Plato's outlines of theology' (in the second book of the Republic) have not yet lost their validity or power. 'God is good and God is true': from these canons or standards of moral and religious assessment we must never consciously swerve. In the spirit of Plato we too might say that many stories in the Bible are probably untrue,' ' not because they necessarily misrepresent facts, but because the lapse of time prevents us from knowing whether any facts underlie them' (Theory of Education in the Republic of Plato by R. L. Nettleship in Hellenica, p. 92). This kind of untruth is educationally of small moment or concern to us. But they may also, like the story of Elisha and the she-bears, be untrue in another and more serious sense; they may not only veil our want of historical knowledge, they may also contradict our fundamental ideas about the subjects of which they treat; they may be not only unhistorical, but morally or metaphysically inconsistent and illogical.' If, for example, 'the subject-matter is the divine nature,' then since of this nature we must have a more or less definite conception,' wherever any story contradicts that conception, we must pronounce it false' in the second and more serious sense. Such stories, then, in a Bible for Home Reading must either be omitted altogether (as the bear' story is omitted in the present book), or their falsity' must be clearly pointed out (as e. g. in the present volume in the case of the historian's estimate of King Jehu). 6 My primary object, then, is to help those parents who, feeling the difficulties which I have here indicated but briefly, require in the Biblical teaching of their children aid and guidance from without. At the same time I hope that my book may also prove of more general utility. The plan which I have adopted will familiarize children from the first with the actual words of the English Bible. My own remarks and comments, printed in smaller type, are partly explanatory and partly homiletical. The passages in larger type are direct quotations from the Bible. Whether it be history, legislation, or prophecy, in each case I have let the Bible speak for itself without paraphrase of my own. So far as the large type passages are concerned, my work in them is limited to omissions and, occasionally, to rearrangement. The Authorized Version is the basis of the translation, but I have frequently corrected it, either where its rendering of the Hebrew is almost certainly erroneous, or where the Hebrew text, on which the Authorized Version depends, is in all probability corrupt, or where, at any rate, a better sense can be obtained by following the Septuagint or the conjectural emendation of a modern scholar. But of such emendations unsupported by the Septuagint or any other of the Versions very few have been introduced into the present volume. I do not, however, see why parents and children should not have the advantage of a good translation of the Bible made from a tolerably good text. Occasionally I have modernized the phraseology of the Authorized Version, but I have by no means been consistent on this head. I regret that in the earlier portions of the book the paragraphs are often far too long. I did not realize this error till it was too late to correct it. The division into chapters and verses is neither indicated nor followed, but the two copious indexes at the end will make it perfectly easy for any one to see at a glance, first, in what chapter and verses of the Bible any large type passage in my book may be found, and, secondly, whether any particular verse or chapter in the Bible has been included, and if so, on what page it occurs. In so large a work, for the compilation of which I have not had a great deal of leisure, I have naturally borrowed heavily from the labours of others. My chief authorities and guides in my departures from the Authorized Version have been our own wonderful English Variorum Bible, edited (in the Old Testament portions) by Professor Cheyne and Professor Driver, and the no less admirable German Bible, called Die heilige Schrift des alten Testaments übersetzt und herausgegeben von Prof. E. Kautzsch. In quotations from Isaiah and the Psalms I have been specially aided by the translations of Professor Cheyne. The present volume begins with Abraham and goes down to Nehemiah. Why I begin with Abraham, and not with the creation and the story of Paradise, is sufficiently explained in my last chapter, in which excerpts from the first eleven chapters of Genesis, with the requisite remarks and explanations, will be found. It is enough to say here that I consider these early chapters too full of grave moral and religious difficulties to form a suitable beginning. A collection of Laws from the Pentateuch is given in my sixth chapter. Joshua and Judges (except the story of Samson) are entirely omitted; tales of bloodshed and slaughter, unredeemed by moral teaching, yet set too often in a pseudo-religious framework, are very unsuitable in a Bible for Home Reading. In the history from Samuel onward I have inserted many extracts from the Prophets in their proper or chronological order. A glance at the second index will show how much of the prophetical literature is included in the present volume. Its successor will, I hope, contain selections from the Psalter, the Proverbs, and from other books, the date of which falls after Nehemiah. In that second volume I trust to carry the history down to the Maccabean period, and to insert select portions from the Apocrypha. I have said that the book is intended for parents. But it is also intended to be put directly into the hands of children. As regards my own comments, they are of varying difficulty, like the different portions of the Bible itself. Some of them could be understood by an intelligent child of seven or eight; others could, perhaps, be only understood by an intelligent child of thirteen or fourteen. But from my own point of view, and therefore, ex hypothesi, from the point of view If, however, a child read the last chapter of the book Whether I have attempted an impossible combination, 6 |