Bible Inspectors

It's supposed to have answers, but we have questions. - Thought-provoking questions about the Bible, straight to your tumblr feed.

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"How many horsemen did David capture?"

2 Samuel 8:4 And David took from him 1,700 horsemen, and 20,000 foot soldiers. And David hamstrung all the chariot horses but left enough for 100 chariots.

Compare Verse Translations

1 Chronicles 18:4 And David took from him 1,000 chariots, 7,000 horsemen, and 20,000 foot soldiers. And David hamstrung all the chariot horses, but left enough for 100 chariots.

Compare Verse Translations

This story of David is told twice in the Bible, once across 1 Sam 16 to 1 Kings 2 and again in 1 Chronicles. Here we have near identical verses from both sources describing the same event, but with some important distinctions: The chariots are not referenced in 2 Samuel and a different number of horsemen are listed, 1,700 versus 7,000. And if you look at other translations these differences increase. The King James Version for example lists only 700 horsemen in 2 Samuel. This may seem like an insignificant discrepancy, but what does this difference tell us about the sources themselves? Was this an error? How can we know what the original text said if one of these numbers is incorrect?

Christian Answers:

This is likely an error from copying ancient manuscripts. "This is most probably a copyist error or a copy of a manuscript where the number was altered through decay. 1 Chron. 18:4 is probably the correct number since it is a better preserved manuscript. 'Probably [an] earlier copyist inadvertently omitted the word 'chariot' that we find supplied in some translations. This in turn created a problem for a later copyist who would have recognized that it was not proper Hebrew structure to write 'one thousand seven thousand" horsemen,' so he would have reduced the second 'thousand' to 'hundred' resulting in the reading we now have in 2 Samuel 8:4.'" (Geisler and Howe, When Critics Ask, p. 171-172) (Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry: How many Horsemen did David Capture, 1,700 or 7,000?)

Follow-up Question: If this was an error, how can we be certain that the Bible is accurate in all historical accounts? This particular discrepancy was easy to identify because it is one of the few stories told in near identical fashion in two separate books of the Bible. For most stories that are only told once in the Bible it's possible that we will never find the original manuscripts. How could we ever determine with 100% certainty that any single word or phrase is not simply the mistake of an ancient cleric? When a single word can sometimes have great importance it seems problematic to accept that such alterations are possible and in fact have happened as seen in 2 Samuel.

This is a scribal error. "In fact, this is very popular in 1 and 2 Samuel. Kaiser writes, 'The present Hebrew manuscripts for the books of 1 and 2 Samuel have more transcriptional errors in them than any other book or combination of books in the Old Testament.' It was very easy for Hebrew scribes to make errors with numbers." (Evidence Unseen: (2 Sam. 8:4) How many horsemen did David capture?)

Follow-up Question: If the Bible was divinely inspired and God wanted us to have an accurate accounting of his word, why would he allow incorrect translations or errors to proliferate throughout history? Why would he allow his original words to be lost when the copies are admittedly inferior? Why is his most important message susceptible to the same errors as any other ancient text? If God intended for us to hear this story, as is implied by it being included in the Bible - and doubly so for it being told twice in different books, why would he leave any doubt over something so simple as the number of horsemen that David captured?

The numbers come from observations taken at two different points in the battle. "[We] should take these texts as they are, but without accepting all sorts of copying errors. The theological disposition to harmonize what doesn’t fit, or the custom of assuming a copyist error in case of a synoptic question, only show incomprehension and narrowness of mind... Obviously 2 Samuel reported the first confrontation, as it offers the smaller numbers. The capturing of 20,000 foot soldiers certainly referred to a massive surrender already at the beginning of the fight. From the second report (1 Chronicles) they learned that a large group of riders escaped after the first confrontation and had been taken later on during the pursuit." (Contradicting Bible Contradictions: 7000 or 1700 horsemen?

There were 7,000 men on horses at the beginning of the battle, but only 700 at the end. "[When] 2 Samuel 8:4 (KJV) says that there were 'seven hundred horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen,' there were not 20,700 men in total, but rather 20,000 men of which 700 were considered horsemen by the author of 2 Samuel. Likewise, when 1 Chronicles 18:4 says that there were 'seven thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen,' there were not 27,000 men in total, but rather 20,000 men of which 7000 were considered horsemen by the author of 1 Chronicles... If at the start of battle there were 7000 men on horses, one historian can say that David captured 7000 horsemen in battle. However, if at the end of the battle 6300 horses go out of commission and only 700 men remain on horses, then another historian can say that David captured 700 horsemen in battle. The discrepancy in numbers is due to the different perspectives of the historians. The author of 1 Chronicles still referred to the men who lost their horses as 'horsemen' whereas the author of 2 Samuel only referred to the men still on horses as 'horsemen.'"

