baptism by John, an event with which Mark and John
both begin, the latter prefacing his Gospel by a passage
about the Logos of God and his incarnation. Mark re-
cords with minute detail many incidents which, while
included in other Gospels, are not so picturesquely de-
scribed, for example, no one but Mark records the an-
ger of Jesus at the Scribes and Pharisees when he healed
the withered hand on the Sabbath: —
"And when he had looked round about on them with anger,
being grieved at the hardening of their heart, he saith unto
the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he stretched it forth;
and his hand was restored." Mark 3 15.
Mark alone records the miracle of the healing of the
deaf man with the impediment in his speech, and the
details are given: —
"And he took him aside from the multitude privately,
and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his
tongue; and looking up to Heaven, he sighed, and saith unto
him Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And his ears were
opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spake
plain." Mark 7:33-35.
Other examples of this quality of Mark will be ap-
parent to anyone who will compare the accounts of the
same incidents as given in Mark, and as given in other
Gospels.
Matthew is sometimes spoken of as the Gospel for
the Jews, as Luke is called the Gospel for the Gentiles,
because the former treats of Jesus as "the son of David,
the son of Abraham," 1:1, and has much to say of the
BIBLICAL HISTORY I55
establishment of a Messianic Kingdom on earth. Luke's
conception is broader and includes the whole world.
He alone records the sending out of the seventy. Luke
10:1-24. Matthew contains, chs. 5, 6, 7, the Sermon on
the Mount. The version in Luke is incomplete and not
continuous, 6:20-49, 11:9-13, 12:22-31, but contains,
6:24-26, sayings of denunciation not found in Matthew.
In Luke are accounts of the childhood and early man-
hood of Jesus not included in the other Gospels. Luke
alone gives the parable of the Good Samaritan, 10:25-
37, and has more to say than the others about miracles
of healing. This is attributed to his being a physician.
The Fourth Gospel, or John, spiritual, philosophical and
esoteric, is addressed in large part to the disciples, or
to individuals, rather than to the multitude. Examples
of this, peculiar to John, are the story of the first three
disciples, 1:35-42; the call of Philip and Nathanael, 1:
43-51; the miracle of Cana, 2:1-11; the conversation
with Nicodemus, 2:23-3: 21; the conversation with
the woman of Samaria, 4:4-26; the man at the pool of
Bethesda, 5:1-46; the discourse on the Bread of Life,
6:22-71; the visit to the Feast of Tabernacles, 7:1-52;
the discourses on the Light of the World, and spiritual
freedom, 8:12-59; the Good Shepherd, 10:1-21; the
raising of Lazarus, 11:1-46; the farewell discourses,
chs. 14-17; the appearance to Thomas, 20:26-29;
the appearance to the seven disciples, 21:1-24. Only
by making a "harmony" of the Gospels can these
extraordinary differences in their contents be made
manifest. While there are four Gospels, they are so
different from each other, with all their similarities,
that we could not omit one of them in a study of the
life and words of Jesus without neglecting material of
vital importance.
I56 A BOOK ABOUT THE ENGLISH BIBLE
The Acts of the Apostles
The book of the Acts of the Apostles attributed to
Luke, opens with the Ascension and incidents connected
with it, which are found nowhere else. Luke ends with
the Ascension, as does also the supplementary passage,
Mark 16:9-20, but it is not referred to by Matthew,
and is mentioned by John in two passages, 6:62, 20:17,
as foretold by Jesus, but not as occurring. It is men-
tioned also in Acts 2:33,34, S : 3 I l I Peter 3:22; Ephe-
sians 2:6, 4:10; I Timothy 3:16, but it is interesting to
note that the account of it in Acts is fuller than that
given in the Gospel of Luke.
Acts tells us of the gift of the Holy Spirit on the
day of Pentecost, the preaching of Peter and John,
the persecutions and difficulties of the young Church,
the martyrdom of Stephen, the conversion of the Ethio-
pian eunuch, the conversion of Saul, the imprisonment
and miraculous release of Peter, the missionary jour-
neys, preaching and afflictions of Paul, his defense be-
fore Festus and Agrippa, his appeal to Caesar, and
his perilous journey to Rome.
With the Ascension, the history of Christianity en-
tered upon a second stage, and the book of Acts is the
record of the events which happened between the bodily
disappearance of Jesus in the cloud, and the preaching
of Paul in Rome, at the close of a life of intrepid courage
amid perils of all kinds, in the performance of his duties
as a preacher of the Gospel to the Gentiles, as well as
to the Jews.
