Friday, November 27, 2015 Canadian Southern Baptist College Seminary Cochrane, AB Tawa J. Anderson Chair of Philosophy Oklahoma Baptist.

BIBLICAL ACCOUNTS OF JESUS:TRUE OR FALSE?

Friday, November 27, 2015Canadian Southern Baptist College & SeminaryCochrane, ABTawa J. AndersonChair of Philosophy Department @ Oklahoma Baptist [email protected]

http://i1os.com/c-ibotuw9Tw.video - Why should Christians care about textual criticism

BIBLICAL ACCOUNTS OF JESUS: TRUE OR FALSE?What if the text of the Gospels is unreliable?

Did later scribes change the text?Do we have what Matthew actually wrote?

What if the content of the Gospels is unreliable?What if the writers made it up?

THE NEW TESTAMENT & JESUS OF NAZARETH

1. Do we have an accurate textual tradition of the New Testament?2. Is the text historically accurate?Can we trust the New Testament documents?

THE TEXTUAL INTEGRITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

Textual Integrity: “Accurate transmission of the words of the New Testament, such that the words we have in our New Testament are a faithful representation of the words originally written by the authors of Scripture.”

THE TEXTUAL INTEGRITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

Why does textual integrity matter?1. Historical Reliability of the GospelsEhrman: “What good does it say that the words are inspired by God if … we don’t have the words that God inerrantly inspired, but only the words copied by the scribes—sometimes correctly but sometimes (many time!) incorrectly. … We don’t have the originals! We have only error-ridden copies.” (Misquoting Jesus, 7)“In many places we don’t even know what the original words of the Bible actually were.” (Ibid., 14)

THE TEXTUAL INTEGRITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

Why does textual integrity matter?1. Historical Reliability of the Gospels2. Accurate Knowledge of the Life and Ministry of Jesus

Christ3. The Nature of Scripture:

a) Inspirationb) Inerrancyc) Authority

THE TEXTUAL INTEGRITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENTNot in English?!?!?!?αυτογραφοι – ‘Autographs’ = original hand-written NT documentsWe have: copies of copies, translated, copied, translated, copied, and reproduced.Manuscript tradition: the various copies of the New Testament (whole or part) that we have discoveredCopying process: by hand, often by candlelight, in difficult circumstances

THE TEXTUAL INTEGRITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENTThe Wealth of the Manuscript Tradition: Quantity and Quality

LIVY VS. GOSPELS: TEXTUAL TRADITIONSWritten how soon?

Livy: soon after Augustus’ death, but tracing 600 years of history

Gospels: written within 20-70 years of the narrated events

Earliest manuscript we have?

Livy: +300 years (written ~15AD, manuscript from ~325AD)

Gospels: +100 years

How many manuscripts do we have to compare to one another?

Livy: about 2 dozen

Gospels: about 5000 (just Greek, +Latin etc.)

THE TEXTUAL INTEGRITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

What would God do with an inspired text?Ehrman: preserve it precisely and perfectlyBUT: instead we have copying mistakes, errors, additions, and edits

TEXTUAL CRITICISM AND THE NEW TESTAMENT

Text-critical apparatus (e.g., USB 4th edition Greek New Testament)

Textual Ratings where we have variant readings (i.e., scribal errors):

A = “the text is certain”

B = “the text is almost certain”

C = “the Committee had difficulty in deciding which variant to place in the text”

D = “the Committee had great difficulty in arriving at a decision”

THE TEXTUAL INTEGRITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

Most copying errors are insignificant- 1 John 1:4 – ημων or υμων (our joy or your joy)?- Philippians 4:23 – Amen or not?

Textual Criticism: Discerning scribal ‘mistakes’

THE TEXTUAL INTEGRITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

The vast majority of copying mistakes (variant readings) are easily identifiable (and rectifiable)Via the discipline of Textual Criticism

Comparing manuscripts, comparing mistakes, finding originals

THE TEXTUAL INTEGRITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENTChecking claims of errors and mistakes

1. Obvious additionsMark 16:9-20 – v. 8 – “Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.” THE END

- why would scribes add the ending we find?John 7:53-8:11 – where does the story belong? Is it original? What should we do with it?

2. Verbal dictation errorsRevelation 1:5 - “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, … [v. 6 – to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.]” Or is it ““To him who loves us and has washed us from our sins by his blood …”lusanti (λυσαντι – to release, to set free) lousanti (λουσαντι – to wash)Significance? Is either meaning unclear/inappropriate given the rest of the New Testament?

3. Heightened Christology?

John 1:18 - “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known” OR “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only son, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known”?Is there “high Christology” in John 1 without v. 18?

3. Heightened Christology?

(1)Verse 1 – The Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2)Verses 2-3 – He was with God in the beginning. Through

him all things were made. (3)Verse 12 – To all who received him, to those who believed

in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. (4)Verse 14 – The Word became flesh and made his dwelling

[tabernacled] among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only.

4. Countering Docetism?

Luke 22: 43-44 - In my NIV, the verses are printed, but with a textual note that “some early manuscripts do not have” them.Are the verses added to: (1) match Matthew 26 and Mark 14? And/or (2) combat the docetic tendency to downplay or reject Jesus’ humanity?

5. Eliminating Jesus’ anger

Mark 1:41 - “Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand …”, heals the man, and sends him awayσπλαγχνισθεις – Filled with compassionBut some late manuscripts: οργισθεις – Filled with angerIs Jesus ever angry in the Gospels? Is He ever filled with compassion? Does one or the other meaning in Mark 1 undermine the integrity of the whole?

