The Scripture documents may be viewed from several
standpoints;--historical, exegetical, theological and literary. One may,
for example, study the book of Job to find out the actual basis of fact
that underlies it, or for the purpose of ascertaining and systematizing
its doctrines, or he may read it as a great dramatic poem, and criticize
it by the rules that would apply to any other dramatic poem. He may go
through the Apocalypse, grammar and lexicon in hand, or he may study its
flashing imagery as he would that of any other magnificent work of genius.
He may read the Psalms as he would the odes of Horace. In these pages the
Scriptures are considered simply as Literature. The question of
inspiration or authority does not enter. Doctrinal inquiries are set
aside. "To understand," says Matthew Arnold, "that the language of the
Bible is fluid, passing, literary, is the first step towards a right
understanding of the Bible."
The literary character of the Bible is admirably set forth in the
following paragraph from a recent critic:
"As a particular book, the Bible is an unequaled source of literary
inspiration. As a book of religious truth, it is supreme; but
religious truth, without any impairment of its value or obscurity of
its meaning, may be studied from the literary standpoint; in fact, in
the light of literary criticism, or tested by the usual canons of the
scholar, it will appear more sacred, more beautiful, more divine.
Never forgetting that it is our manual of religion, it is also the
vehicle of the most wonderful literature in human annals, and precedes
in importance all others. There is no book so composite in character
and yet so harmonious in plan, so multiplex in styles and yet so
educational in rhetoric and logic, so varied in contents and yet so
progressive in its philosophy and religion, as the Bible. Taken as a
whole, it is massive, comprehensive, a revelation of the Infinite.
Studied in its parts, it stimulates single faculties while it
ministers nourishment to the whole frame. Its histories are more
compact than those of Herodotus, Gibbon or Macaulay; its poetry, whose
key is a mystery, quiets Homer, Shakespeare and Tennyson; its
prophecies are unique climaxes of wisdom, both in drapery and
substance; its biographies excel those of Plutarch, Irving, Carlyle
and Boswell; its chronicles of wars are superior to those of Julius
Caesar, Wellington, Napoleon, and Ulysses Grant; its epistles eclipse
those of Pliny, Madame Sevigne and Francis Bacon; its laws, in their
ethical and spiritual import, are quite beyond Justinian, Blackstone
and the English Parliament. Every phasis of literature, every norm of
wisdom, is in the Bible. It ministers to all tastes and arouses the
slumbering intellects of all who can comprehend the difference between
reality and fiction, and who incline to virtue rather than vice.
Ruskin confesses his indebtedness to the Bible, Homer and Sir Walter
Scott, for his mental discipline; Charles Reade pronounces the
characters in Scripture a literary marvel. Matthew Arnold daily read
the New Testament in Greek for its style; Milton could not have
written Paradise Lost without Genesis; Renan's witchery of style is
traceable to the New Testament. Job has taught the poets the art of
construction, and David has sung an undying melody into the ears of
the race. The Book of Ruth is the model idyl, and the Books of Esther
and Daniel abound in incomparable dramatic elements; Isaiah has plumed
the statesman for oratorical flights; Jeremiah has opened the
fountains of pathos and sentiment in pathetic souls; Ezekiel has
furnished a usable style of judicial denunciation for the criminal
lawyer. Of all books, whether rhetoric, logic, vocabulary, poetry,
philosophy, history, or whatever be the end, the Bible should be first
and most carefully studied, its literary spirit and form should be
closely traced and discerned, and its truth should be reverently
incorporated into the daily speech, thought and life."
But in this summary there is no mention made of the literary qualities
which it is here proposed to consider. They are as completely ignored as
if the very suggestion of their presence were profanation.