jonah. This consideration, as also the internal character and contents of the book itself, warrant us in assigning a very early date indeed to this prophecy of judgment upon proud and haughty Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian kingdom and the mistress, of the earth. It its perhaps the earliest prophetical book we have.
The personal history of the prophet occupies the larger portion of the book, while the remainder affords a highly instructive narrative of the Lord’s governmental ways with nations as exemplified in the threatened judgment of Nineveh, its repentance, and the suspension of the stroke for a lengthened period. The book was probably written about 826 B.C., and either in Palestine or near Nineveh. Some Jewish writers absurdly suppose Jonah to have been the son of the widow of Sarepta.
Micah.
MICAH (who is like unto the Lord?). This prophet was contemporary with Isaiah, Hosea, and Amos: see the first verse of each of the books of these prophets. Micah is termed “the Morasthite” from Moresheth-Gath, a small town in southern Judea, not far from Jerusalem. There is not in this book such a range of subjects or comprehensiveness of treatment as in Isaiah, yet Micah in some respects resembles his great contemporary. Both specially regard Israel’s political foe and external enemy in the future Jewish crisis, namely, “the Assyrian” or “king of the north;” and both predict millennial blessedness in the same eloquent terms 2-4; Mic. 4:1-3).
Jeremiah was not afraid that his credit as a prophet would suffer by referring expressly to Micah (Jer. 26:18) as did Daniel in a latter day to Jeremiah (Dan. 9:2), and Amos to Joel (Amos 1:2). There are few original characters in the world, and we above all others should beware of the spirit of independency, for God has set us in “one body” and constituted us members one of another, and thus mutually dependent; let us not hesitate, therefore, to own, frankly indebtedness to each other.
In the prophecies contained in this book, Jerusalem the religious, and Samaria the proud, capitals of Judea and Israel, have special judgment meted out to them; these predictions have been fulfilled to the very letter. Zion was to be “plowed as a field” (Micah 3:12), and Samaria made “as a heap of the field” (Micah 1:6). The former prediction was verified by Turnus Rufus, who in obedience to imperial orders passed the Roman plow over Zion after its destruction in the year 70 A.D.; while the latter prediction, in its accomplishment, has been witnessed to by Dr. Keith, M’Cheyne, and others, who beheld the stones of Samaria gathered in heaps.
Here Jehovah is seen coming out of His place, the temple; and so the storm of divine wrath sweeps through the land of Immanuel, then the land of Assyria, and finally spends itself upon the near and distant heathen. But glory will break for Israel and the nations in those coming days so grandly foretold by Isaiah, weepingly yearned for by Jeremiah, and energetically predicted by Ezekiel. Palestine (probably the southern kingdom-Judea) would be the scene where, and 750 B.C. about the date when, these prophecies were uttered.
Nahum.
NAHUM (consolation). The prophets Jonah and Nahum were Galileans, and both had Nineveh as the burden of their testimony. In the former, however, the character and doings of the prophet form an integral part of the book, while in the latter the character of God is unfolded in language unrivaled for its sublimity.
The short, abrupt, bold and elegant sentences in describing Nineveh, her lengthened siege of two years and the manner of her capture, make the book a very interesting one indeed. We need not the pen of the historian to trace for us the particulars connected with the destruction of that ancient city which with its rival Babylon is doomed to perpetual desolation. A more graphic account of the pride, cruelty, and idolatry of Nineveh, of its size and its resources, and finally of the mode of its capture by the combined forces of the Medes and Babylonians, with the surprise of its king and nobles, cannot be produced, and positively makes the reader independent of the human historian. Nineveh was to be destroyed by fire and water. The travelers Botta and Layard, in their interesting discoveries in the palaces and ruins of the city, found considerable quantities of charcoal and half-burnt wood. Here we have God’s account of things, surely preferable infinitely to man’s judgment and his generally faulty record of things and persons.
Nahum prophesied in Palestine, and nearly a century and a half after Jonah his predecessor, in testimony to and of Nineveh.
Habakkuk.
HABAKKUK (an embrace). We have nothing in Scripture as to the personal history or parentage of this prophet, but plenty of tradition as to both, which is not of much value. It has been remarked that Jeremiah’s great prophecy has been divided into two parts—the destruction of Jerusalem forming the break between the two—which we might term the moral and prophetic, and further, that Habakkuk takes up the moral side of the book of Jeremiah, as Zephaniah does the prophetic side.
We have neither note of time nor exact historical data as to when or where this prophecy was uttered and written. We should judge, however, from verses 5 and 6 of Habbakuk 1, which intimate the Chaldean invasion of Judea, that the vision of Habakkuk (Hab. 1 and 2) and his sublime and fervent prayer (Hab. 3) considerably preceded the rise of the Chaldeans, and that the southern kingdom of Palestine, probably Jerusalem, was the scene of the “vision” and “prayer.” If Nahum announces the judgment of the proud Assyrian who destroyed the kingdom of Israel, Habakkuk on the other hand predicts the utter ruin of the Chaldeans, who in their day of power destroyed the kingdom of Judah. The distinctly moral character of the book, and the prophet’s identification with the people in their confession of sin, and then in their turning to Jehovah and hoping in His mercy, are truths of priceless value to every true servant of God whose desire is to serve Him, His saints, and church.
It will be observed that the word “Selah,” meaning to pause or consider, occurs three times in the third chapter, as also about seventy times in the book of Psalms. This chapter also contains other points of resemblance to the Psalms. The character of the Chaldean power (Hab. 1) and the five woes pronounced upon it (Hab. 2) are foretold with an exactness, force of language, and striking imagery peculiar to our prophet. We heartily endorse the encomium of another who says “it were difficult to find words to set forth adequately the exalted claims and peculiar merits of this high minstrel of grief and joy, of desolateness and hope, of scorn and tenderness.”
Zephaniah.
ZEPHANIAH (whom the Lord protects). The pedigree of this prophet is carefully given for four generations, as also the period of his prophecy—the reign of the godly Josiah, the last pious king of Judah (Zeph. 1:1). Both Zephaniah and Habakkuk were contemporary with Jeremiah. The time and place of these predictions are thus easily ascertainable. It was in the land of Judea, and about 630 B.C., or a few years later when Zephaniah uttered his “Thus saith the Lord”—the usual formula of the prophets.
The references to preceding prophecies by Isaiah, Amos, and Joel, are numerous in so short a prophecy. The harmony and entire agreement in the prophetic books of the Old Testament are well worth consideration, as evidencing that one divine mind and purpose characterize all Scripture. The great themes of all the prophets are iniquity, judgment, and glory, and Zephaniah finely descants on these subjects. In the main the burden of his prophecy is the “great day of the Lord,” the day of Jehovah’s anger—an expression common to all the prophets, and signifying the future period of judgment. It is, therefore, pre-eminently a book of judgment, but glory triumphs in the end. The judgments predicted by this prophet are not only general and universal in their range and extent, but are also minute and particular—none escape. Thy land and people, O Immanuel, will yet be the objects of Thy joy, and the rest of Thy love!
Haggai.
HAGGAI (festive). The three last books of the Old Testament have a peculiar character impressed upon them. They contain predictions of judgment, but are also exceedingly rich in their anticipations of that happy future awaiting Israel and the earth. They were uttered in presence of the remnants returned to Judea from the Babylonian captivity, and in view of their then moral condition. Man’s utter failure and inability to respond to God’s presentation of grace or claim of law, with Jehovah’s tender and yearning love over His guilty people, are truths graven in these books, or “Prophets of the Restoration,” as they are termed by some of our American Bible students.
Haggai and Zechariah greatly encouraged the people to resume the building of the Temple, which had been interrupted for about fourteen years (Ezra 5:1) by a decree from Artaxerxes, the Persian monarch, forbidding the work (Ezra 4). The energetic and faithful remonstrances of our prophet and of his able coadjutor Zechariah, had the desired effect, and the people recommenced the work before Darius reversed the decree of his predecessor and confirmed the commandment of Cyrus. What about the unchanging laws and unalterable decrees (Dan. 6:15) of the Persian realm in presence of God and of His power? When God is working with His people, and they are in fellowship with Him, what is man? Ah! we have omnipotent strength and infinite love to count upon—the strength for our weakness and the love for our need. The living God is Himself the resource of His people.
The book contains four messages, termed in each case, “the word of the Lord” delivered in Jerusalem in the second year of Darius Hystaspes, 522 B.C., and within a period of about three months.
Zechariah.
ZECHARIAH (whom the Lord remembered). This prophet commenced his prophetic service two months later than his contemporary and colleague Haggai (compare Zech. 1:1 with Hag. 1:1). The latter is simply termed “Haggai the prophet,” whereas the father and grandfather of our prophet are expressly named. We gather from a comparison of the first verse with Neh. 12:4, and Ezra 5:1, that Zechariah was of priestly descent, as were Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Ezra, and perhaps Habakkuk. We would direct special attention to the minute accuracy of the dates in the books of Zechariah and Haggai. They conclusively mark God’s recognition of the sovereign power granted to the Gentiles, and under which His people were placed till the government of the world shall be once again exercised through the Jew, and from Jerusalem, the city of the Great King.
The prophecies contained in this book are mainly respecting Judah as a people, and Jerusalem as a city in their judgment, as also in their blessed future, but in special relation to the Gentiles. The eight visions seen in one night (Zech. 1-6) from the Persian power, under Cyrus (the rider among the myrtle trees, but figuring Christ, Zech. 1:8) till the temple and throne are set up in Jerusalem in millennial glory, present the great facts connected with Israel and her relation to the imperial powers. In the rest of the book numerous details of a deeply interesting kind, bearing upon the millennial future, are given; moral truths, prophecies of and about the Messiah, and physical facts accompanying the Lord’s descent to Mount Olivet for Jewish deliverance, make up a record of undying interest to prophetic students (Zech. 14).
Malachi.
MALACHI. Significantly, the name Malachi means “My Messenger” (Mal. 3:1). He prophesied about a hundred years after Haggai and Zechariah. What now remains for God to do in view of Israel’s moral condition, since His claims are treated with proud contempt, His service a weariness, and His worship a lifeless form? If Jehovah’s last pleadings of love fall upon the cold insensible ears and hearts of these returned remnants, save upon a few (a remnant out of the remnant who originally returned from the captivity, Mal. 3:16-18), what can God now do to His degenerate vine but send “His messenger” before He comes personally in judgment? We have the coming of Jesus in grace referred to (Mal. 3:1), and His coming in judgment (Mal. 4:5). The opening words of our prophet are quoted by Paul (Rom. 9:13), while the closing utterances are cited by Jesus (Matt. 17:11-12). We close these remarks upon the Old Testament in the earnest hope that the reader will lay deeply to heart the solemn lessons and truths graven on these last books of the former revelation.
The Apocrypha.
The Hebrew Bible or Old Testament was completed with Malachi. Then about 284 B.C. the Septuagint or Greek translation of the Sacred Hebrew Books was begun, and finished about 130 years before Christ. But long after the Old Testament was complete in Hebrew, certain books were written by Jews in Alexandria and elsewhere—dates and names of authors being uncertain—which were bound up with the Septuagint. These books are termed The Apocrypha. They are useful as connecting links of history between the Testaments, but are utterly destitute of divine authority, nor do the books themselves claim to be inspired. The difference between the Apocrypha and the Hebrew Bible as to character, style, and subjects are patent even to a child.
The Apocrypha was first received as canonical by the Council of Trent, 1545, and is highly regarded by Roman Catholics throughout the world.
The following statements are important to remember:
1. No portion of the Apocrypha was written in Hebrew, but all in Greek, although by Jews, and never formed part of the Hebrew canon.
2. It was written more than a century after the completion of the Old Testament.
3. It was never regarded by the Jews or their writers as possessing the slightest claim to inspiration.
4. Neither the Lord nor Apostles ever cited from, or referred to, the Apocrypha.
Chapter 5
The Books and Canon of the New Testament.
