Description

Owing to the conditions of time, language, country, and race under which the various books of
the Holy Scriptures were written, it is impossible that they should be rightly understood at the
present day, and in this land, without the aid of many departments of knowledge. Contemporary
history, philology, geography, and ethnology must all be pressed into the service of the true
Biblical scholar; and there is yet another science which is to the full as important as either of the
others. This is Natural History, in its widest sense.
The Oriental character of the Scriptural books causes them to abound with metaphors and
symbols, taken from the common life of the time. They embrace the barren precipitous rocks
alternating with the green and fertile valleys, the trees, flowers, and herbage, the creeping things
of the earth, the fishes of the sea, the birds of the air, and the beasts which abode with man or
dwelt in the deserts and forests. Unless, therefore, we understand these writings as those
understood them for whom they were written, it is evident that we shall misinterpret instead of
rightly comprehending them.

It's only fair to share...

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin

email