Apologetics — Lesson 6

1. 0:01Paul would confirm the prophet as being a true prophet so that they would have
2. 0:05Assurance that he wrote the word of God
3. 0:10Okay, in order miracles had to confirm it either in predictions or in events or
4. 0:17Just miracles that would be worked through his hand. In other words God calls the prophet
5. 0:22But then he confirms his prophet with miracles and then when the miracles are so convincing that all of the people have accepted
6. 0:28As a prophet and especially the high priest
7. 0:30He presents his writing to the high priest and where does the high priest put the inspired writing?
8. 0:37By the Ark of the Covenant exactly right by the Ark of the Covenant and that's where they kept the cannon
9. 0:42Now that means then that if a man did not have the credentials of a prophet during his lifetime
10. 0:49If later on someone presented a book and said look this was written by a prophet who lived a hundred years ago
11. 0:57Would the high priest accepted at that point?
12. 1:00No, because the that book had to be presented by the prophet himself in other words
13. 1:06If you can't later on come up with a book that you claim was written by a prophet
14. 1:11You it needed to be presented to him in his lifetime so that it would already be there would be no doubt about it
15. 1:16Now this is why the Old Testament apocrypha came about the Old Testament apocrypha were written by people
16. 1:22who had not
17. 1:24Proven that they were prophets who did not have their credentials of being a prophet and
18. 1:29Who had not convinced the people in the high priest that they were prophets and so they wrote these books trying to pass them off as?
19. 1:37prophetical literature now that would be the Old Testament
20. 1:41Psydupigraphy and then the apocrypha really most of the apocrypha didn't even claim to be inspired in the first place
21. 1:46You take first second Maccabees
22. 1:49In first second Maccabees they say that there are no prophets in our time
23. 1:54In other words the writer first second Maccabees didn't even invent to be a prophet. He was just writing down history
24. 2:01Just like Josephus Josephus is a Jewish historian. He doesn't say he's a prophet
25. 2:06He didn't claim to be a prophet. He didn't try to pass off his work as prophetical literature
26. 2:11In fact, here's what he does say notice on the last page of the outline that I gave you
27. 2:16We have a quotation here at the bottom from Josephus now Josephus was a Roman general
28. 2:22Not a Roman general a Galilean general who fought against the Romans when they were attacking Jerusalem back in AD 70
29. 2:29and he was captured by Vespasian and
30. 2:34Then used by Vespasian as an interpreter and it was Josephus who interpreted to the Jews
31. 2:40what Vespasian was announcing to them in saying surrender or we'll destroy the city and
32. 2:46Josephus was their interpreter
33. 2:48Josephus then later went to Rome and he worked under the Roman emperors and he wrote this history of his people
34. 2:54Now notice the last phrase is here or the last paragraph
35. 2:58He says for we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us in our we've got many many books among us
36. 3:04Disagreeing from and contradicting one another just as the Greeks have but only 22 books
37. 3:10Which contain the records of all the past times which are justly believed to be divine
38. 3:17and of them five belong to Moses which contain his laws and
39. 3:21The traditions of the origin of mankind till his death
40. 3:25This interval of time was a little short of 3,000 years
41. 3:27But as the time from the death of Moses till the reign of Arta Xerxes king of Persia who reigned after Xerxes
42. 3:33The prophets who were after Moses wrote down what was done in their times in 13 books
43. 3:39The remaining four books contain hymns to God and precepts for the conduct of human life
44. 3:44It is true our history has been written since Arta Xerxes like 1st and 2nd Maccabees that told you about very particularly
45. 3:50But have not been esteemed of the lack authority with the former of our forefathers because not the reason
46. 3:56Because there have not been an exact succession of prophets since that time
47. 4:01So there was not a succession of prophets since the time of Arta Xerxes. Well the time of Arta Xerxes takes you
48. 4:08Just right after the time of Vesra and Nehemiah and that means that from that time forward there were no prophets
49. 4:15And since there were no prophets there was no prophetical literature
50. 4:18Since there was no prophetical literature the the canon ceased and that's the reason the Old Testament ends with Malachi
51. 4:25Malachi and the author of 2nd Chronicles
52. 4:28Those were the last books to be written
53. 4:31By
54. 4:33prophetical writers
55. 4:34Me and with the gift of the inspiration and so when the prophet sees the cannon ceases see it's automatic anytime
56. 4:43The prophet ceases the cannon has to say so the cannon sees it that means the prophet sees if the prophets continue
57. 4:48Then the cannon continues because a prophet remember in 2nd Peter chapter 1 verses
58. 4:542021 is one who reveals God's word by inspiration you say that's the reason that miracles
59. 5:01Are completely connected to the cannon
60. 5:04In Mark chapter 16 verse 20 when Jesus gave the great commission
61. 5:08He said that they went everywhere preaching the word the Lord working with them and confirming the word
62. 5:15By the signs that followed the miracles confirmed the word
63. 5:21The miracles revealed the word
64. 5:24Through the miraculous revelation and inspiration the word was recorded
65. 5:29So the revelation of the word
66. 5:31The ratification of the word and the recording of the word all occurred through
67. 5:36Miraculous gifts given by God to men you say and that's what it was in the Old Testament
68. 5:41The very same principles that allowed the Old Testament come into existence were the principles that allowed the New Testament come into existence
69. 5:49And when that prophetical gift ceased the miracle surrounding it ceased the cannon ceased
70. 5:56You said or didn't cease it ended as far as being
71. 6:01Developed anymore that was the end of the Old Testament cannon
72. 6:03And so now we have a 300 year period almost 400 year period where there are no prophets
73. 6:09Until John the Baptist arises and John the Baptist then begins to prophesy and then Jesus Christ and the apostles
74. 6:16You say and that's then the beginning of the new dispensation of a new cannon that will be revealed in the New Testament
75. 6:23now
76. 6:25Reading on here what Josephus says right here. He says the reason you know the cannon hasn't been added to there hasn't been an exact
77. 6:32Succession of prophets since that time and how firmly we have given credit to those books of our own notion is evident about what we do
78. 6:38For during so many ages as have already passed
79. 6:41No one has been so bold as either to add anything to them or take anything from them or to make any change in them
80. 6:49But it becomes natural to all Jews immediately and from their very birth to seeing these books to contain divine doctrines
81. 6:55And to persist in them and if occasion be willingly to die
82. 7:00For them isn't that a beautiful statement of his belief in the Old Testament cannon
83. 7:05And of course he lived in the first century and this shows what the jews the first century believed
84. 7:09He was a Pharisee by the way and that's what he believed about
85. 7:13The Old Testament cannon interestingly when you read Josephus
86. 7:16He also talks about john the baptist being a prophet and talks about jesus christ being the messiah
87. 7:23And although he never became a christian
88. 7:25It's uh indicative in his books that he believed jesus
89. 7:28Was the messiah promised in the Old Testament and that john the baptist was a true prophet of god
90. 7:34And he says that it was the death of john the baptist and the death of jesus christ led the destructed Jerusalem
91. 7:38Those were two important events that he thinks
92. 7:42God held them guilty for and resulted in the city of jerusalem being destroyed in 1970
93. 7:48It wasn't just that also james the justice mentioned who is james the brother of jesus
94. 7:53Said and and he mentions him and says
95. 7:56That was another reason. He was a godly man. It says man of prayer
96. 7:59And he was killed by the jews and that was the thing that finally prompted. He says
97. 8:05God's punishing
98. 8:07People of jerusalem with death and with the destruction of their city now
99. 8:12You'll notice. He says we only have 22 books
100. 8:14But the 22 books that he had in his cannon are our 39 books
101. 8:20They call first and second samuel just sami first second kings kings first second chronicles
102. 8:26Chronicles they called uh azurnia my one book
103. 8:31They threw lamentations connected it to jeremiah
104. 8:33And when you look at the old testament canon, it's identical to our 39 books of the old testament
105. 8:40Now the catholic church in the 1500s
106. 8:43In the council of trend in 1520 added the apocryphal old testament
107. 8:49About eight more books. They added to the old testament at that time
108. 8:55Around 1520
109. 8:57The council of trend
110. 8:59I think that's right. Maybe it was 15. I think that's the correct date the council of trend
111. 9:04Saying it from memory right now
112. 9:06But uh at any rate the catholic church was needing to have
113. 9:11Authority for praying to the to the dead or praying on behalf of the dead
114. 9:15And there's a passage in in first second macabees where they prayed for the dead
115. 9:21And that's one of the things that prompted that's the only place they could find any authority for what they were doing
116. 9:26If you'll excuse my pronunciation
117. 9:27I've got a sore on my tongue. I'm a bit my tongue and my tongue is real thick this morning
118. 9:33So i'm having a hard time pronouncing my words this morning
119. 9:36at any rate
120. 9:38The catholic church at that date decided to add the old testament apocryphal
121. 9:43Whereas the jewish nation all through history never accepted it
122. 9:48And the church of the early centuries did not accept it now. They argument is made that the early church did accept it because they found
123. 9:55These in the septuagint version, which is the greek translation the greek translation had the apocryphal in there
124. 10:01Well, they did but they did not esteem them as being inspired. There's a difference
125. 10:06For instance, you may have in your library the book of josephus
126. 10:09But that doesn't mean you think josephus is inspired
127. 10:11And and you may have it there and there there is important information in josephus
128. 10:17Well, there's important information in first second macabees and we'll use it when we get to daniel
129. 10:21In the book of daniel we find the fulfillment of many of daniel's prophecies in first and second macabees
130. 10:28And and i'll have you buy the apocrypha
131. 10:31And read it because uh in that i believe it's accurate history
132. 10:36And uh while it's not inspired it's not perfect
133. 10:39You know it is overall accurate history just like josephus is accurate history overall. He has some mistakes in it
134. 10:45But overall it's good
135. 10:47In reliable and uh consequently we'll use it to show the historical fulfillment of some of the prophecies of of daniel
136. 10:54When we get there you say but that doesn't mean it's inspired. There's a big difference, isn't it?
