We will be discussing Chapter 2 in class on July 26 so what I am posting today you will be able to hear more of if you are getting the mp3 files. Chapter 2 covers eight legal tests that are used to determine the authenticity of a document being submitted as evidence. Let's see how the Bible holds up under the same scrutiny.
1. If a document was being submitted as evidence for a trial in a court of Law, what type of tests do you think would be run on it to make sure it was authentic? The eight tests covered here are Intention, Ability, Character, Consistency, Bias, Cover-up, Corroboration and Adverse Witness.
2. How authentic do you think the Bible manuscripts are? Chapters 1 and 3 show how the New Testament is the most authentic of any ancient manuscript when you study the number of copies and the time gap between the original and the oldest one we possess.
3. Do you thin the Biblical authors had the intent to tell the truth or exaggerate? There is nothing to point toward these men lying. Tradition shows they were upstanding men whose lives were changed by their encounter with Christ. We do not see the exaggeration in the Gospels that we see in apocryphal writings. Luke even states his intent to tell accurate history at the beginning of Luke and Acts.
4. Does a person have the ability to accurately record an event 30-50 years after it happened? If an elderly person wrote memoirs of their childhood you would not question their accuracy even though the events were more than 30-50 years earlier. Also, in the ancient Jewish world they relied heavily on oral tradition which means they used memorization skills more than we do today. Lastly, it is important to see that most of other ancient documents such as the biography of Alexander the Great were written centuries later so to question the authenticity of the New Testament would mean questioning practically all of history.
5. Do you thing the authors of the Gospel accounts were men of good character? There is no evidence to cause us to picture these men as other than outstanding individuals.
6. Many people say that parallel stories in the Gospels differ in details therefore the Bible is in error. If two peoples stories are 100% consistent in every minor detail would you trust them more? It is interesting that if two witnesses or suspects agree too much they are actually doubted as conspiring with each other. Everybody experiences life differently and if two people see the same event they will describe it differently. The fact that the four Gospel accounts tell the same basic story with slight differences in minor details actually shows the authors were not conspiring.
7. Do yo think the Biblical authors are biased so they cannot be totally trusted? There is some bias from the point that they wanted to convince people that Jesus was the Christ. However, archaeology shows that they were truthful in reporting historical events so they did not overstep their bounds as eyewitnesses.
8. Do yo think the Apostles covered up embarrassing moments to make Jesus and themselves look more impressive? It's actually amazing how truthful they were. It would have been easy to leave out some of Jesus' harder teachings and difficult to explain events. A good example is Mark reporting that Peter denied Christ even though we believe Mark was writing from Peter's perspective. He did not leave out the embarrassing material.
9. Are there any documents you know of that mention Jesus apart from the Bible? 39 references to Christ apart from the Bible have been found. The most famous are those by Josephus, Tacitus and Pliny the younger.
10. How many documents do you know of that were written by Jesus' opponents and speak badly of him? There are references to Christ in the Jewish Talmud and Mishnah. They usually refer to him as a deceiver leading people astray by sorcery and committing blasphemy and being born illegitimately. Even though negative, these statements show that Jesus was known for an uncommon birth, claimed to be God and performed great feats.
The Bible passes these tests pretty well, much better that many other documents. What fascinates me is how people who reject the Bible refer to other documents that they trust such as the Gospel of Thomas or Gospel of Judas that make outrageous claims, offensive statements and that we only have one manuscript copy of.
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