The publishing event of 1979 in biblical studies is certainly the appearance of Volume 1 of the revised International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Eerdmans), under the general editorship of Fuller Seminary church historian Geoffrey W. Bromiley, with the able assistance of Everett F. Harrison (New Testament), Roland K. Harrison (Old Testament), and William S. LaSor (Archaeology). The new ISBE maintains the same, high level of scholarship that marked its predecessors, along with a responsible and reverent evangelical tone.
Next in importance for general study of the Bible are three new volumes of commentary, the first of which, The Layman’s Bible Commentary (Zondervan), represents the completion of an earlier New Testament work entitled A New Testament Commentary (1969) under the editorial hand of G. C. D. Howley, F. F. Bruce, and H. L. Ellison. Issued in Britain with the title A Bible Commentary for Today (Pickering and Inglis), this volume represents almost exclusively the work of Plymouth Brethren scholars and, as such, testifies to the rising scholarship that is currently to be found within that significant evangelical movement.
In contrast to the previously mentioned work, the Concordia Self-Study Commentary (Concordia) is essentially the work of two men, Walter R. Roehrs and the late Martin H. Franzmann. Like the Layman’s Bible Commentary, the new volume represents a combination of earlier New Testament material with fresh Old Testament resources and for the main part is also a verse-by-verse commentary. The Concordia book, however, lacks many of the helpful introductory articles of the previous work, but in other respects matches the scope admirably. The critical stance of both works is what might be called “enlightened conservative.”
A third volume to appear in 1979 was volume 1 of the 12-volume Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Zondervan), under the overall editorship of the veteran biblical scholar and writer, Frank E. Gaebelein. Unlike the previous two commentaries, which are based on the Revised Standard Version, the EBC is a commentary on the New International Version text. Volume 1, however, leaves commentary for later and concentrates on 35 helpful introductory articles. Presented like the previous volumes in scholarly but nontechnical language, this book represents a treasury of evangelical scholarship and will surely take its place as a standard work for years to come.
THE NATURE OF SCRIPTURE An item on which attention still is focused is the subject of inspiration. Two books ably yet simply defend the inerrancy of Scripture: The Inspired Scriptures (Gospel Publishing House) by Charles Ford and Nothing But the Truth (Biblical Literature Distributors, Box 3499, Newport, Del. 19804) by Brian Edwards. Robert Mounce defends the accuracy of Scripture from a practical point of view in Answers to Questions About the Bible (Baker). Standing firmly “on the side of an errorless Bible,” Mounce answers a multitude of difficult questions from and about the Bible. Tyndale House has made available the six sermons that were preached at the plenary sessions of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy in October 1978, in Can We Trust the Bible?, edited by Earl Radmacher. These are marvelous messages defending a high view of Scripture. A collection of essays presented in honor of Reformed professor Johannes G. Vos entitled The Book of Books (Presbyterian and Reformed) by Vos’s colleagues and students, defends the Warfieldian position on biblical inerrancy and discusses the ways in which Scripture is to be interpreted in light of it.
No survey of books on the Bible could be complete without reference to Harold Lindsell’s second foray in the battle for the Bible, appearing under the title The Bible in the Balance (Zondervan). This is not only a sequel to Lindsell’s earlier polemical work but serves as an in-depth response to his critics. Inasmuch as the interim period between the two volumes witnessed the convocation in Chicago of a major conference on biblical inerrancy and the issuance of a definitive statement on the meaning and extent of inerrancy, we might have expected Lindsell’s book to use the Chicago statement as its point of departure; however, only four references are to be found. The book, then, is not so much a statement on Scripture itself or the nature of inspiration as it is a commentary on the various schools and institutions in which the author sees evidence of decline.