THE composition of the Books of the Bible was begun by Moses on the plains of Moab in the 15th century B.C.; the subjects of which they treat were completed by Paul during his Roman imprisonment in the latter half of the first Christian century (Col. 1:25); while John, the last of the Apostolic band, had those wondrous visions and sights vouchsafed to him in the rocky isle of Patmos, and the whole, known to us as “The Revelation,” committed to writing by the close of the century.
The First and Last Books of the Bible.
If the first book of the Bible unfolds to us the sources of good and evil, the origin of all things, the germ of every truth, the foundation of every divine and human relationship; the last book shows us the final and eternal results, the triumph of good over evil; the issues, whether in glory or of judgment, of the human race—there we behold the pride of man humbled and flesh wither under the hand of God; there too the meek and lowly ones of earth who identified themselves through grace with Christ and His cross, are exalted; the impress of eternity, the touch of God’s hand rests on every person and every subject treated of in the 66th book of Holy Scripture—THE REVELATION.
The Apostles Paul and Peter.
It was during the reign of Nero, the ravening “lion” (2 Tim. 4:17), that the Apostles Paul and Peter were martyred; the former by beheading, the latter by crucifixion, and, at his own request, with his head down as unworthy to die like his Master. We see no reason to doubt the traditions concerning these beloved Apostles; certain it is that both had special revelations of their near end, although not, perhaps, of the manner of their death. It may be well to remark in passing, that both Apostles firmly insisted on the saints rendering obedience and honor to Nero the Emperor—one of the worst and most cruel of men who ever sat on the throne of the Caesars; not the character of the ruler, but the office he fills, is that which demands the respect and reverence of the saints of God (Rom. 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:17).
From the Emperor Nero to Domitian.
We dare not defile the minds of our readers nor blot our pages with a recital of the cruelties practiced by Nero during a reign of thirteen years. Suffice it to say that their record is written on high by a pen that faithfully chronicles the deeds and thoughts of men. After the ignominious death of the tyrant, three Emperors in succession assumed the purple and swayed the earthly destinies of mankind, considerably within a period of two years, followed by the prosperous reigns of Vespasian and of his son Titus—the latter being termed by the Romans the “delight of mankind.” It was during the reign of these Emperors that the siege of Jerusalem took place—a siege unexampled in the annals of history. The Gentiles destroyed Jerusalem so completely, that the Roman plow, passed over the city (Mic. 3:12), and death or slavery were the appointed portion of her people (Deut. 28:49-57). But again the star of Jacob will rise, and the sons of her destroyers build up her walls, and pour their treasures and wealth into the city of the, Savior’s love and choice (Isa. 60).
Next, we have the reign of Domitian, who had been nominated to the throne of his brother Titus. What a period! We question if the blackest page of history can furnish one equal to it. For about 15 years from A.D. 81 The Roman world lay bleeding at the feet of the despot. The wickedness of this man, who spared neither age, sex, nor rank in the gratification of his avarice and cruelty, is without a parallel. The sufferings of the Christians under the second legal persecution during this dismal reign were truly awful, and the torments to which they were subjected barbarous in the extreme. Domitian not only trod closely in the steps of Nero, but even exceeded that insane tyrant and hater of mankind in glutting himself with the blood and agonies of his subjects and of the saints of God.
The Apostle John and Patmos.
It is traditionally reported that the beloved Apostle John and the then only survivor of “The Twelve,” was brought before the Emperor, and after a brief examination, ordered to be cast into a caldron of flaming oil, but after a few hours came out unhurt. Tertullian, who flourished in the third century, asserts the truth of it, and, it has been asked, which, if any, of the early writers denies it? It is certain, however, that John was doomed to perpetual banishment in the rocky isle of Patmos. In that dreary convict establishment of about 25 miles in circumference, washed by the waves of the Ægean Sea, the worst of criminals were sent to drag out a weary existence by laboring in the mines which then existed in the island. We may be sure that the stern Roman Emperor would allow the prisoner of the Lord no exemption from the hard toil and vicious society of Patmos. There is a Greek monastery in the island, and the lazy monks profess to point out the very cave where John was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, where the visions and sights narrated in the Apocalypse were seen, and where the prophecy was written. On the accession of Nerva, the edicts of Domitian were canceled, the banished Christians recalled, and their confiscated property restored. John, on the general authority of antiquity, returned from the inhospitable isle of Patmos to Ephesus, the flourishing capital of Asia, and there peacefully ended his days at the advanced age of 100, full of love and labor for his beloved Master.
The Apostle John and the Canon.
We are not aware that John left any authoritative declaration of what writings were canonical. If each of the 66 books of the Bible do not carry with them their own evidence to the soul and conscience of men, then no external proof will convince. It is an important circumstance that John survived the completed revelation of God by several years. He was there to distinguish, on his Apostolic authority immediately derived from the Lord Jesus Christ, the inspired from the uninspired books then in circulation amongst the Churches. He could be appealed to if necessary on any point involving the divine authority of any book of Holy Scripture.
John’s personal knowledge of the Lord, and his familiar acquaintance with the writings of his fellow Apostles and others, and, we might add, his jealous regard for the glory of his Master, His person and work, fitted the Apostle above all others for the task of handing over to the Church a full Bible. We have positive evidence that no writings subsequent to those of John have ever been admitted into the canon of the New Testament.
Canon of the New Testament.
It is true that numerous Christian books were in circulation, even in the days of Luke, the writer of the third Gospel and of “The Acts” (Luke 1:1), some of them attributed to the Apostles and their companions, but they were not regarded as inspired, however highly esteemed otherwise. So numerous are the quotations from the New Testament in the writings of the fathers of the first seven centuries, that the whole of the New Testament might from thence be recovered, if needs be. We frankly admit, however, that certain Epistles, as Hebrews, 2 Peter, Jude, and Revelation were not at first universally received as canonical, owing to the difficulty of communication existing in these early times. It was no easy matter then for Churches or individuals at a distance to hold mutual intercourse, and it must be borne in mind that Epistles were addressed to persons or assemblies in some instances 1000 miles apart; besides which the transcribing of accurate copies of the originals required time and care. These facts remembered, we are thankful for the extreme caution with which the canon of the New Testament was finally accepted.
When the 27 books of the New Testament were first collected, or the principle on which they were arranged, is of little consequence. It is just as evident on moral grounds that “The Revelation” forms a fitting conclusion to the New Testament, as that “Malachi” closes the canon of the Old; and this form of evidence is of far more value than any other, inasmuch as it searches the conscience and carries inward conviction to the soul. If, therefore, the last of the Hebrew prophets leaves Israel under the last pleadings of Jehovah’s love till the advent of the Messiah in grace, so the last of the Apostles leaves the Church under the warning voice of the Spirit of God till the advent of Christ in glory. Malachi and Matthew bridge a period of four centuries and a half, the Spirit uniting them in one common testimony, “for the Scripture cannot be broken;” compare Mal. 3:1; 4:5, with Matt. 17:11-13. Again, Moses the lawgiver and John the Apostle stretch hands over the gulf of sixteen centuries, “for the Scripture cannot be broken;” compare Gen. 1 with Rev. 21 The Holy Bible may be likened to a noble bridge of 66 arches—only undermine one and the whole system of Revelation goes. Reader, hold fast the inspired Scriptures of our God.
The New Testament: Materials of Original Documents, Manuscripts, etc.
“New Testament” is an expression defining the believer’s new position before God since the work of the Cross and the rending of the veil. It is one no doubt borrowed from Matt. 26:28; and we suppose that 2 Cor. 3:14 would give title and character to the previous revelation—“Old Testament.” The New Testament was completed during the latter half of the first century. The original documents which came from the pen of inspiration were generally either of parchment or of the brittle papyrus plant.
Had the inspired autographs been preserved, we believe men would have worshipped them. Israel paid divine honors to the brazen serpent (2 Kings 18:4), and would have worshipped the body of Moses and reverenced his sepulcher had he died in their midst and his tomb been known (Deut. 34:5-6; Jude 9). Paul seems to have used parchment generally, if not exclusively, in the writing of his epistles (2 Tim. 4:13), which was very enduring, being prepared from the skins of sheep, antelopes, etc. The manufacture of these skins for preservation of documents of value was perfected in Pergamos. The name of the city gave its name to the article. John wrote on the papyrus (2 John 12), which grew plentifully on the banks of the Nile and anciently by the Jordan, from which our word paper is derived.
A few specimens of this Egyptian paper have been found in tombs, but not many, as the material was difficult to preserve, being so brittle. A still more ancient material was linen, which has been found wrapped round their mummies and covered all over with hieroglyphics and writing. The earliest Christian documents we possess date from the fourth century; no classical MSS. are nearly so old. We doubt if any Hebrew MSS. exist of earlier date than the tenth century. The Jews were wont to buy very old, defaced, or mutilated MSS. of value. The Sinaitic MS., discovered by Professor Tischendorff, the eminent Biblical critic, is supposed to date from about the accession of Constantine to the imperial throne, and is regarded as an immediate transcript from those destroyed during the previous reign. Perhaps the original MSS. were destroyed during the baptism of blood under Diocletian—the last and hottest of the pagan persecutions. The first recorded instance of burning any portion of the Word of God will be found noted in Jer. 36:20-32. Jehoiakim in his person and posterity paid a fearful penalty for the impious deed. The reader, however, may rest assured and rejoice in the moral certainty which God has granted him, that he in very deed possesses the Word of God. Although a period of about 280 years from the apostolic age to the earliest copies of these writings now extant exist, yet the gulf is easily abridged. Other and adequate helps are available for our Biblical critics, whose labors in restoring the sacred text to nigh the state in which it left the hands of the inspired penman is truly a cause for unfeigned thankfulness to God.
THE NEW TESTAMENT AND EPISTLES OF PAUL.
The New Testament contains 27 books, the work of eight inspired writers, and all written within a period of fifty years. All close in our version, although not in the Greek copies, with the Spirit’s “Amen” except the epistles of James and Third John. Some of these inspired penman were illiterate men, as Peter and John (Acts 4:13); others scholarly, as Luke and Paul. These books are not arranged chronologically, save, perhaps, the Gospels and Acts.
The Epistles of Paul, of which there are fourteen, form a distinct group by themselves, and which we might denominate “The Faith”—the first in moral order being “the Romans,” while the last in chronological and moral sequence is “2 Timothy.” The first written of these fourteen Epistles is that addressed to the Thessalonians. The authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews has been long a disputed point. It has been variously ascribed to Peter, Apollos, and Paul. From internal evidence we gather that the great Gentile Apostle was the writer (chap. 13:23); while from 2 Peter 3:15, we are certain that Paul was the author. Further, from the circumstance that the writer develops the glory of Him who is “the Apostle and High Priest” of the Christian confession, he was led of the Spirit to withhold the mention of his own name. The Hebrews was placed last of the fourteen Pauline Epistles, as the collector of the sacred books or editor of the New Testament had, it is supposed, doubts as to its authorship. Its inspiration, however, is irrespective altogether of the special penman employed. The first word in each of these inspired Epistles is “Paul,” save in the fourteenth.
DIVISIONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
The whole of the 27 books might be advantageously classified thus:—first, the Gospels; second, the Acts; third, the Epistles; fourth, the Revelation.
