SCC University

1. SCC University What we believe and why we believe it!

2. Week 2 Recap • Interpreting Scripture • Audience/Context • Differences • Theological Principle • Biblical Litmus Test • “Our Town” • Miracles of John http://www.sccbranford.org/resources/scc-university-power-point-slides.html

3. Bible Translations • What is a Translation? • Transferring the message of one language into another language • Is there a difference between “translation” and “biblical translation?” • Divine Author/Human Author – Original Scripture – Copies of Original – Critical Text – Translator and/or Translation Committee – English Translation – Modern Readers • Out of whose mouth did Scriptures come, then? God’s or man’s? The only biblical answer is “both.” Indeed, God spoke through the human authors in such a way that his words were simultaneously their words, and their words were simultaneously his. This is the double authorship of the Bible. Scripture is equally the Word of God and the words of human beings. Better, it is the Word of God through the words of human beings. - John Stott (2 Tim, 3:16)

4. Bible Translations • How did we get the chunk of material we now hold in our hands? • Copies were made • Ca. 5,000 manuscripts covering all or parts of the New Testament in less than 100 years • 1947 = “Dead Sea Scrolls” 300 B.C. to A.D. 100 • Prior to D.S.S. oldest “O.T.” manuscripts = A.D. 800-900 • Amulet with an excerpt from Num. and a portion of a manuscript from Lev. dating to A.D. 600 • Herodotus (ca. 480-425 B.C.): A.D. 900 = 8 copies • Iliad (ca 900 B.C.): 400-100 B.C. = 39 copies (by A.D. 300 = 1,1170) with 95% accuracy

5. Bible Translations • How did we get the chunk of material we now hold in our hands? • Divine Author/Human Author – Original Scripture – Copies of Original – Critical Text – Translator and/or Translation Committee – English Translation – Modern Readers • A.D. 382 St. Jerome • Vulgate = 1st Latin Translation • Remained the main Roman Catholic translation until 1600’s Giovanni Bellini

6. Bible Translations • How did we get the chunk of material we now hold in our hands? • John Wycliffe – 1382 • English philosopher, theologian, seminary professor at Oxford, and Roman Catholic priesthood dissident. • Translates the N.T. portion of the Vulgate into Middle English Thomas Kirkby

7. Bible Translations • How did we get the chunk of material we now hold in our hands? • Prior to the 1400’s all books were hand written by scribes = introduces some error • Textual Critics (able to speak languages of the bible) compare across all known sources of a text to select the most accurate version • 1400’s = invention of the printing press • 1500’s protestant reformtion

8. Bible Translations • How did we get the chunk of material we now hold in our hands? • William Tyndale – 1536 • English Scholar and leading figure in the Protestant Reformation. • 1st translation of the Bible into English from the original Greek and Hebrew • Henry VIII – didn’t like him

9. Bible Translations • How did we get the chunk of material we now hold in our hands? • 1611 Authorized Version • commissioned in response to the problems of the earlier translations perceived by the Puritans. • Commissioned by? • King James I in 1604 • Over 200 major changes between 1611 and 1769

10. Bible Translations • How did we get the chunk of material we now hold in our hands? • Goal was to make the text accessible to ordinary people while maintaining the “dignified/elegant” found in Latin for the purpose of “public” worship • KJV in the modern era • James 2:3 And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing

11. The Last Supper • The Last Supper Discourse: Chapters 13-17:26 • Feet Washing • V12b-15: “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.”

12. The Last Supper • Feet Washing Let’s apply our lesson for studying the Bible • Context – “the town” • 1 Century A.D. Jerusalem, Judaism / Middle Eastern culture, sandals • Differences? • What is the principle • 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them • Test this against the rest of the bible. • Think of ways to apply it your life

13. The Last Supper • Judas Iscariot – God’s Providence • 13:2, 13:10-11, 13:18, 13:21, 13:23-28 • 13:27 - Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” • Pharaoh in Exodus 7-11 • Providence AND Free Will or Providence VS.Freewill? • Westminster Confession of Faith: Ch5, Sec 1 • God the great Creator of all things does uphold,[Heb 1:3] direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things,[Dan 4:34-35, Pslm 135:6, Act 17:25-28, Job 38-41] from the greatest even to the least,[MAT 10:29-31] by his most wise and holy providence,[Prov 15:3, Pslm 104:24, & 145:17] according to his infallible foreknowledge,[Act 15:18, Pslm 94:8-11] and the free and immutable counsel of his own will,[Eph 1:11, Pslm 33:10-11] to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.[Isa 63:14, Eph 3:10, Rom 9:17, Pslm 145:7, Gen 45:7] • https://reformed.org/documents/wcf_with_proofs/

