Why We Trust Our Bible, by Team Taught

About this Class:

 

The uniqueness and authority of the Bible are always under attack. Professors and writers are claiming that Jesus never existed, Jesus never claimed to be God, the early church changed the basic preaching of Jesus, books were left out of the Bible, the copies of the Bible that have come down through the centuries are hopelessly corrupt, and how can you trust your translation where there are so many? This class walks you through the process of how we received our Bible and why we can trust it.

Dr. Darrell Bock discusses the life of Jesus in lectures 1-5. Dr. Blomberg discusses the reliability of the Bible in lectures 6-11. Dr. Kruger discusses the process of formation of the New Testament Canon in lectures 12-21. Dr. Wallaces discusses issues relating to manuscripts and textual criticism in lectures 22-27. Dr. Mounce discusses the philosophies and process of translation in lectures 28-32. Dr. Piper discusses the content, cohesiveness, scope and power of the Bible in lectures 33-37.

 

 

 

Lecture 1:
Did Jesus Actually Live?

In Part 1, Dr. Darrell Bock addresses the historical Jesus debate, some scholars actually question whether Jesus even lived. How can we show that he did live using sources other than the Bible and the writing of the early Church Fathers?

 

Lecture 2:
The Nature of Orality, and the Witness of Paul

In Part 2, Dr. Darrell Bock adresses how some liberal scholars argue that because the stories of Jesus were first told by word of mouth, and since memory is faulty, that we cannot trust the gospel witness to Jesus. Dr. Bock discusses three views of orality and why the "informal controlled" model of the Bedouins best parallels the gospels and argues for the authenticity of their accounts. He also shows why the supposed "time gap" between Jesus living and the writing of the accounts is only a few years due to the wintess of Paul, and not decades as some propose.

 

Lecture 3:
Memory, Authorship, and Miracles

In Part 3, Dr. Darrell Bock addresses when the authenticity of the gospels is questioned due to faulty human memory. Some people claim that since we do not know for sure who wrote the gospels, we cannot trust their message. Others argue that there is nothing special about presenting Jesus as a common miracle worker. In this session, Dr. Bock answers each of these charges.

 

Lecture 4:
Rules of Scholarship

In Part 4, Dr. Darrell Bock addresses how scholarship has created a series of rules they use to judge the authenticity of a gospel passage. Dr. Bock critiques those rules and shows how they still can argue for the authenticity of the core events of the gospel message.

 

Lecture 5:
Two Key Events

In Part 5, Dr. Darrell Bock addresses the looks at two key events in the gospels, Jesus' trial and the resurrection. Using the rules of scholarship, he shows that even by those standards these events are authentic.

 

Lecture 6:
Introduction and first three questions

In Part 1, Dr. Craig Blomberg begins by introducing the issue of the historical reliability of the New Testament documents, focusing on Dan Brown and some of the other recent "discoveries." He will cover 12 truths agreed upon except by the most liberal theologians.

 

Lecture 7:
Questions Four and Five

In Part 2, Dr. Craig Blomberg addresses would the gospel writers have wanted to preserve accurate history? Why are there four Gospels, with all the similarities and differences?

 

Lecture 8:
Questions and Answers

In Part 3, Dr. Craig Blomberg addresses seven questions and Dr. Blomberg's answers.

 

Lecture 9:
Positive Reasons of Believing the Gospels are Reliable

In Part 4, Dr. Craig Blomberg addresses reasons 7 - 9.

 

Lecture 10:
Archeaology the Apostle Paul

In Part 5, Dr. Craig Blomberg addresses:

11. Archaeology.
12. Testimony of other early Christian Writers.

Dr. Blomberg concludes with a powerful discussion of three ways to believe, and what is the relationship between faith and reason.

 

Lecture 11:
Questions and Answers

In Part 6, Dr. Craig Blomberg addresses the final nine questions from the audience.

 

Lecture 12:
What are the current challenges to canonicity?

In Part 1, Dr. Michael Kruger addresses discussion about whether books are in the canon because they are authoritative or they are authoritative because they are in the canon. Has God given us a structure to know which books should be in the canon?

 

Lecture 13:
Canonical Model: Community

In Part 2, Dr. Michael Kruger addresses how canonical models are different ways of explaining the process used to determine which books should be included in the canon of Scripture.

 

Lecture 14:
Canonical Model: Historical

In Part 3, Dr. Michael Kruger addresses the historically-determined model emphasizes the historical background of the books to determine if they are included in the canon.

 

Lecture 15:
Canonical Model: Self-Authenticating

In Part 4, Dr. Michael Kruger addresses the purpose of the self-authenticating model is to authenticate the canon without undermining its authority. If something is an ultimate authority, you can’t demonstrate it without using it.

