Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Insights from Joseph M. Tanner, Old Testament Studies, Volume 1 (1917)

The following comes from:

 

Joseph M. Tanner, Old Testament Studies, Volume 1: The Creation to the Establishment of the Kingdom Under Saul (Salt Lake City: The Deseret Sunday School Union, 1917)

 

The copyright holder was the then-president of the Church Joseph F. Smith for the Deseret Sunday School Union. As we read in the introduction:

 

This work has been prepared in two volumes as a text-book for the Deseret Sunday School Union. (Joseph M. Tanner, Old Testament Studies, Volume 1: The Creation to the Establishment of the Kingdom Under Saul [Salt Lake City: The Deseret Sunday School Union, 1917], iii)

 

On Creation and the age of the earth:

 

The Creation.—The Book of Genesis starts out with the stately words:

 

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

“And God said, Let there be right; and there was light” (Gen. 1:1-3).

 

Then follow the successive days of creation, all told, six periods of time, in which the Lord called the earth, vegetation, animals, and man into being. It was all the accomplishment of faith; but how faith operated to bring about such a perfect condition of action and life, we do not know. (“Now I, Abraham, saw that it was after the Lord’s time, which was after the time of Kolob; for as yet the gods has not appointed unto Adam his reckoning.”—Abraham 5:13, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”—II Peter 3:8)

 

The Beginning.—The beginning here spoken of was, of course, the beginning of this earth. Eternity has no beginning. How old is the earth? No one knows. The order of creation given in the Bible is quite generally accepted by those who study the progress of life upon the earth itself. The Bible is not a book of science; it is intended above all, to enrich man’s spiritual nature. He that undertakes to read the Bible wholly in the light of human understanding will be baffled at the outset.

 

Reason and Faith.—We should, as far as possible, to be able to give a reason for the hope within us; but reason does not answer completely the needs of man . Faith is one of the most important conditions of a man’s life, He should exercise, therefore, both faith and reason, in order to enjoy the fulness of all the faculties with which God has endowed him. With Him all things are possible. Today our old beliefs and theories, which have arisen through the speculations and philosophies of man, crumble before the new discoveries which these philosophies have been telling us were impossible. We will speculate, however, about the wonderful things we see about us which we do not understand. Speculations may entertain us, may even be helpful, but they should not control us. (Ibid., 4-5)

 

On the flood, we read the following:

 

No event recorded in the Bible has been the subject of more divergent speculations. Men have been asking if the earth was wholly covered by water, which was said to be fifteen cubits above the mountains. Men have asked if it were possible for Noah to have put into the ark two of all the different kinds of animals of the earth.

 

Speculations about the Flood.—In such speculations, a clear distinction should always be made. The disposition is to put a limitation on the power of God to do things which are wholly incomprehensible to man. Under such conditions, no question can possibly arise, because, so far as man is concerned, no limitations can be put upon divine power.

 

If, on the other hand, men care to speculate upon possibilities and probabilities within the realm of man’s understanding, that is quite another thing. We may then frankly say of much that is in the Bible: “We do not understand.” The trouble however with many readers whose speculations about the Scriptures lead them into difficulties, is the want of just this discrimination.

 

We may take too literally sometimes the language of the Old Testament, and put to it a test which defeats the purpose we have in view—the discovery of the truth. The most we can say is that from what we know of the earth and its waters, there is not enough water to cover at one time its entire surface. The Bible, however, gives us very clearly the essential facts,--the destruction of the human family and animal life, and the preservation through means of the ark, of Noah and his family together with the animals he needed to begin life anew. It is safest for the student of Holy Writ to keep in mind the great essential facts through which God has brought about His divine purpose. There is always room in the Bible for argument about things that are not really essential to an understanding of God’s ways. (Ibid., 33-34)

 

On God hardening the heart of Pharaoh and the plagues in Exodus:

 

A certain class of writers have attempted to explain these plagues from the standpoint of known conditions in Egypt. They were, however, a distinct manifestation of God’s power. It is said that the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh. Such a statement is not against purposes or methods, though there are those who claim that God would not harden the heart of any man. This was a crisis in the history of Israel; it was the beginning of their national life, and God, in these miracles, had a special purpose; that purpose He gives in the following words:

 

“Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him:
“and that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son’s son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how I am the Lord” (Ex. 10:1, 2).

 

It was not one sign, which they might have forgotten; it was no three or four signs, which thereafter they might explain. The ten plagues brought upon Egypt were intended to make such an impression upon the children of Israel that they would hardly wish to return to that land. But it had a purpose that was to reach down through their journeys, through all time to come. It was a sort of covenant between God and His people, the fulfilment of a promise which neither they nor their children were to forget; and above all, from which there was no escape. They were to hold their deliverance in sacred and grateful memory. (Ibid., 117-18)