Protestantism manifest almost the same attitude toward the Bible, and we
see them changing their attitude almost at the same time and in the
same direction. The theologians of the orthodox period exaggerated the
authority of the Bible to such an extent that critics like Lessing could
speak of Bibliolatry or Bible-worship. They extended the notion of
inspiration even to the smallest details in the printed text which lay
before them, with no regard for the fact that those details were late
additions, sometimes even misprints, and that the various editions did
not agree in these details. True scholastics as they were, they had no
sense for facts but an unlimited desire for theory; the facts had to
submit to the theory, and whoever would appeal to the facts against the
theory was denounced as a heretic and driven out as a disreputable
person. This doctrinal attitude changed when, at the end of the
seventeenth century, Pietism in Germany and Methodism in England once
again turned religion from ecclesiastical doctrine to personal devotion.
The estimation of the Bible is not diminished--quite the contrary; yet
it finds its expression not in stiff formulas of dogmatics but in
beautiful hymns. Under the direction of P. J. Spener (d. 1705) people
once more gather in private circles to read and to interpret the Bible;
once more the students are drawn away from dead scholasticism to the
living study of the Bible. To the _theologia dogmatica_ is opposed a
_theologia biblica_. People begin to realise again what is the true use
of the Bible, not as a text-book for dogmatic competitions and
controversies, but as the divine word of comfort and exhortation, a
guide to salvation, and an expression of salvation already gained. There
is a beautiful tract written by A. H. Francke of Halle (d. 1727) and
very often printed as a preface to the Bible in German, "A brief
direction how to read the Bible for edification." It sounds thoroughly
modern, as it deals not with questions of theology but entirely with
piety. This attitude was again changed by the so-called rationalism.
That movement, too, entered the Protestantism of Germany as well as of
England and America in various forms and under various names (deism,
unitarianism), but with the same tendency. It may be that it had an
easier start and a wider spread in the Lutheran church of Germany. We
shall speak of its influence in the next chapter. The Bible was
submitted to reason or explained according to reason. The Bible was to
be followed for the sake of the precepts of reason contained in it or
else not at all. It was, however, the common conviction that the Bible
gave the most reasonable injunctions, and whereas orthodoxy had been
mostly intellectual and Pietism emotional, rationalism by its moral
strictness helped the Bible to retain its influence on daily life.
This influence was due to the fact that since Luther's time the Bible
was in every house; it was the centre of the regular morning and evening
prayers, the father reading and explaining to his family some chapters
of the Bible. What a knowledge of the Bible had been gained by the laity
soon after the Reformation is shown by the prince elector of Saxony
Johann Friedrich, who at the important meetings held at Augsburg in 1530
was able to quote from memory all necessary passages of the Bible.
In Lutheran countries the influence of the Bible found expression in
arts and crafts. Not only were the walls of the churches decorated with
pictures taken from the Bible but also the walls of private houses. The
furniture of a farmhouse was painted with Biblical stories, very awkward
paintings, indeed, but showing the spirit of simple and plain devotion.
It is otherwise when a rich lady's dressing-table in baroque or rococo
is decorated with such scenes. We feel that they are out of place there
and that scenes taken from ancient mythology would suit such a purpose
much better. We should consider it a little profane that, at a wedding
dinner in the sixteenth century, between the several courses elaborate
dishes were passed, representing Biblical scenes. We cannot help
remembering the remark of that preacher of the old church who
exclaimed: "Oh, that they had these stories painted in their hearts!"
