Introducing the Bible - William Barclay

 Here is a new situation with a very great potential. Augustine Birrell used to say that every student should be compelled to read books with the point of which he is in complete disagreement. In Bible study a very mixed group, with widely varying points of view, is much better than a holy huddle of like-minded people. Disagreement can be the way to new discovery and is always a stimulus to thought, for we can never be sure of any position until we have defended it from attack.

Another new attitude is that people have come to see that the Bible is a book, not only to be read, but also to be studied. The old system in which a person read a chapter a day, and just read it, will no longer do. The old battle cry that the Bible is its own best interpreter is no longer acceptable. The Bible is a difficult book, written in different languages, coming from a different civilization, talking about difficult things, and every aid to study great books that must be brought to it. The Bible is like all more we bring to it, the more we will get out of it.

In this book I do not wish to persuade people to think as I do; I only wish to make them think. It is my prayer and my hope that this book will enable people to understand the Bible better, to love it more, and in it to see Jesus Christ more clearly.

Glasgow University

WILLIAM BARCLAY