NEW TESTAMENT READING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26532, 6 August 1947, Page 2

NEW TESTAMENT READING

AN AID TO UNDERSTANDING Understandeth Thou? By Dr lan W. Fisher. Presbyterian Bookroom, Christchurch and Dunedin. 10s. Those who feel that their study of the New Testament, intensive though it may have been, still leaves questions unanswered, will be deeply grateful to Dr Fisher for Understandeth Thou? for they will find that this concise book resolves most of the problems which have exercised their minds. It is not merely an explanation, however, or just another “ translation.’’ It goes much deeper. An enormous amount of research has gone into it, and the result is a remarkably clear exposition of the background of the books which comprise the New Testament. The picture which the author paints of Palestine is done in very clear colours. First he describes the land—its surprising smallness, its climate, and its geophysical features. An interesting comparison which assists towards greater clarity is drawn between its characteristics and those of our own Dominion. Then the author gives an outline of the social background of the people there 2000 years ago—how they earned their livelihood and spent their leisure, what their homes were like, what they ate and drank, and how they were educated These sections are as fasc’inating as any travel story. Dr Fisher next shows how the New Testament came to be written —how the stories of Christ’s life and works, which had been recounted orally in widely-scattered places, came to be collated and committed to writing, how the books thus compiled were accepted or rejected by the various Church authorities and now, after tor tuous processes of selection, we come to have the record which is now accepted as being authentic beyond dispute. In this connection Dr Fisner shows the greatness of the debt pres-ent-day believers owe to the early scribes for their steadfast faith ana diligence. . . By his labours Dr Fisher has almost invested the books of the New Testament with a new meaning, so clear is the background which he has given to them. Understandest Thou? was originally designed to simplify the course of Scripture teaching at St. Andrew’s College, Christchurch, but it is worthy of' a far wider field that 1 was originally envisaged. Sunday school and Bible class teachers everywhere will almost certainly wonder how they were able to carry on their instructions without it. E. C. C.