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A READING BOOK.

THE SCRIPTURES.

THE BIBLE is the name given to the volume which is received by Christians as the source of their religious knowledge and belief. The word Bible (from the Greek word Biblos), signifies book; and the name is used with regard to this book, because of its great value and excellence, because it is the book of books, the best book, The Book.

This volume consists of two parts;-the Old Testament, a collection of books, translated from the Hebrew language, the originals of which were accounted inspired and holy by the ancient Jews and by the early Christian Church; and the New Testament, which contains the genuine writings of the apostles of Christ, and their companions and pupils, relating to the history and doctrine of the Christian religion, translated into English from the Greek language, in which they were originally composed. As a whole, then, the Bible contains the sacred writings, first of the Jews, secondly of the Christians; and (as generally used by the English reader) is a translation of writings claiming various degrees of antiquity, the most modern of them being at least 1700 years old.

These facts will shew that it is essential, in order that the Bible may be of the greatest use and value to us, that we should know something more about it than can be learnt from the perusal of it in its English translation; that we should seek answers to the questions, What is the Bible? How has it become what it is?

The Old Testament, as has been already mentioned, is in the original written in Hebrew, the language of the Israelites, or descendants of Abraham, during the time of their existence as an independent nation; a small portion of it (parts of Ezra and Daniel, and one verse of Jeremiah)

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is written in Chaldee. Its Jewish name is Mikra, or the Reading; it was divided by the Israelites into three portions:-1. The Law, the first five books of our Bible; 2. The Prophets, Joshua, Judges, 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve Minor Prophets; 3. The Sacred Writings comprising all the other Jewish Scriptures.

Much of the Old Testament is of an historical nature, and the events recorded in it extend over a space of at least 3500 years. After the first eleven chapters of Genesis, it is the history mainly of Abraham and his descendants, first as a family, afterwards as a nation. This occupies all the books from Genesis to Esther, which are arranged in chronological order, and bear all the marks of containing faithful narratives of events. The next five books, from Job to Canticles, are chiefly didactic and devotional. The remainder of the Old Testament consists of the writings of the sixteen Jewish prophets, not placed in the order of time, but according to their size, the four largest coming first, and the remaining twelve being disposed almost without regard to the relative date of their composition.

The New Testament consists of twenty-seven books: four relating the history of the public life of Jesus, and one concerning the acts of his apostles after his ascension, are historical; thirteen letters to various churches and individuals follow, which are universally ascribed to St. Paul. They are arranged, in the order in which we find them in the Bible, according to the rank of the cities which were the residence of those addressed; Hebrews follows, and is so placed as being ascribed by some, but not by all, to the Apostle Paul. An Epistle by James, two by Peter, three by John, and one by Jude, and the book of Revelation, a mysterious prophecy, complete the list.

Before the invention of printing, these various books depended for their transmission, from generation to generation, on the labours of transcribers; and as this is a process in which mistakes are very possible, it is now found desirable to examine into the correctness of one manuscript, by comparing it with another; and this examination, carried on by learned men, with the help of the most ancient manuscripts now existing, enables us to speak, with exactness and certainty sufficient for all practical purposes, concerning the true readings in every part of the Scriptures.

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