The author uses depictions and quotations from classical literature together with the Old Testament to describe each character of the Bible. His own professional experience as a minister working in Free Church of Scotland, and the theological study which underpinned his education, allow Whyte to maintain accurate and canonical depictions. The characters are chronologically arranged by their appearance, beginning with the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible and one rich with characters and their roles in mankind's early history.

Individual chapters and verses from the Bible are explained with a finesse stemming from Whyte's longtime role as an educator. By the time this work was published in 1896, the author had decades of experience in education, recounting the lives of Biblical figures to parishioners and students of Christianity. Readers can thus expect a thorough and informative account of Old Testament characters, their deeds and place in the sequence of events.