THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
The only Jewish publication in the State of Michigan
Devoted to the interests of the Jewish people
Vol. I.
No. 16
DETROIT, MICH., JUNE 16, 1916
$ 1.50 per Year
Sing e Copies 5 Cents
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4.
Ha•ve We Outgrown the B ible 2
By RABBI LEO M. FRANKLIN '
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thing in it of inherent worth. For the very heart of such varied civil-
N the domain of the world's Bible. has been held through all
what is true in the physical world izations as it has unless in it there
literature there is no other book these ages to be one of the greatest
has its counterpart in the realm of were a living truth and a truth uni-
that in its influence on human life gifts that the Jew has given to the
intellect and morals. That which versal. In saying this, it should not
can even remotely compare w ith the world. Shall that gift lose its sig-
serves no function in the living be necessary for me to tell you that
That book in which is re- nificance in the light of our modern
World, eventually disappears. That I by no means uphold the old doc-
flected the changing ideals of a. peo- culture ; shall it be held to be a gift
is the law of life as illustrated so trine of the plenary inspiration of
ple in its development from crude of tinsel and not gold? Or shall a
the Bible or the truth of its every
immaturity to a state of culture, out candid examination of its claims to frequently by the gradual disappear- word. Even the inspiration of the
of which were produced world permanency as an inspiring influ- ance of organs, the need of which Bible has taken on for me and for
poets and prophets, has found its
those who think as I do, a very
way into every corner of the world,
different content than it held for
and translated into the thousand of
the men of ,yesterday. To me the
tongues spoken by men, has left its
Bible is essentially a human work,
mark upon their lives.
and its inspiration, if you would in-
And yet no work created by
sist upon that word, is manifested
human genius has been the object
not in the marvelous form of reve-
of such diverse judgment as has the
lation through which, according to
Bible. Pronounced on the one hand
the legend, it was delivered unto
to be the infallible word of God, on
men, but rather by the very fact
the other, it has been vilified as the
that its fundamental moral truths
distorted creation of hypocritical
have remained true for ;111 men
priestcraft. Crowned on one day
within the air--le of civilization
the literary masterpiece of the ages,
through all these countless cen-
on the next it has been. cast aside as
turies.
a mass of lies and contradictions;
To understand the Bible and
held aloft by its sponsors as the
place a value upon its contents, one
highest inspiration to right living,
must lhear in mind its history and
it has been characterized by skeptics
its purpose. In the first place, one
and unbelievers as full of immorali-
must never lose sight of the fact
ties against which childhood and de-
that here we have not a single homo-
veloping youth must be carefully
geneous bit Of writing, the product
guarded. Praised for its broad uni-
of one pen or of one age, but in-
versalism and for its high concep-
stead we are dealing with a century
tion of deity, it has been stamped as
circling literature created by the
the narrow mouthpiece of bigots
genius-endowed mot of several cen-
who had not grown beyond the
turies at least, and reflecting in its
tribal interpretation of religion.
pages the vastly divergent attitudes
And so the Bible has been praised
of widely separated civilizations.
and pilloried, has been sanctified
One cannot speak correctly of the
and scorned in turn. Even today,
Bible as a hook. It is a library of
the opinions of men in regard to the
books, it is a literature, comprising
value of this great literature is
works so varied in character that
strangely diverse. Some find in it a
they have no particular relationship
solution for every problem that
each to the other. One may•as well
modern life presents, and others re-
think of Griinm's Fairy Tales in the
gard it as the hackneyed tale of an
same cat a g o r y with Goethe's
obsolete civilization, without mes-
"Faust" as he might of the legends
sage or meaning to modern men. ,
of Genesis side by side with the
In the light of this divergence of
philosophical utterances of job or
RABBI LEO M. FRANKLIN
judgment, it is right that we should
Ecclesiastes. One might with the
pause to examine the actual facts in
same logic place side by side Black-
the case ; to look upon this work
stone's Great Legal Code and the
objectively and without passion or
reflections of Marcus Aurelius. a ,
prejudice or partisanship ; to put the ence upon life be justified in the living creatures have outgrown in he might class together certain legal
Bible under the microscope of light of painstaking and un- the moral world, the same phenom- enactments in the books of Exodus
scientific analysis and to determine prejudiced examination? It is im- enon is evident. Ultimately truth and Deuteronomy. with the ethical
whether for our day and generation portant that we should know the survives and error dies. It has not principles of the Book of Proverbs.
in itself the me Os of survival. By
there is anything in it worthy of facts.
One might with as much reason put
The very fact that the Bible has that same token 'the Bible could not
preservation. The more important
into one volume a history of the
is it for us Jews to undertake stich survived the centuries is corrobo- have lasted through these many
(Continuo/ on page 37)
a study of the facts, because the rative evidence that there is some- centuries and forced its way into
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