Where Did The Bible Come From and Why Should We Care?: Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] it's really good to be here you guys I've had so many friends who are a part of the Jesus Church family or Westside here for a lot of years it's my first time being one your gatherings being out here so it's the privilege to do that cheers yes great it's great to be here all right I already feel like everything I'm going to say is inadequate right now for a number of reasons and you know Ian mentioned it this is just this is a huge huge set of questions around why what is the Bible where'd it come from what is it and why on earth should we view it as some source of authority or guidance in our lives I mean really if you grown up with that idea of the Bible it doesn't seem strange to you if you became a follower of Jesus later in life or if you have friends who don't follow Jesus which I hope you do because they'll help you get a reality check or how crazy it is that you believe all of this it doesn't say it's really quite odd really in the culture in which we live to view an ancient book as a source of real guidance and authority in our lives it's odd it's certainly to your to your neighbors and so it's maybe this isn't your set of questions or whatever there are other ones in the series but I guarantee that people that you love and care about this is a big question for them so even if it's not your question you need to care about this question because almost everybody's asking it even if you aren't get with the program basically I started asking the question so I need to kind of tell my own story of why why this is a big deal to me and it's been a big deal over the years I became a follower of Jesus most almost 20 and through ministry called skatechurch it's an outreach ministry to skateboarders over in East Portland you guys heard about skate church before outstanding outstanding ministry so I started going to 16 because there it's the dry place to skateboard in the winter especially and you know you got to sit through the Jesus talk you know and I'd sit at the back or whatever but over the years the friendships and these this presentation of Jesus became just unavoidable to me just who Jesus was and for me really it was that I got to this point where Jesus was so compelling and so amazing and so beautiful and I just started to read the stories about him and I'm just like this holy cow and stuff going on in my life and I was like I'm going to give my life to Jesus and so I did that when I was 20 and so I got involved in that ministry to skateboarders and whatever was with it for a lot of years and as I got to know Jesus more I'm reading about him and Jesus cares a lot about the Bible like he talks about it constantly yeah it seems like he had to memorize his Bible which was we call the Old Testament and he I mean he was constantly alluding to it quoting from it talking where I'm okay I'm a follower of Jesus I need to not only really immerse myself in these stories about Jesus I need to get familiar with this whole thing and so I did that and my parents are Christians and the Bible didn't play a huge role in my growing up though and so I just wasn't really familiar with it as a 20 year old and so I'm really I'm reading the Bible pretty much for the first time in my early 20s and I am just bewildered I mean there's a talking snake on page three for gonna say you know and let's just give you know and look at the god cloud on the mountain and all kinds and so all everything like the Bible was this strange world to me as a new Christian and as a young adult and so I just um first it was I love Jesus and I'm enjoying and exploring and learning out the Bible that's awesome and just the content of the Bible was new and foreign to me and then came the historical questions of life well man I'm reading this thing more there's a lot that I resonate with it's beautiful there's a lot that's very strange to me what do I do with this thing where did it come from and so ultimately it kind of led this is not the normal career arc I had no career arc except to skateboard and and then I got involved with his ministry two skateboarders and it's a skate Church the skate park was across the street from Multnomah now University it was just molten OMA Bible College back then and awhile I guess I'll go to school here so I can figure out what to tell the juniors about the Bible and so I did and and then I did what would naturally come next is sign up to learn ancient Greek as Nha Hebrew and I just became a bonafide Bible nerd I just couldn't I couldn't get enough of it and and a lot of it was both a growing and continuing to grow just allegiance and love for Jesus but also this kind of weird relationship for the Bible what is this thing where did it come from and why should I care about what it says and I love it but I'm also repulsed by it sometimes because it's so strange get to know what I'm talking about it was just a very honest it was a growing my growing relationship with the Bible so all that to say 14 years later for educational institutions later I was way too long too good to go to school but I I mean I had the privilege to study the Bible under a host of great scholars in Jerusalem for a year working with the Dead Sea Scrolls and I just couldn't get enough and so um so here you go and then I finished all of that and there was like oh what do I do with this education cuz I didn't know if I want to be like a university proper whatever and so the Lord kind of led me back into