Unity of the Bible by L. L. CAVINESS

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 17, 1914

Unity of the Bible

By L. L. CAVINESS

L. L. CAVINESS

ONE of the remarkable characteristics of the collection of books comprised in our Bible is its unity. This does not always appear to the superficial reader.

“At first sight, and judged by an ordinary literary estimate, the Bible presents an appearance of being merely a large collection of heterogeneous writings. Historical records, ranging over many centuries, biographies, dialogues, anecdotes, catalogues of moral maxims, and accounts of social experiences, poetry, the most touchingly plaintive and the most buoyantly triumphant, predictions, exhortations, warnings, varying in style, in authorship, in date, in dialect, are thrown, as it seems, somewhat arbitrarily into a single volume. No stronger tie is supposed to have bound together materials so various and so ill-assorted than the interested or the too credulous industry of some clerical caste in a distant antiquity, or at best than such uniformity in the general type of thought and feeling as may naturally be expected to characterize the literature of a nation or of a race. But beneath the differences of style, of language, and of method, which are undeniably prominent in the sacred books, and which appear so entirely to absorb the attention of a merely literary observer, a deeper insight will discover in Scripture such a manifest unity of drift and purpose, both moral and intellectual, as to imply the continuous action of a single mind. To this unity Scripture itself bears witness.”—H. P. Liddon, “The Divinity of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” London, Longmans, Green & Co., 1894, page 45.

When we consider the purpose of these writings, we find the cause of their unity:—

“It is primarily the record of God’s manifestation of himself in history as winning and ruling men. Its unity is to be found in the unity of God’s purpose. Or it may be said that its unity is to be found in its center, Jesus Christ. In him the Bible finds its unity. It is either the record of his life, the transcript of his revelation and its interpretation, or it is the promise and preparation of his life, illustrating how greatly men needed this revelation, and tracing the steps by which at last the crowning manifestation became possible. Each part of Scripture receives its place and function by its relation to Jesus Christ.”—Marcus Dods, “The Bible, Its Origin and Nature,” Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1905, page 27.

This underlying unity is one of the greatest proofs of the divine origin of the Bible. H. L. Hastings, the anti-infidel writer, has well expressed it:—

“Here is a book coming from all quarters, written by men of all classes, scattered through a period of fifteen hundred years; and yet this book is fitted together as a wondrous and harmonious whole. How was it done? ‘Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.’ One mind inspires the whole book, one voice speaks in it all, and it is the voice of God speaking with resurrection power.”—“Will the Old Book Stand?” page 20.

Let us study the divine Word more, that we may see the unity of God’s voice, which has been speaking to man throughout the past ages, and that we may also know his purposes and plans for the future.

Takoma Park, D. C.