Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 86:342 (Apr 1929)
Article: The Bible In Its Setting: The Value Of The Spade
Author: Melvin Grove Kyle

BSac 86:342 (April 1929) p. 175

The Bible In Its Setting: The Value Of The Spade

Melvin Grove Kyle

I. In Apologetics

That vague generalization known as “the average man” will respond at once to the suggestion of this title, that the only value of the spade is its apologetic value. And no wonder; the insistence of the present Biblical controversy, the nature of the attack upon the Scriptures, preeminently an attack upon its historicity, leaves little room and still less incentive for any other than apologetic use of archaeological materials. On that subject much more later, but just now the very great immediate importance of the apologetic value of the spade may well be allowed to go unchallenged.

But before consideration of the value of the spade, let us enter a caveat and make one good resolution. The caveat is against the idea that the principal use to be made of archaeological material is in repelling assaults of the destructive criticism of the Bible. Whatever its importance for use in such a conflict it is not purposed now to enlist in that war. There is no need for alarm: we will not lose ourselves in that fray, but rather stick closely to our present theme, the Value of the Spade. It is constructive discussion that enlightens; destructive controversy usually only obscures the subject. How seldom is any one enlightened by being beaten in an argument. The light let into a dark place is all that is necessary to reveal the unsightly things there.

The good resolution is this, we will not live in haunted houses: many people do. Some years ago at a great summer Conference four ministers took lunch together and talked a little. One remarked to the others, “There is Professor so-and-so in your church (which shall here be nameless). He is one of the foremost scholars of the world and yet you have him so tied down with class room work that he has no time to give the results of his re-

BSac 86:342 (April 1929) p. 176

searches to the world.” “Yes,” said one of the gentlemen, “and who knows what he would be finding!” That man evidently lived his Christian life in a haunted house; there were intellectual closets into which he was afraid to look. In this examination into the Value of the Spade we will allow no closets that are not to be opened; no territory of investigation upon which a “verboten” “keep-off-the-grass” sign will be permitted. We will not fear that any facts in God’s providence will ever contradict other facts in his Book.

I. The spade of the archaeologist is of primary value in prospecting for Bible history in the field.

It is of the utmost importance that the Bible history found in the Bible should also be found in the field. It is exactly at the point of the...