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