Bible Characters, Vol. 3
Overview
Alexander Whyte’s Bible Characters are exciting evocations of both prominent and little-known personalities in the Old and New Testaments. Whyte, a minister in the Free Church of Scotland in the late nineteenth century, dedicated the majority of his literary career studying various figures contained in the Bible, and these six volumes are the fruit of his hard labor. Drawing directly from the Bible, but also referencing the work of other notable scholars, Whyte’s skillful rendering of these men and women is informative and illuminating.
Characters included:
- Ahithophel
- Mephibosheth
- Barzillai
- Heman
- Jeroboam
- The Disobedient Prophet
- Rehoboam
- Josiah
- Elijah
- Elisha
- Naaman
- Job
- Jonah
- Isaiah
- Jeremiah
- Daniel
- Nebuchadnezzar
- Belshazzar
- Esther
- Ezra
- Sanballat
- Nehemiah
Top Highlights
“Ezra was born in Babylon. Ezra was a child of the Captivity.” (Page 208)
“Every syllable of all that is out of Isaiah’s own experience. Preaching like that never yet came out of the schools of the prophets, any more than it ever came out of the mouth of an angel.” (Page 145)
“It takes a great sinner to preach as well as to hear like that. You must call, and ordain, and inspire a leper if you would have passion in your pulpits like that. And you must be lepers yourselves to put up with passion in your pulpits like that.” (Page 144)
“For fifty years Uzziah had reigned in Jerusalem, and had done judgment and justice till he was accepted of his people as almost the promised Messiah Himself. But his great services, and his great successes, and his great honours had all exalted and intoxicated Uzziah’s heart till he fell in his old age into what was the unpardonable sin of the Old Testament.” (Page 139)
“‘The chaff came out of Babylon, but the wheat remained behind,’ is a pungent saying of the Jews to this day about the first return of their forefathers from the Babylonian captivity.” (Page 209)
Praise for the Print Edition
No one takes a stronger grip on us—mind and very soul—in his expounding of Bible characters than Dr. Whyte
—The Presbyterian Review
We know of no writer who can make more real the personalities of these Bible characters, or can bring home more vividly or helpfully the lessons of their words and deeds.
—Christian Guardian
Each subject is handled with originality, freshness, skill, and sanctified scholarship.
—English Churchman
Terse, strong, epigrammatic in his style, he penetrates to the core of character, and expounds it, and all the lessons it teaches, in fine English.
—The N.Y. Observer
Product Details
- Title: Bible Characters, Vol. 3
- Author: Alexander Whyte
- Publisher: Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier
- Publication Date: 1896
- Pages: 252
Alexander Whyte (1836–1921) was a popular preacher and writer. He attended the University of Aberdeen and New College in Edinburgh. Whyte served as an assistant minister at Free St. Johns in Glasgow. Following that, he was a colleague at Free St. George’s in Edinburgh. Whyte has written several books including the six-volume Bible Characters series and Samuel Rutherford Collection.