local church ministry but working with Western seminary here in town anyway that's kind of my story all that to say is my relationship to the Bible is very much born out of my own journey of trying to follow Jesus and trying to figure out what what this thing is and where it comes from and why why is it that for me this thing grows more and more beautiful as I immerse myself in the history and origins of the Bible now here's what's interesting I can't even tell you how many cups of coffee I had over the years where people mowers of Jesus Christians they are learning all of the same stuff that I couldn't get enough of the history and origins of the Bible or whatever and and in whatever form you know there's a self-proclaimed expert on YouTube right and so they've somebody seen that you know something you have University students they take an intro to biblical literature class or something like that and and they are exposed to the very complex involved fascinating history of the origins of the Bible and they walk away from that with the conviction this cannot be God's Word it's a thoroughly human book I mean it has such a complex history with all these historical you know sociological factors of geography and time and and so on and his the history out of ancient Israel in the early church is complex this thing can't be God's Word it's such a thoroughly human book and I I didn't know what to do with these conversations because for me it was precisely learning about that complex fascinating human story of the origins of the Bible that for me gave me a more robust sense of the beauty of the scriptures as God's Word to his people it's the same exact history led to completely opposite conclusions about the Bible and so for me pastoral II then it's been an effort like what's going on here and so here's what I think the root of the problem is and then we're going to take the root of the problem and then explore it in two ways one about the authority of the Bible what we mean when we say that and that question and then the authenticity of the Bible what do I think the root issues is root issue can be summarized in a beautiful drawing by MC Escher should my humble time you guys know Escher MC Escher my dad's um in an artist this is cry grow up on lower Hawthorne 20s M Hawthorne if you know the Hawthorne area so of course my dad's a painter he had the studio in his back garage and that we're old has a kid so my house was filled with art books growing up and MC Escher very early obsession from about seven years old so this is one of his most well known drawings called drawing drawing hands and if you know Asher's work it's all about exploring visual paradoxes and optical illusions and so on his work but but for me this this image gets at describes visually what historically has been the historic Orthodox view of the scriptures in both Jewish and Christian tradition because this is an image that is of two things that even though they're distinct they exist as one are you with me so the whole point is that it was about you know which hand is drawing the expect the chicken in the egg you know type of thing right which hand is drawing the other neither they both exist as one simultaneously and so for me this says this is this image helps with a lot of different things but it's helped me as a way to think about the Bible the historic confession within Judaism and Christianity about the Bible is that the Bible is both a human book and a divine book it's a human book it was written by people and that shouldn't scandalize you at all it was written by people that says it quite a few times right in the book itself it's a human book it's written by people which means it was born out of history and history complex and so the origins of the Bible is bound up with that complex history it's a human book but at the same time both what the Scriptures claim about themselves and historically what Orthodox Jews and Christians have believed throughout the millennia is that it is also a divine book meaning that through these human words God speaks to his people God speaks to his covenant people as we're going to explore here through these human words and the for somehow in our modern context that this has been framed as an either/or and I just think that's totally unnecessary and it's totally it's totally unhelpful and will lead you down dead ends I think so most I here's I can't I'm not very good at Photoshop if I was I would erase one of the hands and then I would say that's the view of the Bible that most most Christians in America especially who hold kind of Orthodox I don't like the word traditional but whatever traditional you know view about what the Bible is have a view of the Bible that actually isn't true to our historic confession as followers of Jesus many American Christians who have grown up in Bible churches or whatever if you really get down to it have a view of the Bible that erases one hand and it says it's the view of the Bible that I call the golden tablets falling from heaven view which is essentially that the history and the humans involved in the authorship of the Bible it's just kind of incidental but for the most part it was individuals and they got zapped in a Holy Spirit trance or something and they're just you know writing you know and it's just key moments and then once the sixty-six books were written it was put into a nice you know cheap pleather bound copy you know that kind of thing in and there and there you go and and that's not only it's not just that that's an inadequate