Much more important is the art of music. Luther was fond of it; he would
never have given up a choir and an organ. He made it possible for the
Lutheran church to produce the greatest masterpieces that music has ever
achieved--Bach's oratorios. While the Roman church directed the work of
its great musicians toward the glorification of the mass, and the
Calvinistic church became rigorously opposed to the very art of music,
the Lutheran composers were inspired by the Bible itself. The Biblical
sonatas of Johann Kuhnau (d. 1722) seem to us mere trifling. The real
work was done by Heinrich Schuetz (d. 1672) and Johann Sebastian Bach,
the cantor of Saint Thomas in Leipzig (d. 1750), who succeeded in giving
to the Bible a new voice, a voice which is still sounding and entering
circles where the printed Bible would scarcely be read. The combination
in Bach's oratorios is very striking--the majestic church hymns sung by
the choir, the simple recitative of Scripture, and, last but not least,
the arias giving the response of the pious individual to the words of
God in the Bible. This is the most characteristic part of it. Protestant
piety cannot be without the personal expression of individual feeling;
it is thoroughly subjective in the highest sense. As Luther in his
catechism explains the Apostles' Creed thus, "I believe that God has
created me...; I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord, who has saved
me...; I believe that it is impossible for me to come to Jesus Christ
without the help of the Holy Ghost...," so Protestant piety gives to
everything this subjective note. There is a Greek manuscript of the
Gospels from the fourteenth century, written in several colours to
distinguish the words of Jesus, of his apostles, of his enemies, and of
the evangelist. The narrative of the evangelist is given in green ink,
the words of the Pharisees and other adversaries of Jesus in black, the
words of the disciples in blue, and the sayings of Jesus himself are in
red. It is a curious piece of work, showing the tendency of the Greek
church to dramatise the sacred history of the Gospel. With this Greek
copy we may compare a Protestant family Bible mentioned by a modern
German preacher. It is a plain old printed Bible, but the pious
great-grandfather has marked it all through with various colours, which
he explains in a note: "What touched the sin of my heart:--Black. What
inspired me to good:--Blue. What comforted me in sorrow:--Red. What
promised me the grace of God in eternity:--Gold." The difference
between objective facts and subjective relation to them, between
apprehension and appreciation, is evident. This is the new spirit which
pervades the Protestant reader of the Bible, and therefore the Bible is
much more to him than it had been to Christianity in former times.
Where the Bible was read in such a spirit it was bound to gain an
influence upon the daily life. We must admit this even if we have no
direct evidence. The inward acting of the spirit in the individual is
inaccessible to scientific observation and statistics.
We are in a much better position regarding the Calvinistic circles, for
here the influence of the Bible was a public one. The Bible here was
recognised as the only rule to be followed in public life as well as in
private. The most characteristic feature is the attitude toward the
Sabbath. Luther had explained the third commandment (according to his
numeration, the fourth according to the Calvinists) as meaning "den
Feiertag heiligen," to use the day, granted by God as a holiday, for
going to church and listening to the preaching of the gospel; so the
Lutherans, who never called it Sabbath, did not insist upon avoiding all
work, but upon attending the holy service; besides, human feeling led
them to relieve their servants and employees so far as possible from
their labour. The Calvinists kept the Sabbath, as they said, exactly
according to the Old Testament commandment: "Thou shalt not do any
work." It reminds us sometimes of the minuteness of rabbinical Sabbath
controversies when we see how carefully the Sabbath is kept as a day for
doing no work whatever; even the children are forbidden to play with
their toys. It is a concession made to the gospel if works of piety, of
charity, or of necessity are permitted.
Another prominent feature is the use of Biblical names. Among Lutherans
and members of the English church the use of Christian names, mostly
derived from famous saints or kings, as Edward, George, Richard, Robert,
Thomas, William, continued; while the Calvinists preferred Biblical
names such as Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Jeremiah,
Nathaniel. They often chose the names of obscure persons from the Bible,
such as Abia, Abiel, Ammi, Eliphalet, Jared, Jedidiah, Jerathmeel,
Reuben, Uriah. It was not so much the admiration for this or that hero
in the Bible as the simple demand for something Biblical which gave to
the children such unfamiliar names. Parents did not care for the real
character of the man to whom the name first belonged provided he was
mentioned in the Bible; neither Delilah nor Archelaus had a reputation
which would make their names desirable; but, nevertheless, they were
given. Gamaliel was a Pharisee, a scribe, very far from being a
Christian, but the name, being in the Bible, became a Christian name
among the descendants of one of the Pilgrim fathers. Biblical
reminiscences also are to be found in Christian names, such as Faithful,
Faintnot, Hopestill, Strong; Praise-God Barbone, one of Cromwell's
followers, is said to have had two brothers, baptised with the Christian
names of "Christ-came-into-the-world-to-save Barbone" and
"If-Christ-had-not-died-thou-hadst-been-damned Barbone" respectively;
but this is apocryphal, and so is probably the American counterpart:
"Through-many-trials-and-tribulations-we-must-enter-into-the-kingdom-of-God"
(Acts 15 : 22) as a Christian name.
