The Old Testament Integrity Principle Each Backbone includes an article adapted from BJU's joumal, Biblical Viewpoint . This is an article by the chaimman of the Division of Graduate Studies and Seminary at Bob Jones University, Dr. Robert D. Bell, who has been in this position for nineteen years and a professor at BJU for thirty years. He teaches Hebrew and Theology, specializing in Old Testament studies. He has been active in Bible teaching at Hampton Park Baptist Church in Greenville for twenty-eight years. M en of God are to be men of the highest ethical principles and practices.
Personal integrity is foundational to the practice of biblical ethics.
The study of the integrity concept in the Old Testament proves most instructive for our understanding of ethics and helpfully corrective of our misunderstandings concerning ethical behavior. This word group consists mainly of a verb, two nouns, and two adjectives. Literal English translations have usually and appropriately rendered the Hebrew nouns by the term integrity, but for the adjectives no English equivalent exists that would appropriately associate them with their related nouns. Job's affirmation is especially clear in the significant passage in chapter 31 . The overall or basic idea of the Old Testament integrity principle is the hitting of the mark or meeting a standard.