view of the Bible it's just not true and people think that like but I need to believe that to believe that the Bible is God's Word and I just that's just not true what the Bible claims about itself and we're going to look briefly at a number of key key passages is that is a thoroughly human book that speaks God's words to his people and that God was involved in guiding by his presence and spirit the human authors but there's like there's no Holy Spirit trance actually described in in the Bible and we'll look at an example of that and so here's just the way I would describe the route the route issue is that what it means for the Bible to be God's Word is in no way threatened by or should be scandalized by its complex history that we can trace because it took place in in human history just the opposite it should give us a growing appreciation for the beauty and power of the scriptures you guys with me here with the do hands alright so we'll come back to this idea as we kind of go through the two questions about the authority and the authenticity of the Bible okay pop this great pop quiz question right I am a professor too so pop quiz whatever there's no consequences for failing but whatever I don't know you don't get to take communion or something like that I don't know so but but this will be useful it's good piece of Bible trivia use it at a get-together this Friday night something like that what where is the first place in the Bible with that describing the describes the writing of the Bible where in the Bible is the writing of the Bible described for the first time it's great okay as a fun fact - no actually and it's not where you would think it takes place in the book of Exodus chapter 17 and I'm just going to quote an excerpt from it I'll put up here on the screen but you can turn there if you want because we're going to go to Exodus 24 right after this so exit a 17 the Israelites have escaped and been redeemed out of slavery in Egypt through Moses leadership and they go through the water is not whole thing this thing first first worship song the Bible is what people think after they go through the waters pass through the waters and then they're wandering in the wilderness on their way to Mount Sinai and so you have this huge band it escaped refugee slaves wandering in the wilderness is just prime target for plunder right and so this group of South Canaanites called the Amalekites comes and they attack the Israelites at refugee and so here's the introduction to the story memos Amalekites come and attack the Israelites Moses said to Joshua to some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites and tomorrow I'm going to stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands and some of you may know the story this is a story where Moses goes up and he holds this staff you know and as long as it's kind of an odd story actually well as long as these holding is hands up with the staff the Israelites are victorious but his arms get tired because you know he's a aged man and so you know the two guys have to come and support you guys know that story supporters aren't okay this is that story after they win the battle this is what the Lord said to Moses right about all of this in a scroll as something to be remembered and this story is in the Bible it's the first instance of writing somebody writing something that becomes the Bible you guys with me here now what is this this is we're telling a story about how God saves his people yet once again is this the first time God has saved his people coming to know the second time first time was out of is out of Egypt and so on and how do the Israelites commemorate and retell God's act of salvation of bringing them out of slavery in Egypt how do they retell that story through a book through a meal write a ritual meal annual meal called what called Passover so so you have already a ritual meal as a way of retelling the story for this great act of salvation but now here's another act of God's grace and love he saves his people from destruction and now what we're doing is we're going to retell the story by writing it and it's in a scroll write it write it down so the purpose is remembering and wreath why did the why did the Bible get written well we know this much from this first mention of writing in the Bible it's about retelling and recounting the great acts of God and history to redeem and to save his people in his world are you with me here so just what the proper conclusion from this first example of writing in the Bible what is the purpose of the Bible it least has to include this retelling a story about how God has acted in history to save and redeem his people the first time okay pop quiz second but pop quiz what's the second mention of writing in the Bible about writing the Bible I already said exodus 20:4 just turned seven chapters forward and if you want to turn there feel free to go ahead but it will be on the screen as well so the Israelites they've come and survived through the wilderness they're at Mount Sinai and here at Mount Sinai they're going to camp out for one year and and the Israelites God is going to invite these Israelites into a covenant relationship and Israelites are going to become the people God's redeemed out of the nations because he wants to make them a kingdom of what somebody you know the lines this line a kingdom of what a kingdom of priests so out of all the you know rebellious nations who are you know making this world hell on earth he redeems one nation saves them out of all