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Do you need help understanding the Bible? Halley’s Bible Handbook with
the New International Version makes the Bible’s wisdom and message
accessible to you. Whether you’ve never read the Bible before or have read
it many times, you’ll find insights here that can give you a firm grasp of
God’s Word. You’ll develop an appreciation for the cultural, religious, and
geographic settings in which the story of the Bible unfolds. You’ll see how
its different themes fit together in a remarkable way. And you’ll see the
heart of God and the person of Jesus Christ revealed from Genesis to Rev-
elation. Written for both mind and heart, this completely revised, updated,
and expanded 25th edition of Halley’s Bible Handbook retains Dr. Halley’s
highly personal style. It features:
Contents
Foreword to the 25th Edition ......................................................................9
The Heart of the Bible
Note to the Reader.....................................................................................11
The Heart of the Bible ...............................................................................12
The Habit of Bible Reading .......................................................................16
Going to Church As an Act of Worship .....................................................22
Notable Sayings About the Bible................................................................23
Bible Backgrounds
What the Bible Is .......................................................................................27
How the Bible Is Organized .......................................................................28
What the Bible Is About ............................................................................32
The Main Thought of Each Bible Book .....................................................45
The Setting of the Bible .............................................................................47
1.Why the Setting Is Important.............................................................47
2.The Ancient Near East......................................................................47
3.The World Powers of Biblical Times ...................................................48
4.Roads and Travel in Biblical Times ....................................................49
5.The Promised Land: Israel.................................................................55
6.The Holy City: Jerusalem ..................................................................60
Writing, Books, and the Bible ....................................................................68
The Old Testament
In the Beginning
Genesis 1–11.........................................................................................83
The Time of the Patriarchs
Genesis 12–50.....................................................................................105
The Exodus from Egypt
Exodus–Deuteronomy ..........................................................................130
The Conquest and Settlement of Canaan
Joshua–Ruth........................................................................................188
The Monarchy: David, Solomon, and the Divided Kingdom
1 Samuel–2 Chronicles ........................................................................214
The Babylonian Exile and the Return from Exile
Ezra–Esther ........................................................................................290
Poetry and Wisdom
Job–Song of Songs................................................................................307
The Prophets
Isaiah–Malachi ...................................................................................363
The Messiah in the Old Testament...........................................................489
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We want to hear from you. Please send your comments about this
ebook to us in care of the address below. Thank you.
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HALLEY’S B I B L E
H A N D B O O K
WITH THE NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION
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ISBN: 0-310-24460-9
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy
Bible: New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by
International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights
reserved.
Other permissions are listed on pages 1120–21, which hereby become part of
this copyright page.
Foreword
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The following pages are the heart and soul of Halley’s Bible Handbook.
Dr. Halley’s goal was not to write a book that would help people know
more about the Bible. Dr. Halley’s passion was to get people and churches
to read the Bible in order that they might meet and listen to the God of
the Bible and come to love His Son, Jesus Christ.
The rest of this book is of little lasting value if Dr. Halley’s central con-
victions, stated so passionately and forcefully in this section, are ignored.
We urge you to take the time to read—and periodically reread—this
section.
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There can be no question that the books of the Bible were composed
by human authors; we don’t even know who some of these authors were.
Nor do we know just how God directed these authors to write. But we
believe and know that God did direct them and that these books therefore
must be exactly what God wanted them to be.
There is a difference between the Bible and all other books. Authors may
pray for God’s help and guidance, and God does help and guide them. There
are many good books in the world that leave the unmistakable impression
that God helped the authors to write them. But even the most saintly
authors would hardly presume to claim for their books that God wrote them.
Yet that is what the Bible claims for itself and what the people of God
through the millennia have learned and understood and claimed. God
Himself superintended and directed the writing of the Bible books in such
a way that what was written was the writing of God. The Bible is God’s
Word in a sense in which no other book in the world is God’s Word.
Many statements in the Bible are expressed in ancient thought forms
and ancient language forms. Today we would express these same ideas in
a different form and in modern language rather than in the language of
ancient times. But even so, the Bible contains precisely the things God
wants mankind to know, in exactly the form in which He wants us to
know them. And to the end of time, the “dear old Book” will remain the
one and only answer to humanity’s quest for God.
