Bible Versions: To Each His Own
The Teen-age Version of the Holy Bible; Modern King James Version of the Holy Bible; The Children’s Version of the Holy Bible; and The Children’s Bible Story Book: Old Testament, by Peter Palmer, with 418 color illustrations by Manning DeV. Lee (McGraw-Hill; 1962; 1527, 1535, 1535, and 223 pp.; $7.95, $7.95, $7.95, and $3.95), are reviewed by James Daane, Editorial Associate, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
The publishers’ own comments provide apt description of these three Bible versions. “The series evolved when a Midwestern publisher, Jay Green, ran into difficulties teaching his own three children to read. Realizing that the ‘foreign’ language in which the Bible was written, and the difficult vocabulary were part of the problem, he began to prepare portions of the New Testament in a language that they could understand. He started learning Greek and plunged into a systematic program of translation.”
Teen-agers, we are told, want their own version of the Bible. “It isn’t that we lack the vocabulary to follow what goes on in an adult version,” the teenager is quoted as saying, “but that on every page it is easy to see and to feel that this book [the Bible] was not prepared for us.” Yet several check comparisons between the Old Testament of the TAV (Teen-age Version) and that of the MKJV (Modern King James Version) reveal no difference between the two. The same plates seem to have been used for both.
To effectively meet this teen-age need, teen-agers were consulted (students in public and private schools, members of various religious youth organizations, and even Boy Scouts). A current advertisement declares that the TAV was “edited by experts and teen-agers.” When teen-agers were asked, “What kind of Bible does a teen-ager want to read?” they “told us exactly what features they desire.” They even, according to the publicity release, “suggested that the words which were added to make the meaning clearer should be italicized in order to show that they weren’t part of the original language. This Bible is just what they want.” We can agree with a statement in the Preface of the TAV: “Teen-agers are smart.”
What did teen-agers get? Not a Bible that has been rewritten or paraphrased, say the publishers. Nor a watered-down version, as are some others. Teen-agers, we are told, are impatient with “those who water down Bible words.…” Today’s teen-agers must be a new breed! They got “all of God’s words everywhere,” and also the assurance that “all verses normally memorized are still in their familiar words.” Their Old Testament, as mentioned above, appears to be identical with that provided for the new adult version. What they got was the KJV with many old English words eliminated: “view” is changed to “look over,” “lodged” to “stayed,” “wot not” to “do not know,” “is fallen” to “has fallen,” and the like. The New Testament of the TAV shows a recasting of language and difference of words when compared with the new adult version. Sometimes these are innocent enough (as when “the” is omitted in one and included in the other, or when the Baptist in one is said to be clothed “with” and in the other “in” camel’s hair), and some are definite improvements; others, however, are theologically misleading, as for example when “under the law” in Romans 3 is changed to “within the law,” which will mean to the teen-ager—as it would to anyone else—a keeping of the law.
Except for a three-page “What The Bible Says About:” which includes such items as kissing and petting, there is nothing about this version except the title which suggests that it is a teen-age version. Tempted parents had best read before they buy.
What did adults get? A version described as “modern” but which to many people will sound very much like the untouched King James, and which when compared with the TAV will drive the reader to look at the cover to determine which version he is reading.
In the Preface, written by Jay Green, the principles and methods employed by translators of other versions are decried and those followed by the producers of this modern, adult version of the KJ indicated. “Instead of giving Bible readers the kind of new Bible we thought they ought to have, we in preparing the Modern King James Bible have adopted the principle that we should give them what they wanted.” Further, “What they [the consulted public] really want is a removal of plain and clear errors … and a carefulness to leave untouched what cannot surely be improved upon. This is their clear directive. This principle has been followed.…”
Few, if any, versions of the Bible have come to the public with such an explicit dissociation from the scholarship usually associated with this kind of biblical work. And few, if any, versions have been presented to the public with such bald and abject catering to the demands of the market place. So reputable a publishing house as McGraw-Hill deserves better treatment than this, even from its own hand.
