The Bible -- The Book for Today

The Bible is the most interesting and instructive collection of writings in existence. Its sixty-six books are the handiwork of at least sixty authors, the latest of whom lived only nineteen hundred years ago and the earliest nearly five thousand years ago. Of all the books that are now before the reading public, this one is the most up-to-date. It presents a full and adequate explanation of life, life's problems and perplexities, and life's possibilities and opportunities. Above all, it points unhesitantly to one who is the source of contentment, happiness and peace.

The Bible is the oldest book in existence. It has outlived the storms of forty-five centuries. Men have endeavored by every means possible to banish it from the face of the earth; they have hidden it, burned it, made the possession of it a crime punishable with death: the most bitter and relentless persecutions have been waged against those who had faith in it; but still the book lives. Today, while many of its foes slumber in death, and hundreds of volumes written to discredit it and to overthrow its influence are long since forgotten, the Bible has found its way into every nation and people of earth and has been published in more than a thousand different dialects and languages.

The writings of the Bible include law, ethics, poetry, drama, history, travel, prophecy, romance, philosophy, political and social instruction, everything that has to do with the life of man. Its authors were as varied in character as its contents. Kings, emperors and princes; poets, sages and philosophers; fishermen, statesmen and priests; poor men, rich men, preachers, exiles, captains, legislators, judges, men of every grade and class have contributed to the writing of this book.

General Smuts once said: "Whenever I see anything great or anything really moving, my mind always passes into the language of the Old Testament. It is the language of the human heart, the language of the human mind and soul expressing pure human feelings and human emotions, with a universality which appeals to all races and all ages."

No other sacred writing possesses this appeal. The sacred books of Islam and Buddhism, the two great non-Biblical religious faiths, cannot be compared with the Bible. They give no detailed history of nations as does the Bible, neither do they pronounce with such authority and reason on the burning question of man, his origin and destiny; and of evil, its origin, the reason for its permission, and its end. The Bible merits the thoughtful consideration of every reflective person. Upon the earth there is distress of nations with perplexity; a voice that speaks with authority is sorely needed. The Bible is that voice. The Bible is the book for today.

* * *

As a record of history the Bible is unsurpassed. Over two-thirds of its contents are historical narratives. These narratives are authentic and reliable. Professor Sayce, one of the great archaeologists, has said: "I do not for a moment hesitate to assert that the investigations in Assyria and Egypt thoroughly corroborate the statements of the Old Testament"; Prof. Yahuda, another authority, declares, "Every archaeological discovery in Palestine and Mesopotamia contemporary with the Bible period bears out unfailingly its historical accuracy.

A famous minister of the nineteenth century, Dr. H. Grattan Guinness, said this: "The Bible is the chart of history. It affords a panoramic view of the whole course of events from the Creation and the fall of man, to the final judgment and the inauguration of the new Heaven and the new Earth. Without the Bible, history would be a spectacle of unknown rivers flowing from unknown sources to unknown seas; but under its guidance we can trace the complex currents to their springs, and can see the end from the beginning."

There is evidence in the opening chapters of the Bible that they were written in Mesopotamia about twenty-five centuries before Christ. The history thus commenced was continued by successive writers for some two thousand years and was completed only four centuries before the birth of Christ. In the later decades of the nineteenth century the historical accuracy of these writings began to be questioned by critics, but today that skepticism has been proved unjustified, largely in consequence of the decipherment of Egyptian and Asiatic written records and the further discoveries of archeologists. A tremendous amount of excavation has been undertaken in Mesopotamia, Palestine and Egypt since the war of 1914, and practically every part of Bible history has now been confirmed or illuminated by the results of this work. Numerous books have been published setting forth these facts. The verdict of twentieth century research is that Bible history is true!

* * *

There is poetry, drama and philosophy of a high order in the Bible. The Book of Ruth is an idyllic romance of three thousand years ago; the Book of Esther a rare study in human character. The passionate drama of the Book of Job stands in strong contrast to the measured soliloquies of Ecclesiastes, and the staccato epigrams of the Book of Proverbs to the delicate loveliness of the Song of Solomon. The crisp sunlight and shadows of the Book of Acts make it one of the most vividly interesting books of travel ever written, and the Book of Psalms is full of the most inspiring poetry. Each of these books is one to be read slowly and sympathetically as a work of art having its own characteristics and its own peculiar appeal.

The English language has been built up largely around the Authorized Version of 1611; the English love of liberty and justice is due in no small measure to general appreciation of its teachings; the finest of British characteristics must be attributed in considerable degree to three hundred years of consistent reading and preaching of the Book. Very truly, then, was it said by the famous biologist. Professor T. H. Huxley, some eighty years ago, "Consider the great historical fact that for three centuries this Book has been woven into the life of all that is best and noblest in English history; that it has become the national epic of Britain; that it is written in the noblest and purest English, and abounds in exquisite beauties of a merely literary form; and, finally, that it forbids the veriest hind who never left his village to be ignorant of the existence of other countries and other civilizations, and of a great past, stretching back to the farthest limits of the oldest nations of the world."

