F. F. Bruce. The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? Grand Rapids: William B. Eardmans Publishing Company, sixth edition, 1981 SUMMARY Bruce makes it clear that this volume is dedicated to Christian students throughout the world. However, in the “Preface to the Fifth Edition,” he sets the tone by identifying the target audience for his work: “non-theological students” who are studying the New Testament documents, and who are more inclined to tolerate a source which has historical relevance as opposed to a source that does not (xiv). Thus, Bruce sets out with the goal of melding theology and history in an attempt at answering the question posed in the title, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? Bruce uses 124 pages and 10 chapters in an attempt to prove that the New Testament documents are reliable. He provides ample …show more content…
However, the volume is not without a few very minor weaknesses. For one, chapter 6, entitled “The Importance of Paul’s Evidence,” when compared to the other chapters in the volume, comes across as lacking. Paul’s contribution to the New Testament documents is extensive and the lack of attention provided by Bruce in this book could leave some of the targeted audience wondering if the lack of attention is due to a lack of evidence. Ironically, in other instances he tends to overwhelm the reader with too much information that does not have historical value as far as proving the reliability of the New Testament documents. This is apparent in the chapter titled “The Writings of Luke,” when he describes Luke’s background. Finally, the only other negative the author of this review could come up with regarding this volume is somewhat of a selfish matter. After reading this volume one is left with the desire for more evidence. Due to the size of the volume Bruce is only able to scratch the surface in some
The argument over the material that is comprised of the first five books of the Bible and that Moses was the author is speculated to be hypothetical. The data that led scholars to arrive at the Documentary Hypothesis points out that there is no evidentiary support or documentation to back up the information claimed in the first five books. The Documentary Hypothesis includes repetition, shows similarities, reflects inconsistences,
The process by which Scripture has been preserved and compiled is one whose history is worth noting. The early church had many opportunities to share the Good News of Christ via word of mouth, but from the time of Christ’s resurrection until the mid-second century, there had not been a single culmination of writings considered to be essential for the purposes of
The third section dissects the formation of the New Testament with more historical context and views of other writings defined as Gnostic writing. Bruce explains the spoken words of the apostles carried as much authority as their written words and gives an in depth explanation how the Gospels and Pauline writings were viewed by the Church Fathers. The rest of the section demonstrates the Church Fathers and their views of what was to be considered scripture and the councils that affirmed the inspired scripture.
Award-winning journalist, Lee Strobel wrote The Case for Christ to retrace and expand his journey toward becoming a Christian. Strobel once declared atheist, and now Christian, shares how he began to look upon the Bible and God. As an atheist, Strobel lived the life of selfishness and only worried to please himself. When his wife began to go to church he wasn’t very pleased until after he saw the positive and attractive change in her. This is the start of his curiosity and investigation about Christianity. To relate with his wife he decided to study about this and attend church services with her. Strobel interviewed thirteen leading scholars who defended their views concerning the historical reliability of the New Testament.
Joseph Blenkinsopp is the most contemporary scholar to date, that debates the highly contested issue of the Documentary Hypothesis. This theory relates to the origins of the Torah, also known as the Pentateuch, meaning ‘instruction’, and is part of the Hebrew Bible, including the following five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Documentary Hypothesis questions the authority of the author and source of the Torah. The Documentary Hypothesis is also known as the Julius Wellhausen proposition. This theory essentially proposes the notion that the Torah was actually derived from at least four independent, original narratives that, when combined, make up this one codex. Thus refuting the original and
In his recent article for the October 7th issue of Commonweal magazine, David Bentley Hart highlighted how different the Christians of the New Testament are from modern day Christians. Hart’s article, titled “Christ’s Rabble; The first Christians were not like us”, argues that the first Christians were so different than present day Christians that we would have a very hard time getting along with one another if we meet today. Hart, a fellow at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Studies, came to this conclusion after in-depth study of the text of the New Testament in its original koine Greek. His work translating the New Testament for Yale University painted a clear picture of the character of the first Christians and underscored how far from the original meanings of the text we have come.
Throughout the course of the semester, we have constantly talked about and expressed the idea of reading the Bible in a historical context. Picking out the pieces that coincide with evidence that has been found with archeological findings, the accuracy of dates, and important people. The critical study of the Bible is to look at the book as a piece of historical text. The use of our “historical lens” allows us to pick out to various pieces that appear to be factual. Using this analysis of looking at the Bible through our “historical glasses”, we can understand the true meaning of the Bible in its original historical setting.
Longenecker, Bruce W. The New Testament. The Lost Letters of Pergamum. Orlinda, TN: PhD and Lecturer at the University of St. Andrews. 2002.
Machen stated that the New Testament books “are regarded by all serious historians as genuine products of the first Christian generation.” (PAGE 18) The statement merely could be false without Machen’s willingness to terminate as un-serious all historians who ignore the validity and authority of the New Testament. The argument of the New Testament authenticity is still conflicted between in liberalism and typical denominations. A weakness in Machen’s argument on Doctrine was while Machen indicates that the New testament could be understood through the perspective of the “primitive Jerusalem church” (PAGE 22), no supportive agreement was found what the primitive church looked
N.T. Wright releases “How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels” with the affirmation that the church has come to emphasis almost exclusively on Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection. Although, the gospels devote the majority of their time on Jesus’ life. Jesus’s life, death, resurrection and rise did not hint the end of the old Israel story, but redirected it further to a worldwide effort of adaptation. Wright addresses several New Testament documented interpreters who present the gospels as simply “the prognosis of early Christian faith, reflecting the disputes and predicaments of the early church,” something Wright calls a “half-truth”. Wright argues that notwithstanding the gospels countless differences, none of
Blomberg, Craig L., Jennifer Foutz Markley. A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010.
In this term paper we know this study is an important topic, as it remains a great controversy to the world for many thousands of years – is the bible reliable, more importantly, is the spiritual author of the bible reliable to the world? We will convince them that indeed the Bible is reliable. This paper plays an important role in convincing many people, including the researchers themselves to the truth.
In editing this book, Clouse hoped "that these [four] articles [and responses would] aid the serious student of Scripture in formulating his or her own conclusions concerning the interpretation of the millennium."
The New Testament is a collection of books which contains the writings concerning the significant events in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. These books appeared after the physical death of Jesus Christ. In this regard, Jesus had left no records concerning him, and all that is written about him depends wholly on what other people have written about him. The first four books of the New Testament are part of the several biographies of Jesus which were written by the end of the first century of the era of Christianity. Then before any of these biographies have been drafted, there were Christian communities which were being instructed through epistles on how to live like Jesus and how to solve their problem like Christians. A good number of these letters were written by a man called Paul. After Paul death, some other new leaders of the Christian movement continued to write letters to the churches to encourage and strengthen them. As Christians grew in number persecution arose, and some letters have been drafted to support them and also to counter the false doctrines. These letters are part of the New Testament. The twenty-seven books of the New Testament were selected from the list of writings in that period (Bruce, 1988)
During the early history of the church, there was no such thing as a New Testament “canon.” The selection of books that were to be included or excluded from the texts used by the church was the responsibility of each individual church body, and thus varied greatly from location to location. Because there was no canon – (books considered