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Can I Trust the Bible?
CTK Adult Ed
July 20, 2014
Scripture’s View of Itself
What Is the Bible For?
• God speaking…
• Christ at the center
• Not an disinterested narrative
• Communication for communion
Covenant Witness
• What kind of book?
• Concerned with bearing witness to God’s work of redemption!!!
• Everything flows out from there
• A book that interprets us
A Hermeneutic of Love
• Against a “hermeneutic of suspicion”
• Reading how God calls us to read
• Self-authentication
Warning!!!There is a difference
between
(1) trusting that the Bible is God’s Word,
and
(2) trusting in the Bible as God’s Word
Types of Challenges
1. Ideological
2. Historical
3. Textual
Ideological Challenges
Culture of Scholarship
Suspicion of Authority
• Language
• Ethics
• Creativity
• Anachronisms
Recognizing Cultural Critiques
• Conservative– Bare biblicism– Nationalistic theologies– Moralism
• Liberal– Marxism– Post-colonialism– Feminism– Pluralism
Personal Incentives
Historical Challenges
OT Formation
• No known arguments
• Apocrypha & pseudepigrapha
• Documentary hypotheses of the 19th & 20th century
OT Reliability
• Some unambiguous facts
• Archaeological evidence– Direct evidence– Indirect evidence
NT Formation
• Early church fathers
• Controversy (Marcion & Gnosticism)
• Canonization as recognition
NT Reliability
• Mostly positive relationship with archaeological data
• Historical proximity
Textual Challenges
OT Texts
• Masoretic Text– Aleppo Codex– Leningrad Codex
• Samaritan Pentateuch
• Dead Sea Scrolls• Ancient versions
– Septuagint
NT Textual Variants
1. Meaningless variants
2. Meaningful, but not viable
3. Meaningful and viable (<1% of variants)
Two Notorious Changes in NT Text• Mark 16:9-20
– Earliest manuscript evidence from 5th-C– Church fathers make reference as early as 2nd-C– Seems to be summary of details from other
gospels & Acts
• John 7:53 – 8:11– Not present in ancient texts– Not apparently known in early church fathers’
commentaries– Sometimes found after John 7:44; 7:36; or 21:25 –
even after Luke 21:38
Questions?
Archaeological Appendix
• Ebla tablets (3rd millenium BC)
• Code of Hammurabi (c 1750 BC)
• Nuzi Tablets (c 1500 BC)
Archaeological Appendix
• Merneptah Stele (c 1230 BC)
• Tel Dan Stele (c 9th century BC)
Archaeological Appendix
• Baruch ben Neriah’s Bulla (seal)
• Verification of other Babylonian officials
• Belshazzar & the Nabonidus Cylinder
Archaeological Appendix
• Pontius Pilate inscription
• Erastus inscription