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It argues that the Old Testament’s values are often missed due to superficial reading and lack of historical context. It outlines challenges such as revisions across later hands and proposes organizing the Old Testament by composition and origins, supported by archaeology and studies of ancient religions.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":45,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/religion-spirituality/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-story-of-the-bible-introduction/407968/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-story-of-the-bible-introduction/407968.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Liam","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-16","2026-09-28",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":29},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What are the two main ways the author describes for using the Bible?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"One is the old childhood approach, using passages regardless of time and circumstances. The other is the grown person’s approach, reading it as a book at a time with understanding of its original time and setting.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Why does the author say the major values of the Bible are often unrealized?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The author argues that many people never move beyond the childhood approach and fail to understand the historical situations behind the books, especially in the Old Testament where superficial reading can obscure core values.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What makes studying the Old Testament especially difficult?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The author notes that it is hard to recover the occasions behind its formulations and that many books underwent additions and revisions by later hands, leaving a final form that reflects repeated 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UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS·CHICAGO 37Agent:CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS ·LONDON  \nCOPYRIGHT I936 BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO.ALL RIGHTSBESERVED.PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER I936.TENTH IMPRESSIONMAY I947.COMPOSED AND PRINTED BY THE UNIVERSITY OFCHICAGO PRESS ,CHICAGO,ILLINOIS,U.S.A.  \nINTRODUCTION  \nThere are two ways to use the Bible.One is theold childhood way of using a text from here or there,regardless of the time and circumstances of its ori-gin.The other is the grown person's way,of readingit a book at a time,as it was written to be read,andwith some understanding of the time and circum-stances in which each book was written.It is obvi-ous that only in this latter way can the major valuesof the Bible be realized.The Bible is far from beinga child's book.No book in the world is more defi-nitely addressed to the mature mind.And yet manypeople never get beyond their childhood approachto it,or seek to understand its books in the light ofthe historical situations that called them forth.  \nThe Old Testament is full of dramatic situationsand great religious truths,but these are dimly per-ceived by most people nowadays.Grotesque ele-ments in its art sometimes completely overshadowits most tremendous religious values—as in thestory of Jonah.Superficial reading of its books oftenleaves us with no idea atall of the situations in whichthey were written and without which they cannotbe understood.  \nFor the Old Testament is a very difficult book.It  \n# INTRODUCTION\n\nis not easy to recover the occasions on which itsgreat utterances were first formulated or the needsto meet which its books were written.Read solelyin the order in which we possess it,the order of itssubject matter rather than of its literary origin,it isoften very obscure.That orderly corpus of twelvebooks from Genesis to II Kings is indeed a master-piece of literary organization,and embodies obviousand indispensable values.But there are in the liter-ature other values less obvious but just as indispen-sable,which demand another order of treatment tobring them out.For the Hebrew religion did not,after all,begin with the priests but with the proph-ets,and this fact is reflected in its literature.To fol-low the emergence of its great ideas as the great lit-erary prophets advanced them one after anothergives us a truer and even more dramatic picture ofthat amazing religious development.Great moun-tains may be looked at from conventional points ofview,as the Jungfrau is from Interlaken,or MontBlanc from Chamonix,but there are other views ofthem just as true and just as stupendous.  \nSo it is with the Old Testament.Weshall know itbetter if we study it not simply in the familiar orderof its subject matter,but in the order of its origins,of its composition,and of its authors.Great prog-ress has in recent years been made in these direc-tions,and while it is of course impossible to claimunanimity on all points,some things about the writ-  \nINTRODUCTION  \nings of the Old Testament have gradually becometolerably clear.The progress of archaeology;the de-cipherment of Assyrian,Babylonian,and Egyptianremains;and the study of ancient religions havehelped immensely to the understanding of the OldTestament.  \nThe task is complicated by the fact that manybooks of the Old Testament have sustained accre-tions and undergone revision by later hands.It is asthough they had been revised and amplified againand again,and come to us in the last form that theyassumed—a sort of final revision.One must choosebetween dividing their material,taking it up parthere and part there,or placing them at a point inhistory which their major interest,their literary orhistorical center of gravity,suggests.The formermethod has often been followed,but seems morelikely to confuse than to help the reader.  \nI have therefore arranged the books in the generalorder of t","cbCaid5l4ypAcmPO","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaid5l4ypAcmPO","pdf",11287796,362,"English","# Introduction\n## Two ways to use the Bible\n## Reading the Old Testament historically\n## Difficulties from revisions and composition\n## Rationale for an order by origins and authors","[{\"question\":\"What are the two main ways the author describes for using the Bible?\",\"answer\":\"One is the old childhood approach, using passages regardless of time and circumstances. The other is the grown person’s approach, reading it as a book at a time with understanding of its original time and setting.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the author say the major values of the Bible are often unrealized?\",\"answer\":\"The author argues that many people never move beyond the childhood approach and fail to understand the historical situations behind the books, especially in the Old Testament where superficial reading can obscure core values.\"},{\"question\":\"What makes studying the Old Testament especially difficult?\",\"answer\":\"The author notes that it is hard to recover the occasions behind its formulations and that many books underwent additions and revisions by later hands, leaving a final form that reflects repeated amplification.\"}]","The Story of the Bible - Introduction | PDF",1790577375,912]