THSJ 
 
 JBIBLE AND ITS BOO 
 
 BY 
 
 PROF. H. M. HAMILL, D.D., 
 
 n 
 
 Superintendent of Training Work, 
 M. E. Church, South. 
 
 NASHVILLE, TBNN. ; DALLAS, TEX. : 
 
 PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH. 
 
 SMITH & LAMAB, AGENTS. 
 
 190'.
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1903, 
 
 BY 
 H. M. HAMILL.
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Two methods of Bible study are needed by the busy 
 people who teach in our Sunday schools, each the com- 
 plement of the other. 
 
 One method has in view a general knowledge of the 
 Book, in the unity of its divine truth. This is the lar- 
 ger, ' ' long-range ' ' vision, without which one can never 
 understand the great movements of sacred history, 
 prophecy, and doctrine. 
 
 The other method aims at a knowledge of the several 
 books composing the Bible, the content and intent of 
 each, as related to the others and to the unity of the 
 whole. One who thus studies the Bible and its books 
 will know and teach better any portion of it. 
 
 It has been the aim of the writer to combine some- 
 thing of both methods in this small volume, with the one 
 purpose of helping the student whose time and equip- 
 ment are limited. The reader will note that the writer 
 has followed reverently the traditional paths of the 
 Church in all mooted biblical questions. Whenever the 
 masters of the new school of criticism shall agree among 
 themselves, it will be time enough to consider the re- 
 casting of beliefs of many centuries. 
 
 H. M. HAMILL. 
 
 Nashville, Tenn., April 1, 1903. 
 
 (3)
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I THE BIBLE. 
 
 PAQK 
 
 I. INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE 7 
 
 II. STORY or THE BIBLE 14 
 
 III. ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS AND VERSIONS 20 
 
 IV. OUR ENGLISH BIBLE 27 
 
 V. BIBLE SUMMARY 35 
 
 PART II. THE OLD TESTAMENT BOOKS. 
 
 I. THE PENTATEUCH 48 
 
 n. THE BOOKS OF HISTORY 51 
 
 III. THE BOOKS OF POETRY 64 
 
 IV. THE GREATER PROPHETS 72 
 
 V. THE LESSER PROPHETS 79 
 
 PART III. THE NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS. 
 
 I. THE GOSPELS 98 
 
 EE. THE BOOK OF ACTS 109 
 
 in. THE PAULINE EPISTLES Ill 
 
 IV. THE GENERAL EPISTLES 130 
 
 V. THE BOOK OF PROPHECY 187 
 
 (5)
 
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 n O Ar I U> COY N 
 
 &l H TAP e N K VfTIf 
 
 ecucnpocBHOA 
 
 TOin 
 
 P AC M C FA AH C KAI 
 HCANAIAnANT" 
 
 e N Tcu t e f ci> eY AO 
 TOYNTCCTONOH 
 
 CATAA'YKAhT 
 
 Facsimile .rom Sinai MS., 4th century A.D. See page 25. 
 The text is Luke xxiv. 49-53. 
 
 (6)
 
 PART I.-THE BIBLE. 
 
 I. INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 Definition. 
 
 Bible Testimony. 
 
 Mode of Inspiration. 
 
 Theories of Inspiration. 
 Orthodox. 
 Plenary. 
 Limited. 
 Rationalistic. 
 
 Definition. By "inspiration/' as applied to the 
 Bible, is meant a special and supernatural influ- 
 ence of God upon those who wrote the several parts 
 of the hook. In the passage (2 Tim. iii. 16), "All 
 scripture is given by inspiration of God," the 
 Greek word theopneustos means "God-breathed," 
 the breath of God being used as a symbol of his 
 power. The following definition of inspiration is 
 given by a Bible scholar of eminence : "According 
 to the representations of the Scriptures themselves, 
 inspiration is an extraordinary agency upon teach- 
 ers while giving instruction, whether oral or writ- 
 ten, by which they are taught what and how they 
 should write or speak." While the fact of inspira- 
 tion is commonly held by all devout believers, the 
 method and measure have been matters of wide dif- 
 
 CO
 
 8 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 ference. In recent years, the assumptions of the 
 so-called "higher criticism" have forced into re- 
 newed prominence and discussion all questions re- 
 lating to the subject. This discussion affects both 
 the fact and the method of inspiration, and is 
 therefore of vital interest to students and teachers 
 of the Bible. 
 
 Bible Testimony. The Bible gives direct and 
 conclusive evidence of its inspiration, both as to 
 the fact and the extent of it, by the testimony of- 
 those who wrote it. 
 
 1. The Hebrew prophets generally, upon begin- 
 ning their ministry, authenticate and confirm their 
 messages by "Thus saith the Lord," or "The Lord 
 spake by me, saying." The New Testament de- 
 clares of these prophets that "God spake by them." 
 
 2. Jesus Christ everywhere spoke of and quoted 
 from the Old Testament as the word of God. He 
 enforced the divine truth and authority of all parts 
 of it, and taught from it as a book of divinely in- 
 spired truth, whether of historic fact or religious 
 doctrine. Upon its foundation he placed himself 
 and his own doctrine. 
 
 3. The apostles were even more specific in as- 
 serting the inspiration not only of the Old Testa- 
 ment,, but of their own writings. Peter declared 
 (2 Pet. i. 21) that "holy men of God spake as they 
 were moved by the Holy Ghost;" and Paul lays it
 
 Inspiration of the Bible. 9 
 
 down as a characteristic of "all scripture" (2 Tim. 
 iii. 16) that it "is given by inspiration of God." 
 The recent attempt to turn this passage about, and 
 to render it "All divinely inspired scripture is 
 profitable," is in direct violation of a received rule 
 of Greek syntax, and is opposed by the common 
 usage of the fathers and by almost all the versions. 
 It would make the fallible human critic the final 
 arbiter of what is and is not inspired. 
 
 It should be noted also that the sacred writers 
 assert their inspiration, not only as to the matter 
 but as to the manner of inspiration, in such pas- 
 sages as, "This scripture must needs have been 
 fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of 
 David spake" (Acts i. 16), and "Which things 
 also we speak, not in the words which man's wis- 
 dom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth" 
 (1 Cor. ii. 13). It is a significant commentary 
 upon the doctrine of inspiration, in any age of the 
 Church, that the nearer one lives after the pattern 
 of the holy men who wrote the Bible, the more de- 
 voutly one clings to their view of Bible inspiration. 
 
 Mode of Inspiration. As to the manner or proc- 
 esses through which holy men were moved upon 
 to speak or to write, the Bible discloses a variety 
 of ways. Whatever the mode of God's operation, 
 he made it plain to his servants that the truth to 
 be spoken or written was from himself. Inspira-
 
 10 The Bible and Its Booikg. 
 
 tion included not only the subject-matter to be 
 written, but gave direction to the very form of the 
 writings. Future events, new doctrines, things not 
 known to the writers by natural means, were di- 
 rectly revealed. The pen of the historian was 
 guided immediately by the Holy Ghost through the 
 mass of tradition and contemporaneous history, so 
 that the truth only would be written. The Holy 
 Spirit restrained from error in fact and doctrine, 
 and the writers wrote just so much and in such a 
 manner as God saw to be best. How far the mind 
 of the writer was active or passive under the guid- 
 ance of the Holy Spirit, we cannot know. That 
 memory and judgment were divinely aided is plain 
 from the promise of Jesus that the Holy Spirit 
 should "bring to remembrance" and "guide into all 
 truth." To object that each writer has a "style" 
 of his own, and that therefore inspiration did not 
 extend to the forms of language, is to ignore the 
 fact that God gave to each writer by nature his 
 "style," and could employ these varied styles as 
 his media of revelation. To further object that the 
 various admitted discrepancies and disagreements 
 of the sacred writers preclude the application of 
 inspiration to the language of the writers is to ig- 
 nore the fact that inspiration is claimed for the 
 original documents only, and is not to be charged 
 with errors that have come through transcription,
 
 Inspiration of the Bible. 11 
 
 translation, and revision, the work of uninspired 
 custodians of the Bible. 
 
 Theories of Inspiration. These have varied ac- 
 cording to the measure of one's faith in the super- 
 naturalism of the Bible. The "scientific method" 
 of Bible study is responsible for not a little of the 
 confusion over the questions of inspiration, inas- 
 much as its assumption is that nothing is to be as- 
 sumed for the Bible above other books, but that 
 miracles, inspiration, faith itself, are to be sub- 
 jected to purely scientific tests. It is to be regret- 
 ted that even preachers and teachers of the Bible 
 have been caught by this bait of German rational- 
 ism, although Prof. Christlieb, among the 
 greatest of Germany's scholars, pertinently asked : 
 "Why do Americans gather from the gutter so 
 much of the theological rubbish we Germans throw 
 away ?" 
 
 Briefly stated, the current theories of Bible in- 
 spiration are as follows : 
 
 1. The "orthodox" theory, sometimes called the 
 "dynamic," which considers the Bible to be in- 
 spired in such a sense as to make it infallibly cer- 
 tain when taken in its legitimate sense, and of ab- 
 solute authority in all matters of faith and con- 
 science. This theory recognizes the inspiration of 
 the writer, but does not extend it to the form of
 
 12 The Bible and Its BooTcs. 
 
 the writing, or free the writer from possibility of 
 errors in matters not of religion. 
 
 2. The "plenary" theory, which holds that in- 
 spiration had respect to the language, and that the 
 entire Bible was so authenticated or dictated by 
 the Holy Spirit that it became truth without mix- 
 ture of error, expressed in such terms as the Holy 
 Spirit ruled or suggested. In so far as this theory 
 is applied to the original documents of the Bible, 
 it has been successfully maintained by some of the 
 most eminent scholars of the Church, and is the 
 only theory which measures lip to the claims which 
 the writers of the Bible made for themselves. 
 
 3. The "limited" theory, which limits the in- 
 spiration of the Bible to strictly religious truth, 
 and holds that the value of the religious element 
 in the Bible is not lessened by errors in the scien- 
 tific and miscellaneous matters which accompany 
 it. This is the working theory of conservative 
 "higher criticism," the fatal defect of which is 
 that it gives to truth of infinite value a setting of 
 error, though from the same writer, and puts the 
 Bible under the odium of being "part truth and 
 part falsehood." To be able to draw a line be- 
 tween what is and is not religious truth, is more 
 than the sacred writers themselves professed ability 
 to do. 
 
 4. The "rationalistic" theory, which concedes to
 
 Inspiration of the Bible. 13 
 
 the Bible a high order of poetic or religious fervor ; 
 but challenges its miracles, visions, and supernat- 
 uralisms as myths and "allegories." Such is a 
 theory held in common by materialists, skeptics, 
 and not a few of the destructive '^higher critics" 
 who are preachers and teachers of the Christian 
 Church.
 
 II. STORY OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 Growth of the Bible. 
 Canon of Scripture. 
 Old Testament Canon: New Testament Canon: 
 
 1. Three Divisions. 
 
 2. Ezra's Revision. 
 
 3. N. T. Evidence. 
 
 1. Order and Time. 
 
 2. Disputed Books. 
 
 3. Church and Council. 
 
 Growth of the Bible. The Bible grew slowly, as 
 a book of inspired literature. Even its present title 
 was not given it until the fourth century. Hebrews 
 i. 1-2 is a summary of its growth: "God, who at 
 sundry times and in divers manners spake in time 
 past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these 
 last days spoken unto us by his Son/' The 
 "Scriptures/' as termed by ancient Jew and early 
 Christian, spread out over many centuries. Begin- 
 ning with the writings of Moses, about 1500 B.C., 
 and closing with the prophecy of Malachi, the Old 
 Testament was more than a thousand years in the 
 process of formation. The thirty-nine books com- 
 posing it were not given in an unbroken series. 
 Thirty or more writers of the Old Testament, and 
 eight of the New, very few of whom were contem- 
 poraries, wrote at "sundry times," as they were 
 "moved by the Holy Ghost/' The twenty-seven 
 books of the New Testament were written within 
 (14)
 
 'Story of the Bible. 15 
 
 the last sixty years of the first Christian century. 
 The Bible therefore was a growth of about sixteen 
 centuries, at the hands of about forty writers. 
 Portions of it came by direct audible revelation 
 from God, as in case of Moses; part as messages 
 through angels, as to Mary; part as visions, as to 
 Daniel and John. To the prophets came by the 
 Holy Ghost communications, which in the Old 
 Testament are termed "burdens," sometimes not 
 understood by the prophet himself. Some of the 
 books of the Old Testament were compiled from 
 the sacred annals of the Jewish nation ; all, in both 
 Old and New Testaments, received final revision, 
 doubtless under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 
 To the New Testament writers came special divine 
 illumination, prompting and directing their writ- 
 ings. The Old Testament grew up about the his- 
 toric and religious life of God's chosen nation, as 
 out of it should come his Son, and upon it should 
 be superimposed the Christian Church and its 
 Scriptures. The New Testament, in its record of 
 the ministry of Christ and his apostles, fulfilled 
 and perfected the Old. 
 
 The Canon af Scripture. The final determina- 
 tion of what books should compose the sacred 
 canon was made by the Jewish and Christian 
 Churches, respectively, always under a superin- 
 tending Providence. The Jewish Church, four
 
 16 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 centuries B.C., had fixed the Old Testament 
 "canon/* or authoritative list of its inspired books. 
 The Christian Church, first by the testimony of 
 Christ and his apostles, a little later by the con- 
 sensus of the Church of the first three centuries 
 A.D., authenticated the books of the Old Testa- 
 ment, and added to the canon, as of like inspiration 
 and authority, the books of the New Testament. 
 Thus the formation of the canon began with the 
 placing of the five books of Moses in the side of the 
 ark (Deut. xxxi. 26), and extended to the third 
 or fourth century of the Christian era. 
 
 The evidences or tests upon which the final de- 
 termination of the books of the Bible was made is 
 worthy of special consideration. Nothing could 
 have exceeded the watchfulness of either Jewish 
 or Christian Church in making the final selection. 
 Upon every book of the Bible was imposed at least 
 three rigorous test's: (1) Is the book inspired of 
 God ? This was determined by the claims of divine 
 inspiration in the book itself, and by the concur- 
 rent voice of the body of devout believers. ^2) 
 Is the book genuine? Is it the actual book iti;is 
 claimed to be, without essential defect, corruption, 
 or interpolation ? This was determined by a chain 
 of documents outnumbering and outweighing those 
 in evidence of any other ancient books. (3) Is the 
 book authentic? Is it the work of the author to
 
 Story of the Bible. 17 
 
 whom it is accredited? This was determined as 
 to most of the books by a mass" of history taken 
 from the times when the books appeared. Through 
 and over all this testing process by the Church, 
 every devout Christian will easily believe there was 
 the directing influence of the Holy Spirit, the In- 
 spirer and Custodian of God's revelation to manl 
 
 The Old Testament Canon. I. The Old Testa- 
 ment appeared in three successive divisions: the 
 "Pentateuch," or ''book of the law," which for cen- 
 turies constituted the sole canon; "the Prophets," 
 composed of such books as were written or com- 
 piled by the official Hebrew prophets, in order from 
 Moses to Malachi, and consisting of the historic 
 and prophetic books of t&e Old Testament; "the 
 Psalms" (so termed by the Jews and by our Lord), 
 or simply the "writings," consisting of the five 
 poetical books, also Euth, Lamentations, and 
 Esther, together with the postexilian books of his- 
 tory, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. Students 
 of the Bible are divided in opinion as to why some 
 of these books were placed in this division out of 
 their seemingly proper order of time and relation. 
 The second division gradually took rank with the 
 "book of the law," as being divinely inspired, and 
 its successive books were received, deposited in the 
 temple, and copied by the Jewish Church as a part 
 of the canon. The third division, which was the 
 2
 
 18 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 growth, of one thousand years, took similar course, 
 most of its books constituting the ritual of the 
 Jewish Church. 
 
 2. The final collection, compilation, and revi- 
 sion of the Old Testament canon was the work of 
 Ezra and the "Great Synagogue," in the fifth cen- 
 tury B.C., after the return from Babylon, the re- 
 building of city and temple, and at the closing of 
 prophecy under Malachi. The canon thus fixed 
 by Ezra, and accepted and authenticated by our 
 Lord and the apostles, and by the early Christian 
 Church, has continued undisturbed to the pres- 
 ent day. Josephus, the Jewish historian, writing 
 near to the time of Christ, names the books as in 
 the canon of Ezra, and affirms that since his day 
 "no one had dared to add to, or take from, or 
 alter anything in the sacred books." 
 
 3. As has been remarked, our Lord and the 
 apostles freely authenticated and quoted from most 
 of the books of the canon as established by Ezra, 
 and by recognizing the three divisions of the 
 canon, as above described, thereby authenticated 
 each book of the entire canon. By direct quota- 
 tion or allusion, indeed, it might be shown that 
 every book of the Old Testament bears the express 
 sanction of our Lord and the apostles. 
 
 The New Testament Canon. 1. The time, or- 
 der, and authorship of the books of the New Testa-
 
 /Story of the Bible. 19 
 
 merit are known more clearly than those of the 
 Old. Matthew's Gospel (written probably A.D. 
 38), followed by Mark's and Luke's, was the be- 
 ginning of the canon, and the three were at once 
 received as canonical among the Christian Church- 
 es. The book of Acts and the earlier Epistles of 
 Paul appeared about this time, followed closely by 
 the later Epistles of Paul and others, and closing 
 with the writings of John, near to 100 A.D. 
 
 2. The Gospels and most of the Epistles at once 
 took unchallenged place in the New Testament 
 canon; but for a time, and for reasons not fully 
 known, the books of James and Jude, Second 
 Peter, Second and Third John, and Eevelation, 
 though received as canonical by a majority of the 
 Churches, were held to be "disputed" books. 
 
 3. Finally, after a period of severe testing and 
 lessening doubts on the part of the various 
 Churches and their leaders, the New Testament 
 canon, as we now have it, was adopted. Successive 
 councils of the Church ascertained the mind of the 
 Church, and the complete canon was ratified by the 
 Council of Carthage, A.D. 397.
 
 III. ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS AND VERSIONS 
 
 Bible Material. 
 
 Method of Study. 
 
 Manuscripts : 
 
 Hebrew. 
 
 Versions : 
 Targums. 
 
 Greek: 
 
 Septuagint. 
 
 Vatican. 
 
 Syriac. 
 
 Sinaitic. 
 
 Vulgate. 
 
 Alexandrian. 
 
 
 Bible Material. So far as known, there is in 
 existence no original or autographic copy of any 
 book of the Bible, though in the light of modern 
 archaeological investigation such a discovery may 
 yet be made. But no other book from the ancient 
 world at all compares with our Bible in the num- 
 ber and reliability of translations and manu- 
 script copies containing the original text. Of 
 Herodotus, for instance, most ancient and impor- 
 tant of the classic historians, whose Greek is part 
 of all our college curricula, there are only about fif- 
 teen manuscript copies, the oldest, in the Cam- 
 bridge library, dating back to the ninth century 
 A.D. Of Plato's original, there are even fewer and 
 no older copies. On the contrary, there are now in 
 the libraries of the world, accessible to scholars, 
 and for many years past the subject of most crit- 
 ical study, more than one thousand five hundred 
 (20)
 
 'Ancient Manuscripts and Versions. 21 
 
 ancient manuscript copies of the Bible, in part or 
 whole, ranging back in date to the fourth century 
 A.D. A few of these contain the entire Bible; by 
 the others all parts of the Bible are repeatedly 
 paralleled. So abundant are these manuscriptjs, 
 and so thoroughly has textual criticism investi- 
 gated them, that when English and American 
 scholarship, after using the "Authorized Version" 
 of King James (1611 A.D.) for nearly three hun- 
 dred years, gave to the world the recent "Kevised 
 Version," it was found that surprisingly few 
 changes were needed, though the later translators 
 had the advantage of using the three oldest and 
 greatest of the ancient manuscripts. Of the 
 changes made, many were to conform to the 
 changes in our own English language since the 
 days of King James. 
 
 This mass of ancient manuscripts, if it could be 
 gathered from all parts of the world into one place, 
 would be an object of wonder and reverence to the 
 Bible student. Written most painstakingly and 
 often beautifully, upon vellum and parchment, 
 there is great variety in appearance. Some of the 
 manuscripts are worn by time and use, until no 
 longer legible in portions : others are as clear and 
 fresh as though only a century old. The smaller 
 number are severely plain in their construction, 
 and these are usually the most ancient. Many are
 
 22 The Bible and Its Boobs. 
 
 "illuminated" by fanciful initial letters and orna- 
 mentations. What are called the "Uncials" 
 about one hundred in number are written in 
 large capital letters, in closely crowded lines, with- 
 out space between words or even sentences. This 
 uncial writing marks the oldest and most valu- 
 able manuscripts. A specimen page from the 
 famous "Sinaitic" manuscript, probably the old- 
 est of all, is given at the beginning of this book. 
 The greater number by f ;r of the manuscripts are 
 the "Cursives," written in a free running hand, 
 with more decoration and embellishment than the 
 homely "Uncials." These "Cursives" are several 
 centuries later in age, and usually less accurate in 
 their texts. Their number is about 1,500. 
 
 Method of Study. In the formation and revi- 
 sion of our English Bible from the texts of these 
 ancient manuscripts, the translators needed to fol- 
 low three lines of investigation : 
 
 1. A study and comparison of the manuscripts, 
 allowing usually the greater value to those known 
 to be most ancient, for the reason that the nearer 
 in time the copy is to the original, the fewer, as a 
 rule, will be its inaccuracies. The relative age of 
 the manuscript was determined by the lettering, 
 uncial or cursive, by the initial letters, by the style 
 of the writing, by the language, and by the form 
 and condition of the parchment or vellum.
 
