Eh. I’m sure this is pointless, but I did my undergrad in church history. The ‘overwhelming scholarship’ you reference just doesn’t exist. If anything, scholarship is overwhelming in the OTHER direction.
Just, take the canonization of the Bible for example. In THE MOST general of terms, a cannon was somewhat agreed upon about 250 years after the birth of Christ, and would go through a progressive series of additions, subtractions, and revisions until the 16th century!
One of the criteria for canonization was authorial integrity, that the book was written by who it claimed to be written by. What’s known as pseudepigraphy, or writing in another authors name pretending to be that person, was INCREDIBLY common in the ancient world. Modern scholars agree that Paul wrote 8 of the 13 books attributed to him. The other 5 are very questionable.
This is a good history of the subject: https://brill.com/view/title/13087
Bart D. Ehrman’s work is a good place to start reading, as far as general scholarly consensus is concerned: The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings https://www.amazon.com/dp/019020382X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_pd5dBb4EWCZRH
Be warned: you WILL find a lot of blogs and word press websites that refute these texts and authors with a scholarly front. You will not find serious, peer reviewed refutations of these authors or ideas.
So that raises an interesting question, doesn’t it? Isn’t all scripture God breathed? Did God lie when he said Paul wrote the books he didn’t?
Also, yes, scholars very much agree that the Bible, as a whole and in parts, is a continuity NIGHTMARE.
So, the words "infallible" and "inerrant" are pretty loaded terms, and not all Christians adhere to them.
If you're ok with your faith being challenged a bit (especially as it seems you may come from a pretty evangelical background), two books on that struggle with infallibility/inerrancy and ultimately adopt that problematic issues of things like genocide in the early books of the Old Testament reflect less on God and more on the cultural contexts and fallible authors of the Biblical texts are:
I do have to warn you that you may find some of the discussion around historical criticism challenging and even disturbing, but I like these two authors in particular because they don't throw the baby out with the bathwater--they're still Christians and yet they grapple honestly with difficulties in scripture.
I think you would like Reformed Epistemology then. Its thesis is that God can be immediately known without argumentation. It was developed by Alvin Plantinga in the book Warranted Christian Belief. The book Knowledge and Christian Belief is a condensed version, though.
>For instance, the first cause argument fails insofar as inventing a magical being to prevent infinite regress is no better than a non-theistic invention to address the problem.
I don't think you understand Aquinas' argument. Aquinas didn't believe that one could prove the existence of a finite past (although I do.) He is saying that no potentials right now could be actualized if there was not something that was itself unactualized and thus pure actuality. He then goes through nine questions of the Summa, defending this being as simple, good, perfect, omnipotent, infinite, omnipresent, immutable, eternal, and one.
I like the old ones, thinking specifically of Plato and Aristotle. There's something... primal? about their way of thinking that is super appealing. I like Kierkegaard, he taps into a bit of the same thing and is incredibly passionate. Wittgenstein's language games have been a super useful way for me to think about language, and Warranted Christian Belief by Alvin Plantinga changed the way I thought about beliefs as a whole.
Many pointed out that the Bible is quite hard to read from start to finish as the story parts are spread out and the genealogy/legal chapters can drag on quite a bit. In that case, has anyone read or heard about The Story: The Bible as One Continuing Story of God and His People? Seems like a spliced version of the NIV that focuses on the overarching “mythology” of the Bible — which is really what I’m actually interested in.
Oh boy the shit that's in the bible that doesn't make sense...
This book is a fantastic read. It's not at all political or anti-religious and doesn't go into the Christian message at all. It's just a guy who tries to live an entire year as close as possible to all the rules the Bible has. For example: you're not allowed to wear clothes with mixed fibers, you have to tell the literal and complete truth all the time, There's a description of some kind of hut you have to build for some festival that isn't even recognized anymore.
the book for you. a demonstration of how divorced from their original form are modern mainstream Christianity and Judaism. https://www.amazon.com/Year-Living-Biblically-Literally-Possible-ebook/dp/B000SEPAYO
Bart Ehrman is a historian of the Bible. He has many videos on youtube and has written many books about various aspects of the way Christianity developed. The latest that I read was How Jesus Became God, which describes the evolution of the theology of the trinity.
So this is not exactly what you are looking for but I think it is worth your time. It was great for our church and clearly had an impact on the overall church's understanding of scripture. This is the main link but there is a full study and we did a combination of Sunday sermons and small group study, not perfect, but still very awesome. The Story
Thanks for all you have shared thus far. For me my faith finally came full circle thanks to my personal encounters with God along with the rational evidence for God and the mysterious continuity of the gospels/scriptures.
I'm proud of you for being open and seeking, that is the first step. If you seem to hit barriers along the way then you are on the right track. :)
If you want a different format to get a general overview of the Bible don't hesitate to check out The Story While not the full Bible it does put things in a "story" format and can be a good place to gain an overall big picture view of the Bible.
And never hesitate to ask. I would know nothing about the Bible, Christ, the gospel, or anything else if it weren't for asking.
