Inspiration and Interpretation
 The subject of the Bible's "inspiration" has been discussed for many years.
The only place where this word is used in the New Testament is in 2 Timothy 3:16, where
the King James Bible uses the phrase, "given by inspiration of God." Some are
teaching only a "partial" inspiration; some only a "concept"
inspiration; some teach only a "naturalistic" inspiration.
In this book, Dean Burgon takes a most remarkable stand on Biblical inspiration and
inerrancy. He wrote: "The Bible is none other than the voice of Him that sitteth upon
the Throne! Every Book of it,--every Chapter of it,--every Verse of it,--every Word of
it,--every Syllable of it,--(where are we to stop?)--every Letter of it--is the direct
utterance of the Most High!"
This is indeed a MUST READ book! It is an 1861 blockbuster with important Biblical
instruction for today! You will want to order several copies of this book and distribute
it widely! Order a copy for your pastor, your church library, your missionaries, your
favorite schools, and your friends!
The text of this Burgon Reprint is based on a complete photographic reproduction of
Burgon's 1861 Inspiration and Interpretation. The reprint publisher has post-scripted
Burgon's work with a fifty-four paged "Brief Summary of Inspiration and
Interpretation" written by D. A. Waite, Th.D, Ph.D.
The Author [This selection comes from Sermon 1-The Study of the Bible.] OBThe thing I
would so strenuously urge upon you, is,--that, during your undergraduate period, you
should read the whole Bible consecutively through, from one end to the other, by yourself
and for yourself, with consummate method, care, and attention. The fundamental conditions
of such a study of the Bible, in order to make it of any real use, are these:
1. First that you should deliberately
apportion to this solemn duty the best and freshest and quietest half-hour in the whole
day; and then, that you should determine, let what will go undone, never to abridge that
half-hour. You may sometimes be enabled to afford a little more time to the chapter: but
you will find it quite fatal ever to devote a shorter period to it. And half an hour, if
you employ it in right good earnest, at present, must be thought enough.
2. Next, (except on Sundays and in
Vacation, when you may safely double your daily time,) be persuaded to read each day
exactly one chapter. On no account attempt to go reading on; but rather spend the moments
which remain over, (they can not be too many!) in reviewing that day's portion; or
referring to some of the places indicated in the margin; or glancing over yesterday's
chapter.
The effect of building up your Bible knowledge in this manner, bit by bit, is what you
would not anticipate. The whole acquires a solidity and compactness not to be attained by
any other method. You will find at the end of many days, not only that the structure has
attained to symmetry and beauty,--but that the disposition of its several parts, in some
respects, has become intelligible also: while, (what is not of least importance,) the
foundation on which all the superstructure rests, proves wondrous secure and strong.
3. Then, while you read,--safe from the
risk of interruption, (as I began by supposing,) and with every faculty intent on your
task,--try, as much as possible to go over the words as if they were new to you; and watch
them, one by one, so that nothing may by any possibility escape your notice. Do not
slumber over a single word. Nothing can be unimportant when it is the HOLY GHOST who
speaketh. It is an excellent practice to mark the expressions which strike you; for it is
a method of preserving the memory of what is sure else soon to pass away.
4. And next, be persuaded to read without
extraneous helps of any kind; except, of course, such help as a map, or the margin of your
Bible, supplies. Pray avoid Commentaries and notes. First, you cannot afford time for
them: and secondly, if you could, they would be as likely to mislead you as not. But the
real reason why you are so strenuously advised to avoid them, is, because they will do
more to nullify your reading, than anything which could be imagined. Your object is to
obtain an insight into Holy Scriptures, by acquiring the habit of reading it with
intelligence and care: not to be saved trouble, and to be shown what other persons have
thought about it.
5. But then, though you are entreated not
to have recourse to the notes of others, your are as strongly advised to make brief
memoranda of your own: and the briefer the better. Construct your own table of the
Patriarchs,--your own analysis of the Law,--your own descent of the Kings,--your own
enumeration of the Miracles. A pedigree full of faults, made by yourself, will do you more
good than the most accurate table drawn up by another: but if you are at all attentive and
clever, it will not be full of faults.--You will perhaps make the parables 56 instead of
30: you will have gained 26 by your honest industry. Nay keep a record of your
difficulties, if you please; or of anything which strikes you, and which you would be
sorry to forget. But, as a rule, it is well to write little, and to give your time and
thought to the record before you.
6. Above all, it is indispensable that
your reading of the Bible should be strictly consecutive; and on no account may any one
pretend to begin such a study of that book as I am here recommending, except at the first
Chapter of Genesis. It is a great mistake, (though one of the commonest of all,) for a man
to imagine that he knows the beginning of the Bible pretty well. I say it advisedly, that
it would be easy to write down twelve interesting questions on they first chapter, of
which none of the younger men present would be able to answer three,--and yet, they should
all be questions of such a sort that a labouring man's child with an open Bible could be
able infallibly to answer them every one.
7. It will follow from what has been
offered, that you are invited to read every book in the Bible in the order in which it
actually stands,--never, of course, skipping a chapter; much less a Book. In every mere
catalogue of names, be resolved to find edification. Feel persuaded that details,
seemingly the driest, are full of GOD. Remember that the difference between every syllable
of Scripture and all other books in the world is, not a difference of degree, but of kind.
All books but one, are human: that one book is Divine! (#DB1220)
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