A New Study Bible

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30895, 30 October 1965, Page 4

A New Study Bible

Study Bible. Revised Standard version. Eyre and Spottiswoode. 2112 pp. Annotations, Concordance, etc. This new Study Bible by an American theologian, Dr. Harold Lindsell, based on the Revised Standard Version, will be eagerly welcomed by many who find it difficult to find their way through the religious country of which the Bible is both signpost and interpreter. The introductions to the books of the Bible are excellent. They are short and comprehensive.. The ordinary reader, for whom this work was written, will gain much knowledge and insight by reading the introduction to each book, leaving the text until later. Then when he comes to the text he will find that the author has carefully broken every chapter into sections, each headed by an appropriate caption, thus binding the chapter together. The Annotations throughout the Study Bible are scholarly, simple and reveal consideration for the views of biblical scholars of different schools of thought. The Study Bible is obviously the work of a conservative scholar, but in these days of many voices clamouring for a hearing even in the realm of religion, the conservative point of view is very necessary in keeping our feet on

the ground while our eyes are attempting to probe heights and horizons beyond us. An example of the conservative point of view, veined with an understanding of the liberal outlook, is seen in the annotation based on the story of creation in the Book of Genesis. “There are differences of opinion whether the days of creation were 24-hour solar days or long periods of time marked by a beginning and an ending. . . . Some are of the opinion that it is proper to conclude from a scientific viewpoint that the days were probably periods of time rather than 24-hour days.” The same calm appraisal is evident throughout the work That this volume of biblical riches was compiled by one man must seem to many to be. inevitably, a constricted piece of work. But it is riot so. What can be said, and said firmly, that it is the evangelical position that is emphasised. It would be wrong to say that Dr. Lindsell is a fundamentalist but it would be right to say that he is a foundationalist Between the two there is a hiatus. This work is not written for the theologian but for ordinary Christian folk who love the Bible and who will find here the guide they have been hoping to find. This splen-didly-produced book ‘is weighty in scholarship, but also in avoirdupois for it weighs two and a half pounds.