the nations brings them to this mountain and wants to enter into a covenant relationship with them and so part of that covenant relationship is giving them laws right 42 laws they get in this initial conversation on on the mountain it ends up being 613 total in the first five books of the Bible but just start with forty to ease our way into it right so so there at Mount Sinai and and so this is how the story goes that God invites them into a covenant relationship if they follow the laws which are the terms of the Covenant they'll become priests these representatives of God's character to all of the nations in other words God calling a covenant people is bound up with God's mission and purpose to reach the nation's to redeem and restore his world and so here's how the story goes when Moses went and told the people all of the Lord's words and laws they all responded with one voice oh yeah everything the Lord has said we're going to do that right right so eager beaver's right so Moses so wrote down everything the Lord says here we go second mention of writing in the Bible writing of the Bible isn't mentioned in the Bible so in this case it's not a story is it it's about it's writing up like the terms of this covenant relationship Israel has been rescued God invites them to say here well I want you all to live this way as a people so that you can become a light to the nation's okay done we'll do that okay let's rida it's like writing up a contract basically what's happening here so then moses got up early the next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain set up twelve stone pillars representing the 12 tribes of israel he said young Israelite men offered burnt offerings sacrifice both fellowship offerings we only have time to even talk about sacrifice and all what that is all about in the Bible hold a cow anyway let's just keep going right next slide so then Moses took half of the blood he put it in bowl and then the other half he splashed on the altar the Bible you guys go crazy alright so but here we go to the scroll here we go then he took the scroll of the Covenant right the terms of the agreement and he read it all aloud before the people and they responded oh yeah we're going to do all that everything what the Lord has said will obey Moses took the blood sprinkled it on the people gross kind of and he said this is the blood of the Covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all of these words there's a million things to explore here we can only I just want to focus on one this is the second mention of the writing of the Bible in the Bible the first one was about telling the story of what God has done to redeem and save his people out of his 11 is grave here's the second and what is this about this is about God inviting these people that he's rescued and saved into a covenant relationship to become this light to the nation's by living differently by living according to the laws of what are going to become the Torah or these laws of the Covenant the Israel becomes the contrast community to all of the other nations they become a nation shaped by God's generosity by God's justice and by God's character and so become a beacon here and so well yeah we don't need to kneel on the screen and I just like to have something to point to okay so so the whole point is that the Bible that this second origins of the Bible is that it's a covenant document it's a storytelling document about the Covenant and so the origins of the Bible are bound up with these two events right here what's the meaning of the Bible is going to continue to grow and develop throughout the story but here you go right here in these two stories you get the meaning of the Bible that it's a telling the story of what God has done to form a people a community of people who will enter into this covenant relationship and accept covenant terms as binding on us on our behavior on how we operate as a community and how we live as in individuals what are we talking about we're talking about the authority of the Bible aren't we the origins of the Bible as an authority take place within this story and this is where the golden tablets view and the only one hand of the drawing I think really can lead us down a wrong path because we here's how the golden tablets falling from heaven view of the Bible tends to work if you use the Bible as a divine rule book on here's what you should do as a human being here's what you should not do as a human being so that you can go to the good place and not the bad place after you die right it's basically the view of the Bible in that idea animal I mean I kind of trying to poke fun at it a little bit and I'm sorry that's what you believe but I really think you shouldn't believe that because it's not going to help you so because is the Bible first and foremost a rule book what is this the first story of the writing of the Bible in the Bible is the Bible as what is telling the story of what God has done to save and redeem his people and then when God does give guidance and laws to his people it's in the context of a covenant relationship and so the authority of the Bible isn't so much God dropping down a list of rules to all human beings and it's like I'm going to tell you what to do the authority of the Bible is Authority that comes after God has saved his people by His grace and he invites them into this relationship and they accept the terms of the Covenant did you guys see that in the story right there so the best analogy that we have to it and it has the same word