Free Republic

Christ, Lunatic or God? If reason alone were all we had to establish the existence and essence of God, we might feel curiously dissatisfied. If God is a Supreme Spirit, omnipotent and of total benevolence, the origin and end of us all, why does He not speak and re-assure us? The Christian claim is that, in fact, God has spoken to mankind first in the prophets of the Old Testament and last of all through His Son made man. The historical existence of Christ is what we are now concerned with and also with His claim to be the Son...

Testimony of the Evangelists by Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853)   Simon Greenleaf , one of the principle founders of the Harvard Law School, originally set out to disprove the biblical testimony concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was certain that a careful examination of the internal witness of the Gospels would dispel all the myths at the heart of Christianity. But this legal scholar came to the conclusion that the witnesses were reliable, and that the resurrection did in fact happen.   I n examining the evidence of the Christian religion, it is essential to the discovery of truth that...

…and its consequences upon sectarian teachings. Folks, OK, so me and my tables. Blame it on a personal idiosyncrasy that favors tabular data organization. But before we go deeper into it, consider this statement: if we were to suddenly lose every single manuscript of the New Testament, we will be able to rebuild it almost word-for-word from the written words of the Fathers of the Church alone. This fact has holds some profound consequences, as we will see further below. But now, the table, the source also being The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict:Early Patristic Quotations of the New...

Let’s question the “common-sense” double-standard. Folks, I was reading this article published today in Time Magazine online, entitled, The Burial Box of Jesus' Brother: A Case Against Fraud, because the controversy has been around for a while and of course, because of the significance of the artifact were the claims to its authenticity be proven beyond reasonable doubt. Nevertheless, the introductory paragraph disappointed me, although I am already used to this case of disappointment coming from the so-called mainstream experts. Check it out: The world of biblical archaeology was stirred in 2002 by the unveiling of a limestone burial box...

PROVO, Utah -- Mormons are sometimes thrown off by the question, "Are you saved?" This is, in part, because members of the LDS Church have a different idea of what "saved" means. Ted M. Bair, a retired Church Educational System teacher, explained to a class at BYU's Campus Education Week on Thursday, Aug. 20, not only how to be saved, but also showed that several Christian religions have different ideas of how people are saved. Bair said there are three general ways that other Christian religions think about being saved. 1. We are saved by grace no matter what. You...

2. What are the dates of these documents? The crucifixion of Christ took place, it is generally agreed, about AD 30. According to Luke iii. I, the activity of John the Baptist, which immediately preceded the commencement of our Lord's public ministry, is dated in 'the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar'. Now, Tiberius became emperor in August, AD 14, and according to the method of computation current in Syria, which Luke would have followed, his fifteenth year commenced in September or October, AD a7.1 The fourth Gospel mentions three Passovers after this time; the third Passover from that date would...

Monday, May 25, 2009 From Apostolicity To The Twenty-Seven-Book New Testament Abbreviations CGM = Craig Keener, A Commentary On The Gospel Of Matthew (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1999) CNT = Bruce Metzger, The Canon Of The New Testament (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997) CPE = George Knight III, The Pastoral Epistles (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2000) FPP = Craig Blomberg, From Pentecost To Patmos (Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman, 2006) GJC = Craig Keener, The Gospel Of John: A Commentary, Vol. 1 (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003) HEB = William Lane, Hebrews 1-8 (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 1991) INT...

Value of the Gospels 103. Will you prove the reliability of the Gospels according to the five requirements outlined by yourself to a previous inquirer? By all means, although I cannot go very deeply into the matter in the brief time at my disposal. However I shall do my best to give the main elements. Firstly, the authors assigned wrote the books attributed to them. A knowledge of Hebrew shows that the authors were certainly Jews. Historical and political references show that they were Jews of the first century, for Palestine is shown under conditions before and not after the...