In the first part is laid the ground work of Christianity in the person and work of the Savior. Levi or Matthew, a sub-Roman collector of the taxes leviable upon the fisheries and merchandise of Capernaum, an odious employment in Jewish estimation, unfolds the Messianic glories of Christ according to Old Testament prediction, and reveals Him in death as God’s sin-offering for Jew and Gentile. John Mark, for some time the minister or servant of Paul, and of Barnabas his near relative, and probably Peter’s child in the faith (1 Peter 5:13), touchingly records the service of the Lord—noting the hand, the eye, the heart, the look, and the exquisite grace of the perfect workman. It is His death, as the trespass offering, which Mark, under the guiding of the Spirit, presents. The scholarly and accomplished Gentile, the “beloved physician”—Luke—had the delightful task of unfolding the perfection of the manhood of Jesus, of tracing the path of the bruised, dependent, suffering Son of Man from the Jewish circumstances preceding His birth in the manger or stall for cattle, till the heaven of heavens receives Him. In this gospel also Jesus takes the place of both the “flour” (Lev. 2) and “communion” offerings (Lev. 3) John, the special friend of Peter and the bosom companion of the Lord, unfolds those divine and wondrous truths respecting the person and glory of the Lord from eternity and onward. The divine dignities and glories of the Son, if all written down, would constitute a library too vast for the world to contain (chap. 21:25). We commenced with the sin-offering, and here end with the burnt-offering.
In the second part or division of the New Testament we name the Acts—the only historical work of the 27—written by physician Luke to his friend and Christian enquirer, Theophilus, probably a Roman governor over one of the Asiatic provinces of the Empire. We think it highly probable that Theophilus gave up his official position in the Roman service after the perusal of the gospel by his friend Luke. The official “most excellent” (Luke 1:3) is omitted in Acts 1:1. The Acts historically traces the progress of Christianity amongst the Jews by Peter (Acts 1-12), and the Gentiles by Paul (Acts 13-28). The missionary zeal and long-continued labors of the Gentile Apostle for about thirty years, his evangelistic tours, his last great journey from Jerusalem to Rome, the historical circumstances under which the Epistles were penned, the rise and progress of the numerous churches planted by the Apostles and others, make up a book of interest unequaled in the annals of missionary enterprise.
Under the third division of the New Testament are embraced the fourteen Epistles by Paul, two by Peter, three by John, one by James, and one by Jude—in all, 21. Christianity or the righteousness of God is the theme of the Romans; the church and ministry, of the Corinthians; grace as opposed, to law, of the Galatians; the heavenly places for blessing, for power, and for conflict, while heaven’s light is thrown upon every earthly relationship in which the Christian is placed, are the main subjects of Ephesians; the personal and relative glories of Christ are unfolded in Colossians; the coming of the Lord for the dead and living saints is treated of in the Thessalonians; the house of God in order and disorder in those to Timothy; Christian walk and order in the world in that to Titus; a purely domestic matter is courteously treated in Christian correspondence in Philemon; the present heavenly position of Christ as Sacrifice, Priest, Minister, and Forerunner, within the veil—we inside as worshippers, outside as His witnesses—are treated of in the Hebrews; the path of practical godliness will be found traced in James; the government of God in time and on to eternity, in the epistles of the Jewish Apostle, Peter; life, love, and light are the themes in John; and an energetic and solemn warning in apostate times in Jude.
The fourth and concluding part of the New Testament is the prophetic book of the Revelation. It was written by John during his imprisonment in the lonely and inhospitable Grecian island of Patmos. JUDGMENT is the great subject of the book. The roar of heaven’s artillery, the crash of falling kingdoms, the wail of impenitent sinners; heaven, earth, hell, eternity, time, God, Christ, angels, Satan, and men, are some of the scenes, actors, and places so vividly and awfully portrayed in this the 66th book of Holy Scripture. The time is at hand, and the effect of every vision.
Chapter 6
History of the Various English Versions of the Bible.
Christianity Introduced Into Great Britain and Ireland.
CHRIST and Him crucified was preached in Great Britain as early as the first century, especially during the reigns of Nero and Domitian, A.D. 54-68, 81-96, and probably by the immediate companions of the Apostle Paul, while numerous translations of portions of the Scriptures from the Vulgate or Latin Bible of the Western Church were made and circulated during the second century.
It is an interesting circumstance that Bran, a British king, was at Rome as a hostage for the good behavior of his country, during the imprisonment of Paul in the imperial city. He was probably converted by the Apostle, as on his return to Britain he was accompanied by certain Christian teachers, among whom was Aristobulus (Rom. 16:10). Bran preached Christ in Wales. Succat, a Scotch boy born on the banks of the Clyde, in the picturesque village of Kilpatrick, about A.D. 372, was carried off to the then savage island of Ireland by pirates, and converted there when about 16 years old. On his return to his family he longed to revisit the land of his captivity, and so Succat, better known as St. Patrick, carried the pure gospel to the Emerald Isle. The ancient religion of the country was that of the Druids, whose practices and mysteries were never committed to writing, but were handed down through successive generations, by the priests of the system after, it is said, a twenty years’ training. Slowly, but surely, however, Druidism and other Pagan superstitions disappeared before the rising sun of Christianity.
The sixth century was a happy and prosperous one, so far as Great Britain was concerned. The famous Columba, a native prince of Ireland (we owe much instrumentally to the Irish), labored in the north amongst the native Caledonians, while Gildas, the earliest of British historians, a man too of fervent piety and of considerable talent, labored in the south amongst the ancient Welsh.
The Work of Bible Translation and Value of Books.
Such, too, was the desire to read the Scriptures, not then translated into the vernacular tongue, that many of the natives learned Latin, that they might read for themselves the wonderful works and words of God then only accessible in the Vulgate.
But while portions of the Scriptures, especially the Psalms and the Gospels, were frequently translated, as by the venerable Bede, King Alfred, and others, a complete copy of the Bible was a rare acquisition, and procurable only by the rich. In the reign of Edward I of England, about 1272, the price of a complete Bible was from £30 to £37, and occupied a careful scribe in his scriptorium about ten months, while the day’s wage of a working man only averaged 1.5d. When it is borne in mind that it only cost £25 to build two arches of London Bridge in 1240, while the price of a complete Latin Bible was considerably more, it will readily be allowed that only the rich and scholarly had access to the Word of God.
So expensive were books in England at one time that King Alfred gave a large and valuable estate for a book on Cosmography in the year 872. A countess of Anjou, in the 15th century, paid for one book 200 sheep, five quarters of wheat, and the same quantity of rye and millet; and in early times the loan of a book was considered to be an affair of such importance that in 1299 the Bishop of Winchester, on borrowing a Bible from a convent in that city, was obliged to give a bond for its restoration, drawn up in the most solemn manner; and Louis XI, in 1471, was compelled to deposit a large quantity of plate, and to get some of his nobles to join with him in a bond, under a high penalty, to restore it, before he could procure the loan of a book which he borrowed from the faculty of medicine at Paris.
Libraries, too, were very rare in these old times. Probably the first private collection of books in this country, or perhaps Europe, belonged to Richard de Bury, Chancellor of England, 1341: he gave fifty pounds weight of silver for 30 or 40 volumes to the Abbot of St. Albans. The first public library was founded at Athens by Hipparchus, 526 B.C. Books in general sold from £10 to £40 in 1400. But the Bible is God’s priceless boon to man; it contains a message of grace to every creature under heaven; it records the old, old story of undying love to perishing sinners, and so, exactly 500 years ago, the first complete English Bible was produced by John Wycliffe.
The Ignorance of the Middle Ages.
God was preparing instruments and persons for the emancipation of the thousands—yea, millions—who were wrapped in thick folds of ignorance and darkness. That we may have some idea of the gross ignorance which universally prevailed among all classes during the Middle Ages, it may be enough to state the following facts:—It was an exceedingly rare thing to find a layman, however distinguished, who could sign his name; the usual practice was to affix the sign of the cross. Even in the legal profession, the charters and other documents which were written in Latin were oftentimes unintelligible, and led, consequently, to much dispute. Contracts were more frequently drawn up verbally, in presence of witnesses, as many notaries could not write. The clergy were not much, if any, better. Many of the bishops were not a bit ashamed to own that they had never read the Scriptures; while, as a rule, the inferior clergy mumbled over their prayers and services in a language they did not understand.
It has been asserted that in Rome itself, during part of the tenth century, it would have been difficult to have found a person who could read, or even know the letters. Truly the ages were dark when thousands of the clergy, who alone had access to books, could not write, nor translate their Latin prayers into the vernacular, and regarded the Hebrew and Greek languages as new ones and to be carefully avoided, as they produced all the heresies then existing! when libraries, public or private, were almost utterly unknown; and when emperors and kings could neither read nor write, and learning was regarded as an intolerable heresy. Another consideration which contributed to the prevailing and gross ignorance of the times was the scarcity and value of parchment, and, we might add, the dissolute character of the monks, for although each monastery had its scriptorium, the work of transcribing was so tedious and the monks so lazy that oftentimes it was never used. Learning was wholly confined, shut up, we may say, in these monasteries, where all MSS. of sacred and secular literature were copied and preserved.
Both monks and nuns wrought in these writing cells, and sometimes produced really beautiful work, especially in the 8th and 9th centuries. As many as twelve solitary writers in separate apartments might be employed in a large monastery or convent.
The Inventions of Paper and Printing.
Paper made from rags was the invention of the 13th century. It is true that paper from cotton was manufactured, perhaps, as early as the 11Th century, but the material was not found to answer so well as parchment, and hence not frequently employed, at least, for copying valuable MSS. Paper was invented and used in China 170 years B.C. In the 14th century, however, the paper produced was generally used and found to suit admirably, so much so that the rapid multiplication of copies created a new branch of trade. Learning began to revive, and the study of the original languages was taught in the universities.
But yet another instrument was needed for the great work at hand. Of this we are fully convinced, that the Reformation owes more to the printing-press—the wonderful invention of the 15th century—than even to the personal labors of the Reformers (Evangelists we would prefer to term them) at home and abroad.
Now, is it not a remarkable circumstance that the first printed book was the Bible? Ah! it was its glorious doctrines, its imperishable truths, its undying records of love and grace which were to emancipate from the thralldom of popery, deliver from the more awful grasp of Satan, and set thousands in the joy and liberty of the gospel. The Bible is now to be had, printed and published in 150 languages, and in nearly 200 versions. It is computed that there are about 40,000,000 of Bibles at present in circulation. Yet there are still about 700,000,000 souls without the Word of God!
The first printed book was the Bible, and was executed in Mentz, Germany, in 1450. It is sometimes called the “Mazarin Bible,” because a copy was found last century in the library of the cardinal of that name in Paris. It is also termed “Guttenberg’s Bible,” because he, with two others whom he took into his confidence, printed it. It is a disputed point with some whether Guttenberg was the inventor of the art of printing in Europe. It was certainly known and practiced in China centuries before. This Latin Bible is also known and spoken of as “The forty-two line Bible,” because each column contains 42 lines. It was beautifully printed, all things considered. A vellum copy of this interesting Bible was sold for £500 about 56 years ago. Printing was introduced into England by William Caxton in 1474, and into Scotland by Walter Chapman in 1508.
The First English Bible.
To John Wycliffe, entitled “The morning star of the Reformation,” belongs the honor of giving to the English-speaking populations a complete translation of the Sacred Scriptures in the vernacular tongue. The pious and worthy king, “Alfred the Great,” is said to have translated the Bible into the Anglo-Saxon, but this is gravely questioned. It is certain, however, that he translated most, if not all, the Psalms, and some other portions besides. It was a common enough custom to write an English translation between the lines of a Latin Bible for those who could not read the Vulgate. This practice specially prevailed before the times of Wycliffe. But, as yet, the people were practically debarred from the enjoyment of their inalienable inheritance—the Sacred Scriptures. God, however, was thinking of England and preparing His instruments in the great and noble work of Bible translation.
John Wycliffe was born about 1324, and was an accomplished Latin scholar, but, according to some, ignorant of the original tongues—Hebrew and Greek. His translation, a close rendering from the Vulgate, was completed in 1380, after nearly 15 years’ severe labor, about 70 years before the invention of printing. It has never, we believe, been wholly printed, although his New Testament has been more than once. There are several copies of Wycliffe’s Bible in the principal libraries—one in the British Museum is believed to have been written by Wycliffe himself; about 300 of his sermons in manuscript are also extant.
