Is the Bible God’s word?

1. Is the Bible God’s word? Dr. Peter J. Williams Tyndale House, Cambridge www.tyndalehouse.com

2. Attack 1: the morality of the Bible

3. Tough questions

4. The New Atheism

5. “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomanical, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, p. 51 Tough questions

6. Violence and the Old Testament

7. Does the Old Testament think violence is good? • No! • In the beginning there was none • Violence never said to be good • If we lived in a perfect world there would never be any need to use force

8. God’s plan … • “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.” (Isaiah 11:6 ESV)

9. “In assessing the moral wisdom of the Bible, it is useful to consider moral questions that have been solved to everyone’s satisfaction. Consider the question of slavery. The entire civilized world now agrees that slavery is an abomination. What moral instruction do we get from the God of Abraham on this subject? Consult the Bible, and you will discover that the creator of the universe clearly expects us to keep slaves …” Tough questions

10. Sam Harris quotes: • “As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are round about you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property. You may bequeath them to your sons after you, to inherit as a possession forever; you may make slaves of them, but over your brethren the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness” (Leviticus 25:44-46 RSV)

11. What you need to know about the Bible and slavery 1 • No service or authority between humans is there in the beginning • This contrasts with other ancient creation accounts

12. What you need to know about the Bible and slavery 2 • Some Bible translations hardly ever use the word ‘slave’ (KJV only Jeremiah 2:14; Revelation 18:13) • The Bible • led to the abolition of slavery in many parts of the world • teaches that all humans are in the image of God • Can be argued to be regulating rather than encouraging

13. Conditions

14. Runaways • Bible: “You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. He shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place that he shall choose within one of your towns, wherever it suits him.” (Deuteronomy 23:15–16 ESV) • Rome: crucifixion • New World: death / abuse

15. What you need to know about the Bible and slavery • Everything is ultimately God’s property • Possession complicated • Armies, sports teams, film companies, businesses still “possess” people • Possession focuses on right to someone’s work

16. “If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant when they brought a complaint against me what then shall I do when God rises up? When he makes enquiry, what shall I answer him? Did not he who made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?” (Job 31:13–15 ESV) Job

17. Attack 2: the integrity of the Bible

19. ‘Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished those gospels that made Him godlike. … the modern Bible was compiled and edited by men who possessed a political agenda – to promote the divinity of the man Jesus Christ and use His influence to solidify their own power base.’ (Da Vinci Code, p. 317). Sir Leigh Teabing

20. Have people taken books out of the Bible?

21. Claim: Christians removed unwanted gospels from the Bible Claim: Other gospels contain a more authentic record of Jesus Claim: The 4 gospels were chosen in the 4th century at a time of political power Reality: Other gospels never were in the Bible Reality: Other gospels have copied from the gospels in the Bible Reality: The 4 gospels were accepted by the 2nd century and their supporters were persecuted Have people taken books out of the New Testament?

22. Gospel of Thomas

23. The Gospel of Thomas • Written over a century after Jesus’ ministry • Copies the real gospels • Begins: “These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke and which Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down.”

24. They said to him, “Why do you love her more than all of us?” The words surprised Sophie, and yet they hardly seemed conclusive. “It says nothing of marriage.” “Au contraire.” Teabing smiled, pointing to the first line. “As any Aramaic scholar will tell you, the word companion, in those days, literally meant spouse.” (Da Vinci Code, p. 331). Teabing on the Gospel of Philip ‘And the companion of the Saviour is Mary Magdalene. Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on her mouth. The rest of the disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval…

25. The Gospel of Philip

26. What the text really says… “And (blank) companion of the (blank) Mary Magdalene (blank) used to (blank) more than the disciples (blank) used to greet her (blank) times the rest (blank) (blank). They said to him, ‘Why do you love her more than all of us?’”

27. Manuscripts from Egypt Translation from Syria Bishop from France Early evidence for 4 gospels

28. Evidence from France • As there are four quarters of the world in which we live, and four universal winds, and as the church is dispersed over all the earth, and the gospel is the pillar and base of the church, and the breath of life, so it is natural that it should have four pillars, breathing immortality from every quarter and kindling human life anew. So it is clear that the Word, the architect of all things, who sits upon the cherubim and holds all things together, having been manifested to mankind, has given us the gospel in fourfold form, but held together by one Spirit… (Irenaeus Against Heresies around AD 185)