CHAPTER VII
BIBLICAL STORIES
Ruth, Esther, Jonah, Tobit and Judith form, as lit-
erature, a class of their own in the Old Testament and
Apocrypha. They are stories, although Jonah was by
the Jews included among the " Minor Prophets." Much
of the historical books is composed of stories embedded
in the structure of history.
Ruth
Ruth and Esther are two short prose stories, one
purely idyllic, with its pictures of the pastoral life, and
its wonderfully beautiful presentation of human rela-
tionships, the other verging on history. Each contains,
as its chief character, an extraordinary young woman.
In a literary way, they stand out distinct from the other
books of the Old Testament.
Interpreted by some as a parable representing, in its
different characters, God's relations to sinners, Ruth is
an unexcelled example of ancient story-telling. Its
presence in the Jewish Scriptures is accounted for, what-
ever other good reasons may be assigned, by the state-
ment in the closing verse: —
"Boaz begat Obed, and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat
David." Ruth 4:21-22.
Ruth and Boaz are mentioned as the great-grand-
parents of David in Matthew 1 :5, and Boaz is named
157
I58 A BOOK ABOUT THE ENGLISH BIBLE
in Luke 3 132, thus placing the time of the story of Ruth
about a hundred years before David. The scene is in
Bethlehem of Judea, "the city of David." Just what
the purpose, if any, of Ruth may be, in its teachings
concerning the much-discussed question of marriage
between Jews and other peoples, as set forth in such
passages as Deuteronomy 7:1-4, 23:3-6; where mixed
marriages are forbidden, or Ezra 9:1-2, where the fact
of mixed marriages is recited as an abomination, we do
not know, but it is worthy of note, in view of such pas-
sages, that we find the story of a mixed marriage told
with no intimation that such a practice was not to be
approved.
The story of Ruth may bear all, or none, of the sec-
ondary interpretations that have been given to it, but
it remains, on account of its simple story of fidelity and
affection, one of the loveliest pictures that we have of
life in Palestine. The scene is laid in the time of the
judges, and, for this reason, the book was, in the Sep-
tuagint, placed immediately after Judges, although in
the Hebrew Scriptures it is in the "Writings." The
contrast between the peaceful and virtuous life of the
village as depicted in Ruth, and the kind of life repre-
sented in the stories of Samson, is such as to make us
realize that in every age, however disorderly and cor-
rupt it may be, the ideas and practice of the domestic
virtues are always to be found in lives uninfluenced in
that respect by the irreligion and immorality of the
time by which they may be surrounded. Whatever
may be the date at; which Ruth was written, we find the
conception of the religious life of the family and home
similar to that which is set forth in Psalms 127, 128,
133, or in the exquisite picture in Proverbs ch. 31 of the
"worthy woman," on whose tongue is "the law of kind-
BIBLICAL STORIES 1 59
ness," whose husband "praiseth her," whose children
"call her blessed," "a woman that feareth Jehovah."
The influence of the book of Ruth is not due to any
didactic purpose of the author, except that of setting
forth clearly and simply the characters of the chief
actors in it. Transparent virtue is displayed by Ruth
with her unselfish devotion, which led her to adopt the
land and religion of her mother-in-law Naomi. Orpah,
the other daughter-in-law, started to go back with Na-
omi and Ruth, but, at Naomi's earnest entreaty, re-
turned "unto her people and unto her God," but Ruth
went with Naomi to Bethlehem. A fact, often lost
sight of in reading the book of Ruth, is that the story is
about the love of a young woman for an older one, a
daughter-in-law for a mother-in-law, and the coming of
Ruth to Bethlehem, where she would be among an-
other people of another religion, was not for the pur-
pose of claiming, or receiving, the benefits of the Mosaic
law concerning widows without sons. 1 Naomi specific-
ally tells Ruth and Orpah, that no such prospect lay
before them since there were no brothers to marry the
widows. Ruth knew nothing of the existence of the
wealthy Boaz. She simply wanted to share with Na-
omi such life as might still be before them.
The poet in Psalm 45, regards it as necessary to say
to the queen: —
"Forget also thine own people, and thy father's house."
Ruth needs no such advice and, even against the
urging of Naomi, adheres to her decision. If Ruth had
been living in Palestine with Chilion the son of Naomi,
she might perhaps have desired to continue to live there.
