Produced by Al Haines
CHAPTERS OF BIBLE STUDY
OR
A POPULAR INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURES
BY
THE REV. HERMAN J. HEUSER
PROF. OF SCRIPTURAL INTRODUCTION AND EXEGESIS, ST. CHARLES SEMINARY,
OVERBROOK, PA.
THE CATHEDRAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
123 E. 50th Street
New York
1895
Nihil Obstat:
D. J. McMAHON,
_Censor Librorum_.
Imprimatur:
MICHAEL AUGUSTINE,
_Archbishop of New York_.
COPYRIGHT BY JOSEPH H. MCMAHON, 1895.
PREFACE.
The following pages are printed from notes used in a series of lectures
before the "Catholic Summer School of America" at Pittsburgh. They are
neither an exhaustive nor a scientific exposition, but are meant as a
suggestive introduction, in popular form, to the intelligent reading of
the Bible. Some of the answers to questions proposed by members of the
"School" during the course have been inserted where it seemed most
suitable.
I take occasion here to express my deep appreciation of the courtesy
shown to its visitors by the Directors of the "Catholic Summer School."
Their self-sacrificing spirit has secured to the organization the
earnest co-operation of many gifted men and women animated by that
refined Catholic feeling which constitutes the highest type of a truly
cultured society. Nothing could have placed the institution on a
firmer basis, or could better have given it that guarantee of success
to which the last session has borne witness.
H. J. H.
CONTENTS.
I. The Ancient Scroll
II. Strange Witnesses
III. The Testimony of a Confession
IV. The Stones Cry Out
V. Heavenly Wisdom
VI. The Vicious Circle
VII. The Sacred Pen
VIII. The Melody and Harmony of the "Vox Coelestis"
IX. The Voice from the Rock
X. A Source of Culture
XI. The Creation of New Letters
XII. English Style
XIII. Friends of God
XIV. The Art of Prospecting
XV. Using the Kodak
XVI. The Interpretation of the Image
XVII. "Deus Illuminatio Mea"
XVIII. Bush-Lights
XIX. The Use and the Abuse of the Bible
XX. The Vulgate and the "Revised Version"
XXI. The Position of the Church
XXII. Mysterious Characters
XXIII. Conclusion
XXIV. Appendix
CHAPTERS OF BIBLE STUDY.
I.
THE ANCIENT SCROLL.
If a mysteriously-written document were brought to you, and its bearer
assured you that it contained a secret putting you in possession of a
great inheritance by establishing your relationship to an ancient race
of kings, of which you had no previous knowledge, how would you regard
such a document?
You would examine its age, the character of the manuscript, the quality
of the paper or parchment; you would ask how it had come to you, and by
whom it had been transmitted through successive generations before it
reached you. And when, after careful inquiry, you had established the
age and authenticity of the document, then you would study its
contents, examine the nature of its provisions, and, having clearly
understood its meaning, ask yourself: How can I carry out the
conditions laid down in this testament, in order that I may obtain the
full benefit of the generous bequest left by my noble ancestor?
It is on similar lines that I propose to treat our subject. We shall
take up the Bible just as we would take up any other written work,
requiring, for the time being, simply so much faith--no more, but also
no less than we would exact in the fair examination of any other work,
whether of fact or of fiction.
When we have assured ourselves that the Bible is really as old and as
truthful a record of history as it pretends to be, and that it has for
it such human testimony as leads us to admit historic facts in general,
we shall occupy ourselves with its contents, with the influence which
this wonderful book, this ancient testament of our royal Sire,
exercises upon the heart, the mind, the general culture, by which it
leads us to our inheritance, and enables us to assume our place in our
destined home.
The Bible, looking upon it as a merely human production, is a
collection of documents of various antiquity, containing historic
records of successive generations, going back to a very remote period.
It relates the valiant deeds of valiant men and women, written either
by themselves or by men of their own race. It contains, furthermore, a
great number of principles, doctrines, rules, and laws for the moral
and external government of individuals and communities, particularly of
the families and tribes of the Hebrew nation. Finally, we find in this
ancient scroll certain predictions and prophecies which, if we can show
that they were definitely made long in advance of the events foretold
by them, become a strong argument in favor of the supernatural origin
of the work. However, this last point we shall leave entirely out of
view for the present.
It is very clear that the book which we have in our hands, and which we
call the Bible, or The Book _par excellence_, has been printed and
reprinted during four hundred years, in millions of copies, all of
which agree substantially, not excepting the Bible of the so-called
"reformers," with whom, on the whole, we differ rather in the
interpretation than in the wording of its contents. There are indeed
some disagreements on subjects touching religious doctrines, which,
whilst very important if we accept the Sacred Scriptures as the
inspired word of God, hardly count for anything in a merely historical
work; and this is the light in which we regard the Bible just at
present.