in it is a marriage covenant right we only use the word covenant really two anymore these days to describe a marriage it's not right what else do we described as a covenant if you enter a contract with the business partner you don't really call that a covenant you call it a contract that's the word we have for it but covenant is this very biblical very difficult concept and so it when I when I married my wife I uttered these covenant vows of what I would do to care for her to love her to give my devotion my allegiance to providing and so on and what am i doing I'm entering into this relationship in these vows the terms of the Covenant become binding on me and I accept that as the way that I'm going to change how I live and how I think as I enter into this relationship and that's how the Bible presents itself as an authority over God's people you guys with me here this is a different way of framing it than we normally think about it but that's how the Bible frames it okay now does the origin of the Bible stop there no it's just getting started actually and we don't even have time this talk is already inadequate right now right we have time to go through the whole history or whatever feel free to listen to my crash course that I have in mind where I'd get more into it but the Bible continues to emerge as God commissioned humans like II commissioned Moses to write these figures are either priests or prophets but out of the covenant story of God in Israel the Bible emerges out of that history and Israel most for the most part the why we were laughing when is realized said hey yeah we're going to do all that is because what does the Israelites go on to not do any of that right they fail miserably at the Covenant they're really really bad at it and so God appoints these figures called prophets who are going they're humans and they are going to sometimes speak God's very like first person god speech to the people but sometimes it's their own words and God's words through the Prophet and the prophets owns words become in the books of the Prophet God's words and his people the Bible doesn't view it as separate it's either a human word or a divine word it's both a human and divided word that's the whole point because it's about how God is working through humans and through history to create a people through which he's going to give a light to the nation's you guys with me here so fast-forward to Jesus and I just want to show how the way Jesus frames things and talks about the Bible it just fits in exactly with this here so Jesus comes on to the scene when he just assumed assumed it's what I first noticed when I was reading the stories about Jesus it's like he has the Bible memorized he really really cares about the Bible he's just constantly quoting from it referring to it as a source of divine speech and authority really and this is one of the challenges in our kind of contemporary culture is that there's so much about Jesus is compelling and that resonates with so much of our culture that of all of his teachings about you know forgiveness and justice and treatment of the poor and so on but it's we kind of conveniently gloss over all of these other things right the Jesus says about money and sex and forgiveness and this kind of thing and that like Jesus is constantly quoting from the Bible and says that it's God's Word and you can't divide Jesus in half and just get like the part of Jesus I like and then there's a violin what to do with that part I'm not going to read those parts of Matthew or something like it doesn't work like that yes if you're going to follow Jesus you have to follow Jesus not your own remake of Jesus and so there is Jesus and he really cares about the Bible and then here's what he does his whole announcement was about how the kingdom of God is here that the rain and the rule of God has arrived to rescue his good world from what we have done to the place essentially and he does it by beginning a movement of disciples 12 I remember the number 12 right he starts with a core of 12 and then a huge circle around them and it all culminates as many people begin to reject Jesus with this this night before Jesus is betrayed and this is the Last Supper story and just trust me you'll see where I'm going here this is from Matthew chapter 26 they're eating the Last Supper Jesus took bread when you had given thanks he broke it gave it to his disciples saying take eight this is my body then he took a cup and when he had given thanks he gave it to them saying drink from it all it is this is my blood of the Covenant anybody blood of the Covenant we heard this before you quoting from Exodus 24 right there which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin so Jesus sees himself as bringing about a new moment in the Covenant story the Jesus believes that he's going to accomplish a new Exodus a new act of redemption from slavery not from Rome or from Egypt and this time from death and sin and the stranglehold of selfishness that we're all suffering from and Jesus ties his coming death to the death of these covenant animals in that ceremony and he ties what he's doing as a new forming a new covenant people new people who are going to give their allegiance to follow Jesus and that new covenant people will then become God's light to the nation's the Israel failed to be but now this new Israel covenant people is going to succeed at being because Jesus is at its head I guess John I know that's kind of complicated are you with me here Jesus he's like he's reading himself in