Of a much more scholarly nature, but no less polemical in its intent, is The Authority and Inspiration of the Bible: An Historical Approach (Harper & Row) by Jack B. Rogers and Donald K. McKim. Both the preface and a foreword by F. L. Battles affirm that Lindsell went wrong in basing his doctrine of Scripture not on a historical, Reformed Calvinistic position, but on the Princeton scholasticism of B. B. Warfield, derived ultimately not from Calvin but from Francis Turretin. Rogers and McKim have issued a serious challenge to the standard approach taken to biblical inerrancy and deserve to be answered with a balanced study of equal scholarship.
Others are not so sure that a high view of Scripture is even necessary. Jacques Guillet sees the revelation of God as coming through people and human experiences, as well as through the Scriptures in A God Who Speaks (Paulist). God speaks in Scripture, but Guillet says we should not idolize the letter. In The Living Word of the Bible (Westminster) Bernhard Anderson argues that God speaks to his people today through Scripture and when the “inspired writing” meets the “inspired reader,” it becomes the Word of God. The Words of Jesus in Our Gospels: A Catholic Response to Fundamentalism (Paulist) by Stanley Marrow is a polemical work that argues the inerrancy view is ultimately inadequate and those who hold it must also willy-nilly claim for themselves divine inspiration. Marrow hasn’t really understood what conservatives believe. William Neil asks Can We Trust the Old Testament? (Seabury) and seems to answer with an unsatisfactory “yes—but”: yes, in that God is to be found working there; but, in that a lot of it isn’t actually true, especially if modern science says it didn’t happen that way.
AIDS TO BIBLE STUDY 1979 saw the appearance of several “how-to” manuals that will greatly aid the average student in grasping good study principles. Grant R. Osborne and Stephen B. Woodward in their Handbook for Bible Study (Baker) include both basic and more advanced methods of analyzing a text, along with a considerable bibliography for people who want to study the Bible seriously. Similar in tone but slightly more popular is A Layman’s Guide to Interpreting the Bible (Zondervan and NavPress) by Walter A. Henrichsen. Equally helpful but less penetrating is the short Navigator Bible Studies Handbook (NavPress), which concentrates on a kind of catchy ABC method of Bible study (a title, best verse, challenge, difficulties, essence, and so forth). Bob Smith, a pastor in California’s Peninsula Bible Church, offers Basics of Bible Interpretation (Word). Smith has a layman’s grasp of the nature of language, the nature of Scripture, the biblical languages, and the way to analyze a text. Another book from a conservative author, Sweeter Than Honey (BHM Books) by Jesse Deloe, may prove helpful to some but is flawed by an occasional inaccuracy and a less than elevated style. The best of the lot is How to Get More From Your Bible (Baker) by Lloyd Perry and R. D. Culver, which deals well with the text and content of Scripture. All these books should give readers lacking theological training tools to understand good exegetical method working strictly from the English text.
Three additional books are designed to introduce the beginning reader to the flavor of Scripture. Reading the Bible for the First Time (Judson Press/Oliphants) by British Old Testament scholar John Goldingay divides biblical material into story, word, and response. Goldingay brings to life the story as well as the proclamation in a way that combines a moderately critical commitment with a strong sense of evangelical reverence. For someone who has never read the Bible, this book would provide a good starting point, in spite of the fact that most conservative writers will not agree with Goldingay’s dating of some Old Testament sections. Equally helpful and strongly conservative is a translation from the Dutch entitled The Bible as a Book (Paideia) by Gerardus Van Der Leeuw. Finally, we mention the work of a Dutch Roman Catholic, Lucas Grollenberg, in order to advise readers of CHRISTIANITY TODAY to stay away from it. The author, a distinguished geographer, has written a book entitled A Bible for Our Time (SCM) which documents what can happen when a church that traditionally held to the divine origin of Scripture suddenly spawns scholars who see the Bible as nothing more than a human book
Two more books treat the Bible as literature. Leonard L. Thompson in Introducing Biblical Literature: A More Fantastic Country (Prentice-Hall) has provided us with a major Christian analysis of the entire Bible from the standpoint of literary and rhetorical criticism, although conservatives will not agree with everything Thompson has said. Much of the work of the contemporary structural analyst is found in the book, but the volume retains a sensitivity to the need for Scripture to remain in the realm of the historical as well as to evidence the literary. Alongside Thompson’s volume we find a somewhat breezy introduction to form criticism replete with cartoon illustrations under the title The Bible: Now I Get It! (Doubleday). Its author, Gerhard Lohfink, is convinced that an understanding of form criticism is necessary for the average person and stands as an outstanding introduction to what biblical “forms” are; but Lohfink mars the finished product by a tendency to confuse description of the literary form in which an event is told with totally unwarranted denials of the historicity of the event described. This would otherwise be the ideal introduction to a useful form criticism for the average church layman.