The Bibles which are printed to-day are practically and substantially
the same as those which were printed four hundred years ago. A great
number of copies of first editions in different languages may still be
found in public and private libraries. The New Testament version, from
which Luther principally made his translation, was an edition by the
well-known humanist, Erasmus. All the modern European translations,
including that made into English five hundred years ago by Wiclif, had
for their original an ancient Latin version which was employed in the
service of the churches, and of which copies in manuscript, made over a
thousand years ago, are still extant. One of the oldest uncial Latin
manuscripts is the "Vercelli Gospels," attributed to the hand of
Eusebius. The Corpus Christi College Library at Cambridge has a
manuscript copy said to have been made by St. Augustine. Of Greek
copies we have a very famous one in the Vatican Library, probably the
oldest preserved in the world--about 350; another manuscript, called
the Codex Sinaiticus, is in the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg; and
a third, of nearly the same age (IV. century), is the "Codex
Alexandrinus," at present in the British Museum. Manuscripts older
than these are wanting, not only of the Bible, but of any other book,
except fragments of writings on parchment and certain manuscripts
rescued from Egyptian tombs, and papers discovered in the recent
excavations of Herculaneum, near Naples, in Italy. Parchment, on
account of the expensive preparation required to make it suitable
material for writing, was sparingly used by the ancients at any time.
They preferred to employ the so-called papyrus, made of the fibrous
pith of a kind of rush growing abundantly in Egypt, and brought to
Europe by Eastern merchants. This, and other kinds of vegetable fibre
from which paper suitable for writing was prepared since the days when
Moses, as we must presume, practised the art of writing in the schools
of Egypt, do not withstand the destructive influence of time.
Experience proves that the ordinary atmosphere has completely corroded
cotton paper of nine hundred years ago; the same is true of the linen
paper made in the time of Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas. Those
exceptional treasures of Egyptian papyrus referred to above, which have
been found of late years, owe their preservation to the fact that they
were enclosed in almost air-tight tombs, in a singularly dry climate;
the same is the case with regard to the manuscripts discovered in
Herculaneum, which have been kept hermetically sealed by the tight
lava-cover from Mount Vesuvius for a space of more than seventeen
hundred years.
However, among such manuscripts as have been preserved under ordinary
conditions, by far the greatest number are copies, in various tongues,
of the Bible, and some of these carry us back to the fourth century.
We have Bible manuscripts written on paper in Hebrew, Syriac, Greek,
Latin, in the dialects of the Copts, the Arabs, the Armenians, the
Persians, the Ethiopians, the Slavs, and the Goths, who were among the
earliest nations converted to Christianity. Now all these manuscript
Bibles, more than fourteen centuries old, substantially correspond to
our Catholic Bibles of this day.
The early Christian missionaries who introduced the word of God to the
pagan nations speaking a strange tongue must have had some uniform
source whence to make their translations. So many persons in different
parts of the world, unacquainted with one another's language, could
not, except by some incredible miracle, have composed out of their
fancy so large a book, agreeing page for page, nay, line for line.
They must have had some original at their disposal whence to make a
uniform copy. The fact is, we find that original book in the churches
of Italy, Greece, Asia, and Africa. The apostolic Fathers speak of it
as known to everybody; they read from it on Sundays and festivals; they
quote long passages, and the young candidates for Holy Orders are
taught, like the Hebrew levites of old, to memorize the psalms and
moral books of the Bible. Among these witnesses is St. Clement of
Koine. According to Tertullian, who lived near his time, he was
ordained by St. Peter the Apostle; at any rate, St. Paul speaks of him
in his Epistle to the Philippians. Other disciples of the Apostles
were St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, St. Polycarp, the friend of St.
John. These are followed by St. Justin, who wrote a famous defence of
the Catholic faith called the "Apology," which he presented to the
Emperor Antoninus. The latter, convinced of the young convert's
sincerity, put a stop to the cruel persecutions which were then going
on against the Christians. The Emperor Marcus Aurelius also received a
copy of the "Apology" from St. Justin. In this well-known work the
Saint states that "_the Gospels, together with the writings of the
prophets, are publicly read in the assemblies of the Christians._"[1]
He also affirms that they were written in part by the Apostles
themselves and partly by their disciples. This was shortly after the
year 138, when men were still alive who had conversed with St. Paul,
and who could well remember the sweet admonitions of brotherly love
given by the aged St. John, who tells us that he had seen with his own
eyes the things which he writes.[2] The chain of apostolic writers
from St. Peter to St. Augustine, _i.e._, from the first century to the
fourth or fifth, bears witness that this wonderful book was used in
every Christian community from the regions of the Jordan, whence St.
Justin came, to the confines of Spain, where Isidore of Cordova wrote
his commentaries; from the northernmost part of Dalmatia, where Titus
had preached the doctrine delivered him by St. Paul, to the limit of
the African desert, whence one of the oldest Latin versions of the
Scriptures was brought to St. Ambrose.
