Olivet Nazarene University Digital Commons @ Olivet Herald of Holiness/Holiness Today Church of the Nazarene 12-4-1974 Herald of Holiness Volume 63 Number 25 (1974) W. T. Purkiser (Editor) Nazarene Publishing House Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/cotn_hoh Part of the Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, Christianity Commons, History of Christianity Commons, Missions and World Christianity Commons, and the Practical Theology Commons Recommended Citation Purkiser, W. T. (Editor), "Herald of Holiness Volume 63 Number 25 (1974)" (1974). Herald of Holiness/ Holiness Today. 1252. https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/cotn_hoh/1252 This Journal Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the Church of the Nazarene at Digital Commons @ Olivet. It has been accepted for inclusion in Herald of Holiness/Holiness Today by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Olivet. For more information, please contact [email protected]. HERALD OF HOLINESS BOOKS BIBLE ISSUE CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE DECEMBER 4, '74 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. Isaiah 40:8 General Superintendent Edward Lawlor f t ... How Readest Thou?” (Luke 10:26) V /\/e s le y declared that the Methodists music, our oratory, our arts hopelessly ▼ ▼ need not hope to grow in experi­ in its debt. There are those who just ad­ ence unless they became a reading peo­ mire the Bible as the most sublime in hu­ ple. That has also been the vision of the man utterance, as the most beautiful leaders of the people called Nazarenes. imagery ever produced, or as the most Our Publishing House has the rare record gripping drama ever placed before hu­ of printing holiness publications and manity. There are those who love the wholesome Christian literature from its Bible and find life through its pages; to earliest days until now. them admiration has become inspiration, Probably never in the history of civiliza­ and its utterances have become their in­ tion has there been such an outpouring of tercession. literature in every form as today. The con­ The Bible must hold a special place in stant reading of much of contemporary, our lives and hom es. It is not enough to popular writings tends to turn the Chris­ have it on our tables or in our libraries. tian away from the holy life. Therefore, The Bible, whose purpose is to proclaim when choosing their reading, holiness that the Judaism of the Old Testament people must be on guard. The character was fulfilled in the Christianity of the New of the literature we read is important. Testament, must be read sensibly, ex­ It is fitting in this Bible and book issue pectantly, and believingly. The revelation of the Herald of Holiness to urge our peo­ of the Bible shows the redemption which ple to give attention to reading. What we was promised—that man, whom sin had read should enable us to grow spiritually. marred, is redeemed by Jesus Christ, the To neglect good reading is a dereliction Saviour of the world. of Christian duty. The Old Testament and New Testament First and foremost we must give atten­ give utterance to this truth: He died, the tion in our reading to the Book of Books, godly for the ungodly, while we were yet the Holy Bible. The Bible is the only Book sinners. If this be true—and thank God it in the world that reveals human nature at is—we neglect the Bible at our peril. It is its best and highest—at its worst and the Chart and Compass not only for our lowest. The Bible is the Experience and salvation but for our effective Christian Reading of life, the Supreme Court for living. W ithout it the Christian life is a the convictions and standards of our perilous and disastrous adventure. It is a faith. The day is past when the Bible can Sword without which the powers of dark­ be treated with contempt, and they who ness cannot be fought and defeated. It is criticize it without having read it indicate the Book of holy people, and holy people their ignorance. are people of the Book! The writings of the Bible bear witness to Let the Bible be the central focus of our its unique power and divine character. It reading. Knowing full well its unique finds its way into places that are inacces­ worth and power as the revealed Word of sible to any other book. It touches hearts God and Foundation of all our instruction, that are insensible to every other appeal. let us as Christians make it our Guide. Let It breaks the fetters of every culture and us read, memorize, and obey its teach­ creed, providing a universal language in ings. which the learned and the unlearned may People to whom the Bible is living and find God and express their devotion to who are living the Bible become a living Him. message arresting attention and demand­ The Bible has put our literature, our ing decision. □ °6t«>i0C> dS>n'('11 L <?