 Ancient Manuscripts and Versions. 23 
 
 2. By a study of the several versions, or trans- 
 lations from Hebrew or Greek originals to other 
 languages, and by comparing the text of these 
 among themselves and with the manuscripts. 
 
 3. By careful examination of the writings of the 
 Christian fathers of the first three centuries A.D., 
 in which appear such a mass of quotations, espe- 
 cially from the New Testament, that it is claimed 
 that all of it, except twelve verses, could be collated. 
 
 It is a matter of profound gratitude and won- 
 der that, notwithstanding this mass of manuscripts, 
 ranging through many centuries, such is their sin- 
 gular agreement upon all vital matters of revela- 
 tion that no important fact or doctrine of the 
 Bible has been put in peril, although the keenest 
 scrutiny of both devout and skeptical scholarship 
 has been vigorously applied to them. 
 
 Manuscripts and Versions. This Bible material 
 will be better understood when classified as fol- 
 lows: The Old Testament, written originally in 
 Hebrew, was used at the time of our Lord in any 
 one of three forms the Hebrew MSS., either the 
 originals or copies; the "Targums," in Chaldaic, 
 which began under Ezra, after the exile, and were 
 for the use of the people, who had generally sub- 
 stituted the Chaldaic language acquired in exile 
 for their mother Hebrew; the Old Testament 
 "versions" or translations, chief of which was the
 
 24 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 "Septuagint," in Greek, which had become the 
 almost universal medium of speech and writing 
 throughout the Eoman Empire. 
 
 The New Testament, written in the Greek, was 
 also in three forms : the Greek MSS., of which we 
 now have, as already stated, more than 1,500, dat- 
 ing from the fourth century A.D. ; hack of the ear- 
 liest of these MSS., and filling the first three cen- 
 turies, the "versions" of the New Testament, the 
 earliest and most important of which were the 
 "Syriac" or "Peshito," the "Italic/' "Armenian," 
 "Coptic," and others of the second century and 
 later; back of these versions, or contemporaneous 
 with them, were the writings of the Christian fa- 
 thers, with their corroborative quotations from the 
 New Testament. 
 
 Of these Old and New Testament MSS. and 
 versions now existing, the more distinguished are 
 as follows : 
 
 1. The "Hillel" Hebrew MS. of the Old Tes- 
 tament of the seventh century A.D. Since Je- 
 rome's popular translation of the Old Testament 
 from Hebrew direct to Latin in the fourth century 
 A.D., the lack of Hebrew MSS. has not been great- 
 ly felt. 
 
 2. The "Vatican" MS. of the fourth century 
 A.D., for five hundred years in the papal library at
 
 Ancient Manuscripts and Versions. 25 
 
 Rome, the property of the Roman Catholic 
 Church. 
 
 3. The "Sinaitic" MS. of the fourth century 
 A.D., now at Petersburg, the property of the Greek 
 Catholic Church, discovered by Dr. Tischendorf in 
 1859, at St. Catherine's Convent, near Mount Si- 
 nai. 
 
 4. The "Alexandrian" MS. of the fifth cen- 
 tury A.D., now in the British Museum, the prop- 
 erty of the Protestant Church. Each of these 
 three noble Greek MSS. contains nearly the entire 
 Bible. 
 
 1. Of the "versions/' the "Septuagint" Old Tes- 
 tament, translated direct from the Hebrew to the 
 Greek, about 285 B.C. at Alexandria, was for cen- 
 turies the most popular among Jews and Chris- 
 tians alike, and was the text chiefly used by Christ 
 and the apostles. 
 
 2. The "Syriae," and the "Italic" or early Latin, 
 both of the second century A.D., were translations 
 of the entire Bible, for provincial use, into the 
 Syriae and Latin languages. 
 
 3. The greatest of all the versions was the Latin 
 "Yulgate" of the New Testament, translated in 
 385 A.D. from the Greek into the Latin by St. 
 Jerome, the finest scholar of his age. The Old 
 Testament was later translated by him direct from 
 the Hebrew. For one thousand years this noble
 
 26 
 
 The Bible and Its Boo/hs. 
 
 work continued as the Bible standard and parent 
 of all later versions, strongly influencing Protes- 
 tant scholarship in the King James version of 1611. 
 The following diagram of the first ten centuries 
 of the Christian era, studied in connection with the 
 above text, will show the location and order of the 
 sources from which our Bible sprang. The letters 
 below the line are the initials respectively of the 
 MSS. and versions cited above:
 
 IV. OUR ENGLISH BIBLE. 
 
 Early England. 
 Bible Material. 
 Wycliffe'sBible,1380A.D. 
 Tyndale's Bible, 1525. 
 Corerdale's Bible, 1535. 
 
 Cranmer's Bible, 15S9. 
 Genera Bible, 1560. 
 Bishops' Bible, 1568. 
 Authorized Version, 1611. 
 Revised Version, 1885. 
 
 Early England. From the sixth to the six- 
 teenth century A.D., England was a fitting soil 
 from which to grow the greatest of all Bibles. Our 
 bold and liberty-loving Saxon ancestry infused 
 their spirit of reverence and independence into its 
 first beginnings. The minstrel Csedmon charmed 
 the farm people with his metrical paraphrases of 
 Bible history; the Saxon bishops, Aldhelm and 
 Aelfric, translated portions of the Bible into the 
 rude native tongue; the 'learned Bede" compiled 
 while dying a Saxon version of John's Gospel; 
 King Alfred founded the great Oxford University, 
 and gave to his people translations of the Psalms 
 and the Commandments; William the Conqueror 
 began the long battle of four centuries in defense 
 of the rights of the nation against the aggressive 
 tyranny of the Eomish Church. Successive Eng- 
 lish kings and Church leaders wrestled with, or 
 succumbed to, the popes in their persistent efforts 
 to keep the nation under intellectual and eccleeias- 
 
 (27)
 
 28 The Bible and Its Booties. 
 
 tical subjection. The clergy became corrupt and 
 ignorant, and the plain people, in whose hearts 
 there was a pathetic desire for a free and uncor- 
 rupted Bible, were made to pay their money for 
 masses and pardons, "as if God had given his sheep 
 not to be pastured, but to be shorn." But in the 
 hearts of these people the spirit of religious free- 
 dom and the love of learning were steadily rising, 
 until at length, in the fourteenth century, God 
 raised up Wycliffe to open the Scriptures and make 
 them plain to their understandings. 
 
 Bible Material. When Wycliffe began the first 
 English translation of the entire Bible, his lament 
 was that no such English version had preceded 
 him. His available sources from which to con- 
 struct an English Bible were the fragments of ear- 
 lier versions already cited, and the Latin Vulgate 
 of St. Jerome, greatly corrupted either by intent 
 or neglect of the Eomish Church. "The commune 
 Latyne Bibles," he replied to his critics, "have more 
 nede to be corrected, as manie as I have seen in my 
 life, than hath the Englishe Bible late translated." 
 Hebrew and Greek MSS. of the Bible were not 
 available, nor had Wycliffe the skill to use them. 
 The Oxford University had no great Hebrew or 
 Greek scholars to assist him. Greek learning had 
 long been under papal ban. "If you study the 
 Greek," said a Romish prelate, "you will become a
 
 Our English Bible. 29 
 
 pagan ; if you study the Hebrew, you will become a 
 Jew." 
 
 Under such hard conditions, and with such scant 
 material, did this brave English priest, rightly 
 called the "morning star of the Keformation," 
 enter upon his lifelong effort to give an English 
 Bible to the common people. Here is his quaint 
 definition of a translator of the Bible: "He hath 
 grate nede to studie well the sentence, both before 
 and after; he hath also nede to lyve a clene life, 
 be full devout of preiers, and have not his wit oc- 
 cupied about worldli thynges." 
 
 Wy cliff e's Bible, 1380 A. D Woefully hindered 
 by lack of Bible material, deprived of scholarly 
 help, persecuted to the end of his life by the Eom- 
 ish Church, Wycliffe's Bible, when completed, 
 forced its way unaided into the affections and use 
 of the people. Despite all efforts to destroy it, 
 there are at this day not less than one hundred and 
 fifty copies of this earliest English Bible. Its pe- 
 culiarities are : homeliness of style, as it was writ- 
 ten expressly for the common people, and not for 
 the court or scholars; the absence of technical 
 words, as its substitution of "'riches" for "mam- 
 mon ;" its intense literalness. Here is a specimen 
 of the book :
 
 30 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 jforsotbe 
 
 tbat Ufce 3oon bafcfce cloth of tbe beert0 of 
 camellia ant> a gtrMl of 0fesn about bis 
 leenfcte; 0otbel\> bis mete weren Iocu0ti0 
 ant> bon$ of tbe wot>e. ttbanne 3eru0a- 
 lent wente out to bpm, ant> al 3ut>e, ant> al 
 tbe cuntre aboute 3or^an t ant> tbel weren 
 cr^0tenet) of b^m in 3ort)an, ftnowlecbpnge 
 tbere 
 
 Wycliffe was formally tried and excommunica- 
 ted, and a petition was made to the pope after his 
 death that his body be exhumed and buried in a 
 dunghill. The body was burned, its ashes thrown 
 into the little river Swift that ran past his church 
 at Lutterworth, and the poet truly sang: 
 
 "The Swift unto the Severn runs, 
 
 The Severn to the sea; 
 And so shall Wycliffe's dust be spread 
 Wide as these waters be." 
 
 Tyndale's Bible, 1525 A. D. William Tyndale, 
 born 1483, the year after Luther's birth and one 
 hundred years after Wycliffe's death, had in begin- 
 ning all that was denied to Wycliffe. He was mas- 
 ter of seven languages, including Hebrew and 
 Greek; he was distinguished as a scholar at both
 
 Our English Bible. 31 
 
 Oxford and Cambridge, and was a pupil of the 
 famous Erasmus, greatest Greek scholar of his 
 age; he had the use of Hebrew and Greek MSS. 
 He had more than these. The art of printing had 
 been discovered by Gutenburg in 1450 A.B., and 
 was greatly multiplying and cheapening books. 
 Wycliffe's Bible had sold at forty pounds sterling 
 a copy ($200). Greek learning had been revived 
 in all the universities of Europe, until one has said : 
 "Greece rose at this time from her grave with the 
 New Testament in her hand." Eefused permis- 
 sion to carry on his work of translation at home, 
 Tyndale became an exile, and printed six thousand 
 copies of his New Testament at Worms. Betrayed 
 by friends, persecuted by the Church, he contin- 
 ued in exile, printing Bibles and shipping them 
 secretly to England. Most of the Old Testament 
 was also translated and printed by him. After 
 bitter and lifelong persecution, he was treacher- 
 ously lured to England by an emissary of the Rom- 
 ish Church, imprisoned, strangled, and then burned 
 at the stake, October 6, 1536, praying at the last : 
 'TLord, open thou the eyes of the king of En- 
 gland." In the beginning of his career he had 
 said: "I defy the pope; and if God spare me, I 
 will one day make the boy that drives the plow 
 in England know more of Scripture than the 
 pope himself/'
 
 32 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 Coverdale's Bible and Others, 1535 to 1568 A.D. 
 By the side of the two great typical Bibles, 
 Wycliffe's homely version for the common people 
 and Tyndale's original and scholarly work, the 
 numerous succeeding Bibles of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury (see outline at the beginning of chapter) ap- 
 pear as inferior, and were in fact weak plagia- 
 risms in part upon the strong sense of Wycliffe 
 and the great learning of Tyndale. Taken to- 
 gether, they prove the increasing hunger of En- 
 gland for the Holy Scriptures and the enduring 
 power of the martyred Tyndale, whose blood in- 
 deed became the seed of a freer and holier Church. 
 Taken separately, they prove the partisanship and 
 jealousies of Church factions, and the fear by the 
 hierarchy of the free spirit of the English people. 
 "Coverdale's" was probably the first entire Eng- 
 lish-printed Bible; "Matthew's," the first author- 
 ized version; "Cranmer's" bore the pretentious 
 title of the "Great Bible;" the "Geneva," printed 
 at Geneva by Eeformers, was the first distinctive- 
 ly Protestant Bible, and was for fifty years the 
 most popular version in England; the "Bishops' 
 Bible," so named from the fact that eight of its 
 translators were bishops, was least of the list in pub- 
 lic esteem; the "Rhemish and Douay," the Catho- 
 lic Bible, was the effort of the Eomish Church to 
 stem the rising tide of Protestant influence.
 
 Our English Bible. 33 
 
 The Authorized Version, 1611 A.D. For three 
 hundred years this Bible has been the flower and 
 L'ruit of classic and English scholarship. "It has 
 in it the lifeblood of Icings, scholars, reformers, 
 ;md saints." In construction, scholarship, 
 purity and dignity of language, it far surpassed 
 all predecessors; and it will doubtless be many 
 years, if ever, before it is displaced by a later ver- 
 sion. Under appointment of King James, forty- 
 seven great scholars of England were its transla- 
 tors. Among their rules were : "There shall be no 
 change except the text require it;" "manuscript 
 copies and competent scholarship shall be consult- 
 ed;" "marginal references shall be instituted;" 
 "no marginal notes shall be allowed;" "all differ- 
 ences of opinion shall be decided at a general meet- 
 ing." After five years of continuous service, 
 working in six divisions, determining all vexed 
 questions in general meeting, the great version 
 was completed in 1611 A.D. 
 
 The Revised Version, A.D. 1885. Archaeolog- 
 ical investigation and discovery; the bringing to 
 light of many ancient MSS. (among which was 
 the Sinai "Codex" of the fourth century) ; the 
 changing forms of our English language, and the 
 increasing number of obsolete words in the Au- 
 thorized Version ; the advance of textual criticism 
 and of Hebrew and Greek scholarship since 1611 
 3
 
 34 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 A.D. all conspired to bring about the Eevised 
 Version of 1885. It was begun in 1870 through 
 the English Church, by the appointment of a "New 
 Testament" and an "Old Testament Company'' 
 of eminent English scholars, representing the 
 greater divisions of Protestantism, and by a "Cor- 
 responding Committee" of American scholars. 
 The first session of the English translators was 
 held in June, 1870, in the famous "Jerusalem 
 Chamber" of Westminster Abbey, London. Ten 
 years later, November 11, 1880, in the church of 
 St. Martin-in-Fields, London, the New Testament 
 Company closed its labors with prayer and thanks 
 giving. The entire Bible was completed and given 
 to the world May 5, 1885. Whether it will takg 
 the place of the Authorized Version, no one can 
 tell ; but in fullness of learning, clearness of plan, 
 and helpfulness to the Bible studenf and teacher, 
 there can be no question but that it is the best, as 
 it is the latest, version of Scripture.
 
 V. BIBLE SUMMARY. 
 
 A brief summary of the claims made for the 
 Bible by devout Christians, and of its historic 
 changes in form, will be found helpful to its stu- 
 dents and teachers. 
 
 Three great claims are made for the Bible: 
 (1) Its inspiration it came from God; (2) its 
 genuineness we have it substantially as it was 
 given; (3) its credibility it is amply attested as 
 the word of God. 
 
 THE CLAIM OF INSPIRATION. 
 As io Hie Fact. I. The prophets of the Old 
 Testament asserted it of their writings. 2. Our 
 Lord repeatedly cited the Old Testament as in- 
 spired, and placed his divine seal upon the three 
 great divisions of the Jewish canon the Law, the 
 Prophets, and the Psalms quoting directly from 
 eighteen of the thirty-nine books. 3. The apostles 
 Paul and Peter declared that the entire Old Tes- 
 tament \vas "given by inspiration" and that holy 
 men were "moved by the Holy Ghost" to write it. 
 
 4. As to the New Testament, the apostles asserted 
 its inspiration, and commanded it to be read in 
 the churches, ranking it with the Old Testament. 
 
 5. The claim of inspiration for the Old Testament 
 
 (35)
 
 36 The Bible and Us Books. 
 
 was reverently received by the Jews, and of both 
 Old and New Testaments by the early Christian 
 Church. 
 
 As to the Mode. 1. The orthodox, or "dynam- 
 ic/' theory that the sacred writers were super- 
 naturally inspired upon all subjects of which they 
 wrote, but were left free as to their forms of ex- 
 pression. 2. The "plenary/' or verbal, theory that 
 even the words themselves, as to the original docu- 
 ments, were inspired. Orthodox opinion is di- 
 vided between the two first-named theories of in- 
 spiration, with the preponderance in favor of the 
 "dynamic" theory. 3. The "limited" theory that 
 inspiration is restricted to purely religious truth of 
 doctrine or practice, and that all other parts are 
 merely human. 4. The theory of the "higher 
 criticism" asserting the "errancy" of the Scrip- 
 tures, and their need of being tested and amended 
 by modern scientific study. 5. The "rationalistic" 
 theory that the inspiration of the Bible is but a 
 high degree of poetic or religious fervor, consistent 
 with error in fact or doctrine. 
 
 THE CLAIM OF GENUINENESS. 
 This is proved : 1. By the reverence of copyists, 
 whether Jewish or Christian, the severest pen- 
 alties being denounced against mutilation or 
 change. 2. By Josephus's ancient catalogue of the
 
 Bible Summary. 37 
 
 books, and by the agreement between our own and 
 the text of the two most ancient Jewish versions, 
 the Samaritan and the Septuagint. 3. By the 
 agreement with our modern text of the Chaldee 
 Targuins made before Christ, and the mass of 
 direct quotations in the works of the early Chris- 
 tian fathers. 4. By the fact that in the nearly two 
 thousand known manuscripts of the Bible, some 
 of them fifteen hundred years old, there are few, 
 if any, inexplainable disagreements, and only 
 minor verbal and grammatical differences. 5. By 
 the weekly public readings in both Jewish and 
 Christian churches for thousands of years, and by 
 the jealousy of opposing sects Samaritan and 
 Jew, Pharisee and Sadducee, Jew and Christian 
 preventing all corruption of the text. 
 
 THE CLAIM OF CREDIBILITY. 
 This is shown: 1. By its adaptation to man's 
 spiritual needs, which demand just such a reve- 
 lation from God. 2. By the undisputed integrity 
 of the writers, and their corroboration by profane 
 histories and monuments. 3. By the harmony of 
 its forty writers, writing without opportunity for 
 collusion, between extremes of sixteen hundred 
 years. 4. By the harmony between the Bible and 
 Nature, the "greater and the lesser lights" of rev- 
 elation. 5. By fulfilled and fulfilling prophecy,
 
 38 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 and repeated public miracles, as seals of its truth. 
 
 0. By its supernatural power over individual 
 and national life, in government, society, art, ed- 
 ucation, etc. 7. By its reverent acceptance as the 
 word of Almighty God by all classes in all ages. 
 It is inconceivable that a book not divine could 
 be thus universally accepted. 
 
 The historic summary of the Bible is as follows : 
 
 THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 1. The Jewish Scriptures were written during 
 the fifteen centuries preceding Christ. 
 
 2. They were written mainly in the Hebrew 
 language. 
 
 3. The originals were kept by the priests in the 
 temple, and copied for public uses. 
 
 4. Certain noted versions or translations were 
 made as follows: (a) The Chaldee translations or 
 "Targums," f or the use of the common people after 
 the captivity; (&) the Samaritan, a Hebrew 
 copy of the Pentateuch made for the Samaritans, 
 probably before Judah's captivity; (c) the Sep- 
 tuagint, a Greek copy of the entire Old Testament, 
 made at Alexandria by exiled Jews, 285 B.C., and 
 in popular use at the time of Christ. 
 
 The Jewish Canon had three stages of growth: 
 
 1. The "Law," or books of Moses, were the only 
 canonical scriptures uutil after the captivity of
 
 Bible Summary. 39 
 
 Judah. 2. "The Prophets/' including twenty- 
 one books of history and prophecy, were compiled, 
 edited, and made the second part of the sacred 
 canon by Ezra and Xehemiah, about 450 B.C. 3. 
 "The Scriptures," including the devotional books, 
 together with Ruth, Lamentations, Esther, Ezra. 
 Nehemiah, 1st and 2d Chronicles, were made the 
 ihird division, either by Ezra or possibly in part 
 after his time. 
 
 THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 1. The Christian Scriptures were written during 
 the first Christian century, 38-96 A.D. 
 
 2. They were mainly written in the Greek. 
 
 3. Copies of the books were extensively made by 
 the apostolic Churches. 
 
 4. No authentic manuscript earlier than the 
 fourth century is known. 
 
 1. The Christian Canon is traditionally ascribed 
 to the Apostle John, about 100 A.D. 
 
 2. The present canon was generally received as 
 early as the second century. 
 
 3. Seven books Hebrews, James, 3d Peter, 2d 
 and 3d John, Jude and Eevelation were classed 
 as "disputed" during the second and third cen- 
 turies. 
 
 4. Finally, in 397 A.D., the Council of Car- 
 thage confirmed the canon as it stands.
 
 40 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 THE ANCIENT BIBLE. 
 The most noted ancient copies were : 
 
 1. The "Syriac" and the "Italic," translated 
 into the Syrian and Latin languages near the be- 
 ginning of the second century. 
 
