Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1914-12-21
NEW TESTAMENT NOT A
MECHANICAL CREATION
Was Result OF Activities OF Men
Whose Work Was Subject to
Human Conditions.
STATEMENTS NOT BINDING
Present Generations Should Look on
Writers as acknowledgements OF
Teachings OF Christ, Says DIR. Bowie
In Sermon mt st. Paul's.

minor engagements between the
gospels should not shake the faith of
the present generations, In the opinion
OF Rev. w. Russell Bowie, ID. D., who
last night completed his series Of SER
mons at 81. Paurs Episcopal Church on
the Interpretation Of the Bible. That
there are discrepancies. nc said was
due to the fact that the New Testament
was not mechanical creation with
the guarantee of divine infallibility on
every syllable Of 1t. but rather the re-
suit OF the activities OF men whose
work was subject to human conditions.
DR.. Bowie preached to the largest
congregation that has attended any OF
MS sermons In this series. He took as
his subject. THE New Testament In
the Light OF the Higher Criticism"
Ills text was taken from the NTH and
sixth verses of the third chapter OF St
Paufs Second Epistle to the Corinth-
ians: our suflicicncy Is from God;
who also made us SUFFICIENT as minis
ters or new covenant: not of the let
ter, but OF the spirit: for the letter
killeth. but the spirit giveth life"
NOT OF THE LETTER.
hut OF THE SPIRIT
q He said in substance: these words
from the greatest Of the apostles and
Interpreters of Jesus express with vivid
the glory OF =. our Christianity. 1t Is
the spirit OF new life. Not tradi-
lions, not dogmas. not written records.
made up tho new gospel. ms Paul knew
IT. The gospel was tho fact of the life
and power Of Jesus. making Itself man.
!fest not in manuscripts but in men
and women
THE written records which tell OF
that great fact grew up quite sec
: ondary to that fact and to faith In II,
and In very simple, informal way.
The books that make up our New Tes-
lament did not come down by some
miraculous process from God as His
finished revelation. They were just tho
letters and histories which particular
men wrote to tell other men Of what
they knew about Jesus Christ and OF
what Jesus Christ had revealed to their
own actual lives. St. Paul was writ
ing part of what was to become the
New Testament-part of the hook that
the church has exalted as forever sa-
cred-whcn he snt down to write this
letter to the Corinthians: but he prob
ably had no faintest thought that his
letter would have any such tremendous
history. He wrote other letters In the
general decade between so and 60 A
D., NIL OF them to specific congregations
or individuals, sometimes answering
particular questions, dealing with i'm
mediate and local issues-letters eager
and ardent. often unconventional and
unstudied. with no oracular purpose of
preaching to future ages. but simply
to bring the message of Jesus to hear
on the living problems which he faced
In the same way, the other letters that
are bound up with Pauls were written
And in the same spirit, too, were tho
gospels produced. The men who wrote
| them laid no claim to verbal inerrancy.
They probably never thought of it..
| They We're writing, for the growing
| company OF converts. the story Of Je-
sus's life as they themselves had
| known 1t, or been taught of It, They
! laid no claim to any marvellous method
OF receiving their material from God
They went about the work of gather
! ing 1t just as any conscientious his
torians might do. Papias, Bishop OF
1ieropolis In 1876 A. d., says OF Mark
that having become the interpreter Of
Peter he wrote down accurately every
thing that he remembered" In other
words he listened to Peter preach and
teach. and recorded what he heard
And Luke. in the prologue to tho third
gospel. gives an insight into his own
patient and natural method of reading
and consulting all the testimony about
Jesus which he could find and then