The Bible is the Alpha and Omega of Knowledge

Elias Boudinot

Elias Boudinot (1740-1821), President of the Continental Congress and framer of the U.S. Bill of Rights, wrote to his daughter as follows: “For nearly half a century have I anxiously and critically studied that invaluable treasure [the Bible]; and I still scarcely ever take it up that I do not find something new--that I do not receive some valuable addition to my stock of knowledge or perceive some instructive fact never observed before. In short, were you to ask me to recommend the most valuable book in the world, I should fix on the Bible as the most instructive both to the wise and ignorant. Were you to ask me for one affording the most rational and pleasing entertainment to the inquiring mind, I should repeat, it is the Bible; and should you renew the inquiry for the best philosophy or the most interesting history, I should still urge you to look into your Bible. I would make it, in short, the Alpha and Omega of knowledge” (The Age of Revelation, or the Age of Reason Shown to Be an Age of Infidelity, 1801, p. xv, from the “Dedication: Letter to his daughter Susan Bradford”).


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(Friday Church News Notes, February 19, 2016, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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