137. 10:59Now here the catholic church and the apocrypha here 1520 ad
138. 11:06That's a little light, isn't it? That's about uh at least 1800 years too light to decide whether it's inspired literature or not
139. 11:15Because the only ones that could decide whether it's inspired or not are those who lived when those books were written
140. 11:21They are the only ones to know whether they were true prophets or god
141. 11:24They are the only ones who could have seen miracles performed
142. 11:28And and and predictions made back then before they occurred
143. 11:33And know whether these men were true prophets and they did not accept them as true prophets
144. 11:37They did not add their words to the canon at that time and that settles the question
145. 11:42It's a historical question that had to be decided by the people who lived at the time the books were written
146. 11:47And for a group of scholars
147. 11:50Or church ecclesiastical leaders to get together 1800 years later
148. 11:55And decide
149. 11:57Yes, those men who wrote these books were inspired. Who are they to know?
150. 12:00How could they know more than the people who lived when those books were being written? They couldn't know
151. 12:07And so that's such an obvious thing and yet the Catholic Bible today contains those eight books in the old testament
152. 12:14Those apocryphal books and by the way, they didn't accept all of the apocryphal books. I only selected some of them
153. 12:20Like the Septuagint the Greek translation had others also
154. 12:25Uh that were translated that they didn't accept and so they accepted the ones they wanted rejected the ones they didn't want
155. 12:31And none of them should be accepted because only the jews
156. 12:35Were the ones to know they were to them look in the passage here
157. 12:40In romans chapter three verses one and two
158. 12:43in romans three
159. 12:45Verses one and two
160. 12:49Paul says then what advantage has the jew?
161. 12:52Or what is the benefit of circumcision?
162. 12:55Great in every respect first of all that they were entrusted with the oracles of god
163. 13:01Now the oracles of god were entrusted to whom?
164. 13:05The jews only the jews can decide that
165. 13:08because
166. 13:09He wrote it during their time. He entrusted it to them. They were to receive it
167. 13:15preserve it
168. 13:17copy it
169. 13:18and
170. 13:19Read it and teach it to other nations afterwards say and so the jews settled the question
171. 13:24300 years before christ
172. 13:26Now what is a group of people 1800 years later going to how are they going to change?
173. 13:31What god had already set up
174. 13:33In other words, those books never went through the high priests. They were never accepted
175. 13:36Their riders were never accepted as being inspired and that's a subtle question bruce. You had your hand up
176. 13:49That's right
177. 13:53Only the 400 around the 400s did the septuagint even have that particular these particular books
178. 14:01so that was when
179. 14:04Riders began to use them more and they did translate them
180. 14:08but
181. 14:08The real question is did the hebrae bible have them
182. 14:11Because only the hebrae bible was being preserved by the ark of the covenant
183. 14:16You say and so once
184. 14:18It had to get there if it didn't get there then it didn't go through the proper process
185. 14:23To be canonized as scripture. That's the whole point now. Let's go to the new testament
186. 14:28The new testament apocrypha apocrypha. There is a new testament apocrypha as well
187. 14:34We have new testament apocrypha
188. 14:36That some people think ought to be added to the canon
189. 14:38Now why weren't those books added to the canon?
190. 14:41For the very same reason that the old testament
191. 14:44It didn't go through the proper process to become canonical literature now
192. 14:49What was the process is a little different in the new testament
193. 14:52In old testament times you had one place
194. 14:55Where the canon was kept
195. 14:58And that one place was where?
196. 15:00By the ark of the covenant in the temple
197. 15:02One place in Jerusalem
198. 15:04The new testament temple however is not located in one place is it?
199. 15:09Where is the temple?
200. 15:12It's all over the world. That's right the temple of god, of course
201. 15:14It's forever wherever our body is but it's also wherever a group of people are the
202. 15:20Congregations are looked at as the temple of god an individual's body is looked at as the temple of god in the bible
203. 15:25And that is the depository for the canon the depository for the canon was in different congregations
204. 15:33for instance, paul wrote a letter let's say
205. 15:35To the church at colossi
206. 15:38Okay, the church at colossi is the temple of god and they receive his letter
207. 15:43After having substantiated that it did come from him. They had seen paul at work
208. 15:48They knew that he'd been miraculously confirmed as a prophet and apostle of jesus christ
209. 15:53And that therefore his letters should be received as such
210. 15:57They then became a witness
211. 15:59To everyone
212. 16:00We witnessed that this book is the book that paul wrote to us
213. 16:05paul the one who was confirmed by miracles as a true prophet of god
214. 16:08Now when these let these churches receive these letters each church became a depository
215. 16:15So that here we have the depository for the new testament canon scattered
216. 16:19In different locations here paul writes the letter to the Corinthians and now the Corinthians they are responsible for
217. 16:27For testifying that this is a true letter
218. 16:30From paul
219. 16:31Now what else would they have to do not only would they hold that letter? What else should they do to with it?
220. 16:38They ought to make copies of it
221. 16:40And share it with other people
222. 16:43Now you'll remember that uh paul and some of the letters he wrote
223. 16:47He would say let this letter also be read in the church of lay out of sin
224. 16:51You know or he said that to the Colossians
225. 16:53Or paul recognized that the letters he was writing would need to be shared with other churches
226. 16:59So what happened the Corinthian church began to make copies and
227. 17:03Send their copies out to other churches if you say but they remained as a steadfast witness
228. 17:10That this here's the original we're keeping the original here. We're sending out copies to everyone
229. 17:14And we testified that it is a genuine
230. 17:18Document from the apostle paul. So here we have in the depository in different churches
231. 17:24Now what happened later on those those letters then began to be circulated and collected by the churches
232. 17:31Now toward the uh
233. 17:34I would say in the second century
234. 17:36They began to question. Well, you know, which letters
235. 17:39Do we have a complete collection of them? Well by that time they had complete collections complete collections
236. 17:43We have the uh fragment of ma of the
237. 17:49uh
238. 17:50It's not marcian
239. 17:52How funny I can't even think of the name right now
240. 17:56Uh, it starts with an m
241. 18:00I can't think of the name. I'll think of it in a few minutes at at any rate
242. 18:04We have a document that's dated around 120 ad
243. 18:10That has all of the letters except just two or three and the reason it doesn't have those two or three
244. 18:15It's torn. It's just a fragment. You know, in other words, we actually have copies of it
245. 18:20But here's the way they determined later on they had councils and these councils would meet
246. 18:24To determine which were the the letters and here's the way it was determined
247. 18:29Francis there were
248. 18:30Letters being distributed in the names of the apostles back then that were not really from them
249. 18:35There was the gospel according to peter the gospel according to thomas letters like this
250. 18:40Now when they would get those letters they'd say, you know, what church received these letters
251. 18:45As being from the apostles. Oh, well, this letter showed up over here in poduck, you know
252. 18:51in turkey
253. 18:54Well, that church didn't even exist in the first century
254. 18:58How can they say that this was written by thomas or peter
255. 19:03When this church wasn't even established in the first century now. Let's say it was a first century church
256. 19:07Okay, does that church testify that back in the first century it received that from peter
257. 19:14Where's the historical testimony that they had received that there is no historical testimony of that fact
258. 19:19Well, then here it appears in the second century
259. 19:22Well, it's not quoted in the first century and no one knew anything about it
260. 19:25And the church the first century didn't say anything about receiving that letter
261. 19:28Say there is no historical testimony that this book came from the apostle peter
262. 19:33You know, someone just suddenly comes out. Look what I found. I found, you know
263. 19:36The gospel according to thomas right here, you know and here it well bought church in the first century received
264. 19:43If you don't have a witness from the first century
265. 19:46A church from a church
266. 19:48established by the apostles, who are witness to the fact that they received a letter from the
267. 19:53apostles, then there is no evidence of all that this came from the apostles. And only those letters
268. 19:59that had those kind of credentials were accepted, you say. And there were only 27. The 27 books of
269. 20:06the New Testament, which we have today, those are the only books that had historical testimony
270. 20:11going back to the first century where churches testified that they received them.
271. 20:16It's real interesting to read in the book of Irenaeus. Irenaeus wrote toward the end of the
272. 20:21second century, and he was debating with the Gnostics. And these Gnostics came up with all
273. 20:27of these false Gospels. They were the ones who created a lot of the false Gospels we had.
274. 20:32And when you read them, you can see Gnostic teaching in them. You know, they deny the
275. 20:35deity of Jesus, said that the Christ descended upon Jesus at his baptism, and left him
276. 20:42before he died on the cross, so that the Christ did not die, and that he didn't become
277. 20:47the Christ until the Holy Spirit descended upon him. Of course, there is a sense in which
278. 20:51he was not anointed until then, but he was born the Son of God, wasn't it? The Bible says.
279. 20:58And we need to be careful about saying he didn't... I heard a statement at the lectures
280. 21:04just recently in which it said that he did become the Son of God to the Holy Spirit
281. 21:08descended upon him. I don't believe that's accurate at all. The angel said that the child
282. 21:14that we've born to you will be the Son of God. He'll be the Christ. And when he was 12 years old,
283. 21:20what did he say? I must be about my father's business. I mean, he already knew he was the
284. 21:25Son of God before the Holy Spirit. Now, the Holy Spirit descended upon him to anoint him
285. 21:29for his ministry, but it did not descend upon him to make him the Son of God.
286. 21:34And that state was made by someone, and I'd already read his book and corrected him on that
287. 21:41on his book. I hope he didn't put that into his book because I'd already pointed that out to him,
288. 21:46and he told me he would make that revision before I would recommend his book. Yes.