In his controversies with the Roman hierarchy, and sweeping exposure of the morals and doctrines of that most corrupt of all systems, Wycliffe earnestly and constantly appealed to the Word of God—the sole source of all authority. The Popish monks were baffled, and so they pronounced judgment upon the Bible which was being rapidly disseminated throughout the land. “Master John Wycliffe,” said they, “by translating the gospel into English hath rendered it more acceptable and more intelligent to laymen and to women than it hath hitherto been to learned and intelligent clerks. The gospel pearl is everywhere cast out and trodden under foot of swine. It is heresy to speak of Holy Scriptures in English. Let the people learn to believe in the Church rather than the gospel.”
Wycliffe was feared and cordially hated by the Pope and the entire College of Cardinals for his unsparing attacks upon their whole system—root and branch; while, on the other hand, he was almost idolized by the common people, to whom he regularly preached the pure gospel in their own tongue and with power and eloquence. The papal party sought again and again his life, but he was protected from their malice by the powerful intervention of the court and several of the nobles, as the Duke of Lancaster and Lord Percy, both in high position in the government.
Dear old Wycliffe, we revere thy memory. Thy name and deeds are graven in tablets that will never perish. They burned his bones 44 years after his death and then cast them into the Swift, near which the old champion of the faith and defender of the Bible lived and labored. An attempt was made by the civil power to suppress the circulation of this first of English Bibles. A bill was brought into the House of Lords, having for its object the suppression of the Bible amongst the people, in the year 1390, just ten years after its publication, but the bill was rejected through the powerful advocacy of the Duke of Lancaster and other noble peers, who boldly defended Bible translation and its reading in the vulgar tongue. Another ten years and this time the enemy seemed to triumph, but the skillfully laid plans of Satan always contain the elements of certain defeat; and, although the Bible was forbidden to be translated, and imprisonment and death made the penalty for possessing a copy of the Word of God, the rising tide of cruel persecution only increased the number and strengthened the faith of the followers of the Lamb of God.
Where today are the maligned saints of God? In paradise, at rest from their labors and sufferings. What about the Bible for which they suffered? Sold to the English-speaking populations of the earth for a few pence instead of from £30 to £40. Where are the enemies of the Lord, and the persecutors of the saints and Church? Where?
Wycliffe lived four years after the completion of his great life-work, but not till he had the joy of knowing that his Bible and portions of it were circulated throughout all England.
Tyndale’s Translation.
William Tyndale, who gave to the English people in their own tongue the first printed testament, was born in the year 1484, a year after the birth of Luther, and 100 years after Wycliffe’s death. In the University of Oxford, his great delight was to study the Greek testament of the learned Erasmus, which was published at Basle in 1516 and of which there are several copies extant. He soon equaled, if not outstripped, his teachers in Greek and Latin, and on his removal to Cambridge was joined by the godly Thomas Bilney and the pious and learned John Frith—both afterward martyred for Christ and the truth’s sake. When tutor and chaplain in the house of Sir John Walsh, he had frequent altercations with the ignorant priests, who were excessively annoyed at Tyndale’s constant appeal to the Greek Scriptures. Many of them did not even know the alphabet of the language. The illustrious subject of our sketch not only exposed the ignorance of these men, but plainly told them that he would “cause the boy who driveth the plow to know more of the Scriptures” than his ecclesiastical guides, by translating and printing them into the vernacular tongue—the sure death-blow to papal assumption.
Tyndale, in order that he might devote himself to his great life-work, the translation and printing of the Bible, sought the needed quietness and leisure in the house of Humphrey Monmouth, a rich London merchant, who allowed Tyndale ten pounds a year—a considerable sum in those days.
For this offense Monmouth was shortly afterward committed to the Tower, but after a short detention was liberated. On his trial, he gave the following account of Tyndale’s daily life; “He conducted himself as a good priest: he studied most part of the day and night at his book: he would eat not sodden meat by good will, nor drink but small single beer. I never saw him wear linen about him in the space he was with me.”
Tyndale, however, after six months, had to leave the house of his friend and patron and betake himself to Germany, where he hoped to prosecute his work unmolested; this was in 1523. From Hamburg he went on to Wittenberg, where it is said he met Luther, and was immensely helped by his intercourse with the great Reformer. The zeal, piety, and devotion to the Word of God so eminently characteristic of the German champion of the Word of God, were as distinctly impressed on the illustrious Englishman. Tyndale, however, seems to have regarded Luther as in some respects a master in Bible translation, as he used the Reformer’s German translation, and copied even the order in which the books appeared, first the New Testament, then the earlier books, as the Pentateuch, Jonah, etc. It may here be remarked as an interesting circumstance that the very copy of the Hebrew Bible dated 1494, and from which Luther made his German translation is deposited in the royal library at Berlin.
The English New Testament is said to have been finished in Wittenberg, but printed in Worms; and then, through the agency of a merchant named Packington, the stock was sold for a good price to the Bishop of London for the express purpose on his part of being burned. Previous to the completion of the New Testament, the gospels of Matthew and Mark, being first printed, were sent over to England to the care of Tyndale’s constant friend, Monmouth, which brought that worthy man into some trouble with the authorities.
With the money thus obtained from the Bishop, aided by Monmouth’s yearly donation of £10—equal to £40 or £50 in our day—Tyndale set about preparing a new edition of the Testament. The first entire English New Testament ever printed and published appeared in the year 1526, but nearly all were burned at St. Paul’s Cross; and it was made an offense punishable by fine, imprisonment, and even death were a copy found in anyone’s possession. The year following 500 were secretly disposed of in England and Scotland, being the fourth edition within a year. Tonstall (the kindly-disposed bishop, who, to inflict as little pain as possible, bought the Testaments) was astonished to find that, in spite of the most rigorous search, the books still found their way into England. On inquiry, he found that the clever Dutch printers reprinted the Testament, expecting that they would also be bought. Eight years after (1534) a new and more perfect edition of Tyndale’s New Testament appeared, in the introduction to which the translator says: “I have weeded out of it many faults which the lack of help at the beginning and oversight did sow therein.”
We next find our ardent Bible translator, whom no difficulties could overcome, at Antwerp, assisted by his friend and son in the faith, John Frith, diligently translating the Old Testament from the Hebrew. But the bishops and clergy thirsted for his blood, and the priests Gabriel, Donne, and Phillips were employed to betray him, with, it is said, the connivance of Henry VIII. We are satisfied, however, that the authorities of England were mainly responsible for Tyndale’s cruel death, as the priests named were well rewarded for the impious deed. Efforts were made in England, and abroad by the English merchants in Antwerp, by whom Tyndale was greatly beloved, and elsewhere to save him. The martyr was first confined in the castle of Filford, about 20 miles from Antwerp. He was taken from prison on Friday, October 6th, 1536, fastened to the stake, strangled, and his body burned to ashes. The fervent prayer of the martyred Tyndale, when bound to the stake, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes,” was about to be answered shortly. The way and means manifested God’s sovereign disposal of events and persons; for it is the resource and stay of faith at all times and under all circumstances “that the Lord reigneth.” The memory of William Tyndale will be held in everlasting remembrance.
Coverdale’s Translation.
Miles Coverdale, born in Yorkshire, an Augustine monk, and subsequently Bishop of Exeter, was the next indefatigable laborer in the work of Bible translation. The first complete English Bible, as also the first issued by royal authority, was published October 4th, 1535, by Miles Coverdale, just a year before the martyrdom of his friend Tyndale, whom he had also assisted in his work.
It was of this Bible that the king said: “Let it go abroad among my people,” and ordered besides that a copy should be chained to a pillar, or fastened in the choir of every parish church in the land. He also for a time encouraged its sale among all classes of his subjects, although afterward capriciously forbidding it to the lower classes, allowing its use and possession only as a special privilege to the higher ranks. Still, during the latter 20 years of Henry’s reign, no fewer than 31 editions of the Bible or New Testament, besides numerous parts of Scripture, were issued.
From all we can gather, we quite endorse the opinion of another, that “Coverdale had neither the creative power nor Biblical learning of Tyndale.” His was a translation made from the German and Latin, and it has been questioned whether Coverdale was not entirely ignorant of Hebrew and Greek, as it is evident that the originals were not consulted in the preparation of the work. The German and Latin translations—not by any means correct—were the sources from whence the Old Testament was prepared, while Tyndale’s New Testament was largely appropriated without acknowledgment.
This Bible is believed to have been printed abroad, but where is a keenly-contested point. Two years before its publication, Convocation had urged “that Holy Scripture should be translated into the vulgar tongue,” but not satisfied with the accuracy of this version, they petitioned the king, Henry VIII., for a new translation, or at least a thorough revision of this one. Coverdale dedicated his work to “the dearest, just wife, and most virtuous Princess, Queen Anne.” We believe Coverdale to have been a good man, but his religious character does not stand so high in our esteem as that of Tyndale and some others.
Henry presented the Bible to the bishops, and ordered it to be placed in the churches, although the privilege was but short-lived, and the translator was subsequently promoted to the See of Exeter. In the second edition of the work, which had been petitioned for by Convocation as already remarked, the dedication was transferred from Queen Anne to Queen Jane, so as to please Henry in his new love amour. Subjection to the powers that be is a plain Christian duty (Rom. 13:1), but a witness for Christ is not a trimmer; not a man who adapts his testimony to the worldly policy of the day, as we fear dear Miles Coverdale did to some extent. We believe that Henry’s zeal for the Holy Scriptures, and his order to have them placed in every church and read to the people, was the Lord’s answer to the prayer of the dying Tyndale, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.”
During the brief reign of but seven years of Henry’s son by Jane Seymour, the English Bible rapidly passed through eleven editions, besides six of the New Testament. Edward VI was, perhaps, one of the most godly kings that ever sat on the throne of England. He had an intense love for the Word of God, and had it carried reverently in the procession on his coronation-day.
In Queen Mary’s reign Coverdale was deprived of his bishopric and imprisoned, but was released and allowed to go abroad on the intercession of the King of Denmark. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth to the throne of England he returned, but did not resume his ecclesiastical office, and died at a good old age. The name and memory of Miles Coverdale will never be forgotten, as the man who gave to the English-speaking people the first complete printed Bible in their own tongue.
Matthew’s Bible.
The next Bible translator was a man of fervent piety, of deep learning, of singular eloquence. We refer to John Rogers, born about 1500, near Birmingham, and educated at Cambridge, and the first martyr in the reign of Queen Mary.
Henry VIII was no friend of Luther’s; for the book he wrote against the German Reformer and his writings procured for him from the Pope the high-sounding title “Defender of the Faith.” Though he was neither Protestant nor Papist, for he committed to the flames both alike, yet on various occasions he favored the work of Bible circulation, besides which there was a growing and deepening conviction in England that the Scriptures must be translated and circulated in the vulgar tongue. It was at an opportune moment, therefore, when “Matthew’s Bible” appeared. This second complete English Bible can scarcely be called an original translation, although a very decided improvement upon Coverdale’s version, which was never regarded as a highly satisfactory work.
The King’s printers, Grafton and Whitchurch, engaged John Rogers to revise Coverdale’s Bible. Probably they could not have commissioned a more scholarly and pious person for the task. Besides Rogers’ special fitness for such a work, he had enjoyed the personal friendship of Tyndale and rendered considerable help to that able Bible translator. Rogers adapted Tyndale’s New Testament after carefully comparing it with the original and also with the German.
As to the Old Testament he again followed what Tyndale had previously translated, from Genesis to the end of 2 Chronicles, the rest, being Coverdale’s own, was carefully revised. The work, with prefaces, notes, and numerous wood-cuts, was dedicated to Henry by the so-called Thomas Matthew, hence the term “Matthew’s Bible.” It was printed at Hamburg, and published in the year 1537.
