1.01 General Introduction
GENERAL INTRODUCTION THE AIM of Bible Guides is to present in 22 volumes a total view of the Bible, and to present the purpose, plan and power of the Scriptures.
Bible Guides are free from the technicalities of Biblical scholarship but arc soundly based on all the generally accepted conclusions of modern Bible research.
They are written in clear, simple, straightforward English. Each author has worked to a comprehensive editorial pattern so that the 22 volumes form a concise conspectus of the Bible, THE AIM The aim of Bible Guides is to offer a "guide" to the main themes of each book (or group of books) rather than a commentary on the text of the book. Through Bible Guides the Bible itself will speak its message, reveal its power and declare its purpose.
Bible Guides is essentially an undertaking for non-theologically equipped readers who want to know what the Bible is about, how its various parts came to be written and what their meaning is to-day. But the preacher, teacher, educator and expositor of all ranges of the Christian Church will find Bible Guides a series of books to buy and study. They combine the modern knowledge of the Bible together with all the evangelical zeal of sound Biblical expression and all done in a handy readable compass.
EDITORIAL PLAN In our suggestions to the writers of the various books we were careful to make the distinction between a "commentary" and a "guide". Our experience is that an adequate commentary on a book of the Bible requires adequate space and on the part of the student some equipment in the scholarly lore and technicalities of Biblical research. A "guide", however, can be both selective and compressed and do what it sets out to do guide the reader in an understanding of the book. That has been, and is, our aim. As general editors we have had a good deal of experience among the various schools of Biblical interpretation. We are constantly surprised at the amount of common Biblical understanding which is acceptable to all types of Christian tradition and churchmanship. We hope that our Bible Guides reflect this and that they will be widely used, and welcomed as a contribution to Biblical knowledge and interpretation in the twentieth century. THE WRITERS The writers of Bible Guides represent a widely selected area of Biblical scholars, and all of them have co-operated enthusiastically in the editorial plan. They conceive their work to be that of examination, explanation and exposition of the book(s) of the Bible each is writing about. While they have worked loyally to the pattern we suggested they have been completely free in their presentation. Above all, they have remembered the present power and appeal of the Bible, and have tried to present its message and its authority for life to-day. In this sense Bible Guides is, we think, a fresh venture in the popular understanding of the Scriptures, combined as it is with the scholarly skill of our company of writers. We owe our thanks also to our publishers and their editors, Dr. Emory Stevens Bucke of the Abingdon Press of New York and Nashville, and Dr. Cecil Northcott of the Lutterworth Press of London, Their careful management and attention to publishing detail have given these Bible Guides a world wide constituency.
WILLIAM BARCLAY
E F, BRUCE CONTENTS INTRODUCTION TO BIBLE GUIDES THE EDITORS AUTHOR’S FOREWORD 1. THE MAKING OF THE OLD TESTAMENT The Three Sections The Grandeur of the Law The Starting-point of Scripture Some Discrepancies The Holiness Code Other Additions The Prophets The Prophets Established The Writings Attributed Authorship Establishing The Writings The People of die Book The Emergence of Sacred Scripture.
2. THE MAKING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT The Old Testament, a Christian Book Apostles, the Living Books End of the Oral Tradition The Need of a Written Literature The Words of Jesus The ** Forms *’ of the Gospel How the New Testament Emerged The Apostolic Authority The First Christian Books Collecting Paul’s Letters Making the Collection The Gospels Win* their Place A Written Gospel Authoritative and Sacred Discarding the Old Testament? The Church’s Decision Closing of the Books The Final Completion, 3. THE FINAL TEST Authority of the Books Does the Book speak of Christ? Faith in a Living Saviour.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AUTHOR’S FOREWORD IN ANY undertaking of study the first essential is to define the area of the study. This is precisely what we seek to do in this book. The area of study in this whole series of books is the Bible, and in this initial volume we seek to define the Bible, and to see how it came to be in the form in which it exists to-day. To give it its technical name, this book seeks to deal with the Canon of Holy Scripture, and to tell the story of die Formation of the Canon. For some reason or other the study of the Canon of Holy Scripture has come to be looked upon as one of die dry and less interesting fields of Biblical study. That is a great pity, for it is by the study of the formation of the Canon that we come to see the essential greatness of Scripture. As we study die history of the Bible, and as we come to see how it came to be what it is to-day, we see God speaking to men in every age and generation through men whom His Spirit inspired, and through events through which He was making His will known to men. We see that word of God establishing itself in the hearts and in the minds of men. We see die necessities of the human situation driving men to seek and to study and to cling to the word of God. We see the events of history and the needs of the human heart sending men for strength and for guidance, for help and for comfort to the word of God.
Above all we come to see how the Bible came to be the Bible, how these books came to be regarded as Holy Scripture, how they came to be regarded, not simply as great books, but as holy books, how they came to be regarded, not simply as the products of the mind and pen of great men, but as products of the divine inspiration of the Spirit of God. We come to see quite clearly, when we study the formation of the Canon of Scripture, that the Bible and the books of die Bible came to be regarded as the inspired word of God, not because of any decision of any Synod or Council or Committee or Church, but because in them men found God. The supremely important tiling is not what men did to these books, but what these books did to men. These books, as die story plainly shows, became Scripture, because nothing could stop them doing so. Their unique inspiration was self evidencing through their ability to meet the needs of the human heart, especially in times when life was an agonizing tiling. To study the Canon of Scripture is not to come away with a lesser view of Scripture, but with a far greater view, for it is to see the unanswerable power of the word of God in action in the minds and hearts of men.
It is my hope and prayer that, as people read this book, they will come more and more to realize the self- evidencing power of the word of God. All through my own life my experience has been that, die more I knew about the Bible, the greater the Bible became, and it is my prayer that the reading of the story of how the Bible came to be what it is to-day may convince those who read it even more that the Bible is the word of God to men.
WILLIAM BARCLAY