289. 21:57Well, the church is accepted to back then. Now there were doubts later on. The doubts
290. 22:05appear in the second and third centuries and the fourth centuries. That's where the doubts
291. 22:08concerning these books really exist. They didn't exist earlier. They exist later. For instance,
292. 22:14the school at Antioch, they're the ones in the fourth and fifth century that had great doubts
293. 22:20about a bunch of the books, but they doubt them on critical reasons, not on the basis of historical
294. 22:25testimony, but upon the basis of style, on the basis of content, on the basis of things
295. 22:31just like modern schools have thought today doubt a lot of these and they dissect them
296. 22:36linguistically. I wrote my thesis on 2nd Peter, the office shift of 2nd Peter, when I was working
297. 22:42on a master's degree. And all the great argumentations, I have some argumentations from historical
298. 22:48grounds, but the main arguments are that is the vocabulary of 2nd Peter is different from the
299. 22:53vocabulary of 1st Peter. And I made a complete study of the two books on vocabulary, wrote
300. 22:59every single Greek word down on both of them, compared the vocabulary. And then I took
301. 23:04two passages from 2nd Corinthians, chapters one through five and chapters, no, one through
302. 23:13seven, I guess. And then chapters 10 through 12, which are comparable in size to 1st, 2nd Peter,
303. 23:20examined their vocabulary and their style and found them to be in the same percent
304. 23:25difference and similarity as 1st, 2nd Peter. You can just as well argue, Paul wrote the
305. 23:30first half of 1st, 2nd Corinthians, but not the 2nd half of 2nd Corinthians, you know,
306. 23:34on the same basis. The truth about it is of great similarities. I found that the stylistic
307. 23:39arguments they were using could not hold water. And I tested them in other literature, all the
308. 23:45arguments. And they were making arguments from style and vocabulary. But historically,
309. 23:51for instance, you have 2nd Peter being quoted by Jude. Jude quotes 2nd Peter.
310. 23:58And Peter predicts the coming of these false prophets and Jude says they've arrived. Peter says,
311. 24:04uses the future tense and saying, here is they will come and here's the way they'll be. Jude uses the
312. 24:11past tense, says they've arrived and they're just like Peter said they would be. And he even quotes
313. 24:15passages from 2nd Peter. Well, there is the earliest attestation for 2nd Peter you can find.
314. 24:20Here's the book of Jude, you say. And yet they say, we don't find any record of it until
315. 24:25the 2nd century. Well, actually it's false. I found quotations from it, from Justin Marger,
316. 24:31from a lot of others early, and even from Clement in 95 in the 1st century. And from Jude has
317. 24:42strong historical credentials, you say. But for stylistic reasons, the School of Antioch later
318. 24:49had some doubts about it. Same way with the book of Revelation. But these churches that would
319. 24:54attest to it early that they received it, you say, that was the deciding matter. Because again,
320. 25:00a man had to be proved as a prophet. Miracles had to be confirmed as a prophet. And then the church
321. 25:06had to receive it as an authentic document from him and preserve it and make copies of it.
322. 25:11And if that could be found, now I was talking about Irenaeus in the Gnostic Gospels, I got
323. 25:15off. He was answering the Gnostics on theirs. And this is exactly the line of argument that
324. 25:21he uses. Irenaeus would say, here is this particular Gospel you claim from one of the apostles.
325. 25:28He says, what apostolic church ever received this document and will witness to the fact
326. 25:34that they received it from the apostle? I mean, an apostolic church, a church that was
327. 25:39established in the 1st century by the apostles, and to whom the apostles wrote it. He says,
328. 25:45there's not any city, not any church that will do that. And he says, that shows that these
329. 25:51these epistles could not be correct. Or is that the same argument that you use on the Old Testament?
330. 25:56Here you have your Old Testament apocrypha. In other words, what high priest of what era
331. 26:01accepted this book as being inspired by a man who in that era proved he was a prophet of God?
332. 26:08Say, there is no evidence. Because had the evidence been presented, the high priest would have
333. 26:11accepted it. And we've been added to the canon. And had these false Gospels been true Gospels
334. 26:17written by the apostles, there'd be a church who would stand up and say, this is a true Gospel.
335. 26:22We received it in the 1st century. He wrote it to us. We verified that it is his letter,
336. 26:27and we stand by it. And there was no 1st century church that would do that. Yes, Bob?
337. 26:59Yes. In addition to that, the earliest testimony, the earliest historical testimony,
338. 27:04is that Paul did write it. Now, there have been many argumentations, again based on style,
339. 27:10that it's not his writing. A number of arguments have been made that Paul didn't write it. Of course,
340. 27:16the author doesn't tell us who he was. Our faith doesn't have to depend upon historical testimony
341. 27:22that was Paul. But the early church in the 1st century did accept it as inspired literature.
342. 27:29And so they believe that whoever wrote it was inspired. Now, the earliest historical testimony
343. 27:35that we have does say that Paul wrote it. Now, we have some that said that Luke also that's pretty
344. 27:40early. But the earliest, that goes back to the earliest, and the majority of them do say Paul
345. 27:47wrote it. We don't, you know, to me, we don't have to say who wrote it necessarily. And yet,
346. 27:54I would just say the weight of it. Historical evidence is that Paul wrote that book.
347. 27:59Intellectual. Intellectual inspired by the Holy Spirit. That's true. That's true.
348. 28:10Yes, he certainly did. Yes, Bruce.
349. 28:29Oh, yes, this is why the King is by the Apostle. Because we don't have the writing that says
350. 28:33this King is by the Apostle possibly accepted the word of God if they don't know the author,
351. 28:37because that was part of accepting any children's canon or the authorship.
352. 28:42That's exactly right. It all is all linked to authorship. Look in 2nd Corinthians,
353. 28:47chapter 12, in this regard. In 2nd Corinthians, chapter 12, now in chapter 11, Paul talks
354. 29:00about false apostles, you know, that are going around. But in chapter 12, verse 12, he says,
355. 29:07the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders
356. 29:14and miracles. Now there are the credentials or the signs of a true apostle, you say.
357. 29:22In other words, when miracles followed him, when predictions were made by him,
358. 29:27signs and wonders confirmed him as a true prophet of God, then what he wrote
359. 29:32had to be accepted as God's word. And they accepted it. And so that was the determining factor.
360. 29:39Now what you have, look in Ephesians chapter 2, in this regard also.
361. 29:43In Ephesians chapter 2, in verse 20, verse 20, it says, having been built upon the foundation
362. 29:53of the apostles and prophets Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone.
363. 30:00I finally thought of this one right here. It's the Muratorian fragment.
364. 30:11Here you've got, there's different ways of putting this foundation on here. Jesus Christ
365. 30:20is said in this particular figure to be what? The chief cornerstone. And then you have apostles
366. 30:29and prophets as part of the foundation. Now we have other figures where only Jesus Christ
367. 30:35is the foundation. Here we have the apostles' prophets mentioned as parts of the foundation
368. 30:40with Jesus Christ the chief cornerstone holding them all together. Now how do the apostles and
369. 30:45prophets, how do they serve as the foundation stones of the church? They're the ones who started
370. 30:50out preaching the message. Okay, they preached the message, but they more than just preached
371. 30:54it because of angels preach it. We preach it today too. Okay, they confirmed it. What else they did?
372. 31:02Okay, they were witnesses of Christ. What else?
373. 31:11Revelation. That's exactly right. They revealed the word of Christ. In other words, how can you
374. 31:21build on Jesus? Except you build on the word that the apostles revealed about Jesus.
375. 31:28There's no way for you to build on Jesus except to accept what the apostles and prophets said
376. 31:35about him. Or how is he the head of the church? How is he the chief cornerstone? How is he in
377. 31:41another figure, the whole foundation of the church? And how can you build on him? Only as you
378. 31:45accept the word that the apostles and prophets have told us about him. Jesus didn't write a single
379. 31:51word himself, did he? We only know about Jesus as the apostles and prophets tell us about him.
380. 31:58Consequently, when we build on the word they revealed we're building on him.
381. 32:05Because you can't build on Jesus without building on the words that he spoke. And in
382. 32:15building his house on what? On a rock. Now he says he who won't listen to my words and won't do them,
383. 32:23he's building on what? Sand. And so the rock foundation really is composed of the words that
384. 32:30he spoke. But the words that he spoke are only found in the word that the apostles and prophets
385. 32:37wrote. You say? And so in that sense they're part of the foundation. And the foundation
386. 32:43has been laid. Now this is also closely linked to charismatic gifts and Pentecostalism. Because if
387. 32:51there are still miraculous gifts today, then what is one of the main miraculous gifts?
388. 32:57Prophecy. Now remember again that the word prophecy does not mean prediction of future events.
389. 33:04It means revealing God's word by inspiration. In other words, that's what prophecy means.
390. 33:11Revealing God's word by inspiration. Now if there are still prophets today, then the word is being
391. 33:18revealed. They claim that miracles are occurring and what are the purpose of the miracles?
392. 33:23Confirm the prophecy. Confirm the prophecy. Because remember again in Mark chapter 16 verse 20
393. 33:30they went everywhere preaching the word. Lord worked with them and confirmed what?
394. 33:35The what? What did it confirm? The word with the signs. The word is confirmed by the miraculous
395. 33:42signs. Miracles and prophecy go hand in hand because the purpose of miracles is to confirm
396. 33:48the prophecy. And so they confirm the prophecy. Now if there are still miracles today,
397. 33:55then there's still prophecy today. And if there's still prophecy, what about the canon?
398. 34:01It's still open. Then it's an open canon. In other words, you cannot, you can, if once you admit
399. 34:09that there's still prophecy today, then you've got to admit there's an open canon. If there's an
400. 34:13open canon, watch out it can blow up in your face. It will blow up in your face, you think
401. 34:22it's still open. It's a closed canon, isn't it? Because what can we do? Well, let's go tape record
402. 34:29these fellows and let's add their words to the Bible. That's what we ought to do, shouldn't we?