It is interesting to be able to cite the testimony of pagan as well as
of Jewish writers concerning the great events which the Christian
Gospels record. We have the historic fact of Christ's person and work
attested in the "Annals" of Tacitus, the greatest of Roman
historians,[3] who was consul of Rome in 97. His statements are
corroborated by Suetonius, secretary to the Emperor Adrian, by Pliny,
the Viceroy of Bithynia and friend of the Emperor Trajan, by the Jewish
writers Philo of Alexandria, a contemporary of Christ, and the
historian Flavius Josephus, and by the rabbis who collated the
traditions of the Talmud. All these, whilst they wrote but briefly of
the subject, bear indirect witness to the belief and to the practice by
the earliest Christians of the Gospel precepts, although the books of
the New Testament had not at that time been formed into a definite
canon. Thus the unbroken evidence of the existence of the Christian
Scriptures goes back to the very time of their first composition.
We come to the Old Testament. That the Jews in the time of Christ
possessed a collection of sacred books is recorded on every page of the
New Testament, of whose authentic source there can be no reasonable
doubt. There are altogether about two hundred and seventy passages in
the New Testament books which are quotations from the Old Testament.
There are innumerable references in the Gospels and Epistles, and in
the early Christian writers, to the sacred law of the Jews, among whom
the first converts were made; for these converts continued to use the
Mosaic writings and the prophetical books. Christ Himself had
beautifully illustrated this practice, from the first, in His teaching.
"He came to Nazareth," St. Luke tells us, "where He was brought up; and
He went into the synagogue, according to His custom, on the sabbath
day; and He rose up to read. And the Book of Isaias the Prophet was
delivered unto Him. And as He unfolded the book He found the place
where it was written: _The spirit of the Lord is upon me, wherefore He
hath anointed me; to preach the gospel to the poor He hath sent me; to
heal the contrite of heart. To preach deliverance to the captives, and
sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised; to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of reward_. And when He
had folded the book He restored it to the minister and sat down. And
the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to
say to them: _This day is fulfilled this Scripture in your ears_. And
all gave testimony to Him."[4]
Any attempt to corrupt the Old Testament writings, or to change and
destroy them, even in part, became impossible after the Gospels had
been written. It would at once have aroused marked attention among
both Jews and Christians, who with equal reverence regarded the Book as
the sacred and inviolable word of God, however mutually hostile their
feelings were regarding the interpretation of its meaning. For if ever
there existed a document whose authority was sanctioned and whose
preservation was guaranteed by the severest laws and most minute
precautions, it was the code of sacred writings known to the Jews as
the "Law and the Prophets." It was read in every synagogue on the
sabbath and festival days. Every Jew above the age of twelve was
obliged to repeat certain parts of the Sacred Book each day, morning
and night. Thrice dispersed among the Gentile nations, north, west,
and south, the Jews carried with them the book of the Law and the
Prophets, and we find them repeat its sweet words of hope and trust in
Jehovah by the rivers of Babylon as under the glimmer of the
torchlights in the caverns of Samaria or rocky Arabia. Their faces
were forever turning towards Jerusalem. Nay, when the language of
their fathers had ceased to be spoken during generations of enforced
exile, the children still repeated the Hebrew words of the Law in the
temple, even though they had versions made for the people by rabbis who
were under sacred vow not to change an iota of the Lord's written word.
We have in the present Hebrew Bibles some remnant of the traditional
care with which the Jew guarded the letter of the Law, whatever might
be the spirit in which he interpreted it. In order that the Sacred
Text might never be tampered with, even by the addition or omission of
a single letter or word, the scribes were obliged to count the verses,
words, and characters of each book. They knew by heart every
peculiarity of grammatical or phonetic expression. Thus the young
rabbi must verify that the Book of Genesis contains 1,534 verses; that
the exact middle of the book, counting every letter from the beginning
and from the end, occurs in chapter xxvii. 40. He knew that there were
ten verses in the Scriptures beginning and ending with the letter
[Hebrew: nun] (_nun_) (as in Lev. xiii. 9); two in which every word
ends with the letter [Hebrew: final mem] (_mem_). The letter [Hebrew:
ayin] (_ayin_), in Ps. lxxx. 14, is the exact middle of the Psalter.
The letter [Hebrew: aleph] (_aleph_) occurs 42,377 times, [Hebrew:
beth] (_beth_) 38,218 times, [Hebrew: ghimel] (_ghimel_) 29,537 times,
and so of every letter in the alphabet. These, and a thousand other
peculiarities which made the corruption of the Hebrew text an almost
absolute impossibility, were in later ages collected into a glossary
called the Masorah, which forms a sort of separate commentary to the
Bible. If you open the Hebrew volume of the Old Testament, just as it
is printed to-day, you will find many of these warnings inserted in the
very text. Thus at the end of the Book of Chronicles we have this
sentence: "The printer is not at fault, for the sum total of verses in
the whole Book of Chronicles is 1650." Then, lest the reader might
forget this number, a verse is attached which contains the letters
representing the same number. The verse, which is taken from the I.
Samuel vi. 13, reads: "_They saw the ark and rejoiced in seeing it_."
Just as the words "_MeDiCaL VIrtue_" might stand in English for the
same number.
