Sunday Hymn: Comfort, Comfort Ye My People

Comfort, com­fort ye My peo­ple,
Speak ye peace, thus sa­ith our God;
Comfort those who sit in dark­ness,
Mourning ’neath their sor­row’s load;
Speak ye to Je­ru­sa­lem
Of the peace that waits for them;
Tell her that her sins I cov­er,
And her war­fare now is ov­er.

For the her­ald’s voice is cry­ing
In the des­ert far and near,
Bidding all men to re­pent­ance,
Since the king­dom now is here.
O that warn­ing cry ob­ey!
Now pre­pare for God a way!
Let the val­leys rise to meet Him,
And the hills bow down to greet Him.

Yea, her sins our God will par­don,
Blotting out each dark mis­deed;
All that well de­served His an­ger
He will no more see nor heed.
She has suf­fered ma­ny a day,
Now her griefs have passed away,
God will change her pin­ing sad­ness
Into ev­er spring­ing glad­ness.

Make ye straight what long was crook­ed,
Make the rough­er places plain:
Let your hearts be true and hum­ble,
As be­fits His ho­ly reign,
For the glo­ry of the Lord
Now o’er the earth is shed abroad,
And all flesh shall see the to­ken
That His Word is ne­ver brok­en.

—Jo­han­nes G. Ole­ari­us

Theological Term of the Week: Source Criticism

source criticism

The field of biblical studies that seeks to “establish the literary sources the biblical author/editor drew upon.”1

• From 40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible by Robert Plummer, page 300:

Source criticism seeks to establish the literary sources the biblical author/editor drew upon. For example, Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918), a liberal Old Testament scholar, argued that the Pentateuch was composed of four literary strands: the Yahwist or Jehovist (J), Elohistic (E), Priestly (P), and Deuteronomistic (D) sources. The evidence for the JEPD construction is actually quite tenuous. The data support traditional Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, while obviously allowing for some gathering and editing of the Mosaic material. 

In the New Testament, source criticism is especially applied to Matthew, Mark, and Luke (the Synoptic Gospels) because of their close similarity in wording and order. The majority of New Testament scholars believe that Luke and Matthew used two main sources in their composition—the written gospel of Mark and “Q.” “Q” is an abbreviation for the German word Quelle (source) and stands for a collection of written and oral sources that Matthew and Luke had in common. Indeed, Luke explicitly indicates that he drew upon multiple sources in the composition of his Gospel (Luke 1:1-4). As many early church fathers comment on the literary sources behind the Gospels (i.e., which Gospel author(s) were dependent on others), source criticism is truly an ancient discipline. 

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: What is source criticism?
2. Cristianity.com: What Is Source Criticism?

Related terms:

• autographs
• inerrancy of scripture
• inspiration of scripture
• manuscripts
• redaction criticism
• text criticism

Filed under Scripture

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Sunday Hymn: No, Not One

There’s not a friend like the low­ly Je­sus,
No, not one! No, not one!
None else could heal all our soul’s dis­eas­es,
No, not one! No, not one!

Refrain

Jesus knows all about our strug­gles,
He will guide till the day is done;
There’s not a friend like the low­ly Je­sus,
No, not one! No, not one!

No friend like Him is so high and ho­ly,
No, not one! No, not one!
And yet no friend is so meek and low­ly,
No, not one! No, not one!

There’s not an hour that He is not near us,
No, not one! No, not one!
No night so dark but His love can cheer us,
No, not one! No, not one!

Did ev­er saint find this friend for­sake him?
No, not one! No, not one!
Or sin­ner find that He would not take him?
No, not one! No, not one!

Was ev­er a gift like the Sav­ior giv­en?
No, not one! No, not one!
Will He re­fuse us a home in Hea­ven?
No, not one! No, not one!

— John­son Oat­man, Jr