Posted on 08/31/2002 5:30:20 AM PDT by vance
Similarly, Deut. 4:2 has Moses telling the Israelites not to add to or take away from what he is telling them about the Lord's commandments--so his admonition applies at most to the five books of Moses, not to the entire Hebrew Bible.
Luke 2:7 doesn't actually say that Jesus was born in a stable--that is an inference from the mention of a manger.
Sort of like Joseph Smith.
Close, but not exactly. Historical evidence exists that point to the Gospels being written within 30+ years of the death/resurrection of Jesus.
The books of the New Testament do not appear in chronological order. The Apostle Paul wrote the Epistles (books of the NT that come after the book of Acts) before the four Gospels were written. Acts was finished before Paul died in A.D. 62. So the Gospels were written after the Epistles, but before Acts. This means that the gospel of Mark was probably written in the late 40s, Matthew and Luke in the early-mid 50s, and John in the late 50s.
The sheer magnitude of subjects that could be discussed regarding the Gospels and historical accuracy of the Bible prevents me from writing much more about it. I recommend Craig Blomberg's book The Historical Reliability of the Gospels, or Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ. Both are good reads.
The search for truth is often a life-long one. Good luck on your journey.
Prove it.
Furthermore, we are not voting. If voting is what makes something true, then Clinton was a better man than Bush I. Something can be true even when the majority declares, for motives of their own, that it is false.
I also take issue with your claims for the dates. We have scrapes and fragments of the gospels from the first century, or at worst the beginning of the second. That would be within one lifetime of the recorded events. Mark was likely written by about 60 AD by a man who was Peter's confidant. John was written by an eyewitness apostle. I don't want to stop to look it up now, but I remember the other two gospels were written by an eyewitness and the "secretary" of an eyewitness (Luke).
Josh McDowell's The new Evidence that Demands a Verdict" goes into great detail about the truth of this, if you care to know it.
Because of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, we know that, around the time of Jesus (600 years before Mohammed), the Torah was pretty much the same as it is today. If any ancient pre-Torah texts were found buried in Arabia, they would have been written in an ancient Phoenician script which no Jew or Arab of his time would have been able to read. Since about 1000 years before the time of Mohammed, the Jews had changed over from Phoenician script to the square Assyrian script in which all modern Torahs are written.
So, the idea that Mohammed based the Koran on some ancient Hebrew writings is highly unlikely.
Romans 14:11
God said it, not marbren.
Two small points:
1. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.
2 Timothy 3:16
2. Throughout His Word, Jesus Christ spoke often of hell and the fact that unsaved, unredeemed men would face an eternity in damnation. Mankind would never write a book condeming himself to hell.
The Sermon on the Mount and the Ten Commandments are possibly the best the Bible has to offer...
Actually the entire Word of God is precious and priceless; giving guidance and answers to everything from finances to marriage to child rearing. However, the best that the Bible "has to offer" is the message of salvation; the good news that we as fallen, damned sinners do not have to spend eternity separated from God. There is a way out of the punishment that we deserve and will receive apart from our trusting Christ and accepting His sacrifice on the Cross in our stead for our sins.
Without that message, nothing else matters. Nothing.
Not that I agree with the scholars I mentioned, just letting you know what the arguments agianst Bible accuracy are.
PS: The Egyptians who recorded everything seem to have no record of Moses or the Exodus.
You will agree that the dates you give are not universally agreed upon. At any rate, the Apostles are not likely to have been eyewitnesses to the Resurrection, although perhaps they knew someone who was (by your chronology).
As for good reads, try:
R.E. Friedman. Who Wrote the Bible
Israel Finkelstein & N. A. Silberman. The Bible Unearthed
J.K. Hoffmeier. Israel in Egypt
Thomas Thompson. The Mythic Past
D.B.Redford. Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times
Those are the books on my desk where I'm now sitting. They deal mostly with the OT which I find more interesting since I'm more interested in archeology than religion.
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