Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-12-31
NOW MY IDEA IS THIS
Daily Talks With Thinking Phiadephians Subjects They
KnO,U Best

ing it or of having the written form to act
as guide in rcciting or reading the book to
others. There was no reading public in the
ancient East.
We in the West are apt to make fetish
of the written or printed word whereas in
the ancient East far greater authority was
accorded to what man said An u,terancc
by a lawgivPr or a prophet or by q religious
poet is apt to be more carefully preserved by
word of mouth than when it was written
down and passed through the hands of end
less copyiSts. many of whom might be care
less and others ignorant of what they were
copying.
The great teachers of the East. Moses,
Jesus, Buddha. Mohammcd and Ioroaster-
never wrote single line. They spoke to the
people and taught by word of mouth
We must distinguish, @. g.. between the
original portions of Ecclesiastes and Job and
the additions to which these books, as every
composition produced in the ancient East.
were subject. A book in the ancient East
was gradual growth, in which often many
collaborat"d, not as in our days when au-
thorship is individual.
Orthodox and Free thinkers
We must imagine such discussions as We
fnd in the Book of Job to have been carried
on Ill certain circles interested in the prob
lens OF life. Some of these circles were
orthodox but others were what we would
call groups of free thinkers.
AS matter of fact, the original bc-k Of
JoD' ltSclf gradual growth, is skeptical in
uS tendency. 1t raises the question why
thcre should be so much unjust suffering and
uhpunished wickedncss in a world created by
a power OF good. The story of Job, in which
the piouS man is represented as bearing his
Suterlngs IN resignation, is merely n peg
upon which those who belonged to the circle
of free thinkers hung their discussion of the
problem involved in the story.
The job of the folk tale was not only
plous but silent For seven days he sits
with his friends without speaking q word
The Job of the magnificent poetical SYM
postum is voluble and rings the changes
throughout the chapter on the Injustice of
his fate, against which he rebels The three
friends represent the orthodox point of view.
and the tendency in the original book was to
justify ) OBJ, as is indeed distinctly indicated
at the close of what once formed the book of
lob. But the problem involved was one
OF profound interest and after Job and mis-
friends had>discusscd it others arose and felt
that they had contribution to make to the
discussion.
I'm this way the original book was greatly
enlarged until it received its present shane
Dnless the Bible is thus reinterprcted in
the nght OF modern research it cannot be un-
derStood and misunderstood Bible is npces.
Sarily n lost Bible Modern biblical scholar.
ship has often been denounced as destructive
Nothing is further from the truth il is nrc.
"mlnently constructive, for it aims to give us
a Bible which, based on correct text and
interpreted with due regard to n historical
and literary background can make its appcal
10 thc present age in u manner which the
traditional view of the Bible that il IN
historical, misleading and confusing can
not"