What do scholars say about the bible

Funk said it is understandable that the findings and working assumptions in biblical critical studies sound so strange to the average Christian. Though church tradition says the apostles Matthew and John wrote those Gospels, mainstream biblical specialists doubt that any gospel writer knew Jesus during his lifetime. The gospel writers, they say, were dependent on written and oral accounts that had already undergone theological changes reflecting the needs or expectations of believers.

Attempts to peel back those layers have continued, off and on, for years, but rarely do advances in the field receive wide notice in churches. In addition, liberal scholarship has maintained for decades that gospel writers had Jesus say and do things that hark back to Old Testament language and deeds.

An evangelical Protestant scholar, Robert H. Gundry of Westmont College in Santa Barbara, maintained in a commentary on Matthew a few years ago that Jesus was not the source for all of the beatitudes in Matthew. The Gundry affair has sent up warning flags among evangelical Protestants, however. The Oct. But the panel stopped short of saying that Bible writers invented events that did not occur. Editor Kenneth Kantzer seconded the panel, declaring that the biblical authors always tell the truth.

In describing Jesus being led to his execution, John recounts that he carried his own cross. But Mark disagrees by saying a man called Simon carried the cross.

As for the crucifixion, Matthew tells us Jesus was taunted by both criminals who were being crucified with him. There are even contradictions in the accounts of the resurrection — the supposed event that is the very foundation of the Christian religion. Mark states that on the day of the resurrection, certain women arrived at the tomb at the rising of the sun.

But John informs us they arrived when it was yet dark. Luke describes the tomb as open when the women arrived, whereas Matthew indicates it was closed. Mark declares that the women saw a young man at the tomb, Luke says they saw two men, Matthew reports they saw an angel, and John claims they saw two angels.

Also in the resurrection stories, there are contradictions as to the identity of the women who came to the tomb,[7] whether the men or angels the women saw were inside or outside the tomb,[8] whether the men or angels were standing or sitting,[9] and whether Mary Magdalene recognized the risen Jesus when he first appeared to her.

Acts states that when Jesus called Paul to preach the gospel, the men who were with Paul heard a voice but saw no man. The foregoing examples are just a few of the hundreds of contradictions contained in the Old and New Testaments. Each contradiction is an instance where at least one of the verses is wrong. Thus, hundreds of contradictions mean there are at least hundreds of incorrect statements in the Bible. Humanists also reject the Bible because it approves of outrageous cruelty and injustice.

In civilized legal systems, a fundamental principle is that the suffering of the innocent is the essence of injustice. Yet the Bible teaches that God repeatedly violated this moral precept by harming innocent people. Instances of cruel and unjust behavior by the biblical God are seen in the most basic Christian doctrines. He damned the whole human race and cursed the entire creation because of the acts of two people Genesis ; Romans ; he drowned pregnant women and innocent children and animals at the time of the Flood Genesis ; he tormented the Egyptians and their animals with hail and disease because pharaoh refused to let the Israelites leave Egypt Exodus ,25 ; and he killed Egyptian babies at the time of the Passover Exodus Besides the unfairness and heartlessness contained in many well-known Christian teachings, the Bible has other violent tales that are opposed to civilized standards of morality.

Among the most shocking Bible passages are those that portray God as ordering or approving the extermination of various people, including children and the elderly. Here are examples:. These verses expose the biblical God as having the morals of a sociopathic mass murderer. The God of the Bible displayed his sadistic tendencies by employing a variety of other means to torment and kill people.

He caused the earth to open and swallow entire families Numbers ; he used fire to devour people e. He sent wild animals such as bears II Kings , lions II Kings , and serpents Numbers to attack people; he sanctioned slavery e.

The biblical God is also guilty of inflicting punishments that are grossly disproportionate to the acts committed. In the American legal system, such disproportion violates the U. Obviously, to punish people who are completely innocent, as seen in the preceding Bible verses, constitutes punishment that is horribly disproportionate to the moral culpability of the recipients.

In the New Testament, God became far worse in regard to imposing excessively severe punishments. It would be hard to imagine anything more cruel and disproportionate than punishing people with eternal torture for mere disbelief that Jesus was the son of God. The inability to believe that proposition harms no one, and it has been disbelieved by some of the greatest benefactors of humanity.

Nonetheless, God promises to punish them and all other nonbelievers with the most horrible pain conceivable. A serious problem with the violence and injustice in the Bible is that, all too often, the teachings and example of the biblical God have incited cruel acts by his followers.