 2. The "Vulgate," in Latin, made by Jerome, 
 385 A.D. 
 
 3. The Vatican Codex in Greek, of the fourth 
 century A.D., now in the Pope's library at Rome. 
 
 4. The Sinai Codex in Greek, of the fourth cen- 
 tuty, held by the Greek Church at St. Petersburg. 
 
 5. The Alexandrian Codex in Greek, of the 
 fifth century, now in the British Museum. 
 
 Fully two thousand ancient manuscripts are ex- 
 tant, mainly fragmentary, fifty of which are over 
 one thousand years old. 
 
 THE MODERN BIBLE. 
 The most noted versions are : 
 
 1. Wycliffe's Bible, 1380 A.D., the first Bible 
 in English. 
 
 2. Tyndale's Bible, 1525 A.D., nearly entire, the 
 first printed Bible. 
 
 3. Coverdale's Bible, 1535 A.D., the first entire 
 printed Bible. 
 
 4. The "Great Bible," 1539 A.D., known as 
 Cranmer's. 
 
 5. The Geneva Bible, 1560 A.D., made by Puri-
 
 Bible Summary. 41 
 
 tan exiles from England the first strictly Prot- 
 estant Bible. 
 
 6. The Rheims-Douay, or Catholic Bible, made 
 from the Vulgate in 1609, for the Roman Catholic 
 Church, including as canonical seven books reject- 
 ed from the Protestant Bible. 
 
 7. The "King James Bible," or "Authorized 
 Version," 1611 A.D. 
 
 8. The "Revised Version," completed in 1885, 
 by English and American scholars.
 
 THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 I. THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 BOOK. 
 
 Writer. 
 
 Time. 
 
 Subject. 
 
 Genesis. 
 Exodus. 
 Leviticus. 
 Numbers. 
 Deuteronomy. 
 
 Moses. 
 
 4004 B.C. 
 1635 B.C. 
 1490 B.C. 
 1490 B.C. 
 1451 B.C. 
 
 The Chosen Family. 
 The Chosen Nation. 
 The Jewish Church. 
 The Nation Tested. 
 The Jewish Code. 
 
 II. THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Joshua. 
 Judges. 
 Ruth, 
 land 2 Samuel. 
 1 and 2 Kings. 
 1 and 2 Chron. 
 Ezra. 
 Nehemiah. 
 Esther. 
 
 Joshua. 
 Samuel. 
 Samuel. 
 | Nathan, I 
 > Gad, Jere-^ 
 ) miah,et al. ( 
 Ezra. 
 Nehemiah. 
 Mordecai. 
 
 1451 B.C. 
 1425 B.C. 
 1322 B.C. 
 1171 B.C. 
 1015 B.C. 
 1056 B.C. 
 536 B.C. 
 446 B.C. 
 521 B.C. 
 
 The Conquest. 
 The Fifteen Judges. 
 Christ's Ancestress. 
 The Monarchy. 
 
 | The Divided Kingdoms. 
 
 The Restoration. 
 The Reformation. 
 The Jew in Exile. 
 
 III. THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Job. 
 Psalms. 
 Proverbs. 
 Ecclesiastes. 
 Song. 
 
 Moses. 
 David et al. 
 
 > Solomon. < 
 
 1520 B.C. 
 1056 B.C. 
 1000 B.C. 
 977 B.C. 
 1014 B.C. 
 
 Providence. 
 Devotion. 
 Wisdom. 
 Happiness. 
 Religion. 
 
 IV. THE GREATER PROPHETS. 
 
 Isaiah. 
 Jeremiah. 
 Lamentations. 
 Ezekiel. 
 Daniel. 
 
 Isaiah. 
 | Jeremiah. | 
 
 Ezekiel. 
 Daniel. 
 
 760-B.C. 
 629 B.C. 
 588 B.C. 
 595 B.C. 
 607 B.C. 
 
 The Messianic Kingdom. 
 | The Doom of Judah. 
 
 The Restoration. 
 The Messianic Triumph. 
 
 V. THE LESSER PROPHETS. 
 
 Hosea. 
 
 
 785 B.C. 
 
 Kingdom of Israel. 
 
 Joel. 
 
 
 800 B.C. 
 
 Kingdom of Judah. 
 
 Amos. 
 
 
 787 B.C. 
 
 Kingdom of Israel. 
 
 Obadiah. 
 
 
 587 B.C. 
 
 Edom. 
 
 Jonah. 
 
 
 862 B.C. 
 
 Nineveh. 
 
 Micah. 
 
 The 
 
 750 B.C. 
 
 Israel and Judah. 
 
 Nahum. 
 
 Prophets. 
 
 713 B.C. 
 
 Assyria. 
 
 Habakkuk. 
 
 
 626 B.C. 
 
 Chaldea. 
 
 Zephaniah. 
 Haggai. 
 
 
 630 B.C. 
 520 B.C. 
 
 Kingdom of Judah. 
 Christ's Coming. 
 
 Zechariah. 
 
 
 520 B.C. 
 
 Christ's Kingdom. 
 
 Malachi. 
 
 
 397- B.C. 
 
 Christ's Advent. 
 
 Non. The " time " quoted above follows the chronology of the Oxford Teaoheri' Blbl, 
 end mnnh of it Is conjectural. The year given ID each case mark* the beginning of tk* 
 ahjeot-matter of the book. 
 
 (42)
 
 PART II -THE OLD TESTAMENT BOOKS. 
 I. THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 GENESIS. 
 
 
 Subject: Chosen Fam- 
 
 Persons: Adam to 
 
 ,To- 
 
 ily. 
 Writer: Moses. 
 
 seph. 
 
 
 Class: History. 
 
 Brents: Creation, Fall, 
 
 Chronology: B.C. 4004 
 
 Flood, Family 
 
 of 
 
 to 1635. 
 
 Abraham. 
 
 
 The book of Genesis is the first and, in some re- 
 spects, the greatest of the books of the Bible. It is 
 the book of beginnings: of the world, of man, of 
 sin, of redemption. It is the oldest of all books, 
 and the only authentic account of more than two 
 thousand years of the history of mankind. 
 
 Subject. It centers about the chosen family of 
 Abraham. Part of it narrates the history before 
 the flood; the larger part begins with the call of 
 Abraham, and ends with the death of Joseph, his 
 great-grandson. It starts with the story of the sin- 
 gle pair in the garden of Eden; it centers, later, 
 about the family of Noah ; then narrates the rise of 
 nations, until it narrows down to the history of a 
 single chosen family, out of which should spring 
 God's chosen nation. 
 
 Writer. Moses wrote this and the succeeding 
 
 (43)
 
 44 The Bible and Its 
 
 books of the Pentateuch. Jew and Christian alike 
 have accepted the declarations of the Old and the 
 New Testament as to his authorship. Within a 
 hundred years or more, German rationalists, fol- 
 lowed by American "higher critics," have denied 
 the Mosaic authorship, and attempted to make of it 
 a mere compilation. The student will find many 
 references in the Bible to the "book of Moses," "the 
 law/' etc., and it is difficult for a devout believer 
 in the inspiration of the Scriptures to reject the 
 Mosaic authorship of the first five books of the 
 canon. 
 
 Chronology. The vast range of the history in 
 Genesis, taking Usher's system of chronology as 
 the best working basis, is shown by the fact that it 
 is the only authentic history of all that happened 
 from the creation, 4004 B.C., to the death of Jo- 
 seph, 1635 B.C., a period of two thousand three 
 hundred and sixty-nine years, or more than one- 
 third of the entire world's history to date. 
 
 Persons. First in order and prominence are 
 Adam and his sons; farther along the line is 
 Enoch, the devout patriarch ; Noah, the righteous ; 
 afterwards appears Abraham, followed by Isaac, 
 Jacob, and his twelve sons. 
 
 Events. Only the chief events need to be com- 
 mitted to memory. These in order are: the crea- 
 tion of the world and man in six days or periods of
 
 The Pentateuch. 45 
 
 time; the sin and fall of Adam and Eve; the rapid 
 increase of mankind and the growth of sin ; the de- 
 struction of the race, except a single family, by the 
 flood ; after a long interval, the call of Abraham to 
 be the father of the chosen family and head of the 
 chosen nation; the narrative of the Abrahamic 
 family through four generations, from Abraham 
 to Joseph, inclusive. 
 
 EXO 
 
 Subject: Chosen Na- 
 tion. 
 Writer: Moses. 
 Class: History. 
 
 DUS. 
 
 Chronology: B.C. 1635 
 to 1490. 
 Persons: Pharaoh, Mo- 
 ses. Aaron, Miriam. 
 Events: Bondage, Deliv- 
 erance, Tabernacle. 
 
 Exodus, like Genesis, is historical, taking up 
 the story where Genesis leaves off, with the death 
 of Joseph. It is no longer a biography of individ- 
 uals, or a story of one family ; but the current of 
 history widens until a nation becomes its theme. 
 
 Subject. The book narrates the origin, growth, 
 oppression, and final organization and deliverance 
 of God's chosen nation, out of which he designed 
 that his Son should come, and by whom the world 
 should be redeemed. 
 
 Chronology. The time ranges from the death 
 of Joseph, B.C. 1635, to the completion of the tab- 
 ernacle at Sinai, B.C. 1490, a period of one hun- 
 dred and forty-five years.
 
 46 The Bible and Its Batiks. 
 
 Persons. These include the Pharaohs, succeed- 
 ing the days of Joseph, especially the oppressor of 
 the Hebrew slaves; Moses, the prince, deliverer, 
 and lawgiver ; Aaron, his brother and helper ; Mir- 
 iam, the sister of Moses and Aaron. 
 
 Events. These center about the long bondage 
 under Pharaoh in Egypt, the ten great miracles of 
 national deliverance, the institution of the Pass- 
 over, the exodus into the Wilderness, the giving of 
 the Law at Sinai, the building and erection of the 
 Tabernacle, and organization of the Jewish 
 Church. 
 
 LEVITICUS. 
 
 
 Subject: Jewish 
 
 Persons: Moses and 
 
 Church. 
 
 Aaron. 
 
 
 Writer: Moses. 
 Class: History. 
 Chronology: B.C. U90 
 One Month. 
 
 Events: Institution 
 Priesthood, Code 
 Priests. 
 
 of 
 of 
 
 Leviticus, though not strictly historical, is a close 
 sequel to Exodus. Its subject-matter is legislative 
 and ecclesiastical, centering upon the formal insti- 
 tution of the Church. 
 
 Subject. The Jewish Church expresses its 
 theme. Before this all worship had been crude 
 and unorganized. The father was the priest in 
 his own home ; the altar of stone or earth, the sym L - 
 bol and place of worship. Now God organizes his 
 Church in the Wilderness, and ordains a ritual and 
 place of national worship.
 
 The Pentateuch, 43 
 
 Chronology. One month, under the shadows of 
 Mount Sinai, is the scope of the book, B.C. 1490, 
 the second year after the crossing of the Eed Sea. 
 
 Persons. Two continue in prominence : Moses, 
 the great lawgiver and leader, the vicegerent 
 of the theocracy ; Aaron, the newly installed head 
 of the Hebrew priesthood. 
 
 Events. Two notable events divide the book. 
 The first is the appointment and consecration of 
 the Aaronic priesthood, as mediators between God 
 and men; the second is the deliverance of the 
 priest's code, which includes most of the book. 
 
 NUM] 
 
 Subject: The Nation 
 Tested. 
 Writer: Moses. 
 Class: History. 
 Chronology: B.C. 1490 
 to 1451 
 
 3EKS. 
 
 Persons: Moses, 
 Aaron, Joshua, Ca- 
 leb. 
 Brents : The March, 
 Rebellious, Wars, 
 Appointment. 
 
 The book of Numbers resumes the history of the 
 nation It takes its name from the twice number- 
 ing of the people, but it is really a history of the 
 moldings of a newly constituted nation, under se- 
 vere discipline, into permanent form such a his- 
 tory of trial as our own nation passed through in 
 the years of the revolutionary struggle. 
 
 Subject. The book deals with God's tests of the 
 nation in the Wilderness, and its long march from 
 Sinai to the borders of the Promised Land. Prone
 
 4:8 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 to lapse into the idolatries of Egypt, and unfit for 
 permanent national life, the nation was kept in the 
 hard school of discipline until the generation of 
 Egypt were dead, and their children, reared under 
 a life of obedience and trial, were grown to man- 
 hood and womanhood. 
 
 Chronology. The time extends from the erec- 
 tion of the tabernacle, B.C. 1490, to the last en- 
 campment on the plains of Moab, this side the 
 Jordan, B.C. 1451. 
 
 Persons. Aaron and Miriam of the old order 
 pass away ; Moses continues as leader and lawgiver ; 
 Joshua and Caleb come into prominence. 
 
 Events. First, the weary march of thirty-eight 
 years, doubling back again and again upon its 
 track; the sin of Moses and Aaron; the wars 
 against the Amorites and the Midianites; finally, 
 the appointment of Levitical cities and cities of 
 refuge. 
 
 DEUTER 
 
 Subject : Jewish Code. 
 Writer: Moses. 
 Class: History. 
 Chronology: B.C. 1451 
 Two Months. 
 
 ONOMY. 
 
 Persons: Moses, Josh- 
 ua. 
 Events : Review, Re- 
 vision, Renewal, 
 Death. 
 
 Deuteronomy is the last of the five great books 
 written by Moses. Some friendly hand, doubtless 
 that of Joshua, added to the book its last chapter, 
 concerning the death of Moses,
 
 The Pentateuch. 49 
 
 Subject. The nation was soon to enter the 
 Promised Laud. The fathers who had heard the 
 first giving of the law at Sinai were dead. A new 
 generation had succeeded them, and new conditions 
 of permanent national life awaited them. There- 
 fore Moses revised the old Sinaitic and Wilderness 
 laws, adapting them to fixed residence in cities un- 
 der a stable government; and the book becomes, 
 practically, a revised national code of laws. 
 
 Chronology. The time covered by the book is 
 about two months of the year B.C. 1451, on the eve 
 of the entrance into Canaan. The scene -of the 
 book is the plains of Moab, east of the Jordan. 
 
 Persons. The last glimpse is given us of the no- 
 bility, wisdom, and last days of the great Hebrew 
 leader, Moses ; together with a view of his succes- 
 sor, Joshua, in whose warrior hand God had placed 
 the sword of conquest. 
 
 Events. The book divides into three parts. It 
 has little history, and is chiefly admonitory and 
 legislative. Moses assembles the people and re- 
 views their trials and mercies, and shows God's 
 goodness to the nation; next, he promulgates the 
 revised national laws ; lastly, he renews the conse- 
 cration of the nation to God. Joshua is divinely 
 installed as successor to Moses, and Moses dies in 
 sight of the Promised Land. 
 4
 
 OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. 
 
 Each quadrant of the circle represents 1,000 years. 
 
 Note to Superintendents and Teachers. The above circle of Old 
 Testament history, together with other like illustrations inter- 
 spersed throughout this book, are to assist the student and also to 
 suggest material for brief blackboard or chart drills of school or 
 class 
 
 (50)
 
 H. THE BOOKS OF HISTORY. 
 
 JOS] 
 
 Snbject: The Conquest. 
 Writer: Joshua. 
 Class: History. 
 Chronology: From 1451 
 to 1425 B.C. 
 
 IUA. 
 
 Persons : Joshua, Caleb, 
 Eleazar. 
 Events: Conquest, Al- 
 lotment, Covenant. 
 
 Subject. The book of Joshua carries forward 
 the Old Testament history in close sequence to the 
 Pentateuch. The book introduces Joshua as the 
 divinely commissioned successor to Moses, and nar- 
 rates his conquest of the Promised Land, and par- 
 tition of it among the tribes. The subject of the 
 book may be summed up briefly as "the conquest." 
 
 Writer. Joshua, according to the judgment of 
 Jews and Christians generally, wrote the book. 
 The Jewish tradition is that Joshua followed the 
 example of Moses, and, under divine command, 
 wrote the annals of his own times. This does not 
 conflict with the later tradition that all the books 
 of Old Testament hstory were revised and edited 
 by Ezra the Scribe. 
 
 Chronology. The book of Joshua includes 
 twenty-five years, and extends from the death of 
 Moses and entrance into Canaan, B.C. 1451, to the 
 death of Joshua, B.C. 1425. The first seven years 
 
 (51) "
 
 52 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 of the twenty-five were spent in the subjugation of 
 Canaan and hostile neighboring nations. After 
 this, the work of conquest proceeded, together with 
 the allotment of the land to the tribes of Israel. 
 
 Persons. The hero of the book is Joshua, the 
 conqueror. The book deals little with biography. 
 Eleazar, successor to Aaron, is the counselor of 
 Joshua; Caleb wins further honors; and Othniel, 
 afterwards a famous judge, is introduced. 
 
 Events. The book falls naturally into three 
 parts : the three campaigns of Joshua in securing 
 possession of the land; the allotment of the land 
 among the tribes; the renewal of the covenant of 
 the nation, closing with Joshua's death. 
 
 JUD 
 
 Subject: The 15 Judges. 
 Writer: Samuel. 
 Class : History. 
 Chronology: From 1425 
 to 1130 B.C. 
 
 BUTE. The An 
 
 GES. 
 
 History : J o s h u a to 
 Samson, 
 Persons: Othniel, Deb- 
 orah, et al. 
 Events : Seven Deliver- 
 ances. 
 
 restry of Christ. 
 
 Subject. The book of Judges is a history of 
 Israel under the rule of its Judges. There were 
 fifteen judges from Othniel, the first holding the 
 office, to Samuel, the last. Only thirteen of tht- 
 fifteen judges are included in this book, the ac- 
 count of Eli and Samuel being carried over by the 
 sacred historian to the first book of Samuel. The
 
 The Books of History. 53 
 
 book exhibits the apostasy of Israel. It recounts 
 how the chosen nation persistently descended from 
 the righteous standard of Joshua to a condition of 
 anarchy. 
 
 Writer. The Jews generally ascribed the book 
 to Samuel, allowing for certain later revision. It 
 bears strong internal evidence that it was written 
 close to the time of its events. There are frequent 
 hints in the Old Testament books of history that 
 faithful records were kept by chosen men, from 
 which the completed history could, under divine 
 direction, be compiled. 
 
 Chronology. This includes about three hun- 
 dred years, ranging from the death of Joshua, 
 B.C. 1425, to the death of Samson, about B.C. 
 1120. The book of Judges is not chronologically 
 arranged, the last five chapters, concerning the 
 destruction of the tribe of Benjamin, belonging 
 probably to the oldest portion of the book. 
 
 Persons. The judges of greater renown were as 
 follows: Othniel, deliverer from Mesopotamia; 
 Deborah (with Barak), deliverer from the Canaan- 
 ites; Gideon, from Midian; Jephthah, from Am- 
 mon; Samson, from Philistia. 
 
 Events. Seven great deliverances from op- 
 pressing nations are narrated : ( 1 ) From Mesopo- 
 tamia, by Othniel; (2) from Moab, by Ehud; (3) 
 from Philistia, by Shamgar ; (4) from Canaanites,
 
 54: The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 by Deborah and Barak; (5) from Midian, by Gid- 
 eon; (6) from Ammon, by Jephthah; (7) from 
 Philistia, by Samson. 
 
 THE BOOK OF KUTH. 
 
 In the ancient Jewish canon this book was a part 
 of Judges. The time of the book is uncertain, 
 probably near to the days of Deborah. Samuel was 
 believed to be the author. Apart from the beauti- 
 ful portraiture of Kuth, Naomi, and Boaz, and of 
 ancient home life, the book has special value in 
 showing the mingling Jewish and Gentile ancestry 
 of David and of David's "greater Son/' our Lord. 
 
 SAM 
 
 Subject : The Mon- 
 archy. 
 Writers : Samuel and 
 Others. 
 Class: History. 
 Chronology: From 1171 
 to 1015 B.C. 
 
 PEL. 
 Persons: Eli, Samuel, 
 Saul, and David. 
 Events : Refor m a t i o n 
 under Samuel. 
 Reigns of Saul and 
 David. 
 
 Subject. In the ancient Jewish canon, the two 
 books of Samuel were one. The translators of the 
 Septuagint, B.C. 285, first separated them. The 
 books center upon the Hebrew monarchy ; and, be- 
 ginning with the story of Eli and Samuel as an 
 introduction, narrate the reigns of Saul and David, 
 the first of the long line of Hebrew kings. 
 
 Writers. Partly in honor to Samuel's noble life, 
 which the opening twelve chapters of the book con-
 
 The Boolcs of History. 55 
 
 tain, and partly because Samuel is accredited with 
 having written the first twenty-four chapters, the 
 books are so named. But the books of Samuel, of 
 Kings, and of Chronicles, were composite. From 
 the time of Samuel on, the prophets in succession 
 seem to have been charged with keeping the historic 
 record. Gad, Nathan, and other prophets down to 
 Jeremiah, are to be credited with the original an- 
 nals. The work of subsequent compilation of all 
 books of history is ascribed by the Jews to Jer- 
 emiah and Ezra, especially the latter. 
 
 Chronology. The two books of Samuel range 
 from the birth of Samuel, B.C. 1171, to the death 
 of David, B.C. 1015, a period of one hundred and 
 fifty-six years ; eighty of which belong to the reigns 
 of Saul and David, each forty years. 
 
 Persons. Four noted names comprise the bi- 
 ographical succession: Eli, Samuel, Saul, David. 
 Eli's life illustrates forcibly how one may be a good 
 nian, with great opportunities, yet ruin his family 
 and his nation by persistent weakness. Saul, with 
 a brilliant beginning and a miserable end, shows 
 the folly and ruin of willfulness. Samuel, last of 
 the judges and first of the national prophets, one of 
 the most majestic figures of the Old Testament, 
 has been properly called the "Hebrew Aristides." 
 David, ranking with Abraham and Moses, yet
 
 56 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 stained by one great sin, shows the perils of human 
 nature in all ages and sta'tions. 
 
