by leavingwt 34 Replies latest jw friends
"But the problems of the bible are not what led me to leave the faith. These problems simply showed me that my evangelical beliefs about the bible could not hold up, in my opinion, to critical scrutiny. I continued to be a chrisitian - a completely committed christian - for many years after I left the evangelical fold." - Gods Problem p3
It was in a debate with, I think Richard Swinburne, that he said "many years" was in fact 15
Bart's preconceived notions of inerrancy
You make it sound as if Bart invented this notion. This is unfair to Him and millions of Evangelicals, IMHO.
If anyone is interested in hearing it from the "horses mouth", here's a perfect opportunity on the 17th of this month (3 days): http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=177022889000455
PRESS RELEASE for national media outlets here: http://pitch.pe/124404
This event will be held at UNC-CH, but may be streamed throughout the country, so you can RSVP and invite friends from anywhere. Current additional host locations for live video stream include: NC State (First Year College Commons Rm 110), UGA, Augusta State University (details coming soon - more info on livestream locations below).
"What to Believe? An Internal Struggle: The soul-searching personal stories of Bart Ehrman and James Berends"
In the late 1970's, Bart Ehrman and James Berends graduated from Wheaton College as Evangelical Christians seeking deeper roots for their faith. After decades of spiritual searching, Dr. Bart Ehrman is now an "agnostic" religion professor at UNC and Fr. James Berends is an "apophatic" Eastern Orthodox priest at St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church.
Come hear their personal stories as they share the spiritual journies that led them to where they are today.
Ehrman will speak from 6:00-6:30, Berends from 6:30-7:00 with Q&A to follow.
Admission is free to students and the general public; seating is limited. Public parking available in the McCauley Deck, Bell Tower Deck, Venable Lot and Nash Lot.
ADDITIONAL LOCATIONS FOR LIVESTREAM VIDEO
The event will be livestreamed at www.bartehrmanstory.com, but if the livestream is overused and crashes for the general public, we will try a different private livestream to specific host locations. If you can get 10 people who will come in your area, we may be able to provide a host location. Contact: [email protected] to request a host location or learn more about a forthcoming documentary video series on Bart Ehrman's personal faith journey.
Also, anyone interested in listening to Bart's books (Misquoting Jesus or God's Problem) for free, here's the link: http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/203660/1/Anyone-interested-in-free-Bart-Ehrmans-Miquoting-Jesus-Gods-Problem-audio-books-Great-books
No offense, but the "Jesus Seminar" is one of the worse examples of Christain scholarship and historical/biblical criticisim/interpretation since Marcion had a crack at it.
Really? John Dominic Crossan's work with the Jesus seminar is some of the worst???
You must be a bible believer.
Also, you are playing hard and fast with the facts about what the gospels say, and what Ehrman says about them; no serious bible scholar thinks the gospels came to us intact or that all of what is attributed to Jesus is what he actually said.
There was an interesting programme on the BBC this week about books and it featured the codex Sinaiticus from the fourth century, which it described as the oldest surviving complete Bible.
It said that one of remarkable things about this manuscript is just how many alterations had been made in the text, over 20,000, which is a considerable number on every page, and far more than could be explained by scribal errors. The programme said that this indicated the instability of the text of the Bible even at that early stage, and contributed to doubts about the inspiration of the scripture in the nineteenth century when the manuscript was found.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ydj1m/The_Beauty_of_Books_Ancient_Bibles/
PSacramento when you say Ehrman's scholarship does not compare favourably with Metzger, have you read much of Ehrman's work before he started writing popular books for a general readership? His books on the text of the Fourth Gospel used by Origen and the text of the gospels used by Didymus the Blind are pretty detailed and his book The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture stands somewhere in the middle between his popular and scholarly works.
I think it is very interesting that Metzger, who was at one time viewed as a conservative scholar, chose to collaborate with Ehrman on the final edition of one of his most important books The Text of the New Testament: It's Transmission, Corruption and Restoration. Metzger certainly developed his views considerably from his younger days when he was defending the authorship of the book of Daniel for example.
I think that's an important point Slimboyfat. Ehrman has written popular books to make these things accessible to the general public, that does not undermine his considerable weight as a serious and highly respected scholar.
I would also recommend John Shelby Spong's books. The Sins of Scripture is what I'd read first. His Jesus for the Non-Religious is also thought provoking. And to bring some historical perspective, Thomas Paines's The Age of Reason is a good read, although it turned out to be his writing swan song to a country not ready to embrace his bibilical perspective.
Marking...
And I would LOVE to get my hands on a copy of the bible that SlimBoyFat just mentioned, as well as the complete texts of the books considered for inclusion in the bible at the council of Nicaea - and rejected...
Not to mention - a copy of the books contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls...
Zid
You make it sound as if Bart invented this notion. This is unfair to Him and millions of Evangelicals, IMHO.
I think Bart was a "victim" of it.
You must be a bible believer.
Nope. The bible to me is, quite simple, a collection of works written by Man, sharing THEIR view points about the world they live in and the God they believed in and how they viewed that world and that God.
Also, you are playing hard and fast with the facts about what the gospels say, and what Ehrman says about them; no serious bible scholar thinks the gospels came to us intact or that all of what is attributed to Jesus is what he actually said.
I never said they did come to us intake, I also said that none of his concerns are new at all, which obviosuly means that they had been discussed before Bart brought them up and that is the case, so obvioulsy there are issues with the Bible.
