Please pass your group assignments (i.e. William Craig article).

Passing on the Faith

We have come to believe in God's love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person (Jesus Christ), which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. DEUS CARITAS EST 1 Benedict XVI

The Focal Point of the Christian Message: Jesus Christ

We have come to believe in God's love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person (Jesus Christ), which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. DEUS CARITAS EST 1 Benedict XVI

The Focal Point of the Christian Message: Jesus Christ

We have come to believe in God's love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person (Jesus Christ), which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. DEUS CARITAS EST 1 Benedict XVI

The Focal Point of the Christian Message: Jesus Christ

Knowing Jesus

Knowing Jesus: Eh Ano? (So what?)I only have one

problem…

Passing on the Faith: Scripture and Tradition ◦ Knowing Jesus Christ◦ The Main Message: His life, death and resurrection

The main message in Scriptures The Centrality of the Resurrection

◦ The Extraordinary Success of Christianity◦ The Source of Our Stories: The Gospels  ◦ Three Stages of Gospel Development

Jesus and his Disciples Disciples and their Community Evangelist (Gospel Writers) and their Community

◦ What are the Gospels? Not Biographies—Faith Testimonies From Faith To Faith A Privileged Source

First Source Normative—Standard

◦ Why do we trust these four Gospels and not the other gospels?:◦ Are the Gospels reliable even if they have internal inconsistencies?◦ Passing on the Faith: Are the Gospels reliable even if they were written two thousand years

ago?

New outline for the next two weeks

Analyze and Think!!

..Sometimes it's hard to believe in it because there's no concrete proof..

How do we verify that religion and all this about Christianity isn't a fictional work made by some random person in the past? 

The Source of Our Stories: The Gospels

Story

The Source of the Story (the

bible)

Mr. Roncal (together with some kind students) vs the whole class

Class Debate: (Note: “I respectfully challenge you?”)

Debate StatementThe life , death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical fact!

They are not Biographies. The Gospels are faith testimonies.◦They are not just a result of divine dictation.

What are the Gospels?

When modern Christians pick up a gospel and read it with a searching faith, they are duplicating the very process by which it came to be written. “From faith” in the sense that it was the faith of the church that maintained the genuine portrait of who Jesus was and what he was about. “To faith” in the sense that the gospels were written so that the belief of Christians might intensify as they came face to face with the words and actions of the risen Lord. Donald Senior, p.24

Faith Testimonies

From Faith

To Faith

Privileged Source

To Faith

Gospels:

First Source

Normative—Standard

“To faith” in the sense that the gospels were written so that the belief of Christians might intensify as they came face to face with the words and actions of the risen Lord. Donald Senior, p.24

What are the Gospels: Faith Testimonies

Knowing Jesus

Three stages of gospel development

Reliable Documetn

AD 30 48 -85Writings of Paul The Gospels

65-95

Apocryphal Gospels

100++ 2000++

Time Line of the Gospels

0 AD

30 AD

33AD

65 AD

70 AD

90 AD

Comparison: The Gospel of Mark and the Edsa Revolution

The Gospel of Mark Edsa Revolution

Mar 1:14-15 (14) Now after John was

arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God,

(15) and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel."

Pass the Message Problem

Oral

Written Written

Oral

Pass the (written)Message Problem

OralOriginal

Copies

Greek Latin English

Reliability of the Written Message

65 AD

130 AD 200 AD 325AD

Identical (w/minor

differences)Original

Reliability of the Written Message

65 AD

130 AD 200 AD 325AD

Identical (w/minor

differences)Original

Why certain books were retained and the others

rejected?

Canon – the closed collection or list of sacred books acknowledged by the Church as the rule of faith and life

Definition of Terms

Sacred Scripture as the book of the Church: Rough History of Bible

450 BC: The Five Books (Pentateuch) was written

33 AD Death of Jesus Christ

60 AD St. Paul writes his first letter and the Gospel of Mark was written, Note: 22-24 books of the Hebrew canon were in use

100 AD All the New Testament books have been written

382-418 AD Latin version of the Bible was written (by St. Jerome)

1539-1610 The Bible was translated into English, 1546-Council of Trent, list of the Canon

0-4BC Jesus is Born

1970 The New American Bible was written

393-405 Council of Hippo, Carthage, Toulouse came out with a list of the NT books

Textbook Analogy

StoryPERSONAL WITNESS

CONFORMITY TO THE STORYPOPULARITY OF THE STORY

Apostolic origin-meaning no more than that an apostle had a traditional connection with a given work. –

Conformity to the Rule of Faith—meaning the writings expressed what the early Christians believed in

Constant Use among the Communities—meaning the writings that were commonly used by all the Churches were eventually accepted as part of the canon

What were the criteria used by the early Christian leaders in determining which books to accept ?