403. 34:33Isn't that what they did in the Old Testament time? If there were still prophets, then what did
404. 34:38they do? When the prophet wrote, he took it to the high priest and he added it to the canon.
405. 34:42And if these prophets still exist today and these miracles are confirming the word of
406. 34:46their prophets, then why don't they consistently add their words to the Bible?
407. 34:51They should. They're afraid to. The reason they're afraid to is they're really doubtful about their
408. 34:57own word. If they really believe that they were prophesying the word of the Lord, I listened to
409. 35:05to what's his name in Tulsa, Oral Roberts on television Sunday morning while we were getting
410. 35:10ready. And he came on there and talked about how Jim Baker was an anointed prophet of the
411. 35:16Lord and that he was an anointed that Oral Roberts is anointed prophet of the Lord.
412. 35:20That's what he said on television. And he believes then that God's word is revealed by him just like
413. 35:26was revealed to the apostles. Well, why doesn't Oral add all of his books to the Bible and
414. 35:32sell them as the word of God? Add them to the Bible. Or he doesn't even believe what he's
415. 35:39saying. That's why if he really believed it, well then if if you were a true prophet
416. 35:44and you knew that what you taught was God's word, then you ought to demand that it be added to the
417. 35:50Bible. Shouldn't you? You certainly should. In other words, he says and does not.
418. 35:59And that's really the truth. But at any rate, this shows you the Old Testament canon ended
419. 36:05in the first century. In the second century, no longer do they add the prophetical writings
420. 36:11to the canon because there are no more prophets. And all you find all of the second century writers
421. 36:17talking about the doctrine of the apostles and prophets. Now, who were the prophets that
422. 36:23weren't apostles? See, all apostles had the gift of prophecy, but not all prophets were apostles.
423. 36:28When you read the New Testament then, for instance, the gospel of Matthew, who was he?
424. 36:34The apostle. What about Mark? Was Mark an apostle? No. What? So what do you have to be?
425. 36:44Had to be a prophet. Okay, what about Luke? Luke wasn't an apostle, so he had to be a prophet.
426. 36:51You read the gospel of John and who is he? An apostle. See, so when you read Matthew,
427. 36:57Mark and Luke and John, you're reading the words of the apostles and the prophets.
428. 37:03See? They had to have the gift of prophecy or their words couldn't have been in the Bible.
429. 37:09And that's the way it is. In other words, the New Testament is composed of the words of the
430. 37:13apostles and the prophets. And if there were continual prophets and apostles after,
431. 37:19there was only one group that claimed to have apostolic gifts. In the second century, they
432. 37:28it was mountainism. And this group claimed that Jesus Christ was going to come back
433. 37:41to Asia Minor and establish the church. I think it was in Pamphylia and was going to establish
434. 37:47his kingdom and set up his kingdom in that area of the world in their generation.
435. 37:52And they lived in the second and third century.
436. 37:55A Tertullian was converted and became one of them, around 240.
437. 38:01But what happened? All of their predictions
438. 38:06failed because Jesus didn't come back in their generation and didn't establish the capital.
439. 38:10So what does that prove them as? False prophets. And they were the only group that claimed to
440. 38:16have the continued miraculous gifts and they were proved to be false prophets.
441. 38:20The rest of those who were Christians only accepted the New Testament canon.
442. 38:26Now the Gnostics didn't. The Gnostics added their Gospels to it. The Gnostic sects came out with
443. 38:31Gospels, but they didn't claim these Gospels were written in their time. They claimed they were
444. 38:35written back in apostolic times. Why? Because there is an admission that in order for it
445. 38:41to be valid scripture, it had to be written in the first century. And they tried to
446. 38:45off Gospels by the apostles of the first century that weren't written by the apostles of the first
447. 38:50century. And the reason is they recognized the validity that if anything's in the canon it had
448. 38:55been the first century. So that shows the church believed the canon had closed and it had.
449. 39:01Because the apostles laid their hands on certain people and gave them miraculous gifts to be
450. 39:05prophets and miracle workers. And they were the only ones, remember in Acts 8,
451. 39:10they were the only ones. Philip, who could work miracles, couldn't transmit the power in Acts
452. 39:168. What did he have to do in Acts 8 with the Samaritans? He had to call the apostles down from
453. 39:22Jerusalem. And only the apostles could transmit these miraculous gifts. So Peter and James came
454. 39:28down and they transmitted it. Now when the last apostle dies, what happens to the miraculous
455. 39:33gifts? They cease because there's no more mean, no more apostles around. Now really they're still
456. 39:41the foundation of the church. The same apostles and the same prophets are the foundation of the
457. 39:46church as much today as they were back then. Because
458. 39:49How were the foundation back then?
459. 39:52People built on the word they revealed.
460. 39:54Can we build on the word they revealed today?
461. 39:56That's still what we do.
462. 39:57We build on their word.
463. 39:58And when we do, we build on the apostles and prophets.
464. 40:00We build on Jesus then.
465. 40:01We build on Jesus today, just like the church in the U.T.
466. 40:04So the same apostles and the same prophets
467. 40:06are still the foundation of the church today, you say?
468. 40:10Now the Mormons are the only consistent ones
469. 40:12who add to the word of God.
470. 40:14They keep adding, you know,
471. 40:16because they think they're still new apostles and prophets.
472. 40:19But they're new apostles and prophets
473. 40:20contradict the original revelation.
474. 40:22Remember, I gave you a three-fold test for a true prophet.
475. 40:25Number one, you know, he had to have miracles
476. 40:27to prove he was a prophet.
477. 40:29Number two, his teaching must be consistent
478. 40:32with previous revelation
479. 40:33and cannot contradict previous revelation, you know?
480. 40:38And then he must be a man of God.
481. 40:41Look at his life, look at his teaching, look at his signs.
482. 40:44He's got to pass all three.
483. 40:46And if he falls in one area,
484. 40:48he's not a true prophet of God.
485. 40:50And the Book of Mormon,
486. 40:52and especially the Doctrine of Covenants,
487. 40:54completely contradict previous revelation, you know?
488. 40:58Here, Joseph Smith says,
489. 41:00you don't have to have fruit of the van
490. 41:01on the Lord's upper, you can use water instead.
491. 41:04Here, previous revelation says fruit of the van.
492. 41:06Later revelation, they claim water instead of fruit of the van.
493. 41:10Which in other words, there is complete contradiction.
494. 41:12You know, here, Joseph Smith says,
495. 41:14I'm an elder of God.
496. 41:16And the Bible says an elder must be the husband of one wife.
497. 41:20And here, Joseph is the husband of many wives.
498. 41:23And he claims to be an elder of God.
499. 41:25And he contradicts previous revelation
500. 41:27on the qualifications for an elder.
501. 41:29That marks him as a false prophet, you say?
502. 41:32And his writings, therefore, should be rejected.
503. 41:35Absolutely, yes, Bob?
504. 41:36Anyone need, how would you define a few ant-Christ?
505. 41:42Well, the Antichrist that John especially speaks of,
506. 41:47he defines him as the one who denies
507. 41:49that Jesus is the Son of God.
508. 41:51Who denies that Jesus or the Christ has come in the flesh.
509. 41:55And what they did, the Gnostics taught
510. 41:57that Jesus was not born the Christ
511. 41:59or not born the Son of God,
512. 42:01but rather that he became the Son of God at baptism.
513. 42:03And that's the reason I said that sermon the other day
514. 42:06is that one point, I think is a dangerous point.
515. 42:10He didn't become the Son of God at baptism.
516. 42:12If he was already, if he was born the Son of God.
517. 42:15Say it.
518. 42:15Well, anybody that speaks of the Gnostics,
519. 42:18the Christ, he would be able to build the apostles.
520. 42:22Would he also consider the antichrists?
521. 42:25Well, that's why they define the antichrists.
522. 42:27Anybody, of course, who is opposed to Christ
523. 42:30and rejects him as being the Son of God
524. 42:33would fall in that category.
525. 42:35Now, I suppose that if you also rejected his authority
526. 42:38and put yourself in his place,
527. 42:40that would make you another kind of antichrist, you say.
528. 42:45That would be another kind of antichrist.
529. 42:46Why does the lady ask me the question
530. 42:48how does he propose us to be the Son of God
531. 42:53and to be the Bible Jesus?
532. 42:59Would he also?
533. 43:00Well, I don't think that that's not in the context.
534. 43:04That's not precisely what he's talking about.
535. 43:06Now, that's another type of false prophet.
536. 43:10But the antichrist specifically in that context
537. 43:13is talking about the one who denies his deity.
538. 43:16Okay, I need to let you go.
539. 43:18Let's take 10 minutes.
540. 43:19Appreciate that prayer for the album.
541. 43:22I'm sorry that we're having to go so quickly over this.
542. 43:25The canonicity, of course, is a much deeper subject.
543. 43:28You can go into every single individual book
544. 43:30of the Old and New Testament,
545. 43:32study, you know, the evidence on each one of them.
546. 43:36But what I found in the individual studies on the books
547. 43:39is that the great doubts always appear in later centuries.
548. 43:44You don't find the doubt in the early church.
549. 43:46For instance, I found in studying on 2 Peter,
550. 43:49which is one of the most highly controversial books.
551. 43:53Many religious scholars do not believe that Peter wrote it
552. 43:57and that it should not be a part of the canon.
553. 43:59Even those who believe that the Bible is the word of God.
554. 44:03But I found that really that the evidence for it,
555. 44:06again, was based on style.
556. 44:08And I found that those arguments were not sufficient.
557. 44:11You know what happens if you're writing, for instance,
558. 44:14let's say you were writing a sermon for a funeral.
559. 44:18And then you were also writing a sermon
560. 44:20for a banquet of joy.
561. 44:22Wouldn't your style be completely different?
562. 44:25Wouldn't your vocabulary be completely different?
563. 44:28Wouldn't the methodology, I mean, you'd have a joke
564. 44:30maybe in the one on the banquet.
