Human Nature In The Bible

HUMAN NATURE IN THE BIBLE

BY WILLIAM LYON PHELPS


Everyone who has a thorough knowledge of the Bible may truly be called educated; and no other learning or culture, no matter how extensive or elegant, can, among Europeans and Americans, form a proper substitute. Western civilization is founded upon the Bible; our ideas, our wisdom, our philosophy, our literature, our art, our ideals, come more from the Bible than from all other books put together. It is a revelation of divinity and of humanity; it contains the loftiest religious aspiration along with a candid representation of all that is earthly, sensual and devilish. I thoroughly believe in a university education for both men and women; but I believe a knowledge of the Bible without a college course is more valuable than a college course without the Bible. For in the Bible we have profound thought beautifully expressed; we have the nature of boys and girls, of men and women, more accurately charted than in the works of any modern novelist or playwright. You can learn more about human nature by reading the Bible.


Table of Contents :


Introduction

01. The Creation and the Flood

02. Four Great Personalities--Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph

03. Moses and the Ten Commandments

04. Famous Fighters in Canaan

05. Ruth, Eli, Samuel, Jonathan and King Saul

06. King David

07. Solomon in all His Glory--The Romantic Figure of Elijah

08. The Prophet Elisha

09. Downfall of Israel and Judah--The Patriotic Stories of Daniel and Esther

10. The Apocrypha

11. Wisdom and Philosophy--Proverbs and Ecclesiastes

12. Human Nature Revealed in Poetry--Job, Song of Songs, Psalms, Isaiah