One can hardly deny that this Biblicism sometimes became an abuse of the
Bible. The Scriptures were used for investigating the future. This
method, which we have already noted in the second chapter, was made an
official one in the Moravian church. People used Bible verses in their
games; riddles were taken from the Bible. As the one and only book the
Bible had to serve as a whole library and provide all kinds of
entertainment. That is the other side of the matter.
The influence of the Bible on public life in the time of Puritanism is
illustrated best by the records of the first plantations in New
England.[2] When, in June, 1639, "all the free planters" of the colony
of New Haven "assembled together in a general meeting to consult about
settling civil government according to God," the first question laid
before them by John Davenport was: "Whether the Scriptures do hold forth
a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men in all duties
which they are to perform to God and men as well in the government of
families and commonwealth as in matters of the church." "This was
assented unto by all, no man dissenting, as was expressed by holding up
of hands." The second question was whether all do hold themselves bound
by that (plantation) covenant that "in all public offices, etc., we
would all of us be ordered by those rules which the Scripture holds
forth to us." This was answered in the same way. Therefore it was voted
unanimously, "that the Word of God shall be the only rule to be attended
unto in ordering the affairs of government in this plantation." Before
they go on to select officials from their number, the chapter on the
institution of the seventy elders (Ex. 18) is read, together with
Deut. 1 : 13 and 17 : 15 and I Cor. 6 : 1-7, and one of the planters
declares that he had felt scruples about it, but that these had been
removed by reading Deut. 17 : 15 at morning prayers. When a difference
arises between two members of the colony they refer it for arbitration
to brethren, in accordance with I Cor. 6 : 1-7. A prisoner is pressed to
confess his crime by reminding him of that passage of Scripture: "He
that hideth his sin shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and
forsaketh his sins shall find mercy" (Prov. 28 : 13). When a murder has
been committed they sentence the guilty to death "according to the
nature of the fact and the rule in that case, He that sheds man's blood,
by man shall his blood be shed" (Gen. 9 : 6). They refer to Lev. 20 : 15
in a case of bestiality in order to justify the sentence of death. When
questions and scruples arise between New Haven and Massachusetts about
the justice of an offensive war, New Haven refers to the story of
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, "who sinned and was rebuked by two prophets
Jehu and Eliezer for joining with and helping Ahab and Ahaziah, kings of
Israel" (II Chron. 17-20). From this, they say, one might infer that
even a defensive war and all leagues are forbidden by the law of God. On
the other hand, they rely on the conquest of Canaan and David's war
against the Ammonites (II Sam. 10) as examples for the justice of an
offensive war and even a vindictive war of revenge.
[2] _Cf._ C. T. Hoadly, _Records of the Colony and Plantation
of New Haven from 1638 to 1649_, Hartford, 1857, and
_Records of the Colony or Jurisdiction of New Haven from
May, 1653, to the Union_ (1665), Hartford, 1858.
It is their fundamental agreement, not to be disputed or questioned
hereafter, "that the judicial law of God given by Moses and expounded in
other parts of Scripture, so far as it is a hedge and a fence to the
moral law and neither ceremonial nor typical nor had any reference to
Canaan, has an everlasting equity in it and should be the rule of their
proceedings." This fundamental law, as it is fixed in 1639 and
reinforced in 1642 and 1644, shows clearly the spirit of this
legislation. At the same time we learn from the many restrictions how
difficult it was to adapt the Old Testament law to the needs of this
Christian commonwealth.
The first records of the Massachusetts Bay Company[3] show indeed a
marked difference. They are less Scriptural. In the royal charter given
to the company by Charles I in 1628 the Bible is not mentioned; the aim
of the colony is said to be "to win and incite the natives of the
country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour
of mankind and the Christian faith." The governor is bound by his oath
"to do his best endeavour to draw on the natives of this country, called
New England, to the knowledge of the true God and to conserve the
planters and others coming hither in the same knowledge and fear of
God," or, according to another form of oath, "to act according to the
law of God and for the advancement of his Gospel, the laws of this land,
and the good of this plantation."
