the bible

• problems with the bible include contradictions, translation errors and the fact that it was written by different authors
• different views of the bible

  1. initial perfection - perfect gospels damaged by human interference
  2. reliance on the church - only the cc can interpret the teaching
  3. human version - human interpretation of god, therefore is fallible but is authoritative for the believer
• old testament summary

  • pentateuch is the first five books, creation and deeds of early inhabitants. abraham's nomadic wanderings
  • joshua tells of israelites entering canaan
  • judges recounts new communities early leaders. ruth is on converting
  • samual, kings and chronicles recount israel as a monarchy until invasion
  • ezra and nehemiah were two jewish leader who organised rebuilding
  • psalms, proverbs and song of songs are jewish poetry
  • job and ecclesiastes are philosophical
  • isaiah to malachi are prophetic
• the new testament reached its current for around 367CE
• new testament summary

  • four gospels
  • acts continues lukes gospel begins with jesus' ascension, the birth of the church and propagating christianity amongst the gentiles
  • romans to philemon are letters
  • james, peter and john are letters to christian communities
  • jude is written by james brother who called himself servant of christ
  • revelation is enigmatic apocalyptic work
• verbal inspiration usually goes with a conservative or fundamentalist approach
• verbal inspiration

  divine authorship of every word in the bible

  revelation from god

  the answers to life problems can be found in the bible
• divine inspiration often goes with a neo orthodox or liberal approach
• divine inspiration

  record of humans experiences with god

  divinely inspired but characters are understood through faith and the text is interpreted
• evangelical protestantism

  christians are saved by grace through faith in jesus' atonement

  god and the world became reconciled by the sacrificial death of jesus

  2 timothy 3 'all scripture is god breathed'

  2 peter 1:20-21 'no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation'

  inerrant as literally dictated by god

  the text is literally true

  verbal plenary inspiration

  human authors expressed their own personalities in writing
• verbal plenary inspiration - god inspired all of scripture but doesn't mean god approved of everything that happens, just recorded truths
• catholicism

  scripture and tradition go together

  apostolic tradition/succession

  tradition is dynamic and new truths can be discovered

  tradition and scripture are from the same divine source so shar the same authority

  inerrant - sensus fidei

  god chose human authors and inspired them but they used their own faculties to write

  truth comes from all literary forms

  over the course of time mistakes haven arisen from imperfect copying

  scripture is a unity
• interpreting scripture

  1. must be seen as a unity
  2. must be read within the living tradition of the church
  3. analogy of faith - the unchanging faith of the church so no scholar will interpret a passage in such a way it forgets the unity of scripture and sets the truth of one passage against the truth of another
• neo orthodox is also known as a modernist approach
• neo orthodoxy

  • rejects the belief in biblical inerrancy as it contains historical and scientific errors as well as contradictions
  • barth - not the word of god, contains the word of god. christianity is gods attempt to reach humanity
  • scripture is a vehicle through which god may be experienced, the text becoming personally meaningful makes it authoritative for the believer
• liberalism examples

  social gospel movement and process theology
• social gospel movement

  • founded by protestants
  • uses christian ethical principles to address social issues
  • social action more important than debates
  • the bible is authoritative in recommending how to live
• process theology

  • takes on board discrepancies between claims
  • god isn't the creator, he exists panentheistically
  • god isn't omnipotent
  • god doesn't intervene
  • the bible is authoritative only in the sense of passages people may find uplifting and helpful
• problems for conservatism

  contradictions, inaccuracies and unscientific. old testament is evil lol eg genocide condone in 1 samuel 'do not spare them'

  god is kinda evil if all scripture is god breathed and he made that
• sir charles lyell and geology

  ussher calculated 4004BC and developed theory of catastrophism where everything happened all at one

  lyell discovered uniformitarianism where the earth formed slowly, erosion and sedimentation as evidence and fossils

  • god put them there ig
  • day vs yom
• evolution

  survival of the fittest
• morality

  weird bible passages

  leviticus 'whoever curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death'

  deuteronomy 'the men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die'

  exodus 'she is not to go free as male servants do'

  exodus 'whoesever do work therein shall be put to death'

  wool and linene in leviticus and deuteronomy
• defending the bible's authority

  pope john paul II/augustine - not a science textbook innit

  mustard seed example, talking to men of HIS time in language they would understand

  day vs yom - yom may mean a longer period
• augustine - god planted rational seeds in nature
• genesis 1 vs genesis 2

  genesis 1 is creatio ex nihilo. made birds before land animals? sun and moon after light? formless earth etc

  they made humans twice. they already did that! gen 2 not creatio ex nihilo