5
Steps Through Scripture
`I do so want to understand the Bible. I have read some chapters in Genesis, some parts of the Gospels, some of
the Acts, but there is so much to read and so much that is strange; lists of unpronounceable names, peculiar and
almost inexplicable deeds, that I just have to be content with a few well-known and well-loved passages, as
Psalm 23 or John 14; yet, I am quite certain such a way of reading is unfair to myself, and quite unfair to the
Scriptures themselves'.
Have you ever felt like this? Or have you been approached, as we were by a young believer who could not `see
the wood for the trees'? If so, you might find the present approach a suggestion that will help the earnest reader
over this rather formidable barrier, a barrier that largely exists in the mind, because the main outline and general
plan of the Scriptures have not been grasped.
Without long preparation or meditation, and immediately after having spoken for an hour on an entirely different
Biblical theme - the back of an envelope, a few hurried lines and the following guide for a young believer's reading
emerged.
As we have already said, nearly every teacher would favour a different set of books in answer to the problem set
before us, and there is no reason why this wonderful Word should not have as many approaches as there are
doctrines to learn or failures to admit. Without more ado, therefore, we turn to the first of our readings:
GENESIS
The Hebrew Bible simply lifts the words `In the beginning' and uses that for the title of this book, and we are
indebted to the Greek version of the Old Testament for the title `Genesis', which obviously is allied to the word
`generation' and the idea of origins.
The believer whom we had in mind when this approach was suggested was one who was much perplexed by the
ridicule that fellow science-students poured on the credulity of any one who could possibly accept a book that taught
that the universe (with its countless `suns' and `systems', its `light years', its fossils, its geological evidences of
deposit and upheaval) was `created 6,000 years ago', a mere tick of the clock in comparison with geological and
astronomical time. The first rejoinder to this, is simply that these so called `scientific' objectors do not treat the
Bible `scientifically'; they are but attacking what they think the Bible teaches and, as scientists, should be ashamed
of their most evident unscientific bias. Let us ask one of these enlightened and superior intellects whether they have
ever noticed that the Authorized Version has gone out of its way to use two different types to print the word `was' in
Genesis 1:2, and if not, should not there be some red faces among these scientific objectors whose boast it is that
they deal only with observed facts?
These two words are of as much importance to the understanding of Genesis 1 as two sorts of fossils found
imbedded in geologic strata would be to the true interpretation of the evidence of the rocks. Speaking simply, `was'
when printed in italics, indicates the verb `to be' which is not written in Hebrew but implied, whereas the word
`was' in ordinary type tells us that the Hebrew verb so translated is the verb `to become', as for example, `Man
became a living soul' (Gen. 2:7).
However many millions of years or ages are necessary to express the remoteness of `the beginning', these are all
allowed for in Genesis 1:1, `In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth'; and verse two indicates a
geological catastrophe, the last before the reconstruction of the earth for the advent of the man Adam. It is with this
man, the purpose of his creation, and the One he foreshadowed, that the Bible is concerned; in other words, the
Bible is a book of Redemption.
It is both unscientific and unreasonable to demand that Moses, who was leading a multitude of suppressed and
ignorant slaves out of Egypt, should attempt to impose upon them anything more than what would satisfy them as
they stood before Mount Sinai, and heard one of the tenets of the covenant there made:
`Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy ... For in six days ... ` (Exod. 20:8-11).