School of Ministry Ti e Word of God - Pa ru 2
Homework Question 1
How did you define the Authority of the Bible? “Christians believe the Scriptures are God- breathed and thereby authoritative. By God- breathed we mean that the Holy Spirit communicated to the author precisely what God intended, and that the author, in his own words, accurately recorded what was communicated.” Ref. 2Tim. 3:16
How did you define Sufficiency of the Bible? “That the Bible is all we need to equip us for a life of faith and service.” Ref. 2Peter 1:3
How did you define the Inspiration of the Bible “That the Scriptures are authored from God (“God- breathed”), and that God moved through the personality and abilities of the biblical writers in such a way that what they wrote was without error and was correct in everything that it addressed.” Ref. 2Tim. 3:16-17 p.s. We do not believe that God dictated His message to the prophets in a mechanical way. Rather, the Bible is Fully Divine as it is God’s Word & Fully Human in that God used people to record His word.
How did you define the Inerrancy of the Bible? “Inerrancy means that the original autographs of the Bible are without error.” We don’t mean that the manuscript copies are without errors. But we do believe that 100% of God’s message comes through!
100% of God’s message comes through “Paul Lester: you have won $10,000,000” “Paullester: you have won ten million dollars” Pall Lester: you have won $10,000,000 dollars” “Lester, paul has won ten times a million dollars” Note that even with variations & errors in each copy that by comparing them we can be confident that we have 100% of the meaning of the message.
Copies & Conflicts Here’s the good news! The variations, omissions & errors found when comparing the Received Text, Majority Text, & Alexandrian text affect only one in a thousand words ! In other words God has superintended the preservation of His words to mankind to protect His message. While much has been made of the of the omissions in the Alexandrian texts (and for good reason) none of the essential doctrines of the Christian faith are ultimately undermined.
Missing verses The NIV , ESV , NLT, etc. does not include Matt. 18:11… “ For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost .” KJV But they all include the same words in Luke 19:10… “ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. ” NIV
Missing Sections All of the English translations based on the Alexandrian texts either omit, or bracket the end of Mark’s Gospel (vss. 9-20) with they claim are not authentic as they are not found in the so-called “earliest” manuscripts (c 300 AD.) However, the early Church Father’s quoted from Mark 16:9-20 150 years before the Alexandrian texts were written! Thus, they must have been part of Mark’s original Gospel Justin Martyr (c. 150 AD), Tatian (c. 175 AD), Irenaeus (c, 180 AD) & Hippolytus (c. 200 AD)! This is one reason I prefer translations based on the Received & Majority Texts.
English Translations A B rj ef Overview
New Testament Manuscripts Syrian Peshitta (Aramaic c. 150-250 A.D.) ~ written in the language spoken by Jesus & His disciples. Old Latin (c. 200 A.D.) O.T. translated from the LXX. Used by Terullian & Cyprian. Many Ethiopic , Coptic & Armenian translations.
Latin Vulgate (405 A.D.) ~ Jerome translated the Gospels from the Old Latin & added the books of the O.T. as well as some of the Apocryphal books. Used by the Church in the West for almost 1,000 years! Wycliffe Bible (1380 A.D.) ~ translated by hand from Latin! Wycliffe persecuted for translating the Scripture into the so-called “vulgar tongue” of English! His enemies couldn’t catch him but after his death Pope Martin V ordered that his bones be dug up, burned and scattered on the River Swift!
Tyndale’s New Testament (1525 A.D.) ~ condemned by Rome so it was produced in Europe and smuggled into England in sacks of flour! Tyndale was later arrested and burned at the stake by order of King Henry VIII! The King James translators adopted about 80% of Tyndale’s work.
Coverdale Bible (1535 A.D.) ~ Miles Coverdale was an assistant to Tyndale & produced the first complete Bible in English. Matthew’s Bible (1537 A.D.) ~ “Thomas Matthew’s” was the pen name of John Rogers, a friend of Tyndale. His translation was accepted by King Henry VII & became the first state authorized English Bible. But when Queen Mary took the throne she had him burned at the stake!
First chapters added to the Bible by Stephen Langton in 1227 A.D. (not an English trans.) First verses added to the Bible by Robert Stephanus in 1551—but only in the Greek N.T.
The Great Bible (1539 A.D.) ~ called “Great” because of its size! Translation initiated by Bishop Thomas Cromwell. The Geneva Bible (1560 A.D.) ~ the Bible of the Reformation. Printed & bound in Switzerland under John Knox. It was the Bible translation used by the Puritans, Shakespeare, Milton (“Paradise Lost”) & was carried to America by the Pilgrims.
The Bishop’s Bible (1568 A.D.) ~ it was initiated by Queen Elizabeth & carried out by the Church of England. It was intended to counteract the Calvinistic bias in the Geneva Bible. It is a significant translation because it provided the starting point for the King James Version.
King James Version (1611 A.D.) ~ the most famous English translation of all time, still loved and used by millions of people 400 years after its first printing.
As of today there have been over 1,200 English translations of the Bible produced! According to Wycliff Bible Translators there are still 2,163 languages with no Bible translation. So, while there are good reasons to argue about which is the best English translation our energy would be better spent working together to translate the Bible into those languages that have no Bible!
Bible Translations I have a “leaf” from a Geneva Bible for you to look at! A selection of English translations that I have read through—some are great, some are fun, and some are awful!
Homework - Question 2
Examples of Churches & Denominations that reject the authority, inspiration, sufficiency & inerrancy of the Bible Episcopal Church USA Evangelical Lutheran Church of America Metropolitan Community Church Roman Catholic Church The Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) Bishop Otis Charles & Felipe Sanchez Paris
Discussion Outline Thoughts or Questions?
Intro to the Inductive Bible Study Method
IBS To learn how to use the IBS method normally takes 4-6 weeks. We will only do a brief introduction so you can see the benefits. I’ve included a link in this week’s course to the IBS online class if you’re interested…it’s free. Dan Frinfrock
Interpreting the Bible What is the smallest unit of meaning in language? Word? Sentence? Paragraph?
Interpreting the Bible What is the smallest unit of meaning in language? Word Sentence Paragraph
“Set” The volleyball players yelling “set”! Please “set” the table. I have the complete “set” of Spurgeon’s commentaries. You can “set” your suitcase here. The word “set” has over 200 usages in the English language!
Therefore the only way we can know what a word means is by the context that it is used in a sentence . Thus, a concordance, like Strong’s, only provide us with the usage of any given word. The meaning of a word is determined by how it is used in a sentence. So, the smallest unit of meaning in language is a sentence .
The point? When studying the Bible to determine the meaning of a text words are important… …but you must understand a word’s meaning in the context of the sentence lest you find yourself coming to wrong understandings of what God meant.
Example “ Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Pro. 29:18a KJV “Vision” can mean: “dream, revelation, & oracle.” My charismatic friends used this verse to “prove” that believers today must have a prophet in the church to give divine direction.
But if you read the rest of the verse you discover that the context of the sentence speaks of what God has already revealed in the Law! “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” In other words the path of blessing is found in obedience to God’s word. Without His word people move toward sinful living. We don’t need to look for new vision because God has already given it to us in the Bible.
Inductive Bible Study Inductive vs. Deductive Inductive means to “ Pull out the facts.” In other words our goal is to let the text speak for itself so that we can discover the Author’s intent. Deductive means to “ Start with a premise. ” In other words we approach the text with preconceived idea of what we want it to mean.
The Process Observation The First Step: Making observations Interpretation The Second Step: Asking questions The Third Step: Finding answers Application The Forth Step: Making application
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