n~he Bible as Literaturer -and M ore How the Manuscripts Were Preserved and Brought Together— Miracle of the Ages „ By DR‘ A' ■ HE Bible is literature written by the command of God. He certainly commanded Moses to write the book of the law. To C. DIXON ture, must be under the guidance of God. The Bible is literature written by the command of God, under the guid ance of God, and preserved by the pro vidential care of God. Moses com manded that the book of the law should ‘be placed by the side of the Ark. No safer place could have been found, and the more I study the history of the Bible the more profoundly am I con- \vinced that God has kept His book by the side of some ark all through the ages. As the Church-has been under His care and protection, so has the Book.
John on the Isle of Patmos a great voice as of a trumpet said, “ What thou seest write in a book and send it unto the seven churches.” And before the vision vanishes he is commanded to “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things whiclr shall be hereafter.” He is to write history, current events and predictions, and much of “ the Scrip tures” may be classified under these three heads. The Bible is literature written by the command of God .and under the.guid ance of God. In 2 Pet. 1;21 we read: “ Jio prophecy ever came by the will of man, but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.” In writing to Timothy, Paul said, “ Every Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable.” There is no doubt that this is the cor rect translation. Look at the same Greek idiom in other places and you will find that if it is translated accord ing to the revised version it makes non sense. What the Holy Spirit meant to say was that every Scripture among “ the Scriptures” referred to by Christ is “ God-breathed and profitable.” Of course the writers of Scripture were in spired, but this means that the writing is also inspired. God’s breath is in the writing, so that when we speak the word of God we may be sure that His life is in it. It is plain that men, in order to write the God-breathed words of Scrip-
We have no autograph manuscripts of the apostles, and for a very good rea son. God knew that His people would be inclined to regard with superstitious reverence, if not with worship, those autograph manuscripts, and just as He has allowed every place in Palestine where Jesus stood to be so effaced that no traveller can be certain he is stand ing on the exact spot pressed by the feet of Jesus, so He has allowed these auto graph manuscripts to be destroyed, that we may be saved from the temptation to superstitious reverence. He would call our attention to the truth more than to the material form of the book. Let us look now at some of the arks in which the Bible has been preserved. (1) In Ancient Manuscripts. The oldest of these is known as the Vatican Manuscript, which has been in the Vati can at Rome certainly five or six hun dred years. It lacks the first four chap ters of Genesis, thirty-two of the Psalms, and all of the book f>f Hebrews after
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