 Events. These may be summed up briefly, in 
 the defeat and death of Eli, the reformation un- 
 der Samuel, the establishment of the monarchy, 
 and the reigns of Saul and David. 
 
 KD 
 
 Subject: The Divided 
 Kingdoms. 
 Writers: The Prophets 
 and Jeremiah. 
 Class: History. 
 Chronology: From 1015 
 to 588 B.C. 
 
 ros. 
 
 Persons: The Jewish 
 Kings. 
 Erents : S o 1 o m o n ' s 
 Reign and Temple, 
 the Divided King- 
 doms, the Captivity. 
 
 Subject. The two books of Kings were former- 
 ly one book, known as the second book of Kings. 
 The books give the records of Solomon, the last 
 great king of the Hebrew monarchy, and of the 
 thirty-nine succeeding kings (including one 
 usurping queen) of the divided kingdoms of Judah 
 and Israel. 
 
 Writers. Jewish tradition ascribed the com- 
 pilation of Kings to Jeremiah. Three sources 
 the compiler names as follows: the "Book of the 
 Acts of Solomon," the "Chronicles of the Kings of 
 Judah," the "Chronicles of the Kings of Israel." 
 
 Chronology. The books begin with the death of 
 David, B.C. 1015, and close with the captivity of 
 Judah, B.C. 588, a period of 427 years, thus giving
 
 The Books of History. 57 
 
 the longest and most eventful period of Jewish na- 
 tional history. 
 
 Persons. The reigns of forty kings constitute 
 the biographic matter of the books, from Solomon 
 to Zedekiah, the last king of Judah. Of the nine- 
 teen kings and nine dynasties of Israel, not one re- 
 deemed the long line of evil rulers. Of the twenty 
 kings of Jiidah, three only are distinguished for 
 wise and righteous reigns : Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, 
 and Josiah. These three reformed the apostate 
 nation, and revived its ancient faith and worship. 
 
 Events. The greater events are: the reign of 
 Solomon ; the building of the temple ; the division 
 of the kingdoms; the wars of Judah and Israel 
 against each other and neighboring nations; the 
 captivity of Israel by the Assyrians; and, finally, 
 the captivity of Judah, and the destruction of Je- 
 rusalem. The kingdom of Israel lasted about two 
 hundred and fifty years ; that of Judah, about four 
 hundred years. 
 
 CHRO>- 
 
 Subject: The Divided 
 Kingdoms. 
 Writer: The Prophets 
 and Ezra. 
 Chronology: 1056 to 536 
 B.C. 
 
 ICLES. 
 
 History: David to Ze- 
 rubbabel. 
 Persons: Kings of Ju- 
 dah. 
 Events: Relating to 
 Judah. 
 
 The two books of Chronicles were originally one. 
 The Septuagint Version gave them a Greek title, 
 meaning "the things omitted." It was evidently
 
 58 The Bible and Its Bo&ks. 
 
 the compiler's purpose to put into these books cer- 
 tain historic facts and tables which had been light- 
 ly touched in previous sacred histories, or were 
 wholly omitted. The books are not consecutively 
 historic, but bring together, at long range, gene- 
 alogy and history, both civil and ecclesiastical. 
 Studied side by side with the books of Samuel and 
 Kings, the value of their supplementary history 
 will appear. 
 
 Subject. This may be summed up in the words, 
 "supplemental history of the Divided Kingdoms, 
 especially of Judah." Compiled after the Baby- 
 lonian captivity, a peculiar condition confronted 
 the returning Jewish exiles. The temple wor- 
 ship was to be reenaeted, the priesthood and Le- 
 vitic officers reassigned, the lands to be reallotted. 
 The history of their nation needed to pass in review 
 before them, the exile having turned their thoughts 
 toward God and the ancient ritual of their fathers. 
 Hence the painstaking review of the genealogical 
 lines of the heads of the nation, both priestly and 
 political, particularly along the line of Judah, out 
 of which the "Shiloh" of prophecy should come. 
 
 Writer. Ezra was undoubtedly the compiler of 
 Chronicles, selecting his material from as many as 
 twelve books of sacred record, named in Chronicles. 
 
 Chronology. The two books, so far as their his- 
 tory goes, range through a period of five hundred
 
 The Books of History. 59 
 
 and twenty years, beginning with the accession of 
 David, B.C. 1056, to Prince Zerubbabel, who led 
 the returning exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem, 
 B.C. 536. 
 
 Events. These deal with "things omitted," rath- 
 er than with the regular succession given in the 
 books preceding. The opening chapters give 
 genealogical tables from Adam to Abraham, of the 
 twelve tribes, of David's royal line ; and follow with 
 the reigns of David, Solomon, and the kings of 
 Judah, ignoring largely the kings of Israel. Em- 
 phasis is given to the temple and its services, and 
 to Judah's reformers, such as Jehoshaphat, Joash, 
 Hezekiah, and Josiah, which is in keeping with the 
 special religious purpose of the book. 
 
 EZRA AND ] 
 
 Subject: Restoration 
 and Reformation. 
 Writers : Ezra, Nehemi- 
 ah. 
 Class: History. 
 Chronology: 536 to 434 
 B.C. 
 
 VKHKMIAH. 
 
 Persons : Cyrus, Zerub- 
 babel, Ezra, Nehe- 
 miab. 
 Events: Return, Re- 
 building, Reforma- 
 tion. 
 
 These two books also were anciently joined in 
 one. They are a close sequel to Chronicles, and 
 carry forward the Jewish history to the close of the 
 Old Testament record. 
 
 Subject. The books belong to the poet-captiv- 
 ity, and narrate the restoration and reformation of
 
 60 The Bible and Its B,oobs. 
 
 the people of Judah, politically and religiously, un- 
 der Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. 
 
 Writers. By the Jews Ezra was accredited as 
 the author of that portion now called distinctively 
 the book of Ezra; and Nehemiah, of the book of 
 Nehemiah. 
 
 Chronology. The books extend the history of 
 the nation from the return under Zerubbabel from 
 Babylon, B.C. 536, to the death of Nehemiah, 
 about 434 B.C. They close the history of the Old 
 Testament, and are followed by silence and servi- 
 tude of more than four hundred years, until the 
 advent of Christ in New Testament history. 
 
 Persons. Four names are prominent: Cyrus, 
 the deliverer from exile ; Zerubbabel, the rebuilder 
 of the temple ; Ezra, the restorer of the law ; Nehe- 
 miah, the reformer of religious and civil abuses. 
 Zerubbabel, prince of the house of Judah, led the 
 forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty exiles 
 back to their loved country, reestablished the daily 
 sacrifice, rebuilt the temple in twenty years, in the 
 face of fierce hostility from the enemies of Judah. 
 Ezra, esteemed by Jews as second only to Moses, 
 fifty years later led a second band of exiles to Je- 
 rusalem, restored the laws and worship of the na- 
 tion, and compiled and revised the sacred Scrip- 
 tures. TSTehemiah, the patriot exile, forsook high 
 place in the Persian court, came as governor to Je-
 
 The Books of History. 61 
 
 rusalem, and devoted his energies to rebuilding the 
 walls of the city and instituting religious reforms. 
 Events. These great event's mark the history in 
 the two books: the rebuilding of city and temple 
 by Prince Zerubbabel ; the political reforms under 
 Ezra; the religious reforms under Nehemiah. 
 
 ESTI 
 
 Subject: Jew in Exile. 
 Writer : Mordecai. 
 Class: History. 
 Chronology: 521 to 495 
 B.C. 
 
 IER. 
 
 Persons: Ahasuerus, 
 Hainan, Mordecai, 
 Esther. 
 Events :Promotion, 
 Plot, Decree, Deliv- 
 erance. 
 
 Like the book of Ruth, this is a brief but beau- 
 tiful episode in the history of the Jewish nation. 
 It belongs near to the time of the Babylonian cap- 
 tivity, and is an incident of exile in the far-away 
 court of the greatest of Persian monarchs. After 
 the lapse of centuries, devout Jews in every land 
 yet .observe its anniversary, called the "Feast of 
 Purim." 
 
 Subject. The "Jew in exile" aptly defines the 
 book's place in history, as revealing God's care 
 over his suffering people in time of exile. The 
 name of God does not once appear in the book, yt 
 the providence of God overshadows its every inci- 
 dent. 
 
 Writer. The book's authorship was in doubt 
 among the Jews, who had the best right to know
 
 62 The Bible and Its B,ooks. 
 
 the origin of their sacred books. Ezra is thought 
 by some to have written it ; but the better opinion, 
 in view of his intimate relationship to the book's 
 history, is that Mordecai was its author. 
 
 Chronology. This too is in doubt, the only cer- 
 tain thing known being its relation to the years of 
 exile. Ahasuerus, the king, is thought to have 
 been Xerxes, and the time prior to the invasion of 
 Greece. 
 
 Persons. Four persons are prominent: Ahas- 
 uerus, the typical Oriental monarch, luxurious, 
 hasty, yet with a strong sense of kingly justice; 
 Haman, the crafty prime minister, full of hatred 
 to one who refused, for conscience's sake, to bow 
 down before him; Mordecai, the Jew in exile, the 
 man of God, and lover of his exiled nation ; Esther, 
 the beautiful queen, divinely lifted to the highest 
 place of honor, to become God's chosen instrument 
 of deliverance. 
 
 Events. The book centers upon four scenes: 
 The royal banquet and elevation of Esther to the 
 queenship ; the plot of Haman against the Jewish 
 people; the disclosure of Esther and death of 
 Haman ; the counter decree and deliverance of the 
 Jews.
 
 THE JEWISH KINGS. 
 
 The above is designed to exhibit, within periods of one century 
 each, the succession of the Jewish Kings of the Divided Kingdoms, 
 with the length of each reign. Judah's Kings are expressed in 
 capital letters.
 
 III. THE BOOKS OF FOETEY. 
 
 JO 
 
 Subject: Special Provi- 
 dence. 
 Writer: Moses. 
 Class: Poetry. 
 Chronology: Patriar- 
 chal. About 1520 B.C. 
 
 B. 
 
 Persons: Jehovah, Sa- 
 tan, Job, Friends, 
 Elihu. 
 Brents : Introduction, 
 Controversy, Acquit- 
 tal, Eestoration. 
 
 The atmosphere of the patriarchal age is about 
 one who comes to the study of this great book, the 
 noblest of the epics, the one divinely inspired. It 
 has real history as its basis. See Ezekiel xiv. 14; 
 James v. 11. To Jews and to Christians it reveals 
 the beauty of religion constant in spirit, chan- 
 ging only in form in the far-away mists of the 
 world's early morning. 
 
 Subject. The book sets forth a devout soul 
 struggling over the hardest of human problems 
 why the good should be called to suffer. It teaches 
 immortality; it reveals the needed discipline of 
 sorrow. But its central theme, about which its 
 teachings all revolve, is the doctrine of God's spe- 
 cial providence, as wrought out through joy or 
 sorrow, wealth or poverty, in every devout life. 
 
 Writer. Opinions vary widely. Some hold that 
 Job wrote it ; others accredit its authorship to Solo- 
 mon, Ezra, or to a post-exilian writer. The Jews 
 (64)
 
 The Books of Poetry. 65 
 
 assigned it to Moses, holding that he rewrote it 
 from the original, which came from Job, and put 
 it in its present form. 
 
 Chronology. No one knows. The Oxford 
 Teachers' Bible dates the history in the book at 
 B.C. 1520. The setting, language, history, and re- 
 ligion of the book belong to the patriarchal age. 
 The father is priest over his house. There is no 
 hint of later Jewish history or worship, which is 
 inexplainable if the book was written after the 
 time of Moses. 
 
 Persons. Satan, Job, the three friends, Elihu, 
 the mediator, and Jehovah, are the dramatis per- 
 sonce. Satan is a personal devil, real, powerful, 
 malignant. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar are 
 skilled in human philosophy, and full of "wise 
 saws and instances," but mistaken judges of di- 
 vine problems. Elihu is the true interpreter of 
 Providence. There is nothing grander in the Bible 
 than the sublime picture of Jehovah which the 
 book presents. 
 
 Events. The movement is in four parts: (1) 
 The introduction (in prose), recounting Job's 
 prosperity, followed by his dire affliction; (2) the 
 controversy a series of speeches, three in number, 
 alternating between Job's friends and himself; (3) 
 the acquittal, containing the mediatory speech of 
 5
 
 66 The Bible and Its Bodies. 
 
 Elihu and the address of Jehovah ; (4) the resto- 
 ration of Joh, and his latter end (in prose). 
 
 PSA 
 
 Subject: Devotion. 
 Writers: David et al. 
 Class: Poetry. 
 Chronology : 1500 to 500 
 B.C. 
 
 LMS. 
 Divisions: In 5 parts. 
 Compilers: David, Sol- 
 omon, Hezekiah, 
 Ezra. 
 
 Subject. The book of Psalms is the one great 
 manual of devotion for Jew and Christian alike. 
 It is a collection of religious poems, from the ex- 
 periences of inspired writers, and specially designed 
 for the Jewish temple worship. But so wide is 
 their range, so truly adapted to every age, condi- 
 tion, and clime, so expressive of every phase of re- 
 ligious life, that the book of Psalms is read and 
 sung the world over, and enters more largely into 
 the ritual of the Church and the worship of the 
 family than any other part of the Bible, not even 
 excepting the Gospels. In the temple service, at 
 the daily hours of sacrifice, and at the feasts and 
 festivities, the Psalms were sung by the great 
 Levite choir, to the music of many instruments. 
 
 Writers. David did more than all others to de- 
 velop the musical life of the nation, and to put it 
 to the noblest religious and patriotic uses. But 
 David was only the chief, not the exclusive, writer 
 of the Psalms. Out of the one hundred and fifty,
 
 The Books of Poetry. 67 
 
 he probably wrote eighty, with a score or more 
 partly accredited to him. David's chief musician 
 and choristers, with Solomon, Moses, Hezekiah, 
 and others, were doubtless in part composers. The 
 ascriptions or titles of the Psalms are of question- 
 able origin. 
 
 Chronology. The book of Psalms ranges 
 through the entire life of the nation, from the con- 
 quest to the captivity. Moses doubtless wrote the 
 ninetieth Psalm. Some of the Psalms are known 
 to have been composed during and after the cap- 
 tivity of Judah ; so that they may be said to extend 
 from B.C. 1500 to B.C. 500, a period of one thou- 
 sand years, though usually assigned to the reign of 
 David, which began 1056 B.C. 
 
 Divisions and Compilers. The book is in five 
 distinct parts. David, as founder of Hebrew 
 psalmody, first introduced it into public worship; 
 his successors, Solomon, Hezekiah, and Ezra, are 
 believed to have compiled the Psalms, and ar- 
 ranged them in order in five collections, as follows : 
 First collection, Psalms i.-xli., all of David; sec- 
 ond collection, Psalms xlii.-lxxii., compiled prob- 
 ably by Solomon from compositions of David and 
 others; third collection, Psalms Ixxiii.-lxxxix., 
 compiled by Hezekiah; fourth collection, Psalms 
 ic.-cvi., compiled in Josiah's time ; fifth collection,
 
 68 The Bible and Its Ba&lcs. 
 
 Psalms cvii.-cl., compiled by Ezra during and after 
 the captivity. 
 
 PBOV. 
 
 Subject: Wisdom. 
 Writers: Solomon et al. 
 Class: Poetry. 
 Chronology: 1000 to 500 
 B.C. 
 
 EBBS. 
 
 Divisions: In 5 Parts. 
 Compilers: Hezekiah, 
 Agfur, Lemuel, Ezra. 
 
 Subject. This book is a fitting companion to 
 Psalms. As that book is a manual of devotion for 
 the inner life, so is Proverbs a manual of wisdom 
 for the outer life. It is eminently the "book of 
 wisdom/' and its maxims are beyond those of mere 
 human production. The essence of all worldly 
 wisdom is selfishness; the essence of the proverbs 
 of Solomon is righteousness. The Proverbs of 
 Solomon apply as aptly to our complex modern life 
 as they did to the cruder conditions of ancient civ- 
 ilization, which is an evidence of their divine in- 
 spiration. They recognize God in every event, and 
 the "fear of the Lord" is the keynote of the book. 
 
 Writers. The first verse of the book names as 
 author Solomon, the King; but as the book of 
 Psalms is named after David, the chief contribu- 
 tor, so it is with Proverbs. Solomon, perhaps, 
 wrote more than all others whose proverbs enter 
 into the book. Of the thirty-one chapters compos- 
 ing the book, it is safe to say that twenty-four are 
 the work of Solomon. King Hezekiah enlarged
 
 The Books of Poetry. 69 
 
 the collection in his day, from what sources is not 
 known. The words of Agur and Lemuel form the 
 thirtieth and part of the thirty-first chapters. It 
 was a Jewish tradition that the book was further 
 enlarged by Ezra the Scribe. 
 
 Chronology. Solomon came to the throne B.C. 
 1015, and died B.C. 975. Taking the above tradi- 
 tion at what it may be worth, the book of Proverbs, 
 compiled in part at the beginning by Solomon, was 
 not completed until the time of Ezra, about five 
 hundred years later. 
 
 Divisions and Compilers. The book is plainly a 
 growth, in at least five parts or stages. The first 
 nine chapters differ from all the others. They 
 consist of several compositions in parallel or an- 
 tithetic sentences, together personifying "wisdom." 
 From the tenth to the twenty-fourth chapters, in- 
 clusive, is the second division containing short 
 sayings, without an apparent connection of thought 
 or subject, written by Solomon. From the twenty- 
 fifth to the twenty-ninth chapter are selections 
 made by "the men of Hezekiah," after the lapse of 
 two hundred and fifty years, forming a third divi- 
 sion. "The words of Agur," and the "words of 
 King Lemuel," form the concluding divisions.
 
 70 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 ECCXESIASTES. 
 
 Subject: Happiness. 
 Writer: Solomon. 
 Class: Poetry. 
 
 Chronology: 1016 to 975 
 
 B.C. 
 Divisions: In 4 Parts. 
 
 SOLOMON'S SONG. The Beauty of Religion. 
 
 The book of Ecclesiastes is another exposition of 
 inspired wisdom. Some have found it perplexing 
 and contradictory, and upon a lower level than 
 other Old Testament books ; but the trouble is rath- 
 er with the critics than with the book. The his- 
 torical setting and plan of the book being consid- 
 ered, its place and purpose will be plain. 
 
 Subject. The book has for its subject the prob- 
 lem of human happiness what it is, whence it 
 comes. Every supposed source of happiness is in 
 turn considered wealth, learning, pleasure, etc. 
 The experiences of the author are rehearsed, Jiis 
 judgment is summed up in the oft-recurring words 
 "vanity of vanities," and he brings us at last to the 
 one solution of the problem : "Let us hear the con- 
 clusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep 
 his commandments : for this is the whole duty of 
 man." 
 
 Writer. The book names as its author Solomon, 
 "the son of David, King of Jerusalem." There is 
 no warrant, in the book or out of it, for supposing 
 that any one else had part in its authorship, or that 
 the book belongs to a time later than Solomon's.
 
 The Books of Poetry. 71 
 
 It is safe to follow the opinion that the book was 
 written by Solomon late in life, after his backslid- 
 ing and restoration. 
 
 Chronology. The time can be conjectured only. 
 It was probably written near to the close of Solo- 
 mon's reign, which was from 1015 to 975 B.C. 
 
 Divisions. The prologue states the problem. 
 After this come four parts, as follows : The vanity 
 of worldly pleasure (chapters ii., iii.) ; of wealth 
 and power (chapters iv.-vi.) ; of mere knowledge 
 (chapters vii.-xi.) ; the value of religion (chap- 
 ter xii.). 
 
 SOLOMON'S SONG. 
 
 This is the one remaining song of the many ac- 
 credited to Solomon in 1 Kings iv. 32. It was part 
 of the ancient Hebrew canon, but its place in the 
 Christian canon has sometimes been challenged. 
 It is a single long poem, with two interlocutory 
 speakers. What its true subject or purpose is finds 
 many opinions. Some of the critics deal with it 
 as an allegory, representing the union of Christ 
 and his Church; others, as presenting in fervid 
 oriental imagery the beauty of religion.
 
 IV. THE GREATER PROPHETS. 
 
 ISA] 
 Subject: Messianic 
 Kingdom. 
 Writer: Isaiah. 
 Class: Prophecy. 
 
 [AH. 
 
 Chronology: 760 to 698 
 B.C. 
 Prophecies: Syria, Ten 
 Tribes, Tyre, Nine- 
 veh, Babylon, Christ. 
 