Follow-up Question: Why would the surrounding text be nearly word-for-word identical if they were accounts from different points in the battle or from different observers? Wouldn't it be more reasonable to assume that near-identical accounts originate from the same source rather than two distinct observers or times of observation? Furthermore, if God values communicating exact details of such battles, why would he deal in rounded numbers and labels that could be interpreted in multiple ways? It seems difficult to believe that exactly 20,000 footment were captured for example. Why didn't God provide the author with an exact figure if the text was indeed divinely inspired? Why would God obfuscate the truth behind complex categorical interpretation? And why do some of these answers claim that their Bible translation is specifically inerrant? There are different manuscripts of the Bible that have discrepancies between them. How do we know which translation is the version that God has supernaturally preserved, especially when we do not have the original texts to compare? Why is a supernatural assumption of divine preservation more likely than a simple human copying error?

The Bible is 'inerrant', but yet also contains errors. "[Inerrancy], simply means that the Bible is without error. It’s a belief in the 'total truthfulness and reliability of God’s words' (Grudem, Systematic Theology, Inter-Varsity, 2004, 90)... This inerrancy isn’t just in passages that speak about salvation, but also applies to all historical and scientific statements as well. It is not only accurate in matters related to faith and practice, but it is accurate and without error regarding any statement, period (John 3:12)." (Defending Inerrancy: WHAT’S INERRANCY!? AND WHY SHOULD I CARE?) (Continuing to explain 2 Samuel 8:4 on a separate page, similar to the explanation from CARM) [2 Samuel 8:4 "is undoubtedly a copyist error. Probably an early copyist inadvertently omitted the word 'chariot' that we find supplied in some translations. This in turn created a problem for a later copyist who would have recognized that it was not proper Hebrew structure to write 'one thousand seven thousand horsemen,' so he would have reduced the second 'thousand' to 'hundred' resulting in the reading we now have in 2 Samuel 8:4. It is probably the 1 Chronicles passage that retains the correct number." (Defending Inerrancy: 2 SAMUEL 8:4—DID DAVID CAPTURE 1,700 HORSEMEN OR 7,000 AS 1 CHRONICLES 18:4 SAYS?)

Follow-up Question: How can the Bible be both 'inerrant' and also contain errors at the same time? How are these beliefs compatible?

Secular Answers:

The vast number of textual variants found among ancient manuscripts implies that human error has played a large role in the formation of the Bible. The most recent estimate puts the number of non-spelling variants among New Testament manuscripts around 500,000. (Wikipedia: Textual variants in the New Testament)

Many stories about David may be legends later ascribed to him and are not reliable history. "Jacob L. Wright, Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Emory University, has written that the most popular legends about David, including his killing of Goliath, his affair with Bathsheba, and his ruling of a United Kingdom of Israel rather than just Judah, are the creation of those who lived generations after him, in particular those living in the late Persian or Hellenistic periods." (Wikipedia: David)

Referenced Verses: 2 Samuel 8:4, 1 Chronicles 18:4

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Top 10 Modern Science Books That Question Biblical Teachings

Science has historically been positioned, or at least perceived, as an opponent of religion. Though, as time moves on, many scientific discoveries that were once considered heretical have now been embraced by the church as an accepted part of their theology. Many of these discoveries were first put forth in dense academic tomes that were difficult for the average person to comprehend, but in modern times science has been popularized and made more consumable. These are some of the most popular science books of the modern day that are still considered controversial by more conservative religions.

10. Why Evolution Is True by Jerry A. Coyne

Evolution vs Creation is one of the longest running conflicts between science and religion. Jerry Coyne's relatively recent book is directed at skeptics of the theory of evolution. It is a very light and easy to read introduction to evolution and outlines exactly why it is accepted as true in the scientific community (and increasingly in the general population).

9. Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin

Neil Shubin presents some very interesting details about evolution in the context of your relationship to your common ancestors in his book, Your Inner Fish. As the title might suggest, you are introduced to various features of human biology that can be traced back directly to fish, reptiles, and ape ancestors. The book's central thesis is that Creationism simply cannot explain many human biological features, whereas evolution can.