Moses place right here new covenant people now you remember what happened at Mount Sinai if you have a new covenant what do you need to like clarify the terms of the Covenant right you need some text to go along here did Jesus ever write anything did Jesus ever write anything no what did he give his followers to remember the formation of the new covenant people he gave us a meal a ritual meal something we experienced and so this is what you guys do in your gatherings we do the same you know every week at door of hope it's this moment where we eat the experience right we eat the memory of Jesus's loving self giving of his life of his death and of his resurrection that was for us and for our sins as an act of love and as an act of God's grace towards us amen I mean that's what's the story and so Jesus didn't write anything he gave us this meal but then watch how watch how the Gospel according to Matthew ends right here the last sentences of the Gospel according to Matthew so Jesus came them and said all authority in heaven enters has been given to me let's just stop right there there's our word authority follower of Jesus why why do you accept the Scriptures as the source of God's Authority and guidance in your lives is your allegiance to a book if you're a follower of Jesus is your allegiance to a book to who or what is your allegiance to Jesus what do we mean when we say the Bible is authoritative what we mean when we say that is Jesus is the risen King Jesus is the one who was a human on our behalf he's the kind of human we're all called to be but perpetually failed to be and he eats the consequences of the hell on earth that we have all created and because God's love for our world is so unbreakable and so strong the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is his victory over our sin and death and becomes the source of life and forgiveness and new humanity for our world right I mean this is the story that we come around who who is the true risen king with authority to tell me hey Tim you're really bad at being a human being like let me help you with that right so I'll do this for you you're forgiven you're made new there's grace let me guide you and what it actually means to be a truly human being are you with me here who has the authority to tell me that Jesus does what we mean when we say the Bible is authoritative is we're taught we're talking that Jesus has authority over me and that authority is expressed to me through the scriptures the Jesus's authority and God's Word is spoken to me through through these texts through these human and divine words now watch how this works here so this Jesus Authority that I I accept when I become his disciple I become a part of the covenant people and it's like the wedding vows the terms of this relationship are something that I submit to as a disciple of Jesus so what exactly am i submitting to look where he goes from Perry says therefore go make disciples of all nations we're going to form the the covenant people baptize them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit there's initiation into the Covenant people teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you and surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age so they're teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you did Jesus write anything personally do we have the teachings of Jesus anywhere oh yeah a whole bunch of them right it's called the four Gospels in the New Testament so in other words so we do Jesus forms the new covenant people and then he he deputizes the Apostles think Dukes of Hazzard writes to deputy for the chevre sheriff or whatever so the whole point is that the Apostles become these deputies these commissioned prophets or we call them apostles who Jesus tells them to pass on his teachings and then through their own writings guides the covenant people in what it means to be faithful to this covenant relationship and that in that little sentence right there is the origin of what we call the New Testament these are books connected to the Apostles the people who are standing right right there or around light isn't Paul the Apostles case those who were part of that closest circle and their writings become the way that Jesus's authority is expressed over his his people hey guys done now this is like a see ology talk right now and oh sheesh this is already inadequate and I haven't even shown you a picture of the Dead Sea Scrolls yet like what's wrong with me it's exactly whatever anyway who cares what's wrong with me so a lot of things wrong with it so what I'm trying to do is just paint a picture why is why on earth should you accept the Bible as an authority over your lives and it's not about a book falling from heaven it's about God's continuing involvement in history that he doesn't abandon us or our world to our own devices and that through the Exodus through the profits and ultimately through Jesus through God joining himself to humanity in the person of Jesus I accept Jesus as my authority and I accept the Scriptures as the way Jesus's Authority is expressed to me and I submit to it in the same way that I submitted myself to my wife into these wedding vows to be binding on my on my behavior and so I don't view in the Bible as an authority is not irrational like there's a real reason behind it and I think it's a really compelling reason not to mention the fact that I'm just not a very good human being I'm just not very good at it and so this is actually really good news to me the Jesus is my authority