BIBLICAL QUOTATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 253, 26 October 1933, Page 6

BIBLICAL QUOTATIONS.

No discussion on economic reform seems tobe complete without someone bringing forward as proof of the futility of trying to ameliorate social conditions, "Ye have the poor always with you"; and I notice that the recent discussion at the Anglican Synod was no exception. The apparent belief of so many otherwise intelligent people that in repeating these words they have said something relevant and conclusive is probably due to their having neglected the sage advice "Always verify your quotations," for the interpretation which they accept is in fact one of the commonest examples of the misconceptions that arise from that utterly unintelligent attitude of mind which regards the Bible as a miscellaneous collection of isolated "texts," something like Michael Scott's mighty book of magic °spells in the "Lay of the Last Minstrel." Whatever view may be taken of the inspiration of the Bible, it must, surely be admitted that it is a collection of books, each of which, if its true meaning is to be apprehended, must be considered as a whole, with due regard to the circumstances with which it deals and under which it was written; that the second personal i pronoun, when used in the Bible, no more necessarily means everybody always and everywhere than it does in any other book; and that the meaning of sayings recorded in the Bible must in general be taken to be that which would naturally have been attributed to them by those to whom they were uttered. Anyone who will look up the saying in ques- • tion must see that there is not the slightest reason to assume that its hearers would take it, or were meant to take it, as a pronouncement on the possibility, in some future age, of abolishing poverty. It would be just as reasonable, if a man were to say, "You can always find me at my office from ten to four," to assume that he meant it as a prediction that he and his office would last as long as the world endured, and that throughout all future ages he would be discoverable there by all the rest of mankind between the honrs named. • M.Ai •'