This is a great reference source for Bible study and general online reading. Links to all Books and Chapters are on one page which makes this very helpful. Also there are audios of a number of translations. Here are links to some of the more popular and reliable English language translations. 1. New International Version - http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/?action=getVersionInfo&vid=31 2. New American Standard Bible - http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/?action=getVersionInfo&vid=49#books 3. New King James - http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/?action=getVersionInfo&vid=50 4. Amplified Bible - http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/?action=getVersionInfo&vid=45 5. Holman Christian Standard Bible - http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/?action=getVersionInfo&vid=77 6. King James Version - http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/?action=getVersionInfo&vid=9

The Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal of Ave María University has made available the following unpublished translations, done years ago by Fr. Fabian Larcher, of St. Thomas Aquinas's biblical commentaries on Hebrews, Colossians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, and Ephesians. Until a couple years ago, these unpublished translations - good but left unpublished because they are not critical editions (i.e. with footnotes, using the most critically up-to-date Latin text etc.) - existed only in typescripts kept in a box by Fr. Pierre Conway OP of the Dominican House in Washington D.C. He gave the typescripts to the Aquinas Center on the...

The story of the Codex Sinaiticus Bible, the oldest complete copy of the New Testament in existence, reads like a script from an Indiana Jones film. Ever since a German explorer controversially removed it from an Egyptian monastery, four countries have fought for control over the ancient manuscript. From today, extracts from the 4th-century Greek original can be viewed online. Behind the scenes, however, “harsh and negative” discussions continue between Britain, Russia, Egypt and Germany to establish who has the right to the priceless artifact ...snip... The surviving copy of St Mark's Gospel, handwritten in Greek more than 1,600 years...

I'm sure there are some fellow Freepers out there that have encountered a similar circumstance. This is a very simplistic description of the circumstances... I have 60 year old friend that's been an active Christian all of her life. A few days ago, her ailing mother announced that she was now an athiest. She took my friend to several places on the web and showed her why Jesus, G-d, etc, are all just a clever scheme invented to control the people. You should see my friend, she is devastated, and her whole faith and belief system has been shaken. She...

The Life of Jesus film crew has gained rare access to an archaeological find that cements historical evidence early Christians worshiped Jesus as divine. Dr John Dickson, the series’ host and co-founder of the Centre for Public Christianity, will guide viewers through the remains of an ancient prayer hall unearthed at Megiddo in central Israel. “The inscriptions on the mosaic floor are remarkable,” Dr Dickson says. “One of them names a benefactor called Gaianus who is described as a centurion. Another mentions a woman called Akeptous who ‘…offered this table in memorial of the God Jesus Christ’.” The inscriptions cast...

A team of scientists led by renowned French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio recently announced that they have found a bowl, dating to between the late 2nd century B.C. and the early 1st century A.D., that, according to an expert epigrapher, could be engraved with the world's first known reference to Christ... The full engraving on the bowl reads, "DIA CHRSTOU O GOISTAIS," which has been interpreted by French epigrapher and professor emeritus Andre Bernand as meaning either, "by Christ the magician" or "the magician by Christ." ...He and his colleagues found the object during an excavation of the underwater ruins...

“The historicity of Christ is as axiomatic for an unbiased historian as the historicity of Julius Caesar. It is not historians who propagate the ‘Christ-myth’ theories.”~F.F. Bruce. Historian Durant: “In the enthusiasm of its discoveries the Higher Criticism has applied to the New Testament tests of authenticity so severe that by them a hundred ancient worthies—e.g., Hammurabi, David, Socrates—would fade into legend.” Greco-Roman historian Michael Grant, who certainly has no theological axe to grind, indicates that there is more evidence for the existence of Jesus than there is for a large number of famous pagan personages - yet no one...

PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION Reliable as what?' asked a discerning reviewer of the first edition of this little work, by way of a comment on the title. His point, I think, was that we should be concerned with the reliability of the New Testament as a witness to God's selfrevelation in Christ rather than with its reliability as a record of historical fact. True; but the two questions are closely related. For, since Christianity claims to be a historical revelation, it is not irrelevant to look at its foundation documents from the standpoint of historical criticism. When the first...

