“but surely you can’t take the bible literally...?”
TRANSCRIPT
“But surely
you can’t take the
Bible literally...
?”
Season 2 – ‘The Midterms’
How the Bible has been misused...
It says in the Bible... Slavery Imperial Conquest Oppression of women Oppression of the poor Apartheid Sexual repression and abuse Weird spiritual visions and supernatural
encounters Financial exploitation Capital punishment Control and manipulation of individuals and
families Other...
Some Unhelpful Approaches to the Bible...
The Bible as a Rule Book
The Bible as an Answer Book
The Bible as a Science and History Book
The Bible as a Code Book
The Bible as only understood by 'The
Elite’
The Bible as ‘Final Authority’
Answering our Critics
The Bible is Historical Literature
A Book of the World
The Bible is Theological Revelation
A Book from God
The Bible is Sacred Scripture
The Book of the Church
The Bible as Historical Literature
Some basic Bible facts... Library of 66 books – 39 OT and 27 NT Written by 40+ authors over 1500 years
from variety of backgrounds and places Written in 3 languages Contains wide variety of literary styles
(genres!) Widely influential across continents and
cultures Survival against critics The reliability of the OT and the NT as
historical documents
Author Book Date Written
Earliest Copies
Time Gap Copies
Homer Iliad 800 BC c. 400 BC 400 years 643
Thucydides
History 460-400 BC
c. AD 900 1300 years
8
Plato 400 BC c. AD 900 1300 years
7
Caesar Gallic Wars
100-44 BC c. AD 900 1000 years
10
Livy History of Rome
59 BC – AD 17
4th C (partial)
10th C (most)
400 years1000 years
1 partial19 copies
Tacitus Annals AD 100 c. AD 1100
1000 years
20
New Testament
AD 50-100
c. 144 fragmentc. 200
(books)c. 250 (most
NT)c. 325 (NT)
+50 years100 years150 years225 years
5366
Old Testament Reliability
Manuscript Reliability
Translation accuracy
The Dead Sea Scrolls – Qumran Community:
2nd and 1st Century BC
Non-Hebrew manuscripts
Archaeological and Historical
Confirmation
New Testament Confirmation
Were you to ask me to recommend the most valuable book in the world, I should fix on the Bible as the most instructive, both to the wise and
ignorant. Were you to ask me for one affording the most rational and pleasing entertainment to the
inquiring mind, I should repeat, it is the Bible; and the most
interesting history, I should still urge you to look into your Bible. I would make it, in short, the Alpha
and Omega of knowledge.— Elias Boudinot, early American lawyer and statesman
(1740–1821)
The Bible as Theological Revelation
Compare and Contrast
We present you with this Book, the most valuable thing that the world affords. Here is wisdom; this is the Royal Law; these are the lively Oracles of God.
The Bible is a collection of Books written over a long period of time which have come to be recognised by the Christian community as Scripture.
Some Tricky Words
Inspiration – how the Bible was
brought about by the activity of God
Inerrancy – without error in everything
Infallibility – utterly trustworthy in
what it (or the author) seeks to achieve
Authority – God’s authority exercised
through the Bible
The Bible as Sacred
Scripture
“God did not give the world a book or a collection of
writings. God rather called a community of people to
which he is unconditionally devoted and in which he continually acts through
his divine Word and Spirit.”T. Hopko
“The church could not wait until the critics were agreed among themselves:
she had to live. She lived her own life, which had been handed down to her as such, before the texts and
together with them, in the texts but not limited to them. She was the
church from the time of the Apostles, and not the product of their writings; she used these writings, not following them word for word, as a pupil copies an exercise imposed from outside, but
treating them as a mirror and yardstick to recognise and restore her
image, in each new generation.”Yves Congar
The Bible as Theological Revelation
Doctrine
Discipleship
Devotion
“What is important is that the Word of God comes to bear
upon human situations as, week in and week out, the
Bible informs the preaching and prayer, the study and
song, the pastoral care and compassionate outreach of the
worshipping, believing community of faith.”
JB Rogers
“But surely
you can’t take the
Bible literally...
?”