1 See Deuteronomy 25 15-10.
l6o A BOOK ABOUT THE ENGLISH BIBLE
It was, however, extraordinary for her to go, as a child-
less widow, away from her people and her God. Naomi
must have been a wonderful mother-in-law to have, not
only Ruth, but Orpah as well, determine to accompany
her in her poverty back to her own home, but the love
of Ruth was stronger and more ideal than that of Or-
pah, great as the love of the latter was for Naomi.
Orpah turned back to her own people and her own God,
while Ruth continued her journey with the decision
which marks great souls, and with the devotion to
Naomi which has made her name revered for all time.
Ruth as depicted in this ancient story stands forth as
one of the world's great types of character, an example
of unflinching determination, with unselfish love as its
only motive.
"And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, and to
return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I
will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall
be my people, and thy God my God; where thou diest, will
I die, and there will I be buried: Jehovah do so to me, and
more also, if aught but death part thee and me." Ruth
1:16-17.
The fact that Naomi made to Ruth no mention of
Boaz is also not without significance. She is proud and
returns to her own people asking no favors of anyone,
but saying simply, "call me not Naomi, call me Mara;
for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me."
1 :20. Ruth asked of Naomi permission to go to the
field and glean "after him in whose sight I shall find
favor."
"And she went, and came and gleaned in the field after
the reapers: and her hap was to light on the portion of the
field belonging unto Boaz." 2:3.
• BIBLICAL STORIES l6l
Naomi had not asked help of Boaz, nor had she in
any way suggested to Ruth that Boaz might assist them.
The gleaning of Ruth in the field of Boaz was not done
knowingly. It was "her hap." This is brought out
clearly in a passage which reveals much concerning the
character of Naomi. When Ruth returned from the
field bringing the barley she had gleaned: —
"Her mother-in-law said unto her, Where hast thou
gleaned today ? and where hast thou wrought ? "
Ruth told her: —
"The man's name with whom I wrought today is Boaz."
Ruth 2:17-19.
We have then from the lips of Naomi instant recogni-
tion of the goodness of Jehovah who had brought it
about : —
"Blessed be he of Jehovah, who hath not left off his kind-
ness to the living and to the dead. ,, Ruth 2:20.
Recognizing the hand of Jehovah in what had oc-
curred, Naomi then, and apparently not until then,
tells Ruth that Boaz was a kinsman. But, even yet,
no appeal is made to Boaz. His kindness leads Naomi
to tell Ruth how to proceed to win his favor, but this is
done without letting him know who she was. The good-
will of Boaz was shown, not because Ruth was a kins-
woman, in which case he would have been under
some obligation to show favor, but because he was
a man of noble character. The character of Ruth was
known — "The city of my people doth know that thou
art a worthy woman," 3:11.
l62 A BOOK ABOUT THE ENGLISH BIBLE
The relationship of Boaz to Ruth serves to bring out
yet more strongly the character of Boaz who, after a
nearer kinsman had refused to buy the field, when he
heard that he must, with it, take Ruth and "raise up
the name of the dead," purchases the field and takes
Ruth for his wife.
Commentators generally call attention to the pictures
of the life of Bethlehem, the elders, sitting near the
gate, hearing Boaz and the near-kinsman discuss the
sale of the land by Naomi, and witnessing the purchase
of it by Boaz, after the near-kinsman had given up his
right; also to the scene of the return of Naomi, when
the women gather around and ask, "Is this Naomi?";
and to the interest of "the women her neighbors" in
the child of Ruth. The note of the author, writing in a
later age, or of some editor concerning the custom of
giving a shoe in confirmation of an exchange shows an
interest in old customs and a desire that the knowledge
of them should not die out: —
"Now this was the custom in former time in Israel con-
cerning redeeming and concerning exchanging, to confirm
all things: a man drew off his shoe and gave it to his neighbor;
and this was the manner of attestation in Israel." Ruth
4:7.
The fact that a Moabitess, one of another people, and
of another religion, could come into Palestine as a wor-
shipper of Jehovah and win from "all the city" of Beth-
lehem the praise "a worthy woman" and that the de-
vout Boaz "a mighty man of wealth," took her for his
wife, is not without its important meaning to a people
who thought, as the Jews did, that all other peoples
were inferior to them.