Three more Bible study books deal with themes of the Bible, particularly as the themes of the Old Testament relate to the New. From the veteran British evangelical New Testament scholar F. F. Bruce comes a short volume entitled The Time Is Fulfilled (Eerdmans) that is packed with scholarly and spiritual insights. Only slightly less readable and considerably more complete in its coverage is The Scripture Unbroken (Eerdmans) by Reformed scholar Lester J. Kuyper. The book centers on a series of essays dealing with themes of Old Testament theology as brought forward into the new era and its concerns. Finally, a short volume by Norman Geisler has been reprinted by Baker Book House under the title To Understand the Bible, Look for Jesus. If you have ever wondered what Jesus told the disciples on the road to Emmaus when he said that Moses and all the prophets spoke concerning himself, this book will at least give a hint.
Finally, John A. Bollier has compiled a reference work for theological students and ministers entitled The Literature of Theology: A Guide for Students and Pastors (Westminster). Compared to other annotated bibliographies (e.g., Brevard S. Childs’s Old Testament Books for Pastor and Teacher), Bollier’s work is less definitive but more extensive. The fields covered include not only the Bible and such general material as bibliographic guides and manuals, bibliographies of bibliographies, encyclopedias and dictionaries, but also systematic theology, church history, denominational reference works, practical theology, missions, ecumenics, and comparative religion.
ARCHAEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY In the well-plowed field of biblical archaeology, 1979 added only two slender books to the already crowded shelves. By excerpting two articles from the above-mentioned volume 1 of the Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Zondervan was able to publish yet another volume in its Contemporary Evangelical Perspective series. Archaeology and the Bible by Donald J. Wiseman and Edwin Yamauchi is factual rather than polemical and is a useful compendium for the beginning student. Much more of a personal statement comes in Kathleen M. Kenyon’s The Bible and Recent Archaeology (John Knox). The author, who until her death was a leading Palestinian archaeologist, concentrates on those excavations in which she was personally involved and has given us a volume rich in illustration and authoritative in tone.
Under the heading “Geography,” three new Bible atlases and one reprint make available to the beginning student a series of useful maps to provide geographical waymarks in one’s journey through Scripture. Most complete and also the most lavishly illustrated is the Holman Bible Atlas (A. J. Holman), edited by Jerry L. Hooper. Unlike other collections of maps, this one is essentially a historical atlas; that is, it traces the movements of the people of Israel in both Old and New Testament times as they relate to the text of the Bible.
Those looking for nothing more than a fairly complete collection of maps, accompanied by a definitive geographical gazetteer, will find what they are seeking in The Compact Bible Atlas (Baker). Nineteen maps and a gazetteer will enable the student to find virtually any place mentioned in the Bible. From the Paternoster Press in Britain comes another short collection of maps laid out and illustrated with a chronological table, in a form that will be especially useful for children first entering the world of Bible study. The book is called Students’ Atlas of the Bible and would make a fine gift for Sunday school scholars. To round out the feast we have a Penguin reissue of Lucas H. Grollenberg’s Shorter Atlas of the Bible, originally published in both Dutch and English in 1959. This is a shorter version of a much larger work and has proven its worth over the years.
Carl F. H. Henry, first editor of Christianity Today, is lecturer at large for World Vision International. An author of many books, he lives in Arlington, Virginia.
