Tag: Bible

Resolving to Read the Bible

bible

It’s January 2nd, and I really don’t want to go to the gym this morning, because there will be lines of well-intended people who I’ve never seen before.  New Year’s resolutions do that.  I figure I’ve got until Valentine’s Day before I can use the place undisturbed again.

Many people set out every January with the resolution that they are going to read the whole Bible this year, which is a great goal.  I have a few thoughts that may get you past February.

  1.  Don’t read it left to right.  That’s not how it was written – the books don’t appear in chronological order – and that’s not the best way to understand it.  We’re used to reading books from left to right, because that’s the way English texts are written.  Hebrew goes right to left.  Chinese sometimes reads top down.  But the Bible is a book that reads from the middle outwards.  The best place to start reading the Bible is with the story of Jesus’ life, the gospel, in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.  Everything before that is pointing towards Jesus’ life; everything afterwards is reflecting back on Jesus’ life.  Read the gospel first.
  2. Save the file cabinet material for the end.  I meet so many well intentioned people who tell me, “I’m going to read the whole Bible this year!” And I say, “Good job!”, because I’m a pastor, and I guess I’m supposed to encourage this sort of thing.  They read Genesis, and then they come back to me saying, “It’s great!  There’s so much adventure!  I love it!”  I say hesitantly, “Uh-huh.  They come back a couple of weeks later and they say, “I’ve read Exodus!  It’s amazing!  I love this book.” I say, “Yup.” And then I never hear from them again.  Because then they come to Leviticus, and they aren’t all that enthralled with the specificities of how to sacrifice your goat.  They come to something which, even for the original authors, was file cabinet material, and they get bored.  You know, it’s a really important document, so you need to keep it, so you put it in your file cabinet.  It’s not pleasure reading.  And all those resolutions die in Leviticus like so many sacrificial lambs.  We’re going to read that stuff too – just not yet.
  3. Ask someone who has read the Bible what you should read next.  After reading a gospel, ask someone who knows it, and even better, who also knows you, what you should read next.  Generally I recommend a shorter book that gives you a taste of a bigger genre of literature.  Read the book of James next.  It’s quick, easy, and practical.  It contains a lot of moral advice that’s sometime pithy and the kind of thing a lot of people go to the Bible for.  Then read Ephesians.  It will give you a little taste of Paul’s 13 letters in the New Testament, a sense for his theology, and a sense for those letters trying to teach the church to get along.  Read Micah so you know who the prophets are.
  4. Read each book by itself.  Some guides to reading the Bible recommend a section of biblethis book and a section of that book at the same time.  That can be an ok way to go at it.  To have a true grasp of the context, you want to read any one of the 66 books by itself.  In other words, when you sit down to read Romans, read the whole book from beginning to end, even if it takes a few days.  Don’t read a little of Romans and then come back to it six months later.
  5. Use study aids.  There are commentaries that are a great help to understanding parts of the Bible.  You can read a single-volume commentary, which has notes on every single book of the Bible.  I like the ones with pictures.  When you get further along, you might want to read an entire commentary on one book of the Bible, like Romans.  N.T. Wright has a readable series of commentaries called “The Bible for Everyone.” And of course, you can always listen to sermon series by preachers who like to go through books of the Bible.  Some people find that it helps to take notes, keep a journal, or illustrate the pages of their Bibles as they go.

Hope this helps!  May God bless the reading of His Word!

 

How old is the Bible?

Did you ever wonder whether the Bible was written close to the events it describes or much later?  I’ve heard people dismiss the Bible as a later, legendary account composed many generations after the life of Jesus.  The manuscript evidence gives us a hint.

The oldest piece of a manuscript that we have is a tiny little piece of paper that’s only about 3″ long and 2″ wide, which is now in a museum in England.  It has text from John’s gospel on the front and on the back, and scholars who study ancient manuscripts say that the handwriting dates to between 100 and 150 AD.  This piece was found in Egypt, which suggests an earlier original, allowing time for the story to have travelled over 400 miles.200px-P52_verso

However, Ignatius Theophorus of Antioch, who lived from around 35AD – 117AD, wrote seven letters in which he quotes from at least 17 of the 27 New Testament letters, suggesting that they were in circulation even earlier, in the first century.  Clement of Rome, who died in 99AD, left behind a letter which quotes or refers to at least 9 letters of the New Testament, making their first century authorship undeniable.  These include a quote from Jesus, making the gospel stories unquestionably first century.  An early Christian document called the Didache, which scholars date to the end of the first century or beginning of the second, refers to Jesus’ teachings in the gospels, particularly Matthew.

