Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 11:2 (May 1949)
Article: Reviews Of Books
Author: Anonymous

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WTJ 11:2 (May 1949) p. 157

Reviews Of Books

The Westminster Study Edition of the Holy Bible. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. 1948. xxvi, 1376; x, 486; 103; 6. With 16 maps. $10.00.

As the third volume in its series of “Westminster Aids to the Study of the Scriptures”, following The Westminster Dictionary of the Bible (Gehman’s revision of the Davis Dictionary) and The Westminster Historical Atlas to the Bible (edited by Wright and Filson), the publishing house of the Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. has presented to the public an annotated edition of the Bible, complete with introductory articles and prefaces, a concordance with definitions of certain terms, and an atlas. One can well believe that a work so conceived might supply an actual want and stimulate the study of the Scriptures. The present work, moreover, is so exceedingly attractive in format, typography, the arrangement of the Biblical text and the composition of commentary materials that it will almost certainly win popular acclaim. It retains the advantage of the continued public partiality for the King James Version while giving its publication a new look through the employment of paragraphing, headings for major and minor divisions, and poetical form in extensive sections. The doctrinal viewpoint of the volume also, as I shall illustrate below, combines the impressions of conservatism and modernity, but with certain first impressions of fidelity to the Scriptures largely fading away as one assesses the finished product with greater discrimination.

The responsibility for the present work rests with a Board of editors largely made up of representatives of Presbyterian theological seminaries. These include Mackay, Gehman and Kuist of Princeton; Filson, Wright and Trinterud of McCormick, Bowman of San Anselmo, and Love of Louisville. Others are James D. Smart of the Presbyterian Board of Christian Education, F. W. Dillistone of the Episcopal Theological School of Cambridge, and Charles M. Cooper of the Lutheran Theological Seminary of Philadelphia. Several other well-known scholars, including A. M. Hunter of Aberdeen and H. H. Rowley of Manchester, are listed as contributors.

WTJ 11:2 (May 1949) p. 158

Of immediate interest is the question as to the perspective of the volume regarding the Bible, and there can be no doubt that a certain aura of evangelicalism is cast about it by its introductory statement which bears the caption “GOD HATH SPOKEN”. The Bible is declared to be “the record of God’s revelation to mankind, the abiding witness to the fact that he has spoken. .. There is a word from the Lord, which makes known the very heart and mind of God in relation to the world and to man. .. The one stupendous fact with which the B...

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