Many other peculiarities in the manner of copying the Hebrew text have
been transmitted for ages without change. Thus in the Book of Numbers
xi. 1 we find the letter [Hebrew: nun] (_nun_) written backward
[Hebrew: reversed nun], to express more emphatically the meaning of
"perversity," mentioned in the verse. In Job xxxviii. 13 the letter
[Hebrew: ayin] (_ayin_) in the word [Hebrew: final mem, yod, ayin,
shin, khaf] (_reshachim_), "ungodly," is raised above the line, to
indicate how God will shake up into the air, like chaff, the ungodly of
whom the Prophet speaks.
But it is needless to point out in detail all the odd precautions which
were invented by the rabbis that they might exercise a most rigorous
control over the Hebrew text; and although these methods are the
results of a later school of Hebraists, they go to show the sense of
responsibility which the Jews must always have felt regarding the
preservation of the ancient Testament. Even at this day you can hardly
discover a substantial departure from the original in the numerous
manuscript copies extant. Kennicott, an English Biblical scholar,
brought together five hundred and eighty Hebrew manuscripts of the
Bible which, after careful study and comparison, revealed scarcely any
differences of the text. An Italian, Prof. de Rossi, who died in 1831,
had collected seven hundred and ten manuscripts, and had seen in
various libraries one hundred and thirty-four more, all of which he
examined critically without finding any notable differences. I am
speaking, remember, of such differences as would affect the historical
identity of these manuscript copies with their original. It would be
folly to assert that these manuscripts, which reached the number of
over 1,600, are copies made by the same scribes; for some of them were
discovered in Arabia, others in old Jewish settlements in China; one,
the oldest in existence, as some believe, was found in a synagogue in
the Crimea, by a Jewish rabbi named Abraham Firkeowicz.
[1] _Apolog._, i. 67.
[2] Ep. St. John, chap. i. 1.
[3] Tacit., _Annal_., xv. 38-44.
[4] St. Luke iv. 16-22.
II.
STRANGE WITNESSES.
If there remained no trace of the original writings of the Old
Testament books preserved for us in the Hebrew tongue, we should still
possess very reliable witnesses of ancient date to testify to their
existence in substantially the same form in which we have them; for the
children of Jewish exiles, who were forced gradually to substitute the
language of their conquerors for their mother tongue, had well
authenticated translations for their use in the synagogues. The most
remarkable of such translations is the so-called Greek Septuagint,
commonly believed to have been made for the Alexandrian Library by
seventy Jewish rabbis at the request of King Ptolemy Philadelphus. We
shall have occasion, later on, to revert to the significance of this
Greek version. For the present it is only necessary to mention that it
was so highly esteemed by the Jews themselves that they used it for
several centuries in their reading to the people, many of whom
understood only the Greek.
Even the enemies of the Jews bear witness to the unchanged character of
the oldest portion of the Hebrew Bible for centuries before the coming
of our Lord.
About the year 536 B.C., on the return of the Jewish exiles from
Babylon, the Samaritans, a mixed race of Jewish and Aramaic stock,
sought from the temple authorities at Jerusalem the privilege of
worshipping with the rest of the Jews in the holy city. This was
refused. Shortly afterwards one of the priests at Jerusalem was
excommunicated for having married the daughter of a Samaritan prince.
He sought refuge in Samaria, and having built a temple on Mount
Garizim, induced the people to worship according to the Mosaic Law.
They were found to possess a copy of the Pentateuch, which they had
transcribed in Samaritan characters; and whilst the Jews of Southern
Palestine held no communication with them, and the Samaritans on their
part looked upon the Jews as schismatics who had changed the ancient
observances of the Law, yet both recognized the same sacred code as the
rule of their conduct and religion.
A copy of this valuable version, which at a later date was translated
into the actual Samaritan dialect, was discovered at Damascus in 1616,
and has since been printed in several editions at Paris and London. It
is of great importance, as it establishes a perfect accord with the
reading of the Jewish Hebrew text. These versions, made at different
times, in places widely apart, and by men who were decidedly hostile to
each other on religious as well as on national grounds, force us to
admit a well-fixed, universally known, and trusted original of the
books of Moses; for where there is a copy there must be something
copied from, just as when we see the well-defined shadow of an object
we know that the object itself exists.
The antiquity of the Hebrew Bible is indeed attested by many no less
conclusive arguments than those we have given, which, from the
historian's point of view, stamp it as the most important monument of
antiquity which we have, and whose genuine character is proved by the
most trustworthy documentary evidence. There is no page of historical
account in existence to-day that has such overwhelming testimony in
favor of its authentic origin as these books of the Bible. Known by
generations as the inviolable law of God, guarded with scrupulous
solicitude as their greatest religious treasure, read sabbath after
sabbath in the synagogues, not alone of Palestine, but of Arabia,
Assyria, Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome--in short, wherever the
sons of Abraham had been dispersed in the course of more than twenty
centuries--who was it, friend or foe, that could have dared to change
this royal mandate of the Most High to His chosen people! If a man
were to-day to print a copy of the Constitution, or a history of the
formation of the American Republic, introducing some hitherto
unheard-of statements, or omitting some important words or facts, how
long would such imposition remain unnoticed or unchallenged? Yet it
would be infinitely easier in our times, and under our conditions, for
such change to pass unnoticed than it would have been among the Jews.
