The Word of God A Special Study for the Young Adult
Ministry
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Introduction Why does it matter? Trust Authority Defense
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Some Biblical Starting Facts 66 Books Approximately 40
different authors Written in Different Genres (Narratives, Law,
Poetry, Prophecy, Wisdom, Gospel, Epistle, Apocalypse) Written with
different purposes, to specific audiences Written over a time
period of greater than 2000 years Reveals who God is, how God
works, what God requires of us Dual authorship
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Question: How did we end up with the books that we have
now?
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How the Books of the OT Were Recognized Recognition of the OT
books was a lengthy and serious process Divine inspiration and
authority recognizable to Hebrew leaders through Holy Spirits
guidance o Did the author claim to be speaking a Word of the Lord?
Was it confirmed? o Did the Word come with the power of God?
Authorship someone who held a divinely appointed office o E.g.
Lawgiver, Prophet, King o Some exceptions: Psalms written by
Lemuel, Ruth, Esther Content was examined for internal consistency
o Did it tell the truth about God?
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How the Books of the OT Were Recognized (Cont.)These are My
words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all
things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses, and the
Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Luke 24:44 Historically
the Jews divided the OT books into three sets: o The Torah or Law o
The Prophets o The Writings (often called Psalms) Jesus affirms
this three-part distinction in Luke 24:44 Jesus makes this
distinction while ministering in a Jewish setting The apostles also
validate the OT books, quoting from them frequently
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Why are there different books in the Catholic Bible? The Roman
Catholic church includes certain extra OT books, known as the
Apocrypha The overwhelming evidence shows that the apocryphal books
were not regarded as authoritative o Jesus affirmed the threefold
distinction of the Jewish Scriptures o 1st century Jewish
historians Josephus and Philo affirm the same OT that we have today
o The NT authors never directly quote from the books of the
apocrypha as they do other OT books o 38 of the 39 OT books were
found among the dead sea scrolls, but only three of the apocryphal
books The apocrypha have historical and theological statements that
contradict Scripture The apocrypha can be helpful as books that
reveal historical thinking, but they are not inspired
Scripture
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How the Books of the NT Were Recognized They were continually
devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to
the breaking of bread and to prayer. -Acts 2:42 The NT consists of
27 books, written between AD 50-100 From the outset, the basis for
the growth of the church was the teaching of the apostles It became
evident in the 2nd century of the need to officially recognize a
set list in order to protect from heretical teachings As
persecution of Christians increased, it became more crucial to
determine what books they were willing to die for Our current NT is
listed in various lists beginning in the 2 nd century (recognizing
the books that were inspired)
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How the NT books Were Recognized (cont.) The books that we have
were not chosen by the church, but were the ones recognized as the
true and authoritative teaching The criteria for recognition has
three primary elements: o Apostolic authority: was the book written
by an apostle or someone closely associated with an apostle. o
Catholicity = universal recognition: were the books in question
universally recognized by the church as being authoritative o
Conformity to the rule of faith: does it maintain apostolic
doctrine
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Was there a Conspiracy to Reject Other Books? In The Da Vinci
Code, Dan Brown brought forth the opinion that the church willfully
excluded certain books But the gnostic gospels clearly do not
reflect the same teaching as that of Jesus and the apostles These
works were easy to reject as inauthentic, given the huge difference
in their teaching versus the NT books
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Simon Peter said to Him, "Let Mary leave us, for women are not
worthy of Life. Jesus said, "I myself shall lead her in order to
make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit
resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male
will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Gospel of Thomas 114
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What About Other Letters Written by Apostles? We do have
evidence that Paul wrote two additional letters to the Church at
Corinth We do not have any copies of these other letters, nor
references to them in the writings of the church Fathers What if we
found them? o Interesting question, but likely one that is moot o
After 2000 years, we can be confident that the Holy Spirit has not
desired us to have those letters o The canon is closed I wrote you
in my letter not to associate with immoral people; (1 Corinthians
5:9) This is the very thing I wrote you, so that when I came, I
would not have sorrow from those who ought to make me rejoice; (2
Corinthians 2:3 )
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Question: Is the Bible Reliable? -Do we have what was written
in the original? -Is it true?
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Ways of Assessing Historical Reliability There are three
primary ways of assessing the historical reliability of ancient
sources: Bibliographical Analysis Internal Evidence External
Evidence
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Do We Have What Was in the Original? We do not have any of the
original copies of the books of the Bible But we can say with
confidence that the Bible is the most well-attested book of ancient
literature in history How can we make this claim and trust what we
have?
