The Right Knock / A Story

by Helen Van-Anderson

"As we look back to earlier times, through the various channels, we find that much of what is considered history is merely legendary; that long before the art of writing was known, these legends and myths were handed down from generation to generation, and from age to age. Familiar as we are with human nature, we may well imagine the additions and subtractions and divergencies introduced by each succeeding narrator, copyist or editor in every age. This is a very important feature to be considered in interpreting ancient scriptures, but there are also others. History reveals the fact that the books of the Old Testament were not written nor arranged in the order in which they now appear in the Bible. For instance, while it has been generally considered that the first five books were written by Moses fifteen hundred years before Christ, the best authorities have found at least a portion of them to have been written, or compiled rather, in their present form 600 to 700 B. C.

"Whether Moses or some one else wrote them detracts not the least from the value of the truth they contain, for whatever is true, can not lose its value or be effected by the authorship. This is only one of the many facts that might be produced to show that the Old Testament came in the most natural way, and not at all through a miracle or by miraculous interposition.

"Referring again to the best records we have, we find the books of the New Testament were written from 50 to 175 A. D., thus showing the liability to mistakes, and the reason for many of the discrepencies in the New Testament. That the time between the writing of the oldest and the latest parts of the Bible covered a period of more than a thousand years, should have much significance in our judgment of both the writers and their writings.

"Dr. Heber Newton says: 'We are not to read the Biblical writers as though they were all cotemporaries. They are separated by vast tracts of time. The later writers stand upon the shoulders of their predecessors and see farther and clearer. We are not to view the institutions or doctrines of the Bible as though no matter in what period of development of the Hebrew Nation, or of the Christian Church they were found, they were equally authoritative to us.'

"Though the prophets and apostles were inspired, we must remember that they necessarily had to use the language and methods of speech prevalent in their time in giving their divinest revelations to the people. The language was rich with Oriental imagery, strong figures of speech, and allusions to manners and customs of other nations. Unless we understand something of the literature and customs, the religious ceremonies and laws alluded to, we are very much in the dark as to the original meaning.

"For instance, unless we know the custom that prevailed in ancient times of putting the sins of the people, figuratively speaking, into a white cloth, dipping the cloth into blood, tying it to the horns of the scapegoat, and turning the animal loose in the wilderness till the sun, air and rain had bleached it white, we can not appreciate the expression, 'though thy sins be as scarlet, yet shall they be washed white as snow.' Until we realize that the ideas and language as well as the customs and rites of barbarous and ignorant heathendom influence every page of the Bible, we shall not know how much allowance to make for the revelations of the Divine, and the suppositions and possible mistakes of the human. Until we know that the Bible has gone through many hands since its words were first spoken or written, we can not realize the possible loss of its most spiritual meanings.

"Moses, Isaiah, David, John, Paul had the grandest revelations possible to man, experiences not 'lawful to utter,' not possible to clothe in words. The unspeakable can not be put into speech. To attempt it is to color it with finite meanings. To describe the Infinite is but to limit or confine God.

"When we consider that no very ancient writings have reached us without the marks of many pens; when we consider the impossibility of exact translation, the difficulty of perfect copying all the years before the art of printing, the method of canonizing the books and formulating creeds, we must know that something besides God's message has come down to us. And yet a message is there notwithstanding.

"Yes, the authors of the Bible were inspired. Whatever of Truth they revealed is infallible, but as men with finite conceptions and abilities, they could not comprehend nor reveal all of God.

"'God is the same yesterday, to-day and forever,' and talks to man face to face to-day even as with the immortal Moses.