Fall 2008 Online Certificate Students:
View all sessions below. Then log all your comments, questions, discussion question answers, criticisms, or thoughts below.
NOTE: This is not the place for general discussion and questions. Go to the foyer for general discussion and refer to the FAQ on the right for question. Time spent in the comments section will apply toward your one hour of community time per week. To download audio sessions, visit the course homepage on the TTP site. The next session will be posted each Wed.
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How do we know that the Bible that we have is the same as when it was originally written? Did the scribes ever make mistakes in copying the text? If so, can we really trust the Bible? Upon completion of this lesson, the student should have a better understanding of the process and history of biblical transmission. The introduction to textual criticism provided in this session will give the student a firm grasp of the challenges that the scribes faced when copying the Scriptures from generation to generation. This challenge will be illustrated and demonstrated in many different ways. The student should leave with greater confidence that the Bible that they hold in their hand accurately represents the original.
Is Scripture the same today as when it was written? [7:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download The basics of textual criticism. Part 1 [20:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download The basics of textual criticism. Part 2 [20:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download The basics of textual criticism. Part 3 [16:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download How accurate are Scripture? [17:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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September 9th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
1. A lot of things change in 2000 years. It’s very hard to protect authenticity. We need to understand so that we can defend the inerrancy of the Bible.
2. Not much since I listened to the video. Most of the variants are small and none of them change major doctrinal statements. Good to know!
3. It’s really difficult to get the actual text, and the more copies there are make it more time consuming and sometimes confusing.
4. If someone really tried they could easily spot the changes. If I look at the context and the whole word, then I can understadn. This type of study is consistent with other things I’ve been taught. You must always look at the big picture: context, culture, etc.
5. It is a miracle compared to how difficult and seemingly impossible it is to keep a text authentic. However, God is always more than enough. It’s amazing. God is very serious about His Word. It is our instruction book for life. It’s important.
6. We should be very serious. Why else would I be in this class but to learn to know God better?
7. I always forget about the 300,000 variants. When people say that there are mistakes in the Bible or incorrect words, I have always denied it. Now I can speak about it with more confidence and assurance that I do know the truth.
September 10th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Session 3, B & H, Fall, 2008
Marsha Johnson
Question 1 Copyright date of my Bible?
2001, ESV, although I have many other translations that I use as references.
Question 2 Textual variants.
It does not bother me because experts in most denominations of Christianity have explained the concerns. I see the concerns with some passages and others I do not think they are serious. I expect that Science and Theologians will continue to work out the best translation. The body of Christ has “regarded (it) as divinely inspired.” God has not made a correction to our assumption, he has instead protected it from annihilation.
Question 3 Our attempt at transmission.
I made 1 unintentional error, one in punctuation.
Question 4 Text criticism.
(There was a zero in front of the word “themselves” in the second line of this question.) Text critics are very valuable and highly trained. I respect their work through the ages and rely on them to continue in their work.
Question 5 Comparison of NT with other ancient manuscripts.
It is miraculous that we have such an accurate text today! It is clear to me that God is deeply committed to protecting his communication to us. I believe it takes faith to believe that the Scriptures we have are complete. I believe Scriptures are complete, but I am open (a little) to the possibility of future additions.
Question 6 How serious should we be about protecting his Word?
I am living my life on the Scriptures as the word of God. I read them daily, study them regularly and I look for opportunities to learn more. God’s Word is my hope, my comfort, my direction and my highest interest. However, I do take it’s existence fro granted as this class is showing me.
Question 7 How has this lesson challenged me?
I have learned a lot about our Bible because of this course. I had faith that our Bible was good. I could not have defended my reason for that faith. I am learning to appreciate how sound our Bible is and that it does stand up against unbelieving critics.
September 22nd, 2008 at 4:13 pm
1. 1986. Obviously we know the bible was written prior to 1986. As a practitioner of sola scriptura we put a lot (read all) of our stock in the scriptures. We trust that its the actual word of God and therefore should know how the scriptures came about.
2. At first its pretty shocking. When you learn that these errors are spread across over 20,000 manuscripts it puts it into perspective. Plus the fact that they are typically non-significant errors such as punctuation.
3-4. I believe the intention of the exercise is to show that the nature of the errors made by the copyists have no effect on the meaning of the text.
5. It is pretty overwhelming to see how many copies we have of the New Testament writings. I would like to learn more about the different copies, see which ones are the oldest, most compete, etc.
6. Ya, i should be more serious. As referred to in #5 I would like to learn more about the history of the texts, the councils that declared them “the canon”
7. I have been most challenged to learn more about the history of the canon. As i stated I have full faith in the scripture but really have no idea why. As a Christian that is not a good position to be in.