BIBLICAL STORIES 163
Esther
Totally different from Ruth in purpose and contents,
is the story of Esther. Here the purpose is not to tell
a story in order to delineate human characters and qual-
ities, although much of this is done, but to give an ac-
count of an incident, or series of incidents, in the history
of the Jews living in Persia, in which a young Jewish
woman, who, because of her beauty, had become the
chosen queen of Ahasuerus, (identified as Xerxes, 485-
465 b. c.) saved her people from massacre by the order
of Haman, who himself, and his ten sons after him, were
hanged on the gallows that he had, by decree of Ahas-
uerus, prepared for Mordecai the Jew. In celebration
of this deliverance was instituted the feast of Purim or
the "lots" as we are told: —
"And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all
the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus,
both nigh and far, to enjoin them that they should keep the
fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of
the same, yearly . . . because Haman . . . the enemy of all
the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and
had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them . . . where-
fore they called these days Purim, after the name of Pur
. . . And the commandment of Esther confirmed these mat-
ters of Purim; and it was written in the book." Esther
9:20-31.
The earliest reference, after Esther, to this feast, is
in an account of the defeat of Nicanor: —
"And they all ordained with a common decree ... to
mark with honour the thirteenth day of the twelfth month
(it is called Adar in the Syrian tongue), the day before the
day of Mordecai." II Maccabees 15:36.
164 A BOOK ABOUT THE ENGLISH BIBLE
The fact that Esther does not contain the name of
Qpd^and^is purely secular history, "all references to re-
ligion being conspicuously absent, and even the deliver-
ance of the Jews being nowhere attributed to Jehovah,
as is customary in all other parts of the Scriptures,
caused the early Christian Church to doubt the pro-
priety of including it among the Scriptures. Even
among the Jews, some did not esj^eno-itJiighly, al-
though, later, special importance was attached to it and
it was even associated with the Law of Moses.
In the Septuagint version are ten additional verses
relating a dream of Mordecai, beginning "Then Morde-
cai said God hatricTone th'ese things," which the Vul-
gate, and, following it, the Douay Version, include, add-
ing also the additional chapters found in the Apocrypha.
These chapters were detached by Jerome from the be-
ginning of the book, where they appeared in ancient
Greek and Latin versions, and placed at the end.
They contain another version of the dream of Mordecai,
prayers-of Mordecai and Esther, which supply the re-
ligious element lacking in the canonical Jewish book
and the letter of Artaxerxes.
There are jtwo.parts_ of the book of Esther, the first
i ntroduc tory v to reveal the character of Ahasuerus,
and to explain how Esther became queen, by relat-
ing the story of Vashti, who, as a result of her refusal to
obey the king, was deposed, because, as Memucan
said: —
"Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only,
but also to all the princes, and to all the peoples that are in
all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus. For this deed of
the queen will come abroad unto all women, to make their
husbands contemptible in their eyes, when it shall be re-
ported, The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen
BIBLICAL STORIES 165
to be brought in before him, but she came not." Esther
1:16-17.
The second part of the story begins : —
"There was a certain Jew in Shushan the palace, whose
name was Mordecai . . . who had been carried away from
Jerusalem with the captives that had been carried away
with Jeconiah king of Judah 1 . . . and he brought up . . .
Esther, his uncle's daughter." Esther 2:5-7.
Esther, chosen for the king's harem, was by the
king chosen to be queen instead of Vashti, but, on the
advice of Mordecai, she did not make known to the
king " her people nor her kindred," 2 :io. Mordecai was
not known to Haman as a Jew, until the king's ser-
vants revealed the fact that Mordecai refused to bow
down to Haman, as the other servants did, in obedience
to the king's command. The servants were endeavor-
ing to secure the favor of Haman by calling atten-
tion to the fact that Mordecai was a Jew. Haman
desired to advance his own interests with the king, and
used the incident of Mordecai's affront to accomplish
his purpose, under the cover of loyalty to his king and
people, and, he wished also, to secure revenge for his
own wounded vanity by putting to death not only
Mordecai, who had insulted him, but also the other
Jews, against whom no one but himself seemed to have
felt any hostility. He would slaughter a whole people
to satisfy a personal grudge or ambition. Haman _sufU
denly discovers that the Jews had been following cus-
toms of their own, which differed from those of the Per-
sians, and which did not conform to the laws of the king.