[3] _Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts
Bay_, edited by N. B. Shurtleff. Boston, 1853.
But in the laws framed by the colonists themselves, the Bible is
constantly appealed to. Passing a law against drinking healths, in 1639,
the General Court declared this to be a mere useless ceremony and also
the occasion of many sins, "which as they ought in all places and times
to be prevented carefully, so especially in plantations of churches and
commonwealths wherein the least known evils are not to be tolerated by
such as are bound by solemn covenant _to walk by the rule of God's word_
in all their conversation." This statement is a solemn one, and they put
it into effect as far as possible. When discussing in the General Court
the question whether a certain number of magistrates should be chosen
for life, a question which had a good deal of importance for the future
development of the colony, they decided in favour of it, "for that it
was shown from the word of God, etc., that the principal magistrates
ought to be for life." Nay, even a question of minor importance raised
by the Scriptures, whether women must wear veils, was eagerly
discussed, both parties relying on Scriptural proofs.
When, in 1646, the General Court found it necessary to convoke a public
assembly of the elders, they did so, protesting, however, that "their
lawful power _by the word of God_ to assemble the churches or their
messengers upon occasion of counsel" is not to be questioned, and
therefore the said assembly of elders, after having "discussed,
disputed, and cleared up _by the word of God_ such questions of church
government and discipline ... as they shall think needful and meet," is
to report to the General Court, "to the end that the same being found
_agreeable to the word of God_, it may receive from the said General
Court such approbation as is meet, that the Lord being thus acknowledged
by church and state to be our Judge, our Lawgiver, and our King, he may
be graciously pleased still to save us as hitherto he has done ... and
so the churches in New England may be Jehovah's and he may be to us a
God from generation to generation." It is remarkable that not only the
church synod is to judge what is "agreeable to the holy Scriptures" but
the civil government takes it as its own duty to make sure that the
resolutions of the synod are really in accordance with the Scripture and
only then to give their approbation. It is the secular power which
feels bound to the Word of God and to superintend its strict observance.
But in fact state and church are not to be distinguished in this period
of New England history.
In 1641 the Rev. John Cotton, "teacher of the Boston church," published
at London "An Abstract or the Laws of New England as they are now
established." The first edition does not mention Cotton's name; this was
added only after his death in a second edition, published in 1655 by his
friend William Aspinwall. This Abstract by John Cotton does not
represent, as its title seems to indicate, the actual law; it is a
proposed code of laws for New England. But it has influenced to a great
extent, if not the legislation of Massachusetts, at any rate the "Laws
for Government, published for the use of New Haven Colony" in 1656. The
remarkable feature is that Cotton gives marginal references to the Bible
for each one of his rules, for instance: "All magistrates are to be
chosen (1) by the free Burgesses--Deut. 1 : 13; (2) out of the free
Burgesses--Deut. 17 : 15; (3) out of the ablest men and most approved
amongst them--Ex. 18 : 21; (4) out of the rank of Noblemen or Gentlemen
amongst them--Eccles. 10 : 17, Jer. 30 : 21," and so on. It is according
to the Old Testament rule that the eldest son ought to inherit twice as
much as his brothers; it is a true expression of the Old Testament
meaning when punishment is extended even to animals which kill a man
(cp. Ex. 21 : 28). The spirit of this legislation is almost as severe,
not to say cruel, as the spirit of Charlemagne's Saxon law. Twenty-four
kinds of trespassing are enumerated which are to be punished with death.
It is evidently against the legislator's own view that an exemption is
made for simple fornication, "not to be punished with death according to
God's own law," as he adds by way of apology. In the second edition the
Bible verses are printed at length in the text itself, the margin being
devoted to learned remarks on different translations. The motto which
expresses the character of this abstract is taken from Isaiah 33 : 22:
"The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King;
He will save us."
The official Laws of Massachusetts, as established in 1658 and printed
in 1660, have no Bible references in the margin; but in the restriction
of flogging to the effect that no more than forty stripes should be
applied, and in the requirement that sentence of death may be imposed
only when two or three witnesses testify to the guilt, the Biblical
rules given in Deut. 25 : 5 and 19 : 15 are seen to be at work.