565. 44:32Would you have a joke in the funeral?
566. 44:34No, better not.
567. 44:36It's not the time for it, is it?
568. 44:38In other words, your style is completely different.
569. 44:40First Peter was written to people suffering persecution
570. 44:45and it was giving them comfort and hope and strength.
571. 44:48Second Peter was written to predict false teachers
572. 44:53and prepare the people against false teachers.
573. 44:54Two completely different styles.
574. 44:58Because you write comfort and words of hope
575. 45:00more like a funeral on First Peter.
576. 45:02Boy, you denounce false teachers,
577. 45:03show how terrible they are,
578. 45:04use a completely different language in discussing that.
579. 45:07In the same way that the doctrinal subject
580. 45:10is different than an expository.
581. 45:12You use different kinds of language, same person does.
582. 45:15But I found that the percent of difference
583. 45:17and similarity is what you find in other authors
584. 45:20writing on different subjects as well.
585. 45:23But for instance, I was going to say the School of Antioch,
586. 45:26I found that the School of Antioch
587. 45:27that in the fourth, fifth century
588. 45:31rejected Second Peter as being inspired.
589. 45:33But I found in the second century
590. 45:35that the church at Antioch accepted it as inspired.
591. 45:39And found that the old Syriac manuscripts contained it
592. 45:44and they used it.
593. 45:45And so why did they reject it two centuries later?
594. 45:48It was a liberal school of style
595. 45:51and vocabulary just like our modern schools today
596. 45:53or that way.
597. 45:54They had the same kind of school,
598. 45:56same kind of rationalistic thinking
599. 45:58and they rejected it on stylistic grounds
600. 46:00rather than on the historical grounds.
601. 46:03It had already been settled historically
602. 46:05and the churches had accepted them long ago.
603. 46:08At any rate, we don't have any more time
604. 46:10to spend on that at this time.
605. 46:11We've got to move into the area of textual preservation
606. 46:14and all I can do in the last hour
607. 46:16is give you an introduction to textual preservation.
608. 46:19But first of all, let's look and see
609. 46:20what the Bible itself says.
610. 46:22Look in 1 Peter chapter one.
611. 46:25In 1 Peter chapter one, beginning with verse 22,
612. 46:31he says, since you have in obedience to the truth,
613. 46:34purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren,
614. 46:38fervently love one another from the heart.
615. 46:40For you've been born again not of seed
616. 46:42which is perishable, but imperishable.
617. 46:45That is through the living and abiding word of God.
618. 46:50Then he quotes Isaiah chapter 40.
619. 46:54All flesh is like grass
620. 46:56and all it's glory like the flower of grass.
621. 46:58The grass withers, the flower falls off,
622. 47:01but the word of the Lord abides forever.
623. 47:04Then look at verse 25, the last phrase
624. 47:06and this is the word which was preached to you.
625. 47:10Now when Isaiah spoke it back in Isaiah chapter 40,
626. 47:14he included the Old Testament.
627. 47:15And he said that the word of the Lord abides forever.
628. 47:18Here I am, I'm making predictions of things to come
629. 47:20and that word will last forever
630. 47:23until you see it's fulfillment.
631. 47:24And it'll last forever as a testimony
632. 47:26that it was predicted beforehand.
633. 47:28But here Peter says the word we preach
634. 47:30is also the same eternal word that always abides.
635. 47:34Now what does that tell us
636. 47:35about the preservation of God's word?
637. 47:38That tells us that God has always preserved his word
638. 47:42and is not allowed it to be lost.
639. 47:45Now we do have some instances.
640. 47:47We have Paul writing Colossians says,
641. 47:50send this church the lay out of sin.
642. 47:52You read the letter that he wrote to them.
643. 47:54You say, well, we don't have the church the lay out of sin.
644. 47:55Must have been lost.
645. 47:57Well, that's possibly true.
646. 47:59In 1 Corinthians, he talks about a previous letter
647. 48:02he'd written besides 1 Corinthians.
648. 48:041 Corinthians chapter five, he says in a letter.
649. 48:06You know, in the previous letter I wrote.
650. 48:08So he'd already written a letter previously.
651. 48:11We don't have that one.
652. 48:12What happened to those?
653. 48:13Well, here's one thing we do know.
654. 48:16If that letter is no longer preserved,
655. 48:19that means that in 1 Corinthians
656. 48:21and 2 Corinthians together, plus all the other letters
657. 48:24he wrote, we have everything that God wanted us to know
658. 48:27that was in that other letter.
659. 48:29And it could be, he repeated so many of the same things
660. 48:31from the first letter and amplified on it
661. 48:34that they didn't need the first letter anymore.
662. 48:36Because our 1 Corinthians,
663. 48:38which would be really 2 Corinthians,
664. 48:40the 2nd letter written,
665. 48:42he amplified points they hadn't understood previously.
666. 48:45And so they didn't need the first letter anymore, you say.
667. 48:47Same thing with the letter of the lay out of sins.
668. 48:50God though has preserved all of his word
669. 48:53that he wants us to know.
670. 48:55And we can have confidence in that
671. 48:56because he's promised it, you say.
672. 48:58We had that promise.
673. 48:59So we know nothing has been lost.
674. 49:02God has promised to preserve his word.
675. 49:05Now, here's our problem.
676. 49:06Our problem is, is that when we see
677. 49:09all of the Greek text today on the New Testament
678. 49:11and all the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts on the Old Testament,
679. 49:15there are some textual variations.
680. 49:18That is, all of the texts don't read a lack.
681. 49:22Some texts will read one way,
682. 49:23some texts will read another on some verses.
683. 49:26But on the majority of the verses, they all read a lack,
684. 49:29especially on the Old Testament.
685. 49:31There's almost a 99% certainty
686. 49:35on the Old Testament on the text.
687. 49:37There's let's say a 1% uncertainty
688. 49:40and I would say even less percent than that really
689. 49:43on the Old Testament.
690. 49:44But on the Old Testament, again,
691. 49:47you've got the option of this, this or this.
692. 49:50Or let's say you've got two options.
693. 49:52It's either this or this.
694. 49:53God's word hasn't been lost.
695. 49:55It's determining which one of these readings
696. 49:57is God's word.
697. 49:59See what I mean?
698. 50:00In other words, it's not that God's word has been lost.
699. 50:02People are troubled a lot by these textual variations.
700. 50:05And here you read one version and it reads this way
701. 50:08and you read this other version, it reads differently
702. 50:10because it's based on a different textual reading.
703. 50:12And you think, well, God had preserved his word.
704. 50:15Yes, he has.
705. 50:16He has preserved his word.
706. 50:17In the Greek manuscripts,
707. 50:19there are over 4,000 Greek manuscripts on the New Testament.
708. 50:24Now all of God's word is preserved in those 4,000.
709. 50:27But all 4,000 don't agree with each other.
710. 50:31There are some variations.
711. 50:33So it's a determining of which of the readings
712. 50:35is God's word and which isn't.
713. 50:37But God's words are there.
714. 50:39Now that means then we have to do some searching.
715. 50:42We have to do some investigating.
716. 50:45We have to do some evaluating
717. 50:47to determine which is the best reading.
718. 50:50But we know it's either this or that.
719. 50:52You see what I mean?
720. 50:53And even on the variations in most cases,
721. 50:56in about 99% of the cases,
722. 50:59there's no doctrinal change anyway.
723. 51:02I mean, you know, either white,
724. 51:04if you, except either reading,
725. 51:06both you can find a parallel passage
726. 51:08where you'd find the very same thing elsewhere.
727. 51:10It doesn't teach anything wrong.
728. 51:12See what I mean?
729. 51:13And so there's no really real problem
730. 51:15with textual variations.
731. 51:16Now there are few places where it does affect doctrine.
732. 51:19I've heard some people say
733. 51:20there's no place where it affects doctrine.
734. 51:22That's not true.
735. 51:24One of the textual variations that we brought up earlier
736. 51:27at Acts chapter 13 will make,
737. 51:30depending on which one you take,
738. 51:32can make the Bible contradict yourself, remember?
739. 51:34Look in Acts chapter 13.
740. 51:36In Acts chapter 13, just to remind you of this one fact,
741. 51:41remember in verse 17, verse 18,
742. 51:44it says for a period of about 40 years,
743. 51:47he put up with them in the wilderness.
744. 51:49And when he destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan,
745. 51:51he distributed their land as an inheritance,
746. 51:53all of which took about 450 years.
747. 51:56And after these things, he gave them judges.
748. 51:59Now the King James version read
749. 52:01that the period of the judges was 450 years, remember?
750. 52:05Now why?
751. 52:06Because the difference in textual variations.
752. 52:09The Greek manuscripts behind the King James text
753. 52:12said the period of the judges was 450 years.
754. 52:16The Greek text behind the new American standard reading
755. 52:19and the old American standard reading
756. 52:21and the revised standard reading and the NIV
757. 52:24all say it was the period before the judges, see?
758. 52:28Now there is a difference in doctrine.
759. 52:30If you take the King James text,
760. 52:31it contradicts First King 6.1
761. 52:34that says the period of time
762. 52:35from the exes to Solomon was how long?
763. 52:38You remember?
764. 52:39490 years.
765. 52:41And here they have 450 years
766. 52:42just for the period of the judges
767. 52:44after they got into the land up to Samuel.
768. 52:48There's no way of putting 450 years
769. 52:50from Canaan until Samuel.
770. 52:54And 490 years be from the exodus to Solomon
771. 52:58because after Samuel you've got Saul reigning,
772. 53:00you've got David reigning before you have Solomon
773. 53:03and then you have the 40 years wandering in the wilderness.
774. 53:07And you can't get 490 years where 450 years
775. 53:10was the time of the judges say.
776. 53:11So the way the King James reads
777. 53:13it contradicts First King 6.1.