He makes this the basis of an appeal to the vanity of
1 Jehoiachin, II Kings, 24:6.
l66 A BOOK ABOUT THE ENGLISH BIBLE
the king by calling attention to it as an infringement
of lln MJJTfll djgtiitjri The same kind of appeal had
proved successful against Vashti. Haman promises the
king ten thousand talents of silver, doubtless to be
taken from the Jews. The plea of Haman was legally
unanswerable, and Ahasuerus, won also by Haman's
flattery, and desirous of rewarding this loyal courtier,
orders the destruction of the Jews, but tells Haman
"the silver is given to thee. " The fatal decree was is-
sued and Mordecai heard of it. Here ends the first act
of the story of Haman.
The counter-plot now begins. Mordecai reveals the
plot to Esther, giving her a copy of the decree against
the Jews and calling her attention to the fact that they
both must die in accordance with the decree. At this
point in the story we have the nearest approach to the
usual attitude of the Jew towards Jehovah, as we see it
set forth in the Old Testament. Singularly enough there
is no mention of the name of Jehovah which seems to
have been intentionally avoided, for we read: —
"For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time,
then will relief and deliverance arise to the Jews from an-
other place, but thou and thy father's house will perish:
and who knoweth whether thou art not come to the kingdom
[i. e. thou hast become queen] for such a time as this?"
Esther 4:14.
The counter-plot is now arranged. It depends for
its success upon the power of Esther the queen, a per-
son condemned to death by the decree, but protected,
as yet, by the fact that she was not known to be a Jew-
ess, against the vindictive and powerful Haman, who
had already secured from the king the publication, in
every province, of a decree, which, according to Persian
BIBLICAL STORIES 1 67
law, when published, was irrevocable. In the case of
Vashti, her deposition was urged lest the dignity of the
king and all other husbands suffer, if disobedience were
not punished. Even a queen, and an extraordinarily
beautiful one, as Vashti was, could not with impunity
disobey a merely whimsical order of her husband.
What possible chance then had Esther to prevent the
execution, not of a private order of her husband, but
of a royal decree ? No modern writer, cunningly though
he may have constructed his plot, ever presented for
solution a more difficult problem. We now see that the
story of Vashti is not merely for the purpose of explain-
ing how Esther happened to become queen. It has a
very definite meaning in showing how apparently hope-
less was the situation by which Esther was confronted,
and in which upon her alone depended the lives of all
of her race in Persia.
The ftrst_step in the solution is the scene in which
Esther appears before the king. Before that scene we
are asked to picture in imagination all the Jews in
Shushan gathered in solemn assembly fasting for three
days and nights. It is not said that they were pray-
ing, but they were "fasting," and Esther herself and
her maidens likewise fasted. It was a dramatic scene
when Ahasuerus held out his scepter to Esther and
promised, in his love and admiration for her, to grant
any request she might make, "even to the half of the
kingdom," but the Jews were still in precisely the posi-
tion they were before, since even the king himself
could not revoke his own decree. Esther could, however,
under the king's promise, punish Haman, and this she
proceeded to do, but not at once by any direct attack.
She was a deep thinker and her sense of justice had been
outraged by the plot of Haman against her people.
l68 A BOOK ABOUT THE ENGLISH BIBLE
She remembered Mordecai and his loyalty to the king
in revealing to the king, through her, a plot against his
life, 2:21-22. Mordecai must be honored, and Haman
humiliated, and this Esther accomplished. She re-
quested the presence of the king and Haman at a ban-
quet, but when the king asked her to tell him what her
petition was, she postponed her reply until the next
day, and invited the king and Haman to a second ban-
quet. Haman, as it was intended that he should be,
was elated by receiving such extraordinary signs of
favor, and told his wife and his friends: —
"Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the
king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself;
and tomorrow also am I invited by her together with
the king. Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as
I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate." Esther
5:12-13.
Haman was disturbed by the presence of Mordecai,
and knowing that the life of all Jews was forfeited by
the decree, he discussed with his wife Zeresh, and his
friends, the way to get rid of Mordecai. They suggest
the hanging of Mordecai on a gallows specially built for
the purpose, so that Haman, then, with this disturber
of his pride and importance out of the way, might go
in "merrily with the king unto the banquet." This is
an additional incident in the plan of Haman. Mordecai
his enemy is to be punished separately.
But the service that Mordecai had rendered in sav-
ing the king's life comes forcibly to the attention of