8. The Greatest Show On Earth by Richard Dawkins

This list would not be complete without a book from one of the foremost critics of religion, Richard Dawkins. Dawkins scientific background is in biology and he has made it his life's work to educate the public about the wonders of evolution. This is one of Dawkins' more recent publications and it serves as a deeper dive into the mechanisms of evolution.

7. Cosmos by Carl Sagan

Published as a supplementary book to the educational television series of the same name, Cosmos presents a wonder-filled overview of the universe and our place in it. It is a timeless piece that inspired a generation to take up careers in science and technology. Sagan's passion for the universe is on full display as he explains how our planet is an ancient cosmic accident, much to the dismay of religious fundamentalists who believe that the Earth is only 6,000 years old.

6. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins' extensive career in biology and science communication deserves a second mention on this list. The Selfish Gene is one of his first publications and it still holds up to this day. Dawkins focuses his efforts here on explaining the intricacies of DNA as opposed to how previous works by other authors on evolution focused more on the organisms or species more generally.

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5. The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow

Hawking has said, "One can't prove that God doesn't exist, but science makes God unnecessary." Throughout this book Hawking and Mlodinow explain how the fundamentals of physics alone can explain the origins of the universe. With subject matter than can be difficult to understand without a PhD, these iconic authors somehow make it infinitely approachable and fascinating.

4. A Universe From Nothing by Lawrence M. Krauss

Lawrence Krauss makes a compelling argument here that the classical idea of "nothing" may not be even possible. According to Krauss, in physics, the state of "nothingness" at the beginning of time and space was perfectly suited for creating everything that now exists. It's a common thread among astrophysicists to insist that there is simply no need for a creator.

3. Astrophysics For People In A Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson has quickly risen through the ranks of science personalities of the 21st century, but he stands on the shoulders of those before him. Notably, Carl Sagan, whose Cosmos series Tyson relaunched in 2014. Astrophysics For People In A Hurry is Tyson's wonderful, bite-sized approach to explaining some of the most complex phenomena in the universe.

2. A Brief History Of Time by Stephen Hawking

The modern era of popular-science writing owes a lot to Stephen Hawking. If you've ever wanted to learn about quarks or quantum mechanics, this is the place to start. There is a reason that it sold more than 10 million copies in 20 years. And there is a reason that Hawking's statements are still contentious with religious institutions today.

1. A Short History Of Nearly Everything

You may not know his name compared to the other authors on this list, but Bill Bryson has crafted a concise and wide-reaching science title that has exploded in popularity. In a style more similar to travel guides, Bryson walks the reader through multiple scientific areas of study including evolution, chemistry, and physics. In nearly every chapter you will find something that the churches of the world once deemed heretical, and perhaps still do.

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Inspecting "The Evidence of the Christ" - Part 2

This post is a direct response to a post made on www.cornerstonecascade.com. Part 1 of this response can be found here.

Getting past the first few paragraphs of Phil Parsons' "The Evidence of the Christ" we can see that he finally begins defending Christianity from a historical perspective.

“God has arranged history (His story) around His Son.”

Unfortunately, he starts this line of reasoning with another play on words. As we saw with Son and Sun, the words “his story” and “history” are not etymologically related. Once again, it is disingenuous to put forth this type of creative word association as evidence of anything.

Next we get a long paragraph of biblical references that are intended to sound impressive. However, the logic seems to be “The Bible is true and I can show you in the Bible where it says so”. Every religious book in the history of mankind makes similar claims. Internal claims (even when said claims seem to be logically consistent) is not a good measure of historical accuracy. If it was then we could use any work of fiction as a foundation of belief for the events described therein.

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Christians often use this same form of skepticism when evaluating the likelihood of earnestly held beliefs by fringe science and conspiracy groups like Bigfoot hunters and UFO watchers. It would be quite easy to gather a collection of written accounts from witnesses that claim to have seen Bigfoot. Then you could easily pick and choose from hundreds of those stories to form a very convincing and internally consistent Bigfoot “Bible”. However, the mere existence of such a collection lends no credence whatsoever to the claims made by Bigfoot hunters. Most reasonable Christians would wholeheartedly agree, yet they fail to see where this same reasoning presents issues for their own beliefs. Again, there is a difference between "claims" and "evidence that supports a claim".

All that being said, we still cannot completely dismiss the claims themselves. Witness testimony (quite literally in the case of the biblical "Testaments") is a method for passing information from one person to another. Witness testimony is used in court. Unfortunately, witness testimony is certifiably one of the least reliable forms of evidence that there is.