778. 53:17So you can't say there's not any doctrine at all
779. 53:20involved in this.
780. 53:21There is some doctrine involved and it's important.
781. 53:23But the fact is when you look at the textual variations,
782. 53:27you find that the textual variations
783. 53:29are on the side of the new American standard,
784. 53:31the American standard, their bystander, and the NIV.
785. 53:34Now, if you get one of these,
786. 53:36have you had your Greek course yet?
787. 53:38I should have had you bring this today.
788. 53:41And I could show you how I forgot to do it.
789. 53:44And to show you how you can use the textual variations
790. 53:47down here, I'm gonna go ahead and do it here with you.
791. 53:49I wish you had it so that if you could see it
792. 53:52in your own Greek New Testament, you've got yours, Dennis.
793. 53:55Good.
794. 53:56Look over into Acts chapter 13
795. 53:58and we'll just look at this one problem right here
796. 54:00that we've already looked at previously.
797. 54:03And I'll show you how you can do your own evaluation.
798. 54:07Now, Dennis, you might share with those
799. 54:09who are around you there.
800. 54:11It's the Acts 13, what is the verse?
801. 54:13It's verse 19.
802. 54:15Okay, in verse 19 in your Greek text,
803. 54:18what happens is when you have a textual variation,
804. 54:23it will be listed down here below.
805. 54:25Now, in this particular case, I can see it's under verse 20.
806. 54:29It's in verse 20 where it lists it.
807. 54:32And it lists the reading as this Greek text
808. 54:36follows our new American standard reading
809. 54:38and the American standard reading.
810. 54:40It does not follow the King James.
811. 54:42Now, the reason is is because this Greek text
812. 54:44could what it believed was the most accurate Greek text
813. 54:48based on the ancient Greek manuscripts.
814. 54:51But what it does down below,
815. 54:53it lists the evidence for this reading.
816. 54:56In the evidence for this reading,
817. 54:57it lists, first of all, if you look down below,
818. 55:00there's a letter D.
819. 55:02Now, letter D means that there is doubt
820. 55:04concerning this text, considerable doubt.
821. 55:07If it had A on it, it'd mean there's hardly any doubt.
822. 55:10B, part of very little doubt,
823. 55:13C, a little shacky but still strongly in favor,
824. 55:17but D, it's not, maybe it's a 60-40.
825. 55:21It's not 50-50, but it's a 60-40 case.
826. 55:25In other words, it's not a, you know,
827. 55:27A is maybe a 90%, you know,
828. 55:30and B is 80%, and C is 70%,
829. 55:33and D is say 60%, which means it is kinda equally divided
830. 55:39but here's the way you could evaluate it.
831. 55:41The first number under here
832. 55:43for the reading that's up above is P74.
833. 55:47Okay, now, do you have a card with yours, Dennis?
834. 55:52If you don't have one, you can find them in your introductions.
835. 55:56And you can look up what P74 is
836. 56:00in your introductory material here.
837. 56:03And I'm gonna have to find one
838. 56:04because I've lost my card.
839. 56:05Let me see yours, Dennis,
840. 56:07so that I can find it more quickly.
841. 56:10Okay, here on this little card
842. 56:13that goes with your Greek text,
843. 56:15it has the P's or the papyri.
844. 56:18Now all the papyri are very ancient.
845. 56:21And so that will be evidence going way back close,
846. 56:24you know, into the early centuries ordinarily.
847. 56:26We'll look at this one though.
848. 56:29P74 is only a seventh century papyri.
849. 56:32So that is not very ancient.
850. 56:35So that doesn't tell us a whole lot.
851. 56:37But if you'll notice in all of the P's,
852. 56:40there's only see one other that has the book of Acts.
853. 56:44Two, only two others, three, four,
854. 56:48there's only four papyri that have the book of Acts.
855. 56:50And anyway, here is a seventh century papyri
856. 56:53that has this reading.
857. 56:54So that's not the best,
858. 56:58but let's look at the next one.
859. 56:59The next one has the Greek letter,
860. 57:02the Hebrew letter alpha.
861. 57:06And that alpha right there is the sign
862. 57:12for the Sinaiticus manuscript.
863. 57:14And it's under the unxials in your card right here.
864. 57:17See where your unxials are here?
865. 57:20Here's unxials.
866. 57:22The unxials all have capital letters in them.
867. 57:26The earliest Greek manuscripts we have
868. 57:29only have capital letters.
869. 57:31In other words, they don't have any little letters.
870. 57:34And so whenever you see a capital S like on Spirit,
871. 57:38that's the interpretation of the translator.
872. 57:40Because in Greek, every one of the letters
873. 57:43were capitalized, you see.
874. 57:45And so I got to go to London one time
875. 57:48into the British Museum and I saw,
876. 57:51I believe it was the Alexandranus
877. 57:53and the Sinaiticus manuscripts.
878. 57:55It was either that or the, there's three,
879. 57:57the Alexandranus, the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus
880. 58:00and two of those three were right there before my eyes
881. 58:02and I saw them and they're all capital letters.
882. 58:06Every single, and there's no spice between words.
883. 58:09I mean, they're just stride across,
884. 58:11you can talk about difficult reading.
885. 58:14No spice between words, no spice between sentences,
886. 58:18no punctuation marks at all.
887. 58:21They're just capital letters going all the way across.
888. 58:24And that's the way they wrote back then.
889. 58:27Now, lighter on in lighter centuries,
890. 58:29they began to use little letters,
891. 58:31these are the cursive manuscripts.
892. 58:33So the Anxiles, the Anxiles
893. 58:34are the more ancient manuscripts, you see.
894. 58:37Okay, it lists the Sinaiticus manuscript,
895. 58:40which is your first one, see that little,
896. 58:42the Hebrew letter right there.
897. 58:44That is a very ancient, it's a fourth century Greek
898. 58:47manuscript that contains the entire New Testament
899. 58:51right there.
900. 58:52Okay, now the next letter is A.
901. 58:54A, if you'll notice right here,
902. 58:57there's your A.
903. 58:58That is the Alexandrinus manuscript.
904. 59:02And it is one of the most ancient manuscripts
905. 59:05and it is a fifth century manuscript.
906. 59:07And then it has C.
907. 59:10And look at C.
908. 59:12No, it has B, has B.
909. 59:15There is B.
910. 59:16And I believe that that is the Vaticanus.
911. 59:20I have it all written on my little card,
912. 59:22which each one, and that's a fourth century.
913. 59:25And then it has C.
914. 59:27And I believe that's the Ephraimus rescriptus.
915. 59:30It is a fifth century.
916. 59:33Now I do not understand how he rated this D at all.
917. 59:37See that letter D, he puts it later,
918. 59:40that's what his grading is on the validity of the text.
919. 59:44And just like I said, A would be 90%,
920. 59:48B, 80, C, 70, D, 60%.
921. 59:53I would not call that at all a 60%.
922. 59:55I wouldn't put a D on that
923. 59:57because you've got the four oldest Greek manuscripts
924. 1:00:02that contain the entire Bible with this reading.
925. 1:00:05Anytime you have four of them.
926. 1:00:08That's a B or an A, and in every other place I've seen him, when all four of those he grades
927. 1:00:16in B or A, and why he graded this a D, I do not know.
928. 1:00:21I think the reason is this.
929. 1:00:23The guy who did this evaluation, one of the heavy things that he did was, he gives much
930. 1:00:29weight if it's a reading that would contradict.
931. 1:00:33He thinks that if it's a reading that contradicts, then it probably did contradict, and that
932. 1:00:38lighter people changed it to harmonize.
933. 1:00:41That's exactly what this meant.
934. 1:00:42He is a liberal who did this.
935. 1:00:44He does not believe in the inspiration of the Bible, the one who put these textual notes
936. 1:00:48on here, and he is biased against the inspiration of the Bible.
937. 1:00:53When it's on a non-controversial subject, he's very accurate, but when it's on a controversial
938. 1:00:58subject of doctrine, he will favor the contradiction against the harmony, because he thinks
939. 1:01:06that what happened is the original writer made a contradiction, and later writers tried
940. 1:01:11to straighten the amount.
941. 1:01:12That's exactly what the man believes, Metzger.
942. 1:01:15He's a great scholar, but he does not believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures.
943. 1:01:20He believes that Scriptures contain errors, and I have seen other readings that had
944. 1:01:25that much evidence in favor of it, and he rated them A and B every time, and here
945. 1:01:31he's rated this one B, but you make your own evaluation.
946. 1:01:34In other words, I believe that the evidence ought to be in favor of harmony instead of
947. 1:01:40against it.
948. 1:01:42He always says the more difficult the reading is, the more likely it is that's the original.
949. 1:01:47That's his fundamental principle of evaluation, and that later writers try to straighten
950. 1:01:51the amount and make it simpler and easier to do.
951. 1:01:54Now that does happen at times.
952. 1:01:55There's no doubt about it.
953. 1:01:56That may have happened at times where a person tried to make it simple because
954. 1:02:00it was too complicated up above.
955. 1:02:01But when you have an utter contradiction to the Bible, if anything, it ought to be in
956. 1:02:07favor of harmony.
957. 1:02:08But in this case, you don't even take that into consideration.
958. 1:02:11Just look at the manuscript evidence.
959. 1:02:13The four oldest Greek manuscripts that contain the entire New Testament, all four
960. 1:02:17of them contain the reading that the New American uses.
961. 1:02:21That means the King James Version was based on a Greek text that was not found
962. 1:02:26in the four oldest complete manuscripts of the Greek New Testament.
963. 1:02:30Now that shows how slim of evidence that the King James used.
964. 1:02:35Now why did they do that?
965. 1:02:36Because the Greek manuscripts they used when they translated the King James Version
966. 1:02:41were about 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th century manuscripts.
967. 1:02:46That's all they had available.
968. 1:02:48They didn't have any of the ancient ones because when it was translated in 1611,
969. 1:02:53they hadn't discovered these ancient Greek manuscripts.