 Subject. First, Judah and her enemies. Isaiah 
 came in the "Indian summer" of Judah, serving 
 four of her kings. The people had grown rich and 
 luxurious, caring little for the temple and its wor- 
 ship. Hezekiah was one of the few good kings. 
 Together with the prophet, he turned the nation 
 back from its corruptions. The kingdom of Israel 
 was on the verge of destruction, which came to pass 
 while Isaiah was serving Judah. Assyria, Egypt, 
 Babylon, Tyre, and Damascus, enemies of Judah, 
 were in turn denounced by the prophet, and their 
 doom foretold. Second, the Messianic kingdom, 
 chapters xl.-lxvi., in which Isaiah vividly draws 
 upon the canvas of the future the advent, person- 
 ality, and kingdom of Christ. So full and lofty, 
 yet so accurate in detail, are these prophecies, that 
 the other wonderful visions of Isaiah suffer in com- 
 parison. The entire book might properly be called 
 a representation of the Messianic kingdom. 
 (72)
 
 The Greater Prophets. 73 
 
 Writer. Isaiah was the greatest of the Hebrew 
 prophets. He was fifth in order of time. He lived 
 in Jerusalem, and served Judah especially. He 
 prophesied under four kings a period of sixty 
 years. His contemporaries in prophecy were 
 Amos, Hosea, and Micah. He died during the 
 reign of Manasseh, aged ninety years. He was 
 probably of royal blood. 
 
 Chronology. Isaiah began to prophesy in the 
 eighth century B.C. (about 760), and died prob- 
 ably 698 B.C. He was contemporary with three 
 great rulers of Assyria : Pul, Sargon, Sennacherib. 
 Eomulus was building Rome during tihe life of the 
 prophet. 
 
 Prophecies. Isaiah's greater prophecies were as 
 follows : the destruction of Syria, fulfilled by Pul ; 
 the captivity of the ten tribes, by Sargon ; the ruin 
 of Tyre, completed by Alexander the Great; the 
 destiruction of Nineveh, by the Medes ; the capture 
 and ruin of Babylon, by Cyrus the Great ; the ad- 
 vent of the Messiah.
 
 74 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 JERE 
 Subject: Doom of Ju- 
 dah. 
 Class: Prophecy. 
 Writer: Jeremiah. 
 LAMENTATIONS. L 
 
 >IIAH. 
 
 Chronology: 639 to 688 
 B.C. 
 Prophecies: Jerusalem, 
 ZedeMah, Captivity, 
 Babylon, Exile and 
 Restoration. 
 unent for Jerusalem. 
 
 Subject. The book is a mingling of prophecy 
 and history, the former largely predominating. 
 The prophecies relate chiefly to the doom of Judah 
 and the destruction of Jerusalem, and the history 
 to the siege, captivity, and downfall of the country. 
 The prophet lived under the shadow of impending 
 doom, with a clear vision before him of the con- 
 quering hosts of the brilliant Nebuchadnezzar, the 
 exile of the nation, the destruction of holy city and 
 temple. By the Jews the book of Lamentations 
 was joined with the main book, as its concluding 
 portion. It is a Hebrew acrostic poem (like 
 Psalm cxix.), and was written by Jeremiah after 
 the destruction of Jerusalem, in a series of dirges 
 over the ruin of the city and the sorrows of its 
 people. 
 
 Writer. Jeremiah lived about sixty years, main- 
 ly in the last half of the seventh century B.C., and 
 was called to prophesy when a young man, near the 
 middle of Josiah's reign. For forty years his 
 prophetic career continued, amid intense sorrow 
 and persecution. He survived the destruction of
 
 The Greater Prophets. 75 
 
 Judah and Jerusalem, is said to have rescued and 
 buried the ark, became an exile in Egypt with a 
 remnant of his brethren, and was there stoned to 
 death by them. 
 
 Chwnology. Jeremiah began to prophesy sev- 
 enty years after Isaiah's death, his prophecies ex- 
 tending from about 629 B.C. to the destruction of 
 Jerusalem, 588 B.C. 
 
 Prophecies. His most not/able prophecies are as 
 follows: The destruction of Jerusalem by the 
 Chaldeans; the captivity and blinding of King 
 Zedekiah ; the date and duration of the Babylonian 
 captivity; the destruction of Babylon. 
 
 EZEKIEL. 
 
 Subject: The Restora- 
 tion. 
 Class: Prophecy. 
 Writer: Ezekiel. 
 
 Chronology: 595 to 574 
 B.C. 
 Prophecies: Doom of 
 
 Seven Nations, and 
 Judah's Return. 
 
 Subject. The theme of Ezekiel's prophecies, 
 like that of Jeremiah, refers to Judah and her im- 
 pending calamities. His prophecy of the restora- 
 tion of Judah, however, and her deliverance and 
 return from Babylon, was expanded to a higher and 
 grander spiritual restoration in the far future, and 
 thus exceeds the vision of Jeremiah. 
 
 Writer. Ezekiel is called the "captive prophet," 
 having spent his entire ministry in captivity. He
 
 76 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 was a boy in Jerusalem when Jeremiah began to 
 prophesy, and at the age of twenty-five was car- 
 ried a prisoner by Nebuchadnezzar to Chebar, on 
 the river Euphrates, two hundred miles north of 
 Babylon. He was contemporary as a prophet six 
 years with Jeremiah, and twenty-two years with 
 Daniel. When he was a child, Nineveh, the mighty 
 Assyrian capital, was the military center of the 
 world. Tyre was next, as the greatest commercial 
 center. Jerusalem, under Josiah, was again rich 
 and famous ; Babylon, least of the four, was rising 
 into renown. When he was a man, Nineveh was in 
 ruins, Tyre had fallen, Jerusalem was desolated, 
 and Babylon was ruler of the world. 
 
 Chronology. Ezekiel's prophetic career began 
 when he was about thirty years old, and extended 
 from 595 to 574 B.C. 
 
 Prophecies. These are in three groups, and cen- 
 ter upon Judah and Jerusalem. The first group 
 was delivered before the siege of Jerusalem, and 
 warned the city against hope of deliverance from 
 Egypt. The second group, delivered during the 
 siege, denounced God's judgments against the sev- 
 en nations which had aided the conquerors of Ju- 
 dah : Sidon, Tyre, Ammon, Moab, Philistia, Edom, 
 Egypt. The third group, after the siege, predicted 
 the return of Judah from exile, and her spiritual 
 restoration.
 
 The Greater Prophets. 77 
 
 DAN 
 
 Subject: Messianic Tri- 
 umph. 
 Class: Prophecy. 
 Writer: Daniel 
 
 XBK. 
 
 Chronology: 607 to 634 
 B.G. 
 Prophecies: The Rise 
 of Four Empires, and 
 Advent of Christ. 
 
 Subject. The book is part history and part 
 prophecy, but the former is of small moment com- 
 pared with the latter. It is, indeed, the last and, 
 in some respects, the greatest of the greater books 
 of prophecy. The history in the first six chapters 
 deals with Daniel's life and the events of the exile 
 in Babylon, while the prophecies range in scope 
 from his own time, through the rise and fall of suc- 
 cessive empires, until the final establishment and 
 universal triumph of the kingdom of Christ. 
 
 Writer. Daniel was a prince of the royal blood 
 in his own country, and became a greater prince in 
 the land of exile. At the age of sixteen, in the 
 third year of King Jehoiakim (607 B.C.), he was 
 carried by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon. He began 
 his prophetic career two years later, and continued 
 it throughout the seventy years of exile. He was 
 made chief of Nebuchadnezzar's council while yet 
 a young man, and was vicegerent during the king's 
 madness. After the capture of Babylon and death 
 of Belshazzar, Darius, the Mede, made Daniel his 
 prime minister, in which high place he was after- 
 wards confirmed by Cyrus. He witnessed the re-
 
 78 . The Bible and Its Baoks. 
 
 turn of Judah from exile, and died at Babylon 
 when about ninety years old. 
 
 Chronology. The book includes from 607 to 
 534 B.C., and is concurrent with the exile in Bab- 
 ylon. 
 
 Prophecies. Daniel's earlier prophecies relate to 
 the successive rise and fall of four great empires : 
 Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Borne. His 
 four visions symbolized the course of these great 
 kingdoms, ending, finally, in the advent and world- 
 wide triumph of the kingdom of Christ. Daniel 
 foretold, with exact detail, the date of Christ's ad- 
 vent, the duration of his ministry, and his death.
 
 V. THE LESSER PROPHETS. 
 
 HOC 
 
 Subject: Kingdom of 
 Israel. 
 Class: Prophecy. 
 Writer: Hosea. 
 
 EA. 
 
 Chronology: 785 to 725 
 B.C. 
 Prophecies: Doom of Is- 
 rael, Assyrian Exile. 
 
 Subject. What Jeremiah was to Judah, Hosea 
 was to the northern kingdom of Israel. That king- 
 dom was nearing its end, and had grown utterly 
 corrupt. Its wealth was great, and its wickedness 
 greater. The doom of Israel, its captivity, and ut- 
 ter desolation by the Assyrian hosts, is the one 
 theme of the prophet's warnings. 
 
 Writer. Little is known of Hosea. He was a 
 prophet of the northern kingdom, successor prob- 
 ably to Amos, and contemporary with Isaiah of the 
 kingdom of Judah. He began his career under 
 Jeroboam II., and continued prophesying until 
 near the captivity of Israel, 721 B.C. He is 
 thought by some writers to have witnessed that 
 captivity. 
 
 Chronology. The prophet's ministry extended 
 from the time of Jeroboam in Israel, and Uzziah 
 in Judah, to the reign of Hezekiah, in whose sixth 
 year Israel's captivity occurred about sixty years, 
 from 785 to 725 B.C. Jeroboam II. had added to 
 
 (79)
 
 80 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 the wealth and bounds of his kingdom; but As- 
 syria, under its great warriors Pul and Shalma- 
 neser, was threatening destruction to its enemies. 
 Israel at last, under the Assyrian S argon, was led 
 into captivity. 
 
 Prophecies. Hosea predicted the conquest of 
 the kingdom, the desolation of the land, the exile 
 of the people all of which were fulfilled by the 
 Assyrians. 
 
 Subject: Kingdom 
 Judah. 
 Class: Prophecy. 
 Writer: JoeL 
 
 J01 
 
 of 
 
 EL. 
 
 Time: 800 to 760 B.C. 
 Prophecies : Assyrian 
 Invasion, the King- 
 dom of Christ. 
 
 Subject. Joel's place in the prophetic line is 
 one of the difficult problems for Bible chronolo- 
 gists, which leaves in doubt the immediate subject 
 of his prophecies. Some place his prophecy as 
 early as Josiah ; others make him contemporaneous 
 with the reign of Uzziah. In the latter case, it is 
 not hard to apply his prophecies. The northern 
 kingdom of Israel was nearing destruction, and the 
 Assyrian war clouds were gathering over Judah. 
 Hence the voice of the prophet is raised in denun- 
 ciation of the sins of the kingdom of Judah, and in 
 warnings against the invasion of the Assyrians. 
 
 Writer. Little is known of Joel. He was an in- 
 habitant of Jerusalem, a prophet of the kingdom
 
 The Lesser Prophets. 81 
 
 of Judah. He belongs in the list of direct Messi- 
 anic prophets, as is exhibited by his memorable 
 prophecy of the 'last days," the outpouring of the 
 Spirit, and the vision of the judgment. 
 
 Chronology. Assigning him to the reign of Uz- 
 ziah, his prophecies ranged between B.C. 800 and 
 760. As the book indicates, it was a time of sore 
 drought and famine, together with an invasion of 
 the dreaded locusts of the East. The prophet uses 
 the locusts as a symbol of the impending invasion 
 of the Assyrians, and calls a great fast, promising 
 the mercy of God upon national repentance. Uz- 
 ziah's reign was one of prosperity and increasing 
 wickedness. 
 
 Prophecies. These were directly in warning 
 against the Assyrians : but Joel's visions range far 
 beyond his own generation, and include the com- 
 ing and kingdom of Christ. Tyre, Sidon, Egypt, 
 and Edom "shall be a desolation," but "Judah 
 shall abide forever, and Jerusalem from genera- 
 tion to generation." Peter, on the day of Pente- 
 cost, quotes and applies the prophecy of Joel. 
 6
 
 82 The Bible and Its Bo&ks. 
 
 AM 
 
 Subject: Kingdom of Is- 
 rael. 
 Class: Prophecy. 
 Writer: Amos. 
 
 OS. 
 
 Chronology: 787 to 760 
 B.C. 
 Prophecies: Captivity 
 of Israel, Fate of Hos- 
 tile Nations. 
 
 Subject. Amos's prophecy included both north- 
 ern and southern kingdoms. His prophetic mes- 
 sage, addressed chiefly to Israel and Samaria, is 
 aimed also at Judah. Both kingdoms had lapsed 
 into idolatry. The golden calves were set up at 
 Bethel and Dan, and Gilgal and Beersheba were 
 centers of idol worship. The prophet was sent to 
 Jeroboam II. to denounce the licentiousness of his 
 court and kingdom. His prophecies begin with 
 warnings against Syria, Philistia, Tyre, Ammon, 
 Moab, Edom, and close with the promise of res- 
 toration of the tabernacle of David and the estab- 
 lishment of the kingdom. 
 
 Writer. Amos was a contemporary, in part, of 
 Hosea and Isaiah. He was a shepherd and dresser 
 of sycamore-trees by occupation, and was un- 
 taught in the schools of the prophets. His pro- 
 phetic career was of short duration. Though rude 
 and unlearned, as he modestly speaks of himself, a 
 great writer declares that in "loftiness of senti- 
 ment, elegance of diction, and force of speech he is 
 not one whit behind the foremost of the Hebrew 
 prophets."
 
 The Lesser Prophets. 83 
 
 Chronology. Amos received his commission 
 "two years before the earthquake," he tells us, 
 which, Josephus says, was a mark of divine dis- 
 pleasure upon Uzziah for his usurpation of the 
 priestly office. This would place the beginning of 
 his prophecies about 787 B.C. 
 
 Prophecies. These are in four groups : the de- 
 nunciation of neighboring nations which had aided 
 the enemies of God's people ; the warnings against 
 Israel's worship of the golden calves, and God's in- 
 tended judgment ; the denunciation of the sins of 
 Judah ; the vision of the restoration. 
 
 OBAI 
 
 Subject: Edom. 
 Class: Prophecy. 
 Writer: Obadiah. 
 Chronology: 587 B.C. 
 
 )IAH. 
 
 Prophecies: Ruin of 
 Edom, Restoration of 
 Judah, 
 
 Subject. This briefest of the prophecies is clear 
 and specific in its theme, which is the denuncia- 
 tion of Edom, the inveterate enemy of the chosen 
 nation. The Edomites were the powerful and 
 warlike descendants of Esau. They were kinsmen 
 and neighbors of the "house of Jacob;" yet, with 
 unrelenting enmity, had again and again made 
 fierce assault upon God's people, or had joined 
 themselves to foreign conquerors. Finally their 
 cup of wrath was filled to the brim, by their cruel 
 exultation over the destruction of Jerusalem and
 
 84: The Bible and Its Booths. 
 
 their slaughter of the innocent Jews, who sought 
 escape from the captivity of Nebuchadnezzar by 
 hiding themselves amid the mountains of Edom. 
 
 Writer. Little is known of him personally, or 
 of his place or time ; but the more probable opinion 
 is that he was successor, if not contemporary, of 
 Jeremiah. That he was prophet' of Judah there is 
 little question. 
 
 Chronology. Assuming what is generally held 
 (that Obadiah prophesied after the fall of Jerusa- 
 lem, which was completed in 588 B.C ), the proph- 
 ecy must have followed close upon that event, while 
 the memory of Edomite cruelty was yet fresh in 
 the minds of the conquered people of Judah. 
 
 Prophecies. These are in two parts: the im- 
 pending doom of Edom, and the catalogue of its 
 sins and cruelties ; the promise that Israel shall be 
 restored, shall possess the lands of Edom and 
 Philistia, and shall rejoice in the reest'ablishment 
 of "the kingdom of the Lord." 
 
 JOS 
 
 Subject: Nineveh. 
 Class: Prophecy. 
 Writer: Jonah. 
 
 AH. 
 
 Chronology: 862 B.C. 
 Prophecy: Overthrow 
 of Nineveh. 
 
 Subject. The destruction of Nineveh is the 
 burden of Jonah's prophecy. The book of Jonah 
 is both narrative and prophetic. Its four chapters 
 recount the divine commission to the prophet, his
 
 The Lesser Prophets. 85 
 
 attempted escape by sea, his warnings against the 
 great city, followed by the repentance of its people. 
 The book is one of exceeding interest, and bears in- 
 ternal evidence of its truthfulness. It is of spe- 
 cial interest as an Old Testament illustration of 
 God's concern for Gentile as well as Jew. Our Lord 
 refers to the miracle of this book on two occasions 
 (Matt. xii. 40, 41; xvi. 4) as a "sign" of his own 
 death and resurrection. In recent years some have 
 had their "fling" at the truth of Jonah's narrative, 
 in the face of Christ's acceptance of it as historic. 
 
 Writer. Jonah, the writer, was a prophet of the 
 kingdom of Israel. He is supposed by some to 
 have been that prophet who foretold to Jeroboam 
 II. the enlargement of his territory and the pros- 
 perity of his reign. (2 Kings xiv. 25.) Josephus 
 asserts the identity. In the time of Jonah, Assyria 
 was the great world-power. Syria had been made 
 tributary, and Israel's kings also had been com- 
 pelled t'o pay tribute. Nineveh was the greatest 
 of the world's cities. Diodorus says it was sixty 
 miles in circumference. It was at this period of 
 greatness and opulence that Jonah visited it. 
 
 Chronology. Jonah was probably contempo- 
 raneous, in part, with the last days of Jehu. It is 
 safe to place the time of the narrative and proph- 
 ecy of the book between 862 and 800 B.C., thus 
 making Jonah, as is commonly held, the first of the
 
 86 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 Hebrew prophets whose prophecies are in the 
 canon. 
 
 Prophecies. One unvarying message came 
 from the strange Jewish messenger of God : "Yet 
 forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.'* It 
 seems strange indeed, to those who forget the pow- 
 er of God, that a great heathen city should so soon 
 repent, or repent at all, at the coming of one man, 
 a Jew. 
 
 MIC 
 
 Subject: Israel and Ju- 
 dah. 
 Class: Prophecy. 
 Writer: Micah. 
 Chronology: 750 to 710 
 B.C. 
 
 AH. 
 
 Prophecies: Assyrian 
 Invasion, C h r i s t's 
 Birthplace and King- 
 dom. 
 
 Subject. The book of Micah was third in order 
 of the minor prophets in the Septuagint, but sixth 
 in our Bible. He was of the kingdom of Judah by 
 birth and citizenship, but was called to prophesy 
 to both Israel and Judah. It was his mission to 
 warn the two kingdoms that, unless they repented 
 and turned to God from their idolatry, the Assyr- 
 ians would overwhelm and destroy them. 
 
 Writer. Micah prophesied during the reigns of 
 Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. He was contempo- 
 rary with Isaiah. 
 
 Chronology. This cannot be determined with 
 exactness. The maximum of the three reigns
 
 The Lesser Prophets. 87 
 
 named above was fifty-nine years; the minimum 
 time that Micah could have served under the three 
 is sixteen years. The time of the book is given as 
 between 750 and 710 B.C. After the death of 
 Jeroboam II., the northern kingdom fell into an- 
 archy and idolatry, under a number of weak and 
 wicked kings. In Judah, under Jotham and Ahaz, 
 the kingdom steadily declined into idolatry. 
 Isaiah's and Micah's prophecies were heeded by 
 King Hezekiah, and a reformation was begun dur- 
 ing his long reign. 
 
 Prophecies. These were predictions of the in- 
 vasion of Israel by the Assyrians, the captivity of 
 both kingdoms and their final restoration. The 
 most notable of Micah's prophecies, however, is 
 found in chapter v. 2, in which he predicts the 
 place of our Lord's birth and the glory of the 
 Messianic kingdom. This prophecy of birth was 
 quoted (in Matthew) by the Jewish rulers before 
 Herod the Great. 
 
 NAB 
 Subject: Assyria. 
 Writer: Nahum. 
 Class: Prophecy. 
 
 CUM. 
 Chronology: 
 Prophecy: 
 
 Nineveh. 
 
 713 B.C. 
 Ruin of 
 
 Subject. The book of Nahum is a sequel to 
 that of Jonah. Jonah had warned Nineveh, and 
 the city had repented of its wickedness. The 
 mercy of God had spared it for many years by rea-
 
 88 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 eon of its prompt repentance, but by the time of 
 Nahum it had lapsed into its old idolatry and 
 brutality. A second prophet is now commissioned 
 to denounce its destruction, this time without hope 
 of remission. 
 
 Writer. Little is known of Nahuni beyond 
 what he states in his book. Some hold that he was 
 a native of Galilee, of the village of Elkosh; that 
 his parents were probably carried away into As- 
 syrian captivity, while the prophet, a young man, 
 escaped to Judah, and there prophesied. Others 
 affirm that he was taken captive to Assyria; that 
 Elkosh was the Alkuseh on the banks of the Tigris, 
 near to Nineveh ; that he prophesied wholly in ex- 
 ile, and that to this day devout Jews visit the scene, 
 and point out the "tomb of Nahum." 
 
 Chronology. Josephus asserts that he proph- 
 esied in the reign of Jotham, and that his proph- 
 ecies were "fulfilled one hundred and fifteen years 
 later," when Nineveh was finally destroyed by the 
 Medes and Chaldeans, about B.C. 625. Nineveh, 
 at this time, was greatest of the world's cities, and, 
 unde,r Shalmaneser, Sargon, and Sennacherib, 
 powerful and rapacious. The period justifies the 
 spirit and scope of Nahum's prophecies. 
 
 Prophecy. The "burden of Nineveh" was the 
 prophet's theme. Nothing exceeds his vivid pic- 
 ture of the siege and desolation of the great city.
 