• Everyone should love the Bible.
• Everyone should be a regular reader of the Bible.
• Everyone should strive to live by the Bible’s teachings.
• The Bible should have the central place in the life and work of every
church and every pulpit.
• The pulpit’s one business is the simple teaching of God’s Word, express-
ing in the language of today the truths that are expressed in ancient
thought and language forms in the Bible.
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Everybody should love the Bible. Everybody should read the Bible.
Everybody.
It is God’s Word. It holds the solution of life. It tells about the best
Friend humanity ever had, the noblest, kindest, truest Man who ever
walked on this earth.
It is the most beautiful story ever told. It is the best guide to human
conduct ever known. It gives a meaning, a glow, a joy, a victory, a destiny,
and a glory to life elsewhere unknown.
There is nothing in history, or in literature, that in any way compares
with the simple record of the Man of Galilee, who spent His days and
nights ministering to the suffering, teaching human kindness, dying for
human sin, rising to life that shall never end, and promising eternal secu-
rity and eternal happiness to all who will come to Him.
Most people, in their serious moods, must have some question in their
minds as to how things are going to stack up when the end comes. Laugh
it off and toss it aside as we may, that day will come. And then what?
Well, it is the Bible that has the answer. And an unmistakable answer
it is. There is a God. There is a heaven. There is a hell. There is a Savior.
There will be a day of judgment. Happy is the person who in this life
makes his or her peace with the Christ of the Bible and gets ready for the
final takeoff.
How can any thoughtful person keep his or her heart from warming up
to Christ and to the book that tells about Him? Everybody ought to love
the Bible. Everybody. Everybody.
Yet the widespread neglect of the Bible by churches and by church
people is simply appalling. Oh, we talk about the Bible, and defend the
Bible, and praise the Bible, and exalt the Bible. Yes indeed! But many
church members seldom ever even look into a Bible—indeed, would be
ashamed to be seen reading the Bible. And an alarming percentage of
church leadership generally seems to be making no serious effort to get
people to be Bible readers.
We are intelligent about everything else in the world. Why not be
intelligent about our religion? We read newspapers, magazines, novels,
and all kinds of books, and listen to the radio and watch television by
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the hour. Yet most of us do not even know the names of the Bible books.
Shame on us! Worse still, the pulpit, which could easily remedy the sit-
uation, seems often not to care and generally does not emphasize per-
sonal Bible reading.
Individual, direct contact with God’s Word is the principal means of
Christian growth. All the leaders in Christian history who displayed any
kind of spiritual power have been devoted readers of the Bible.
The Bible is the book we live by. Bible reading is the means by which
we learn, and keep fresh in our minds, the ideas that mold our lives. Our
lives are the product of our thoughts. To live right, we need to think right.
We must read the Bible frequently and regularly so that God’s thoughts
may be frequently and regularly in our minds; so that His thoughts may
become our thoughts; so that our ideas may become conformed to God’s
ideas; so that we may be transformed into God’s own image and be made
fit for eternal companionship with our Creator.
We may, indeed, absorb Christian truth, in some measure, by attend-
ing religious services, listening to sermons, Bible lessons, and testimonies,
and by reading Christian literature.
But however good and helpful these things may be, they give us God’s
truth secondhand, diluted through human channels and, to quite an
extent, obscured by human ideas and traditions.
Such things cannot possibly take the place of reading for ourselves the
Bible itself, and grounding our faith and hope and life directly in God’s
Word, rather than in what people say about God’s Word.
God’s Word is the weapon of the Spirit of God for the redemption and
perfection of the human soul. It is not enough to listen to others talk and
teach and preach about the Bible. We need to keep ourselves, every one of
us, in direct touch with God’s Word. It is the power of God in our hearts.
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Our plan of reading should cover the whole Bible with reasonable fre-
quency. It is all God’s Word, all one story, a literary structure of profound
and marvelous unity, centered around Christ. Christ is the heart and cli-
max of the Bible. The whole Bible may very properly be called the story
of Christ. The Old Testament paves the way for His coming. The four
Gospels tell the story of His earthly life. The New Testament letters explain
His teachings. And Revelation shows us His triumph.