We cannot but regard John Rogers as guilty of deception in thus assuming the name of Thomas Matthew. It will be observed that the new Bible was a combination of the labors of Tyndale and Coverdale, but carefully revised throughout. Cromwell, Cranmer, and others in power thought so much of this Bible, that in conjunction with the King’s printers they sought to make it the only authorized version. It will be seen from the following letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury to Cromwell, Earl of Essex, then high in power, that this edition of the Scriptures was highly regarded. Of the first edition only 1500 copies were printed, and sold at a sum equivalent to about £7 of modern money per copy. This Bible was reprinted several times, but in the later editions the annotations and notes were deleted, as they were considered objectionable and faulty by many.
My Special Good Lord,
After most hearty commendations unto your Lordship, these shall be to signify unto the same, that you shall receive by the bringer thereof a Bible, both of a new translation and of a new print, dedicated unto the King’s Majesty, as farther appeareth by a pistle unto his Grace in the beginning of the book, which, in mine opinion, is very well done; and, therefore, I pray your Lordship to read the same. And as for the translation, so far as I have read thereof, I like it better than any other translations heretofore made yet not doubting that there may, and will be found some fault therein—as, you know, no man ever did, or can do so well but it may, from time to time, be amended. And forasmuch as the Book is dedicated unto the King’s Grace, and also great pains and labor taken in setting forth the same, I pray you, my Lord, to exhibit the Book unto the King’s Highness, and obtain of his Grace, if you can, a license that the same may be sold and READ of EVERY person, without danger of any act, proclamation, or ordinance heretofore granted to the contrary, until such time that we, the bishops, shall set forth a better translation, which I think will not be till a day after doomsday. And if you continue to take such pains for the setting forth of God’s Word as you do, although in the mean season you suffer some snubs, and many slanders, lies, and reproaches for the same, yet one day He will requite altogether. And the same Word, as St. John saith, which shall judge every man at the last day, must needs show favor to them that now do favor it, Thus, my Lord, right heartily fare you well.
Your assured ever,
T. CANTUARIEN.
At Forde, the 4th day of Aug., 1537.
Soon after the accession of Mary to the throne, John Rogers was summoned by the Lords of the Council to remain in his house as a seditious preacher, then he was committed to Newgate, and on the 4th of February, 1555, was cruelly burned, but the Word of God—for which John Rogers lived, which he so dearly loved, and for which he died—liveth and abideth forever. Its pages are precious, its truths are imperishable. Blessed Scriptures of our God! we prize them for their priceless value, and will continue to hold in loving memory those men who devoted their lives to their translation and circulation, and who sealed their holy, eternal truths with martyrdom.
Taverner’s Bible.
This Bible was simply a revision of the “Matthew’s Bible” with its notes, but without the woodcuts. In the margin the reviser added numerous notes and references of his own, besides titling the chapters. The work was done at the request of the King’s printers and published in 1539. Taverner in his preface suggested that a complete and perfect revision of the Holy Scriptures should be undertaken by a number of competent scholars, the work of private translation not being regarded with favor by the then ecclesiastical authorities. There was a folio and 4th edition of this Bible published. The smaller size was also issued in parts for the convenience of many who could not purchase an entire Bible. The New Testament was also issued separately, and a year after was again printed and published in 12mo size.
Richard Taverner was born near Norfolk, in 1505, was licensed as a preacher, but studied law and was made High Sheriff of Oxford. He died on the 14th of July, 1577. Taverner was one of Cardinal Wolsey’s favorites; then, on the fall of that prelate, he came under the favorable notice of Cromwell, Earl of Essex. We can only hope that the burning words and truths of Holy Scripture became the seed of eternal life in the soul of Taverner. He is a man of whom little is known.
The Great Bible.
This new edition of the Sacred Scriptures was printed in large folio, its pages 15 inches in length and more than 9 inches in breadth, and hence from its size was generally spoken of as “The Great Bible.” It was printed in Paris by Regnault, under the editorship of the indefatigable Miles Coverdale; the expense being borne in part, if not in whole, by Cromwell, Earl of Essex. “The Great Bible” is simply a revision of the Tyndale-Matthew Bible, and is in no respects an original translation. It is true that the editor was assisted by several learned Bishops, but the times were not safe enough for their names to appear. The translations and revisions made were from the Latin, and principally affected the Old Testament. In the 53rd chapter of Isaiah about 40 alterations occur—a chapter of exceeding evangelical interest, and one yet capable of godly and learned translation from the Hebrew.
The King of France, Francis I, granted permission to have the Bible printed in Paris, but the ecclesiastical authorities were on the alert, and the Inquisition set itself in determined hostility to the publication and circulation of the Word of God. What does Popery fear so, much as the entrance of that word which giveth light? The machinery of the Inquisition was more powerful than that of the king. The Bibles were seized and most of them burned; some, however, were saved and completed in London, by Rychard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch, the king’s printers, in 1539.
In the following year, April, 1540, appeared the “Cranmer Bible,” which was simply the “Great Bible” partly revised. Its title is derived from the circumstance that the Archbishop of that name wrote a lengthy prologue to it, and otherwise lent his powerful aid in procuring for it royal sanction.
The Psalter used in the service of the Church of England is verbally printed from this very old and first fully authorized edition of the Holy Scriptures. The price of this Bible was 10s. unbound, and 12S. bound, per copy.
The Vicar General, then Cromwell, Earl of Essex, who played such a conspicuous part in the reign of Henry VIII., and who did much to promote the circulation of the Scriptures, issued a peremptory order that in every parish church a Bible should be placed under a penalty of 20 shillings or thereby. Bishop Bonner also, to his honor be it said, directed that six copies of the Bible were to be placed in St. Paul’s Church, at his own expense. Every person in the land who could read had thus access to the Word of God, and even those unable to avail themselves of the privilege, through want of education, could have it read at least every Sunday.
We regard, therefore, the year 1540 as a memorable one in considering the history of our English Bible. It was then that, for the first time in this country, the civil and ecclesiastical powers combined in one great effort to make the Bible accessible to the common people. There were various royal and ecclesiastical proclamations issued at this time, having for their special object the unhindered circulation of the Word of God, and its public and private reading by all.
In 1542 The Popish Bishops got an order suppressing the circulation of the Bible and its place in the churches; but on the accession of Edward VI the order was revoked, and the Bible restored as before; but again it was forbidden to be read or circulated by Popish Queen Mary, till the first year of the reign of Elizabeth, who did so much, politically and individually, to further the cause of the Reformation at home and abroad. We wish we could number Queen Elizabeth, of illustrious name and memory, amongst the saints of God. From the first publication of the “Great Bible,” 1539 till 1568 (30 years), numerous editions were issued, and it became the only authorized version in use, save during the brief and bloody reign of Mary of about five years.
The Geneva Bible.
During the bloody reign of Queen Mary, whose distinct and pronounced Romanism cost many a saint of God life, liberty and goods, a number of godly and learned men fled to the continent, and in Geneva found a home and welcome in 1555.
Amongst the number of refugees were Whittingham, whose wife was Calvin’s sister; Coverdale, the indefatigable Bible translator; John Knox, who “never feared the face of man,” and many others. The Bible was their first thought, and so a new translation was at once commenced. In 1557 the New Testament was completed with annotations, italics, and distinguished by verses—the parent, in this, of all succeeding Bibles.
Three years after the publication of the New Testament, the complete Bible appeared, 1560 (the second year of Queen Elizabeth’s reign), and soon became exceedingly popular—rapidly passing through, it is said, more than 100 editions. Thus two Bibles were then in circulation—the Bishops’ Bible and the Geneva edition. King James could not tolerate this latter version; yet it was printed and circulated frequently for more than 30 years after the publication of the authorized version of 1611.
The Geneva Bible was the first complete translation into English from the originals throughout. It was addressed to “the brethren of England, Scotland, and Ireland,” and first published in 4to size; it was afterward sent out, however, in various sizes. There were two Bibles at this time in general use in England. The Geneva Bible was the more popular of the two, and was generally read in the household and in private study of the Word by the people. The Cranmer or Bishops’ Bible was the one, however, which obtained most favor amongst the clergy and was read in the churches.
The Bishops’ Bible.
The “Great Bible,” which had been suppressed during the reign of Mary, became once more the authorized Bible under Elizabeth. As already observed, it was in no wise an original translation—the first English Bible entitled to be regarded as an original work being the Geneva edition; but its annotations were, in numerous instances, regarded as unscriptural, some of which were pronounced by King James to be positively seditious in their character.
It was felt by many, however, that the “Cranmer,” or “Great Bible,” needed careful revision, hence eight years after the first publication of the “Geneva Bible,” appeared the Bishops’ Bible, or revised edition of the “Cranmer” version; this was in 1568. It was again subjected to a still more careful revision, and the result appeared in an improved edition four years afterward—1572. It was certainly an improvement upon any previous edition of the “Great Bible,” but from its learned character, and lack of that purity and vigor of language, which has so justly made the present authorized version so distinguished, even in a literary point of view, it never possessed a popular character.
Archbishop Parker, of Canterbury, was the master mind in the preparation of this new edition of the Holy Scriptures, assisted by about 15 scholarly men. He distributed the “Cranmer Bible” into parts, assigning portions to various learned bishops, the whole being subject to his own personal supervision. The large number of the revisers being from the Episcopal bench gave name and character to this Bible. It was printed in large size, and beautifully executed. It was adorned with numerous cuts; its notes were brief, and, like the “Geneva Bible,” was divided into verses. It was used in the Churches for about 40 years. Various revised editions of the “Bishops’ Bible” were published. Soon after the appearance of the Authorized Version of 1611, the “Bishop’s’ Bible”—the last edition of which was published about five years before its noble successor—fell into general disuse; it was accorded, in the opinion of many, well-merited universal neglect.
Rheims New Testament and Douay Bible.
The Roman Catholic Church being baffled in numerous and determined efforts to stop the circulation of the Word of God in the common language of the people, resolved to execute a version of their own. Accordingly, William Allyn (afterward created a cardinal), Gregory Martyn, and Richard Bristow translated and printed at Rheims, in 1582, the New Testament “out of the authentical Latin;” the notes were by Thomas Worthington. Nearly 30 years afterward, in 1609, the whole Bible was completed and printed at “Doway, by Laurence Killam, at the sign of the holie Lamb.” This has been pronounced by the learned as a most objectionable version, while its notes have evidently been prepared in the interests of the Papacy, pure and simple. Mary is said to be “full of grace” (Luke 1:28). Jacob is said to have “adored the top of his rod” (Heb. 11:21); see also 1 Cor. 10:16; Heb. 13:16; 1 Peter 3:19; Eph. 5:32.
We gladly transcribe the following passage of interest: “The Rheims, in an important class of religious terms, unmistakably influenced and benefited the Authorized Version, and has carried over to it many of the peculiarities of Wycliffe. To this is due the extraordinary fact that while there is hardly a seeming parallelism, and not a solitary demonstrable one anywhere between Wycliffe and Tyndale, the parallelisms are many between Wycliffe and the Authorized Version. This is another of the points of interest and beauty in that remarkable version, which, in its aggregations, stands almost unique as a miracle of Providence and history—the symbol of England itself, whose greatness has so largely sprung from appropriating what others have produced, and actualizing what others have dreamed.”
The Authorized Version of King James.
We have had Wycliffe’s unprinted Bible, the first ever given to the English people, in 1380; nearly a century and a half afterward appeared the first printed English New Testament by the godly and learned Tyndale, this was in 1526; shortly before the cruel martyrdom of Tyndale, Coverdale presented to his countrymen the first complete printed English Bible, in 1535; two years afterward, dear John Rogers gave us his revised edition of Coverdale’s Bible, familiarly known as “Matthew’s Bible,” 1537; another two years or so, and the “Great or Cranmer Bible” was published, which was simply a careful revision of what had gone before, 1540; twenty years of stirring events and Geneva becomes the birth-place of the first complete English Bible—translated throughout from the original tongues, 1560; another period of about eight years, and in 1568 appeared what we would term “The Ecclesiastical Bible,” known as the “Bishops’ Bible,” a simple revision of the Cranmer edition; soon after this the Roman Church began to think of England and of the clamant demand of her people for the Word of God in her native tongue, and so gave the New Testament in 1582 —the link between Wycliffe’s Bible and King James’ translation; then appeared the Douay Bible under high ecclesiastical sanction, possessing certain marked excellencies, but, on the whole, exceedingly faulty, 1609; two years after the complete Roman Catholic Bible was published, the noble and renowned work known as “the Authorized Version”—the result of seven years’ diligent labor appeared, and thus crowned the work of Bible translation and printing, 1611.
