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N. H. Snaith was a British Bible and Judaica scholar. Some of his works include A Companion to the Bible; The Priesthood and the Temple, a commentary on Job, and works in Documents From Old Testament Times (DOTT). He edited a version of the Hebrew Bible published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1958, entitled Torah, Neviim, Ketuvim. This is sometimes called "the Snaith Bible." He also wrote a prolegomenon to Jacob ben Chayim ibn Adonijah's Introduction to the Rabbinic Bible, with notes by C. D. Ginsburg (New York: Ktav Pub., reprint 1968).
From: The Distinctive Ideas of the Old Testament (orig. 1944, New York: Schocken Books, 1964) Inasmuch as we hold that the distinctive ideas of God are at the root of the distinctive ideas of the Old Testament, we have divided our investigation in the main into a series of studies of the Nature of God as He is revealed in the Old Testament. We trust that the studies themselves will demonstrate the soundness of this method. Our conviction is that God is the Fountain and Source of this purest stream, and not that wide ocean into which all streams equally flow. He is the Foundation on which alone men may build, not the topmost Pinnacle which may mark the height of man's utmost achievement. It is He that gives meaning to all else, and not all things, nor any one thing that can explain Him, though many created things may illustrate the manner of His working. [page 20] The Reformation was an attempt to restore the original Hebrew setting of the Gospel, and, theologically, to break the shackles of the Greeks. The Revival of classical learning was a reshackling of the Faith, to which many of the Reformers themselves succumbed. [p. 161] [T]he word Paraclete means Convictor rather than Comforter. The Greek verb parakaleo is in this respect the equivalent of the Hebrew nacham.... This Hebrew root does not mean 'comfort' in the ordinary English sense of that word. It means 'comfort out of sorrow,' and not 'comfort in sorrow.'... The Holy Spirit is not that Spirit which comforts the disciples after the Lord Jesus has been glorified, but rather the Spirit which convinces them of the truth of the things of Christ. [pp. 180–81] The whole Bible, the New Testament as well as the Old Testament, is based on the Hebrew attitude and approach. We are of the firm opinion that this ought to be recognized on all hands to a greater extent. It is clear to us, and we hope that we have made it clear in these pages to others, that there is often a great difference between Christian theology and Biblical theology. [p. 185] What, then, is to be done with the Bible? Is it to be regarded as the norm, and its distinctive ideas as the determining factors of Christian theology? Or are we to continue to regard Plato and Aristotle with their pagan successors as contributing the norm, and the main ideas of Greek philosophy as the determining factors of Christian theology, with the Bible as illustrative and confirmatory when and where it is suitable? [p. 188] [Top]
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