“But surely

you can’t take the

Bible literally...

?”

Season 2 – ‘The Midterms’

How the Bible has been misused...

It says in the Bible... Slavery Imperial Conquest Oppression of women Oppression of the poor Apartheid Sexual repression and abuse Weird spiritual visions and supernatural

encounters Financial exploitation Capital punishment Control and manipulation of individuals and

families Other...

Some Unhelpful Approaches to the Bible...

The Bible as a Rule Book

The Bible as an Answer Book

The Bible as a Science and History Book

The Bible as a Code Book

The Bible as only understood by 'The

Elite’

The Bible as ‘Final Authority’

Answering our Critics

The Bible is Historical Literature

A Book of the World

The Bible is Theological Revelation

A Book from God

The Bible is Sacred Scripture

The Book of the Church

The Bible as Historical Literature

Some basic Bible facts... Library of 66 books – 39 OT and 27 NT Written by 40+ authors over 1500 years

from variety of backgrounds and places Written in 3 languages Contains wide variety of literary styles

(genres!) Widely influential across continents and

cultures Survival against critics The reliability of the OT and the NT as

historical documents

Author Book Date Written

Earliest Copies

Time Gap Copies

Homer Iliad 800 BC c. 400 BC 400 years 643

Thucydides

History 460-400 BC

c. AD 900 1300 years

8

Plato 400 BC c. AD 900 1300 years

7

Caesar Gallic Wars

100-44 BC c. AD 900 1000 years

10

Livy History of Rome

59 BC – AD 17

4th C (partial)

10th C (most)

400 years1000 years

1 partial19 copies

Tacitus Annals AD 100 c. AD 1100

1000 years

20

New Testament

AD 50-100

c. 144 fragmentc. 200

(books)c. 250 (most

NT)c. 325 (NT)

+50 years100 years150 years225 years

5366

Old Testament Reliability

Manuscript Reliability

Translation accuracy

The Dead Sea Scrolls – Qumran Community:

2nd and 1st Century BC

Non-Hebrew manuscripts

Archaeological and Historical

Confirmation

New Testament Confirmation

Were you to ask me to recommend the most valuable book in the world, I should fix on the Bible as the most instructive, both to the wise and

ignorant. Were you to ask me for one affording the most rational and pleasing entertainment to the

inquiring mind, I should repeat, it is the Bible; and the most

interesting history, I should still urge you to look into your Bible. I would make it, in short, the Alpha

and Omega of knowledge.— Elias Boudinot, early American lawyer and statesman

(1740–1821)

The Bible as Theological Revelation

Compare and Contrast

We present you with this Book, the most valuable thing that the world affords. Here is wisdom; this is the Royal Law; these are the lively Oracles of God.

The Bible is a collection of Books written over a long period of time which have come to be recognised by the Christian community as Scripture.

Some Tricky Words

Inspiration – how the Bible was

brought about by the activity of God

Inerrancy – without error in everything

Infallibility – utterly trustworthy in

what it (or the author) seeks to achieve

Authority – God’s authority exercised

through the Bible

The Bible as Sacred

Scripture

“God did not give the world a book or a collection of

writings. God rather called a community of people to

which he is unconditionally devoted and in which he continually acts through

his divine Word and Spirit.”T. Hopko

“The church could not wait until the critics were agreed among themselves:

she had to live. She lived her own life, which had been handed down to her as such, before the texts and

together with them, in the texts but not limited to them. She was the

church from the time of the Apostles, and not the product of their writings; she used these writings, not following them word for word, as a pupil copies an exercise imposed from outside, but

treating them as a mirror and yardstick to recognise and restore her

image, in each new generation.”Yves Congar

The Bible as Theological Revelation

Doctrine

Discipleship

Devotion

“What is important is that the Word of God comes to bear

upon human situations as, week in and week out, the

Bible informs the preaching and prayer, the study and

song, the pastoral care and compassionate outreach of the

worshipping, believing community of faith.”

JB Rogers

“But surely

you can’t take the

Bible literally...

?”