The Oriental races are intensely averse to anything that threatens to
alter their traditions. The customs of the Eastern peoples to-day are
the same as they are described by Isaias seven hundred years before
Christ, and the Jew of Isaiah's time reflects in every act the manners
of another seven hundred years before, when Moses describes his people
as imitating the domestic virtues and habits of Abraham's day, a time
which carries us back still another seven centuries. A thousand years
make no perceptible change in Oriental civilization. You may see it
every day. Take as a ready instance Algeria, visited annually by many
Americans, who go to Europe by the southern route. It is a coast city,
lying in the full glare of European civilization; nay, modern life has
forced itself upon this town with the captivating aggressiveness of
French manners, French magnificence, French soldiery, and a system of
commerce which, within the last sixty years, has caused the European
population to outnumber the original Arab inhabitants of Algiers by
two-thirds. Yet the daily and forced contact, for two whole
generations, between the Arab and the European has produced hardly any
change in the habits of the former. The Mussulman passes through the
splendid streets of the French portion of the town when necessity urges
him, in silence and with apparent disdain. He prefers his cavern-like
habitation, with small square holes for windows, and an iron grating
instead of glass, to the spacious and lightsome palaces built by the
French and English colonists. The Arab woman feels no desire for the
pretty vanities of modern fashion, for the graceful freedom and
intellectual intercourse with men; she conceals her form in the
traditional wide robe of the East, with a veil over her head, a row of
shining coins or beads hanging down from the forehead, and a kerchief
over her face hiding all but the gazelle-like eyes. You see in that
one city, open to the constant changes arising from the innumerable
relations of travel and commerce, two worlds of men: one busy, fitful,
gay, and splendidly modern; the other silent, immovable, almost
scornful, and in dwelling and dress, in manner and language, just the
same as you might have observed them ages ago.
Such precisely were the people who guarded and delivered to us the
books of the Old Testament. Their religious, civil, and domestic
practices, everywhere and at all times of their history, correspond so
perfectly with what we read in any part of this volume that, even if
portions of the Bible were lost, we should have the living tradition to
witness to the omission, since we know that the life of the Hebrew was
ever subject to the regulations of the law of Jehovah, which was to him
the supreme expression of all that is great and good and wise.
"Uniformity of belief and ritual practice," says the Protestant
Geikie,[1]" was the one grand design of the founders of Judaism; the
moulding the whole religious life of the nation to such a machine-like
discipline as would make any variation from the customs of the past
well-nigh impossible. A universal, death-like conservatism, permitting
no change in successive ages, was established as the grand security for
a separate national existence.... For this end, not only was that part
of the Law which concerned the common life of the people--their
sabbaths, feast-days, jubilees, offerings, sacrifices, tithes, the
Temple and Synagogue worship, civil and criminal law, marriage, and the
like--explained, commented on, and minutely ordered by the Rabbis, but
also that portion of it which related only to the private duties of
individuals in their daily religious life." And to this day the
orthodox Jew observes the same rites and ceremonies which marked the
service of his forefathers, whether in Judea or Samaria, on the banks
of the Nile under the Ptolemies, at Babylon under the Seleucides, or at
Niniveh under Nabuchodonoser. "What event of profane history," writes
the Abbe Gainet, "can boast of an unbroken succession of 3,500
anniversaries such as those of which we have assurance in the history
of the Jews?"[2]
[1] "Life of Christ," chap. xvii.
[2] La Bible sans la Bible, vol. I., Etude preliminaire.
III.
THE TESTIMONY OF A CONFESSION.
The argument of the last chapter leads us to another evidence which
points to the historical authenticity of the Hebrew Bible. It is
plain, even upon superficial examination of this book, that it
contains, beside the severest penalties for sin, the most stinging
accusations of infidelity against the people of God, and the most
scorching rebukes of their crimes; it relates the transgressions of
their kings and princes and priests; in short, it records everything
which the Jewish nation and their rulers must have been anxious to keep
silent, or to mitigate where it was necessary to write it down. Every
reason of prudence and national self-love must have suggested to them
to destroy such records where they existed, because they made their
vaunted glory a story of everlasting shame. Compare this historical
record of the Jewish people with the contemporary annals of the
Assyrian, Persian, Greek, or Roman monarchs. These are full of
extravagant laudations, of royal deeds of valor, of the splendor of
their victories over other nations; whereas the statements of the Bible
are simple, the narrative of heroic acts and signal divine favors is
constantly mingled with incidents deeply self-humiliating for a race
that called itself chosen of God above all the Gentiles. The Jews
record numerous defeats, shameful treacheries, and errors of their most
beloved kings. They rebel, they commit every crime forbidden by the
Law; yet whilst they kill the prophets who charge them with
ingratitude, they patiently suffer the record of it all to go into the
books which they know will be read to all the people for their shame.