“Now for the first time! The whole Bible for the whole family”—so runs the advertisement. Is it true that the Church has been so negligent as to have left the whole family without the whole Bible all these centuries? One expects advertisement to be a bit fluffy, but this is too much.
It is also legitimate on the grounds of the verbal inspiration of the Bible to question the propriety of graded translations. Is it possible to have graded Bibles without downgrading the inspiration of the Bible? Matthew, Paul, and the rest felt no need for multiple graded versions; I suspect this was not from lack of concern for children and teen-agers, but because of another understanding of the nature of the Word of God.
As for the Children’s Version, only careful search will discover any differences of language between it and the TAV, and no kind of search will reveal any consistency or pattern followed in making the changes. In the TAV, verses 11 and 12 of Genesis 6 say that the world was “corrupt,” while in the CV verse 11 says it was “corrupt” and 12 that it was “filthy.” In Psalm 25:11 “iniquity” is changed to “sin,” but not in Isaiah 53.
Most indicative of all: the pages of the TAV and the CV, and even the number of them, are the same; no change of language was allowed as would demand the making of a new set of plates.
Even the reference list entitled “What The Bible Says About:” is identical with that of the TAV—with the result that interested children have ready reference to what the Bible has to say to them in the event they are “starting a new job,” “making a new home,” or “planning [their] budget.”
None of these versions differs sufficiently from the others, or from the original King James to warrant either its title or its publication.
Peter Palmer’s The Children’s Bible Story Book is a legitimate venture (it does not claim to be the Bible); with quite some success she tells biblical stories in intelligible, simple language—aided by many attractive illustrations.
JAMES DAANE
Reading for Perspective
CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S REVIEW EDITORS CALL ATTENTION TO THESE NEW TITLES:
★ The Literature of Communism in America, by Robert F. Delaney (Catholic University of America Press, $6.50). More than 1,700-entry selected bibliography of Communist and anti-Communist literature, chiefly from American authors; with brief description of each.
★ Christianity and Barthianism, by Cornelius Van Til (Presbyterian and Reformed, $6.95). The author deplores Barthian theology as “man-centered Protestantism” or “higher humanism” that springs from fatal compromise with modern immanentistic philosophy.
★ Historical Atlas of Religion in America, by Edwin S. Gaustad (Harper & Row, $8.95). A brilliant blend of fact and illustration of religion in America.
Bright But Limited
The Interpretation of Scripture, by James D. Smart (SCM, 1962, 317 pp., 35s; Westminster, $6), is reviewed by G. E. Duffield, Member of The National Assembly of The Church of England.
Exegesis is vital to any preacher, and Smart will not allow it to be separated from exposition in the manner of those like A. G. Hebert. The present tension between historical and theological exegesis is explained by an analysis of the history of critical scholarship. The culmination of the survey comes with the theological challenge by both Barth and Bultmann to the older liberal approach. For liberals Smart has little time. He exposes their false claim to objectivity and shows that in fact they simply read their presuppositions into the Bible. The liberal dream of an objective approach is just an illusion, for we must approach the Bible with some presuppositions, and these should be Christian. Barth and Bultmann offer very different approaches. The former is criticized for his Old Testament typology while the latter sits too lightly to history.
Smart has the happy knack of pinpointing the problems and of seeing the errors of scholars, but he is not so good with solutions. His chapter on typology is unsatisfactory, being taken up too much with various definitions. He never faces the New Testament’s typological use of the Old Testament, but merely rejects typology altogether as reactionary. The book is so taken up with what happens in Germany that it neglects too many important exegetes—both Lightfoots, Cullmann, Lagrange, and so on. Though Smart rightly stresses the unity of the Bible, he seems so afraid of giving up his critical views that he never looks at the New Testament’s use of the Old Testament seriously. His knowledge of evangelical scholarship is very limited; he criticizes it apparently without any knowledge of exegetical studies by Tasker or Earle Ellis.
G. E. DUFFIELD
The Place Of Christ?
The Place of Bonhoeffer, edited by Martin E. Marty (Association, 1962, 224 pp., $4.50; paper, $2.25), is reviewed by Stuart Cornelius Hackett, Professor of Philosophy, Louisiana College, Pineville, Louisiana.
