Samuel Ayres - The Expositor's Bible - Index

In the Expositor's Bible both the old and the new schools of criticism are represented. Thus a great opportunity was offered to critics; and a crucial experiment was tried which was of the utmost importance to all Christian Churches. When the books of the Old Testament were read in the light of the new criticism, would it still be possible to derive from them a consistent and reasonable account of the history and religion of Israel; would they still stimulate and nourish Christians' faith, piety, and devotion, and minister to the needs of the spiritual life? The volumes of this series written by representatives of the new school of criticism have enabled us, it is claimed, to answer this question with an emphatic affirmative. For the general public the first volume of Prof. Geo. Adam Smith's Isaiah was an epoch-making book, revealing undreamed-of possibilities in the way of fresh light breaking forth from the ancient Scriptures. The British Weekly wrote of this work, "Isaiah is for the first time made perfectly intelligible to the people… Mr. Smith has opened out a new line of work … which will do more than many arguments to reconcile a timorous and misguided public to scientific scholarship and the newer criticism."

Another modern tendency which influences the interpretation of the Old Testament is the decay of ecclesiastical authority. There are still, and always will be, those who are willing to believe anything on the bare word of their favorite preacher. But in the long run this kind of faith does not count. On the other hand there are many, religious or capable of religion, to whom it would seem absurd to suggest that the decrees of Churches had any great value in matters of faith. As regards the Old Testament, for instance, neither the creeds of ancient councils nor the resolutions of modern synods, neither papal bulls nor episcopal edicts could seriously affect the attitude of such men to, say, Canticles , Ecclesiastes and Esther . The testimony of the Church Universal – of which creeds, confessions, and other standards are the least important part – induces inquirers to read the Bible. But in religion, an authority is only effective by its own inherent force; it must be able to assert itself so as to win sympathy, to produce conviction, and to secure obedience. A distinguished Cambridge scholar is in the habit of saying, when he is asked how he "takes" a passage, that he does not take the passage, but the passage takes him. So the great sayings, discourses, and narratives of the Old Testament take hold of their readers and compel acknowledgment of the authority of Revelation. The best we can do for the Bible is to let it speak for itself; the only essential doctrine of Scripture is that it is the duty and privilege of every man to read it, and to read intelligently, taking advantage of all the light afforded by history, archæology and criticism. The great object of the Expositor's Bible has been just this – to let the Bible speak for itself.

Criticism has powerfully stimulated public interest in the Bible, and the wealth of new information and new ideas has produced an extensive popular literature on the Sacred Scriptures. The traditional etiquette which demanded that the Bible should be marked off from all other books by its sombre binding and its arrangement in chapters and verses has been rudely set aside. Almost every possible variety of editions have been published of late years – Bibles of every shape and size, from the portly quarto for the lectern to the dainty series of duodecimo volumes for the pocket; Bibles with and without notes or illustrations; Bibles treated as classic literature; Bibles bound in cheerful colors with æsthetic tooling. It has become possible to read the Scriptures in a railway train without being guilty of pharasaic ostentation. At the same time there has been a deluge of "Helps," "Companions," "Teachers' Notes," etc., etc., intended to supply the latest information in popular, but sometimes a little misleading as to the critical results of modern, Biblical study.

But the most important feature of recent literature for ordinary Bible students is the publication of standard works of reference in which the real results of modern research are made accessible. For nearly thirty years Smith's Dictionary of the Bible , in its English and American editions, rendered invaluable service; and a revision of this work was published some time since. But just recently two entirely new Bible Dictionaries have been published in which British, American, Dutch, German and Swiss scholars of all the Evangelical Churches, together with one or two learned Jews, co-operate.

Dr. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible 7 7 T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh. Four Volumes, with a fifth supplementary volume. represents the more conservative position, while somewhat more advanced views find expression in the Encyclopædia Biblica , 8 8 A. & C. Black. Four Volumes. edited by Prof. Cheyne and Dr. J. Sutherland Black.

In all this literary activity, the various Bible Societies have taken an important part; chiefly through their instrumentality the Bible in whole or in part has been translated into over 400 languages, and probably since the invention of printing about 300,000,000 copies of the Scriptures or of portions have been put into circulation. An important feature in this work is the decision of the British and Foreign Bible Society to circulate the Revised Version – a step all the more significant as it followed shortly after the publication of the American edition of the Revised Version, and the vote of the Anglican Convocation approving of the reading of the new translation in the services of the English Established Church.

The last fifteen or twenty years have seen a great growth of religious journalism. Popular periodicals have multiplied; and several important theological reviews have been started in England and America, notably the Critical Review , the Hibbert Journal , and the American Journal of Theology .

The years since the publication of our series began, in 1887, have witnessed marked progress in the study of the Old Testament, of which we propose to give a brief sketch, beginning with the Archæology, i. e. , chiefly the results of excavations in Egypt, and in Syria, Assyria, Babylonia, and Arabia. The last fifteen years have made immense additions to the known facts which have a bearing on the history and religion of Israel, and the interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Assiduous exploration is continually pushing back our knowledge of the ancient East to a more and more remote antiquity, so that already we discern the dim outlines of history in what we have been wont to call prehistoric times. We seem to know something of life in Egypt in B. C. 7000 or it may be even B. C. 10,000. At the same time our knowledge of later periods is continually increasing, though comparatively little is found that directly and explicitly either confirms or contradicts the Old Testament. Perhaps the most relevant amongst recent discoveries is an inscription of Meneptah II. This king is often spoken of in popular handbooks as the "Pharaoh of the Exodus," and his father and predecessor Rameses II is referred to as the "Pharaoh of the Oppression." But in this newly found inscription Meneptah claims to have subdued Israelites in Syria.

But the most striking amongst recent discoveries is the collection known as the Tell el'Amarna Tablets , found at Amarna in the Nile Valley in 1887. They form a connecting link between Egyptology and Assyriology, and bring forth their relation with Palestine. For, though they are part of the archives of the Foreign Office of Amenophis IV, B. C. 1400, they are, for the most part, written in the cuneiform Babylonian, and consist of despatches to the Pharaohs from Babylonian, Hittite, and other Eastern kings, and from the Egyptian officials, and tributaries in Palestine, and the rest of Syria. These letters throw a flood of light on the condition of Western Asia. We see, for instance, that at that time Palestine and Phœnicia were provinces of the Egyptian Empire.