The audio from the Pros Apologian lecture I gave yesterday is here: “The Orthodoxy of the Text of the New Testament: Reasserting the Obvious.”
Here’s an abstract of my presentation:
The first chapter of Bart Ehrman’s book The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture suggests that our understanding of early Christianity needs to be radically revised, but Ehrman himself acknowledges that the rest of the volume does not provide the kind of evidence that would warrant such a revision. This presentation argues against the revisionist view that the traditional story of early Christianity distorts what really happened because “the victors rewrote the history.” Instead, the geographically widespread, early, abundant, and orthodox manuscript evidence points to an original mainstream of orthodox Christianity from which the heretics deviated. The orthodoxy of the manuscripts can be seen in what can be deduced from the use of the codex form, in the nomina sacra abbreviations used to refer to both God and Christ, in the staurogram, and in the concern of the scribes themselves to make exact copies of their texts.
It drives me nuts that Ehrman’s books are under Christian at the bookstores.
I have been involved in prison ministry for 14 years and visit men on the Death Row of State Prisons. One inmate there told me that “the Bible” has ruined his faith. When I questioned him about this, I came to understand that this individual had been reading Ehrman’s books and now believes that Christianity is a sham. This inmate is now an Atheist, and his journey to this position was influenced by Mr Ehrman, who by the way, published this tripe for money. He knows that it falls short of “real” scholarship but he also knows how sensationalism “sells”.
1 Tim 6:10
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
May God help us all!
I liked it. Thanks. It will take another listen or two to absorb more fully.
The man who taught me Greek had been a student of Metzger’s, and thought well of him. I think it sad that, for all Metzger’s labors, such a pathetic paint-thin ideologue as Ehrman is known as his protege.
It is illustrative of the Fuller-factor, isn’t it — which is equally the early Princeton-factor, and the factor of dozens of apostatizing institutions? Professor A shifts his position from inerrancy, yet inconsistently retains the other fundamentals. Then Student A absorbs the professor’s principles and applies them with greater consistency, and begins jettisoning fundamentals.
Dr. Hamilton,
Thanks for your work on this. Very helpful.