There are hundreds upon thousands of ancient text that have been discovered, read, and debated among scholars and people of interest. Out of all these ancient texts, the Bible is considered the greatest collection of ancient writings that have truly influenced the world for generations. The Christian Bible consist of 66 or more books that are divided into two sections, the Old Testament and New Testament. The Old Testament consist of books that were written before the time of Jesus Christ. The New Testament consist of books written during and after the time of Jesus Christ. When it comes to the Bible, Christians often have their own views and interpretations on the Bible such as Christians debating about whether there is predestination, …show more content…
I gained knowledge about each of the New Testament books both individually as well as different views and interpretations for each of the books. One of the most impacting insights that I learned during the course was the different views on when the Gospels of Mathew, Mark, and Luke were written. There are multiple theories on how and when the first three gospels were written, according to Gundry this is called the synoptic problem (Gundry, 2012). The synoptic problem contains six different views with some of these views being the oral tradition hypothesis, the Griesbach hypothesis, and the Mark-Mathew hypothesis (Gundry, 2012). My view on the Bible was impacted when I read about the synoptic problem because it gave me insight and knowlege that the first three Gospel might have had a more complex origin than when I first thought. Before reading about the synoptic problem in chapter five of Gundry, I believed in the oral tradition hypothesis like many Christians do, but now I believe in either the Griesbach hypothesis or the Mark-Mathew hypothesis because both of these theories seem to be more convincing to me than the oral tradition hypothesis after reading chapter five of Gundry. Another impacting insight I learned in this course was learning about the Apostle Paul and his letters. When I was reading chapter twelve of Gundry, I was surprised to …show more content…
The course itself mostly refined my views on the Bible, but there were some minor changes as well. After taking this course, I still believe that Jesus Christ is both God and man as well as the Bible being the inspired word of God. The course itself only brought more support to both of these views that I believed in at week one. I would say that my views on the Bible were refined in the sense that my views on the Bible have more depth to them now than my views previously had during the first week of the course. Many of the views that I previously had that could be classified as traditional Church views were changed slightly, such as now, I believe that the first three Gospels were written according to either the Griesbach hypothesis or the Mark-Mathew hypothesis because of the similarities the first three Gospels have with each other. My acquired learning of the New Testament has impacted my life because I now understand that there is more complexity to the Bible then I previously believed and that there isn’t always a simple answer to everything when it comes to the Bible. The course has really made it more clearly to me that the most important thing to do as a Christian is to have faith and trust in God in that he knows what he’s doing and to not worry about the little
The most highly referenced and revered as sacred are The King James Version, considered a masterpiece of English literature, The Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, The Aprocrypha, the books believed left out of some bibles, The Vulgate, the Latin Bible used for centuries by the Roman Catholic religion, and The Septuagint, the first ancient Greek translation of the Tanakh (Geisler and Nix 15, McCallum 4). The Bible is considered a sacred text by three major world religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Many believers consider it to be the literal truth. Others treat it with great respect, but believe that it was written by human beings and, thus is often contradictory in its tenets.
The Old Testament and the Bible itself has been studied extensively for centuries. Archeologists and Scholars have labored and pondered over texts trying to decipher its clues. It does not matter how many times the Old Testament has been studied there will always be something new to learn about it or the history surrounding it. In the book Reading the Old Testament: an Introduction, the author Lawrence Boadt presents us with a few different authors of the Old Testament that used different names for God and had a unique insight into the texts. These four sources are titled P for priests, E for Elohim, J for Jehovah, and Y for Yahweh (95). These four unique sources help us realize that there is more than one author of the Pentateuch. These authors took the text and adapted for their culture. This independent source is used by scholars to help gain insight into what was behind the texts of the bible so we are not left with an incomplete picture of what went into the creation of the bible. Julius Wellhausen used these four sources to publish a book to able us to better understand the sources and to give it credibility with the Protestant scholars at the time (Boadt 94). These sources that is independent of the bible as in the DVD Who Wrote the Bible? and the Nova website aide in shedding light on the history that surrounded the writers who wrote the text and what inspired them to write it in the first place. The DVD shows the discovery of The Dead Sea Scrolls and the extensive history of the texts and all its sources in an effort to try to find exactly who wrote the bible (Who Wrote). These scrolls have aided scholars immensely by giving us some of the oldest known manuscripts of the bible in the world today. It shows that the bible w...
There are many different forms of covenants in the Old testament that the people of God agree to. The first one being looked at is between God and Abraham. God promised Abraham a great nation and God said he would bless Abraham (Gen 2:2). God also promised him the Promise Land (Gen 15:18) and said he would be the father of many nations (Gen 17:4). All God asked of him was devotion from him and his people and to have circumcision be the sign from the people (Gen 17:11). The promises of the covenant directly impact Abraham, but they also impacted the people who would follow. God would also use these vows in other covenants because they had historic meaning. The Mosaic covenant has several similarities to the Abrahamic covenant. God told Moses that he would make the people of Israel his treasured possessions (Exo 19:5), which corresponds with the promise of blessings in the first covenant. God also promises to bring the people into the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exo 6:8). God still expected the people to follow and adhere to his words and the sign he required was following the ten commandments. These covenants were made when the people were forced to be a nomadic due to persecution. The promise of blessings and nations and land was something the people needed. The next covenant God made was with King David, this covenant also resembles the Abrahamic covenant. After the people had settled into their land God talks to King David, through the prophet Nathan. God tells David he will have a child who will establish a kingdom forever (2 Sam 7:13) and the kingdom, as well as the house, will be forever and his child will not lose the throne (2 Sam 7:16). These promises are like the ones made to Abraham, both are promised nat...
