The Origin And Character Of The Bible And Its Place Among Sacred Books PDF Download

From the Introduction. A NEW view of the Bible, a distinctly "modern" view, is making its appearance in Christendom, and tending slowly to displace the " old view " which has been held so unquestioningly and so long. The change has not been sought or planned by anybody; it is simply coming about as the result - a result which nobody seems able to stop or hinder - of the greatly enlarged knowledge of the modern world. The object of the present book is to set forth as clearly, definitely, and comprehensively as possible - it is hoped also candidly and fairly - this Modern View of the Bible, -what it is, reasons for it, and its results so far as they can be traced or foreseen. Let me be more specific. Perhaps there is no subject of more living or more urgent interest now before the religious world than that of the "Higher Biblical Criticism" and its consequences. What is the Bible? Is it such a book as for some centuries Christian nations have believed it to be? Or is it something very different? What has an honest, independent, and competent biblical scholarship - a scholarship which investigates thoroughly so as to find out the facts, and then speaks in the interest, not of any church or party or any form of theological dogmatism, but of truth - to tell us about the Bible, - as to its origin, its authorship, its growth, the circumstances under which it arose, the causes which produced it, its relation to God, its relation to men, its inspiration, the changes which its various writings have undergone, its reliability, its place among the sacred books of mankind, its transitory elements, its enduring elements, its permanent value? The following pages are an endeavor to answer all these questions, frankly, without evasion, reverently, and with as much fullness and detail as the space at command will permit.