 The Lesser Prophets. 89 
 
 How well this was fulfilled is a matter of history. 
 For many centuries the site of the city was un- 
 known, until in our own time Dr. Layard un- 
 earthed its ruins and confirmed the truth of 
 prophecy. 
 
 HABA 
 
 Subject: Chaldea. 
 Writer: Habakkuk. 
 Class: Prophecy. 
 Chronology: 626 to 610 
 B.C. 
 
 KRl K. 
 
 Prophecies: Ruin of 
 Chaldea, Mercy to 
 
 Juduh. 
 
 Subject. As with Nahum, Habakkuk had a sin- 
 gle purpose : to predict the destruction of fhe Chal- 
 dean empire, which had succeeded to the world- 
 wide dominion long held by the Assyrians. By 
 might of great armies and skilled generals, it was 
 becoming the scourge of other nations. 
 
 Writer. Apart from tradition, little is known 
 of Habakkuk. He was probably a Levite in Ju- 
 dah, and his burial-place is pointed out near to 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 Chronology. The prophet belongs unquestion- 
 ably to the time just preceding the invasion by the 
 Chaldeans and the destruction of Jerusalem under 
 Nebuchadnezzar, and after the reformation at- 
 tempted by King Josiah had spent its force and 
 Judah had again lapsed into idolatry. His place 
 in time is during the last part of the reign of Jo-
 
 90 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 siah, and probably under Jehoiakim, from B.C. 
 626 to 610. He was a contemporary of Jeremiah. 
 Prophecies. Nineveh was being assailed, or was 
 perhaps already destroyed, by the Medes and Chal- 
 deans. Necho, king of Egypt, was moving in tri- 
 umph eastward, while young Nebuchadnezzar was 
 winning fame as the Babylonian general. Every 
 political omen abroad, and the loss of divine favor 
 at home, pointed to the early and long-prophesied 
 destruction of Judah. The prophet foresees the 
 evil to come, and warns his countrymen against 
 the destruction awaiting them at the hands of the 
 Chaldeans, and ends by comforting them with the 
 assurance that God in the end would destroy their 
 oppressors, restore Judah to the divine favor, and 
 bring her back from exile. "The just shall live by 
 faith" is one of the many noble passages of the 
 book, and was used by Paul as the basis of his 
 New Testament teaching. 
 
 ZEPH-d 
 
 Subject: Judah. 
 Writer: Zephaniah. 
 Class: Prophecy. 
 Chronology: 630-610 B.C. 
 
 iNIAH. 
 
 Prophecies: Doom of 
 Judah, Judah' s Ene- 
 mies, Restoration. 
 
 Subject. The book of Zephaniah is a denunci- 
 ation of the sins of Judah, and of its destruction 
 by Jehovah, together with the destruction of the 
 neighboring nations which had been her oppress- 
 ors.
 
 The Lesser Prophets. 91 
 
 Writer. Zephaniah traces his own lineage from 
 King Hezekiah, and was, therefore, like Isaiah, a 
 prophet of the royal line. He was a contemporary 
 of Jeremiah and a prophet of Jndah. Nothing 
 more is known of him. 
 
 Chronology. The prophet evidently lived and 
 prophesied during the earlier years of King Jo- 
 siah's reign, 630 to 610 B.C., prior to the reforma- 
 tion attempted by the king and to the finding of 
 the book of the law. He speaks of the worship of 
 the "host of heaven upon the house tops/' which 
 would have been true of the beginning of Josiah's 
 reign. Manasseh's wicked reign of fifty-five years 
 had greatly corrupted the kingdom of Judah, and 
 introduced the worship of Baal. Assyria, always a 
 terror of Judah, was beginning to totter before the 
 yet greater power of Chaldea. It was during this 
 last struggle of the prophets against the deepening 
 wickedness of the nation that King Josiah and the 
 prophets, Zephaniah and Jeremiah, sought to 
 bring back the nation to repentance. 
 
 Prophecies. The prophet foretells the destruc- 
 tion of Judah. The oppressors of Judah are also 
 included in his message of denunciation Philis- 
 tia, Moab, Ammon, Ethiopia, and Nineveh. The 
 book closes with the promise of return from cap- 
 tivity.
 
 92 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 HAG 
 
 Subject: The Second 
 Temple. 
 Writer: Haggai. 
 Class: Prophecy. 
 
 GAL 
 
 Chronology: B.C. 520. 
 Prophecies: The Se-c- 
 ond Temple, Christ's 
 Coming. 
 
 Subject. The book of Haggai is the first of the 
 prophecies after the Babylonian exile. Its purpose 
 was the urging on of the rebuilding of the second 
 temple, which for fourteen years had been sus- 
 pended because of the opposition of the Samari- 
 tans. 
 
 Writer. Haggai was one of the exiles from 
 Judah whom the decree of Cyrus had permitted 
 to return to their native land. He was, in all prob- 
 ability, an old man, and had seen the glory of Solo- 
 mon's temple. He was contemporary with Zecha- 
 riah. Cyrus authorized the captive Jews to return 
 from Babylon and to rebuild their cities and tem- 
 ple. The foundation of the temple was at once 
 laid, but the craft of enemies succeeded in getting 
 a counter decree from the successor of Cyrus, and 
 work was stopped. After many years of inactivity. 
 Haggai came with his plea for the completion of 
 the temple. 
 
 Chronology. This is fixed by the prophet's own 
 words at B.C. 520. 
 
 Prophecies. Haggai predicts the cessation of 
 famine, the success of Zerubbabel ; $nd the "greater
 
 The Lesser Prophets. 93 
 
 glory of the second temple, because of Christ's ap- 
 pearance in it. 
 
 7.KCHA 
 
 Subject: Restoration. 
 Writer: Zechariah. 
 Class: Prophecy. 
 
 LBIAH. 
 
 Chronology: 
 
 487. 
 Prophecies: 
 
 toration. 
 
 B.C. 520- 
 The Res- 
 
 Subject. The book of Zechariah, like that of 
 Haggai, his contemporary, deals, in part, with the 
 rebuilding of the temple, but takes on a far wider 
 range. It sets before the nation not only the com- 
 pletion of the temple of the Lord, but foretells the 
 restoration of Jewish nation and Church, and the 
 final coming of the Prince of Peace. The latter 
 part of the book is generally held to be broadly 
 Messianic. 
 
 Writer. Zechariah was the grandson of Iddo, 
 the head of a priestly house in the Jerusalem col- 
 ony, and was one of the exiles whom Zerubbabel 
 had led home from Babylon. 
 
 Chronology. He began prophesying at the close 
 of Haggai's short career, and continued for several 
 years, until after the completion of the temple. 
 The date of his prophecy is from B.C. 520 to 487. 
 Darius Hystaspes was the reigning monarch, and 
 Judah was one of his provinces, ruled over by a 
 governor from Damascus. 
 
 Prophecy. The book is in three parts, as fol-
 
 94 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 lows: Part I. (chapters i.-vi.) narrates a series of 
 eight visions, symbolic of the future state of the 
 Jewish Church and nation. Part II. (chapters 
 vii., viii.) points to a time when many nations shall 
 worship the true God at Jerusalem. Part III. 
 (chapters ix.-xiv.) is the Messianic portion, de- 
 picting the future course of the Jewish Church, 
 and the coming and kingdom of Christ. 
 
 MAX^ 
 
 Subject: The Advent. 
 
 Class: Prophecy. 
 Writer: Malachi. 
 
 LOHZ. 
 
 Chronology: About 397 
 B.C. 
 Prophecies: The Com- 
 ing of John and Je- 
 sus. 
 
 'Subject. The book closes the post-exilian 
 prophecies, and is the last voice of the long line 
 of Hebrew prophecies, ranging through a thousand 
 years. The Jews called it the "seal/* because of 
 this fact. Tour hundred years without Bible rec- 
 ord were to ensue, after which John, the herald 
 of Christ, was to prepare the "way of the Lord." 
 The book is a connecting link between the Old and 
 the New Testament. 
 
 Writer. Nothing is known of the writer, Mala- 
 chi, but his name and the time of his writing. He 
 was probably the national prophet under Nehe- 
 miah, during the latter part of his rule as gov- 
 ernor. 
 
 Chronology. Malachi prophesied about four
 
 The Lesser Prophets. 95 
 
 hundred years before Christ. His book points 
 plainly to the time of Nehemiah and the social 
 and religious lapses of that period, which fol- 
 lowed the partial reformation achieved by Ezra. 
 The time of the prophecy is given at 397 B.C. The 
 nation was under Persian rule, Artaxerxes being 
 king, and a Jewish governor, as his deputy, ad- 
 ministered the affairs of the Jews. The second 
 temple was complete, and Ezra was dead. The na- 
 tion was falling again into grossest wickedness, 
 led on by the priests, and temple and worship were 
 neglected. In this time of spiritual declension 
 came the prophet's message. 
 
 Prophecies. Very vividly and distinctly the 
 prophet points to John the -Baptist, and to Christ 
 as the one to whom "all the prophets gave witness."
 
 THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 I. THE FOUR GOSPELS. 
 
 BOOK. 
 
 Writer. 
 
 Time. 
 
 Subject. 
 
 Matthew. 
 Mark. 
 
 Luke. 
 John. 
 
 Matthew. 
 Mark. 
 Luke. 
 John. 
 
 38 A.D. 
 62 A.D. 
 63 A.D. 
 80 A.D. 
 
 The Son of David. 
 The Son of God. 
 The Son of Man. 
 The God-Man. 
 
 II. THE BOOK OF ACTS. 
 
 The Acts. 
 
 I Luke. 
 
 | 64 A.D. IThe Early Church. 
 
 III. THE PAULINE EPISTLES. 
 
 Romans. 
 
 
 57 A.D. 
 
 Justification by Faith. 
 
 1 Corinthians. 
 2 Corinthians. 
 
 
 57 A.D. 
 57 A.D. 
 
 [ Christian Living. 
 
 Galatians. 
 
 
 57 A.D. 
 
 Christian Liberty. 
 
 Ephesians. 
 
 
 62 A.D. 
 
 Christian Unity. 
 
 Philippians. 
 
 
 62 A.D. 
 
 Christian Liberality 
 
 Colossians. 
 
 Paul. 
 
 62 A.D. 
 
 Christ's Supremacy. 
 
 1 Thessalonians. 
 2 Thessalonians. 
 
 
 53 A.D. 
 53 A.D. 
 
 1 
 | Christ's Coming. 
 
 1 Timothy. 
 2 Timothy. 
 
 
 65 A.D. 
 66 A D. 
 
 [Christian Ministry. 
 
 Titus. 
 
 
 65 A.D. 
 
 Church Government. 
 
 Philemon. 
 
 
 62 AD. 
 
 Christian Fraternity 
 
 Hebrews. 
 
 
 66 AD. 
 
 Christ's Priesthood. 
 
 IV. THE GENERAL EPISTLES. 
 
 James. 
 
 James. 
 
 61 A.D. 
 
 Christian Works. 
 
 1 Peter. 
 2 Peter. 
 
 | Peter. 
 
 64 A.D. 
 66 A.D. 
 
 [Christian Fortitude. 
 
 1 John. 
 
 | 
 
 I 
 
 Christian Assurance 
 
 2 John. 
 3 John. 
 Jude. 
 
 >-John 
 Jude. 
 
 90 A.D. -j 
 66-70AD. 
 
 Christian Orthodoxy 
 Christian Hospitality 
 Christian Loyalty. 
 
 V THE BOOK OF PROPHECY. 
 
 Revelation 
 
 Uohn 
 
 I 96 A D I Christ and Antichrist. 
 
 Nor. The "time" above noted refers to date of writing of the book. Though 
 more nearly defined than Old Testament chronology, New Teatameat dates are largely 
 conjectural. 
 
 (96)
 
 THE FOUR GOSPELS. 
 
 The above outline presents, in the order of their place in the 
 canon and the date of their publication, the four Gospels, as to au- 
 thor, time, content, and intent. 
 
 7 (97)
 
 PART III -THE NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS. 
 
 I. THE FOTTR GOSPELS. 
 
 MATT 
 
 Subject: The Son of 
 David. 
 Class: Historic. 
 Writer: Matthew. 
 Time: A.D. 38. 
 
 HEW. 
 
 Place: Chiefly Galilee. 
 Characteristic: The Ev- 
 idences. 
 Purpose: A Hebrew 
 Gospel. 
 
 Subject. Matthew's Gospel, first in order and 
 time of the four, centers upon the life of Christ. 
 Its purpose, however, is not strictly biographical or 
 chronological. It is second to Luke's Gospel in the 
 amount of historic incident, and of the four Gos- 
 pels pays least regard to the order of time in nar- 
 rating events. It sets before us Jesus as the son of 
 David, the Messiah of prophecy; and groups the 
 events and teachings of his life in such a way as 
 to confirm this purpose. Sixty-five citations from 
 Old Testament prophets are found in the book, 
 more than in all the other Gospels, showing the 
 underlying plan of the writer. 
 
 Writer. Matthew was a Hebrew, living at Ca- 
 pernaum. He was a publican, collecting taxes at 
 the Sea of Galilee. It should be remembered that 
 publicans, though despised by Jews as servants of 
 (98)
 
 The Four Gospels. 99 
 
 Rome, were not necessarily of mean character. 
 Everything points to the contrary in the case of 
 Matthew. He was chosen as one of the Twelve, and 
 tradition declares that 'Tie opened the doors of 
 Persia to the gospel, and was stoned as a martyr." 
 
 Time. Concerning the time of the writing of 
 this book there are widely divergent views. Some 
 hold that the book was written as late as A.D. 60, 
 or beyond; others place it nearer to the death of 
 Christ, from A.D. 38 to 42, within a few years of 
 the crucifixion; yet others maintain the theory 
 that there were duplicate Gospels by Matthew, 
 one very early, in the Aramaic, and one much later, 
 in the Greek. That the book was written at the 
 earlier date is supported by internal evidence, and 
 by the fact that it is wholly improbable that the 
 apostles would have allowed so long a time as thir- 
 ty years to elapse before one of them wrote an au- 
 thentic account of the Lord's life. 
 
 Place. The Gospels vary one from the other 
 as to the place and period in the life of our Lord 
 which they emphasize. Matthew's Gospel might be 
 called a Galilean Gospel, as the larger part of it 
 has to do with the eighteen months of our Lord's 
 ministry in that province. 
 
 Characteristic. Each Gospel, in its point of 
 view and purpose, is distinct from the others. Mat- 
 thew had in mind, evidently, to present Jesus as
 
 100 The Bible and Its Baolcs. 
 
 the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. To this 
 end he groups events regardless of time, and often 
 cites the prophets. The characteristic of Matthew, 
 therefore, is the historic and prophetic evidences 
 concerning Christ. Written within the shadow of 
 the cross, it was to be expected that this first Gos- 
 pel would connect Christ's death with all that the 
 Old Testament had prefigured by type and proph- 
 ecy concerning him; and would present Jesus 
 Christ to the Jews as their promised Saviour, 
 through the medium of a Hebrew Gospel. 
 
 MA 
 
 Subject: The Son of 
 God. 
 Class: Historic. 
 Writer: Mark. 
 Time: About 63 A.D. 
 
 BKt 
 
 Place: Chiefly Galilee. 
 Characteristic : The 
 Miracles. 
 Purpose: ABoman 
 Gospel. 
 
 Subject. Mark's Gospel is the briefest, and 
 deals only with our Lord's public ministry. It is 
 silent as to his childhood, youth, and years of prep- 
 aration. It is evident that to Mark was given to 
 write a Gospel which should present the active min- 
 istry of Jesus as the Son of God, as the divine 
 Master over man, nature, and the invisible world. 
 Pagan mythology abounded in fanciful legends of 
 sons and daughters of the gods, dwelling among 
 human beings, and possessed of miraculous pow- 
 ers. Mark draws the graphic picture of the only 
 Son of the one true God.
 
 The Four Gospels. 101 
 
 Writer. Mark, the writer, was a young man, 
 probably the young man described by himself (xiv. 
 51). He lived at Jerusalem, was cousin to Barna- 
 bas, and was converted by Peter, who calls him his 
 "son." He had opportunity, as resident of Jerusa- 
 lem, to become acquainted with the facts in the life 
 of Jesus, and his vivid narrative challenges the 
 opinion of some that he wrote his Gospel under the 
 direction of Peter. Mark was with Paul and Bar- 
 nabas on their first tour, and later with Paul in 
 prison at Rome, and with Peter at Babylon. He 
 was probably the youngest New Testament writer. 
 
 Time. The time of the writing of the Gospel is 
 in doubt. Some place it as earliest of the Gospels, 
 which is not likely. The larger opinion is that it 
 was written at Rome, in the order of its place in the 
 canon, certainly before the destruction of Jerusa- 
 lem, A.D. 70. The date generally given is about 
 A.D. 62. 
 
 Place. Mark, like Matthew, deals mainly with 
 the events of our Lord's Galilean ministry, adding 
 to it a brief sketch of the Perean period, which 
 Luke more fully presents. In common with the 
 other Gospel writers, he devotes much space to the 
 closing events of our Lord's life in and around 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 Characteristic. The characteristic of Mark's 
 Gospel is the miracles of Christ. He gives no
 
 102 The Bible and Its B.ooks. 
 
 great discourse, and few parables; but of all the 
 Gospel narratives, his is the fullest and most vivid 
 account of the Lord's miracles. His descriptions 
 abound in characteristic touches wanting in the 
 others. Mark's purpose was to write a Gospel for 
 the Komans, whose ideal was that of power. 
 They eared little for the merely religious, but were 
 moved by wonders and miracles. Just such a Gos- 
 pel as would be most impressive to these world 
 conquerors, Mark wrote. Hence he says nothing of 
 the thirty years preceding the public ministry of 
 Jesus. The power and majesty of Christ is his 
 theme, to which he steadfastly holds. 
 
 LTJ] 
 
 Subject: The Son of 
 Man. 
 Class: Historic. 
 Writer: Luke. 
 Time: About 63 A.D. 
 
 S.E. 
 
 Places: Galilee and Pe- 
 rea. 
 Characteristic: The 
 Life. 
 Purpose: A Greek Gos- 
 pel. 
 
 Subject. Luke writes of our Lord as the "Son 
 of Man," from the standpoint of his humanity. 
 In simple narrative, he gives the events of our 
 Lord's life in their chronological order. Has 
 Gospel contains much the fullest material. Eep- 
 resenting the contents of the Gospels at 100, Mark 
 has 7 peculiarities and 93 coincidences; Matthew 
 has 42 peculiarities and 58 coincidences; Luke 
 has 59 peculiarities and 41 coincidences. Luke'
 
 The Four Gospels. 103 
 
 gives two sections of our Lord's life which are 
 lightly noted by the other Gospels his childhood 
 and youth, and his Perean ministry. 
 
 Writer. Little is known as to Luke. He wrote 
 two books, the Gospel and the book of Acts ; he was 
 a Gentile, and by occupation a physician; he was 
 a companion of Paul on his second and third tours, 
 and in prison with him at Caesarea and Rome. 
 From the traditions of the Fathers, we learn that 
 he was a Syrian, a native of Antioch, a convert of 
 Paul, a painter, one of the seven! y, that he labored 
 in Southern Europe, and suffered martyrdom in 
 Greece. 
 
 Time. Luke's Gospel preceded his book of Acts. 
 (Acts i. 1.) Some hold that the Gospel must have 
 been written at Cassarea, while Luke was with Paul 
 tn prison in that city. The date commonly given 
 is A.D. 63, in the belief that both Gospel and Acts 
 followed the first imprisonment of Paul. 
 
 Places. Luke's Gospel, like those of Matthew 
 and Mark, narrates the Galilean ministry, but 
 Luke adds the Perean ministry beyond the Jordan, 
 near the close of our Lord's life. This period, with 
 its wonderful series of parables, including that of 
 the prodigal son, would be lost but for Luke. 
 
 Characteristic. Luke's special purpose seems to 
 be the putting before us of the simple story of our 
 Lord's life, in the order in which it was lived.
 
 104: The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 Discourses, miracles, parables, succeed one anoth- 
 er, without special emphasis, as in Matthew and 
 Mark. This is in accord with the preface to his 
 Gospel, in which he says : "It seemed good tto me 
 also, having had perfect understanding of all 
 things from .the very first, to write unto thee in 
 order, most excellent Theophilus." His was the 
 Greek Gospel, written from the standpoint of a 
 cultured Greek, free from Jewish prejudice. It is 
 the broad gospel of our Lord's humanity. Christ's 
 line, in Luke, runs back to Adam. Our Lord's in- 
 fancy, his prayers, his sympathy for sinners, his 
 social life, are emphasized by Luke. His Gospel 
 has been fittingly called the "Gospel of the Gen- 
 tiles." 
 
 JOl 
 
 Subject: The God-Man. 
 Class: Historic. 
 Writer: John the Apos- 
 iple. 
 Tfine: About A.D. 80. 
 
 IN. 
 
 Place: Chiefly Judea. 
 Characteristic: The 
 Discourses. 
 Purpose: For All Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 Subject. It is the God-man whom John spe- 
 cially presents. His Gospel opens with its keynote : 
 "The Word was with God, and the Word was God." 
 The synoptical evangelists had presented the 
 human side of our Lord's life; but to John, who 
 had penetrated most deeply into the spiritual mys- 
 teries of the kingdom of Christ, it was given es- 
 pecially to sum up the great doctrines which en-
 
 The Four Gospels. 105 
 
 title his Gospel to the name which one of the Fa- 
 thers gave it "the spiritual Gospel." John gives 
 no parables, and only eight miracles, six of which 
 had been omitted by the other writers. He records 
 his own personal recollections, with peculiar em- 
 phasis. He saw, he knows; hence John's Gospel 
 has been a stumbling-block to mythical and leg- 
 endary theorists. ' Clement of Alexandria wrote : 
 "John, last of all, perceiving that the more corpo- 
 real truths were revealed in the previous Gospels, 
 composed a spiritual Gospel." 
 