970. 1:02:56They used the best they had.
971. 1:02:57In fact, when they got to the Book of Revelation, they did not even have a complete manuscript
972. 1:03:04on the Book of Revelation in Greek.
973. 1:03:06And they used the Latin on some of the verses.
974. 1:03:09They only had fragments of the Book of Revelation preserved in Greek when King James
975. 1:03:14and they translated some from the Latin instead of the Greek.
976. 1:03:18And the Latin was a translation of the Greek.
977. 1:03:20So they took a translation of a translation.
978. 1:03:22And that's one of the reasons of a lot of discrepancies between King James on the
979. 1:03:25Book of Revelation chapter 20 and Revelation translated in modern versions
980. 1:03:31is because it was that faulty.
981. 1:03:34In other words, the King James did not have that good a manuscript evidence
982. 1:03:37when it was translated back in 1611.
983. 1:03:40Since that time, they discovered ancient Greek manuscripts that go all the way back
984. 1:03:44into the 2nd century on papyri and other things.
985. 1:03:49We have so much more evidence and our modern versions are based on those.
986. 1:03:52Now that's the main objection I have the New King James version.
987. 1:03:56The New King James version translates from the text behind the Old King James.
988. 1:04:03They translate the Old King James Greek manuscripts.
989. 1:04:07They do not take into consideration any of these ancient Greek manuscripts.
990. 1:04:11They do in their footnotes.
991. 1:04:12In the footnote, they will tell you what it is.
992. 1:04:15But their text follows the same Greek text that was used on the King James version.
993. 1:04:21So you're reading a translation from the same manuscripts the King James used.
994. 1:04:28Now they will put all the textual variations in for you and show what it is in the margin.
995. 1:04:33But I don't think that in my opinion that's not the best
996. 1:04:36because I think you ought to take the oldest Greek manuscripts
997. 1:04:40and the majority of those should be a determining factor on what the reading should be.
998. 1:04:44You know, when you consider things.
999. 1:04:46You don't consider what the majority have
1000. 1:04:49when the majority were written in the 12th, 14th and 15th centuries
1001. 1:04:52which are copies of copies of copies of copies of copies.
1002. 1:04:55I want to get back to the ones they copied from
1003. 1:04:58because those the closer you can get to the original font
1004. 1:05:01the less textual variations you're going to have, you say.
1005. 1:05:05And you want to get back to the source.
1006. 1:05:07Let's get back to the very original as close as we can.
1007. 1:05:11We don't have the original copies
1008. 1:05:12but we have copies that maybe were just second copies from the original.
1009. 1:05:18And we might have some copies that were first copies from the original.
1010. 1:05:22Possibly. We don't know that.
1011. 1:05:24But we can get way back there and look at all of those
1012. 1:05:26and make your determination on those
1013. 1:05:28and that's the reason that I, and that's what this guy uses.
1014. 1:05:32This guy uses the principle I've just told you.
1015. 1:05:34He takes the evaluation of the oldest unless it contradicts
1016. 1:05:38and then he lets that be an overriding principle.
1017. 1:05:40And so I'm just telling you the majority of the ancient Greek manuscripts
1018. 1:05:44contain this.
1019. 1:05:45Now here's what else it'll have.
1020. 1:05:47It has, anytime you see the numbers, there's a 33,
1021. 1:05:51known as a 33, 81, 181, those are all going to be curses.
1022. 1:05:57Now that was after people were writing longhand
1023. 1:05:59with the little letters.
1024. 1:06:01So those are going to be older manuscripts.
1025. 1:06:04I mean more modern manuscripts.
1026. 1:06:06And let's see if it even has it on your card.
1027. 1:06:09Don't even see them on your card.
1028. 1:06:12Yeah, here it is.
1029. 1:06:13Let's see what numbers were they?
1030. 1:06:1633 and 81.
1031. 1:06:17That's a 9th century manuscript and 11th century manuscript.
1032. 1:06:21So those are not all that significant.
1033. 1:06:24Now you come on over.
1034. 1:06:26Here's the IT.
1035. 1:06:27Now you're looking at some translations.
1036. 1:06:29The IT here, it has down here,
1037. 1:06:33and it has an AR and a C on it.
1038. 1:06:35Okay, now you look on here, these are versions
1039. 1:06:37where they translated the Greek into another language.
1040. 1:06:42The IT's Italian.
1041. 1:06:44So you look at Italian on your card,
1042. 1:06:46and you look up ITAR, and here it is.
1043. 1:06:50It's a 9th century, see that AR, ITAR.
1044. 1:06:53That's a 9th century translation.
1045. 1:06:55That doesn't go back very far.
1046. 1:06:57It has a letter C.
1047. 1:07:00The letter C is a 12th and 13th century.
1048. 1:07:03Well, that's not all that significant.
1049. 1:07:05But then it has a VG.
1050. 1:07:08Now the VG stands for the Latin Vulget.
1051. 1:07:11And that was an ancient translation.
1052. 1:07:13Notice on your card here, it is a 4th and 5th century translation.
1053. 1:07:19That goes back to the time of the ancient,
1054. 1:07:22complete Greek manuscripts we have.
1055. 1:07:24And it was translated into Latin by Jerome.
1056. 1:07:28Jerome did that at the end of the 4th century,
1057. 1:07:31beginning of the 5th century.
1058. 1:07:33Jerome translated it.
1059. 1:07:34And the Greek manuscripts that Jerome used
1060. 1:07:36contained the reading of the New American Standard.
1061. 1:07:39Not the reading of the King James.
1062. 1:07:41That's a very important witness.
1063. 1:07:43That's an early witness, 4th and 5th century.
1064. 1:07:46Okay, the next thing he has, he has a Coptic...
1065. 1:07:52Right here, but it omits a few things.
1066. 1:07:55A Coptic S.A.
1067. 1:07:59The Coptic S.A. is a very ancient...
1068. 1:08:02It follows more the reading.
1069. 1:08:04It's closer to our reading than the King James,
1070. 1:08:06but it's not exactly like it.
1071. 1:08:07It's a 3rd century Egyptian translation.
1072. 1:08:11So we have a 3rd century Egyptian translation.
1073. 1:08:14And also the B.O. of Coptic
1074. 1:08:18is a 4th century Egyptian translation.
1075. 1:08:21So we have a 4th and a 3rd century Egyptian translation
1076. 1:08:24that gives more evidence toward our modern reading
1077. 1:08:29than we do the King James reading.
1078. 1:08:30Do you address it?
1079. 1:08:33So maybe pose a question to you about...
1080. 1:08:35Well, do you have original manuscripts?
1081. 1:08:36Go all the way back to the beginning,
1082. 1:08:38and you say, no, we have them back to the 2nd, 3rd, 4th century.
1083. 1:08:41You say, well, how can you say that's Val and you know that's worth it for us?
1084. 1:08:45Well, you repeat that.
1085. 1:08:47My mind was still on here.
1086. 1:08:49I've had the questions posed to me about how do you know
1087. 1:08:53you don't have original manuscripts.
1088. 1:08:56You don't have the original written by the hand of the Apostle.
1089. 1:08:58So what do you have?
1090. 1:09:00You've got copies from three or four years later.
1091. 1:09:02How do you know?
1092. 1:09:04Okay. The basis of certainly we have
1093. 1:09:07is that many, many copies were made.
1094. 1:09:10Multiple manuscripts were made.
1095. 1:09:12And because of a multiple number of manuscripts
1096. 1:09:14that were made from the originals,
1097. 1:09:17then we have greater certainty because as they copied
1098. 1:09:20they would have not all made the same mistake
1099. 1:09:22when they copied.
1100. 1:09:24Now, see, the scribes that copied them were not inspired, were they?
1101. 1:09:27The originals were inspired.
1102. 1:09:29But the copies made by the scribes
1103. 1:09:32were not inspired because they were just men in the church
1104. 1:09:35copying it down.
1105. 1:09:37Now, they were also not trained scribes.
1106. 1:09:40And the Jews were trained.
1107. 1:09:43And that's the reason in the Old Testament
1108. 1:09:45the textual variations are so much less
1109. 1:09:48than in the New Testament
1110. 1:09:50because they numbered every single letter in a line,
1111. 1:09:53every number of lines on a page.
1112. 1:09:56They were so precise in the way they copied
1113. 1:09:59and they were trained in a school, how to be a scribe.
1114. 1:10:03And they were taught all of these things.
1115. 1:10:04So in the Old Testament there are very few textual variations.
1116. 1:10:08Whereas in the New Testament there are many
1117. 1:10:10because every congregation had to copy its own.
1118. 1:10:14Over here is the church in Corinth.
1119. 1:10:15Here's the church in Ephesus, across the waters.
1120. 1:10:17And each of them are copying and they appoint some men in the church
1121. 1:10:20who's a pretty good writer and he writes.
1122. 1:10:22But he's not a skilled scribe.
1123. 1:10:24He may be educated man, but as he's copying
1124. 1:10:28he may skip a word.
1125. 1:10:30He may misspell a word.
1126. 1:10:33Sometimes he might even skip a line.
1127. 1:10:35He may read it wrong.
1128. 1:10:37And right down you put another word in there by accident.
1129. 1:10:41But what happened?
1130. 1:10:42They didn't make just one copy.
1131. 1:10:44In other words, like the church of Laodicea wants this copy
1132. 1:10:47and the church of Colossae wants this copy
1133. 1:10:48and the church of Philippi wants this copy.
1134. 1:10:50So they made three copies or four copies or five copies
1135. 1:10:53or ten copies and sent to all of those churches.
1136. 1:10:57And as they copied them they didn't make the same mistake every time.
1137. 1:11:00Now if they copied the copies they would have
1138. 1:11:02but they had the original to copy from.
1139. 1:11:05And so the copies of the original got out.