What Parsons fails to mention here is that even the earliest written book of the New Testament is estimated to have been written decades after Jesus died. This is the scholarly consensus given by the same legitimate historians that Parsons appeals to. Even worse, we don’t actually have the first written copies of the New Testament. The earliest manuscripts that we have discovered are tiny fragments (a few paragraphs at best) estimated to have been copied during the second century (101 CE – 200 CE). And the earliest complete manuscripts that we have discovered are estimated to come from around the fourth century.

Once you get past these inconvenient truths you are then faced with the fact that we will likely never uncover exactly what the original texts actually said due to the high number of textual variants among those earliest manuscripts. These variants were errors, or perhaps even purposeful alterations, made by scribes who were copying the texts by hand (this was long before the invention of the printing press after all). If God wanted us to hear “his story”, why wouldn’t he do a better job of preserving it? Why rely on the frail human passage of information at all? Was it outside his power to create an unchanging, indestructible text that could be read in any language?

Perhaps the most interesting fact about the Gospels is that they share entire swaths of text literally word-for-word as you can see in the image below. Rather than giving their own honest accounts of all events, the Gospel authors (which, according to historians, were unlikely to be the ascribed authors Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) simply copied each other or previous undiscovered sources for entire portions of their testimony. The value of a witness testimony as evidence is only as reliable as the testimony itself, and the Bible is far from being a reliable source.

Finally Parsons gets to his only piece of extra-biblical evidence.

“If you want to go outside the Bible, check out Josephus’s Antiquities… Josephus was just like Luke in the sense that he was someone who was reporting historical facts of Jesus as they played out before thousands and thousands of people.”

Josephus is an interesting historical figure and entire papers have been written about individual words taken from the quote Parsons uses in his article. And it is important to point out that the authenticity of this writing is still up for debate. In fact, the consensus is that a large percentage of this testimony is a fourth century forgery. Parsons continues this historical context line of reasoning by comparing Jesus to Caesar.

“I always find it interesting that no one doubts the existence of Ceasar, but people doubt the existence of Jesus. Both lived at the same time, and the evidence of Jesus and his miracles are equal if not greater than Caesar (http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/sources-for-caesar-and-jesus-compared).”

First of all, very few nonbelievers doubt the existence of Jesus. Parsons doesn’t claim that all of them do, but it is an important point to note. Even most secular biblical scholars agree that there is reasonable Biblical evidence to confidently say that a radical Jewish preacher named Jesus lived about 2,000 years ago and was crucified. Most nonbelievers simply doubt that Jesus did the things that the Bible claims he did. Specifically, supernatural miracles. Even most Christians would doubt someone if they came up to them today and told them they just saw someone physically transform water into wine. So why should nonbelievers be expected to believe the same claim made in an ancient, error-ridden, non-contemporary, inherently biased source? The testimonies found in the Bible are wild, supernatural claims with no supporting physical evidence.

But maybe the Bible has an answer to this...

Matthew 14:31 says: Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

According to the Bible, if you doubt something you have little faith. Lack of evidence should be no problem for you.

Hebrews 11:1 says: Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

2 Corinthians 5:7 says: We live by faith, not by sight.

According to the Bible, faith is believing without seeing. Evidence you can see is unimportant and we should literally prioritize wishful thinking.

1 Corinthians 2:5 says: … so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

According to the Bible, knowledge and wisdom are not synonymous with faith. To even seek out evidence would be to undermine God’s power.

So, knowing what the Bible has to say about faith vs. evidence, why does Parsons even attempt to satiate the demands of nonbelievers who want evidence? If God wanted them to rest their belief upon the quality and quantity of evidence why wouldn’t he just provide more of it?

According to Parsons:

“…faith in Jesus is built upon a mountain of evidence.”

But nonbelievers will need more than what has been presented here.

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Inspecting "The Evidence of the Christ" - Part 1

This post is a direct response to a post made on www.cornerstonecascade.com. The important lines will be quoted here, but you are encouraged to read it for yourself before continuing.

“In this age of knowledge, people do not want to accept something that has no proof.”

Credit must be given to the spirit of this recent blog post. The author, Phil Parsons, is absolutely right that nonbelievers – and people in general – do not want to accept something that has no proof. We do live in an age of information. In seconds we can find the answer to even the most obscure questions we can conceive.