A well-balanced plan of Bible reading, we think, might be something like
this: for every time we read the Bible through, let us read the New Testa-
ment an extra time or two, with frequent rereading of favorite chapters in
both Testaments.
Later in this book you will find several Bible reading plans (see p. 1042)
as well as a section that explains the kinds of Bible study tools available to
help you understand what you read, such as concordances, study Bibles,
Bible dictionaries, and commentaries, and what each is used for (see
p. 1048).
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Going to Church
As an Act of Worship
“All Christian people ought to go to church each and every week, unless
hindered by sickness, or necessary work, or some other necessity.”
In a consumer society such as ours, the first reaction is, Why? What
do I get out of church?
That question misses the point.
We are not the purpose of the church—God is. Going to church should
be an act of worship. Every Sunday belongs to Christ. If all Christians were
to attend church every Sunday, our churches would overflow. It would mean
power for the church. It would be a witness to the community—people who
worship their Savior as a matter of love rather than convenience. The purpose
of the church is to hold Christ before the people. The church was founded
by Christ. Christ is the heart of the church, and its Lord. The church exists
to bear witness to Christ. Christ Himself, not the church, is the transform-
ing power in people’s lives. The mission of the church is to exalt Christ, so
that He Himself may do His own blessed work in the hearts of people.
That method will never change. The invention of printing, which
made Bibles and Christian literature cheap and abundant so that people
may read for themselves about Christ, and the coming of radio and tele-
vision, which allow us to sit at home and listen to or watch sermons and
church services—these will never do away with the need for the church.
It is God’s plan that His people, in every community, throughout the
whole world, at this appointed time, meet together, in this public way, to
thus publicly honor Christ.
However, all too often individuals use the church as a spiritual filling
station. We run on empty all week and then expect the church to make up
for what we do not do—spend time during the week reading and reflecting
on God’s Word.
If we neglect the habit of reading the Bible, we go to church spiritually
starved. We will look to the church to fill our empty souls. And we will be
disappointed, because the church cannot, in one or two hours on Sunday
morning, fill the void that we create by neglecting the Word of God.
Come to church prepared. Read your Bible beforehand. You will be
blessed, and Christ will be exalted!
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Billy Graham: We have in our generation people who question if the Bible
is the Word of God. From beginning to end, the Bible is God’s Word,
inspired by the Holy Spirit. When I turn to the Bible, I know that I am
reading truth. And I turn to it every day.*
George Mueller of Bristol: The vigor of our spiritual life will be in exact
proportion to the place held by the Bible in our life and thoughts. I
solemnly state this from the experience of fifty-four years. . . . I have read
the Bible through one hundred times, and always with increasing delight.
Each time it seems like a new book to me. Great has been the blessing
from consecutive, diligent, daily study. I look upon it as a lost day when
I have not had a good time over the Word of God.
D. L. Moody: I prayed for faith, and thought that some day faith would
come down and strike me like lightning. But faith did not seem to come.
One day I read in the tenth chapter of Romans, “Now faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” I had closed my Bible, and
prayed for faith. I now opened my Bible, and began to study, and faith
has been growing ever since.
Abraham Lincoln: I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given
to man. All the good from the Savior of the world is communicated to us
through this book.
W. E. Gladstone: I have known ninety-five of the world’s great men in
my time, and of these eighty-seven were followers of the Bible. The Bible
is stamped with a specialty of origin, and an immeasurable distance sepa-
rates it from all competitors.
George Washington: It is impossible to rightly govern the world without
God and the Bible.
Daniel Webster: If there is anything in my thoughts or style to commend,
the credit is due to my parents for instilling in me an early love of the
Scriptures. If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country
*Taken from Billy Graham’s sermon, “Jesus Christ Is Truth,” © 1991 Billy Gra-
ham Evangelistic Association. Used by permission.
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Charles Dickens: The New Testament is the very best book that ever was
or ever will be known in the world.
Sir William Herschel: All human discoveries seem to be made only for
the purpose of confirming more and more strongly the truths contained
in the Sacred Scriptures.
Sir Isaac Newton: There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible
than in any profane history.
Goethe: Let mental culture go on advancing, let the natural sciences
progress in ever greater extent and depth, and the human mind widen
itself as much as it desires; beyond the elevation and moral culture of
Christianity, as it shines forth in the gospels, it will not go.
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