RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Bible
ical consideration of the Bible proved insufficient and dangerous in the next period. " Liberal theology, endowed with technical skill," showed error in Biblical tradition from a critical point of view, and in place of the Biblical evidences it substituted conjecturally the details of a natural history of religion, which it composed after the Hegelian formula to the effect that in the " historical revelation " there is to be seen the development of a religious idea, an act in the drama of the natural development of humanity (so F. C. Baur, E. Reuss, and Wellhausen). The results of this modern criticism were propagated among the people through the press and by pamphlets in a wild confusion along with the older, would-be enlightening defamations of the Bible (so by Reimarus, Venturini, and Bahrdt). Over against this sprang up a comprehensive literature which sought to gain those who were estranged from the Bible and to reassure disquieted readers. It was based on an acknowledgment of the part the revelation of God has played in the education of the race, and in a scientific manner discarded the unjustified conclusions of the so-called constructive criticism, at least as far as the New Testament is concerned. In this intellectual battle it became evident that the estimate of the Bible stands in an indissolubly reciprocal relation to the position taken toward positive Christianity in general.
It is therefore absolutely necessary (especially for the ministry and for ecclesiastical instruction) to have a clear insight into that which makes our Bible the unique " Book of Books." This is obtained by observing what it is that has given the Bible its historical position. Throughout the whole course of its working in the human race the Bible appears only in close connection with the Church, the essential activity of which, according to the Augsburg Confession (vii),is the preaching of "the Word." The common object of both is to convey the revelation of the living God. Whoever has become a believer in the Gospel and recalls his experience perceives also that the service of the Church by which he was led to it was inspired by the Bible, and further observation of life and history teaches that the efficacy of the work of the Church is dependent on the use it makes of the Bible. For only in the Scripture is found the unchangeable and therefore authoritative form of 4. Wherein preaching which first induced faith the Bible is in Christ and continues so to do. On Unique, the other hand, the Christian also recognizes that his personal relation to the Bible is due to the " living voice of the Gospel " and that through the Church he comes into personal relation with the Bible. He understands also that the Bible is the book of the Church (so Luther), but not a text-book or devotional book which in all its parts is immediately useful to the individual Christian. In it are found productions which are far remote from one another in date, which originally were intended for entirely different circles with quite peculiar wants. On this account only the cooperation of different gifts and the diligence of generations working on a scientific basis can bring out its full content. Under the assump-
tion of this service of the Church each living Christian has the possibility of coming thus through his Bible into immediate touch with the historical revelation of his God from the promise of the covenant to the beginning of the mission to the Gentiles. While historical inquiry establishes the historical continuation, and divides the whole Bible into single historical accounts and documents, the view of most Bible-readers is directed Only to the Bible as a whole, and seeks in every fragment a word of God applicable to immediate questions and wants. These divergent interests must be united by observing that the individual parts, by being comprehended as " the Bible," receive a new worth, and that in this very form they obtain an imperishable, effective continuity, instead of being merely individual monuments of past times. The collection is not an accidental one, but transcribes in characteristic features the life of the human race as it developed under the influence of the history of revelation. To him therefore who sees in reliance on God the stay of human life, the Bible will also be the book of the human race. For Christian belief the Bible appears thus as the great fact in which God has inseparably interwoven the faith-awakening knowledge of his revelation with the history of the human race, and in it is discerned the clear testimony to the goal of the human race and the conquering offer of God's grace.
M. Kaehlbr.
Bibliography: M. Arnold, Literature and Dogma, latest ed.. New York, 1902 (a rich book, but on rationalistic basis; it called forth many replies which were answered in God and the Bible, 1884); J. H. Crooker, The New Bible and its New Uses (Unitarian, ultrarationalistic); G. J. Metzger, Der alte Bibelglaube und der moderne Vernunftglaube, Stuttgart, 1893 (evangelical); J. T. Sunderland, The Bible . . its Place among the Sacred Books of the World, New York, 1893 (Unitarian); J. Denney, Studies in Theology, London, 1895 (by a leader in English evangelical thought); A. M. Fairbairn, Place of Christ in Modern Theology, London, 1896 (moderate in its theological position); P. Miiller, Freisinn und Bibelglaube, Hamburg, 1896; W. Sanday, Inspiration, London, 1896 (advanced in the O. T. part, conservative in treating the N. T.); R. L. Ottley, Aspects of the Old Testament, London, 1898; T. Zahn, Die bleibende Bedeutung des neutestamentlichen Kanons fur die Kirche, Leipsic, 1898; S. Bernfeld, Das Buch der Bucher, Berlin, 1899; C. A. Briggs, General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture, New York, 1899 (comprehensive and scholarly); R. S. MacArthur, Bible Difficulties and their Alleviative Interpretations, Boston, 1898; idem, The Old Book and the Old Faith, ib. 1899 (decidedly conservative); L. W. Batten, The Old Testament from the Modern Point of View, New York, 1901; R. G. Moulton, Short Introduction to the Literature of the Bible, Boston, 1901; P. Gardner, Historic View of the New Testament, London, 1904 (from a scientific standpoint); F. Bettex, Die Bibel Gotles Wort, 3d ed., Stuttgart, 1903, Bng. transl., Cincinnati, 1904; J. E. Carpenter, The Bible in the Nineteenth Century, London, 1903 (scholarly and reverent, but on scientific basis); J. Haussleiter, Die Autoritat der Bibel, Munich [1904], 1905; M. Dods, The Bible, its Origin and Nature, New York, 1905 (Dr. Dods is well known as a conservative critic); J. M. McMullen, The Supremacy of the Bible, ib. 1905; W Barry, The Tradition of Scripture, its Origin, Authority, and Interpretation, London, 1906; C. F. Kent, Origin and Permanent Value of the O T., New York, 1906; A. T. Pierson, The Bible and Spiritual Criticism, ib. 1906; G. F. Wright, Scientific Confirmations of O. T History, ib. 1906; W C. Selleck, New Appreciation of the Bible, Chicago, 1907; H. F. Waring, Christianity and its Bible, ib. 1907.
BIBLE CHRISTIANS. See Methodists, I., 8.
Bible Christians Bible Beading: