Is the New Testament
Reliable? ©
By Brachah Rivkah R.
Classmate Of Dr. Akiva
Gamliel Belk
One
of my first questions was to the validity of the New Testament.
I
have read many of the recent books published saying that the New Testament is
true and valid but what does not come across and where my questions remained
was to the autographs and as I understand it, it is these that are
supposed to be the original documents.
If the autographs are extant – unavailable then what am I basing
my belief on? Could I continue to
believe in a text that cannot be substantiated?
The
term canon comes from a Greek word that means measuring rod or straight
edge. It came to refer to a standard and then to a standard
collection of writings.
So
on this basis the New Testament is referred to as the Canon.
The
following reference reveals the evolution of this Canon.
The
creation of the New Testament did not occur until the late 4th
century.
Around
100 there were different parts being passed around but no clear definition
existed. By 200 the Muratorian
Canon was used by the church at Rome.
By 250 the canon used was put together by Origen. By 300 the canon used was put together
by Eusebius. Finally by 400 the
New Testament was fixed for the West by the Council of Carthage.[1]
Jerome
(340 – 420) was one of the early church fathers. He is remembered as the
great Roman Catholic biblical scholar and translator of the Latin Vulgate.
He
was heavily influenced by Origen and copied many of his works. We find the first mention of Jerome and
his work in
JeromeŐs
work was written at Bethlehem in 492 of what is commonly known as the common
era. He compiled a list of 135
Ecclesiastical writers – those who had published any memorable writing on
the holy scriptures, from the time of our lordŐs passion until the fourteenth
year of the Emperor Theodosius.
The
list begins with Simon Peter and ends with himself and is a chronological
rendering of texts both orthodox and heretical. He later went on to write a commentary on the whole
Christian bible.[2]
Pioneers
in the early Church. The first of
these is Marcion ( circa 150 ), a heretic who repudiated the OT and
Judaism and produced a truncated NT canon to conform to his teaching. By so doing, he moved the Church to
counter his teaching by producing an orthodox NT canon.[3]
Is
the New Testament reliable?
Augustine
( 354-430 ), the great theologian of the Western Church, laid down in his De
consensu evangelistarum ( 400 ) the principles that affected the treatment of
Syntactic differences for over a millennium; he was aware that the order of the
gospel narratives sometimes reflects general recollection rather than strict
chronological history and that the words of Jesus are often reported with an
accuracy that preserves only their sense, rather than being given verbatim.
How
can the New Testament be seen as reliable and considered
the
Spoken W-rd of G-d if only a sense of the original was preserved?
According
to the Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics
Bible,
Evidence for:
The
Bible claims to be and proves to be the W-rd of G-d. It was written by Prophets of G-d, under the Inspiration of
G-d. The references given are:
1
Kings 12.22, 14.18,
Isaiah 42.19, 30.9-10
Hosea 9.7
Ezekiel 3.17[4]
So
can one prove that the New Testament is reliable from these texts?
Deuteronomy
18.18 G-d Said to Moses of a Prophet, I will Put My Words in his mouth, and
he shall speak to them all that I Command him.
He
added, You shall not Add to the Word which I Command you, nor Take Away from
It.
Deuteronomy 4.2
A
Prophet was someone who said what G-d Told him to Say.
All
of the above proofs are from what Christians call the Old Testament but are in
reality the Jewish Tenach. All of
the above proofs are speaking only of what Christians call the Pentateuch which
is the Torah, the first five books in the Christian Bible. So these texts cannot refer to what had
not yet been written. If one
applies logical thinking to their analysis of what is purported to be proof of
the validity and reliability of the New Testament one comes away confused and
uncertain as to whether or not what you have believed to be true really
is. At least that is where I
started.
How
can I continue to consider that the New Testament is reliable if one cannot
find proof that what now exists is what was taught at the time Jesus lived?
In
Mr. GeislerŐs book: Bible,
Alleged Error in. He says, Critics claim the Bible is filled with errors. Some even speak of thousand of
mistakes. However, orthodox
Christians through the ages have claimed that the Bible is without error in the
original text. [5]
Note
that none of the original texts exist so there is no way to prove the validity
of the texts we do have.
Take
for instance the book of Matthew.
No
one really knows who Matthew is, at least not the one who claims to have
written the New Testament book of Matthew. This name is like a pen name used during that period of
history, one would write under an assumed name. History shows that this was a common practice during the
time that Matthew was written.
There is no way of finding out who this person really was because there
are no documents that provide this information. So there is no way of proving who this person really
was. This information can be found
in a college course on DVD called Lost Christianities: Christian
Scriptures and the Battles over Authentication[6]
Dr.
Ehrman states:
The
issue of pseudepigraphy, where works are
not actually written by the person whose name has been signed to them—what
we might call forgery—plays a large role in the development of the New
Testament.