are you with me here so that's the authority question and I spent most of my time there because if we're really honest with ourselves the struggles that we have with the Bible many of us their intellectual obstacles I'll talk about those for for a couple of minutes about where you know the manuscripts and so on but I think this is the root issue for many many people who struggle with the idea of the Bible as an authority is it seems so odd and it seems so arbitrary this ancient book and I don't think that it is the Bible is born out of history the history that's very human and because God's committed to working with humans that's good news for us and it's born out of born out of this amazing covenant story that leads to Jesus and his formation of a covenant people and so there you go that's my in a nutshell I think of a way to reframe what it means for the Bible to be an authority over us and why it makes sense now does everything Jesus say does it like is it good news for me being a child of Western culture when it comes to money and sex right and all of these things like now it's going to challenge me to the to the core and that's the point coming under the authority of the scriptures which by which I mean under the authority of Jesus is trusting that Jesus knows what it means to be a human being better than I do and he knows how to guide me as a maturing growing follower of him and all so as a human being in a way that I can never do on my own and so I bring myself under his authority his loving graceful self giving love compassion grace Jesus style authority and that's the only kind of authority I would ever want to be under amen so so now we have a Bible and here we are two thousand years later right and so you go down to Powell's now we're going to the authenticity question for eight minutes okay so so you go down to Powell's or you open up your phone and there's all these different translations and so you pick one and it's like of a passage you love in the Bible and then you go to another translation you do this new version on your phone now you can read the same passage in multiple translations really easily and you go like man it's really different wording and for you it's like those different translations or whatever but for a whole bunch of people it's like nowadays just people changing the Bible but people tampering with and changing why all these English translations you guys know what I'm talking about here so where do how does the Bible section at Powell's relates to Jesus commissioning the Apostles right to write and teach everything that Jesus has commanded and I'm going to tell the story in a in a total nutshell feel free to go listen to the crash course on online the Bible hasn't the best the Bible hasn't been changed and tampered with by all of these people all of those modern translations that are down in the section of Powell's come are translated from one source one source for the Old Testament and one source for the new New Testament there's one Bible not a billion there's many translations of the Bible but there's one source which are all coming from for the Hebrew Bible let me show you a picture of a jewel of manuscript called the Leningrad codex I have a photographed facsimile version that my wife let me buy it was on sale for I won't tell you how much much it was on sale for half off and it was still you know mortgage the farm or whatever anyway so it's a beautiful it's one of the crown jewels of the history of the Bible it's called the Leningrad it's the oldest complete means all of the pages all in one place manuscript of the Hebrew Bible it's not the oldest manuscript but the oldest all in one place it dates from a thousand and eight adieu in the main text a main section you see text but you see all the stuff around the margin that's Bible geek stuff going on there right that's the stuff of people like me but from a thousand years ago who wanted to say like hey dear next scribe you know hey this word spelled kind of funny here's a cross-reference to the three other times that word appears in the Hebrew language don't misspell it right here thank you very much that's why it's all these little notes about spelling and grammar all to help guide the scribes not change or mess up anything at all so this is here you go that manuscript is the basis for every translation of the Old Testament that is out there in powell's or on you version people haven't changed the Bible okay right there it is I'm showing it to you right now now that's the thousand a a D so we're still like a thousand years removed so this is where the Dead Sea Scrolls are so awesome and why I made myself go to school on the other side of the planet for a year because I wanted to see these things and work with them because they're amazing so here's the oldest of the biblical Dead Sea Scrolls dates to around 150 years before Jesus it's a section from Exodus so here we have a chance to like you know reverse-engineer the origins of the Bible by a thousand-year margin here and compare these scrolls with this thousand-year scroll later are they remarkably similar oh yeah it's insane this I can say how remarkably similar these manuscripts are are there differences yeah yeah totally and that shouldn't bother you one bit that shouldn't bother you one bit at all because is the Bible only a divine book dropped out of heaven no it has a human history attached to it so here's what Bible geeks have been doing for the last 200 years good just look at the next slide here here you go this is