erplexity. The
principles upon which the interpretations rested were not the same in
all ages. As a result, the "natural and intended sense" of biblical
statements was variously apprehended. What was considered the clear
teaching of Scripture in one age might be condemned as unscriptural in
another. Moreover, some of the methods of interpretation are not
calculated to inspire confidence in the results. When, for example,
the poetic passage,

Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon,
And thou, moon, in the valley of Aijalon.
And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed,[3]

{40} is considered sufficient to discredit the scientific claim that
the earth moves around the sun, rather than the sun around the earth,
one's confidence in the truth of the theological view is somewhat
shaken. It may be insisted, then, that much of the so-called conflict
between science and the Bible was in reality a conflict between science
and a misinterpreted Bible.

This, even theology seems to have recognized, for again and again it
changed its interpretation of the Bible so as to bring it into accord
with the persistent claims of science. "The history of most modern
sciences," says Farrar, "has been as follows: their discoverers have
been proscribed, anathematized, and, in every possible instance,
silenced or persecuted; yet before a generation has passed the
champions of a spurious orthodoxy have had to confess that their
interpretations were erroneous; and--for the most part without an
apology and without a blush--have complacently invented some new line
of exposition by which the phrases of Scripture can be squared into
semblable accordance with the now acknowledged fact."[4]

The so-called historical method of Bible study, which has gradually won
its way, at least in Protestant Christianity, has established Bible
interpretation upon a firmer foundation, so that at present much less
uncertainty exists as to the {41} meaning of the Bible than at any
preceding age. In the same way scientific investigation has made
remarkable strides during the nineteenth century; Twentieth century
science is far different from that of the early years of the preceding
century. And as scientists have had to surrender many of their
positions in the past it is very probable that, as the result of
further investigation, some views held at present will be superseded by
others. Nevertheless, though science cannot as yet dispense with
working hypothes