Enjoying the Bible
By H.A.WHITTAKER
CONTENTS
preface
1. A welsh girl and her bible
2. the same, and yet not the same
3. bible television
4. "through the looking glass"
5. poets and their picture language
6. new testament light and shade .
7. "for our learning"
8. living prophecy
9. old testament idiom
10. idiom in the new testament
11. fact and figure
12. young and strong ..
13. the irony of it
14. again—and again ..
15. bible geography
16. the power of contrast
17. names are not labels
18. "i have been here before" . .
19. what is the writer getting at? .
20. the family tree
21. filling in the blanks
22. italics, capitals, underlinings
23. learn your tables
24. bible student's best friend ..
25. keep on watching details!
26. "packed with contradictions"
27. the smallest words
28. and the next smallest
epilogue ..
subject index
PREFACE
this book is an attempt to answer the requests of those who read Exploring the Bible and wanted more on the same lines. The pattern of it is what it is because I couldn't write it any differently, and because talking and writing about the details of Scripture is one of the biggest pleasures of my life. So though the writing has been hard work, it has also been a glorious self-indulgence.
Inevitably this book will be found to be loaded with the writer's personal enthusiasms. It has an element of lop-sidedness in the way in which some parts of the Bible have been drawn upon for illustrations very much more than others. The explanation of this is simple. The reader will hardly need the uncanny insight and confident discrimination of a higher critic to deduce which particular books of Holy Scripture have been the writer's main interest in the couple of years before these studies were written.
As in its fore-runner, so also in this volume, each chapter consists mainly of an accumulation of examples. It is difficult to write profitably or even sensibly about Bible study in terms of general principles. In this field especially one learns from seeing the job done. Even better still, one learns by doing.
There are those whose idea of Bible study is to dedicate hours to poring over expositions which they deem dependable. This method is not recommended here as of first importance. It rarely produces a good Bible student. The aim of this volume is not so much to stereotype interpretations in the mind of its readers, as to inculcate an alert attitude of mind when reading the Scriptures. The observant eye for detail, the ready mental association of similar passages, the prompt appreciation of a vivid phrase, the quick recognition of an allusion to an earlier writer, the dedication which thinks nothing of a painstaking hour poring over the pages of a concordance, the humility which recognises the limitations and shortcomings of work done, the honesty which acknowledges that many a conclusion is not proven but only probable (or possible)—these are characteristics of a good Bible student only to be acquired by unremitting application to the text itself, not to books about the Bible.
Throughout this book Bible references have been inserted in the text. I have little enthusiasm for those two devices of modern printing—the relegation of references to the foot of the page or to the end of the chapter. Now and then a fairly large block of these references has been included in the hope that their appearance may incite some readers to do a little "homework".
I conclude this preamble with two apologies and an acknowledgement.
If a certain degree of repetition of ideas has crept in here from my other writings, I ask the reader's indulgence. Every Bible student has his "King Charles' head"—the favourite themes amounting almost to obsessions, which will insist on obtruding themselves.
All care notwithstanding, mistakes in fact and errors in judgement are sure to be found in one or two places. Readers who treat them indulgently are thanked in advance.
As with Exploring the Bible, the writing of this book has depended very considerably on the author's semi-invalid wife. Once again "every chapter has received its share of her appreciation and/or ruthless criticism". In case she is not aware of my gratitude, this is now very sincerely written into the record.
A WELSH GIRL AND HER BIBLE
nearly two hundred years ago—1784 was the precise date— there was born in an obscure village in Wales a girl whose zeal for the Word of God was destined to leave its mark on world history. Mary Jones' parents were poverty-stricken tuberculous weavers in Llanfihangel. Life was hard in that poor cottage and luxuries of the smallest sort unknown. But there was godliness.
From her earliest days Mary loved to hear the telling of Bible stories. It is difficult to know how accurately these were told by her parents, for there was no Bible in the house, and if there had been, no ability to read it. Nor, as she grew older was there opportunity for Mary to attend school. Llanfihangel had no school. But when she was ten opportunity came to go to school at Abergynolwyn 3 miles away. Of course Mary had to walk. No school bus in those days! And she was far too poor to own a pony.
She was a quick pupil, and before very long was being used as unofficial auxiliary teacher (unpaid) to instruct younger children.
All this time she had no Bible, but as her eagerness to know the Book grew so also did her determination to have a copy of her own. A relation of the family, Mrs. Evans Evans, who lived two miles away, had a Welsh Bible and was willing for Mary to go as often as she wished in order to read it. So, almost daily, Mary walked those four miles for the pleasure of reading the Scriptures.
But she must have a copy of her own! And this meant eager disciplined self-denying saving for a long time. She took on any additional activity which might add to the meagre store of pennies she was setting aside. She chopped wood for old Mrs. Rees, she looked after the neighbours' children, she spent long hours hemming sheets. And it was
a great day when Mrs. Evans Evans gave her three chickens, for even at the pathetic prices ruling then, eggs meant more pennies.
That first year's saving yielded the princely sum of one shilling! The next year, two shillings and sevenpence—and Mary looked forward with shining eyes to the day when she would have a Bible oi her own. But then her ailing father fell more sick than he had ever been, and what little money Mary was able to get had to go towards keeping the home going. However, she never relaxed her efforts or her determination.
So it took six years of dedicated labour before there was money enough for that long-coveted copy of the Scriptures.