 Writer. John was a fisherman, but he evidently 
 belonged to a family of means and influence, as his 
 father employed servants, and he himself was 
 "known to the high priest." His mother was a dis- 
 ciple of the Lord, and John and his brother be- 
 came disciples of John the Baptist, and afterwards 
 of Jesus. He was ordained one of the Twelve, and 
 was probably its youngest member. Jesus named 
 him "Son of Thunder," from knowledge of his 
 temper and spirit; yet he became the "disciple 
 whom Jesus loved," and is altogether the most 
 unique figure of the Twelve. He was with the 
 Lord in the judgment hall and at the cross, and to 
 him was committed the mother of Jesus. He was 
 for many years at Ephesus, in charge of the 
 Churches of Asia Minor. He was banished to 
 Patmos by Domitian, and, returning to Ephesus, as
 
 106 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 last of the apostles, is reputed to have died at the 
 age of one hundred years. 
 
 Time. The Gospel was written long after the 
 other three, and the time is given as between A.D. 
 80 and A.D. 96, the probabilities being in favor of 
 the earlier date. 
 
 Place. John confines his Gospel chiefly to the 
 ministry of our Lord in the province of Judea. 
 The other writers had already emphasized the 
 Galilean and Perean ministry of Jesus ; and John, 
 with their Gospels before him, deals rather with 
 the ministry of Judea, which they had omitted. 
 
 Characteristic. John sets forth specially the 
 greater discourses and doctrines of Jesus, and his 
 Gospel is, therefore, peculiarly a didactic one. 
 Writing long after the others, when there was no 
 special, need of a Hebrew, a Eoman, and a Greek 
 Gospel, John writes this closing, catholic Gospel, 
 and designs it not for a class or nation only, but for 
 all Christians of all time.
 
 THE MINISTRY OF OHBIST. 
 
 The above represents in order the several years of our Lord's 
 ministry, and the chief events of each year. The inner circle ex- 
 hibits relatively the Province in which each year was spent. 
 
 (107)
 
 THE BOOK OF ACTS. 
 
 A.D.30, 
 
 The above presents in outline the three divisions or periods in 
 the Book of Acts, with the leading events of each in their order of 
 time. 
 
 (108)
 
 II. THE BOOK OF ACTS. 
 
 THE 
 
 Subject: The Early 
 Church. 
 Class: Historic. 
 Writer: Luke. 
 Time: About A.D. 64. 
 
 ACTS. 
 
 Place: The Roman Em- 
 pire. 
 History: First Thirty 
 
 Purpose: The Holy 
 Spirit's Leadership. 
 
 Subject. The book of Acts is the sequel in time 
 and history to the four Gospels. Its subject is the 
 early Church, beginning with the Ascension, A.D. 
 30, and ending with the imprisonment of the 
 apostle Paul, about 60 A.D., after the gospel had 
 been planted in all the great capitals of the world. 
 Three conditions, under Providence, conspired to 
 the swift and marvelous advance of the gospel in 
 so brief a time. These were : the universal rule of 
 the Roman empire ; the general use of the Greek 
 language, which furnished a ready medium for 
 preaching and writing; the wide dissemination of 
 the Old Testament in the Jewish synagogues, as 
 foundation and place for the preaching of the new 
 faith. 
 
 Writer. Luke was the writer. In the opening 
 verses he states the connection with his "former 
 treatise/' or Gospel. Luke, according to tradition, 
 was a convert of Paul, and between the two there 
 
 (109)
 
 110 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 existed a peculiarly strong affection. He was fel- 
 low-traveler with Paul on his second and third 
 missionary tours, and with him in prison at Csesa- 
 rea and at Eome. 
 
 Time. The last chapter of Acts leaves Paul at 
 Eome, a prisoner. Luke must have written the 
 book soon after the incidents recorded in this chap- 
 ter. The time of the book is given as about A.D. 
 64. 
 
 History. The history in the book covers the 
 first thirty years of the Church, from the Ascen- 
 sion to Paul's first imprisonment at Eome. Short 
 as was the time, it was enough for the extension of 
 the gospel throughout the Eoman empire, into 
 Asia, Europe, and Africa, and for the organiza- 
 tion of churches in most of the great cities. The 
 book emphasizes the ministries of two men : Peter, 
 as leader, in the first twelve chapters; and Paul, 
 in the remaining sixteen chapters. Under Peter, 
 the scene of action is Palestine, with James and 
 John and Philip as helpers. The Jewish- Chris- 
 tian Church is its special theme. Under Paul, the 
 book takes world- wide range ; Christianity throws 
 off its Jewish fetters and becomes cosmopolitan, 
 like its great leader. Throughout the many and 
 thrilling events of the book may be seen the guid- 
 ing hand of the Holy Spirit. One has well said 
 that the book is not "so much the acts of the apos- 
 tles as it is the acts of the Holy Ghost."
 
 m. THE PAULINE EPISTLES. 
 
 BOH 
 
 Subject: Justification 
 by Faith. 
 Class: Doctrinal 
 Writer: Paul. 
 
 ANS. 
 Time and Place: A.D. 57, 
 Corinth. 
 History: The Church 
 at Rome. 
 
 Subject. The book of Romans is not only first: 
 in order, but easily foremost in rank of the doc- 
 ;trin&l books. Nearly every great doctrine of 
 Christianity is here touched upon, but the book 
 rests upon what, to Paul, was the fundamental 
 truth of the gospel justification by faith. Paul's 
 argument might be summed up in three points: 
 salvation needed by all, salvation provided for all, 
 salvation free to all, Jew or Gentile, on the one 
 condition of faith in Jesus Christ. 
 
 Writer. Paul was doubtless several years 
 younger than our Lord. His birthplace was Tar- 
 sus, in Asia Minor, famous for its schools. He 
 was of pure Hebrew blood, of the faith of the 
 Pharisees, was taught the trade of a tentmaker, 
 was of a wealthy family, with the rights of a Ro- 
 man citizen. His conversion took place about A.D. 
 38. Persecuted by the Jews, he fled to Arabia for 
 three years, receiving special revelations there, 
 
 (111)
 
 112 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 preached later at Tarsus and Antioch, and then 
 began his missionary career. 
 
 Time. The book was written from Corinth, at 
 the close of Paul's third missionary journey, short- 
 ly before his arrest by the Jews at Jerusalem, dur- 
 ing the year A.D. 57. 
 
 History. Koine was the metropolis of the world. 
 Thither drifted all nationalities and creeds. Paul 
 had learned through his friends of the Church at 
 Rome. It had a mixed membership of Jews and 
 Gentiles, the latter probably outnumbering the for- 
 mer, but dominated by them. There were the usual 
 Judaizing influences and leadership, which Paul 
 everywhere encountered in the early Church. Paul 
 longed to visit this Roman Church; and mean- 
 time writes this exposition of the great doctrines of 
 the gospel, designed especially to meet the needs 
 of a cosmopolitan Church. The great purpose of 
 the book is to set before Jewish and Gentile mem- 
 bers of the Church that all are alike before God; 
 that the Jew had not exclusive right over the Gen- 
 tile by covenant or descent, but that God had pro- 
 vided a way of salvation for all who would accept 
 the terms of the gospel by faith in Jesus Christ.
 
 The Pauline Epistles. 113 
 
 THE CORINTHIAN EPISTLES. 
 
 Subject: Christian Living. 
 
 Class: Doctrinal. 
 
 Time and Place: 57 A.D. ; Ephesus, Philippi. 
 
 History: The Church at Corinth. 
 
 THE FIRST EPISTLE. 
 
 Subject. Corinth was the greatest and the most 
 profligate city of Greece, the "Vanity Fair of the 
 ancient world.'*' It stood on an isthmus between 
 two seas, and received commerce from all coun- 
 tries. It had great wealth. Its population was 
 mixed. Eeligion was degraded into sensuality in 
 the great temple of Venus. The Corinthian games 
 drew hither the dissolute of all countries. Juda- 
 izing teachers came from Jerusalem and beset the 
 Church. Grave questions affecting Christian liv- 
 ing, as well as administration and doctrine, sprang 
 up and split the Corinthian Church into factions, 
 which were warring against one another. Paul 
 was twice informed of the conditions, and wrote 
 the first Epistle in direct answer to certain ques- 
 tions which had risen, such as going to law, mar- 
 riage and celibacy, the Lord's Supper, the con- 
 duct of women in church, the resurrection, etc. 
 
 Time and Place. The first Epistle was written 
 from Ephesus, during Paul's third missionary tour, 
 A.D. 57. Ephesus was the metropolis of Asia 
 8
 
 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 Minor, in which city Paul spent three years of his 
 last tour. 
 
 History. Paul had come to Corinth from Ath- 
 ens, about A.D. 51, on his first tour, and with the 
 help of his friends, Aquila and Priscilla, had given 
 eighteen months in the city to the organization of 
 this Church, which became foremost of the Euro- 
 pean Churches founded by the apostle. After 
 Paul, Apollos the Eloquent ministered to it 
 
 THE SECOND EPISTLE. 
 
 Subject. Paul, having received word of the 
 salutary effects produced by his first Epistle, wrote 
 his second, commending the prompt obedi- 
 ence of the Corinthians to his apostolic commands, 
 and comforting the Church in the midst of the 
 trials it was called to endure. The greater part of 
 this second Epistle is devoted to a bold vindication 
 of the apostle's authority. His character and call 
 to the ministry of an apostle had been assailed by 
 those who would have wrought havoc with the 
 Church rather than suffer his authority to prevail ; 
 hence the strong words of Paul's self-assertion. 
 
 Time. The second Epistle was written the same 
 year as the first, from some point in Macedonia, 
 probably its chief city, Philippi, which Paul had 
 visited on a former tour.
 
 The Pauline Epistles. 115 
 
 GALA' 
 
 Subject: Christian Lib- 
 erty. 
 Time and Place: A.D. 
 57, Corinth. 
 
 FIANS. 
 Writer: Paul. 
 History: The Galatian 
 Church. 
 
 Subject. Galatians, next to Bomans, is Paul's 
 strongest doctrinal book. Paul was by nature and 
 training a controversialist, and the fire of con- 
 troversy flames forth from this little book, which is 
 set for a defense of the gospel. Adroit and plau- 
 sible Jews were teaching Paul's Galatian converts 
 that the law and ritual of Moses were yet binding 
 upon them, that circumcision was in force, that the 
 righteousness which is of the law was not to be dis- 
 placed by that which comes of faith in Christ. The 
 effect of such teaching had turned many away from 
 the great Pauline doctrine of justification, and the 
 Galatian Church was lapsing into sensualism and 
 license, under the guise of Christian liberty. To 
 reclaim his converts, and to reaffirm the doctrine 
 and scope of liberty in Christ, was Paul's purpose 
 in this book. 
 
 Time and Place. The book was written from 
 Corinth during Paul's third missionary journey, in 
 the winter of A.D. 57, probably near to the close of 
 his sojourn in that city. 
 
 History. The Galatian Church, or Churches, 
 had been founded by Paul on his second missionary
 
 116 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 journey. Galatia was a Roman province of Asia 
 Minor, settled chiefly by Gauls who came from the 
 North of France in the fourth century B.C. In 
 the year A.D. 52, after the Jerusalem Council ad- 
 mitted Gentiles to the privileges of Christianity, 
 Paul's route led westward through Galatia, as re- 
 corded in Acts xvi. The book of Galatians itself 
 informs us of Paul's sickness in Galatia, and of the 
 zeal displayed by his Gallic converts. It was then 
 that the Galatian Church was organized, and the 
 bodily suffering of the apostle endured at its birth 
 made it all the dearer to his heart. In the book of 
 Galatians, more than in any other of his writings, 
 the human yearning of Paul finds pathetic ex- 
 pression. 
 
 EPHE. 
 
 Subject: Christian Uni- 
 ty. 
 Time and Place: A.D. 62, 
 Borne. 
 
 HANS. 
 
 Writer: Paul. 
 History: The Ephesian 
 Church. 
 
 'Subject. The book of Ephesians is meditative 
 rather than controversial, exhibiting Paul as a 
 lofty teacher, with the sword of controversy in its 
 sheath. The great doctrine of Christian unity is 
 set forth as its special theme; first, unity with the 
 divine nature of God through Christ ; second, unity 
 of all Christians one with another in purity of 
 doctrine and holiness of living. The book is es-
 
 The Pauline Epistles. 117 
 
 eentially Gentile in scope and spirit, and illustrates 
 the wide range of the catholic apostle. 
 
 Time and Place. Paul wrote the book from his 
 prison at Home, about A.D. 62, together with three 
 other Epistles (Philippians, Colossians, and Phile- 
 mon) , the four being sent to the respective Church- 
 es by the hands of chosen messengers who had 
 brought the greetings of the Churches to the im- 
 prisoned apostle. 
 
 History. Ephesus was the metropolis, the 
 political, commercial, and religious center of Asia 
 Minor. What Kome was to Italy, and Corinth to 
 Greece, Ephesus had become to Asia. Greek and 
 Asiatic civilization commingled, under Eoman do- 
 minion. Thither came many thousands each year 
 to worship at the shrine of Diana, and to take part 
 in the spectacular games of the Ephesian theater. 
 The temple of Diana was one of the seven wonders 
 of the world, the Asiatic "Artemis," its guardian 
 deity, ministered to by one thousand prostitutes. 
 Magic was a favorite study, and paganism in its 
 grossest forms ran riot. Yet, in three years, Paul 
 broke the power of this infamous citadel of idola- 
 try and sensualism. The Church at Ephesus be- 
 came the most zealous of the Christian Churches 
 of the first centuries, and bore the appellation of 
 the ''Mother Church/' Paul founded it on his sec- 
 ond missionary tour, leaving behind him Aquila
 
 118 The Bible and Its BooTcs. 
 
 and Priscilla to care for it. During his third mis- 
 eionary tour, Paul gave this Church further dis- 
 tinction by serving it as pastor for three years, and 
 by making it the center of gospel influence for all 
 Asia. 
 
 PHIUI 
 
 Subject: Christian 
 Liberality. 
 Time and Place: A.D. 
 62, Rome. 
 
 'PIANS. 
 
 Writer: Paul. 
 History: The Church at 
 Philippi. 
 
 Subject. This little book is personal rather than 
 doctrinal. Like Philemon, it shows the human side 
 of Paul and the grateful heart of the apostle. As 
 prisoner at Rome, he became dependent upon the 
 kindly offerings of his friends. Foremost among 
 these was the Church at Philippi, which dispatched 
 Epaphroditus with liberal gifts to Home in aid of 
 its imprisoned founder. Paul writes in return this 
 letter of thanks. As a pastoral 'love letter/* this 
 Epistle, along with the one to Philemon and the 
 two to Timothy, is in gentle contrast with the in- 
 cisive logic and bold aggressiveness of Paul in his 
 more familiar character as "defender of the faith." 
 
 Time and Place. The book was written from 
 Home during Paul's first imprisonment, about A.D. 
 62. 
 
 History. Philippi was the chief city of Mace- 
 donia, situated north of the Archipelago, upon the
 
 The Pauline Epistles. 119 
 
 great highway connecting Asia and Europe. It 
 was a Eoman colony, with peculiar civic rights. 
 The Philippian Church was founded by Paul on his 
 second missionary journey, about A.D. 52. It had 
 the distinction of being the first Christian Church 
 planted in Europe, as the result of the direct call 
 of Paul by the Holy Spirit. Unlike most cities 
 into which Paul entered, it had no synagogue, 
 which is evidence that its population numbered few 
 Jews. The Church was begun at a place of prayer 
 by the river's side, and a woman was probably its 
 first member. Paul's miraculous release from per- 
 secution in this city is recounted in Acts xvi. 
 
 COIXJS 
 
 Subject: Christ's Su- 
 premacy. 
 Time and Place: A.D. 
 62, Rome. 
 
 SIANS. 
 Writer: Paul. 
 History; The Colossian 
 Church. 
 
 Subject. The divinity and headship of Christ 
 had been assailed in the Church of Colosse, and the 
 apostle comes to the defense of the foundation doc- 
 trine of Christianity. Epaphras had brought to 
 the apostle in his Roman prison intelligence of the 
 heretical teaching among the Colossian converts. 
 The heresies evidently included the old gnostic 
 doctrine that matter is evil, and that sin adheres 
 in the physical but not in the spiritual constitution 
 of man. To this was added a species of angel wor-
 
 120 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 ship and denial of the doctrine of rhe divine au- 
 thority of Christ. To sweep away this worship of 
 angels, and to reenthrone Christ as supreme Head 
 of the Church and Creator of all things, Paul 
 writes this strong doctrinal Epistle. 
 
 Time and Place. The book was written at Borne 
 during Paul's first imprisonment, about A.D. 62, 
 and dispatched by the hands of Tychicus and Ones- 
 imus to the Colossian Church, with the request 
 that it be read also by the Church of Laodicea, one 
 of the "seven churches of Asia," afterwards ad- 
 dressed by the apostle John. 
 
 History. Colosse was the chief city of Phrygia, 
 one of the central provinces of Western Asia. It 
 lay along the great Asiatic route from the east to 
 the west. Who founded the Church of Colosse is 
 not known. Paul could not have been far from it 
 on his second missionary tour, but his own word is 
 that the Colossians had not seen his "face in the 
 flesh." The probability is that Epaphras was the 
 founder, and that Paul had given him aid during 
 his long ministry of three years at Ephesus. It 
 was under his apostolic jurisdiction ; hence his let- 
 ter of authority and reproof.
 
 The Pauline Epistles. 121 
 
 THE THKSSALONIAN EPISTLES. 
 
 Subject: Christ's Com- 
 ing. 
 Writer: Paul. 
 
 Time and Place: A.D. 
 63, Corinth. 
 History: The Thessa- 
 lonian Church. 
 
 FIRST THESSALONIANS. 
 
 Subject. Thessalonica was the city of Paul's 
 second European Church. Driven from the city, 
 leaving Silas behind to carry on the work begun, 
 he later sent Timothy to the Church to bring word 
 of its condition. Timothy returned to Paul at 
 Corinth, reporting the loyalty of the Church under 
 grave persecution and the death of certain of the 
 brethren, whereupon Paul wrote this letter com- 
 mending their faithfulness and condoling with 
 those who mourned their dead. To comfort the 
 latter, he vividly depicts the second coming of 
 Christ, and gives the assurance that the dead will 
 not be overlooked by him at his coming. This 
 prophecy of Christ's second coming and the resur- 
 rection may properly be considered the subject of 
 the book. The Thessalonian Epistles mark the be- 
 ginning of the Pauline writings. 
 
 Time and Place. Banished from Thessalonica, 
 Paul journeyed to Corinth, and there awaited the 
 return of Timothy. The writing of the first Epis- 
 tle must have been only a few months after the 
 banishment, and the second letter closely followed
 
 122 The Bible and Us Books. 
 
 the first. The date generally accepted is the year 
 53 A.D. 
 
 History. On his second missionary tour, Paul 
 had planted the Church of Thessalonica. The city 
 had grown to greatness under the power of Rome, 
 and its position upon the Thermaic Gulf gave it a 
 commanding share of the commerce of Western 
 Asia and Southern Europe. Paul's manual labor, 
 preaching, and arraignment on a charge of treason 
 against Caesar, brought about by his intense presen- 
 tation of Christ as king, are narrated in Acts xvii. 
 Paul's preaching and nobility of spirit made last- 
 ing impression here, and the Church he founded 
 became greatly renowned for learning, doctrinal 
 purity, and power. Its members were not without 
 fiery persecutions, even in Paul's time. 
 
 SECOND THESSALONIANS. 
 
 Subject. The first Epistle produced an effect 
 which was not intended. Paul's vivid description 
 of the Lord's coming so aroused the Church that 
 certain of the Thessalonian Christians were swept 
 away into fanaticism, and proclaimed the instant 
 coming of Christ. Labor was abandoned, and the 
 Church became a community of idlers and vision- 
 ary awaiters of marvelous events, an easy effect 
 upon a people among whom myths and delusions 
 abounded. Paul therefore wrote the second Epis-
 
 The Pauline Epistles. 123 
 
 tie to correct the fanatical views which had er- 
 roneously been deduced from his first. In this 
 second letter he rebukes the idle Thessalonians, 
 exhorting them to continue in the constancy and 
 faithfulness with which they began their Christian 
 course. 
 
 EPISTLES T 
 
 Subject: The Christian 
 Ministry. 
 Writer: Paul. 
 
 TIMOTHY. 
 Time and Place : A.D. 65- 
 66; Macedonia, Rome. 
 History: Paul's "Son." 
 
 FIRST TIMOTHY. 
 
 Subject. This is the first of Paul's "Pastoral 
 Epistles." To Timothy, at Ephesus, Paul address- 
 es this first Epistle, solemnly giving him charge as 
 his chief helper in the ministry, enjoining faithful- 
 ness, and especially instructing him in the work of 
 completing the organization and administering the 
 discipline of the Ephesian Church, which, from his 
 own long pastorate over it, and its commanding in- 
 fluence and position, must have been foremost in 
 Paul's thought and care. The central theme of the 
 Epistles is the Christian ministry. 
 