Many of them reasoned that since God, who is considered just and loving, committed or approved of the most brutal acts, good Christians need not have qualms about behaving likewise. McCabe reports that during the Middle Ages, there was more torture used in Christian Europe than in any society in history. The main cause of this cruelty was the Christian doctrine of eternal punishment. Other historical examples of violent and unjust acts supported by biblical teachings include: the Inquisition; the Crusades; the burning of witches; religious wars; pogroms against Jews; persecution of homosexuals; forceful conversions of heathens; slavery; beatings of children; brutal treatment of the mentally ill; suppression of scientists; and whippings, mutilations, and violent executions of persons convicted of crimes.

Those acts were a regular part of the Christian world for centuries. Humanists believe that those claims are both wrong and harmful. As a result of human observation and experience, a fundamental principle of science is that the laws of nature do not change, cannot be violated, and have acted uniformly over time.

According to paleontologist Stephen J. Indeed, without the assumption that the physical world operates according to unchanging natural laws, there would be no use studying the world, conducting experiments, or otherwise learning from experience. In a world not operating under unvarying natural laws, those acts would be useless because knowledge of past events would not provide guidance about what will happen in similar situations in the future.

There would always be the possibility of supernatural forces intervening to alter outcomes from what would otherwise be expected to occur based on past experience. Overwhelming evidence shows that physical events occur according to immutable natural laws. By claiming that supernatural beings intervene in the world, the Bible opposes the scientific principle of natural laws operating uniformly and unvaryingly. As a result, the Bible discourages a scientific approach to problems.

The Bible has stories about a talking snake Genesis ; a tree bearing fruit which, when eaten, gives knowledge of good and evil Genesis ; ; another tree whose fruit bestows immortality Genesis ; a voice coming from a burning bush Exodus ; a talking donkey Numbers ; rods turning into serpents Exodus ; water changing into blood Exodus ; water coming from a rock Numbers ; a dead man reviving when his corpse touched the bones of a prophet II Kings ; and other people rising from the dead e.

These biblical myths support the belief, which has been held by primitive and illiterate people throughout history, that supernatural beings frequently and arbitrarily intervene in this world. Our experience is that the natural world operates according to principles of regularity — which are never violated. We also know from experience that many people are often mistaken or dishonest.

Because of believing that supernatural beings control the world, people have often misdirected their energies in attempting to solve problems. Instead of studying the world to discover scientific solutions to problems, they performed religious activities in an effort to obtain the assistance of benevolent supernatural beings or thwart the influence of malicious ones.

This misdirection of energies is seen, for instance, in the history of the attempts to prevent the outbreak and spread of diseases in Europe. The historian Andrew White relates that, during many centuries in the Middle Ages, the filthiness of European cities repeatedly caused great plagues that sent multitudes to their graves.

Based on biblical teachings, Christian theologians during those centuries thought the plagues were caused by the anger of God or the malevolence of Satan. It contains numerous instances of God punishing people by means of pestilence e.

Several have found their view of the Bible considerably broadened as a result of wrestling with contemporary social concerns such as feminism, sexuality, ecology, race relations, poverty, and justice. The book also offers some nuggets of advice for scholars beginning their academic careers. Arranged in alphabetical order as per the book , here is a brief summary of a few of the highlights of each sketch:.

Richard Bauckham, a trained historian, experienced no crisis of faith in his academic studies. For him, a critical historical approach to Scripture affirms the reality of the Jesus of the Gospels; the Gospels are firmly rooted in actual history, though not in a simplistic sense. Walter Brueggemann, raised in the tradition of German pietism, has never been troubled by historical or doctrinal conflicts in the Bible; his is a more artistic, imaginative, post-critical, liberationist approach to the Bible, driven by a passion for social justice.

For Brueggemann, the Bible offers a divine alternative to the toxic ways of contemporary society, and the gospel is about emancipation. Ellen F. Davis sees her work with African Christians as the most formative influence on her teaching and writing for the church. Seeking to be guided by the Spirit speaking through others and in her own life, she became aware through Christians in South Sudan that her teaching of the Bible must deal with the practical realities of a suffering world.

James D. Dunn found that academic study helped to shift his focus away from the problematic details of the Bible to its primary teachings, but posed no significant crisis of faith. Although his thinking and writing on the New Testament and the shaping of early Christianity has evolved and broadened over his career, his faith remains strong—though he is less satisfied now with the adequacy of words to express that faith.

Gordon D. Instead, says Baden, they see a much more gradual process, in which material from numerous smaller sources was layered together over a longer period of time. Beginning around 70 A.

But for more than a century, scholars have generally agreed that the Gospels, like many of the books of the New Testament, were not actually written by the people to whom they are attributed.

In fact, it seems clear that the stories that form the basis of Christianity were first communicated orally, and passed down from generation to generation, before they were collected and written down. Traditionally, 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament were attributed to Paul the Apostle , who famously converted to Christianity after meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus and wrote a series of letters that helped spread the faith throughout the Mediterranean world.

These are believed to have been written between A.