The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-11-10
DR.. SANDERS BEGINS
BIBLICAL LECTURES
Old Testament from Literary
and Historic Viewpoint
INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS
The Distinguished Scholar Points Out
Illuminating Facts-Shows the De-
velopment of the Bible and Its
Growth-Today's Lectures.

DIR. Frank X. Sanders began a $ ries Of
lectures at the First Baptist church yes.
terday morning. At night re lectul ed on
the growth of the Old Testament Start
ing with the American standard revision
of the Bible he traced in outline the his
tory of the scriptures through the Eng
fish versions, the Vuigate and tle Sep
tuagint to the second century B. c.
DIR. Sanders then showed how the Bible
was circulating as a set # books each
more or less Independent as shown by the
history of the word, which was original
ly neuter plural Blbla and meant little
books, but was later Latnized into
feminine singular and came TO mem the
Book or Bible as we use the word today
The Septuagint, said DIR. Sanders, was
produced by the Jews of the DISPERSION
who spoke Greek, during the secord ami
third centuries B. c., and probably COW
cred hundred years in tho period of its
translation.
The speaker then sketehed the process
of the canonization of the Old Testament
to the Synod of Jamnia, where The last
word was said on that subject; though in
substance canonicity was granted TO the
books several centuries before. SO ty the
year 250 b. c., the Old Testament NAV
be said to have been in use substantially
as we have it. But it was even then the
product of a thousand years of history,
in which nation attempted to give ex-
pressions to it's consciousness of its re-
lations to its God in the many Tcvolu-
tions of its life. So the scriptures ,epre.
sent divine order of development which
the lecturer illustrated by ,he Incidents
of the rewriting of the roll of Jeremiah
after it had been burned by the king.
to which the author added many ords.
and by the writing of campaign a.
prophecy in Ephraim by the Prophet
Amos, and by the framework of the
books of Kings and Judges, whore we
clearly have incidents already In written
form set into a framework which gives
revelation of their religious philosophy
and value.
These were old facts freshly interpreted
for the culture of religion in Israel. Thus
history became Bible, revelation OF Col
The lecturer showed the sne process in
the case of the growth of the Psalter aud
the wisdom literature OF. the Old Tesla
ment, and cited the preface to the sospe..
of Luke as further illustration. Tic then
gave sevenfold classification of tins. liter
allure of the Old Testament according to
its literary characteristics as history
poetry wisdom, story, law, prophecy AMI
apocryppa He then took up the ciscus.
sion of the growth of the Hexateuch,
showing how it also like the Psalms anu
Proverbs had grown out of an earlier liz
erature in the exile and postexlic reriod
and that the same was true of the his.
torcal books OF Samuel and Kinas.
Literary Stages.
These show the marks of four distinct
literary stages; first, one in which the
facts were known as such, then one in
which these facts were collected then
one in which they were unified into a
narrative with religious meaning and
value, and then one in which they were
edited and additions made which were
appendices such as we have at the end
of Samuel. These facts got to be Bible
when they were unified into narrative
revealing God and His dealings with men.
They then passed out of the category Of
mere memoranda into revelations of God
under the hand of the man of God who
wrote them up to glorify Him in the life
of His people. This same process in
less striking way is to be observed In
the growth of the sacred books of other
religions. The books then became of the
nature Of historical surveys which was
impossible except long after the facts
were well known among the people. Such
literary process implied the existence of
mission, leisure class and an adequate
impulse; which could not we'll have been
the case before the days OF David and
the prophets.
Making History.
. Up to the year 1000 B. C. the Israelites
were making history, not recording and
interpreting it with view to making
clear to men the divine guidance in that
life. Yet they were getting the material
for the religious literature which was to
enter into the Hexateuch and other books.
Then came the period when they were
collecting these fragments into Anthol-
ogies and other collections of stories,
ctfab t1,n nf To- In. dc .