 

Lecture 16:
The Divine Qualities of the Canon

In Part 5, Dr. Michael Kruger addresses that a “defeater” is an idea that undermines your confidence in knowing something. 

 

Lecture 17:
Apostolic Origins

In Part 6, Dr. Michael Kruger addresses that the Covenants in the Old Testament were often written to record them. The apostles saw themselves as agents of the New Covenant established by Jesus.

 

Lecture 18:
Corporate Reception

In Part 7, Dr. Michael Kruger addresses that corporate reception means that the books of the canon are accepted by the Church.

 

Lecture 19:
Manuscripts and Codexes

In Part 8, Dr. Michael Kruger addresses Corpora. Christians copied, read and taught from books and used them in great numbers. They were made to be easily read in public.

 

Lecture 20:
Eusebius' Four Categories of Books

In Part 9, Dr. Michael Kruger addresses that Eusebius describes 4 types of books: accepted, disputed, rejected heretical.

 

Lecture 21:
Practical Advice

In Part 10, Dr. Michael Kruger addresses how would you answer common objections that are often raised about the canon?

 

Lecture 22:
Challenges

In Part 1, Dr. Daniel Wallace addresses the challenges to the believability of the Bible brought by the issues related to the Greek manuscripts, and especially the influence of Dan Brown and Bart Ehrman.

 

Lecture 23:
Historical Process

In Part 2, Dr. Daniel Wallace addresses discussion of the historical process that led to manuscripts and variants, with some examples of variants.

 

Lecture 24:
Responding to Bart Ehrman

In Part 3, Dr. Daniel Wallace responds to three basic challenges by Bart Ehrman: the "black hole"; the quality of the copies; the effect of Constantine on the manuscripts.​

 

Lecture 25:
Textual Criticism

In Part 4, Dr. Daniel Wallace addresses how now that we understand why there are variants in the manuscripts, how does the art and science of textual criticism help us determine which variants are most likely to be original?

 

Lecture 26:
Greek Manuscripts behind the KJV

In Part 5, Dr. Daniel Wallace addresses a brief overview of why the King James Bible is different from all modern translations, and issues of the Greek texts behind it.

 

Lecture 27:
Why do we have so many variants?

In Part 6, Dr. Daniel Wallace focuses in on variants, how many there are, how many significant variants are there, and how good of a job has textual criticism done.

 

Lecture 28:
Translation Philosophy

In Part 1, Dr. Bill Mounce begins the seminar by talking about how we use words and grammar to communicate within our historical context. This is the theoretical basis for the rest of the seminar.

 

Lecture 29:
Principle 1: Words or Meaning

In Part 2, Dr. Bill Mounce addresses do you translate words or meaning? At one level, all translations translate for meaning. However, every translation has to decide if they want to err on the side of words or the side of meaning. (Bill references "12" principles, but shortened the presentation to "10.")

 

Lecture 30:
Principles 2-4

In Part 3, Dr. Bill Mounce addresses four more principles of translation that stem from the basic decision of translating words or meaning. 

 

Lecture 31:
Principles 5-9

In Part 4, Dr. Bill Mounce addresses four more principles of translation that stem from the basic decision of translating words or meaning. 

 

Lecture 32:
Principle 10: Gender Language

In Part 5, Dr. Bill Mounce addresses that this is the most difficult issue in modern translation. For many people, the words "he" and "man" refer to all people, men and women alike. But for many others, "he" and "man" only refer to males. This is not an issue of conservative or liberal. English is in the middle of a significant shift on how it uses these words, and others like "they."

 

Lecture 33:
Why We are Concerned With the Bible

The importance of inspiration and inerrancy for our belief in the Bible.

 

Lecture 34:
Content of the Bible

Manuscript evidence indicates that we have the words of the authors. Jesus, the apostles and the authors of the Old Testament claim that Scripture was written by people who were inspired by God.

 

Lecture 35:
The Claims of the Bible for Itself

The writings of the apostle Paul are a significant part of the New Testament. The Westminster Confession includes a concise statement about why the Bible is the Word of God.

 

Lecture 36:
Scope and Cohesiveness of the Bible

The scope and cohesiveness of the message of the Bible is remarkable, considering it was written over a period of hundreds of years by over 40 different authors.

 

Lecture 37:
The Power of the Gospel

Scriptures manifest themselves to be the word of God by their light and power to convince and convert sinners. The Spirit of God, bearing witness by and with the Scriptures in the heart of man, is alone able fully to persuade it that they are the very word of God.