p. 17 | The Bible Year

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jan 6, 1916

The Bible Year

Second Week

JAN. 9. Job 18 to 21: Second speech of Bildad—final doom of wicked; answer of Job—appeals for pity, prophecies of Christ; second speech of Zophar—portion of the wicked; answer of Job—wicked prosper here, punishment future.

JAN. 10. Job 22 to 24: Third speech of Eliphaz—accuses Job; answer of Job—confidence in God's mercy, end of the wicked.

JAN. 11. Job 25 to 29: Third speech of Bildad—God's majesty and perfection; answer of Job—exalts God's power and wisdom, describes former condition.

JAN. 12. Job 30 to 33: Job concludes his answer to Bildad; Elihu begins speech.

JAN. 13. Job 34 to 37: Elihu continues speech.

JAN. 14. Job 38 to 42: Elihu concludes; Jehovah speaks, rebuking Job, who confesses vileness; renewed prosperity of Job; death.

JAN. 15. Genesis 12 to 15: Call of Abraham; God's covenant.

Thoughts to Carry With You

JAN. 9: “I know that my Redeemer liveth.”

JAN. 10: “Thou shalt pay thy vows.”

JAN. 11: “The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.”

JAN. 12: “He marketh all my paths.”

JAN. 13: “Trust thou in him.”

JAN. 14. “No thought can be withheld from thee.”

JAN. 15. “Thou shalt be a blessing.”

Study the Bible

“Do not skim it, but study it, every word of it; study the whole Bible, Old Testament and New; not your favorite chapters merely, but the complete Word of God from beginning to end. . . . Let the Bible be to you the one book in all the world, whose every word is truth, and whose every verse is wisdom. In studying it, be sure to take it for what it really is,—the revelation of the thoughts of God, given to us in the words of God. . . . Let us read and reread the Scriptures, meditating on them day and night. They never grow old, they never lose their sap, they never run dry.”—Horatius Bonar.

Facts About the Bible

The collection of sacred writings comprising the Scriptures is called the Bible, which means “the books.” It is thought that the Greek word for this name was first applied to the sacred books by John Chrysostom, patriarch of Constantinople from A. D. 398 to 404.

“‘The books.’ . . . That no qualifying adjective stands before the noun, implies that these writings were regarded by those who used the term as forming a class by themselves, and as superior to all other literary productions. They are uniquely and preeminently the books. . . . The term Bible is absent from the sacred page; it is of ecclesiastical origin. The plural term Biblia marks the important fact that the Bible is not a single book, but a great many. The words Bible and Scripture, on the other hand, being both in the singular number, emphasize the fact that, under the diversity of human authorship, there lies a wonderful unity, pointing to the operation of one directing Mind, which acted during more than a thousand consecutive years when these writings were being produced.”

The sixty-six books of the Bible were written during a time period extending from the days of Moses to near the close of the first century after Christ.

“The original languages of the Biblical books were Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Nearly all the Old Testament was composed in Hebrew, the language spoken by Israel in Canaan before the exile, but after the return gradually giving way—as the speech of common intercourse—to the Aramaic. . . . Parts of Daniel and Ezra and one verse of Jeremiah (10:11) are in Aramaic. There is also an Aramaic coloring to many expressions scattered through the Old Testament. A dialect of Aramaic was the vernacular of Palestine in New Testament times, and it is probable that Jesus’ teachings were spoken by him in Aramaic, and later rendered into Greek by the teachers of the early apostolic church. Apart from this Aramaic basis of the Gospels, especially the first three, and of some material in Acts, the New Testament was composed entirely in Greek, the Greek of ordinary intercourse in the Hellenistic world.”

Into All the World

“A Dictionary of the Bible,” by John D. Davis, just from the press, bears this significant testimony:—

“The Bible has already been translated, in its entirety or in part, into more than three hundred [or accurately 380] languages or dialects. It is not an exaggeration, when referring to the writers of the Bible, to adopt the language of the psalmist, meant originally for the silent theological teaching of the starry sky: ‘Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.’”

The Book of Job

The name Job signifies the persecuted, hated, or afflicted one. It is generally held that the patriarch bearing this name lived before the days of Moses, and some believe that he lived even before the time of Abraham. (It is for the purpose of placing this book in its proper setting, approximately at least, that its reading follows the introduction to patriarchal history in the closing verses of Genesis 11.)

The book of Job is “probably the oldest book in the world,” and is supposed to have been written by the patriarch himself, with an introduction and ending by Moses. A study of the book shows it to be the discussion of a great problem—“What is the intention of divine providence in allowing the good to suffer?” Amos R. Wells says: “The poem itself is a noble discussion of the reasons for suffering. In speeches regularly recurring, each answered in turn by Job, the three friends of the patriarch urge that the cause of all suffering is sin. Elihu argues that all suffering is certainly for the good of the sufferer, and at length God himself speaks, and Job becomes submissive and repentant.”

Suggestion

Outline the book of Job, make a list of the leading characters, and mark the verses that have been most helpful to you during your reading.