"Tom" Wright is one of the most formidable figures in the world of Christian thought. As Bishop of Durham, he is the fourth most senior cleric in the Church of England and a major player in the strife-riven global Anglican Communion; as a much-read theologian and Biblical scholar he has taught at Cambridge and is a hero to conservative Christians worldwide for his 2003 book The Resurrection of the Son of God, which argued forcefully for a literal interpretation of that event. TIME: At one point you call the common view of heaven a "distortion and serious diminution of Christian...

At a time when some voters are asking how the religious views of candidates will shape their policies, a professor’s discovery of how little tax the biggest landowners in her state paid to finance the government has prompted some other legal scholars to scour religious texts to explore the moral basis of tax and spending policies. The professor, Susan Pace Hamill, is an expert at tax avoidance for small businesses and teaches at the University of Alabama Law School. She also holds a degree in divinity from a conservative evangelical seminary, where her master’s thesis explored how Alabama’s tax-and-spend policies...

Fresh from the success of his latest agitprop promoting socialized medicine, "Sicko" filmmaker Michael Moore is considering whether he will use his next movie to teach us all a thing or two about the mind and will of God. That's right, call him the Rev. Michael Moore. Specifically, he intends to share his biblical wisdom regarding the issue of homosexuality and what he sees as irrational hatred of it. "I think it's a very ripe subject for someone like me to make a movie about," he told the homosexual magazine the Advocate. "Simply because we are not there yet and...

The New Testament: In Medio Ecclesiaeby Thomas StorckOne of the strangest things about the theology of Protestants and of others, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, who claim to base their doctrine on Sacred Scripture, is their use of Scripture as a judge, even an enemy, of the Catholic Church. That is, by treating Scripture as independent of the Church, instead of as something produced by the Church, they erect the Bible, particularly the New Testament, into something it was never intended to be, an entirely independent source of sacred doctrine. In this article I intend to show from the text of...

Everyone I know seems to be reading the Bible these days in search of answers. That is usually a good thing but not always. In fact, too many of the Biblical discussions I get into with friends and family members relate to the “End Times” and whether they are upon us. That is a shame because reading the Bible can enrich one’s daily life provided one is not obsessed with using it as a device to decipher the future. Because of one relatively simple error in dating one book of the New Testament, author Tim LaHaye has misled tens of...

FAITH COMES BY HEARING--NT ON MP3 [SOLA SCRIPTURA PROVEN] By Quix with appendixes from the FCBH website Pastor Brent, of our church—DESERT HEIGHTS COMMUNITY CHURCH—has partnered with FAITH COMES BY HEARING (FCBH) to collect $25,000 to translate the NT into a South American language. The Seranon sp? people group have had written Scriptures since the late 1800’s as I recall. But the vast majority (90%?) of the population are illiterate. The organization brings together the copyright holders of at least one major Bible translation with the means and resources of translating Scripture into language groups where there is no Scripture...

SO, WHAT IS THE GREEK TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT?The questions, probabilities, possibilities, problems and use related to the imaginary Septuagint proposed by individuals such as Karen Jobes, Ph.D., Moises Silva, Ph.D., Henry Barclay Swete, D.D., Sir Lancelot C. L. Brenton, and the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE) have been answered by men in the Dean Burgon Society as well as Dean Burgon himself. In addition, what is so appallingly apparent in the liberal’s dialogue is the paucity of discussion of the Received or Traditional Greek and the Masoretic Text by name. They skirt the issue by glancing comments about...

by Mark Finkelstein August 2, 2006 - 09:47 A wave of New Testament fever seems to be gripping liberal media types. As reported here, during a recent Good Morning America, Chris Cuomo noted that the Gospel of John denotes Qana as the place where Jesus turned water into wine. Who would have thought that Adam Shatz - of the far-left Nation magazine - would be a New Testament maven? But, saints alive, he leads his op-ed in today's LA Times with the very same story. What could account for this new-found interest in the New Testament? You don't suppose it...

...is to fetishize the concept of "peace." This comes from what I consider to be the theological error of obsessing over the peace and love messages of the New Testament, while forgetting that the justice-heavy Old Testament even exists. (This error isn't made by all Christians, just some.) I am by no means a Bible scholar, but I do know that the Old Testament (or Hebrew Scripture), with its often juridical tone, offers us a profound and valuable way to understand concepts of Justice. Among other things, it gave us the Law. The New Testament brought us a message of...

