May, 1942
THE K INO ' S BUSINESS
188
NOTES on Christian Endeavor
II. ITS BEGINNINGS IN ENGLISH. Coming now to our own English Bible, we find that a little more than 400 years ago the Bible of England was the Latin Vulgate, or Catholic Bible translated from the Hebrew and Greek by Jerome at the close of the fourth century. Few men and fewer women could read it. The people were dependent on the c l e r g y for their knowledge of the Bible, and the clergy were not familiar with the Book. It was a young Oxford man named Wil liam Tyndale who undertook a trans lation of the New Testament, saying, “If God spare my life, before many years I will cause a boy that driyeth the plough to know more of the Scrip ture than the learned.” He had to leave England because of fierce perse cution, and in 1525 he published at Cologne an octavo edition of the New Testament which he had translated from the Greek. This was something new, for John Wycliffe’s translation of 1382 had been made from the Vul gate. Tyndale’s translation was so excellent that it colored all the trans lations that followed: Coverdale’s in 1535; Rogers in 1537; the Great Bible in 1539; the Geneva Bible in 1560; the Bishops’ Bible in 1568; and the King James in 1611. How splendid were the beginnings is seen from the fact that we Still use the King James Ver sion, which continues to be a great favorite among the common people. The American Standard Revision and the similar British Revised Version are more recent translations. III. ITS BEGINNINGS IN US. Every one in the Society ought to be able to take part by testifying to the beginnings of the Bible in his own personal experience, speaking a few .words on one of the following subjects: 1. The beginning of its power in our lives (Rom. 1:16; Psa. 119:11). 2. The beginning of our interest in it (Jer. 15:16; 2 Tim. 3:15-17). 3. The beginning of our study of the Bible (Psa. 1; 2 Tim. 2:15). 4. The beginning of our love for it (Psa. 119:97, 140). 5. The beginning of our use of it in soul-winning (Isa. 55:11; Eph. 6:17; 2 Tim. 2:15; 1 Pet. 3:15). JUNE 14, 1942 WHO ’S WHO IN THE BIBLE H ebrews 11:4-34 By Mildred M. Cook Introduction “There is scarcely an hour in the day in which some one does not come in to consult Who's Who," commented a librarian in the public library of a large city. Because practically e v e r y young person is acquainted with this popular
FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
T h e W r i t e r s
j une 7 — reid M c C ullough Dr. McCullough is Professor of Biblical Languages at the Bible In stitute of Los Angeles. He has been engaged in pastoral work for many years, and for several years he was an instructor at the Los Angeles Baptist Theological Seminary. June 14—MILDRED M. COOK Miss Cook, who is the Managing Editor of THE KING’S BUSINESS, has been a teacher of young people’s Sunday-school classes as well as of teacher-training classes. June 21—CONARD SANDY Mr. Sandy is Professor of Systematic Theology at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and is pastor of the Third Brethren Church of Los Angeles, Calif. He is president of the Brethren Young People’s Camp for Southern California. June 28—IRENE M. HUNTER Miss Hunter (Biola ’24) is a member of the Bible Women of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and teaches Euodia Clubs for junior high .school and high school girls and Eteri Clubs for young women of college and business age.
the father of a new nation, to whom and through whom by supernatural r e v e l a t i o n He would commit the writing and custodianship of the oracles of God (Rom. 3:2). Several hundred years afterwards, w h e n Abraham’s descendants had grown into a nation in Egypt, God raised up Moses as a deliverer and lawgiver and prophet to Israel, and inspired him to write the Law or the first five books of the Bible. Here we have the beginnings of the Bible. Modernists contend that such a de tailed system of religion as this was impossible so early, and they main tain that the Pentateuch or Law is the finished p r o d u c t of Ezra and others of his time (the fifth century B.C.) in the days of Judah’s restora tion after the Babylonian captivity. Yet we have the testimony of Christ Himself that these books are the writ ings of Moses (John 5:46, 47), and that is sufficient for all believers. (Scholarly evidence for early writing of these five books by Moses can be found in such books as Melvin Grove Kyle’s The Problem of the Pentateuch and Robert Dick Wilson’s A Scientific Investigation of the Old Testament.) The h i s t o r i c a l books, chronicling events of the days of the judges and the kings, together with the mes sages of the prophets and the rest of the Bible, are an unfolding of the principles s t a t e d in the Law (Lk. 24:27, 44; Matt. 5:17; 7:12; 22:40). “The New is in the Old contained, The Old is by the New explained.”
JUNE 7, 1942 OUR BIBLE: ITS BEGINNINGS 2 P eter 1 :20, 21 By Reid McCullough Introduction The Study of the beginnings of dtl great things is interesting and im portant, and the Bible is the greatest of all books. Sir Walter Scott, when dying, r e q u e s t e d , “Bring me the Book.” To the query, “W h a t book, Sir?” Sir Walter replied, “There is but one Book; bring me the Bible.” For Those Who Have Topics I. ITS BEGINNINGS IN HEBREW. , |When God created man, He revealed His will to him as recorded in the two verses of Scripture, G e n e s i s 2:16, 17; and when man sinned, God r e v e a l e d His will in six verses, Genesis 3:14-19. As time went on, He added to His revelation as need arose, sometimes by personal appearances (theophanies) to c h o s e n men, and sometimes by holy men of old, who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost; e.g., Enoch and Noah (cf. Jude 14; 2 Pet. 2:5). These revela tions were kept alive mostly by tra dition (cf. Psa. 48:13 concerning this custom in later years), and sometimes by writing. But God had something better in store for His people. The time came when God felt that a permanent and trustworthy record of His dealings should be made and pre served, and He chose Abraham to be
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