Yet
other books are pseudonymous – forgeries by people who explicitly claim
to be someone else. Included in
this group is almost certainly 2 Peter, probably the pastoral Epistles of 1 and
2 Timothy and Titus, quite likely the deutero-Pauline Epistles of 2
Thessalonians, Colossians, and Ephesians, and possibly 1 Peter and Jude. [7]
If
you read through the New Testament with an open mind you really do find
inconsistencies that cannot be resolved from the text.
For
instance – from the Net Bible:[8]
Ephesians
2.8
For
by grace are you saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is
the Gift of G-d.
Philippians
2.12
So
then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but
even more in my absence, continue working out your salvation with awe and
reverence.
Galatians
3.6-7
Just
as Abraham Believed G-d and it was credited to him as righteousness, so then,
understand that those who believe are the sons of Abraham.
Genesis
15.6
Abram
Believed the L-rd, and the L-rd Considered his response of faith as proof of
genuine loyalty.
So
is one saved by faith alone? By
grace alone? By loyalty to G-dŐs
Torah?
If
you are Catholic you resolve this issue by accepting the churchŐs interpretation
of these verses. If you are among
the Protestant faith you resolve these inconsistencies that say you are saved
by grace through faith and then are able to be loyal to G-d, to follow G-dŐs
Way but never follow G-dŐs Torah.
I am still left wondering if the text of the New Testament can be relied
upon because of these inconsistencies.
How can the New Testament be considered reliable when it says that you
are not to follow G-dŐs Torah, G-dŐs Teachings as did Abraham?
Mark
2.23-28
23 Jesus was going through the grain fields on a
Sabbath, and his disciples began to pick some heads of wheat as they made their
way.
24 So the Pharisees said to him, Look, why
are they doing what is against the law on the Sabbath?
25 He said to them, Have you never read what
David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry –
26 how he entered the house of God when
Abiathar was high priest52 and ate the sacred bread, which is
against the law for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to his companions?
27 Then he said to them, The Sabbath was made
for people, not people for the Sabbath.
28 For this reason the Son of Man is lord
even of the Sabbath.
Footnote
52
1
Samuel 21.1-6
Then David got up and
left, while Jonathan went back to the city.
1 David went to
Ahimelech the priest in Nob. Ahimelech was shaking with fear when he met David, and
said to him, Why are you by yourself with no one accompanying you?
2 David replied to
Ahimelech the priest, The king instructed me to do something, but he said to me,
DonŐt let anyone know the reason I am sending you or the instructions I have
given you. I have told my soldiers to wait at a certain place.
3 Now what do you
have at your disposal? Give me
five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found.
4 The priest replied to
David, I donŐt have any ordinary bread at my disposal. Only holy bread is
available, and then only if your soldiers have abstained from sexual relations
with women.
5 David said to the
priest, Certainly women have been kept away from us, just as on previous
occasions when I have set out. The soldiersŐ equipment is holy, even on an
ordinary journey. How much more so will they be holy today, along with their
equipment!
6 So the priest gave
him holy bread, for there was no bread there other than the Bread of the
Presence. It had been removed from before the L-rd in order to replace it with
hot bread on the day it had been taken away.
The book of Mark says Abiathar
was high priest but the quote is from 1 Samuel 21.1-6 and we find that Ahimelech
the priest in Nob.
Did Mark make a
mistake? Can we still believe that
the New Testament is reliable if even one mistake is found? Many more inconsistencies can be
brought out like the geneologies in Mathew and Luke.
Why
would G-d Make so many inconsistent statements and leave one wondering what to
believe? Research with an open
mind led me to search out and find where and what the real Truth is. My search is not over. I continue challenging everything I
read. I continue to seek out
answers to my questions but I have found that what is Written in the Torah is
Truth.
So
Is the New Testament reliable? Can
I base my eternal salvation on a document riddled with errors and
inconsistencies? Can I continue to
believe the New Testament is as reliable and the Christian church says it is?
No
Would you like to learn at B'nai Noach Torah Institute?
Would you like to communicate with one of our Teachers?
Would you like to ask some questions?
Here's how: Write to the address below. Do NOT use upper case letters
[1] Church
History in Plain Language
Bruce L. Shelley
Thomas Nelson Publishers
Nashville Tennessee
Page 67
[2] Nicene and
Post-Nicene Fathers
Second Series Volume 3
Hendrickson Publishers
Peabody, Massachusetts
Second Printing 1995
Page 353
[3] The Jerome
Biblical Commentary
Prentice Hall
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 1968
Chapter 41 page 8
[4] Baker
Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics
by Norman L. Geisler
Baker Books Grand Rapids Michigan
Page 91
[6] Lost
Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battles over Authentication
Taught by Bart D. Ehrman
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Masters in Divinity, Ph.D., Princeton Theological Seminary
[7] Lost
Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battles over Authentication
Bart D. Ehrman
Published by Oxford University Press
New York, NY
page 235