What the Bible Shows - General William Booth

General William Booth
Founder of The Salvation Army

The Bible has been carefully preserved by Jews and Christians; some men have thought its preservation as great a miracle as its inspiration.

What is claimed for the Bible? Not that every word is inspired. Some words have crept into the text which manifetly do not belong to it. Not that it is without mystery. None of the books on which God has evidently written is without mystery. Not that every passage is easily understood. It requires careful study, like all other great books. Not that exactly in its present form it is entirely free from errors. The lives of many people are made a constant agony because someone or other keeps announcing the discovery of some supposed error. These discoveries of mistakes are in turn constantly being proven mistaken.

That there should be some mistakes in the Bible was to be expected. Remember that the Bible consists of a collection of books written in different languages by many pens, and at different stages of the world's history. This has necessitated constant copying. Try to copy a book and see whether, on close examination, you have done so without some mistake.

There have been many mishaps in preservation 'unto this day.' The Bible, having been originally written in several languages and being constantly translated into difference languages, there have undoubtedly been mistakes made in translation. In modern times there have been different editions by different printers, hence printers' errors. In some cases, the observations of commentators have crept into th text. People endeavor to explain the Bible today, as they always have done so! And often the comment, I am afraid, has come to be regarded as the text.

But too much can be made of such mistakes, or omissions, or of the insertion of a matter foreign to the original. Mistakes in names and words do not destroy the sense of the main teaching. Misquotations do not interfere with the meaning. Treating parables as facts, and facts as parables, and the like, does not alter the general trend of the meaning of what is written. Is the story of the prodigal son a mind picture or an actual incident? The value of its teaching is not affected either way. Seeming contradictions in the Bible may be explained away by better knowledge, by customs of the age in which the book was written, or by some incidents that occured at the time of which, at present, we have no knowledge.

The Salvation Army claims for the Bible that it contains a revelation of the feelings of God toward us and of His wishes as to our conduct and our fellow men. It gives us everything in the way of a written revelation that is necessary to salvation, holy living and our welfare.

William Booth. "What the Bible Shows" in John Waldron (Ed.) The Salvationist and the Scriptures. NY: The Salvation Army, 1988.