“People want evidence to rest their eternity on; therefore because they assume Christianity has no evidence, they will not even entertain its possibility. Unfortunately, many of these people will not test their assumptions. Instead, they assume their assumptions are correct.”

Unfortunately for Christians, most answers to questions of a divine nature don’t actually stack up as well as they’d like. It is exceedingly rare to find a nonbeliever who describes themselves as being unable to muster the faith required to believe… Rather, they simply don’t find the evidence compelling. Let's take a look at what evidence is first referenced in an article that is attempting to contest that:

“…in Colossians 1:16… “all things were created through him and for him.” That means that our Universe points to Christ. So for example, the Earth revolves around the Sun. Why? Because it points to the reality that we must revolve around the Son of God as the light of our lives (John 1:9).”

It’s truly unfortunate that most Christians when asked for evidence will immediately turn to the Bible. Especially with such a poetic verse that is difficult to interpret as any kind of factual statement. We have to make a distinction between a "claim" and "evidence that supports a claim". The vast majority of the writings in the Bible can only be classified as claims, which have very little external evidence to support them. To see why this example is especially unfulfilling, let’s look at the etymology for the words Sun and Son.

Son – Old English sunu, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch zoon and German Sohn, from an Indo-European root shared by Greek huios.

Sun – Old English sunne, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch zon and German Sonne, from an Indo-European root shared by Greek hēlios and Latin sol.

In modern English we can see that these two words are not directly related. They are simply homophones, or words pronounced the same way but with different meanings. So not only are they not actually etymologically related, but it should be obvious that not everyone speaks English. Jesus certainly didn’t. He spoke Aramaic and in Aramaic the word for “son” was pronounced like “bar” and the word for “sun” was “shemesh”. Unless this coincidence was only intended for English speakers who like homophones, this probably shouldn't qualify as evidence for Christianity.

It is also implied in Parsons’ explanation that the Earth revolves around the Sun for the express purpose of providing evidence of Jesus. Which is to ignore the entirety of scientific knowledge relating to gravitational dynamics and planetary motion. The Sun is a single, relatively unremarkable star in a universe with billions and billions of stars. Many of which we now know to have their own planets also revolving around them. We know exactly why the Earth revolves around the Sun and we can even predict its future motion with complex mathematical models. It’s entirely natural and within our understanding of physics.

More than all that, it seems strange that Parsons would use John 1:9 as a Bible reference here, which makes no comparisons to “light” or “revolving” at all. John 8:12 would have been more fitting within the metaphor of Jesus as a source of light and life:

(John 8:12) Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

It’s a great passage and a strong metaphor used in literature long before the Bible (Greeks and Egyptians had their own Sun gods for example), but it’s not evidence for Christianity.

Next we get this claim:

“All humanity longs for marriage. Why? Because marriage is a symbol ordained by God to point to the union between Christ and His people. (Ephesians 5:32).”

This statement ignores anyone who does not long for matrimonial coupling. Not all humans are born with an innate need to bond with someone through marriage. Many couples just never feel the need to get hitched. Some people don’t even feel a need to “couple” at all, choosing a celibate lifestyle instead. What symbol should these individuals use for the metaphorical union between “Christ and his people” then if a desire for marriage is not instilled in them?

Even if we were to accept the premise that “All humanity longs for marriage”, it's difficult see how a metaphorical symbol qualifies as evidence. It is quite easy to use this logic to support almost any symbolic belief you can imagine. For example: “All humanity needs to breathe air. Why? Because it is a symbol to remind us of ‘prana’, the breath of life, the energy of all the universe. This is evidence in favor of Hinduism.” It is unlikely that many Christians would find that to be compelling evidence despite the identical line of reasoning.

It’s also worth noting here that Christianity did not invent the concept of marriage, nor did Judaism for that matter. Even Christian scholars will agree on this point. So how does a symbolic bond that predates Christianity get co-opted exclusively into Christian theology as evidence for its universal origins?

Then we get this confounding statement:

“Humanity longs for a King. Why? Because Christ is the Lord of lords and the King of kings.  (Revelation 17:14).”

Do we long for a King? History seems to point strongly in the opposite direction. The United States of America likely wouldn’t exist if not for the founding fathers’ adamant rejection of a monarchy. In fact, they had a few choice words to share on that system of governance and its moral failings. Ask any Christian (outside the context of “Jesus as Lord”) if they would want a king to rule over them and they would likely all answer the same. Again, it is difficult to see how any of this yet qualifies as “evidence for Christianity”.