We have already referred to the two versions of the Scriptures in public use during the prosperous reign of Elizabeth, and at the commencement of King James’—namely, the “Bishops’ Bible,” used at Court and in the Churches, and the “Geneva Bible,” in more common use in the households of the people. Neither gave universal satisfaction, and it was felt by all parties that sooner or later an entirely new version must be prepared. It was brought about in a simple way, as most great undertakings are. There was a conference held at Hampton Court, on January 16, 1604. Certain Church differences and questions were discussed in which the King took great interest. In the course of the proceedings, the Puritan, Dr. Reynold, proposed a new version of the Bible. The King, to please the Puritans, and attach them more firmly to his throne and constitution, and also because of his strongly expressed dislike to the two translations then in use, consented. The King’s cordial approval silenced the opposition of the conformist party. The superintending hand of God was apparent even in the preliminary arrangements.
The measures adopted to secure a new version of the Holy Scriptures were of the most complete and satisfactory kind, and the result has been an edition of the Word of God unrivaled for its simplicity, for its force and vigor of language, a compendium of literary excellencies, and, what is still better, a faithful and accurate translation of the very words of the Holy Ghost. It is not a faultless version, far from it. Whatever critical helps we use in our private study of the Word of God, we ever and again turn to the authorized version for communion with God.
The New Testament of 1881 is a disappointment to many. It certainly corrects many of the blemishes and blunders of the edition of 1611, but in the judgment of many, neither the scholarship nor piety and marked reverence for the Word of God, which distinguished the revisers and translators of the former work, are found in the latter one, and no doubt it will simply come to be regarded in course of time as a mere critical help in the study of the sacred volume.
The late revisers were in a much better position to construct an accurate Greek text than were those nominated by King James. Valuable MSS. and other sources of information have of late years been at the disposal of our Biblical critics, which have been largely taken advantage of by pious and learned men. The three oldest and most valuable of our Biblical MSS. were unknown to the translators of King James’ time. The “Codex A,” now in the British Museum, was presented to Charles I in 1628, about 24 years after the Authorized Version was begun, and 17 years after it was finished. The “Codex B,” now in the Vatican at Rome—perhaps the oldest MS. in existence—was only collated early this century, and published in 1858. The jealousy of the Papacy has hitherto practically debarred scholars from access to, and careful collation of, this valuable and venerable document. The “Codex Sinaiticus,” discovered in 1859 by Professor Tischendorff, and now deposited in St. Petersburg. The first is supposed to date from the 5th century; the two latter from the 4th century. On the whole, therefore, the high expectations formed by many have not been realized, expectations based upon the rich and accumulated stores which the revision company of 1881 might have used, and which the revision company of 1611, not exceeding half their number, had nothing like in quantity or value.
King James named 54 pious and scholarly persons—and who were empowered to communicate with “all our principal learned men within this our kingdom,” so that the scholarship of the country was consecrated to the noblest work which could engage the heart, the mind, and the pen of man—the production of our admirable English Bible. Seven of the number, through death and other causes, were unable to serve, so that the list was reduced to 47.
It may be interesting to know how and to whom the work was distributed. There were six committees chosen, two of which sat at Westminster, two at Cambridge, two at Oxford. The whole were presided over by Bishop Andrewes, who, besides possessing an intimate knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, Chaldee, and Syriac, was familiar with 16 other languages. As each set or committee of translators finished the particular part assigned to them, it was then subjected to the criticism of the other five sets in order; so that each part of the Bible came before the whole body of the translators. When the 47 finished their work it was then carefully reviewed by a final committee. Dr. Myles Smith, Bishop of Gloucester, wrote the preface.
It will be readily perceived from the instructions given to the translators that our English Bible is not a direct translation from the original tongues throughout, but might be more fitly spoken of as a combined revision and translation, the Bishops’ Bible being used as the basis of the whole work. Although printed by his Majesty’s special command, and appointed to be read in churches, it was not forced upon the acceptance of church and people by the civil power. On the whole, the wise measures adopted, and the number and character of the translators engaged in the work inspired general confidence, while the translation itself—so accurate, so artless, yet withal so vigorous in style and diction—commanded universal love and respect, and has continued to do so, for now nigh 300 years. The “Bishops’ Bible” and “Geneva Version” soon went out of date and fashion.
It may interest the reader to have a copy of the instructions and rules issued by the King for the guidance of the translators, as also a list of their names and ecclesiastical positions, with the separate portions of Holy Scripture assigned to each committee for revision:—
1. The ordinary Bible read in the church, commonly called the “Bishops’ Bible,” to be followed, and as little altered as the original will permit.
2. The names of the prophets and the holy writers, with the other names in the text, to be retained, as near as may be, accordingly as they are vulgarly used.
3. The old ecclesiastical words to be kept, as the word church, not to be translated congregation.
4. When any word hath divers signification, that to be kept which hath been most commonly used by the most eminent fathers, being agreeable to the propriety of the place and the analogies of faith.
5. The division of chapters to be altered either not at all or as little as may be, if necessity so require.
6. No marginal notes at all to be affixed, but only for the explanation of the Hebrew or Greek words, which cannot, without some circumlocution, so briefly and fitly be expressed in the text.
7. Such quotations of places to be marginally set down as shall serve for the fit reference of one Scripture to another.
8. Every particular man of each company to take the same chapter or chapters; and, having translated or amended them severally by himself where he thinks good, all to meet together to confirm what they have done and agree for their part what shall stand.
9. As any one company hath dispatched any one book in this manner, they shall send it to the rest, to be considered of seriously and judiciously; for his Majesty is very careful in this point.
10. If any company, upon the review of the book so sent, shall doubt or differ upon any places, to send them word thereof, to note the places, and therewithal to send their reasons; to which if they consent not, the difference to be compounded at the general meeting, which is to be of the chief persons of each company, at the end of the work.
11. When any place of special obscurity is doubted of, letters to be directed by authority to send to any learned in the land for his judgment in such a place.
12. Letters to be sent from every bishop to the rest of his clergy, admonishing them of this translation in hand, and to move and charge as many as, being skilful in the tongues, have taken pains in that kind, to send their particular observations to the company, either at Westminster, Cambridge, or Oxford according as it was directed before in the King’s letter to the archbishop.
13. The directors in each company to be the Deans of Westminster and Chester, for Westminster, and the King’s professors in Hebrew and Greek in the two universities.
14. These translations to be used when they agree better with the text than the Bishops’ Bible: Tyndale’s, Coverdale’s, Matthew’s [Rogers’s], Whit-church’s [Cranmer’s], Geneva.”
15. By a later rule “three or four of the most ancient and grave divines, in either of the universities, not employed in translating, to be assigned to be overseers of the translation, for the better observation of the fourth rule.”
The Revised New Testament of 1881.
The movement for a revision of the authorized version of the Holy Scriptures commenced on May 6, 1870, in the Convocation of Canterbury.
An influential committee was at once formed, consisting mainly of distinguished scholars and divines within the pale of the Established Church, but with power to consult or add to their number eminent Biblical scholars of all denominations. Many of its members were truly eminent for godliness and of distinguished ability, but it may be gravely questioned whether the constitution of the Committee as a whole may be compared with that nominated by King James, for piety and extreme reverence for the Word of God.
Soon after the formation of the English Committee another was organized in America for the same purpose and in conjunction with the English one; so that the Revised New Testament is the result of the joint-labor of both Committees. The English revisers met regularly in the Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster; the American Committee in the Bible House, New York. The English Committee was divided into two companies, one devoting itself to the revision of the Old Testament (not yet finished), while the other attached itself to the New. The American Committee was similarly arranged.
Both Committees were in constant and confidential correspondence, so that as far as possible there might be mutual agreement in the result of their combined labors. It was a wise determination not to solicit the aid of the civil power or imprint its authority on the title page. It will thus stand or fall upon its own merits. It presents the result of ten years’ research and labor. Whether we have in the revised New Testament an ample reward for the time and scholarship expended is questioned by many competent persons, but probably a little while will show. The Old Testament is not yet finished, and its publication is awaited with interest and anxiety by many Bible readers.
Both the English and American Committee adopted the following principles for their guidance:—
1. To introduce as few alterations as possible into the text of the Authorized Version consistently with faithfulness.
2. To limit, as far as possible, the expression of such alterations to the language of the Authorized or earlier Versions.
3. Each company to go twice over the portion to be revised—once provisionally, the second time finally.
4. That the text to be adopted be that for which the evidence is decidedly preponderating; and that when the text so adopted differs from that from which the Authorized Version was made, the alteration be indicated in the margin.
5. To make or retain no change in the text, on the second final revision by each company, except two-thirds of those present approve of the same; but on the first revision to decide by simple majorities.
6. In every case of proposed alteration that may have given rise to discussion, to defer the voting thereon till the next meeting, whensoever the same shall be required by one-third of those present at the meeting.
7. To revise the headings of chapters, pages, paragraphs, italics, and punctuation.
8. To refer, on the part of each company, when considered desirable, to divines, scholars, and literary men, whether at home or abroad, for their opinions.
The following is a list of the English and American Revisers:—
I.-English Revision Committee.
(1) Old Testament Company.
The Rt. Rev. E. H. Browne, D.D. (Chairman), Farnham.
The Right Rev. Lord Arthur C. Hervey, D.D., Wells.
The Right Rev. Alfred Ollivant, D.D., Llandaff.
The Very Rev. Robert Payne Smith, D.D., Canterbury.
The Ven. Benjamin Harrison, M.A., Canterbury.
The Rev. Wm. Lindsay Alexander, D.D., Edinburgh. Robert L. Bensly, Esq., Cambridge.
The Rev. John Birrell, St. Andrews.
Frank Chance, Esq., M.D., Sydenham, London.
Thomas Chenery, Esq., Reform Club, London, S.W.
The Rev. T. K. Cheyne, Balliol College, Oxford.
The Rev. A. B. Davidson, D.D., Edinburgh.
The Rev. George Douglas, D.D., Glasgow.
S. R. Driver, Esq., Tutor of New College, Oxford.
The Rev. C. J. Elliott, Winkfield Vicarage, Windsor.
The Rev. Frederick Field, D.D., Heigham, Norwich.
The Rev. J. D. Geden, Wesleyan College, Manchester.
The Rev. C. D. Ginsburg, LL.D., Wokingham, Berks.
The Rev. Frederick William Gotch, D.D., Bristol.
The Rev. William Kay, D.D., Chelmsford.
The Rev. Stanley Leathes, B.D., King’s College, London.
The Rev. John Rawson Lumby, B.D., Cambridge.
The Very Rev. J. J. S. Perowne, D.D., Peterborough.
The Rev. A. H. Sayce, Queen’s College, Oxford.
The Rev. William Robertson Smith, Aberdeen.
William Wright, Professor of Arabic, Cambridge.
William Aldis Wright, Esq. (Secretary), Cambridge.
