Category: The Bible

Seeing that biblical criticism has given us a new and better understanding of the Old Testament, we shall be eager to learn what it has to say about the New Testament. Nor is its word less clear and strong, less instructive and quickening in the latter than in the former. The pages of both sets […]

Next to Jesus the principal character that moves before us in the pages of the New Testament is the apostle Paul. Who was he? A brilliant young Jew, a native of Tarsus, a considerable city, in southeastern Asia Minor. His Jewish name was Saul, but its gentile equivalent or substitute was Paul. It is not […]

The four gospels are said to be “according to” Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, respectively. This phrase does not necessarily mean that four persons bearing these names actually wrote these documents as they now stand, although such has been the general belief. It has been further supposed that the first and last of these writers, […]

Having glanced at the role which the Bible has played in the spiritual progress of the past, we need next to consider what service it may render to our own age. For we can by no means ignore the significant change that is taking place in the thought of men respecting the nature of the […]

Having obtained a clear conception of the revolution which is taking place in the thought of intelligent people regarding the nature of the Bible; and having tried to form a just estimate of the great service which the Sacred Volume has rendered to the interests of spiritual progress in the past, is still rendering at […]

In the present chapter a sketch is to be given of the history of the Bible. There is required at least an outline of the story of its preservation, transmission, and diffusion since the various writings composing it were collected, selected, and recognized as authoritative and sacred. The long process of thus gathering and establishing […]

In concluding this chapter some attention must be given to another important aspect of the new view of the New Testament, consisting of the distinct types of Christianity which it discovers within its pages. For not all the books comprised in this collection of Sacred writings afford us either the same conception of Jesus Christ, […]

The facts and views presented in the preceding pages compel a restatement of doctrine concerning the inspiration of the Bible. The traditional thought on this subject does not afford an adequate explanation of the wonderful variety of phenomena now brought before us, just as the Ptolemaic astronomy would be too small to fit the enlarged […]

The new learning regarding the Bible calls, not only for a restatement of the doctrine of inspiration, but also for a reconsideration of the kindred question of revelation. In what sense is it true that “the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain a revelation of the character of God, and of the […]

In what sense and to what extent is the Bible authoritative in matters of faith and morals? This is the most vital question involved in these chapters. Indeed it is the one essential question lying at the heart of all the discussions of our time concerning the Scriptures. We may ascertain what the Bible is […]