Those who are most familiar with the Bible, and who have already given
most time to its study, have largest desire and largest expectation of
more knowledge through its farther study. And, more and more, Bible
study has come to include very much that is outside of the Bible.
For a long time, the outside study of the Bible was directed chiefly
to the languages in which the Bible was written, and to the archæology
and the manners and customs of what are commonly known as the Lands
of the Bible. Nor are these well-worked fields, by any means, yet
exhausted. More still remains to be gleaned from them, each and all,
than has been gathered thence by all searchers in their varied lore.
But, latterly, it has been realized, that, while the Bible is an
Oriental book, written primarily for Orientals, and therefore to be
understood only through an understanding of Oriental modes of thought
and speech, it is also a record of God’s revelation to the whole human
race; hence, its inspired pages are to receive illumination from all
disclosures of the primitive characteristics and customs of that race,
everywhere. Not alone those who insist on the belief that there was
a gradual development of the race from a barbarous beginning, but
those also who believe that man started on a higher plane, and in his
degradation retained perverted vestiges of God’s original revelation
to him, are finding profit in the study of primitive myths, and of
aboriginal religious rites and ceremonies, all the world over. Here,
also, what has been already gained, is but an earnest of what will yet
be compassed in the realm of truest biblical research.