a an edition of the Bible this is the source of all of our modern translations it's called the biblia hebraica Quinta all right so up there is the main text and then you see all that stuff at the bottom there that's Bible geeks who have gone through every Dead Sea scroll every medieval manuscript all these ancient translations of the Bible into Aramaic and into Greek and they've collated and compiled every manuscript different that exists and there it is in the notes it's like completing HTML code something of a graph at the bottom computer codes right it's ridiculous but you learn how to write there it is there it is there's all the differences right there and that shouldn't bother cuz here's the thing it's like the Bible was this boulder dropped into a small pond it's the most massive literary event to happen in human history as we know it and so it goes into this pond and the ripple effects just go out everywhere and from the manuscript history of the Bible we have samples and little snapshots of the ripples from way far out from really close like the Dead Sea Scrolls from all these different places or whatever and so we thought the Bible is not a lost artifact there's no secret books of the Bible or things that sell out we actually have too much of the Bible right in terms of the wealth of manuscripts it's just insane and so are there differences yeah yeah totally are some of them significant yeah totally can we map them all and figure out where they came from yes yeah this shouldn't bother you it's awesome I'm telling you it's the most interesting topic in the whole world in question Jeff right so there is that's awesome right so same for the new test I'll show you the oldest piece of the New Testament that exists it's the next slide it's an old manuscript from the Gospel according to John we're talking 40 years from the original this remarkable makes you know the hairs on the back of your neck tingled kind of thing right it's amazing to within one like within someone's actual lifetime the Gospel of John is written and then this piece of text exists and we have we have how it's insane we have nearly 6,000 manuscript pieces of evidence from the New Testament talk about a boulder thrown into a pond right and so here's another picture of like a more complete manuscript here from Paul's letter to the Colossians all these old papyri found in Egypt amazing okay I have to stop talking about that now but here you go let me show you every edition of the New Testament that exists on your shelf at Powell's go to the next to the next slide here there it is that's it it's called the nestled island 27th edition of the New Testament there's the text up there text up there and then all the Bible geek stuff happen and right down there and there you go if it's not that help it's very complicated but it's also not that complicated you guys get what I'm saying here it's known or is there very human stuff going on in the transmission history of the Bible absolutely and we can trace it because it happened in history it's actually because it didn't drop out of heaven that we can actually know and trace the history as with me here you wouldn't want a Bible that dropped out of heaven be very suspicious about Bibles that drop out of heaven yes a telling you here's how you should live and what you should do but now we're not talking we're talking some up here I need to conclude we're talking about a story about a God who is committed to working in and through humans and in human history we're talking about a God who will not leave his good world alone until he's redeemed the place and so he's working through humans forming a human family entering into a covenant relationship we fail miserably right Israel failed miserably at that and so it comes together perfectly in the person of Jesus where God and human divine and human come together in the person of Jesus and he is the human that we're all made to be but fail to be and so he becomes our authority and our guide as a people and he establishes a community of covenant people called disciples of Jesus and so here's the choice before you like do you want to accept Jesus as what he's done for you to being done on your behalf will you follow Jesus and if you're going to follow Jesus it's about submitting myself to the terms of this relationship and that those terms are expressed in the story and in the covenant documents of the relationship and with this for me to kind of reach this place of what the Bible is all of a sudden everything about the Bible's history just becomes beautiful to me because it's a part of how God is working through history to just reach screwed-up people like ourselves and that's good news man it's just it's really good news amen there's a whole million things I didn't talk about and I have to stop talking right now but I want to close in a word of Prayer and I just my closing challenge would be to use this is an issue for you there is not one question you're asking that hasn't been addressed by a thousand people already so move towards it find the resources and don't let this be an obstacle to you following Jesus is so amazing and so compelling this issue should raise no huge obstacle in following Jesus and any if anything is the opposite I think it helps us realize how committed Jesus is to humans in our context and in our actual lives in world amen

Channel: Tim Mackie Archives

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Length: 47min 42sec (2862 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 13 2017