In the first centuries after Christ, there was no "official" New Testament. Instead, early Christians read and fervently followed a wide variety of Scriptures—many more than we have today. Relying on these writings, Christians held beliefs that today would be considered bizarre. Some believed that there were two, 12, or as many as 30 gods. Some thought that a malicious deity, rather than the true God, created the world. Some maintained that Christ's death and resurrection had nothing to do with salvation while others insisted that Christ never really died at all. What did these "other" Scriptures say? Do they...

Non-Roman fonts used: SPIonic, SPDoric This article is also available in transliteration and text-only formats. Editor's note: Bart Ehrman delivered the Kenneth W. Clark lectures at Duke Divinity School in 1997. This article, though slightly modified from the oral presentation, preserves the original flavor of the lecture. See also his second lecture. Text and Tradition: The Role of New Testament Manuscripts in Early Christian Studies The Kenneth W. Clark LecturesDuke Divinity School 1997 Lecture One: Text and Interpretation: The Exegetical Significance of the "Original" Text Bart D. Ehrman University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1. Kenneth Clark was a...

For all those folks following the Good Book, we have some bad news. Turns out a lot of our modern Bible was tacked on, scratched out, and just plain garbled from the original Gospels as scribes over the millennia tried to present Christianity in what they thought was its truest light. In fact, many of our modern Bibles are based on the wrong originals, says Bart Ehrman in his best-selling book Misquoting Jesus: The Story behind who Changed the Bible and Why. Even our beloved King James version has several segments based on a 12th-century manuscript that scholars now say...

The New Testament story describes Jesus walking on water in the Sea of Galilee but according to a study led by Florida State University Professor of Oceanography Doron Nof, it's more likely that he walked on an isolated patch of floating ice. The study points to a rare combination of optimal water and atmospheric conditions for development of a unique, localized freezing phenomenon that Nof and his co-authors call "springs ice." In what is now northern Israel, such ice could have formed on the cold freshwater surface of the Sea of Galilee -- known as Lake Kinneret by modern-day Israelis...

Why do Catholics call Mary the Ark of the New Covenant? Answering that question will take us on a journey through the Old and New Testaments.For example, Luke wove some marvelous things into his Gospel that only a knowledgeable Jew would have understood — a Jew who knew Jewish Scripture and had eyes to see and ears to hear. One of the things he would have understood is typology. So what is typology? We all know that the Old Testament is full of stories, people, and historical events. A type is a person, thing, or event in the Old Testament...

Scientist compares Moses to Hitler, calls New Testament 'sado-masochistic doctrine'Controversial scientist and evolutionist Richard Dawkins, dubbed "Darwin's Rottweiler," calls religion a "virus" and faith-based education "child abuse" in a two-part series he wrote and appears in that begins airing on the UK's Channel 4, beginning tomorrow evening. Entitled "Root of All Evil?," the series features the atheist Dawkins visiting Lourdes, France, Colorado Springs, Colo., the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and a British religious school, using each of the venues to argue religion subverts reason. In "The God Delusion," the first film in the series, Dawkins targets Catholicism at the pilgrimage...

Israel is the major topic of the Bible. The word “Israel” occurs 2,565 times in 2,293 verses. More than enough prophecies have already been fulfilled in Israel’s unique history to prove that “the God of Israel” (203 times) is the true God. In Zechariah 12:2-3, He declares: Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces,...

POPE HIT THE MARK: AT ROOT OF CATHOLIC PROBLEMS IS LACK OF BIBLICAL SPIRITUALITYHe could not have hit it more squarely on the head. Pope Benedict XVI, toiling quietly, with little of the visibility enjoyed by his predecessor, nonetheless was giving hints that he is doing what he always has, what he is used to doing, what he did for a quarter of a century as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger: working behind the scenes to hold the world's most important institution together, and he is starting where it must start, where it needs to start, where so many of the problems...