O. T. Company, 27.
NOTE.—The English Old Testament Company lost, by death, the Right Rev. Dr. Connop Thirlwall, Bishop of St. David’s, d. 27th July, 1875; the Ven. Henry John Rose, Archdeacon of Bedford, d. 31St January, 1873; the Rev. William Selwyn, D.D., Canon of Ely, d. 24th April, 1875; the Rev. Dr. Patrick Fairbairn, Principal of the Free Church College, Glasgow, d. 6th August, 1874; Professors M`Gill, d. 16th March, 1871; Weir, 27th July, 1876; and Davies, 19th July, 1875; and by resignation, the Right Rev. Dr. Christopher Wordsworth; Bishop of Lincoln; the Rev. John Jebb, Canon of Hereford.; and the Rev. Edward Hayes Plumptre, D. D., Professor of N. T. Exegesis, King’s College, London (resigned 17th March, 1874).
(2) NEW TESTAMENT COMPANY.
The Rt. Rev. C. J. Ellicott, D. D. (Chairman), Gloucester. The Right Rev. George Moberly, D.C.L., Salisbury.
The Right Rev. Joseph B. Lightfoot, D.D., Durham.
The Very Rev. Edward H. Bickersteth, D.D., Lichfield.
The Very Rev. Arthur P. Stanley, D.D., Westminster.
The Very Rev. Robert Scott, D.D., Rochester.
The Very Rev. Joseph W. Blakesley, B.D., Lincoln.
The Most Rev. Richard C. Trench, D.D., Dublin.
The Right Rev. C. Wordsworth, D.C.L., St. Andrews.
The Rev. Joseph Angus, D.D., London.
The Rev. David Brown, D.D., Aberdeen.
The Rev. Fenton J. Anthony Hort, D.D., Cambridge.
The Rev. William Gibson Humphry, London.
The Rev. Benjamin Hall Kennedy, D.D., Cambridge.
The Ven. William Lee, D.D., Dublin.
The Rev. William Milligan, D.D., Aberdeen.
The Rev. William F. Moulton, D.D., Cambridge.
The Rev. Samuel Newth, D.D., Hampstead, London.
The Ven. Edwin Palmer, D.D., Christ Church, Oxford.
The Rev. Alexander Roberts, D. D., St. Andrews.
The Rev. F. Henry Ambrose Scrivener, LL.D., London.
The Rev. George Vance Smith, D.D., Carmarthen.
The Rev. Charles John Vaughan, D.D., London.
The Rev. Brooke Foss Westcott, D.D., Cambridge.
The Rev. J. Troutbeck (Secretary), Westminster.
N. T. Company, 25.
Active Members in both Companies, 52.
Note—The English New Testament Company lost, by death, the Right Rev. Dr. Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester, d. 1873; the Very Rev. Dr. Henry Alford, Dean of Canterbury. d. 1871; the Rev. Dr. John Eadie, Professor of Biblical Literature in the United Presbyterian Church, Glasgow, d. 1876; and Mr. Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, LL.D (who was prevented by ill health from taking any part in the work), d. 1875; and, by resignation, the Rev. Dr. Charles Merivale, Dean of Ely.
(The Rev. F. C. Cook, Canon of, Exeter, the Rev. Dr. E. B. Pusey, who were asked to join the O. T. Company, and the Rev. Dr. J. H. Newman, who was asked to join the N. T. Company, declined to serve.)
II.—AMERICAN REVISION COMMITTEE.
GENERAL OFFICERS OF THE COMMITTEE.
PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D., LL.D., President.
GEORGE E. DAY, D.D., Secretary.
(1) OLD TESTAMENT COMPANY.
Prof. W. H. Green, D.D., LL.D. (Chairman), Princeton, N.J.
Prof. G. E. Day, D.D. (Secretary), New Haven, Conn.
Professor Charles A. Aitken, D.D., Princeton, N.J.
The Rev. T. W. Chambers, D.D., New York.
Professor Thomas J. Conant, D.D., Brooklyn, N.Y.
Professor John De Witt, D.D., New Brunswick, N.J.
Professor G. Emlen Hare, D.D., LL.D., Philadelphia.
Professor Chas. P. Krauth, D.D., LL.D., Philadelphia.
Professor Charles M. Mead, D. D., Andover, Mass.
Professor Howard Osgood, D.D., Rochester, N.Y.
Professor Joseph Packard, D.D., Alexandria, Va.
Professor Calvin E. Stowe, D.D., Hartford, Conn.
Professor James Strong, S.T.D., Madison, N.J.
Professor C. V. A. Van Dyck, D.D., M.D., Beirut, Syria. (Advisory Member on questions of Arabic).
O. T. Company, 14.
NOTE.—The American Old Testament Company lost, by death, Tayler Lewis, LL.D., Professor Emeritus of Greek and Hebrew, Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., d. 1877.
(2) NEW TESTAMENT COMPANY.
Ex-President T. D. Woolsey, D.D., LL.D. (Chairman), New Haven, Conn.
Prof. J. Henry Thayer, D.D. (Secretary), Andover, Mass.
Professor Ezra Abbot, D.D., LL.D., Cambridge, Mass.
The Rev. J. K. Burr, D.D., Trenton, New Jersey.
President Thomas Chase, LL.D., Haverford College, Pa.
Chancellor Howard Crosby, D.D., LL.D., New York.
Professor Timothy Dwight, D.D., New Haven, Conn.
Professor A. C. Kendrick, D.D., LL.D., Rochester, N.Y.
The Right Rev. Alfred Lee, D.D., Bishop of Delaware.
Professor Matthew B. Riddle, D.D., Hartford, Conn.
Professor Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., New. York.
Professor Charles Short, LL.D., Columbia College, N.Y.
The Rev. E. A. Washburn, D.D., Calvary Church, N.Y.
N. T. Company, 13.
In both Companies, 27.
NOTE.—The American New Testament Company lost, by death, James Hadley, LL.D., Professor of Greek, Yale College, Conn. (who attended the first session), d. 1872; Professor Henry Boynton Smith, D.D., LL.D., Union Theological Seminary, New York (who attended one session, and resigned, from ill health), d. 1877; Professor Horatio B. Hacket, D. D., LL.D., Theological Seminary, Rochester, N. Y., d. 1876; and Professor Charles Hodge, D.D., LL.D., Theological Seminary, Princeton, N.J. (who never attended the meetings, but corresponded with the committee), d. 1878; and by resignation, Rev. G. R. Crooks, D.D., New York, and Rev. W. F. Warren, D.D., Boston who accepted the original appointment, but found it impossible to attend).
Chapter 7
Specimens of Translations and Peculiar Renderings.
HERE is a specimen of the language in which the Scriptures were read in the eighth and ninth centuries, during the time of the venerable Bede, King Alfred, St. Cuthbert, and probably for a considerable time after the Norman Conquest of England. It is from John’s Gospel, and is scarcely readable in the 19th century. By comparing the specimens of early English, the gradual growth of the language into its present form may be more easily traced:—
“On fruman waes Word and thaet Word waes mid Gode, and Gode waes thaet Word. Thaet waes on fruman mid Gode. Ealle thing waeron geworhte thurh hyne; and nan thing waes geworht buttan him. Thaet waes lif the on him geworht waes, and thaet lif waes manna leoht. And thaet leoht lyht on thystrum; and thystro thaet ne genamon. Man waes fram Gode asend, thaes nama waes Johannes. Thaes com to gewitnesse, thaet he gewitnesse cythde be tham Leohte, thaet ealle men thurh hyne gelyfdon. Naes he Leoht, ac thaet he gewitnesse forth-baere be tham Leohte. Soth Leoht waes, thaet onlyht aelcne cumendne man on thysne middan-eard. He waes on middan-earde, and middan-eard waes geworht thurh hine, and middan-eard hine ne gecneow.”
The English of Wycliffe, 14th century, is more easily read than that just given; we transcribe a passage from Luke’s Gospel in the Wycliffe translation:
“In the dayes of Eroude Kyng of Judee ther was a perst Zacarye by name: of the sort of Abia, and his wyfe was of the doughtris of Aaron: and hir name was Elizabeth: An bothe weren juste bifore God: goynge in alle the maundementis and justifyingis of the Lord withouten playnt. And thei hadden no child for Elizabeth was bareyn and bothe weren of greet age in her dayes. And it befel that whenne Zacarye schould do the office of presthod in the ordir of his course to fore God. Aftir the custom of the presthod he went forth by lot and entride into the temple to encensen.
“And al the multitude of the puple was without forth and preyede in the our of encensying. And an aungel of the Lord apperide to him and stood on the right half of the auter of encense. And Zacharye seynge was afrayed and drede fel upon him. And the aungel sayde to him, Zacarye drede thou not: for thy preier is herd and Elizabeth thi wife schal bere to thee a sone and his name schal be clepid Jon.
“And joye and gladyng schal be to thee and manye schulen have joye in his natyvyte.”
Here is another specimen of early English, from a MS. Bible, about 1350—thirty years before the publication of Wycliffe’s translation:—
Early English, MS. Bible [about A.D. 1350]. John 1:13-14.
In most, if not all versions of the Holy Scriptures issued before the Great Bible, 1539, will be found the following peculiar rendering of Psalm 91 verse 5:—
“So that thou shalt not nede to be afrayed for any bugges by night, nor for the arrowe that flyeth by daye.”
In all the Bibles published before the present authorized version (1611), except the Genevan and Douay Bibles, the word “balm” (Jer. 8:22) is rendered “treacle.” Thus Matthew’s Bible, 1537, reads:—
“Is not the Lorde in Syon? Is not the kynge in her? Wherefore then haue they greued me (shall the Lorde saye) with theyr ymages and folyshe strange fashyons? The harueste is gone, the sommer hath an ende, and we are not helped. I am sore vexed, because of ye hurte of my people. I am heuye and abashed, for there is no more tryacle at Galaad, and there is no physycyen that can heal the hurte of my people.”
In the exceptions named we read—“Is there noe rosin in Galaad.”
In the Puritan or Geneva editions of the Holy Scriptures the word “aprons” (Gen. 3:7) is rendered “breeches.” In Wycliffe’s Bible the passage reads thus:
“And when yei knewen yat ya were naked, ya sewiden ye levis of a fige tre, and madin breechis.”
Richard Rolle, a Yorkshire hermit, in the fourteenth century, before the publication of the Wycliffe Bible, translated the Psalms. Here is a specimen of his work from Scotland’s favorite one, the 23rd:—
“Our lord gouerneth me and nothyng to me shall want stede of pasture thar he me sette. In the water of the hetyng forth he me brougte: my soule he turnyde.
“He ladde me on the stretis of rygtwisnesse: for his name.
“For win gif I hadde goo in myddil of the shadewe of deeth: I shal not dreede yueles, for thou art with me.
“Thi geerde and thi staf thei have coumfortid me. Thou hast greythed in my sygt a bord: agens hem that angryn me.
“Thou fattede myn heued in oyle: and my chalys drunkyenyng what is cleer.
“And thi mercy shall folowe me: in alle the dayes of my lyf.
“And that I wone in the hous of oure lord in the lengthe of dayes.”
In one of the reprints of Matthew’s Bible, of 1549, August 17th, twelve years after the publication of the first edition, there is a number of curious woodcuts in the Revelation, each picture being explained by two lines. The cuts were common enough in those days, but the explanatory doggerel is not so familiar to English readers:—
1St Figure.
By the Stars in hys hand we may wel se
What maner of men our preachers should be.
2nd Figure.
In the middest of his church God sytteth in majestie,
To whom al hys faythfull gene honoure, and glorye.
3rd Figure.
Pale hypocrytes, enemies to Goddes Gospel,
Bring death in their doctrine, and dryue us to hell,
4th Figure.
The sainctes that we prayed to, lo, where they lye,
And they that were our spokes men herke low they crye.
6th Figure.
The Lord hath his numbre, whom he doeth preserue;
Their soulles shall not perishe, though theyr bodies sterue.
7th Figure.
The prayers of godly men that do lyue here,
And they that before God so pleasant appere.
8th Figure.
Oute of the darks pytte came locustes fell,
To vexe them that lyueth not after the GospeL
9th Figure.
The doctrine and laws of these beastes cruel
Drawe the thyrde part of men unto hell.
10th Figure.