14. The Last Supper – Providence • “All” in “all creatures, actions, and things” = Scary • We MUST understand what God is • Westminster Confession of Faith: Ch. 2 Sec. 1 • There is but one only,[1] living, and true God,[2] who is infinite in being and perfection,[3] a most pure spirit,[4] invisible,[5] without body, parts,[6] or passions;[7] immutable,[8] immense,[9] eternal,[10] incomprehensible,[11] almighty,[12] most wise,[13] most holy,[14] most free,[15] most absolute;[16] working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will,[17] for his own glory;[18] most loving,[19] gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin;[20] the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him;[21] and withal, most just, and terrible in his judgments,[22] hating all sin,[23] and who will by no means clear the guilty.[24]

15. The Last Supper – Providence • God is GOOD • Mat 10:29-31: 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (see v16-28) • Audience = disciples – followers of God • Mat 6:28-30 28“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? (see v33) • Audience = sermon on the mount

16. The Last Supper – Providence • “Natural Disasters,” “Bad Things/Good People,” “Bad People” • Westminster Confession of Faith: Ch. 5, Sec. 2 • Although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first Cause, all things come to pass immutably, and infallibly;[Act 2:23] yet, by the same providence, he orders them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either [1] necessarily, [2] freely, or [3] contingently.[Gen 8:22, Jer 31:35, Exo 21:13, Deut 19:5, Isa 10:6-7]

17. The Last Supper – Providence • “Natural Disasters,” “Bad Things/Good People,” “Bad People” • “That as God is working his purpose out according to the eternal council of his Will. A God who is in absolutely no need of help from any quarter. A God who could have removed every secondary cause and made himself the primary cause of everything that takes place. That God has chosen in the mystery of his purposes to effect his eternal council by the employment of secondary causes to govern a world in which some events and actions cause other events and actions. [For example] Tides, movement of the planets, sowing and reaping [Genesis 8:22]. Because he has determined that "ordinarily" that is the way it will happen so that there are patterns and regularities that are written into the universe…. other causes that are the result of the free exercise of the will of the induvial (Potiphar/wife)…. Or contingently [Acts 27]” - Alistair Begg • "In inert matter God acts by physical force. In brute animals by instinct and appetite. In intelligent beings, by motives suited to their facilities. In his redeemed people by the influence of grace." - Charles Bridges

18. The Last Supper – Providence • “Natural Disasters,” “Bad Things/Good People,” “Bad People” • Patterns and Regularities: Principles of nature that govern natural processes which sustain life – “ordinary/necessary” • Hurricanes, earth quakes, etc… must be viewed in the same light as seasonality (plant growth), carbon cycle, and water cycle. • San Francisco 1906 – Pride of Mankind & 1989 • Why? Although not the only reason, one reason is because it highlights God’s power when the “out-of-ordinary” occurs • “God who could have removed every secondary cause and made himself the primary cause of everything that takes place.” • That God – he has chosen to use “secondary” means to control the world • Numbers 11:31, 2 Kings 6:4-7, Mat 8:23-27, etc. (this list can go forever)

19. The Last Supper – Providence • “Natural Disasters,” “Bad Things/Good People,” “Bad People” • “Contingently” • Occurrences that take place not because of divine intervention from the outside but are “contingent” upon our actions from within. • God seeing things through based on our use of the facilities he gave us. • Acts 27: Paul’s advice during the storm

20. The Last Supper – Providence • “Natural Disasters,” “Bad Things/Good People,” “Bad People” • Luke 24:44-45 …that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. • Isaiah 53 • V10: Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer… • Why? • It was God’s sovereign plan to redeem man • Does this spark any questions in regards to providence & bad people?

21. The Last Supper – Providence • “Natural Disasters,” “Bad Things/Good People,” “Bad People” • Crucifixion • Are these men then just mindless machines? • Acts 4:27 • Man’s Action = Murder & Cruelty • Acts 2:23 and again in Acts 3:13-16 • “The set purpose and predetermination of God did no more compel or force their wicked hands to do what they did than a sailor hosting up his sails to take the wind, to serve his design, compels the wind.” - Aaron Flavel • Romans 3:23 ala Psalms 51:5 • bad news is that this condemns all mankind

22. The Last Supper – Providence • Providence defined? – OR – Clear as Mud? • Providence is difficult because for us humans because we can only: • see it in the rear view mirror, • Time • understand it when it occurs at a level we can visualize. • Scale • Properly understanding time & scale is a universal problem that will never go away. • Difference between sitting a million seconds vs. a billion seconds • Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways,” 9“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

23. The Last Supper – Providence • Ruth 2: 2- • 10 Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” 11 But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. 12 The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” • v10b • V17 = 22 liters • v18