But now there was the money, where to get the Bible? There was no book-shop within miles of Llanfihangel. Mary was told that Mr. Thomas Charles, a minister in Bala, would probably help her. So one day, with a little bread and cheese to help her on the way, she walked barefoot by lonely paths through the mountains more than twenty-five miles to the home of Mr. Charles. There, in the minister's study, tired, pathetic, strained, but eager as ever, Mary held out her money and asked for a Bible. "But I have only one spare copy " he said, "and that is already ear-marked for someone else." But then he heard her story, and in his mind's eye saw her, dogged and footsore, walking those endless miles through the mountains. "No matter," he added, "you shall have it. Others can wait till I get a further supply."
So next day, with a springy stride, Mary returned home with her precious Bible, pausing now and then to rest a while and to use the opportunity to read from the Scriptures, a lamp to her feet, a light to her path.
And there the story of Mary Jones ends. No more is known about her.
Her legacy to the world
But not long after this, in 1802, at a meeting in London Mr. Charles told the story of Mary Jones and her Bible, and pleaded for the founding of a society to print the Bible in Welsh. The idea met with immediate approval. However, one member of the company, with more vision and faith than
the rest, stood up and declared with passionate emphasis; "But I say, if for Wales, why not for the world?"
The proposal was taken up with acclaim. Two years later The British and Foreign Bible Society formally came into existence, with the avowed objective of making the Bible available in all the tongues of Babel. In 1814 the Bible Society of the Netherlands was formed. Two years later came the American Bible Society. Today they are the United Bible Society, operating on a massive scale with the financial help and support of Bible-minded people everywhere. How many millions of Bibles have been printed during that one-and-a-half centuries?
"This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the
world, for a witness unto all nations."
Mary Jones never had the slightest inkling of the mighty work her simple single-minded zeal for the Scriptures would set going. In this sophisticated, materialistic twentieth century, how many bring to the Bible a fraction of the reverence and zeal which took Mary Jones through the hills to Bala?
THE SAME, AND YET NOT THE SAME
readers of Matthew's Gospel can hardly fail to note the contrast between the beginning and the end of the ministry of Jesus. His teaching began with an eight-fold pronouncement of blessedness: "Blessed are the poor in spirit", and so on (5 : 3-10). In the last week eight terrible woes were uttered against the "scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites" (23 : 13-23). Inevitably one is reminded of blessings and curses recited in the ears of the people of Israel from Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal when their conquest of the Land under Joshua-Jesus had been confirmed (Joshua 8 : 30-33). The greater Jesus also spoke his blessings and curses on two different mountains—the blessings on a hillside in Galilee of the Gentiles, the curses on mount Zion, in the very court of the temple. And Zechariah foretells (14 : 4) that on some future day the Mount of Olives will split in two, north and south, in preparation for the pronouncement of blessings and curses of eternal destiny.
Similarities of idea, phrase or action such as these just cited are commonplace in the Bible. Just as the same device or design is often traceable in widely dissimilar parts of God's natural creation, so also in the world of spiritual truth. God's history repeats itself. His teaching and the methods of imparting it likewise recur over and over again. But the modern mind is not accustomed to this, and these resemblances, which can be so forceful when their point is appreciated, often go unrecognised.
Two other examples out of a great many from the ministry of Jesus are worth mentioning here.
The smitten rock
It was the Feast of Tabernacles, the last great Feast in Jerusalem before the Passover when Jesus died. At this
celebration Israel were specially bidden to recall the experiences of their forefathers in the wilderness, when their needs were miraculously met by the divine provision of manna and of water from the smitten rock. With reference to the latter, on each day except the last, there was a solemn procession from Siloam to the temple, the priests carrying golden bowls filled with water which they poured out at the base of the altar. On the last day, "the great day of the feast", when the water-carrying ceremony was discontinued, "Jesus stood and cried in the temple: If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink; and he that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said: Out of his belly (the Messiah, typified by the smitten rock) shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7 : 37, 38).
This action and appeal by Jesus, like so many of the things he did in the concluding months of his ministry, was a deliberate attempt to focus the attention of the nation on himself. The sands of time were running out. Soon Israel's opportunity would be gone. The Son of God was not to be in their midst much longer.
Open-air meetings
On only two other recorded occasions did a prophet of the Lord attempt to stage a mammoth open-air meeting in the temple court. There was the time when Zechariah, of the family of Jehoiada, "the Blessed of the Lord", denounced the growing apostasy in the reign of Joash, and then "they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the Lord" (2 Chron. 24 : 21). There was also Jeremiah's great attempt to awaken the conscience of the nation before condign judgement past recall came on them from the Lord (26 : 1-7). "Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die, for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears" (v. 11). It was only by the stalwart loyalty and protection of Ahikam that Jeremiah escaped with his life (v. 24).
The reaction to the appeal of Jesus in the temple court was just the same: "the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him" (John 7 : 32). And apparently it was at that feast that "they took up stones to cast at him" (8 : 59). The
pattern of behaviour was just the same. Later, with Stephen, their intention went unhindered, and the man of God died. In sharp contrast with these examples there are the open-air meetings held in the temple by those two good and great kings, Hezekiah and Josiah (2 Chron. 29 : 4, R.V.; 34 : 29-32). They were a storming sucess—as also will be the next mass meeting convened there by a King!
"Hate father and mother"
When Jesus called on his disciples to "hate father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also" (Luke 14 : 26), he was requiring of them only what he himself had had to do. For, when his friends—his own family, actually—said: "He is beside himself", and went out to lay hold on him (Mark 3 : 21), they were rebuffed with some of the most austere words he ever spoke: "Who is my mother, or my brethren? . . . Behold my mother and my brethren (those who sat about him). For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."