7 - The Study of the Bible

Summary

The uses to which the Bible can be put are, if not infinite, very considerable in number. Presumably, the greatest use and interpretation of the Bible has been in sermons in churches all over the world on Sundays and other holy days. The number of such sermons must run into millions; and this use has been going on for nearly two thousand years, although not always on the scale of today. The vast majority of these sermons has been, and will be, forever lost. Before the invention of printing, only the sermons of great figures such as Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE), John Chrysostom (c. 350–407) and Pope Gregory I (c. 540–604) were recorded for posterity. After the invention of printing, it became common for sermons to be published individually, and there must be hundreds of thousands of such pamphlets in the libraries of Europe and North America. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, famous preachers published volumes of sermons. Although there have been studies of preachers and preaching, this aspect of the use of the Bible is little known.

Another use to which the Bible has been put is in art and literature, which is a growing area of interest in current Biblical Studies. The recent Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature fills an important gap in previous knowledge of part of this use.