Goddes words is swete in the mouth of the faythfull,
But bitter in the bealy, to the flest it is painful.
11Th Figure.
The Popes parte is cast out and geuen to the sworde
When the Churche is measured wyth Goddes word.
12Th Figure.
Goddes chosen Churche trauayleth here alwaye,
And bringeth forth Christe both nyght and day.
13th Figure.
The open enemye is moat ougly in syghte,
But the wolfe in the Lambes skyne doeth al the spight
14th Figure.
The electe of God onely can singe the songe
That soundeth on the herte, and not on the tonge.
15th Figure.
At the tyme appointed by Goddes secret wyll,
The Sykle shal cut downe boeth good and yll.
16th Figure.
The seuen trompettes and the seuen scales,
Declare the same thinges that the seuen vialles.
17th Figure.
The Princes of the earth euerye one
Have with this whore wrought fornicacyon.
18th Figure.
The Romyshe marchauntes, the Priestes of Bal
Do wepe, houle, and crye, at Babylon’s fall.
19th Figure.
All flesh is kylled with the ij edged sworde,
Which after the spirit is called Goddes worde.
20th Figure.
For euer lyeth Sathan bounde in chayne,
Though in his membres he be louse agayne.
21St Figure.
A beautyfull cytye, most semelye to se
Are the faythfull followers of Goddes verytye.
In Coverdale’s Bible, 1535, there are many peculiar renderings, thus:—
Gen. 8 and 11, “She bare the olive leaf in her nebb.”
Judges 10 and 53, “Cast a piece of millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and brake his brain pan.”
1 Kings 20 and 34, “And shot the King of Israel between the maw and the lungs.”
1 S. Timothy 6 and 4, “But wasteth his brain about questions and strivings of words.”
In some of the early versions the untranslated Hebrew words in the text of our present Bibles are wisely and correctly translated. It is true that in numerous instances the translation is given in the margin, but the English reader of the Scriptures naturally asks, Is then the margin correct and if so, why is it not in the text? The well of “Beer-lahai roi” (Gen. 16:14) is rendered in the old versions the well of Him that “liveth and seeth me.” Again, “El-Elohe-Israel” (Gen. 33:20) “El” it is well known, is the expression of God in His might, hence the old Bibles read, “The mighty God of Israel.” “It is manna” (Ex. 16:15) has no meaning to a reader unacquainted with Hebrew, but as translated in the earliest versions “What is this?” the passage is simple enough.
In the following pages we give specimens of the same portions of Holy Scripture (New Testament) from the four editions of 1380, 1537, 1560, 1582. The comparison is simple yet withal instructive. It will be observed that the verses are not numbered in the two earliest editions. The first English Bible distinguished by numbers was the Genevan of 1560. We also give a few illustrations from the Old Testament, confining ourselves to the book of Genesis, the book of Psalms, and the prophet Daniel.
Chapter 8
The Bible: Its Divisions, Chapters, Verses, Titles and Subscriptions.
Divisions.
THE Bible might be conveniently divided into six main parts; the Old Testament into three, and the New Testament into three. The Old Testament Scriptures are familiarly spoken of as “Moses and the Prophets” (Luke 16:29; Matt. 11:13); but a fuller division of the 39 sacred books of the former revelation will be found contained in Luke 24:44—“The law of Moses, the prophets, the psalms.” The first comprises the books from Genesis to Deuteronomy; the second embraces the historical books from Joshua to Esther, and the more direct prophetic section from Isaiah to Malachi; the third, the remaining five books from Job to Song of Solomon.
The New Testament naturally divides into three parts. First, the four Gospels as laying the foundation of Christianity in the revelation of the person and work of the Lord. Second, the Acts, in which are detailed the historical annals of Christianity for about 34 years—a marvelous record of primitive missionary enterprise. In the former section the Lord is witnessed as acting on earth, and the Holy Ghost from heaven; while in the latter the Lord is regarded as the object of faith as present at God’s right hand, and the Holy Ghost present on earth the efficient power of all Church and Gospel testimony. Third, the Epistles embrace the whole circle of Christian truth and doctrine, and the regulation of Christian life and service.
Chapters.
The necessity of dividing the sacred books into chapters or sections was early recognized. To read right through a whole book without a single break was too great a strain upon the memory; hence, in the third century, earlier attempts were set aside, and a system adopted by Ammonius, a learned Christian of Alexandria. But the Ammonian sections, as they are termed, were but partially applied, being confined to the four Gospels, or the Gospel by four, so called by Eusebius; nor was it at all a complete or satisfactory system. He divided Matthew into 355 sections; Mark into 234; Luke into 342; and John into 231. This was the fullest attempt yet made to present the contents of the Gospels in parallel order. Eusebius in the fourth century, the father of ecclesiastical history, in his Harmony of the Four Gospels, greatly improved upon the system of Ammonius. Adopting his “sections,” he also added ten canons to the parallel sections of Ammonius. The improved system of paragraphing the Gospels, so as to assist in comparing the parallel portions, is very fully given in Wordsworth’s Greek Testament, besides other particulars, and are spoken of as “The Eusebian Canons.” Ere the century closed an unknown hand divided into sections the Epistles of Paul.
Next century, about 458, Euthalius, an Alexandrian deacon, some say bishop, prepared an edition of Paul’s Epistles in which he adopted the divisions introduced 60 years previously, and which he ascribed to “one of the wisest and most Christ-loving of our fathers.” In 490 A.D. he broke up the Acts and general Epistles into readable and convenient sections, now known as “The Euthalian Sections.” He further improved the text by arranging as many words in a line as would complete the sense. Probably this was the earliest, and certainly the most successful, attempt yet made to simplify the reading of unpunctuated MSS. He also introduced those summaries of the contents of the chapters in our English New Testament, and which really disfigure them. The summaries were altered by Dr. Blayney in 1769.
The introduction of points or stops, so as to mark the sense, is assigned to the era of Jerome. In the beginning of the fourth century, and through the progress of several centuries, the system of punctuation was gradually improved, as was also the style of writing. The earliest MSS., and up to about the 10th century, are termed Uncials (Latin, inch), so called from the size of the letters, and which were all capitals. Afterward the cursive or small running hand was employed, as the word cursive, from the Latin, denotes. Hence Biblical and other MSS. are spoken of as “uncials” or “cursives” according to the style of writing which they present; an important factor too in helping to determine the probable age of a MS.
But the division of the sacred books into chapters as in our English and all other Western Bibles is comparatively a modern one, and the introduction of verses still more so.
In the 13th century, and about the year 1244 or 1248, there lived a Dominican named Hugo-de Sancto Caro, a very clever, learned, and ingenious man and who was made a Cardinal, the first of his order who was advanced to such a dignity. Cardinal Hugo conceived the happy idea of preparing a concordance to the Scriptures—the Vulgate or Latin Bible. We may just say in passing, as an interesting circumstance to Bible readers, that this was the first, concordance of the kind ever produced, and the Latin Bible the first ever printed. It ought to be borne in mind that Latin and other copies of the Bible were only marked according to the divisions already referred to, and some in fact had no divisions at all, hence in order to facilitate an easy reference of the concordance to the Bible, he divided the latter into chapters, and these again into smaller sections of equal length, marked on the margin of the MS. by the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Hugo’s chapters were in course transferred to the Hebrew and Greek originals and to all English and other Bibles. The earliest editions of the Scriptures in the vernacular, as Wycliffe’s and Tyndale’s, were sectioned off according to the Cardinal’s chapters at the top and letters on the margin of the page (see specimen pages).
Verses.
The history of our modern verses is on this wise. A celebrated Jewish Rabbi, Mordecai Nathan, about 1430 was engaged in frequent disputes with the Christians, and as they could readily find any word or passage in the Bible by the help of Hugo’s concordance—the former being sectioned off into chapters, and smaller divisions noted by letters—it occurred to the Rabbi to prepare a similar work for Jewish use to the Hebrew Scriptures. He completed his task in seven years—from 1438-1445—about the era of the invention of printing.
But Nathan, while adopting Hugo’s chapters, rejected his smaller divisions, and instead of letters, substituted Hebrew numeral figures, placing them at every fifth verse on the margin.
But the Rabbi, while availing himself of the Cardinal’s labors in the division of the sacred books into chapters, improved in the arrangement of the smaller sections. Hugo, we have already remarked, divided his chapters into seven equal portions where they were long, and the shorter ones into a fewer number of parts, noting them on the margin by letters. But Nathan substituted Hebrew numeral figures, not letters, placing them in the margin at a distance equal to every fifth verse. Hebrew Bibles have both chapters and verses marked in the margin, and the text broken into sections for their synagogue lessons.
The plan of the Rabbi was still further improved by a member of the Hebrew persuasion. Athias, an Amsterdam Jew and printer, produced two editions of the Hebrew Bible, the first in 1661 and the second in 1667. Athias introduced numeral letters in those places omitted by Nathan. All the Latin, Greek, English, and other Bibles now in use throughout the known world, save in a very few exceptions, have the chapters of Hugo and the verses of Athias.
But we have not yet accounted for the verses in our New Testament. This was the work of. Robert Stephens, a celebrated French printer, and a man of considerable scholastic attainments. Stephens in preparing a fourth edition of his Greek Testament—published in 1551—found that the chapters of Hugo were too long for easy reference, and so subdivided them to assist him in compiling a concordance for his Testament, afterward printed by his son Henry. Stephens divided the chapters of the New Testament into verses while traveling from Paris to Lyons, and from him they have been copied into all English and other editions of the sacred Scriptures. Can anyone reasonably suppose that a man on horseback, or even resting in the inconvenient inns in these days, was competent, under such circumstances, to break up the text of Scripture into 7959 verses? How much better were the Bible sectioned off into paragraphs, according to the evident sense of the Spirit in the respective portions. Yet the present arrangement is not without its merits. Our English Bibles thus have Hugo’s chapters throughout, the Jew’s arrangement of verses for the Old Testament, and Stephens’ verses for the New Testament. The first of English Bibles thus chaptered and versed is the Bishop’s Bible, that immediately preceding our authorized version.
Titles.
The titles or inscriptions prefixed to the sacred books are of great antiquity. The authors of them are unknown. “The Book of Psalms” is a divine title (Acts 1:20). The names of the separate books of the Pentateuch come to us from the titles found in the LXX.; the Hebrew titles are from the opening word or sentence in the various books. “Chronicles” from the Vulgate of Jerome. The word “general” is not found in any of the so-called Catholic Epistles of earliest date, nor is the name of “Paul” introduced in the earliest MSS. of the “Hebrews.” The more ancient the MSS. of the New Testament, the more brief and simple are the titles. Not only are the titles prefixed to the books of the Bible (with perhaps an exception or so) destitute of divine authority, but they present considerable diversity in the form in which they occur in the MSS.—notably so those of the New Testament, but in substance they are much the same.
Subscriptions.
It will be observed that these subscriptions are only attached to the Pauline Epistles, and are utterly destitute of divine authority. They are of more recent date than the titles, being introduced by Euthalius of Alexandria, already referred to. Euthalius, about 458, edited an edition of Paul’s 14 Epistles, and appended those subscriptions found in our English New Testament. It would have been better had the good presbyter left the Epistles to tell their own story where written, as some of the postscripts are positively incorrect, being contradicted by the very text of the Epistles to which they are attached. Horne in his Introduction, after citing various instances in which they contradict history and chronology, says:—"The author of these subscriptions, it is evident, was either grossly ignorant, or grossly inattentive.”
No divisions whatever of the inspired text are of God; they are all human in their origin. Certainly the best way of reading Scripture is to read it as originally penned without any external divisions whatever. Where time allows, read a book right through, or pause where the Spirit has clearly indicated a break.
May God’s presence be the place; the Holy Ghost, the teacher; and the book, the inspired Scriptures of the Old and New Testament—where, by whom, and from which our souls are taught for time and for eternity.