°"' soft^V®1 "* C O O P ^ T WAS T H E year 1515. Erasm us was on The second was the discovery of printing. The his way from Cambridge, England, to first book to be printed with movable type was Basle, Switzerland. His announced pur­ the Bible. For that we should rejoice. But this pose: to prepare a printed edition of the Gutenberg Bible, as it was called, was the Latin GreekI New Testament, the first ever to be pub­ Vulgate. lished. It was not until 1525 (or 1526) th a t the first On the way he was confronted with an “Open printed English New Testament appeared. It Letter” from Martin Dorpius of the University was translated from the Greek text of Erasmus, of Louvain, in France. It read in part: the third edition of which was published in 1522. But the translator, W illiam Tyndale, paid “What if it be contended that the sense, for it with his life. For daring to put God’s Word as rendered by the Latin version, differs in into the common language of the people he was truth from the Greek text? Then, indeed, strangled and burned at the stake in 1536. adieu to the Greek. I adhere to the Latin Today it is not the Latin Vulgate that domi­ because I cannot bring my mind to believe nates the Protestant, English-speaking world that the Greek are more correct than the but the King James Version. This is based on a Latin codices.” Greek text derived from a few late manuscripts, The Latin Vulgate had been the official Bi­ none of them earlier than the tenth century. ble of the Roman Catholic church for centuries. Today we have important papyrus manuscripts It was considered sacrosanct; its precise words from the third century, as well as leather manu­ were infallible. So if the Greek differed from the scripts from the fifth, sixth, and following cen­ Latin in a few places, then good-bye to the turies. Greek! What we need is not to say good-bye to the The first English version of the whole Bible Greek, but to go back to the earliest Greek text was produced by Wyclif and his associates and render it accurately and adequately into the about 1384. It was a translation of the Latin English of our day. Vulgate and so included the Apocrypha—14 This has been done effectively in the New books or parts of books that are in the Catholic Testaments of the New American Standard New Testament, but not in the Hebrew or Prot­ Bible and The New International Version. estant canon. Since this was before the age of Both were done by scores of godly evangelical printing, all the copies of the Wyclif Bible were scholars. made laboriously by hand. The NASB is more of a literal translation In the middle of the next century two ex­ and so makes an excellent study Bible. The NIV tremely significant events took place. is closer to the idiomatic English of the present The first was the fall of Constantinople in time. It is therefore better adapted to private 1453 to the Muslim Turks. Christian scholars reading and pulpit use. fled westward to Italy, carrying their Greek Let us thank God for these helps to a more ac­ manuscripts with them. The result was the curate understanding of God’s Word, and let us renaissance of Greek learning in western Eu­ avail ourselves of them. □ rope, after centuries of Latin domination. This prepared the way for the Protestant Reforma­ BY RALPH EARLE* tion of the next century (1517 and following). Kansas City HERALD Of KULINtSS RAIN W. T. PURKISER, Editor in Chief JACK M. SCHARN, Office Editor What a beautiful rain! Contributing Editors: Green fingers of grass reach upward. V. H. LEWIS EUGENE L. STOWE GEORGE COULTER ORVILLE W. JENKINS Poppies and bachelor buttons nod their EDWARD LAWLOR CHARLES H. STRICKLAND approval. General Superintendents, Church of the Nazarene Sparrows ruffle their feathers to catch every t. * * /< w v v/ 'i drop. Trees fling fresh-laundered garments against IN THIS ISSUE the dark clouds. Mockingbird surely will burst his warbling ARTICLES throat. .. HOW READEST THOU?” .............................................2 What a beautiful rain! General Superintendent Edward Lawlor What a beautiful rain! GOOD-BYE TO THE G R E E K !.............................................3 A Presence hovers above the worshipers. Historical look at Bible translations Ralph Earle Then precious drops of blessing begin to fall! RAIN ..........................................................................................4 A "Praise God," hands high; a muffled sound Poem Jean L.