The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 1938. THE BIBLE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 100, 30 April 1938, Page 8

The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 1938. THE BIBLE

T'O-MORROW, being Bible Sunday, attention will be given to the Bible itself. As a book it is interesting, not only for its spiritual message, but also for its revelation of the working of a simple economy among the early Jews, as a record of their social development and for the insight it affords into human passion, fears and faiths. As a companion book for a man in isolation it is the finest piece of literature. By the influence of one copy it brought about the conversion of Adams, the Bounty mutineer, so that from a man of the sea he became a man of God and gave to the simple half-caste progeny of the mutineers a spiritual heritage which has stood them in good stead ever since. The history of the Bible itself is also one which is exceedingly colourful. It goes back over the centuries prior to the Christian era and remains one of the great mysteries, for none can say how or by what means it came to its present condition. There are those who speak of the Bible as the Word of God. It is an appropriate description, for Man can hardly be given even the credit for preserving it, let alone compiling it. There exists no historical account of the formation of the Old Testament Canon. The popular idea that it was closed by Ezra rests on no ancient foundation. It gained ground in the thirteenth century, when it assumed the form that the “men of the Great Synagogue’’—a body of dubious historicity says the Encyclopaedia Britannica—with Ezra as president, collected the books, restored the text and made the threefold division. Through the reputation of thirteenth century writers this view gained general currency, but it rests on no authority in antiquity whatever. The history of the Book of Genesis would undoubtedly be very interesting indeed, if it were known, but it is not. That hook records the questings of primitive minds, but scholars believe that the record itself indicates that it is the work of four writers at least with an editor who probably lived in the time of Ezra (It will be seen that editors are ancient evils). Undoubtedly the foundation of this book rests in folktales, but there is such remarkable insight revealed by the material that it is surprising that it has not been lost altogether. It would make a. fine theme for a scholar’s thought to expound why this vein of gold has been preserved in the remarkable way that it has been. lhe form of the manuscripts of the Old Testament in which they are presented, is that of the Massoretie text, the date of which is usually placed between the sixth and the eighth centuries. It is probable that the present text became fixed as early as the second century A.D., but. while that assumption goes a long way back, there is still a. very long period between that early date and the times when the Books of the Old Testament were first conceived and eventually written. All the Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament represent one and lhe same text, namely the Massoretie. This work was the work of trained scholars who combined in a special guild 1o preserve and transmit the eonsonantel text which had been handed (town to them. They also desired that, the proper pronunciation should be preserved and so those scholars added to Ihe lex| a complete system of vowel points and accents. There were, nevertheless, other versions of'the Old Testament besides what eventually became the Massoretie text. It early became necessary to translate, the Old Testament, into other languages. Eor instance, the Samaritan community preserved a version of the Pentateuch which they had held from the time of Nehemiah. about 432 B.U. [ls chief importance lies m its substantial agreement of the present text of the same hook. " hen the Jews eeased speaking Hebrew and turned to Aramaic, paraphrases of the books of the Old Testament appeared in Hie language of the day and were known as the Targums. Thus long ago was the work of the British and I'oreign Bible Society ant icipafed.