Americans who don't believe in God have decided it's time they had a lobbyist in the nation's capital. Their new advocate describes herself as a "soft, fuzzy atheist." Lori Lipman Brown starts Monday as executive director of the Secular Coalition for America. Her two goals: keep religion out of government and win respect for a stigmatized minority. The magnitude of those challenges is, well, biblical. Think Daniel entering the lion's den, or David taking on Goliath. Christian conservatives wield enormous clout here through a network of advocacy groups and relationships with politicians from President Bush on down. Atheists, humanists and...

THE WASHINGTON TIMES "New Testament": It's a mighty name for a 70-ton battle tank.     The biblical words are neatly printed on the main gun of an M1A1 Abrams tank rolling along somewhere near Haditha, Iraq. To the Marines of the 4th Tank Battalion, "New Testament" is a fierce beacon and impervious to insurgent mortar fire.     But some critics grumble that an official photo of the tank accompanies a Marine Corps press release about the company's mission with a caption that reads, "The 'New Testament' ... prepares to lead the way during a recent mission." The name of the tank is...

Satanists, apocalypse watchers and heavy metal guitarists may have to adjust their demonic numerology after a recently deciphered ancient biblical text revealed that 666 is not the fabled Number of the Beast after all. A fragment from the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament, dating to the Third century, gives the more mundane 616 as the mark of the Antichrist. Ellen Aitken, a professor of early Christian history at McGill University, said the discovery appears to spell the end of 666 as the devil's prime number. "This is a very nice piece to find," Dr. Aitken said. "Scholars have...

I post this scholarly paper to compliment the link on DRUDGE:Eureka! Extraordinary discovery unlocks secrets of the ancients Summary:Seventeen newly published manuscripts of the Greek New Testament (comprising a new portion of P77 as well as P100-P115) are introduced and then discussed individually, with special attention to two groups of manuscripts: seven of Matthew and four of John. The material offers important new evidence on a range of text-critical issues and three passages are discussed (Mt. 23:38; Jn. 1:34; Rev. 13:18). I. Introduction:Within the last three years seventeen previously unknown papyrus manuscripts of portions of the New Testament have been...

Paul’s Epistle To The Laodiceans 1. Paul an Apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, to the brethren which are at Laodicea. 2. Grace be to you, and peace, from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. 3. I thank Christ in every prayer of mine, that you may continue and persevere in good works, looking for that which is promised in the day of judgment. 4. Do not be troubled by the vain speeches of anyone who perverts the truth, that they may draw you aside from the truth of the Gospel which I...

Omega Letter Christian Intelligence Digest Special Report: Are Today's Jews Really Ancient Israel? Commentary on the NewsThursday, September 18, 2003 Jack Kinsella - Omega Letter EditorMany times have I heard people say something like—“The Jews today don't have a drop of Abrahamic blood.” Or that, “The Jews have no racial or historical connection to the Bible and Palestine.” Some Christians explain who the Jews are, saying, “The Jews (or Israel) are people who missed (or rejected) the coming of the Messiah and thus were cast aside by God, and so now God deals with the Gentiles.” Arab historian Jarid...

LONDON – The Archbishop of Canterbury has given his personal backing to a new translation of the New Testament in which Christians are told to go out and have more sex. St. Paul’s condemnations of homosexual sodomy are deleted. Instead of censuring fornicators, adulterers and “abusers of themselves with mankind,” the new version of his first letter to Corinthians has St. Paul advising Christians not to go without sex for too long in case they get frustrated. The translation appears to contradict the authorized King James version which, in a passage in I Corinthians, often used to back the celibacy...

<p>COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) -- After 23 years of work by some 60 people, a ministry group for the deaf has finished translating the entire New Testament into American Sign Language.</p> <p>Translators appear on camera, signing the New Testament's 7,959 verses. After editing is completed, the translation should be available on DVD and videotape this summer.</p>

Over 10 years in the making, the entire New Testament is now on video – word for word – and for a limited time, it is available from WorldNetDaily exclusively at a 20 percent introductory discount! The WatchWORD Bible New Testament is history's first true "Video Book." A remarkable new art form for the information age: You watch it, read it and hear it all at once. All 27 books of the New Testament are presented with dynamic text on screen, inspiring narration, thousands of scenes, special effects, original music and sound effects. The WatchWORD Bible is compelling to watch...