This cooperative theological effort, to present Bonhoeffer’s thought in its overall development as centering in Christology and the doctrine of revelation, is symptomatic of the revived interest in the martyred German pastor’s thought in recent years. The fact that he was thus executed by the Nazis (in 1945), together with the fact that his highly controversial prison letters have only recently been made available in English (Prisoner for God, translated by Reginald H. Fuller, Macmillan, 1957), probably accounts in large measure for this renewed interest. In particular, Bonhoeffer’s letters have precipitated a considerable debate in the theological world by reason of the fact that in them he advocates what he calls a non-religious, this-worldly, secularized Christianity; interpreters seem unable to agree either on what Bonhoeffer really meant by this emphasis or on whether such a view is to be regarded as supplementary to, or as contrasting with, the theologian’s earlier published views. While an extreme interpretation would regard Bonhoeffer as expressing, in the context of his prison experiences, a radical break with his earlier position, the writers of the present volume agree on finding a continuity of Christological content which extends throughout their subject’s brief but full career. In any case, this problem, as to the significance of a secularized Christianity in a world supposedly come of age, occupies a significant place throughout the book. Is a non-religious Christianity a Christianity that is interpreted in a totally symbolic, mythological fashion? Or is it, more conservatively, a Christianity which insists that commitment to Christ should be not merely a preparation for the next life on the periphery of this one, but rather the center and vital force of life in this world in the inescapable struggle with distinctively human problems? Bonhoeffer’s own words seem to provide fuel for both fires. Hence, the controversy.
In any case, this book does succeed in presenting the various aspects of Bonhoeffer’s thought in such a way as to explain the development of his theology in his successive books and as to point out that in all of his books Christology stands as the unifying center of an adequate theology. For Bonhoeffer, revelation, redemption, the Church, history, and society all find their true center in Christ, who is God’s Word. On the subject of Christology itself, Bonhoeffer, in typical neoorthodox fashion, expresses dissatisfaction with both the liberal and the orthodox views: an adequate Christology, he thinks, will express an insistence on the real presence of God in Jesus Christ without making separate “objects” of the deity and the humanity of Christ and without requiring an answer to the question of how God was thus incarnate. All attempts to answer the “how” question end with making the historical Jesus the mere vehicle of an eternal essence or idea. One gets the impression, however, that for Bonhoeffer the truth here lies much closer to liberalism than to traditional orthodoxy.
While all the chapters in the book are well written by recognized authorities in their fields—men like Franklin H. Littell, Peter Berger, and Walter Harrelson—I found the chapters by Franklin Sherman, Jaroslav Pelikan, and George W. Forell to make the greatest contribution to my own understanding of Bonhoeffer’s thought. Incidentally, the value of the book as a whole is greatly heightened by the use of summary paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter, in which, among other things, each author’s position and professional qualifications are briefly described. A considerable improvement of the whole book would have been achieved, however, if a general summary had been added to the total effort. Probably the most valuable result of reading such a work will be that the individual will be led to read Bonhoeffer’s own books—books which constitute an important chapter in the history of theology in our epoch-making century.
STUART CORNELIUS HACKETT
Publishing Achievement
The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, edited by George Arthur Buttrick and associate editors (Abingdon, 1962, four volumes, $45), is reviewed by Everett F. Harrison, Professor of New Testament, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California.
More than 250 writers representing 15 countries, backed by a six-man editorial board and an equal number of consultants have contributed their specialized knowledge to this new work which must be hailed as a notable publishing achievement. The editor is quite justified in claiming that this Bible dictionary approaches encyclopedic proportions. Careful planning and fine craftsmanship add much to the attractiveness of the volumes.
What will the reader find as he turns these pages? He will find discussions of all biblical data and phenomena, including the doctrines of Scripture. He will find many pages of colored illustrations and maps, but no index. In their content the articles represent a cross section of current critical scholarship, with variations according to the viewpoint of the individual writers.