I always recommend "The Story" for people who are looking to dig into the Bible for the first time.
It contains about 1/4 of the literal text of the Bible (NIV - a modern language version) with little paragraphs in between the missing sections to fill you in on what they skipped over. The goal is to tell "the story" of the Bible without getting too bogged down in the finer points. Hits all the highlights. Sounds exactly like what you are looking for. It also does a nice job of pointing out with footnotes how certain sections lead to key points in the Christian faith.
You can think of it as a reader-friendly, abridged version.
One of the best books I've come across for doing precisely what you want is this college textbook:
The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings by Bart D. Ehrman http://www.amazon.com/New-Testament-Historical-Introduction-Christian/dp/019020382X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1444254562&sr=8-2&keywords=bart+ehrman+new+testament
Would go with the 6th edition published this year
This textbook is used in the Yale University course lectures taught by Dale Martin and available on YouTube (the entire semester of lectures are available).
I've now done both - the lectures are superb but the textbook goes into lots of detail that isn't covered in a high level lecture. The text book is very well written and an engaging read.
I would highly recommend Abraham Heschel's The Prophets. It is one of my favorite text on the prophets and it explores what a prophet is and how the prophet functions, as well as exploring specific prophets and their message. It is my favorite survey of the Hebrew prophets, and its very easy to read and actually beautifully written.
Also, whether you attend seminary or not, this text book - used by religious history departments and seminary schools at leading universities in the country, is one of the best to start from. It was just released in a 6th edition printing.
The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings Paperback – June 26, 2015 by Bart D. Ehrman (Author) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/019020382X/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687582&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0199757534&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0D5BJPZVC41X9XWCS6AA
If you wanted to save yourself some time, The Bible with Sources Revealed is color-coded.
This book covers it in great detail.
Basically, the more distant the gospels were from Jesus, the move divine he becomes. Originally he was just a really awesome dude, then he was divine, then he became god himself.
He goes from "My god, why have you forsaken me" (rather an odd thing to say to yourself about yourself) to "It is finished!"
There's a lot more than that, but basically early christianity went from a low christology (where he was a man) to a high Christology, where he was God. These changes are reflected in Bible.
The word "bible" (lowercase) is a generic term for any book or written work that is considered authoritative in its field, so by definition, it's not a work of fiction, but a comprehensive collection of factual statements.
If you're referring to "Bible" (uppercase), then I hope you weren't trying to offend me with your implication that it's fiction since that doesn't affect me at all personally. I've pretty much decided I'm agnostic and I respect others' right to their beliefs just as I expect them to respect mine. If you believe "The Bible" is a work of fiction, that's your right and I'm not going to tell you it's not. But to go out of your way to offend a huge segment of the population who regard it as their primary religious text is just bad manners, man. They believe it's "the literal word of God" and you're trying to rub their collective noses in the fact that you think they're wrong. You'll succeed in offending some of them. Congrats. Good job. A lot of the rest will probably pray for you. The rest will just ignore you which is probably the best policy.
Whether fact or fiction, I truly believe that book is a great instruction manual for how to live a morally sound life, e.g., treat people the way you want to be treated, don't murder people, etc. It's not without its faults though, most, if not all, of which are due to misinterpretation/misrepresentation by zealots. Pick up the Cliff Notes if you get some time. You might improve yourself a little.
I'm quite interested in Bible translation. I've read a little about actually doing the translation, down to author's nitpicking some of the decisions of the translation (see And God Said by Joel M. Hoffman), but I am very in the dark about the work that goes into it as a team project or how it is managed. I don't know if there's much information floating around, it's pretty hard to do a web search on "bible translation" and not be inundated with questions about "which bible translation should I use" and the like. My best bet would be to find a blog done by someone who has worked on one.
Sorry I'm not sure what you mean? Are you saying that you find Genesis is an unreliable source of information about God?
If you wish to understand why a Christian would plead with God to change something you must accept that the Christian (at least in my case) believes the bible is the most reliable source of information about the Character of God. You do not have to believe this your self, merely accept that my reasoning about the character of God is based on this, if you wish to understand my reasoning.
As for the contradiction, I'm afraid I do not see one. https://answersingenesis.org/who-is-god/face-to-face/ these guys attempt to explain. I just think if you believe God can take the form of man as with Jesus, prophetical referred to in the old testament as Emmanuel (God with us) then clearly different forms of God have different impacts on man. As the face of Jesus was seen by many men.
I would argue that looking for a contradiction in the bible while someone is trying to explain the Christian understanding of the character of God could be evidence of Confirmation bias. Or that you have very little interest in understanding the Christian view point, simply wishing to prove that you know better.
I would also argue that while there are some who hold to irrational beliefs Christian belief can take a rational form. I'm not arguing proof just that Christian belief need not be irrational. If you are interested here is on theologian that I believe holds such a rational Christian belief http://www.amazon.com/Warranted-Christian-Belief-Alvin-Plantinga/dp/0195131932
P.S sorry for the wall of text, did not mean to get carried away.