Sabbath-breaking is to be punished with a fine of ten shillings, the
penalty being doubled in the second case. In 1630 a man had been whipped
for shooting on the Sabbath.
In 1647 the General Court passed a law ordering that each township
containing over fifty households should appoint a schoolmaster, and if
there were more than a hundred families, a grammar-school was to be
supported. This care for education is inspired by the desire of securing
a true interpretation of the Bible, as is proved by the following
statement of motives: "It being the chief project of that old deluder
Satan to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former
times by keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times by
persuading from the use of tongues, that so at least the true sense and
meaning of the original might be clouded by false glosses of
saint-seeming deceivers; that learning may not be buried in the grave of
our fathers in the church and commonwealth, therefore ordered," etc.
After the college had been founded in 1636, they chose in 1643 for its
seal a shield containing three books with _Ve-ri-tas_ written on them,
two open and one seen from the back. Oxford has between three crowns one
book with seven clasps. This book evidently is the Bible; it has
_Dominus illuminatio mea_ (Psalm 27 : 1) written on it. The seven
clasps are said to indicate the seven liberal arts and the three crowns
the three modes of philosophy. It is characteristic of the Puritan
spirit that their shield had nothing but three Bibles. The meaning of
_Veritas_, of course, is not (as it has been taken in recent times) that
the aim of all research is truth. The Puritan fathers were not concerned
with research; they believed in revelation, and it was by the revelation
laid down in the Bible that truth was transmitted to mankind. The three
Bibles may or may not be a symbol of the holy Trinity; the script on the
front and on the back recalls the book written within and on the back in
Rev. 5 : 1. They meant that the Bible was the fundamental source of all
knowledge. Harvard College was founded to be a training-school for
ministers, who should know the truth and its source. _Christo et
ecclesiae_ became the second motto of the college. That it has developed
into a university, containing, besides a college and the divinity
school, schools for law, medicine, applied science, etc., is due to a
total change of public opinion at a much later time. The Puritan use of
the Bible has disappeared, but something of the Puritan spirit may still
be seen in the inscription on the front of the modern building of the
Harvard Law School, drawn from Ex. 18 : 20: "Thou shalt teach them
ordinances and laws and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk,
and the work that they must do."
VIII
THE BIBLE BECOMES ONCE MORE THE BOOK OF DEVOTION
Having made our way through the centuries, we now approach our own time,
and at once we remark two facts: Never before had the Bible such a
circulation as it has now gained. On the other hand, it seems to have
lost most of its influence. We must look at these two facts before we
raise the question what value the Bible has for the civilisation of
to-day.
Printing greatly facilitated the circulation of the Bible and, as the
result of the Reformation, it had become the book of the Christian
family. And yet during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the
circulation of the Bible was rather limited. The Bible might be a
treasure of the household, but not the personal property of the
individual. The first editions, as we have seen, scarcely exceeded one
or two hundred copies. In contrast, one of the most assiduous and
industrious promoters of Bible reading, Baron von Canstein, who settled
at Halle in A. H. Francke's institute, published during the last nine
years of his life (d. 1719) forty thousand Bibles and one hundred
thousand New Testaments. To-day the British and Foreign Bible Society
issues more than five million copies--one million Bibles, one and a half
million New Testaments, and two and a half million parts of the
Bible--yearly. The progress is due to the invention of the rotary press
and other improvements in printing machinery.
Besides, the circulation of the Bible has received strong support
through the foundation of Bible societies. The story is well known how
Thomas Charles discovered the great desire for copies of the Bible among
his Welsh countrymen, how, when he gathered some friends for the purpose
of providing them with Bibles, the Baptist preacher Thomas Hughes put in
the question, "And why not for other peoples, too?" and how on his
motion the Society was started on March 7, 1804, as the British and
Foreign Bible Society. It is wonderful to hear of the work done by this
Society in the last hundred years. If one visits the Bible House in
Queen Victoria Street in London he gets an impression of the extent and
the importance of the work done there. The Society has its presses as
well as its translators all over the world; it has its agents scattered
through all the nations, and it has begun to do not only a publishers'
business proper but scholarly work as well. A vast collection of Bible
editions from all times and in all tongues has been gathered, and a
valuable catalogue published which is of great importance for
bibliography in general.