An exalted person who read the Bible every day is said to have remarked, “It is a wonderful book, but there are some very queer things in it”. This is, so far as it goes, an excellent description and one might do worse than start by considering why the Bible is both wonderful and queer. It is queer because, unlike all other sacred books of the world, it is in large part a collection of the literature, legends and memorials of a single people - the Hebrews. There is much in it which, at first sight, appears to have no bearing upon religion and certainly little edification for modern men. The people, however, judging by the surviving literature, have a peculiar character. They played a minor part in world history, they produced no great philosophers and their poetry, though often magnificent, is almost entirely concerned with religion. And that is the salient feature of their story.

　　一位每天阅读圣经的地位崇高人士，据说曾说过这样的话，“这是一本奇妙的书，但是其中有些非常怪异的事”。把话说到这里，不失为杰出的描述，要是开头就考虑圣经为什么又奇妙又怪异，反而可能不那么妥当。圣经是怪异的，因为它不像世界上所有其他的圣书，它大部分是由单一民族——希伯来人的文学、传说和纪念文字所编成的集子。这个集子的相当部分初看起来跟宗教无关，而且敢说对现代人很少有启迪作用。从现存的文献来看，希伯来人可就具有独特的品格。他们在世界史上只扮演一个次要角色，也没有产生伟大的哲学家和诗歌（虽然后者往往相当可观），他们几乎完全地只是关心宗教。那也就是他们历史的显著特征。

We can trace the development of their religious belief. They regarded themselves as chosen by God from all the nations of the earth and, though they often took a narrow and selfish view of the purpose of that choice, their history is compatible with the truth of their belief. To one who approaches it with a belief in God, and, therefore, in the probability of revelation, the Hebrews' story seems to offer the most remarkable instance of what looks like a process of revelationary experience. It is at least beyond question that, in the course of centuries, from ideas of deity hardly different from those of paganism they passed to the most exalted Theism, conceiving their God as one, holy, just and merciful, the ruler of the world, having a gracious purpose for His people and, ultimately, for all mankind, as the Lord of history who makes His will known through the events of history. But the most remarkable aspect of all this is the way the development happened. There is no suggestion that we have here a triumph of the human intellect analysing the idea of God.

　　我们可以追述他们的宗教信仰的发展。他们认为他们自己是上帝从地球上所有民族之中所拣选出来的。对于上帝拣选的目的，虽然他们常常采用的是一种狭隘的和自私的看法，他们的历史却与他们信仰的真实性相吻合。他们是先从相信上帝，进而相信上帝启示的可能性，从而渐次形成他们的宗教；对于启示经验的嬗递而言，希伯来人的历史似乎提供了最优越的例子。有一点至少是毋庸置疑的：多个世纪以前，他们对神的观念跟异教几乎没有区别，从那样的开始进展到最为高尚的“壹神教”，想象出他们的上帝是神圣、公正而人慈的，是世界的统治者，对他的子民（最后是全人类）有一个宽厚的目的，他是创建历史的上主，经由历史上的各个事件，把他的旨意表明得一清二楚。但是，所有这些之中最为特出的一面却是事态发展的方式。这并不意味我们在这里看到人类智慧在剖析“上帝概念”上获得一次胜利。
　　[委婉、细腻、简约：本段原文有些用法显示出英文擅长的一些表达特征，这里姑且举出 seem“似乎”、hardly different “几乎没有不同”、 conceive xx as“想象出XX是YY的”作为例子；许多中文写作人在讨论问题时，很少采用“似乎”“看来”等字眼，也不常说“几乎没有什么不同”罗罗嗦嗦的话；与这相对的是，英文在结构上的简约也是不寻常的，这里的“想象出…..是”就是现成的例子。当然，中文并不是缺乏委婉、细腻和简约的表达能力，但恐怕多半是在说情一方面。这是译者一时想到的闲话，并不希望自己说得对。

The Bible contains no pure philosophy or pure logic. The Hebrews never thought that they had found God by searching; they thought that He had found them and revealed Himself. The Prophets, who are the classical examples of revelationary experience, uttered what they knew, by an interior conviction, to be the word of the Lord. Nearly always they spoke with reference to a particular situation, declaring what the Lord required at that time and, through the words that were given them to speak, they came to know something of the nature of the author of the words.

　　圣经里没有纯粹的哲学或者纯粹的逻辑。希伯来人从未想过他们靠寻求而找到上帝；他们认为是上帝找到他们，向他们显露自己。先知们是启示经验的典型例子，他们靠内心的信念，说出他们断定是上帝的话语。他们所说，几乎总是跟某一情况有关，宣示上帝在当时所作的要求，再经由上帝让他们说出的话，因而得以略知上帝的本质。
　　[the author of the words“那些话语的作者（指上帝）”：这是英文行文既细腻而又明白晓畅的一个例子，译者曾经试图把本段译文的最后一个句读译为“因而得以略知那些话语的作者的本质”，觉得违反了“达”的原则，故终于放弃。]

The Hebrew religion was a forward looking faith. In the darkest days they expected some great day of the Lord, some reign of God. The Old Testament, on any showing, is incomplete. It ends with the expectation unfulfilled. The New Testament, in the belief of Christians, is the story of the fulfilment. God did act.

　　希伯来人的宗教是一个有远见的信仰。在最为黑暗的时代，他们期盼上主到来的大好日子，上帝将统治世界。不管你怎么看，旧约是不完整的。它以未能实现的盼望而结束。在基督徒的信仰中，新约是盼望如愿以偿的故事。上帝确实采取了行动。

He acted by a supreme revelation. He was revealed not now through the words of Prophets, but in a Person who was, and is, the Word made flesh. The rest of this essay will be a comment on this astounding claim, but before we proceed let us pause to review the position at which we have arrived. We are not satisfied with having no answer to the question, "What is the nature of reality and what significance do our lives possess?" The philosophers, for the most part, tell us to run away and not ask silly questions, while the scientists more and more agree that their method can throw no light on these problems. Unless we can point to some revelation we are indeed at a loss.

　　上帝的行动是经由一次至高无上的显示所做出的。他这次不是经由先知们的话语，而是由道成肉身一个“人”作出显示。本文从这里开始将着手说明这一惊人的认定，但在实际进行说明之前，让我们稍停以便回顾我们所到达的位置。我们原先有一个问题，“实在底本质是什么，我们底生命具有什么意义？”大部分的哲学家们叫我们走开，别问幼稚的问题，而科学家们愈来愈同意他们无法对那些问题找出答案。如果我们不仰赖某些启示，我们就真的会迷惘无措。
　　[the Word“道、言”：在这里，中文的“言”不是普通的言，它与“道”相通；英文的the Word和the Way也类此。] （十之五完）