Proving the New Testament
Are the copies in existence today an accurate representation of the original copies of the New Testament? There are many facts and studies that prove this claim to be true contrary to popular belief by non-Christians and other religions alike. There are at least three reasons that it can be know with certainty that the New Testament in existence today is an accurate representation of the originals. Including the amount of copies, age, and determining that the variants within the Bible do not make a difference. In an interview with Bruce Metzger, PH.D, Dr. Metzger points out many facts and statistics that help prove that the New Testament in existence today is certainly an accurate representation of the original
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Past president of the Society of biblical literature, the international society for the New Testament studies and the North American Patristic Society." (Strobel 73-74)
One of the most well known arguments a skeptic will use is “How can we actually know what the Bible authors actually wrote, all we have is copies of copies?” Metzger would argue that all of these copies are actually quite useful. Since, there are so many manuscripts that can help to cross-reference copies and create a better depiction of what the original would say. With all of the copies and differing languages, this makes the cross-referencing even stronger. The book with next highest amount of manuscripts is Homer’s Iliad, which is the equivalent of the Bible to the ancient Greeks, with only 650 manuscripts to cross-reference. The 5,000 Greek manuscripts of the Bible alone make the 650 manuscripts of the Iliad seem minuscule. (Strobel)
Metzger further explains that there are many different kinds of manuscripts and they can vary from what they are written on to the languages they were written in. The earliest of the manuscripts were written on papyrus. This is important because of the papyrus being an older type of parchment, and helps to show the age. The later manuscripts were written on parchment made from the skin of a variety of animals. Some of the
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 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.
In Examining the Record section, Strobel supports the historical reliability of the New Testament. He examines the eyewitness evidence, the documentary evidence, the corroborating evidence, the scientific evidence, and the rebuttal evidence. Strobel writes about his first interview with Craig Blomberg regarding the four gospels. Blomberg proposes that the four gospels were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. A hypothesis was made that Matthew and Luke are constructed on Mark which means it’s not likely that Matthew and Luke fully
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.
Brown and published by Westminster John Know Press is a book that provides basic information
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.
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
The revelation of the Dead Sea confirmed that the Jewish and Christian researchers who for hundreds of years duplicated, transcribed and passed along the documents that we call the Bible did so devotedly with care and intention. It remains true that we almost definitely do not have any documents or fragments of a manuscript that is the original writing of the document in question. However, it is equally true that
For many, the Hebrew bible is read and accepted without question. It plays a significant role in the practice of many religions and yet not many dare to wonder who wrote such sacred writings that would still be read to this very day. For generations, it was almost unheard of to ask or even fathom the identity of the author. Richard Elliot Friedman, a biblical scholar and graduate from Harvard University, explores, studies, and analyzes the bible to discover who wrote it. Having earned a master degree in theology, B.A degree in Philosophy, and master degree in Hebrew literature, Friedman proves to be a knowledgeable expert in his field of studies. From the years of work he invested into, Friedman aims to provide convincing evidence that the book is written by four persons through historical, archaeological, logical proof.
Blomberg, Craig L., Jennifer Foutz Markley. A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010.
There were at least 3 views of how the Old Testament was composed which include the critical view, the compositional view, and the common view. Each view was somewhat similar and different in the aspects that gave it it's own characteristics. The main point of this discussion is to focus on the similarities and differences of each view which are but not limited to how the bible was created, the process, and design.
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.
The New Testament and the Old Testament are similar in that they both speak of fulfillment for God’s
The process by which the English Bible, as it is known to the English culture today, was compiled is an extraordinary thing to see. The Bible consists of two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The process by which both Testaments were written and then canonized into one book transpired over a period of many years. Once the canonization of the Bible officially came to an end, it was translated into English. Since then, many versions of the modern Bible have been made. Since the individual books of the Bible became scattered as they were written, people set forth to preserve God’s Word by compiling them into one
The first 39 books of the larger work called the Bible, is called the Old Testament. The Bible itself is arguably the best selling and most read book of all time, yet it’s well known to be quite challenging to read through and understand. The Old Testament portion of the Bible, notably the most difficult portion of the Bible for most to study and follow, yields 39 books from multiple authors, and spans over 4000 years of crucial world and church history. If that were not enough to take on, the Old Testament comes our way through multiple styles of authorship and formats, including but not limited to, books of history, law, proverbs, ethics,