So far we’ve covered only a single paragraph of “evidence” from the original post, so this examination will be split up into two parts. All of the points made by Parsons so far are can only be described as “cultural relativistic evidence”, or perhaps more succinctly: Platitudes. Christians often believe that because they find an idea to be common sense, poetic, or fulfilling in the context of their cultural background, that means it can be used as a supportive argument for the factual claims held by their religion. These are the kinds of arguments that all religions use to claim that theirs is the one true religion. Simply put, if the same logic can be applied to argue for the factual nature of any religion then it does not satisfy a standard of evidence that should have any bearing on reality. Metaphors and word-play do not qualify as evidence.

Continue to Part 2

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Inspecting Claims of Biblical Canon and Historicity

The following is a response to an article posted on CCC Discover by Timothy W. Massaro, with the relevant sections quoted here for easier reference.

As Bible Inspectors, it's our job to investigate the text of the Bible as well as all claims made about the book itself. The article we will look at today is a bite-sized, easily shareable, six-point list that is formatted for simple sharing across Facebook or Twitter (which should be evident by the bold “Share this post with your friends” at the bottom of the page). Worse than that, it provides precisely zero citations or even further reading recommendations for what is ostensibly a history lesson.

Let's take each point and provide citation that both builds on the meaning intended by the original author and also refutes many of their assumptions. These conclusions are built upon the consensus of historical and biblical scholars and form a foundation of reasonable skepticism as to the accuracy of the Bible and its claims.

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[Please note that citations leading to Wikipedia are used to simplify the citation process. All references on Wikipedia provide proper academic citations at the bottom of each page. I am not a historian (though neither is Mr. Massaro), but I stand by the cited references. I am open to corrections on any statement of fact I have made in this rebuttal.]

1. The New Testament Canon was not decided by any church council.

The church councils did not decide what was canonical. While regional church councils made declarations about the canon, these councils affirmed the books they believed had functioned as foundational documents for the Christian faith. The councils merely declared the way things had been since the time of the apostles. Thus, these councils did not create, authorize, or determine the canon. They simply were part of the process of recognizing a canon that already existed.

Saying that the New Testament Canon “was not decided by any church council” doesn’t tell the whole story. First of all, it’s important to understand that the word “canon” used in this context (being authoritative or accurate) literally originated with the formation of Christian biblical canon. It comes from a Greek word that means “rule” or “measuring stick” and was never used to describe a set of authoritative scriptures until the first seven ecumenical councils. The discrete concept of canonicity was quite literally decided by church councils since the term didn’t even exist before their intervention.

Now, of course there were large congregations that already accepted the majority of modern New Testament books as authoritative before the Proto-orthodox church ratified them, they just didn’t refer to them as “canonical” (since the term didn’t exist yet). But there were also dozens of sub-groups and competing Christian theological communities that accepted different books as authoritative. Congregations were in disagreement as to which books should be allowed to be read in worship. Many Proto-orthodox groups like the Marcionists, Gnosticists, and Montanists even disagreed on fundamental aspects such as the nature of God and the Trinity, and these disagreements reared into importance as early as 100 A.D. These were all groups that identified primarily as Christian, but they simply disagreed on what “Christianity” fundamentally entailed. Church councils were specifically held to reduce confusion amongst these fracturing Christian communities.

There was never one single accepted doctrine that followed straight from “the time of the apostles”.

They simply were part of the process of recognizing a canon that already existed.

The operative word here is “a”. Not the canon that exclusively existed, but a canon amongst many. The church councils between 325 A.D. and 787 A.D. (an exceedingly long period of time to be described as a “simple process”) were instrumental in recognizing a single canon that they endorsed in an attempt to unify the fracturing early Christian theologies. At the time of the early church councils, the largest Christian group was the Proto-orthodox church which would later come to be known as the Orthodox Church. These councils may have consolidated some authority concerning the biblical canon, but they were unsuccessful in maintaining a single unified church. During a several hundred year period the church broke into many pieces all claiming to be the true continuation of the Orthodox Church, including the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Assyrian Church, the Anglican Communion, and several others.

This process is repeated over and over throughout history. Even today the label of Christianity describes literally thousands of unique denominations with their own scriptural canons and interpretations. There is no one universally accepted “Bible” and there never has been. The largest and most powerful sub-groups simply declare ownership of the “one true doctrine”. Even if most of those denominations agree on the primary canon, what good is it if they cannot come to a consensus on what that canon actually teaches?

