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Category Archives: Inerrancy
Typology Preserves Biblical Inerrancy Against Ehrman’s Mistake
Bart Ehrman describes why he left the faith in his book Misquoting Jesus (8–9): A turning point came in my second semester . . . . we had to write a final term paper on an interpretive crux of our own choosing. I chose a passage in Mark 2, where Jesus is confronted by the …
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Did the Biblical Authors Picture the Earth as a Flat Disk and the Sky as a Solid Dome?
Peter Enns assumes there was a dominant world-picture or cosmology in the ancient Near East, and Paul Seely published several articles advocating the idea that the earth is a flat disk and the sky a solid dome in Westminster Theological Journal. In a comment on an earlier post, Steve Hays has drawn attention to an …
NIV 2011 Removes Selah from the Biblical Text
Rod Decker has drawn attention to the fact that the NIV 2011 puts the term Selah in the footnotes rather than in the text of the Psalms, and he suggests that the word should never be verbalized by those who read Scripture aloud. I like Rod Decker, but I think his post may be self-contradictory …
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Believe in the Bible or Believe in the Christ?
In his crisp book, Words of Life: Scripture as the Living and Active Word of God, Timothy Ward points out that the suggestion that “Christians are not those who believe in the Bible, but those who believe in Christ” (so saith John Barton) forces “a false dichotomy on us. We do not have to choose …
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Dynamic Equivalence: The Method is the Problem
When I was studying at DTS, my Hebrew prof, who is fairly well known, was really excited about dynamic equivalence translation. I heard his lectures and saw his work. It made me uncomfortable, though I wasn’t in position to show why. I suspected that the logical outcomes of the method he was teaching would be …
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Review of Philip B. Payne’s “Man and Woman, One in Christ”
Man and Woman, One in Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Paul’s Letters. By Philip B. Payne. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009, 511 pp, $29.99 paper. Published in Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 54.1 (2011), 177–79. Israel never had female priests. Jesus did not name any females as apostles. Peter instructed wives to submit …
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Why I Believe the Bible
A friend of mine–I’m not sure he shares my views–asked me why I believe that the Bible is God’s revelation. Having typed up my answer, I decided to post it here as well: I grew up with believing parents, and we went to believing churches. Unfortunately, the Bible was held up as authoritative more than …
Part 2 of the CBD Interview
Part 1 of Matthew Miller’s interview with me is here, and Part 2 is now online. The interview is mainly about God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology, but the questions in Part 2 ranged from Inerrancy to the New Perspective with the SBC reformation in between.
Troglodytes Can’t Produce Stunning Artistry
Why I’m confident in the Bible (from the interview on the CBD Academic Blog): I think that the Bible itself claims to be totally true and trustworthy, and that we would need far more information than we will ever have to overturn its claims or show its falsehood. Therefore, I want to approach the Bible …
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Carson’s Collected Writings on Scripture
Congratulations to D. A. Carson on the appearance of his Collected Writings on Scripture. The publisher’s description: God’s Word has always had enemies, but in recent years the inspiration and authority of Scripture have been attacked with renewed vigor. Respected scholar D. A. Carson has written widely on the nature of Scripture over the past …
Are There Errors in the Bible?
I don’t think there are errors in the Bible, and I think that valid explanations can be given for difficulties that do exist. I started a new sermon series on Ezra – Nehemiah this morning at Kenwood, and I had planned to comment on some numerical discrepancies in the text. Because of time, I decided …
And If We Refuse We’re Rebels
Erich Auerbach (Mimesis, 14-15) writes that the intent of biblical stories: “is not to bewitch the senses, and if nevertheless they produce lively sensory effects, it is only because the moral, religious, and psychological phenomena which are their sole concern are made concrete in the sensible matter of life. But their religious intent involves an …
Still Sola Scriptura, My Essay from The Sacred Text
Thanks to Gorgias Press and to the editors of The Sacred Text, the Michaels Bird and Pahl, for permission to post my essay from the volume here: “Still Sola Scriptura: An Evangelical View of Scripture,” pages 215–40 in The Sacred Text: Excavating the Texts, Exploring the Interpretations, and Engaging the Theologies of the Christian Scriptures, …
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Now Available: The Sacred Text
Newly released from Gorgias Press: Michael F. Bird and Michael W. Pahl, eds. The Sacred Text: Excavating the Texts, Exploring the Interpretations, and Engaging the Theologies of the Christian Scriptures. Gorgias Précis Portfolios 7. Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias, 2010. Contents Introduction: From Manuscript to MP3 – Michael F. Bird The History of the Texts The Septuagint …