1924
Henry H. Halley had a unique gift and a unique ministry. He could memorize Scripture., chapter after chapter of it. And as his ministry, he would go into churches, recite chapters from mem-■ { 40 } ory, and explain the context of the passage. You might say that he was a Bible teacher with a difference.
It all started when he had to take a trip from his home in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to California. It was a long train ride, and as he was staring out the window at the sagebrush in western Kansas, he decided to quote Scripture to himself. He was surprised how much he knew. Then he used the time to memorize other passages. One Sunday he was asked to substitute in the pulpit for a pastor who was sick and he chose to quote Scripture the entire time. His presentation was so well received that he began doing what he called ״Bible recitals״ in other churches.
Before reciting a passage, Halley would give his audience a background sketch of the passage. One day as he was making his presentation in a church, a woman in the front row was scribbling notes and shuffling papers, distracting him and the entire congregation. So he resolved to print up some notes for free distribution, and that's the way Halley's Pocket Bible Handbook got started.
Henry H. Halley printed a 16-page booklet under this title in 1924, not dreaming what the future would hold. Somehow in his church ministry he sold 10,000 copies. The next year he expanded the booklet to 32 pages and printed another 10,000 copies. Then (as he writes in the foreword to the twen ty-fourth edition), it kept expanding. ״Then 40 [pages]. Then 80. Then 120. Then 144. Then 160." And the print runs kept growing too. In 1941 he printed 30,000 and by 1948 it had grown to 60,000.
Eventually it became an 860-page volume with average annual sales of 200,000. Total sales are now above the five mil-
lion mark, with 90 printings and 25 editions, not to mention its publication in more than a dozen foreign countries. In 1960 Zondervan Publishing House became Halley's publisher, giving the handbook access to even broader channels of distribution.
A new edition using the New International Version text is now available.
From the start, Halley says, the book was designed not "as a textbook, but rather as a handy brief manual of a popular nature for the average Bible reader, who has few or no commentaries or reference works on the Bible." Though the material has been greatly expanded, the core is still a brief explanation of each chapter in the Bible. More than 80 percent deals with his chapter-bychapter summaries. But he adds to these summaries other fascinating material—such as all the references to angels in the Bible , , , (inserted after angels ministered to Jesus after his temptation), 1 1 *
and a chronology of the Gospels to help the reader put the events of Christ's life into place. At the end of Revelation, Halley draws twelve parallels to the early chapters of Genesis, closing with "Man's primeval home was by a river (Gen. 2:10); Man's Eternal Home will be beside a River (Rev. 22:1)."
Though not a trained theologian, Halley consulted archaeologists and seminary professors to help him update his material with each edition. After his death, Zondervan continued the practice of providing updated material.
So the handbook continues to be a helpful resource for thousands of Bible students, containing notes on each book of the Bible, explanations of obscure passages, an outline of archaeological discoveries, an "epitome" of church history and a section that Halley called "THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THIS BOOK." What he deemed most important was that "each church have a congregational plan of Bible reading." This was something that he had promoted in his itinerant church ministry and he resolved to continue to promote it through his book.
For many Christians, Halley's handbook is the only Bible reference book they have, and after nearly eighty years its popularity shows no signs of abating.