In general this work may be said to be for our time what Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible was for its generation, with some resemblance at times to the more radical Encyclopaedia Biblica. Articles dealing with pentateuchal subjects usually come down heavily on the side of documentary analysis, which may have value for the specialist but hardly for the reader who is looking for a straightforward explanation of the biblical material. For example, the first major article deals with Aaron, and it is so filled with allusions to J, E, P, and the redactor that the reader gets no overall conception of the character and work of the great high priest. This is unfortunate.
Yet there are good features, plenty of them, in a work which, as a rule, is well balanced, with ample coverage of the more important subjects, and good bibliographies. One will find full accounts of the text of the Old and New Testaments, unexpectedly extensive articles on Jerusalem, the Temple, synagogue, and many other items. The literature of the intertestament period is carefully treated in individual articles, and there is one also on the Talmud. It is a pleasure to come upon information on travel and communication in both Testaments, and to note that the materials of the Qumran discoveries are woven into the presentation where they are pertinent (as in the article on Sin). One encounters a great deal of data bearing on geography and archaeology of the sort which could prove helpful to Sunday school teachers.
No pains have been spared to make this dictionary complete, useful, attractive and durable. The discriminating student will find it a helpful tool.
EVERETT F. HARRISON
To Know Him Better
Toward the Understanding of St. Paul, by Donald J. Selby (Prentice-Hall, 1962, 355 pp., $6.60), is reviewed by R. H. Mounce, Associate Professor of Biblical Literature and Greek, Bethel College, St. Paul, Minnesota.
The stated purpose of this book is “to help the reader toward a better understanding of Paul and his contributions to the life and thought of Christianity” (p. v). Selby seeks to lay before the reader a manageable summary of all the extensive literature relating to Pauline studies. This includes such things as background, literary problems, and interpretation of the apostle’s thought.
The author, who went to Catawba College as Professor of Religion after completing his doctoral program at Boston University, leads his reader through the various discussions with precision and scholarly restraint. He analyzes the problems with clarity and never attempts to establish a point of view at variance with that generally accepted by New Testament scholarship. The footnotes serve as an excellent bibliography for the student wishing further information on a particular subject.
It cannot be denied that Dr. Selby has brought together and organized a great deal of pertinent and helpful material. Whether he has succeeded in demonstrating its relevance to a more penetrating grasp of the life and thought of Paul is doubtful. It is interesting to be reminded that just below Tarsus the Cyndus flowed into Lake Rhegma, but the student grappling with the crucial issues of Pauline thought will perhaps feel that the author in a book of 334 pages of text could well have been more selective, and also more careful to avoid a description of Paul’s milieu for its own sake.
R. H. MOUNCE
For Students And Ministers
New Testament Introduction: The Pauline Epistles, by Donald Guthrie (Inter-Varsity Press, 1961, 319 pp., $5.95), is reviewed by Bastiaan Van Elderen, Associate Professor of New Testament, Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
With the publication of this book the first of Donald Guthrie’s projected series of three volumes on New Testament Introduction has appeared. This is a thorough and scholarly presentation. It is evident that the author is well versed in this area and sets forth an analysis of the subject along conservative lines. It is refreshing to read such a work and to note the fair and careful handling of divergent views.
This book is an “Introduction” to the Pauline epistles in the technical sense of the term. Each of the Pauline letters is analyzed along this general pattern: the recipients, occasion and date, purpose, structure and integrity, outline of contents. Where special problems have arisen, Guthrie gives particular and thorough consideration to these. In these discussions he is up-to-date, objective, honest, and not afraid to admit that in places the evidence does not allow for conclusive answers.