6. Atonement and the father

Hebrews 2:9 - “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”χαρι θεου – by the grace of GodORχωρις θεου – apart from God

7. Teaching the Trinity?

1 John 5:7-8 – The Trinitarian insertion: “three that testify in heaven: the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one.”

Is that the only place from which one can derive Trinitarian theology?

Two Highly-Debated Textual Variants

Revelation 18:3“For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries …”OR“All the nations have been made to drink the maddening wine of her adulteries …”“D” rating – highly uncertain as to the original

Two Highly-Debated Textual Variants

Matthew 23:26“First clean the inside of the cup and dish …”OR“First clean the inside of the cup …”What is the significance of these debated variants?

The Textual integrity of the new testamentThrough textual criticism, critics generally agree that we have recovered 97% of the original wording of the New Testament autographs with near certainty.In places where certainty is lacking, debated readings are theologically insignificant/

THE NEW TESTAMENT & JESUS OF NAZARETH

1. Do we have an accurate textual tradition of the New Testament?YES!

2. Is the text historically accurate?Can we trust the New Testament documents?

The Wealth of the Manuscript Tradition: (1) Quantity and (2) Quality

(Most) Copying Mistakes are Insignificant (Phil. 4:23; 1 Jn. 1:4)

(Almost All) Copying Mistakes are Easily Identifiable: Textual Criticism

We have recovered 97% of the original wording of the autographs with near certainty

Remaining controversies in textual criticism affect ZERO core Christian doctrines

Recap: Textual Integrity

The Jesus Seminar: Jesus said 18% of what is attributed to Him (1) Jesus did not claim to be the Messiah, nor did He claim to be

God(2) Jesus’ teaching was about God’s goodness and generosity

displayed in human ethics(3) Jesus did not hold apocalyptic views about any ‘end’ to human

history(4) The kingdom of God is only about what this life can be, not

about some future life(5) The Gospels (esp. John) are of little help in getting to know the

historical Jesus

The Rise of Gospel Skepticism

(1) Jesus’ Deity(2) Jesus’ Atoning Death(3) Jesus’ Bodily ResurrectionSO … can we trust the Gospels?

Historical Reliability affects …

1 Peter 3:15 – Always be prepared to give an answer to those who ask you for the reason for the hope that you have.

Why trust the Gospels?

Six lines of evidence …

Making a Case for Historicity

1. The Gospels Claim to Contain Eyewitness TestimonyLuke 1:1-4: “Many have undertaken to draw up an account

of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, … so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.”

Six Reasons to Trust the Gospels

Acts 16:10After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.Acts 20, 21, 26, 27, 28

Six Reasons to Trust the Gospels

John 21:24-25This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who

wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

Six Reasons to Trust the Gospels

2. Early Date of the New Testament GospelsMark: 50-65 A.D. (50)Matthew: 60-80 A.D. (65)Luke: 60-80 A.D. (60)John: 80-100 A.D. (95)(1 Corinthians: 52 A.D.)Written while eyewitnesses,both friend and foe, were still alive.

Six Reasons to Trust the Gospels

3. The Church has Always Recognized the Historical Reliability of the Gospels

Justin MartyrIrenaeus of Lyons: the Four GospelsBUT: not the non-biblical (non-canonical) Gospels

Six Reasons to Trust the Gospels

4. Internal Evidence: Incidental Details & Undesigned Coincidences

John 5:1-5 - “Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.”

Six Reasons to Trust the Gospels

4. Internal Evidence – Incidental Details and Undesigned CoincidencesJohn 6:1-15 – feeding on the far shore of Galilee … The Jewish Passover Feast was near … Jesus said to Philip …Why Philip? Luke 9:10 Feeding is in ... So? John 12:21 Mark 6:31 – Why was it so busy? John 6:4 …

Six Reasons to Trust the Gospels

5. External EvidenceArchaeological support (e.g. John 5)Archaeology can confirm details of historical accounts, but

cannot disprove claims in historical accounts(Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence)

Six Reasons to Trust the Gospels

6. Experiential Confirmation of Reliability

Six Reasons to Trust the Gospels

(1) The Gospels Claim to Contain Eyewitness Testimony

(2) The Gospels Are Written Soon After Christ’s Crucifixion and Death

(3) The Church Has Always Recognized the Historical Reliability of the Gospels

(4) The Internal Evidence of the Gospels: Incidental Details and Undesigned Coincidences

(5) The External Evidence for the Gospels: The Archaeological Record

(6) Experiential Verification of the Gospels

Six Reasons to Trust the Gospels

The Gospels Contain Errors and/or Contradictions◦ Mark 2:25-26 & 1 Samuel 21 – Abiathar?!?!◦ Ehrman: “A simple one-line comment that for some reason

went straight through me … ‘Maybe Mark just made a mistake.’ … the floodgates opened. For if there could be one little … mistake in Mark 2, maybe there could be mistakes in other places as well.” (Misquoting Jesus, 9)

Are There Reasons to Doubt?

The Gospels Contain Errors◦ Mark 2:25-26 & 1 Samuel 21 – Abiathar?!?!◦ Mark 12:26 – the …. of the burning bush◦ επι αβιαθαρ – Locational ‘epi’ + genitive object◦ επι του βατου – Locational ‘epi’ + gen. object

Mk. 2 & 12 – at the place (in the Scriptures) where …

Are There Reasons to Doubt?

The Gospels Contain Discrepancies◦ How many women went to the tomb?

Must everyone name everyone who was there?◦ Were there men or angels? How many?

If there are two, there is at least one What do angels look like in the Bible?

Are There Reasons to Doubt?

THE NEW TESTAMENT & JESUS OF NAZARETH1. Do we have an accurate textual tradition of the New Testament?

YES!2. Is the text historically accurate?

YES!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmA6kOWwfWI

Q&A?