Interestingly, the word orthodox, when understood in context of its Greek origins, comes from “orthos” which means “straight or right”, and “doxa” which means “opinion”. Words like Orthodox and Canon hold a powerful weight in our modern language, but ultimately the church councils of the time simply declared themselves the holders of the “right opinion” (orthodoxy) concerning the “rule” (canon) of scripture. They defined themselves into authority.

2. Early Christians believed that canonical books were self-authenticating.

Another authenticating factor was the internal qualities of each book. These books established themselves within the church through their internal qualities and uniqueness as depicting Christ and his saving work. The New Testament canon we possess is not due to the collusions of church leaders or the political authority of Constantine, but to the unique voice and tone possessed by these writings.

It’s actually quite difficult to criticize this particular point because it is so maddeningly vague. What does it mean for a work of scripture to be “self-authenticating”? How do we quantify “internal quality and uniqueness”? How do we measure scripture as having “unique voice and tone”? We are given no examples and no definitions to work from. The meaning of self-authentication is pontificated throughout Christian biblical study, but since the author of this article provides literally zero citations we will work from his simple description as best we can.

Let’s work from the understanding that self-authentication is the appearance of internal consistency and a lack of self-contradiction. Unfortunately, this assumption stems from a failure in understanding the principles of the historical-critical method. The books of the Bible do not exist in a vacuum and we cannot rely on internal structure and content alone to confirm their reliability or accuracy in portraying historical events or revelations. Self-authentication is a term used to put a positive spin on the fallacies of survivorship bias and confirmation bias.

Many scriptures that were deemed “non-canonical” by the ruling churches have not survived because they were no longer transcribed, copied, or printed. This is the survivorship bias. We place special significance on the modern biblical canon in part because it survived by winning popular support in an important historical period. Missing and incomplete scriptures cannot be properly evaluated for their “internal quality and uniqueness”. In fact, a large percentage of the New Testament Gospels are believed to have originated from another long lost source referred to as “Q”.

Self-authentication may also be the result of confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is the process of only seeking out evidence or answers that confirm your existing conclusions. This is not necessarily a conscious or nefarious process, but it is antithetical to the historical-critical method. The books of the Bible have the appearance of internal consistency precisely because those were the criteria that church leaders looked for when choosing which scriptures to include in the canon, especially when those consistencies supported their thoughts concerning theological issues like the Trinity.

Confirmation bias can also be used to criticize whether the books of the Bible are actually internally consistent. Christians are more inclined to confirm their biased belief that the Bible is infallible by selectively referencing consistent verses while ignoring many that seem to be contradictory.

Finally, if self-authentication is a reliable way to conclude which scriptures are canonical, then wouldn’t that imply that reading scripture should generally lead everyone to similar conclusions? If so then why are there still disagreements as to authorship, historical accuracy, theological interpretation, and which books deserve inclusion in the Bible?

3. The New Testament books are the principle Christian writings we have.

The New Testament books are the earliest writings we possess regarding Jesus. The New Testament was completed in the first century. This means the writings include testimonies from eyewitnesses and were written within fifty years of the events, which cannot be said of any of the apocryphal literature often discussed in the news. This is particularly evident when it comes to the four gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the only gospel accounts that originate in the first century.

This point is quite welcome in a list entitled “things we need to know about the formation of the Bible”. Yes, the New Testament books are some of the earliest Christian writings we know of. It seems reasonable that this is precisely why they have been revered and included in biblical canon since the earliest days of the Proto-orthodox church. The implication in this point however, is that this is somehow relevant to their authenticity or accuracy.

Many Christians are not actually aware that the gospels were written long after Jesus’ death – or that many authors’ identities are unknown – or that they internally confirm that they are only restating accounts from other eyewitnesses(they were not eyewitnesses themselves). The formation of the New Testament was essentially a 50+ year game of telephone with words and deeds being passed from one group of people to another, long after Jesus had lived.

So while some Christians may consider these facts supportive of their position on biblical accuracy, they actually open up the Bible to more critical review and skepticism. When you avoid using biases or presuppositions to formulate your beliefs about the Bible you will find that biblical scholarship is no different than the methods we use to evaluate all historical texts. And those methods have led to a consensus among historians on many topics that are in direct conflict with modern church teachings.

4. The New Testament books directly relate to the apostolic testimony.

Unlike any book from that period or the following century, the New Testament books were directly connected to the apostles and their testimony of the resurrected Christ. The canon is intimately connected to their activities and influence. The apostles had the very authority of Christ himself (Matt. 28:18–20). Along with the Old Testament, their teachings were the very foundation of the church.  The church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets” (Eph. 2:20).