Credible scholars now date the New Testament entirely to the first century.  Since the date of Jesus’ death falls in the 30s, that means the whole of the New Testament was written within 60 years of his death, which means during the lifetime of his contemporaries.

Those who try to push the dates later must do so by controverting the obvious historical testimonies of both the biblical accounts and non-biblical witnesses.  Their agenda-laden activism does little to confuse the open-minded and clear-sighted, but it tends to empower those who are looking for loopholes and who don’t want to do real research.  The story of Jesus cannot be discredited as a later legend scripted by people of another generation.  It was written in his day by people who knew him and his disciples.

Jesus Definitely Wasn’t Married

WifeAn ancient fragment was first publicized to the modern world in September of 2012 which features the words, “Jesus said to them my wife….” This created a frenzy of speculation about the possibility that Jesus was married.  I am absolutely sure he was not.  I can also say that, as an evangelical Protestant, it really doesn’t matter to me theologically whether or not he was.  (For my celibate brothers and sisters in the Catholic Church’s leadership, I could see how there would be more concern.)  But though his marital status doesn’t matter, it’s absolutely critical that everyone know he was single.  Here’s why.

Time magazine reports this week that the document is not a forgery, but actually dates back to the “ancient” world (whenever that began and ended).  The Harvard Theological Review reports (vol. 107, issue 2) that the document may date from somewhere around 741AD, some 700 years after Jesus’ life, give or take.  This seems to be making the news despite the fact that his marital status has no theological bearing.  What matters is the critical thinking skills of a modern society which swallows feeble ideas whole.  It makes a sad statement about our gullibility, and it leads to implications that shouldn’t be drawn.  Specifically:

1.  700 years later is a stretch in terms of reliability.  This would be roughly the equivalent of us finding a document dating from 1983 claiming that St. Francis was married.  It’s a little hard to be convinced.

2.  There is not multiple attestation, and no subsequent confirmation.  One fragment, and a late one at that, shouldn’t merit serious consideration.

3.  Marriage was the norm for Jewish men in Jesus’ day.  It would not have been scandalous for him to have been married, and thus there would have been no need to keep it secret if it were in fact the case.  It also isn’t odd that he was single, as even the Apostle Paul encouraged singleness, using himself as an example (1 Cor. 7).

4.  The gospel writers include some really embarrassing stories about Jesus’ life (baptized though sinless, fighting with the religious leaders who should have endorsed him, rejected by eye witnesses, mocked, cursed to hang on a tree – Deut. 21:23, strange post-resurrection sightings that weren’t immediately recognizable).  They really don’t hold back on provocative and incriminating details.  The idea that there was a wife-hiding conspiracy doesn’t jibe with the nature of the gospels.

5.  Luke claims to be doing research on Jesus’ life in the first generation, and a marriage would have been an impossible oversight.

Here’s why the fragment matters.  It opens up the implication to casual modern listeners that the history of Jesus has always been mistaken, and that there are secrets about him left untold, making the biblical story appear to be an official front masking the true story.  And this is the real damage done by the publicity of this document and by the gnostic writings generally.  The Bible is the real thing.  Its story is so scandalous and conspiratorial that it doesn’t need a scandal to make it juicy.  There was no great cover-up in its writing or compilation that changed the meaning of Jesus’ life.  There aren’t parts of it that are waiting to be discovered in order to complete our picture of Jesus.  We know of him what we need to know to believe in him and to live faithfully in his name.  Whatever else the Bible is, it’s good enough.  No new discovery is going to change the power it still has call people from death to life.

So for the record, he wasn’t married, and if we are clear-headed thinkers, it ought to take more than a never before heard of scrap of paper written 700 years later to make us think the biblical authors just forgot that detail.

Do Archaeological Discoveries Discredit Genesis?

CamelNews agencies throughout the world burst into Biblical deconstruction this week with the announcement of a new archaeological find about camels.  The discovery, published in Tel Aviv Journalout of Tel Aviv University, was that domesticated camels didn’t appear on the scene in Israel until around the 9th century BCE.  If this is the case, it means that the Genesis account of Abraham using 10 camels to transport goods (Genesis 24:10) a highly unlikely story.  

 

Read more here.