29. Response 1: The Bible is based on eyewitness testimony

30. Percentage of names by decades

31. The popularity of Jacob

32. Three stages of names • Time of Patriarchs: • Jacob, Isaac, Ishma-el, Joseph • Time of Exodus: • Zurishaddai, Pedahzur, Zuriel (Num. 1:6, 10; 3:35) • Amminadab, Ammihud, Ammishaddai (Num. 1:7, 10, 12) • Time of Jeremiah: • Jaazaniah, Jeremiah, Habazziniah, Igdaliah, Maaseiah (Jer. 35:3-4)

33. “Amorite Imperfective” Personal Names

34. Zur as part of an Israelite name • ‘… there is a striking frequency of the occurrence of name-elements (especially ‘-zur’ and ‘ammi’, each three times) which now, in the light of the texts from Mari, are shown to have been current in a stratum of population which had many relationships with ancient Israel’ (Martin Noth, Numbers, 1968, p. 18)

35. It works for foreigners too …

36. ‘Goliath sherd’ Reproduced from http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~maeira/Goliath/Goliath%20Inscription.html

37. ‘Goliath Sherd’ • Excavation 2005 • ‘10th–9th’ century BC context • Two names Alwt and wlt. • Earliest Philistine inscription to date. • Similarity to Goliath, glyt. (y/w interchange)

38. And it works for the New Testament …

39. Jewish personal names • Based on study of 3000 names • Palestinian Jewish names different from names elsewhere • Gospels/Acts written outside Palestine • But accurately reflect naming patterns of Palestine

40. Top Jewish names

41. Rank in Palestine 1 Simon/Simeon 2 Joseph/Joses 3 Lazarus/Eleazar 4 Judas/Judah 5 John/Yohanan 6 Jesus/Joshua NT Individuals 8 6 1 5 5 2 Ranks of Palestinian male names

42. Rank in Egypt 1 Eleazar 2 Sabbataius 3 Joseph 4= Dositheus 4= Pappus 6= Ptolemaius 6= Samuel Rank in Palestine 3 68= 2 16 39= 50= 23 Jewish male names in Egypt

43. Do you sometimes struggle to remember names?

44. Response 2: it would not have been made up

45. But neither help by humans, nor generous gifts from the emperor, nor all the ways of placating Heaven, could stifle the scandal or dispel the belief that the fire had taken place by order [of Nero]. Therefore, to scotch the rumour, Nero substituted as culprits, and punished with the utmost refinements of cruelty, a class of men, loathed for their vices, whom the crowd styled Christians. Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, Tacitus, Annals 15.44

46. Tacitus (2/3) by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilatus, and the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely in Judaea, the home of the disease, but in the capital [Rome] itself, where all things horrible or shameful in the world collect and find vogue.First, then, the confessed members of the sect were arrested; next, on their disclosures, vast numbers were convicted, not so much on the count of arson as for hatred of the human race.

47. Tacitus (3/3) And derision accompanied their end: they were covered with wild beasts’ skins and torn to death by dogs; or they were fastened on crosses, and when daylight failed were burned to serve as lamps by night. Hence, in spite of a guilt which had earned the most exemplary punishment, there arose a sentiment of pity, due to the impression that they were being sacrifices not for the welfare of the state but to the ferocity of a single man.

48. Pliny the Younger, AD 112; Letters 10.96 I interrogated them as to whether they were Christians. If they confessed I interrogated them a second and third time, threatening punishment. If they persisted I ordered them to be led off [to execution]. … As for those who denied that they were or ever had been Christians, when they invoked the gods in words given by me, and prayed with incense and wine offerings to your statue, which I had ordered to be brought for this very purpose along with images of the gods, and also cursed Christ (which it is said that no true Christian can ever be compelled to do), I thought they should be discharged.

49. Pliny (2/3) Others named in the document said they were Christians but later denied it saying they had been, but that they had ceased three years ago, or many years ago, or even as much as twenty. … they said that this had been the full extent of their guilt or error: they had been accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and to sing antiphonally a song to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by an oath not to some crime, but rather not to commit theft, robbery, or adultery, not to break their trust, and not to refuse to return a pledge when asked to do so.

50. Pliny (3/3) … many people of every age, every rank, and of both sexes are being and will be called to trial. Nor is it only cities that are affected, but the disease of this superstition is also reaching villages and farmsteads. It seems possible to check and correct this. It is pretty well agreed that the temples, which had almost become deserted, have now begun to be frequented again, and all the sacred rites which had been neglected for a long time are recommencing and that the flesh for sacrificial rites is being sold, for which up to now it was hard to find a purchaser.