Can We Trust the New Testament? My Interview with Ratio Christi
Last week I did a live “TV” interview with Ratio Christi on the topic, “Can We Trust the New Testament?” The interview covered a wide range of topics from textual criticism to bible contradictions to the development of the NT Canon. Here it is:
Did the Gospel Authors Think They Were Writing Scripture?
One of the most common misconceptions about the New Testament canon is that the authors of these writings had no idea that they were writing Scripture-like books. I dealt with this misconception on a general level here, showing that there was a clear apostolic self-awareness amongst the New Testament authors.
While this apostolic self-awareness may be easy to show for authors like Paul, what about the gospels which, technically speaking, are formally anonymous? Do their authors exhibit awareness that they were writing something like Scripture? To explore this further, let us just consider just one of our gospels, namely the Gospel of Matthew.
The first step is to get … Continue reading...
Did Early Christians Believe That Jesus Would Return in Their Own Lifetime? Implications for Canon
One of the most-oft repeated ideas about the earliest Christians is that they believed that the Kingdom of God would come (apocalyptically) within their own lifetime. In fact Schweitzer famously argued that Jesus himself thought the world would end in his own lifetime; of course the world didn’t end and Jesus died disillusioned on the cross saying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34).
In recent years, some have suggested that this belief in early Christianity would even have affected the development of the canon. If Christians thought the world would end in their own lifetime, then, it is argued, they would not have … Continue reading...
Scripture in the Early Church: The 2017 Ligonier Winter Conference
A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to join R.C. Sproul, Michael Haykin, and Stephen Nichols for the Ligonier 2017 Winter Conference. The theme was “Scripture in the Early Church.”
There were a number of great sessions on a variety of topics related to early Christianity, such as “Preaching God’s Word in the Early Church,” “Living God’s Word in the Early Church,” and “Heresy in the Early Church.”
My session was on “God’s Word in the Early Church,” where I explored the unique qualities of our four gospels over against apocryphal texts like the Gospel of Thomas. You can watch here:… Continue reading...
What’s the Very First Time We See a NT Book Used as Scripture? My Article in the Festschrift for Stanley Porter
Few issues in the study of the NT canon have generated more discussion (and disagreement) than that of the canon’s date. When were Christian writings first regarded as “Scripture”? When was the first time we can see that happening?
For many modern scholars, the key time is the end of the second century. Only then, largely due to the influence of Irenaeus, were these books first regarded as Scripture.
But, I think there is evidence that NT books were regarded as Scripture much earlier. And some of this evidence is routinely overlooked. A good example is the widely neglected text tucked away in 1 Tim 5:18:
…For the Scripture says,
Continue reading...