Guthrie is inclined to consider Galatians to be the earliest of the extant Pauline epistles and to have been written before the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15). This means that Paul’s Jerusalem visit in Acts 11:30 is to be identified with Galatians 2:1. Guthrie, however, seems to overlook the chronological data in Galatians 1:18 and 2:1, since these hardly correlate with his suggested chronology (p. 278) in which he places the conversion of Paul in A.D. 35 and the Jerusalem Council of Acts in A.D. 49—using the 14-year interval of Galatians 2:1 (p. 280). However, in doing this he has apparently identified the Jerusalem Council with the visit of Galatians 2:1, because in his chronology he only allows 11 years between Paul’s conversion and the famine visit of Acts 11:30. To avoid this inconsistency one must posit an interval of almost 16–17 years between Paul’s conversion and the Jerusalem Council. (A longer period must be allowed if one does not include the three years of Galatians 1:18 in the 14 years of Galatians 2:1. However, it is possible to reduce this to 15 years by using the inclusive method of dating [13 + 2].) Other chronological data (the Crucifixion, edict of Claudius, and Gallio Inscription) hardly allow this. Thus the identification of Acts 11:30 and Galatians 2:1 presents a real chronological crux—the implications of which Guthrie has obviously not fully realized.
Guthrie favors placing the writing of the captivity epistles in Rome. He discusses at length the question of the Pauline authorship of Ephesians and the Pastorals. (Guthrie’s qualification to write on this is evident from his The Pastoral Epistles and the Mind of Paul [1956] and his commentary, The Pastoral Epistles [1957].) An Appendix on Epistolary Pseudepigraphy (pp. 282–94) is a valuable contribution to the problem—the absence of close contemporary parallels and certain psychological difficulties make the admission of pseudepigraphical writing in the New Testament very difficult. This brief study is significant in view of the attempt by some to classify certain Pauline epistles as pseudepigrapha. Although granting the existence of differences between the Pastorals and Paul’s other epistles, Guthrie concludes in favor of Pauline authorship after a thorough consideration of the historical, ecclesiastical, and doctrinal aspects of the problem. He defends the Pauline authorship of all 13 epistles ascribed to Paul in the New Testament. His view regarding the Epistle to the Hebrews is expected in a future volume.
In addition to a careful discussion of the various critical problems regarding the Pauline letters, Guthrie has added a chapter on “Paul, the Man Behind the Letters,” one on “The Collection of Paul’s Letters,” and two appendices in addition to the one mentioned above: “Paul and His Sources,” and “The Chronology of the Life of Paul.” Each of these chapters provides helpful and valuable insights. This book also includes a valuable up-to-date “General Bibliography” on Pauline studies; and in a “Classified Bibliography” these are arranged according to the various epistles.
In the Preface Guthrie characterizes his work as an attempt “to give a balanced survey of modern critical opinions as they affect the Pauline Epistles.” His book is more than an attempt—it is a “balanced survey.” There are times when one gets the feeling that Guthrie is belaboring the obvious and getting lost in detail. Since, however, critical opinions regarding the Pauline epistles have fluctuated considerably in recent years (and we appreciate the greater acceptance of the Pauline authorship of many of the epistles), there is a real need for a conservative, detailed evaluation of these positions and their evidence. And this is what Guthrie has given—a valuable textbook to the seminarian to introduce him to this significant literature, and an up-to-date sourcebook to the minister to acquaint him with the present status of Pauline studies. This book is a commendable contribution to evangelical scholarship.
BASTIAAN VAN ELDEREN
Small But Very Good
The Theology of Jehovah’s Witnesses, by George D. McKinney, Jr. (Zondervan, 1962, 130 pp., $2.50), is reviewed by J. K. Van Baalen, author of The Chaos of Cults.
The literature on this insidious cult is growing with the spread of its propaganda and influence. In 1953 the School of Gilead was officially recognized by the United States Office of Education in Washington, D. C., as offering higher education. This recognition made it possible for the Immigration and Naturalization Service to grant foreign Jehovah’s Witnesses students visas to enter the United States to enroll at the school under the non-immigrant student visa arrangement. The Watchtower Society pays for transportation and educational expenses of both American and foreign students. The full curriculum consists of a course of only 26 weeks. No wonder that thousands enroll. The total number of ministers has leaped between 1945 and 1955 from 141,606 to 642,929.
In the growing literature warning against this fanatic and unchristian sect, the present work will occupy a place of honor. Though small in size, it deals rather exhaustively, and certainly clearly, with the main tenets of this weird theology. It also shows beyond doubt what the Witnesses denied or tried to hide some years ago, namely, that they are Russellites plain and simple.