What qualifies a work of scripture as “directly connected to the apostles”? I’ve already given links above to articles concerning the authorship and dating of the New Testament books. And this is not the opinion of just a bunch of atheists on the internet. These are the consensus positions of biblical scholars and historians, many of which consider themselves Christians.

Despite the inconclusive identities and dates of authorship you can still make the claim of their testimony being “connected to the apostles” through the assumption of long lost oral and written traditions. Though the only evidence provided for this in the original article are references to Bible verses. This is called circular reasoning. How do we know that the events described in the Bible are true and come directly from the apostles? Apparently, because the Bible says so.

5. Some New Testament writers quote other New Testament writers as Scripture.

The belief in new revelation or a testament of books was not a late development. From the days of the apostles themselves, these writings were seen as unique in their authority and witness. This belief seems to be present in the earliest stages of Christianity. In 2 Peter 3:15–16, Peter refers to Paul’s letters as “Scripture,” which would have put them on a par with the books of the Old Testament. This is a significant fact that is often overlooked.

Should we expect anything else from a collection of books that has been curated for their internal consistency?

6. Early Christians used noncanonical writings without analogous authority.

Christians often cited noncanonical literature with positive affirmation for edification. Yet, Christians were simply using these books as helpful, illuminating, or edifying texts. Rarely was there confusion as to whether they were on a par with Scripture. These books were eventually disregarded according to the criteria of whether they had general acceptance, apostolicity, and self-authentication.

And here we get to the most important issue concerning the relevance of “canonicity”. Do any of these qualities attest to their accuracy? The obvious answer should be no.

None of the six points presented can be used to reliably conclude that the events described in the Bible are actually true. Non-canonical books may contradict some teachings within the traditional Orthodox canon, but most have equal historical evidence when it comes to confirming their supernatural claims, which is to say – none. Did Jesus exist? Probably. Was he resurrected from the dead? We can’t really know. We cannot conclude that dragons exist simply because they are described commonly and consistently in ancient writings and we cannot conclude that Jesus was resurrected for the same reason.

The Bible is full of claims. To evaluate these claims we must seek external sourcesand historical evidence that supports them. If we knew that the Bible provided accurate testimony then we could consider that testimony as one piece of evidence that could bolster supporting external evidence, but by using the historical-critical method we already know that the Bible’s authorship is unreliable.

This is not to say that the entire Bible should be considered a lie. Quite the contrary. There are many references within the Bible that can be confirmed with external sources. Names of towns and villages. Names of rulers and kings. Jewish cultural traditions and societal structures. We confirm these claims the same way historians confirm claims from any ancient text. However, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Being skeptical of supernatural claims in the Bible doesn’t make you a contrarian.

Skepticism should be the natural position when you apply the same level of criticism you would to the supernatural claims of any other religion.

[bibleinspectors-blog]

The Honest Dinner Prayer

Dear Lord,

We want to thank you for the food that you have provided for us today. We won't thank the farmers who grew the food, the workers who harvested it, or the businesses that stocked and sold it to us. You alone have provided this food by overriding the free will of all these other people in the chain that brought it to our table. If those people had true agency in their work then surely we should thank them instead. But we do not. We thank you, Lord.

We want to thank you for the incredible creation that this food represents. We reject the evidence for millions of years of evolution and the thousands of years of human cultivation that made the food edible. You alone created this gift in a way that contradicts all scientific consensus. If any natural processes resulted in this food before us then surely we would be grateful for the sheer complexity of nature and its bounty. But we are not. We are grateful to you, Lord.

We want to thank you for this food that reminds us of your sacrifice. We won't thank ourselves for the work we put in to earn the money that purchased this food. You alone have made the sacrifice that we must judge ourselves against - an impossible standard that you have defined. If we acknowledged the sacrifices that we have made for our families and our friends then we might enjoy this food with a sense dignity and satisfaction. But we do not. We dignify only you, Lord.

We pretend that this prayer is one of thanksgiving alone, but at the end we always ask that you continue to provide for us in the future. When our next meal comes we will give thanks again, but in our hearts we will accept it as an earthly reward for our unwavering faith and assurance that our prayers were heard. We really have no way of knowing, but we will continue to ask for simple things that our privileged lives will almost surely provide and use that as implicit confirmation of your existence. We do not doubt you, Lord.

Amen.