THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
BIBLE.
The Bible in the Early Church (§1).
In the Middle Ages and Reformation Period (§ 2).
Modern Views and Criticism (§ 3).
Wherein the Bible is Unique (§ 4).
The word " Bible " (from Gk. biblia, " books ") or "Holy Scripture" is the customary term in Church and theology for the ecclesiastically acknowledged collection of the Old and the New Testament writings. As the writings of the Old Testament canon are indicated in the New Testament by the term " The Scriptures " or " The Scripture," so in the Middle Ages the whole was designated by " The Books." By a misunderstanding of the Greek form, the word was received into the modern languages as a singular of feminine gender.
The separation of these writings from all other literature as " the Book of Books " is derived from the practise of Jesus, who, with his contemporaries, acknowledged the authority of the Old Testament literature (M. Kaehler, Jesus und das Alte Testament, Leipsic, 1895). The Old Testament was conveyed, in the Greek translation of the Septuagint, as the Word of God, to the Gentile Christians by the followers of Jesus. At the latest in the beginning of the third century, the New i. The Bible Testament canon was added to the Old in the Early Testament, as is witnessed by the Syr- Church, iac version (see Canon of Scripture). And from that time the bipartite collection was always treated as a whole, although the uncertainty about some books (the so-called Antilegomena) was not forgotten during the Middle Ages, was recognized by Luther and other Reformers, and was treated from a dogmatic standpoint by Martin Chemnitz (Examen concilii Tridentini, Frankfort, 1596). The controversy about the Old Testament Apocrypha has never been settled. What esteem the Bible enjoyed in the ancient catholic Church is seen from its controlling position in divine service, in the reading of Scripture, and in the delivery of sermons founded on it, but especially from the labor spent in translating it (see Bible Versions, A).
It must not be imagined that the Middle Ages did not rightly appreciate the Bible. It is necessary to take into account the great difficulties which confronted the Church at that time in forming an ecclesiastical language, and even a literary language, for the Germanic and Slavic nations. In the absence of modern philology the efforts made are worthy of acknowledgment. The 2. In the hierarchical development of the Church Middle tended to paralyze it by enforcing Ages and uniformity in use of the church-lan- Reforma- guage at the expense of intelligibility, tion Period, and in the interest of an easier management put the " heretical book " into the keeping of the ecclesiastical magistracy. But the Reformation introduced a new epoch of wide propagation and appreciation of the Bible. The efforts of the Reformers to make this book accessible to all Christians were taken up by Pietism under Spener; the founding of the Canstein Bible Institute (see Bible Societies, II, 1; Canstein,
Karl Hildebrand, Baron of) and the sending out of the first missionaries opened the double way by which the Bible, especially in the nineteenth century, has obtained its commanding position in the world; knowledge of the Bible has been spread by the Bible Societies (q.v.) through hundreds of newtranslations (a work in which Englishmen and Scotchmen, well read in the Scriptures, have distinguished themselves). The Bible has become in the fullest sense the people's book in all Protestant countries of the Old World, and the same process is being repeated among the non-Christian nations, to which missionary cooperation gives the Bible and with it often also an alphabet and a literary language.
This zeal for the propagation of the Bible has its root in the unique importance which the theology of the Reformation ascribes to it. In opposition to the ecclesiastical position of Rome, the Evangelicals developed their doctrine of the " normative or decisive authority of Scripture" on the basis of the un controverted character of the Scripture as revelation. This high regard has as its foundation the doctrine of " verbal inspiration " (see Inspiration), which ascribes to the Bible all requisite qualities, such as " perfection " in communicating the " knowledge necessary for salvation," " transparency," and the " power of interpreting itself by itself." Unobserved, the body of pure doctrine, by the help of which the renewal of evangelical activity had been accomplished, became transformed into a set of doctrines which were mechanically combined, regardless of their historical origin. In opposition to the adulterated tradition of Rome, Protestantism 3. Modern could happily refer to the bulwark Views and of Scripture, in which Roman Catho- Criticism. lies also acknowledged divine revelation. But evangelical theology first succumbed to the attack which the " Enlightenment " (Aufkldrung) , about the middle of the eighteenth century, made upon all history and tradition and especially upon historical revelation. In vain the effort was made to prove dogmatically the immediate divine origin of the Bible-letter, while proof was also given in an ever-cogent manner that the Bible is a production of human authorship and tradition. This crisis was gradually overcome by the victory gained for the " historico-critical " method of treating the Bible, but the right of historical revelation was established over against " natural morality and religion." As in earlier times historical development within the Bible was now and then perceived (e.g., by Cocceius and Bengel), so now studentsee in its writings documents of divine revelation which entered into the human world as historical facts (so the Erlangen School). Only one group of theologians of the nineteenth century ie.g., Hengstenberg and Rudelbach) went back again t^> the old doctrine of verbal inspiration; most investigators assumed a new attitude toward Scripture. Documents to have value must be shown to be ancient and to be derived from a time near the events they relate; there must be testimony to their genuineness and credibility. But such merely histor-