The concluding chapter, “Evaluation and Conclusions,” is good; but it might have been somewhat more elaborate, and thereby have gained in strength.
The author, a minister’s son, is himself a minister and an instructor in the Jackson Memorial Bible Institute in San Diego. Presumably, therefore, his book is chiefly meant for the southern members of The Church of God. However this may be, the author is a Negro, and himself an added proof that our colored brethren, given an opportunity, are in no respect behind the white race in alertness of mind and ability to express themselves clearly, succinctly, and withal evangelically.
J. K. VAN BAALEN
The Difficult Made Plain
Exile and Return, by Charles F. Pfeiffer (Baker, 1962, 137 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by Edward J. Young, Professor of Old Testament, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
One of the greatest needs of our day is that men should read the Bible. Ignorance of its contents is appalling. For modern man the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, is difficult to read. Even in the most modern translations, the Bible seems to speak a language from another day and another cultural milieu. One whose language is the jargon of the stock market or the electronics laboratory seems to find the words of Scripture distant and irrelevant.
Any aid therefore that can explain the Bible and can make the reading of the Bible more rewarding is welcome. In the present volume Professor Pfeiffer continues his significant studies in Old Testament history. In remarkably simple and clear language he tells us the story of the period indicated by the title and presents a wealth of background material which will facilitate reading of this portion of the Holy Scripture. This is a book laymen can read with tremendous profit, and one who does will discover that, after all, the words of the Bible are the most relevant words there are, for they are the words of God.
Throughout, Professor Pfeiffer is true to the Scriptures. He attempts the difficult task of treating his subject in a scholarly and yet simple way. At times, the brevity of treatment may lead to misunderstanding. An example in point is the discussion of the humbling of Nabonidus, mentioned in the Qumran documents. We are told, “It is the view of some scholars that the events described in Daniel 4 actually took place during the lifetime of Nabonidus and that a scribal error associated them with the more familiar name of Nebuchadnezzar” (p. 87). True enough, some scholars do hold this position, but it would have been well to point out that they are in error. What Daniel relates of Nebuchadnezzar’s madness is historical fact, for the book of Daniel is inspired Scripture. What the Qumran documents say about Nabonidus may or may not be correct, but the brief treatment at this point allows for the impression that there is an error in the book of Daniel.
We have in this work a valuable aid to the study of the Scriptures and one which should have a wide reading. Although popularly written, it represents a tremendous amount of research. We look forward eagerly to the appearance of the subsequent volumes of this series.
EDWARD J. YOUNG
Song Prayers
The Psalms Are Christian Prayer, by Thomas Worden (Sheed & Ward, 1962, 219 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by V. R. Edman, President, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.
Devout believers in Christ have always found the Psalms to be the language of the heart’s deepest feelings and longings. Here is an incisive and instructive study of the Psalms as true prayer for Christians even though they were written long before the Christian era. There is an excellent analysis of the Jewish use of the Psalms as communal rather than as individual prayers because of the awareness that Israel constituted the children in covenant relationship with the Most High. For the Christian the Psalms should express not only individual prayer and praise, but also the sense of belonging to the body of Christ. Instead of the usual description of the Psalms as historical, didactic, and so forth, they are treated under the generalizations of lamentation and praise. Praise is rightly held to be the highest expression of worship, and blessing God as proclamation with gratitude of what one understands of divine mercy and goodness.
The treatment throughout is devout, earnest, scholarly. The author holds to the full inspiration of the Scriptures and uses the RSV as the basic text. With his Romanist persuasion he quotes the Apocrypha as being equally as authoritative as the Scriptures and postulates in places a critical view of the text. Deuteronomy is from the seventh century B.C., the alleged Deutero-Isaiah is post-Exilic, and the tribes of Israel entered the Promised Land, not as stated in Joshua, but at various intervals, with Judah arriving earliest. The Eucharist is presented as the greatest psalm of praise. Despite the differences of interpretation and opinion that one may hold, one finds here fresh insight into the use of the Psalms as Christian prayer.
V. R. EDMAN
How Critical?
