THE SYRIAN CHRIST
BY
ABRAHAM MITRIE RIHBANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
1916
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY ABRAHAM MITRIE RIHBANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published October 1916
PREFACE
This little volume is sent forth in the confident hope that it maythrow fresh light on the life and teachings of Christ, and facilitatefor the general public the understanding of the Bible. As may bereadily seen, from its perusal, the present work is not intended to bea commentary on the Bible, nor even an exhaustive study of the subjectwith which it deals. That it leaves many things to be desired is veryevident to the author, who fears that his book will be remembered byits readers more by the things it lacks than by the things it contains.
Yet, from the cordial reception with which the opening chapters of thispublication (which made their first appearance in the AtlanticMonthly) met from readers, of various religious affiliations, theauthor has been encouraged to believe that his aim has not only beenclearly{vi}discerned, but thoroughly approved. The books whichundertake the systematic "expounding of the Scriptures" are a hostwhich no man can number, nor is there any lack of "spiritual lessonsdrawn from the Bible." Therefore, as one of the Master's fellowcountrymen, and one who has enjoyed about twenty years of service inthe American pulpit, I have for several years entertained the growingconviction that such a book as this was really needed. Not, however,as one more commentary, but as an Oriental guide to afford Occidentalreaders of the Bible a more intimate view of the original intellectualand social environment of this sacred literature. So what I have tooffer here is a series of suggestions, and not of technically wroughtBible lessons.
The need of the Western readers of the Bible is, in my judgment, toenter sympathetically and intelligently into the atmosphere in whichthe books of the Scriptures first took form: to have real intellectual,as well as spiritual, fellowship with those Orientals who sought{vii}earnestly in their own way to give tangible form to those greatspiritual truths which have been, and ever shall be, humanity's mostprecious heritage.
My task has not been a light one. It is comparatively easy to takeisolated Bible texts and explain them, treating each passage as adetached unit. But when one undertakes to group a large number ofpassages which never were intended to be gathered together and treatedas the kindred thoughts of an essay, the task becomes rather difficult.How far I have succeeded in my effort to relate the passages I havetreated in this book to one another according to their intellectual andsocial affinities, the reader is in a better position to judge than Iam.
It may not be absolutely necessary for me to say that infallibilitycannot justly be ascribed to any author, nor claimed by him, even whenwriting of his own experiences, and the social environment in which hewas born and brought up.
However, in Yankee, not in Oriental,{viii}fashion, I will say thatto the best of my knowledge the