They make no attempt to minimize or to excuse themselves to their
children, however much they love the glory of Israel and the splendor
of Jerusalem as the one nation and city worthy of the most exalted
patriotic praise. Other nations made themselves a religion in harmony
with their passions, so as to soothe the conscience. But the Jew finds
a law of life given him in the great book of Moses. He may fall from
his ideals, he may worship idols, but he never ceases to recognize that
this is wrong because it is contrary to the law of Jehovah.
IV.
THE STONES CRY OUT.
The chain of documentary and circumstantial evidence which points to
the preservation, substantially intact, of the Bible as an historic
record of the highest possible trustworthiness is completed by the
daily increasing store of monuments which are brought to light,
especially in Palestine, Assyria, and Egypt. Up to the middle of the
present century the largest part of our knowledge of the ancient
nations was drawn from the Bible. It was the one great treasure-house
wherein the history of the East was to be found. We had Greek and
Roman and some Egyptian historians, but their knowledge was confined to
their own people, and needed to be supplemented by the details related
in the Pentateuch, in Josue, Judges, Ruth, the two Books of Samuel, the
Books of Kings, Paralipomenon, Esdras, Tobias, Judith, Esther, and the
Machabees, all of which are historical books containing facts,
statistics, constitutions, and dynastic lines, without which profane
history would still be a doubtful and barren field of study.
But, lately, the studious industry of scholarly men has gone over the
ground of the old events, to test with the instruments of historic
criticism the veracity, and, incidentally, the authenticity of the
Bible record. Aided by the royal munificence of governments and
private corporations, scholars went to search out and examine the
monuments of antiquity in those parts where the Jewish race had dwelt
during the periods recounted in the Bible. They found, mostly below
the earth, and sometimes beneath the flood-beds of streams and lakes,
traces in stone or clay or metal which pointed to their containing
valuable information regarding the Persian, Assyrian, Egyptian, and
other nations with whom the Hebrew people had come in contact. These
traces were sometimes in signs and languages not understood or wholly
unknown in our learned world, but with assiduous study the mysteries
came, in course of time, to be unravelled. The story of these
discoveries is in various ways extremely interesting, and we shall
speak of them more in detail later on.
Besides the primitive inscriptions just referred to, a number of cities
have been discovered which lay buried for many centuries beneath the
ground upon which afterwards other races dwelt and built their homes.
Excavations in Palestine go, day by day, to explain, where they do not
simply corroborate, the statements of the Bible. The diggings about
the supposed ancient site of Nineveh, in Babylonia, have unearthed the
ruins of an immense library. Sir A. H. Layard, and subsequently Mr.
George Smith and Hormuzd Rassam, have brought together a number of clay
tablets which open an immense world of Assyrian and Babylonian
literature, whose existence was hitherto known only by the indications
given in the Book of Daniel and other historical portions of the Bible
concerning the conquerors of the Jews. These discoveries, as Mr. A. H.
Sayce remarks in his "Fresh Lights from Ancient Monuments" (page 17),
have not only "shed a flood of light on the history and antiquity of
the Old Testament, but they have served to illustrate and explain the
language of the Old Testament as well."
The evidence brought to light by these monuments has left no doubt in
the minds of scientific men as to the facts that occurred three and
four thousand years ago. We read the inscriptions which bear witness
to the work of the Chaldean king Nimrod, to Zoroaster the Elamite, to
Khamu-rabi, the Arab of the days of Moses; we treasure as of primary
historical importance the account of Herodotus, who visited Babylon at
the time when Esdras and Nehemias, who were both ministers at the court
of Artaxerxes, wrote their continuation of the Book of Chronicles for
the Jewish brethren in Palestine. When we read the works of Tacitus
and Suetonius, of Cicero and Virgil, all of whom indicate that they had
some knowledge of the Jewish sacred books,[1] we entertain no doubt as
to their existence or the authenticity of their writings; yet men under
the guise of scientific criticism have sought to cast doubts upon the
Biblical records which have in their favor a documentary evidence a
hundred times more accurate and trustworthy than any work of antiquity
without exception in the whole range of history. If apologists were
silent, the very stones would begin to cry out in behalf of the
authenticity and antiquity of the Biblical records. Every day is
bringing this truth into stronger relief. "Discovery after discovery,"
says Prof. Sayce, "has been pouring in upon us from Oriental lands, and
the accounts given only ten years ago of the results of Oriental
research are already beginning to be antiquated.... The ancient world
has been reawakened to life by the spade of the explorer and the
patient skill of the decipherer, and we now find ourselves in the
presence of monuments which bear the names or recount the deeds of the
heroes of Scripture."
[1] Cf. Hettinger-Bowden, "Revealed Religion," page 158.
V.
HEAVENLY DOCTRINE.
"Whence but from heaven could men, unskilled in arts,
In several ages born, in several parts,
Weave such agreeing truths?"
(Dryden, _Religio Laici_.)
The Bible, regarded as a work of history which offers us proofs of
credibility beyond those of any secular work of the same kind, has in
its composition and style a refinement and loftiness of tone far
superior to other writings of equal age which have come down to us.