God, Man and the Thinker, by Donald A. Wells (Random House, 1962, 507 pp., $8.95), is reviewed by David F. Siemens, Jr., Lecturer in Philosophy, Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles, California.
This book is an attempt to think critically about the problems of religion by a man who trained for the ministry at Boston University School of Theology, studied under the noted positivist Hans Reichenbach, and has taught many classes in the philosophy of religion. Professor Wells intends to be unbiased, to present views “with as much conviction as their staunchest supporters will permit.” Unfortunately, he does not succeed in implementing this announced program. For example, his many references to the inerrancy of Scripture show his anti-biblical bias clearly (pp. 226–249, 253–255, 302–308, 327, 420–433, 454–457). He attempts to prove (1) that biblical inerrancy is invindicable; (2) that inerrancy is useless without inerrant interpretation; (3) that the Bible is written in the idiom of the people of the time, not in a perfect supratemporal language; (4) that it does not claim divine origin; (5) that inerrancy leads to problems in archaeology, geology, biology and history; and (6) that the Bible contains errors of transmission. But, from the viewpoint of the evangelical who accepts the inerrancy of Scripture, these statements prove nothing disturbing—nor is the last argument embarrassing. All that is required is that the autographs be inspired and inerrant, that the scholars seek to recover that text, and that they have sufficient manuscript material with which to work. These conditions are fully met. Indeed, today there are no textual problems which affect any basic Christian doctrine. Of course, Wells gets himself off the hook by stating that we cannot establish much from Scripture because of the number of translations with individual differences (p. 408)!
As for the fifth argument, Wells might have learned from the history of higher criticism, such as the changes forced by archaeological data in the views of Harnack and Albright, whom he names. Although citing Albright, he completely ignores his scholarly conclusion that neither the Old Testament prophets nor Paul were innovators (From Stone Age to Christianity). As to considerations of science, Wells would have done well to have noted some recent publications, such as Ramm’s The Christian View of Science and Scripture or Henry’s chapter in Mixter’s Evolution and Christian Thought Today. Wells seems to prefer the days of the Scopes trial, or the Wilberforce-Huxley debate.
The fourth argument, that the Bible does not claim divine origin, is patently false. His third argument does not even touch on the matter of inspiration. To be sure, Rembrandt painted an angel whispering the words for Matthew to write, but what does this establish?
As to his second argument, that an inerrant book demands inerrant interpretation, what would this add? Would it not require an inerrant interpreter of the interpretations, ad infinitum, unless God should make all men inerrant—which he has willed not to do. There is no problem for those who believe that the divine revelation provides man with a standard against which he must measure his thoughts in a manner analogous to the way in which nature presents a limitation on all thought that claims to represent material reality. That we do not understand nature fully, that we make mistakes in interpreting phenomena, these are not the scandal of science. Why, then, should errors in the interpretation of an inerrant revelation be a scandal to Christianity?
Finally, to return to the first argument, let us admit that fallible human beings cannot prove infallibility absolutely. But let us also note that human beings cannot establish the validity of any universal sentence except for the vacuously true tautologies and some trivial examples true by exhaustive enumeration. However, we can note (1) that the radical Christian view is consistent, in spite of the claims of its critics, and (2) that any attempted explanation which does not include the divine inspiration of the Word is not adequate to the data. One must take into account fulfilled prophecy, the moral effect of the Bible, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to mention no more. Wells takes note of prophecy, but refers to it as “making a crystal ball out of the Old Testament” (p. 233). Such pejorative language has no place in an unbiased appraisal.
Lest it be thought that this is a diatribe based on personal prejudice, additional evidence of careless writing and misunderstanding must be presented. Wells asserts that if vowels were omitted in English writing as in Semitic, t could stand for three words, at, it and to (p. 225). Why slight ait, ate, eat, eta, iota, oat, out, Tai, tau, tea, tee, ti, tie, Tiu, toe, too, ut, Ute? This may be dismissed as unimportant, but no philosopher should be guilty of such distortion as Wells’ alteration of Anselm’s “than which there is no greater” into “a being who has all properties” (p. 86). Anselm was not foolish enough to argue that God had the properties of extension and ponderability, which belong to matter, as Wells notes by implication (p. 88). Further, the confusion of logical consistency and the processes of indirect proof with the coherence theory of truth is unfortunate (pp. 122–128). The former applies to all thinkers, whereas the latter is limited to Idealists.
