by leavingwt 60 Replies latest jw friends
Here's an article about an apologist who doesn't like the fact that more information is now easily available.
While I certainly don't agree with him I do understand where he is coming from: " A little knowledge is a dangerous thing".
Fact is that far too many of us search until we find what we WANT to find, regardless if it is correct or not or if there is soemthing to refute it or not.
The days when the Clergy and Theology professors had a unique hold on knowledge as power are gone. The Wizards of Oz have been exposed.
Levelling the playing field has been good. I could never believe in the Bible the way JWs teach it. Never. If I tried so very hard, I could not accept it. With all the diversity of ideas, I see certain themes. Growing up in a cosmopolitan area, I could never imagine God destroying a Chinese or Indian person for not being Christian. Christians tend to see a small portion of the world as the entire world. People seem so hungry for the information. It is amazing.
Was it truly better when no one read their Bibles or discussed the contents.
I just saw him today at SBL. He gave a blistering critique of CE Hill's presentation on the four gospel canon, really interesting stuff. He focused on the underlying methodology and bias that he feels leads Hill to view the same evidence in a very different way; both were good presentations and show the kind of lively debate that occurs in biblical scholarship. I'm so blown away by this conference too. I did not anticipate the sheer magnitude of the meeting -- its at four different venues in close proximity, with like 20 concurrent sessions and everything, with so many really cool interesting papers. I was excited to go to the Daniel session today; yesterday I heard a paper by Oded Lipschits on the habitation of Judah in the Neo-Babylonian period (i.e. during the Exile). Oh and the book exhibit room was enormous! It is like walking into a big bookstore with almost every book of interest to me. Kid-in-a-candy-store sort of thing. :) I've been to one of the small regional ones before but not the annual meeting till now. And it was interesting putting faces to the names I have read for so many years.
Anyway, it really drives home how totally devoid of substance the JW conventions are in comparison lol. And the "scholarship" evidenced in the publications.
Leolaia-
Great to hear you could attend such a conference. What were some of the points presented by Hill and Erhman.
Regards
You can listen to the talks here (the links will be active for only a day):
Leo: Thank you for those links. I'm downloading them now. It sounds like an interesting convention, indeed.
Leo
I have been reading one of Ehrman's books and was just thinking this morning that I should look at an opposing viewpoint just be sure I wasn't developing a biased attitude about the subject. Unfortunately, I am still rather ignorant of Biblical Scholarship, but it's amazing how much more you can learn from reading the book of one scholar, than you would ever learn from reading 100 of The Society's publications.
Thanks!
Back in September I traveled about 1200 miles south from my home in central Oregon to Riverside, California to attend my 50th class reunion and to take care of some family business affairs. My wife and I had just purchased a new car that had all the current bells and whistles - including navigation and XM radio. I was really looking forward to a relaxing and entertaining trip as I was traveling alone on this journey.
But just before I left, I happened to visit our most excellent public library. I was working my way through the books on CD area when I happened to notice a full set of Bart Ehrman's lectures on "The Historical Jesus." I'd read Ehrman's "Jesus Interrupted" and "Misquoting Jesus," so I was already a fan of his style and approach to the material.
I was able to check out the whole set of 12 disks and also the set of CD's of his "Misquoting Jesus" read by another voice actor. I figured that I would listen to these for a while, get bored, and then turn on my XM radio.
I did not get bored. I listened to Ehrman's lectures totally engaged and overwhelmed with the logic of his presentation and the historic resources he quoted. This was true "Bible study," nothing like those minimalist, "take it on faith because we say this is the truth" types of Bible studies I was used to while a JW.
While these university level lectures may not be for everybody, I was so engaged that I found the miles going much faster than usual. I waited to stop the car to get gas or a cup of coffee until a CD was finished because I didn't want to lose track of the train of Ehrman's thought and logic as he progressed through his presentation.
It ended too soon. Even though I had read "Misquoting Jesus," I found listening to the audio version of the book even more enlightening. In the first couple of chapters, Ehrman traces his history from a young man who had no doubts at all that every word in the Bible was inerrant and inspired by God himself. After finishing his basic education at a local protestant Bible college, he went to the Moody Bible College and then to Princeton. He gave the Bible every opportunity to convince him of its holy origins - and it failed. Ehrman's story is an amazing tale of change due to education and exposure to the facts - no matter where they are sourced. I finished the last CD during my final leg home.
I would encourage everyone to try to find the 12 CD set of Ehrman's lectures. They come in two cases (six each), so maybe you can check out one set and then if you liked them as much as I did, check out the second set at a later date. The same with "Misquoting Jesus." If you want an education in New Testament history and origins, this is definitely the way to go.
JV
  | The historical Jesus Ehrman, Bart D. Chantilly, VA : The Teaching Company, c2000. 12 sound discs : digital ; + 2 course guidebooks (22 cm.) Great courses 12 lectures delivered by Professor Bart D. Ehrman on the "man behind the myth," Jesus of Nazereth. Includes an analysis of his life and times from a historical perspective |
For a "different" view than Barts that tends to not really formulate an opinion as such but only states "facts", I suggest the writings of Bart's teacher and mentor, Bruce Metzger.
Bart even wrote on of the chapters in Metzgers very excellent book on the NT:
The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (4th Edition) by Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman ( Paperback - Apr 28, 2005)
