The Bible

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The Bible

• The Word of God or Man?

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Every Christian can Gain a Greater Appreciation
of the New Testament

• By understanding 3 crucial topics

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Topic 1

• Canonicity

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Summary

• The Church wrestled long with which books/letters
  to regard as authoritative
• The Church accepted writings that had authentic
  apostolic authority
• The Church excluded writings known not to have
  authentic apostolic authority
• The Catholic Bible includes additional writings
  because they were in the LXX

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Topic 2

• Textual Purity

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Biblical Manuscripts
Does todays Bible accurately reflect what was
originally written?
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New Testament

• 5,752 Greek Mss (as of late/2006 9-15 mss within
  150 yrs of originals)
• 10,000 Latin mss
• Countless old mss in other languages (e.g.,
  Coptic, Syriac)
• 1 million quotations of New Testament within
  1,400 years of Jesus in Christian writings
  (almost every NT verse)

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Comparison

• Thucydides (460400 BC)
• Earliest 1,300 years
• 8 mss, plus a few fragments
• Herodotus (484425 BC)
• Earliest 1,300 years
• 8 mss
• New Testament (45-100 AD)
• Earliest 35 years
• 5,752 Greek mss 9-15 mss within 150 years

Reinventing Jesus. Komoszewski, Sawyer, Wallace
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What kind of variants?

• Spelling/Nonsense. 50 of all variants
• Synonyms. Variants such as Christ Jesus versus
  Jesus Christ or Jesus versus the Jesus
• Poor Pedigree. Variants that affect the texts
  meaning but are found in manuscripts with a poor
  pedigree.
• Good Pedigree. Variants that affect meaning and
  are found in manuscripts with a good pedigree.
  About 1 of all variants. However, very little
  impact on doctrines.

Reinventing Jesus. Komoszewski, Sawyer, Wallace
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What does one of the tougher variants look like?
We ourselves write these things in order that
our joy may be complete. 1 John 14
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What does one of the tougher variants look like?
We ourselves write these things in order that
your joy may be complete. 1 John 14
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Conclusions of New TestamentTextual Criticism

• When guidelines of textual criticism are applied,
  scholars can reproduce a text that is roughly 98
  pure to what the originals said.
• The remaining 2 that is difficult to determine
  impact no gospel essentials.

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What about all those translations?

• KJV
• NKJV
• NASB
• NIV
• TNIV
• NLT
• ESV
• HCSB
• Amplified Bible

• NET
• New American Bible
• RSV
• NRSV
• The Living Bible
• NWT
• Phillips Translation
• The Jerusalem Bible
• New Century Version

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Purpose of Translation

• KJV
• NASB
• ESV
• NET
• NIV
• NLT
• Living Bible
• Amplified Bible

• Very literal translation
• Very literal translation
• Literal but smooth
• Literal but smooth
• 20th cent. US English
• Simpler than NIV
• Paraphrase
• Expands meaning

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Topic 3

• Archaeology History

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Is the Bible True?

• How does it measure up to what we know of the
  history of the period?

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Archaeology

• How has the spade of the archaeologist
  impactedbiblical studies?

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• 1961 discovery of inscription referring to Pilate
  during the time of Tiberius
• Mid-1960s discovery of a box containing bones of
  crucified victim named Yehohanan from
  first-century Palestine confirmed that nails were
  driven in ankles of crucified victims
• 1992 discovery of home and burial place of
  Caiaphas, the Jewish High Priest who had Jesus
  crucified

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The Bible as History Much of the Bible, in
particular the historical books of the old
testament, are as accurate historical documents
as any that we have from antiquity and are in
fact more accurate than many of the Egyptian,
Mesopatamian, or Greek histories. These Biblical
records can be and are used as are other ancient
documents in archeological work. Smithsonian
Institution, Dept of Anthropology
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Secular Historians

• How have the pens of ancient secular historians
  impacted biblical studies?

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Tacitus (AD 115)
Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero
fastened the guilt and inflicted the most
exquisite tortures on a class hated for their
abominations, called Christians by the populace.
Christus, from whom the name had its origin,
suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of
Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators,
Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous
superstition, thus checked for the moment, again
broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of
the evil, but even in Rome . . .
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Josephus (AD 95)
Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise
man, for he was a doer of wonderful works a
teacher of such men as receive the truth with
pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the
Jews, and many of the Gentiles. and when Pilate,
at the suggestion of the principal men amongst
us, had condemned him to the cross, those that
loved him at the first did not forsake him, and
the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are
not extinct at this day.
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Suetonius (AD 115) Because the Jews at Rome
caused continuous disturbances at the instigation
of Chrestus, Claudius expelled them from the
city.
Luke (A. D. 62) And Paul found a Jew named
Aquila, a native of Pontus, lately come from
Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius
had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.
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A. N. Sherwin-White (Oxford)
For Acts the confirmation of historicity is
overwhelming. . . . Any attempt to reject its
basic historicity even in matters of detail must
now appear absurd. Roman historians have long
taken it for granted.
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Conclusion

• Bible is textually pure
• Translations we have of original language text
  are accurate
• The Bible is a collection of books and letters
  considered authoritative.
• Archaeology frequently has confirmed the Bible
• Secular historians in antiquity frequently
  confirm the Bible