In spite of its many shortcomings, the book has one major merit for the evangelical: it is a handy collection of the philosophical objections which are still being urged against the conservative Christian view. It therefore will prove helpful to the Christian apologist, for he is certain to meet those who take the arguments seriously.
DAVID F. SIEMENS, JR.
Book Briefs
Arches and Spires, by Alfred Duggan (Pantheon, 1962, 87 pp., $2.95). A delightful short story of English church buildings since Anglo-Saxon times. Illustrated.
The Church’s Witness to the World, Volume II, by P. Y. De Jong (Pella Publishing Co., Pella, Iowa, 1962, 446 pp., $3.95). Comments on Belgic Confession for church study groups.
The Hundredth Archbishop of Canterbury, by James B. Simpson (Harper & Row, 1962, 262 pp., $6). Biography of Arthur Michael Ramsey, head of the worldwide Anglican communion.
The Layman Looks at World Religions, by Niels C. Nielsen, Jr. (Bethany Press, 1962, 112 pp., $1.95). A very readable, factual account of world religions. More critical evaluation would have increased its value.
Harper’s Topical Concordance, compiled by Charles R. Joy (Harper & Row, 1962, 628 pp., $8.95). Revised and enlarged edition; especially helpful to ministers who want to find a text to fit a topic.
Incarnation to Ascension, by James E. Wagner (Christian Education, 1962, 111 pp., $2.50). Significant comment on the great events of Jesus’ life by an author who does not believe that the significance of the events stands or falls with their historicity.
Isaiah 1–39, by John Mauchline (Macmillan, 1962, 237 pp., $3.50; SCM, 15s.). A volume in keeping with the current more conservative critical standpoint, by the Old Testament Professor and Principal of Trinity College, Glasgow.
Book of Prayers for Church and Home, by Howard Paine and Bard Thompson (Christian Education, 1962, 195 pp., $3). 416 entries, ranging wide over ancient and modern prayers and litanies of Christian devotion.
How God Speaks to Us, by Ragnar Bring (Muhlenberg, 1962, 120 pp., $2.25). Interpretation of the Word of God as an Event to be existentially encountered rather than as a theoretical proposition to be cognitively appropriated.
Be Not Afraid, by Emmanuel Mounier (Sheed & Ward, 1962, 203 pp., $4). Essays of the late French journalist which seek to rediscover the person amidst the machines of our age.
The Root And The Branch, by Robert Gordis (University of Chicago Press, 1962, 254 pp., $3.95). The author turns to Judaism for help on the world’s major problems.
Lord of the Temple, by Ernst Lohmeyer (John Knox, 1962, 116 pp., $3). The author explains the desolation of temples and the abandonment of sacrifices within a century after Jesus. Translated from the German edition, 1942.
Paperbacks
The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church, by Roland Allen (Eerdmans, 1962, 158 pp., $1.65). A mature, compelling story of the expansion of the Church and the causes which hindered it. Double warning: begin reading and you cannot stop; continue, and your ideas about the Church will change. First American edition of a work published about 30 years ago.
The Heidelberg Catechism, translated by Allen O. Miller and M. Eugene Osterhaven (United Church Press, 1962, 127 pp., $1). The 400th Anniversary Edition; a new translation from original Latin and German texts, authorized by the North American Area Council of the World Alliance of Reformed and Presbyterian Churches.
Bibliography of American Doctoral Dissertations in Religious Education, 1885 to 1959, compiled by Lawrence C. Little (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1962, 215 pp., $4.50). An inclusive bibliography of doctoral dissertations in the fields of personality, character, and religious education.
The Cross of Christ, by William A. Buege (Concordia, 1962, 122 pp., $1.50). Sermons which are fine readings on the cross and resurrection of Christ.
