Last week I had the opportunity to watch again the DVD of the 2009 Bible and Church Conference. For those who were unable to attend here is my brief outline of the contents:
Session 1 – Have We Got the History Right? Dr Peter J. Williams
a) Early non-Christian sources of information about Jesus Christ
i) Tacitus
ii) Pliny the Younger (c. AD 111)
iii) Josephus
b) The Gospels as Eye-Witness Testimony (drawing on the work of Richard Bauckham)
i) The evidence of personal names used in the canonical gospels compared with their use in the Apocryphal gospels
ii) The evidence of the corroboration of gospel accounts.
c) The Evidence of the New Testament Epistles for early Christian Practice.
d) The Significance of the Alexamenos Graffito
Session 2 –Have We Got the Text Right? Dr Dirk Jongkind
(An introduction to New Testament textual criticism)
a) Why the text has not changed in any significant way after centuries of copying
i) NT texts were copied rapidly and distributed widely within a very short period
ii) We have many very old manuscripts of parts of the New Testament. 40% of the NT has manuscript evidence within the first 2 centuries. All are found with three centuries.
iii) The large quantity of manuscripts and Church lectionaries allows the tracking of the development of textual variants.
iv) The high quality of the texts indicates that they were copied carefully
v) The books of the New Testament and all complete unlike many classical works
vi) Statistical analysis of NT variants
vii) How NT manuscripts were copied
b) Answering the Arguments of critics against the reliability of the text
i) The Christian church deliberately changed the Bible for theological reasons (Bart Ehrman)
ii) Why weren’t the manuscripts of the NT miraculously protected from variants?
Session 3: Have We Got Jesus Right? Dr. Simon J. Gathercole
a) How Jesus is portrayed in the canonical gospels (AD. 50-90)
i) As the fulfilment of OT prophecy
ii) Jesus is the One who died and rose again for our salvation
b) How the “Other Gospels” compare?
i) Gospel of Thomas (c. AD 120-150) – a collection of Jesus’ secret sayings. Teaches the pre-existence of souls and salvation by secret knowledge. The OT scriptures are rejected.
ii) Gospel of Mary (c.120-125) – only half the gospel survives. Includes much material drawn from Greek philosophy and Egyptian mystery religion. Secret knowledge in the form of passwords allows the soul to ascend to a place of eternal rest.
iii) Gospel of Judas – presents a Jesus who mocks the orthodox church. Only Judas out of the Twelve truly understood Jesus.
iv) The other gospels are not rooted in the Jewish culture of the first century but are rather anti-Jewish.
v) Jesus appeared as a spirit, not as a real man with a physical body.
vi) Written without any connection with the eyewitnesses of Jesus’ ministry.
All three sessions were extremely well done. I particularly enjoyed Pete Williams's analysis of the extra-biblical evidence for the life of Jesus and early Christianity.
2010 Conference - 12th June, St. Helen's Bishopsgate, London
Session 1 - Evidence of Eyewitnesses - Dr. Peter J. Williams
Session 2 - Evidence of Manuscripts - Dr. Dirk Jongkind
Session 3 - Evidence of History - Dr. Simon J. Gathercole
While the titles of the sessions may be similar to those of the 2009 Conference I am assured by Pete Williams that the content will not be a repeat of last year's. Based on last year's experience it will prove to be extremely valuable in equipping Christians with evidence to answer many popular criticisms they will face as they share their faith with others. It would also be helpful to those considering Christianity to come along and hear about some of the evidence supporting the Gospel accounts of Jesus. Click here for more information and an on-line booking form.
Giveaway DVD
In order to "get the word out" about this important conference I am offering a DVD of the 2009 Conference as a Giveaway. To enter just leave a comment below saying how you would use the DVD to tell others about the Conference at your church, college, etc., together with your name and email address (remember to replace the "@" with an (at) in the address. If you can use posters for advertising the conference, please indicate this and I will send you some when they are printed. I will draw a winner at random on the 1st May. Due to the nature of the Giveaway it is only offered to residents of the United Kingdom.
Please tell others about the Conference and let me know if you can use posters [ rob(at)biblicalstudies.org.uk ]
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