The Divine Unity of Scripture

by Adolph Saphir

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318 pages, Paperback

First published April 5, 1895

Reviews

[Steven Gattuso · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Divine Unity of Scripture" is a collection of 16 lectures delivered by Dr. Adolph Saphir in 1889-1890. In the preface, G.Carlyle writes,"The unity of teaching he most clearly proved, and strikingly illustrated."
This was especially needed in Saphir's time as a massive, unrelenting attempt to discredit the divine authority and origin of the Bible had been mounted by the Rationalists. Saphir does very well to discredit them as does Alfred Edersheim in "Prophecy and History in Relation to the Messiah."
There is a different character evident in the Old and New Testaments, but necessarily so, and the unity is by no means disrupted. There was a history to be worked out as God reveals Himself to men progressively, by degrees, through various dispensations; first to the Jews, then to all men.
That the Creator was also Savior could not be disclosed from the beginning. Men had to be made aware that "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt." Jer.17:9. So God in Exodus gave to the Jews the Law, crystallized in ten commandments. In the gospels, Jesus further concentrates these ten commandments into two, love God and love your brother, your neighbor.
Is this a believable recasting of the Law? How do we transition from a holy God showing us our sinfulness through the Law to a God of absolute forgiveness and love?
"I desire mercy and not sacrifice". Mt.9:13. God's intention from the beginning was to have mercy on sinful men by sending to them His perfect, sinless Son who would take upon Himself all men's sin and take their place in death, the penalty for sin. As death could have no dominion over the sinless Son of God, He arose from the dead, and He raises us also who confess Him as Lord and Savior. At its heart, the Law is one of forgiveness, mercy; not of condemnation, except for those who reject Jesus.
The two covenants are one, a compound unity. Jesus is Lord of both; He is the Word of God! He is everlasting, joyous life to those who believe.
There are many themes developed in this work well worth investigating, ideas rarely heard. Dr. Saphir was a faithful servant of the Lord from an early age, a man of great wisdom and scholarship. There are many valuable quotations from Heine, Strauss, Kant and others elucidating the wisdom, beauty, and truth to be found in the Word of God.
Before you conclude that these men were fools, and the Bible an anachronism; I invite you to hear Dr. Saphir's arguments for the divine unity of scripture.
I have reviewed a paperback edition of this work published by Forgotten Books.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book & you’ll need to read it more than once to glean it’s riches. This book sets out, as the title suggests, to show the 'divine unity' which runs through the Bible from start to finish. Saphir believes in the plenary inspiration of Scripture & declares, "The Bible does not contain the Word of God; it is the Word of God." He sets out to show that Christ is the center of Scripture from start to finish.

This book will stretch your mind & warm your heart & you will thank God for the knowledge this old converted Jew has laid out for you.

This converted Jew (late 1800’s) was ordained into the ministry by the free Church of Scotland & spent many years as a Presbyterian minister. In one section he writes of Luther & Calvin & says, “They did not see clearly the 2nd advent of our Lord, or the difference between the Church dispensation & the position of Israel, both in the past & in the future. …they thought it was sufficient to preach personal salvation, man’s sinfulness, the atonement, the renewal by the Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit—everything that referred to the individual. That is the center, but all the circumference they left out,--the whole counsel of God as it is revealed in Scripture, the plan of God, the kingdom of God, the creation of the world, the creation of man, the unity of the human race, the judgment of the Tower of Babel, the elective dispensation under Israel, in its contrast to what came afterwards. The consequence was that, while it was all very good for those who spiritually & experimentally knew about sin & salvation, the world in its philosophy & its science was constantly undermining the circumference; so that on all other points on which the Bible touches, false & anti-Biblical ideas became current, & each of these points afforded a position from which to attack & to assail the whole Scripture.”

How true & we reap those consequences to this day. You will have no regrets when you purchase & read this book save one. You will regret that you were not informed sooner about the riches & treasures you find in the writings of this very, learned man.

[Eli · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sweeping devotional overview of the unity of the Old and New Testaments, by a brilliant Jewish convert to Christianity. Warm, rich, insightful and supremely edifying.

[Michael Locklear]

Recommended by Bob Dimmitt.