Bible Secrets Revealed?: A Response to the New History Channel Series (Part 5)
This is the fifth installment of a series of posts reviewing the new History Channel series entitled Bible Secrets Revealed (for others installements, see here, here, here, and here). I am now a few episodes behind due to (a) the holiday break, and (b) the fact that History Channel locked all their videos and restricted access. Not sure why they did this, but I have finally found a way to view them online.
The latest episode is entitled, “Mysterious Prophecies,” and examines the role of prophets in the history of Israel and the Church. Did these prophets really predict the future? Were the prophecies true? In particular, … Continue reading...
Bible Secrets Revealed?: A Response to the New History Channel Series (Part 4)
This is the fourth installment of a new series reviewing the History Channel series entitled Bible Secrets Revealed (for others, see here, here and here). The newest episode is entitled, “The Real Jesus,” and addresses the question of what we can know about the historical Jesus.
Not surprisingly, the tenor of this latest episode is the same as the other episodes, namely that the accounts of the Bible (in this case, the Gospels) cannot be trusted. This documentary catalogs a number of places where (it claims) the Gospels are simply mistaken. Let’s run through some issues that are raised.
1. The Virgin Birth. Almost from the start, … Continue reading...
Bible Secrets Revealed?: A Response to the New History Channel Series (Part 3)
This is the third installment of a new series reviewing the History Channel series entitled Bible Secrets Revealed (for others, see here and here). The newest episode is entitled, “The Forbidden Scriptures,” as is definitely one of the most provocative so far. It is designed to argue that certain books were “banned” or “forbidden” from the New Testament.
This episode makes numerous claims about the development of the New Testament that, once again, prove not to be the whole story. Many such claims were made, but I will only mention a few of the key ones here.
1. Was the canon just a power-play? This episode repeats the standard … Continue reading...
Bible Secrets Revealed? A Response to the New History Channel Series (Part 1)
This past week, the History Channel premiered a new series on the Bible entitled, Bible Secrets Revealed. The first full episode was called Lost in Translation, and can be viewed here.
Now, let me say that I really do enjoy documentaries on the Bible. They are usually done with very high quality, contain interviews of some of the world’s top scholars, and often raising intriguing and important questions. But, there are also dangers. Such documentaries run the risk of being overly sensationalistic, one-sided, and ultimately misleading.
Unfortunately, this new documentary from the History Channel tends to falter at precisely these points. While there are many positives–great production … Continue reading...
Did Justin Martyr Know the Gospel of John?
There has been a long-standing scholarly discussion about how far back we can trace the roots of the fourfold gospel. We certainly see it in Irenaeus, who is quite plain about his view, “It is not possible that the gospels can be either more or fewer than the number they are. For, since there are four zones of the world in which we live and four principle winds… [and] the cherubim, too, were four-faced” (Haer. 3.11.8).
But, can we trace the fourfold gospel back even further? Justin Martyr, an early Christian apologist writing c.150-160, is a key player in this debate. He clearly knows the Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark … Continue reading...