The Bible and homosexuality Posted: March 11, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Sen. John Kerry suggested to an audience in Mississippi recently that the Bible is ambiguous on the topic of homosexuality. "Well, I know the deep beliefs, I respect, I'm a Christian, I've read the Bible, and I know you can find the clauses that go both ways," he said. "I'm not here to argue that with you." Well, I'm here to argue with Kerry. The Bible is clear on homosexuality – Old Testament and New Testament: Homosexuality is an abomination. Kerry may not believe it. You...

<p>'It is as it was." That was supposedly how Pope John Paul II characterized the realism of "The Passion of the Christ," Mel Gibson's graphic portrayal of the final hours of the life of Jesus.</p> <p>Such a pronouncement must have been a film publicist's dream, albeit a short-lived one. The Vatican quickly released a strenuous disavowal of the papal quote, understandably concerned about the ways in which the alleged endorsement (a pontifical thumbs-up?) might be exploited in marketing blurbs.</p>

Rabbi Isaac Lichtenstein was curious when he observed one of the teachers in his school reading a book printed in German. Asking the teacher what he was reading, the book was passed to him. He leafed casually through the pages until his eye fell upon the name, "Jesus Christ." Realizing that the little book was a New Testament, he sternly rebuked the teacher for having it in his possession. He furiously cast the book across the room. It fell behind some other books on a shelf and lay forgotten for nearly 30 years. An outbreak of intense anti-Jewish persecution arose...

Can anyone offer advice on a Catholic version of the Interlinear Greek/English New Testament? Also, advice please on best source(s) online to buy it, if you would be so kind. It doesn't need to be very scholarly, by the way...I'm not at the point of making much use of the critical apparatus. Any assistance would be much appreciated, and God bless you. Cordially yours in Christ, LoyalCatholic

Asked his favorite New Testament book, Dr. Dean named Job, adding: "But I don't like the way it ends." "Some would argue, you know, in some of the books of the New Testament, the ending of the Book of Job is different," he said. "I think, if I'm not mistaken, there's one book where there's a more optimistic ending, which we believe was tacked on later." Job, the Old Testament story of a righteous man who suffers hardships as a test of his faith, ends with the Lord restoring his fortunes and the protagonist living to be "an old man,...

<p>Dec. 8 issue — Pity poor Mary Magdalene. For nearly two millenniums she was loved and honored by Christians as the archetypal reformed sinner. Then, a half-century ago, Biblical scholars recognized that she was a victim of mistaken identity: the “real” Mary of Magdala was not a prostitute. In truth, she was so faithful a follower of Jesus that she was chosen to be the first of his disciples to behold the risen Christ (Jn 20:11-18). Now, at the hands of some feminist revisionists, Mary is undergoing yet another cultural face-lift.</p>

Spiritual Bouquet: Do you think that I came to give peace upon the earth? No, I tell you, but division. For henceforth in one house five will be divided, three against two, and two against three... And a man's enemies will be those of his own household. St. Luke 12:51-52/St. Matthew 10:36SAINT GABRIEL ARCHANGELThe day before the great feast of the Annunciation, the Church celebrates the feast of the Archangel who brought to earth the glad tidings that Mary was chosen to be the Mother of the Incarnate God.This angelic Messenger appears several times in the history of God’s chosen...

<p>Instead of fawning over a hot young actor in Tiger Beat, teen girls are now going ga-ga for Jesus’ teachings in Revolve, a magazine that’s slicked up the New Testament (search) for girls ages 12 to 17.</p> <p>Christian bookstores are selling out of the $14.99, 388-page magazine, in which Holy Writ is jumbled alongside sassy sidebars, splashy headlines and color photos — all minus the sexual titillation of other teen mags like Seventeen (search).</p>