The Jews "attributed to these books, one and all of them, a character
which at once distinguishes them from all other books, and caused the
collection of them to be regarded in their eyes as one individual
whole. This distinguishing character was the divine authority of every
one of those books and of every part of every book."[1] This belief of
the Jews was so strong, so universal, so unchanging that, as has
already been said, it pervaded and regulated their entire religious,
political, and social life during all the eventful centuries of
Israelitish history.
That our Lord knew of this belief, that He endorsed it, preached and
emphasized it repeatedly, is very evident from the authentic narrative
of the Gospels.
Expressions indicating this are to be found everywhere in the writings
of the evangelists: "Have you never read in the Scriptures?" He says
to the Scribes in referring to the words of the Psalmist (cxvii. 22):
The stone which the builders rejected, etc. (St. Matthew xxi. 42.)
Again, a little later on, He charges the Sadducees who say there is no
resurrection: "You err, not knowing the Scriptures" (Ibid. xxii. 29).
In the Garden of Olives He bears witness to the prophetic character of
the Book of Isaiah: "How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled" (Ibid.
xxvi. 54)? And the historian, a friend and Apostle of Christ, adds:
"Now all this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be
fulfilled" (Ibid. 56). St. John's Gospel, especially, abounds in
references like the foregoing, which point to the intimate relation
between the Messianic advent of Christ and the figures of the Old Law,
and assure us that the books of the Prophets, as well as the
accompanying historic accounts of the Scriptural books generally, were
regarded as the sacred word of God, not only by the Jews, but by the
disciples of Christ.
This sacred collection was generally spoken of as consisting of three
parts, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Philo and
Josephus, both trained in the schools of the Pharisees, mention the
division as one well understood among the Jews of their time. Christ
Himself speaks of the Sacred Scriptures, in different places, with this
same distinction.
Now the testimony of Christ, who proved Himself to be the Son of God,
and therefore unerring truth, is explicit in so far as it appeals with
a supreme and infallible authority to the Jewish Scriptures as to a
testimony _not human, but divine_. "Have you not read that which was
spoken _by God_?" He says, referring to the Mosaic Law in Exodus iii. 6
(St. Matt. xxii. 31). Many times He speaks of the Scriptures "that
they may be fulfilled," thus indicating that they contain that which
lay in the future, and whose foreknowledge must have come from God.
This testimony of Our Lord is strengthened by the interpretation of His
Apostles in the same sense.
Yet although the testimony of Christ and the Apostles regarding the
fact that the Books of the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms are
divinely inspired, is very explicit, we have nowhere a clear statement
or a catalogue which might assure us what books and parts of books are
actually comprised in this collection of the Sacred Scriptures of which
our Lord speaks. Christ approves as the word of God those writings
which were accepted as such among the Jews of His day, but He does not
give us any definite security by this general endorsement that every
chapter, every verse, much less every word of the Bible, as we have
received it, is actually inspired. We are not therefore quite sure
from the evidence thus far given that the Old Testament, as we have it,
has in every part of it the sanction of Christ's testimony to its being
truly the word of God. As to the New Testament, we know that, however
accurate and trustworthy as a history of the times in which it was
composed it may be, yet it could not have had the explicit approval of
our Lord, simply because it had not been written and was not completed
for about a hundred years after His death and glorious resurrection.
Yet we accept the New Testament as also inspired in just the same
authoritative way as we receive the Hebrew writings of the Old Law.
And nothing but a divine testimony, such as that of Christ, could
assure us sufficiently that in the Sacred Scriptures we have the word
of God.
What criterion have we by which to determine precisely what books and
parts belong to this collection of Old Testament writings of which
Christ speaks as the word of God? What authority have we, moreover,
for believing the entire New Testament inspired, since it was written
after the time of Christ? If Luther and other reformers, so-called,
threw out some portions of the sacred text, by what standard or
criterion were they guided? Some have answered that we need not the
testimony of Christ or any other equally explicit proof to determine
what parts belong to this collection of writings representing the
inspired word of God. They hold, with Calvin, that a certain spiritual
unction inherent in the Sacred Scriptures determines their source, and
produces in the devout reader an interior sensation which gives him an
absolute conviction of the truth. But common experience teaches that
devout feelings may be produced by books which are not inspired, nay,
by positively irreligious books, which appeal to our better sensitive
nature in some passages whilst they destroy a proper regard for virtue
in others. Moreover, the "absolute conviction of the truth" to be
deduced from the reading of the Sacred Scriptures is belied by a
similar experience, since various sects draw opposing conclusions from
the same texts. As truth cannot contradict itself, and as Christ
prayed that His followers all be of one mind, we do not feel safe in
admitting mere subjective feeling and judgment as a test of what is
God's word.