Carson, D. A., and Douglas J. Moo. 2005. An introduction to the new testament. Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan.
It contains sixty-six smaller books, and those books are divided into two different parts, called the Old Testament and the New Testament (“Fast Facts about the Bible”). The Old Testament has thirty-nine books, and even those books are divided into sections. The first five books of the Bible make up the Pentateuch, which contains the laws that the early Israelites had to live by. The next group of books are the Historical books, which tell the stories of many different people that Christians look up to. After those come the books of Poetry, and the Major and Minor Prophets. In the New Testament, there are twenty-seven books, which are also made up of different parts. The first four books in the New Testament are different accounts of the Gospel of Jesus, which tells of His life and ministry on Earth. Those are followed by the Church’s history, and Paul’s letters to the churches from that time period. And, the last book of the Bible is a part of its own theme, the prophecy. It depicts the future events of the world, and what will happen during the end
...ognizing wrong perceptions; experiencing something that changes opinions permanently; and last, but not least, developing new convictions, opinions, and perceptions. These are phases that we go through as Christ Followers as well. We are called to be dynamic so that people can see Christ alive in us. In order to do that, we must allow God and Christ to change our perception to match the reality to which He has called us. He accomplishes this through His Own ways, and we must remain malleable like clay in His hands. He is the potter, and we are called to trust Him. He always makes beautiful pots that abundantly hold the Spirit! The Author has created the grandest plot in the most mind-blowing tale of all time. The study question thus arises; are we willing to accept change and be the character He has designed for us to be? The answer is written clearly in our lives.
The Bible is our textbook life, and it also places a high value on doctrine. God wants us to know important things, and gave us the bible to help, and guide us. Unfortunately, many Christians know very little about the Bible and its Christian doctrine. We believers put our interest in other things, and know a lot about things that do not matter. In Romans 6: 1 introduces us to the major doctrines of the Christian faith.
The New Testament is a part of the Christian Canon, which is inclusive of the Old and New Testament. The New Testament consists of twenty-seven books, and is the foundation of the Christian religion. The New Testament has set the bar for Christianity as a religion, but many questions surround the New Testament. These questions surrounding the New Testament have continuously sparked controversy. The Old Testament revealed how worshipers of Christianity were to live their lives, and helped to guide them through their lives. Many do not question the validity of the Old Testament. Books were left out essentially fitting into what the church wanted, and not seeing eye to eye with their Christian ideals. The New Testament
The New Oxford Annotated Bible: With the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, New Revised Standard Version. Michael D. Coogan, editor. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.
The Old Testament is divided into six major sections. During each of these sections, elements of Old Testament history foreshadow various New Testament themes and events. Some of these various accounts recorded in the Old Testament are prophetical in nature and foretell specific details about various events that will be fulfilled in New Testament times. Each of the six major sections carries its own unique overarching theme that will in some way tie into New Testament history and theology. The six major sections of Old Testament are: creation (Genesis 1-11), covenant (Genesis 12-50), congr...
For sure,for sure. I don’t know that I could ever see the Bible the same after this course! But it does indeed open me up to new approaches in my own analysis and study, as well as how I talk about the Bible moving forward. Best of all, My Faith has Survived!, and was even a bit enhanced.
Over 1,000 pages long, comprised of 66 books, completely translated into over 500 languages, and is the best-selling book with over 5 billion copies sold, is the Holy Bible. The Holy Bible is the book used in the Christian faith, known as the “Word of God” to many believers. This book, the Holy Bible, has crossed the line from an object to a thing, in my life. The Bible provides me with comfort, the guidance I need in my everyday life, and connects me to God. Without the Bible, my life would never be the same.
The bible is what helps keeps our faith alive as it contains a rich amount of history that tells us of God’s revelation and the ways how our faith works. Although the bible contains numerous works of different people, it is still a work of God that helps our faith remain constant and grow, as everything written was under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In some way, I was able to understand the value also of the other books, as before I did not really take interest of the other books included bible, aside from the likes of the Gospels, Genesis, Exodus, Psalms, and Proverbs. Nevertheless, I realized that the books are all part of the bible as each has a purpose to serve and stands as a testament to the infidelity of humanity, and of God’s unfailing love for
In our first class session we accomplished a lot, we learned about the key themes that can be found in the New testament and how one goes about questioning the themes and connecting the new and old testaments. The one major theme that we found to be one of the big ones of the New Testament was Jesus and all his deeds, death and resurrection. When this theme was first revealed to the class, I thought well obviously! But once we began to talk about all the other themes such as restoration, redemption, the church and the building relationship between the Jews and Gentiles. And Dr. Hall began to connect each theme together with a link and with each connection every last theme eventually led back to Jesus and his deeds, death and resurrection
Before beginning my first semester here at Vanguard I often found myself questioning why I believe what I believe. I had a hard time understanding the bible and an even harder time finding answers to my questions. It was difficult for me to find the courage to ask questions because I didn’t want to come off as someone who didn’t know everything about the bible. Once I started my freshman year I began understanding that I am not alone, every one has questions or things that they don’t quite understand. Encountering The New Testament broke down parts of the bible and made it much easier for me to understand.