In the practical things as well as in the cultured tastes of daily life, therefore, the Bible is a sure guide. For good health of body and of mind the Bible contains ample instruction. For guidance in affairs of nations as well as in relations between individuals, the Bible is the best authority. It has inspired the creative genius of writers, poets and painters through the centuries; it is no less effective in the lives of ordinary men and women who will read and ponder over its pages. The Bible is the book of daily life.

* * *

Finally, and above all, the Bible is a Divine Revelation.

Man does not live by bread alone. He enjoys a full and rich life only by consciously seeking to fulfil the Divine will. For all such the Bible is the teacher.

The Bible declares that sin and death are intrusions among men and will one day be eliminated. The first human beings were created sinless, undying, with ability to use the earth's resources for good. Tragically, men forsook the laws of righteousness and allowed selfishness, malice, injustice. to influence their course of life. Inevitably, pain, disease and death followed and have continued until now. Bible history follows the course of that sad progress, and tells of the coming to earth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to redeem the world from its sin and the consequences of its sin. The immediate fruitage of His life and death on earth is the development of the Church--a world-wide assembly of Christians devoted to His service. A further fruitage will become evident when His Kingdom on earth has been established, and under His beneficent control, and the administration of His Church humanity will be instructed and guided in that better way which will "make wars to cease unto the ends of the earth" abolish disease, poverty, and all the ills from which mankind now suffers, and bring to an end sin and death. "Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written "Death is swallowed up in victory" for "there shall be no more death."

The Bible, then, is the book of the future. Time spent in reading, studying and discussing it will not be time wasted. It cannot fail to broaden the mind and ennoble the character. It cannot fail to make the reader more thoughtful for others, more desirous of serving his fellowmen, more confident of the future. It cannot fail to establish intelligent faith in God, and a conviction that men have a mighty destiny before them, reaching far beyond the limits of things that are now seen and known, and stretching into eternity.

Origin of the Bible

Popular tradition has it that the first books of the Bible were written by Moses about the year 1400 B.C. Expert examination in the light of modern knowledge has shown that Moses made use, in part, of pre-existing documents and that the originals of these go back at least another thousand years.

Internal evidence in the first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis shows that this first part of the Bible, containing the accounts of the Creation, Garden of Eden, the Flood and the Tower of Babel, and up to the lifetime of Abraham, originally existed in the Sumerian and Akkadian cuneiform script and the language of Abraham's ancestors living in the Euphrates valley some five hundred years before Abraham left that land to dwell in Canaan. This is very close to the era when primitive picture-writing was giving way to the more sophisticated cuneiform and it is quite possible that these early Bible stories were first written on clay tablets in a picture script similar to that shown here [see original booklet].

In the days of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, cuneiform was the prevailing script and nothing is more likely than that Moses eventually inherited a collection of records thus written, including not only the original stories but the life history of the patriarchs preceding him all of which he translated into Hebrew and edited, thus producing the Hebrew text of the Book of Genesis as we have it today.

To this Moses must have added the rest of the five books known as the "Books of Moses"--Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, the latter as far as the 30th chapter--thus bringing the record to the end of his own life and the entry of Israel into Canaan. The Book of Job, from an independent source and probably at least four centuries old already, must have come into Moses' possession at the same time and been added to what soon became the sacred collection of Israel.

During the next thousand years the remaining historical and all the prophetic and poetic books of the Old Testament were added. The historical books appeared from time to time as high-minded men wrote up truthful records of the times in which they lived, the final one, that of Nehemiah, bringing the story down to the fourth century before Christ. The works of the Hebrew prophets belong to a period within about 800 to 400 B.C. and this was the time when the Messianic hope began to come to the front. By about this latter date and in the time of Nehemiah the Old Testament more or less as it is now was accepted as the sacred book of the Jews.

The whole of the New Testament was completed over a short span of years, from about A.D. 50 to 100. The writers were mostly the personal followers of Jesus the Lord Christ, with the exception of St. Paul and St. Luke, and the unknown writer of "Hebrews." Acceptance of these books, and these only, as constituting the New Testament, came about slowly by general recognition of the Christian Church, and it was nearly two centuries before the New Testament as it now stands was universally endorsed.

Many other books, of various periods, both from Old Testament and New Testament times, were by common consent excluded from the collection now forming the Bible; these are known collectively as the Apocrypha.

To print this booklet just click "Print" on your browser's menu.