Therefore we must look for some other criterion. Indeed, if our Lord
wished us to accept the Sacred Scriptures, including the New Testament,
which was written many years after His time, and for a long time was
known only to very much separated portions of the faithful, we may be
quite sure that He provided a means, an authoritative and clear method,
which would lead us to an unerring conclusion in regard to what is and
what is not the inspired word of God. This would be all the more
necessary for those who regard the Bible as the principal rule and
source of their faith.
It is a well-established historical fact that Christ taught some "new
doctrines," as they were called, and that He gave a commission to His
followers, which they repeated and carried out at the sacrifice of
their lives. There is no obscurity whatever about certain words and
precepts given by our Lord, historically recorded by six of His
Apostles and by many of His disciples who had heard and seen Him, who
honestly and intelligently believed in Him, and who were prepared to
die, and in some cases actually did suffer martyrdom for the assertions
they made. He bade them teach all nations the things He had taught
them. He did not give them a book, as He might have done, nor did He
tell them to write books; for some of the Apostles never wrote
anything; and of those who did write in later days, some had actually
never seen our Lord. Such is the common belief regarding St. Paul, who
wrote more than any other of the evangelical writers. St. Luke, in the
very opening of his Gospel, tells us that he wrote what had been
delivered to him by those who were eye-witnesses and ministers of the
word. Our Lord did not, therefore, give His disciples a book, but He
was very explicit in making them understand and feel that He gave them
an unerring Spirit, who would be just the same as Himself, verily
identical with their living Master and Teacher, Christ, who would abide
with them to the end of time. "_Behold, I am with you all days, even
to the consummation of the world._" To the consummation of the world?
And were they never to die? Were they actually to go, as some believed
of St. John, to perpetuate the kingdom of Christ, wandering over the
earth until all the nations were converted? Not so. They were to
deliver His doctrine to their successors, and the Holy Spirit, the
Paraclete, would watch over it until the end of ages. St. Peter would
live, in this sense, forever, and all the opposing forces of error, the
mighty gates of hell, would not overcome that Spirit any more than they
would triumph over Christ, who had "overcome the world." To St. Peter
He said: "To thee I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven;" "Confirm
thou thy brethren." All this was to go on and on, so that every human
creature could come into possession of truth through this unerring
Spirit that presided over the Christian doctrine. And this perpetual
transmission of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, who would guide
the future teachers and preside over their councils as at the first
councils of Antioch and Jerusalem,--this perpetual transmission through
a body like the apostolic body, ever living, ever guarded from error,
ever triumphant amid humiliations, what else is it but the Church, that
glorious heritage of ages, which we recognize through all time in every
land, holding every class and condition with the wondrous power of its
unity of doctrine and discipline!
Now it is this body, this ever-living and unchanging organism, this
grand apostolic tribunal, which Christ established, and without which
His mission to men would really have remained incomplete, that tells us
that the things which some of the Apostles and some of the disciples
wrote for our instruction and edification are inspired by the same holy
and infallible Spirit which guided the Apostles in their oral teaching.
Not all things were written there, as St. John tells us, but many
things which they had taught, and which would keep the people, with
whom the Apostles could not be ever present, in mind of that doctrine.
The written things were not intended to replace the spoken word of
doctrinal jurisdiction, for the evangelical teaching of the spoken word
was to go on to the end; besides, there were many who could not read,
and many who might listen but would not read. Furthermore, there would
be need of a living apostolic tribunal, since a written doctrine, like
a written law, is liable to various and sometimes contradictory
interpretations. We have constitutions and laws, but we need judges
and courts to decide the meaning and application, and if it were not
that men forget the order of justice, or are too remote from the
centres of jurisdiction, we should not need any written laws at all.
Communities may be governed by a wise superior without any written
laws, and in no case does the written law dispense with the necessity
of a discretionary living authority. It is quite evident that in the
matter of truth God wished His Apostles to use _all the instruments_ by
which that truth might be safely and rightly communicated, and thus the
written word was added to the living teaching which the Holy Ghost was
ever to direct and safeguard.
I repeat: Christ did not give His disciples a book, but a living,
infallible spirit, abiding with them to the end of time, as He said;
and since the Apostles were not to remain on earth to the end of the
world, what else could our Lord have meant but that others would take
their place on the same conditions, with the same prerogatives! That
He wished and said this is written over and over again in the sacred
volume, and by men who, if they had held this grand trust only for
themselves, would have had every reason to say so. But they state the
contrary. St. Peter ordains St. Paul; St. Paul sends Timothy and Titus
to the new converts on the same conditions, bidding them to preserve
intact the grace that is in them "through the imposition of hands."
And the successive generations of Pontiffs who take the place of Peter
and Paul and Timothy and Titus are the grand tribunal for the
transmission of Christ's doctrine.
That tribunal, from St. Peter down to Leo XIII., is the authority:
"Christ having sent them, even as the Father had sent Him," which tells
us that the books of the Sacred Scriptures, such as we have them, and
as they are singly defined in what is called the Catholic Canon of
Biblical Books, are truly and really the word of God, and were written
under the impulsion of the Holy Spirit.
[1] "The Sacred Scriptures," Humphrey.
VI.
THE VICIOUS CIRCLE.