 Time and Place. The time of the first Epistle 
 is fixed as between Paul's first and second Eoman 
 imprisonments, probably just before his return to 
 Eome, the date being about A.D. 65. The place 
 from which Paul wrote was probably some point in
 
 124 The Bible and Its Boohs. 
 
 Macedonia. The second Epistle, written probably 
 A.D. 66, was sent from Rome during Paul's sec- 
 ond imprisonment. 
 
 History. Timothy was Paul's dearest friend 
 and companion. Paul says of him, "I have none 
 like-minded," and calls Timothy his "son in the 
 gospel," which is evidence that he must have been 
 converted under Paul's preaching on the occasion 
 of the apostle's first tour through Asia Minor, in 
 the village of Lystra, where, as a boy, Timothy 
 lived. His father was a Greek; his mother and 
 grandmother were devout Jewesses. On Paul's 
 second tour he found Timothy "well reported of 
 by the brethren," adopted him as a companion, 
 kept him with him on his European tour, and after- 
 wards made him his helper during the three years 
 at Ephesus. After Paul was released from the first 
 Roman imprisonment, he sent Timothy to the great 
 Church of Ephesus as its pastor, which abundantly 
 attests the high esteem in which he was held by the 
 apostle. 
 
 SECOND TIMOTHY. 
 
 Subject. This is the last writing of the apos- 
 tle, and as such possesses a pathetic interest. Writ- 
 ten from his prison cell, with death imminent, ad- 
 dressed to the young man who had been converted 
 as a boy by his preaching, and who had rendered 
 him long and devoted service, and had now grown
 
 The Pauline Epistles. 125 
 
 to eminence, nothing could be more natural than 
 that the apostle should pour out his fatherly love 
 upon his beloved Timothy. The old preacher ex- 
 horts the younger to "stir up the gift that is in 
 him;" the old soldier admonishes his successor 
 that he has "fought a good fight," and has "kept 
 the faith/' 
 
 Til 
 
 Subject : Church G o v - 
 eminent. 
 Writer: Paul. 
 
 US. 
 Time and Place: 
 65, Macedonia. 
 History: Paul's " 
 ner. 
 
 A.D. 
 Part- 
 
 Subject. Titus had been sent by Paul to the is- 
 land of Crete to bring together the scattered 
 forces of Christianity, organize them, and raise 
 the standards of doctrine and morals among them. 
 The Cretans were a turbulent race, half-civilized, 
 noted for piracy, lying, and dishonesty, as they are 
 until this day. It was a grave question of disci- 
 pline that confronted Titus, and Paul therefore 
 makes the matters of Church government the chief 
 thought of this brief Epistle. The looseness of 
 Cretan morality explains the severe allusions con- 
 tained in the Epistle. 
 
 Time and Place. Evidence both internal and 
 external points to the same time and place of the 
 writing of this Epistle as in the case of First Tim- 
 othy. Paul probably wrote it from some point in
 
 126 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 Macedonia, during the year A.D. 65, between his 
 first and second Eoman imprisonments. 
 
 History. The Epistle to Titus is evidently an 
 abridgment of First Timothy. The circumstances 
 of both were much the same. Titus was appointed 
 over the Church at Crete, as Timothy had been at 
 Ephesus. Both were young men, and both dear to 
 Paul. Paul calls Titus "my partner and fellow- 
 helper." Paul had converted Titus from pagan- 
 ism, had taken him to the famous Jerusalem coun- 
 cil, had sent him to Corinth to collect money for 
 the poor saints at Jerusalem, and then set him over 
 the Church at Greta He is not named in the book 
 of Acts, and is usually called the "Evangelist." 
 Crete is an island halfway east and west in the 
 Mediterranean, and was visited by Paul at one 
 time. 
 
 PHTLI 
 
 Subject: Christian Fra- 
 ternity. 
 Writer: Paul. 
 
 MON. 
 
 Time and Place: 
 
 62, Rome. 
 History: Pa ul's 
 
 vert. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Con- 
 
 Subject. Fraternity in Jesus Christ is the 
 theme of the tender little Epistle which bears the 
 name of Philemon. It was evidently a private let- 
 ter to the apostle's friend and former host, but the 
 fact that Philemon held a Church "in his house" 
 accounts for its reception into the canon by the Fa- 
 thers, in addition to its broad Christian teaching
 
 The Pauline Epistles. 127 
 
 of true brotherhood. Paul, as the big-hearted and 
 considerate apostle, writes the letter to the master 
 in behalf of a converted slave. 
 
 Time and Place. The Epistle was probably 
 written from Rome during Paul's first imprison-- 
 ment, about the year A.D. 62. 
 
 History. Onesimus was the property of Phile- 
 mon, of Colosse, in Asia Minor, and had run away 
 from his master and come to Rome at the time 
 Paul was there preaching in "his own hired house." 
 He had possibly known Paul at the home of Phile- 
 mon, and heard him preach in the house of his 
 master. A runaway slave in Rome, Onesimus 
 heard of and sought out Paul, was converted by 
 him, given transportation back to his far-away 
 home, bearing this pleading Epistle to the master 
 to receive him as a brother begotten, as was Phile- 
 mon, of Paul's gospel. 
 
 HEBK 
 
 Subject: Christ's 
 Priesthood. 
 Writer: Paul. 
 
 EWS. 
 
 Time and Place: A.D. 
 66, Borne. 
 History: The Mother 
 Church. 
 
 Subject. The central theme of this great Epis- 
 tle is set forth in the opening verses. By elaborate 
 argument Christ is presented as the great High 
 Priest, the perpetual Mediator between God and 
 man, the perfect fulfillment of Old Testament
 
 128 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 types and prophecies. One by one the Epistle takes 
 these types and figures of the Old Testament, and 
 places them in bold contrast with the person and 
 gospel of Christ in the New. Moses, lawgiver for 
 a season, gives place to Jesus, in whom the law is 
 permanently vested. The Jewish high priest gives 
 place to the eternal High Priest, who offers himself 
 once for all as an abiding sacrifice. The Jewish 
 Church, with cumbrous ritual, passes away, and the 
 Church of Christ enters upon its enduring mis- 
 sion. 
 
 Writer. Much controversy has arisen over the 
 authorship of this Epistle, some assigning it to 
 Barnabas, others to Luke, others to Apollos. The 
 writer does not give his name, as in the case of 
 other Epistles, but it is enough to say that the 
 greater number of eminent Bible students have ac- 
 credited the Epistle to Paul. It is essentially 
 Pauline in style, in logical movement, in the char- 
 acteristic temper of that apostle, and even in the 
 turns of language which mark Paul's writings. 
 
 Time and Place. The Epistle itself (chapter 
 xiii.) states from whence it was written. "They of 
 Italy," on the face of it, indicates that Paul was 
 writing from Rome, during one or the other of his 
 imprisonments. It is probable that the Epistle 
 was written during his second Ptoman imprison- 
 ment, about A.D. 65 or 66.
 
 The Pauline Epistles. 129 
 
 History. While the Epistle within is unad- 
 dressed, there can be no doubt that its title "To the 
 Hebrews" is its true one. Every line of its argu- 
 ment makes it plain that it was designed for the 
 instruction and admonition of those who were 
 Hebrew in blood and Christian in faith. The fre- 
 quent allusions to the temple which was yet unde- 
 stroyed, and to the ritual and the sacrifices, im- 
 press upon one the conviction that the Epistle was 
 written especially to the "Mother Church" af Je- 
 rusalem, and generally to the Palestinian He- 
 brews, rather than to Hebrews in exile, as some 
 assume. If intended for the Hebrews of the dis- 
 persion, most of whom had not seen the temple or 
 taken part in its worship, much of the meaning 
 of the Epistle would have been lost. 
 9
 
 IV. THE GENERAL EPISTLES. 
 
 JAM 
 
 Subject: Christian 
 Works. 
 Writer: James the 
 Just. 
 
 DBS. 
 Time and Place: A.D. 
 
 61, Jerusalem. 
 History: The Disper- 
 sion. 
 
 Subject. The central thought of the Epistle of 
 James is the necessity and relation of Christian 
 works, which contrast with, but do not conflict 
 with, the doctrine of faith as set' forth bj Paul. 
 Luther, in a moment of weakness, when pressing 
 the doctrine of faith as alone vital to salvation, 
 called this an "epistle of straw." James, writing 
 to "the twelve tribes scattered abroad/' knew how 
 far many professing Christians had turned liberty 
 into license, and had put under foot the doctrine 
 of works. The Epistle is a vindication of Chris- 
 tian works, not as a ground of salvation, but as 
 the test of the genuine Christian. 
 
 Writer. It was written by James the Just, 
 brother of our Lord, and pastor of the mother 
 Church at Jerusalem. He is that James to whom 
 Jesus appeared, according to the testimony of 
 Paul, and who made the decisive speech at the 
 Jerusalem council which admitted Gentiles into 
 (130)
 
 The General Epistles. 131 
 
 the Church. Paul names him as one of the "pillars 
 of the Church." 
 
 Time and Place. Opinions vary as to the time 
 of the writing of the Epistle, some placing it as 
 early as A.D. 45. The commentators are unani- 
 mous in fixing its date before the destruction of 
 Jerusalem, which occurred A.D. 70. The Epistle 
 was written from Jerusalem, probably about A.D. 
 61. 
 
 History. The Epistle, with the six succeeding 
 ones, belongs to the class called "catholic," mean- 
 ing thereby general, and intended for circulation 
 among all Christian believers. Judged by its con- 
 tents, James designed this Epistle not only for 
 Christian Jews, but for all who were of Jewish 
 blood, especially those who, under the name of 
 "the Dispersion," were exiles or dwellers in hea- 
 then lands. 
 
 PETER'S 1 
 Subject: Christian For- 
 titude. 
 Writer: Peter. 
 
 EPISTLES. 
 
 Time and Place: A.D. 
 64,66; Babylon, Rome. 
 History: Nero's Perse- 
 cution. 
 
 FIRST EPISTLE. 
 
 Subject. Peter addresses his first Epistle to 
 "the strangers scattered" abroad in many lands, 
 meaning evidently the Jews who, before the final
 
 132 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 destruction of Jerusalem, were already dwell- 
 ers in all countries. As such they were called to 
 endure severe trial of their Christian faith and for- 
 titude. To minister comfort and encouragement 
 to his persecuted brethren is the plain intent of 
 the Epistle. Christ in his suffering and exaltation 
 is held up before them as their great example, and 
 the joy of the reward in prospect for the faithful 
 is set vividly in contrast with the present affliction. 
 The world was fast breaking up, evil rulers 
 abounded, the fires of persecution were being kin- 
 dled. It was at this juncture in the history of the 
 early Church that Peter fulfilled the command of 
 his Master to "strengthen the brethren." 
 
 Writer. Peter, one of the Twelve, when called 
 was a fisherman at the Sea of Galilee. He was mar- 
 ried, and his home was at Capernaum, where Jesus 
 abode during his Galilean ministry. By reason of 
 his native ability, he attained to a position of pri- 
 macy among the apostles, though not as the Catho- 
 lics hold. He was impetuous and courageous, and 
 needed the sharp discipline he received. He was 
 foremost in the earlier years of the Church, until 
 superseded by Paul. He was designated as the 
 "apostle to the circumcision," a place his Jewish 
 prejudices fitted him for, and to which his life 
 work was circumscribed. According to tradition,
 
 The General Epistles. 133 
 
 he died a martyr at Borne, at nearly the same time 
 as Paul. 
 
 Time and Place. The Epistle was evidently 
 written from Babylon, just before the destruction 
 of Jerusalem, during the persecutions which are 
 known to have occurred at that time, about A.D. 64. 
 
 SECOND EPISTLE. 
 
 Subject. The same atmosphere of unrest, suf- 
 fering, and persecution is about Peter's second 
 Epistle. The emperor Nero was entering upon 
 his fierce persecution of Christians throughout the 
 Roman! empire. Heresies, false teachers, and 
 apostates abounded. If the first Epistle was for 
 the encouragement of the faithful, the second is 
 plainly for the sharp rebuke of the unfaithful 
 among the professing disciples of the Lord. It is 
 the last warning of Peter, before his martyrdom at 
 Rome, A.D. 66. 
 
 JOHN'S EPISTLES. 
 
 f 1. Christian Assurance. 
 Subjects: -^ 2. Christian Orthodoxy. 
 (3. Christian Hospitality. 
 Writer: John the Apostle. 
 Time and Place: About A.D. 90, Ephesus. 
 
 FIRST EPISTLE. 
 
 Subject. This noble Epistle came near to the 
 close of the first Christian century and of the writ- 
 er's long life. The other apostles were dead, and
 
 134 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 three score years had passed since the death of our 
 Lord. Grave heresies had crept into the Church, 
 the most dangerous of which was the gnostic, 
 which held that sin was in matter and not in spirit. 
 It led to two things in practice : asceticism, or the 
 punishment of the body as the supposed seat of sin ; 
 and licentiousness, on the ground that nothing that 
 the body could do would taint the spirit. John 
 writes to all believers, reaffirming the doctrine of 
 sin, rebuking the dangerous heresy of gnosti- 
 cism, and setting forth the grounds of Christian 
 assurance as obedience, brotherly love, and the in- 
 dwelling Spirit. 
 
 Time and Place. Commentators generally 
 agree in assigning this and the other Epistles of 
 John to Ephesus, whither he went after the deaths 
 of Paul and Peter, and to which he returned from 
 his exile on Patmos. Here he was pastor for many 
 years, and here it is supposed he died. The time of 
 the three Epistles was about A.D. 90. 
 
 SECOND EPISTLE. 
 
 Subject. This brief Epistle of a single chapter 
 was written about the same time as the first, from 
 the same place, and carries with it the same pur- 
 pose to rebuke the rising heresies of the times. 
 It was addressed to the "elect lady," who in all 
 probability was one of John's disciples, and is
 
 The General Epistles. 135 
 
 therefore strictly a pastoral letter, but by author- 
 ity of the early Church was placed among the 
 "catholic" Epistles, as designed for the Churches 
 generally. 
 
 THIED EPISTLE. 
 
 Subject. The third Epistle is simply a letter of 
 apostolic commendation of a Christian gentleman, 
 who had extended warm-hearted hospitality to 
 certain missionaries who had been treated inhos- 
 pitably by an officer or member of the local Church, 
 Diotrephes by name. Old-fashioned Christian hos- 
 pitality, especially to ministers and messengers of 
 Christ, is a grace worthy of apostolic commenda- 
 tion in any age of the Church. 
 
 JUJ 
 
 Snbject: Christian Loy- 
 alty. 
 Writer: Jnde, the Apos- 
 tle. 
 
 BE. 
 
 Time and Place: Prob- 
 ably Palestine, A.D. 
 66-70. 
 
 Of Jude little is known, and there are only con- 
 tradictory traditions. The fragment contained in 
 this brief Epistle is all that remains of his life. 
 His very personality is in doubt, some affirming, 
 others denying, that he was one of the Twelve. 
 The probability is that he is the "Judas" named in 
 John xiv. 22 as one of his apostles. The Epistle is 
 commonly supposed to have been written in Pales-
 
 136 The Bible and Its B.ooks. 
 
 tine or Asia Minor, a little later than those of 
 Peter, the spirit and surroundings of both being 
 much the same, as judged by their contents. The 
 Epistles of both Peter and Jude are marked by 
 bold denunciation of a condition of apostasy and 
 corruption, except that Peter seems to point to it 
 as impending, while Jude writes of it as at hand.
 
 V. THE BOOK OF PROPHECY. 
 
 BEVEL 
 
 Author: John the Apos- 
 tle. 
 lime and Place: A.D. 
 96, Patmos. 
 
 ATION. 
 
 Purpose: To Comfort 
 Church. 
 Subject: Christ and An- 
 tichrist. 
 
 The book of Revelation is the one great book of 
 New Testament prophecy, including in its scope 
 the progress of Christianity from the close of the 
 first century to the end of time. Much of it is ob- 
 scure, some of it plain. Some of its prophecies 
 have evidently been accomplished, others are now 
 fulfilling, and others are yet to be fulfilled. 
 Though differing widely as to some of the proph- 
 ecies, Bible students are in substantial agreement 
 as to the purpose of the book. Like all divinely 
 inspired prophecy, the book of Revelation is given 
 not to the curious and speculative, but to comfort 
 the true believers before and confirm their faith 
 after the fulfillment. As to the prophecies of the 
 book, there have been three schools of interpreta- 
 tion: 
 
 1. Those who hold that all of the prophecies are 
 already fulfilled, notably in the fall of Judaism 
 and the pagan empire of Rome. 
 
 2. Those who hold that the prophecies are yet to 
 
 (137)
 
 138 The Bible and Its Books. 
 
 be fulfilled, near in time to the second coming of 
 our Lord. 
 
 3. Those who hold that the book is a prophetic 
 history of the entire interval between the first and 
 second advent, and that the prophecies are now 
 fulfilling. This view is most generally held. 
 
 The author of the Eevelation was the apostle 
 John, the last living member of the Twelve. 
 
 The time of the writing was about A.D. 96, near 
 to the close of Domitian's reign. 
 
 The place where the revelations were received, 
 and doubtless written out, was the island of Pat- 
 mos, in the JEgean Sea, southwest of Ephesus, to 
 which island John had been exiled by the Roman 
 Emperor, Domitian. 
 
 The purpose of the book was immediately to as- 
 sure the hopes and comfort the hearts of the early 
 Church, and remotely to strengthen and confirm 
 the faith of Christian believers in the final victory 
 of Jesus Christ and his Church. 
 
 The subject of the book is chiefly the long and 
 indefinite conflict between Christ and Antichrist 
 the powers of good and of evil, as massed in and 
 against the Christian Church, ending only when 
 "all things shall be put under his feet." The book 
 might well be called the prophetic programme of 
 the Church. 
 
 A simple analysis of the book is as follows :
 
 The Boole tf Prophecy. 139 
 
 Chapters 1-3. The prophetic messages of Christ 
 to the Seven Churches of Asia Minor. These 
 prophecies have long since been fulfilled. 
 
 Chapters 4-1 1- The two great cycles of seals 
 and trumpets, representing by twice-repeated sym- 
 bol and picture the varying phases of the Messi- 
 anic age. 
 
 Chapters 12-22. The seven greater visions of 
 the apostle, outlining in narrative form the final 
 great conflicts between the Church and her foes.
 
 NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY. 
 

 
 TEST QUESTIONS. 
 
 Explanation. These questions are intended to be used by the 
 student in testing his knowledge of this book. Full and accurate 
 answers to the questions are evidence that the book has been com- 
 prehensively and faithfully studied. 
 
 1. What is meant by inspiration of the Bible? 
 
 2. State the three evidences the Bible itself gives of its 
 
 inspiration. 
 8. Define fully the modern theories of inspiration. 
 
 4. By what successive steps was the Old Testament 
 
 canon formed? 
 
 5. What were the three tests applied to each book of 
 
 the Bible? 
 
 6. What were the "disputed books," and why were 
 
 they thus disputed? 
 
 7. What Bible material existed at the time of Christ? 
 
 8. Describe the oldest manuscripts and versions. 
 
 9. Describe particularly the Vulgate. 
 
 10. How was the age of manuscripts determined? 
 
 11. What were Wycliffe's hindrances in translating the 
 
 Bible? 
 
 12. Name five most noted English Bibles, and their 
 
 dates. 
 
 13. Describe fully the "Authorized Version." 
 
 14. By what five points would you establish the genu- 
 
 ineness of the Bible? 
 
 15. State the writers, time, and subjects of the Old Tes- 
 
 tament historical books. 
 
 16. State fully the facts given as to the book of Deuter- 
 
 onomy. 
 
 17. From what sources were the books of Old Testament 
 
 history formed? 
 
 (141)
 
 142 The Bible and Its JBooks. 
 
 18. Define fully Ezra's great work as to the Bible 
 
 19. What are the differences between the books of 
 
 Kings and Chronicles? 
 
 20. Describe fully the book of Esther. 
 
 21. What is said as to the authorship of the Psalms? 
 
 22. What is the difference in subject-matter between 
 
 Psalms and Proverbs? 
 
 23. Give an analysis of the book of Job. 
 
 24. State fully the more notable prophecies of the 
 
 Greater Prophets. 
 
 25. Describe fully the book of Daniel. 
 
 26. Of the twelve Lesser Prophets, name those who 
 
 were distinctly Messianic. 
 
 27. State fully what is said as to the book of Jonah. 
 
 28. What are the chief differences among the four Gos- 
 
 pels? 
 
 29. Why is it held that Matthew's is the oldest Gospel? 
 
 30. What is the characteristic of each Gospel? 
 
 31. Describe fully the Gospel of John. 
 
 32. What is the time, subject, and purpose of the book 
 
 of Acts? 
 
 33. Give a list of the subjects of Paul's fourteen Epis- 
 
 tles. 
 
 34. Which of these Epistles are strongest as doctrinal 
 
 books? 
 
 35. What was the history of the Galatian and the 
 
 Roman Churches? 
 
 36. In what respect does James's book differ from, yet 
 
 agree with, Paul's books? 
 
 37. Under what conditions did Peter write his Epistles? 
 88. Why are some Epistles called "General?" 
 
 39. State fully the subjects and purposes of the General 
 
 Epistles. 
 
 40. Give fully the facts set forth as to the book of Reve- 
 
 lation.
 
 75" 
 
 3 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
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 STAMPED BELOW. 
 
 5T'D MAY1 1989
 
 
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