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New Testament Manuscript Evidence We have over 5,800 Greek
manuscripts of the NT, and 19,000 translations in other early
languages (Latin, Coptic, Syriac) We have some fragments within 50
years of the events, entire books within 100 years, most of the NT
within 250 years Compare these facts with other works of ancient
literature accepted as history: o Homers Iliad has the next most
amount of manuscripts, 643, dating 400 years after the events o We
have 7 copies of Platos works, none within 1300 years of the events
o We have 10 copies of Caesars Gallic Wars, none within 1000 years
of when they are written If the same standard is applied across all
literature, the Bible is unparalleled in its Bibliographic
support
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New Testament Manuscript Evidence One of the Oldest NT
Manuscripts: Papyrus 66 John 7:32-38
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How God Has Preserved His Word Through Manuscripts We believe
that the Bible is inerrant in the original writings The incredible
number of manuscripts allows us to discern where any scribal errors
were made (i.e. poor eyesight, missed words, etc.) While there are
minor variations in the manuscripts, there are no discrepancies
that effect any of the doctrines of Scripture Even if we had no
manuscripts, we could reconstruct the entire New Testament from the
quotations of the church fathers The grass withers and the flower
falls off, but the Word of the Lord endures forever. - 1 Peter
2:24-25 Conclusion: we can be confident that God has preserved His
word just as He indicated
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Old Testament Manuscript Evidence We have less total OT
manuscripts, yet the total is still impressive on a historical
scale (>700) There was always an amazing reverence given to the
copying of the OT Scriptures:: o No word or letter could be written
by the scribe from memory, they had to look at the previous copy o
Verses, words, and letters of each scroll were numbered, and the
middle word and letter was calculated for each o The copyist had to
sit in full Jewish dress, wash his whole body, and never write Gods
name without fresh ink We have given practical proof of our
reverence for our own Scriptures. For although such long ages have
now passed, no one ventured either to add, or to remove, or to
alter a syllable; - Josephus
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The Significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls More than 200 scrolls
found in the caves of Qumran in 1947 The scrolls date back to the
2nd and 3rd centuries BC, more than 1000 years older than our
previous oldest manuscripts Includes all of the books of our OT
except Esther The copies of the Dead Sea Scrolls were nearly
identical to the manuscripts 1000 years later o Of the 166 words in
Isaiah 53, there is only a question in the spelling of 17
letters
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Conclusion: we can trust the evidence that the Scriptures we
possess today substantially represent the inerrant originals But is
the original true?
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The Internal Evidence for the NT Supports its Truth Most
scholars agree that the text was completed by 100 AD The text does
not contain any known contradictions The earliest books completed
can be dated to the mid 50s AD, shortly removed from their
occurrence The oral tradition of the culture made oral transmission
of stories highly possible in such a short period of time o Ancient
Jews honed the art of memorization, many memorizing the entire OT o
Greek schoolboys often committed wither Homers Iliad or Odyssey to
memory o An example from the Super Bowl
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The External Evidence for the NT Supports its Truth The
writings of Jewish historians Josephus and Philo confirm the
existence and characteristics of NT events o Confirms that Jesus
was called Christ o Confirms the existence and beheading of John
the Baptist Passages in the Jewish Talmud affirm the existence and
miracles of Jesus Non-Christian Roman historians Tacitus and
Suetonius also speak of Jesus 1st century existence
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The Content of the OT has Repeatedly Been Affirmed The
Scriptures exhibit incredible continuity between the Testaments The
fulfilled prophecy of the Old Testament differentiates it from all
other religious books o The book of Daniel accurately predicts the
sequence of kingdoms and coming persecution under Antiochus o There
are over 300 OT prophecies of the life, death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ alone Archaeology has repeatedly proved the accuracy
of the Scriptures Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to
pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it. - Isaiah 46:11
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The Cyrus Cylinder discovered in 1879 in Mesopotamia, this
dates to the 6 th century BC and describes Persian King Cyrus II
victory over Babylon and releasing captives to their homeland
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Tel Dan Stele 2 Kings 9:14-28 names Jehu as the killer of both
Jehoram and Ahaziah. An inscription from 841 BC called the Tel Dan
Stele says I have killed Jehoram son of Ahab king of Israel, and I
have killed Ahazyahu son of Jehoram king of the house of
David.
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Question: Why do we Have Different Translations?
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The Different Translations Reflect Different Methods All
translations begin with the original Greek text From there, three
methods are used: o Formal Equivalence: Tries to pull out the
original words of the text while still being understandable in
English (KJV, NKJV, NASB, ESV) o Dynamic Equivalence: take the
original meaning of a phrase, and translate it into the same idea
in English (NIV, NLT) o Paraphrase: Add explanatory words to help
make the text more readable in English (The Message, The Living
Bible, Philips Translation)
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An Example of the Methods (2 Cor 5:14) , , , For the love of
Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all,
therefore all died; (NASB) For Christ's love compels us, because we
are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. (NIV)
Christs love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first
and last word in everything we do. Our firm decision is to work
from this focused center: One man died for everyone. (The
Message)
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Question: How does this relate to our study of John?
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Why the Brackets? John 7:53-8:11 This is one of the few
passages where there is a discrepancy in the manuscripts over the
existence of the story in the gospel External evidence: The story
is not found in the earliest manuscripts, but is cited by the
church fathers starting in the 4th century Internal evidence: The
story does not relate directly to the feast context of John 7 &
8, but the teaching is consistent with the message of John
Conclusion: It is difficult to tell if the story is originally in
the gospel, but it is almost certainly a true historical account of
Jesus And sowell study it!