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Responding to Newsweek’s Take on the Bible, Part 4 More Claims of Contradictions and Conclusion
We now come to the fourth and final part of my assessment of the Newsweek article on the Bible. It deals with more claims of contradictions, the role of women in Scripture, and homosexuality. Remaining Claims of Contradiction On Differing Creation stories and JE theory: Again we see here the general skeptical formula “difference equals contradiction” is applied. It is not the only option. Genesis 1 is an overview account as seen in its symmetry. Genesis 2 has more detail. This contention is an old one that prefers critical source theory to a sensitive literary reading and seeing distinct ways of summarizing dependent on the form being literarily applied. Only…
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Responding to Newsweek’s Take on the Bible, Part 3 On Three Kings and Claims about Differences and Contradictions
We now turn to the third section of the Newsweek article that makes various claims about contradictions in the New Testament. On Three Kings and Other Differences •On the Nativity: Yes, there are two stories of Jesus’ birth. These are not contradictions as is claimed but two perspectives on one event. Again sensitive literary reading helps. Matthew is told from Joseph’s angle, while Luke is told from Mary’s. If you ask almost any couple how they came together, each will have their own take on what took place and select their own details with some overlap and some difference in the selection. One can play the stories against each other…
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Responding to Newsweek’s Take on the Bible, Part 2 Translation Issues and Constantine
We now tackle the next section in Eichenwald's article on Translation Issues and Constantine's impact. •On translation differences: The reasons translations differ is not because Koine, as Eichenwald claims, can’t be expressed in English, but because (1) one has choices to make about some terms, (2) Greek order is more flexible than English (for NT), and (3) there are often a variety of ways to express the same idea (as translators often have good choices between synonyms). Beyond this sometimes there is a real question on (4) how to best translate a term to get the contextual meaning and (5) there can be differences in the manuscripts that make a…
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Responding To Newsweek’s Take on the Bible, Part 1 On the Base Biblical Text- Do We Really Know What We Have?
First of all, it has been a while. My travel and end of semester responsibilities kept me fairly busy the last few months, but I am back. Let me begin by wishing everyone a Happy New Year and Blessed 2015. I let a week pass before deciding to write about Newsweek's latest take on the Bible, an article called THE BIBLE SO MISUNDERSTOOD IT'S A SIN, by Kurt Eichenwald, a former investigative reporter for the New York Times. I have been asked about it by email. I have decided to go one section at a time through the article, so this will start a series of responses coming over the…
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Newsweek’s Gay Marriage Propaganda Piece
The Dec. 15 issue of Newsweek features a breathtakingly biased essay called “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage.” The author, Lisa Miller, has a high view of homosexuality and a low view of scripture—and an even lower view of those of us who dare trust in God’s word. (Managing Editor Jon Meacham supports Ms. Miller’s piece in his column: he says the “conservative resort to biblical authority is the worst kind of fundamentalism.”) Both Ms. Miller’s logic and her understanding of scripture and theology are riddled with problems. Let’s look at a few. The biblical illustrations of marriage are so undesirable that no sensible person would want theirs to look…