Digression: Are the Gospels reliable even if they have internal inconsistencies?

Court Room Analogy

Three witnesses with the same basic storyline but with some differences in details.

Which group is more reliable?

Which group is more reliable?

Are the Gospels reliable even if they have internal inconsistencies?

Marthew---Many scholars have suggested that the prominent church in Antioch of Syria, whose members included both Jewish and Gentile Christians (cf. Acts 11:19–26; 13:1–3), was the intended audience of Matthew's Gospel.

Mark.--Though Mark wrote from Rome, the Gospel of Mark was composed for the wider church as the record of the apostolic testimony of Peter. Even during the early Patristic period, Gentile Christians were frequently mentioned as the recipients of this Gospel.

Are the Gospels reliable even if they have internal inconsistencies?

Luke's broader intended audience consisted primarily of Gentile Christians like Theophilus who had already “been taught” (1:4) about Jesus. But Luke no doubt realized that his recounting of Jesus' life and message would also be useful for evangelism among non-Christians. Luke probably had several goals in writing:

The Gospel of John was written by the apostle John, the son of Zebedee, a Palestinian Jew and a member of Jesus' inner apostolic circle during his earthly ministry. John's original audience consisted of both Jews and Gentiles living in the larger Greco-Roman world in Ephesus and beyond toward the close of the first century a.d

Are the Gospels reliable even if they have internal inconsistencies?

For writers, evangelist:•Mark•Mathew•Luke •John

Different perspectives!!!

Same Basic Story Line!!

Are the Gospels reliable even if they have internal inconsistencies?

For writers, evangelist:•Mark•Mathew•Luke •John

Different perspectives!!!

Same Basic Story Line!!

Reliable(i.e. the copies we have now are accurate copies of the original documents) Document? What to look for?

◦How many handwritten copies (manuscripts) of the source there are,

◦How close these are in time to the original work.

Signs of reliability◦The more copies there are with little

disagreement among them ◦The closer the manuscripts are in time to

the original work

Reliable Document

Work When written Earliest copy Time span No. of copies

New Testament 40-100 A.D. 130 A.D. 30, 50,

100yrs* over 24,000

Homer (Iliad) 900 B.C. 400 B.C. 500 yrs 643

Demosthenes 383-322 B.C. 1100 A.D. 1,300 yrs 200

Plato (Tetralogies) 427-347 B.C. 900 A.D. 1,200 yrs 7

Caesar 100-44 B.C. 900 A.D. 1,000 yrs 10

Thucydides (History) 460-400 B.C. 900 A.D. 1,300 yrs 8

Herodotus (History) 480-425 B.C. 900 A.D. 1,300 yrs 8

Aristotle 384-322 B.C. 1100 A.D. 1,400 yrs 49

Euripides 480-406 B.C. 1100 A.D. 1,500 yrs 9 (Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Historical Evidences for the Christian Faith, 39-64)

Reliable Documetn

AD 30 48 -85Writings of Paul The Gospels

65-95

Apocryphal Gospels

100++ 2000++

Reliability of the Written Message

65 AD

130 AD 200 AD 325AD

Identical (w/minor

differences)Original

Reliable Document The manuscript evidence for the "New Testament

" is also dramatic, with nearly 25,000 ancient manuscripts discovered and archived so far, at least 5,600 of which are copies and fragments in the original Greek. 4 Some manuscript texts date to the early second and third centuries, with the time between the original autographs and our earliest existing fragment being a remarkably short 40-60 years.  ( John Ryland's Gospel of John fragment, John Ryland's Library of Manchester, England. ) http://www.allaboutthejourney.org/bible-manuscripts.htm