1140. 1:11:07But if you compared all of those copies
1141. 1:11:09since they didn't make the same mistake
1142. 1:11:11you could look at the majority reading on it
1143. 1:11:12and know which one was the most accurate.
1144. 1:11:14So we have a great deal of certainty
1145. 1:11:16because of the multiple number of copies
1146. 1:11:19made of these manuscripts.
1147. 1:11:20And like I say there are 4,000 manuscripts in Greek.
1148. 1:11:24And by comparing them you can see
1149. 1:11:27where the weight of evidence lies.
1150. 1:11:29And so that's why it's so important.
1151. 1:11:31Now what happened on the Old Testament?
1152. 1:11:33I really got ahead on the New Testament.
1153. 1:11:34I should have covered the Old Testament first.
1154. 1:11:37On the Old Testament for a long time
1155. 1:11:39our earliest Hebrew manuscripts were 7th century,
1156. 1:11:438th century, 9th century AD.
1157. 1:11:46Manuscripts to Hebrew.
1158. 1:11:48The Maserites who were a sect of the Jews
1159. 1:11:50were the ones who did these for us.
1160. 1:11:52They're the ones who put the vowel markings
1161. 1:11:55on the words.
1162. 1:11:57And so all of our punctuation
1163. 1:11:58and pronunciation of Hebrew words
1164. 1:12:01come from about the 7th century AD
1165. 1:12:04from Jews who did that.
1166. 1:12:06Now we've always wanted, well,
1167. 1:12:08how can we know 7th century AD
1168. 1:12:10that this is the reason the Canon quit in 400 BC?
1169. 1:12:13There's 1,100 years
1170. 1:12:15since the Canon closed.
1171. 1:12:17We don't have any manuscripts.
1172. 1:12:19But what happened?
1173. 1:12:21They discovered in the 1940s and 1950s
1174. 1:12:23the Dead Sea Scrolls.
1175. 1:12:26And over in Palestine there was a sect
1176. 1:12:28of the 1st century
1177. 1:12:29who kept all of these scrolls
1178. 1:12:32in their caves.
1179. 1:12:35And back there in their caves
1180. 1:12:36were called the Essenes.
1181. 1:12:38And they were an ascetic sect
1182. 1:12:39that separated themselves from other people
1183. 1:12:41and lived kind of like in monasteries,
1184. 1:12:44but they lived out in the caves.
1185. 1:12:45And they found in those caves
1186. 1:12:47ancient Hebrew manuscripts
1187. 1:12:49that went back as far as
1188. 1:12:51200 BC.
1189. 1:12:54And they got those Hebrew manuscripts
1190. 1:12:56and compared them
1191. 1:12:57to our present manuscripts
1192. 1:12:59and there was about a
1193. 1:13:0199% exactitude
1194. 1:13:04certitude.
1195. 1:13:05In fact, 99 point.
1196. 1:13:07I mean, it just almost confirms
1197. 1:13:09every single thing which shows
1198. 1:13:11how well the Jewish scribes
1199. 1:13:13had been keeping those manuscripts.
1200. 1:13:15They were remarkable
1201. 1:13:17in precision
1202. 1:13:18in copying those manuscripts.
1203. 1:13:20So the Dead Sea Scrolls
1204. 1:13:22then had been confirmation that the text
1205. 1:13:24we've been following in the Hebrew
1206. 1:13:26has been very accurate.
1207. 1:13:27Now the question was of the Septuagint.
1208. 1:13:29The Septuagint is a Greek translation
1209. 1:13:32of the Old Testament.
1210. 1:13:33It was originally made back in about
1211. 1:13:35240 BC by one of the Ptolemy's
1212. 1:13:38of Egypt.
1213. 1:13:39And at that time the Jews had
1214. 1:13:41such a great influence in Egypt
1215. 1:13:42that Ptolemy ordered a copy
1216. 1:13:45of the Hebrew Bible
1217. 1:13:47to be translated into
1218. 1:13:48Greek and they got 70 Hebrew scholars.
1219. 1:13:52And they came over
1220. 1:13:54and these 70 Hebrew scholars translated
1221. 1:13:56the Old Testament Hebrew
1222. 1:13:58into Greek.
1223. 1:13:59And that becomes the Septuagint.
1224. 1:14:01Now there are a number of readings in the Septuagint
1225. 1:14:03that differ considerably from the Hebrew.
1226. 1:14:06And there's been some people
1227. 1:14:07who say that we ought to follow the Septuagint
1228. 1:14:10instead of the Hebrew.
1229. 1:14:11Well the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls
1230. 1:14:13confirms that the Hebrew writings
1231. 1:14:15are the best.
1232. 1:14:17Because the Hebrew writings are almost exactly
1233. 1:14:20you know
1234. 1:14:21in confirmation of the early
1235. 1:14:23Hebrew manuscripts.
1236. 1:14:25Because they've got Hebrew manuscripts
1237. 1:14:26going back almost to the time when they translated
1238. 1:14:29the Septuagint.
1239. 1:14:30But there are a few places
1240. 1:14:32where it confirmed the Septuagint
1241. 1:14:35on just a few places.
1242. 1:14:37And those significant places
1243. 1:14:38Nix, Gisler Nix
1244. 1:14:40put in her book that I have you
1245. 1:14:43read and we might look at those
1246. 1:14:44real quickly.
1247. 1:14:47If I don't guess you brought it
1248. 1:14:49with you to class didn't you?
1249. 1:14:52I didn't ask you to, I forgot to tell you to do it.
1250. 1:14:55Let me call your attention
1251. 1:14:56to some of the significant ones.
1252. 1:15:05Here
1253. 1:15:06open your Bibles to
1254. 1:15:07first of all Deuteronomy 32 verse
1255. 1:15:108. He left
1256. 1:15:17six of the most significant differences
1257. 1:15:19that would confirm the Septuagint
1258. 1:15:23on these
1259. 1:15:24readings.
1260. 1:15:26Deuteronomy 32
1261. 1:15:28verse 8.
1262. 1:15:29It says when the most high gave
1263. 1:15:31the nations their inheritance
1264. 1:15:33when he separated the sons of man
1265. 1:15:35he set the boundaries of the
1266. 1:15:37peoples according to the number
1267. 1:15:39of the sons of Israel.
1268. 1:15:41Okay now this
1269. 1:15:43in the Dead Sea Scrolls it reads
1270. 1:15:45according
1271. 1:15:46to the numbers of the sons of God
1272. 1:15:49instead of the sons of Israel.
1273. 1:15:52And the Septuagint
1274. 1:15:53says according to the angels
1275. 1:15:55of God.
1276. 1:15:57And so in other words the Septuagint
1277. 1:15:59said according to the angels of God
1278. 1:16:01our says according to the sons of Israel
1279. 1:16:03but this in the Dead Sea Scrolls
1280. 1:16:05it says according to the number
1281. 1:16:07of the sons of God.
1282. 1:16:10Now the sons of God
1283. 1:16:11can be interpreted two different ways.
1284. 1:16:13You remember in the book of Job
1285. 1:16:15who are the sons of God.
1286. 1:16:17When it says the sons of God came
1287. 1:16:19to present their offerings before the Lord.
1288. 1:16:22Who are they?
1289. 1:16:23Do you remember? Of course you haven't studied
1290. 1:16:25Job having their angels.
1291. 1:16:28It says
1292. 1:16:29as the sons of God came to present their offerings
1293. 1:16:31before God, Satan also
1294. 1:16:33appeared in their midst.
1295. 1:16:34And God said where have you been Satan?
1296. 1:16:36He said I've been down on earth wandering
1297. 1:16:38on the earth. So he was up in heaven.
1298. 1:16:41So where were the sons of God then
1299. 1:16:42that were presenting their offering? They were up in heaven too.
1300. 1:16:45And then the Bible also talks about the sons
1301. 1:16:46of God and Job that were clapping
1302. 1:16:49as they saw God create the world.
1303. 1:16:52And so they were present
1304. 1:16:53in other words they were present
1305. 1:16:55and saw God as he brought the
1306. 1:16:57worlds into existence and they applauded God.
1307. 1:16:59They had to be angels. It couldn't be men
1308. 1:17:01because men weren't created until
1309. 1:17:02after the world was created. But angels
1310. 1:17:05obviously were created before
1311. 1:17:07that time you say.
1312. 1:17:09In the angels of God. So the word
1313. 1:17:10sons of God
1314. 1:17:13oftentimes refer
1315. 1:17:14that term refers to angels.
1316. 1:17:17And so the Dead Sea Scrolls
1317. 1:17:21the Septuagint said angels they were interpreting
1318. 1:17:23what the sons of God were.
1319. 1:17:25And that
1320. 1:17:27will fit also another reading that we'll
1321. 1:17:29have later. Look at
1322. 1:17:31Deuteronomy 32 verse 43
1323. 1:17:34in verse
1324. 1:17:3543
1325. 1:17:36of the same chapter of Deuteronomy
1326. 1:17:3932. It says
1327. 1:17:41rejoice on nations
1328. 1:17:43with his people for he will
1329. 1:17:45avenge the blood of his servants
1330. 1:17:47and will render
1331. 1:17:48vengeance on his adversaries
1332. 1:17:50will atone for his land and his people
1333. 1:17:52and the Septuagint says
1334. 1:17:53and let all the angels
1335. 1:17:56worship him.
1336. 1:17:59Now
1337. 1:17:59the Septuagint adds that in Hebrews
1338. 1:18:02chapter 1 verse 6 quotes
1339. 1:18:04the Septuagint. Look at Hebrews 1 verse 6
1340. 1:18:06says when he
1341. 1:18:10again brings the firstborn into the world
1342. 1:18:12he says and let all the
1343. 1:18:14angels of God worship him.
1344. 1:18:17But the Hebrew
1345. 1:18:17our present Hebrew manuscripts
1346. 1:18:19do not contain this. Now it's unfortunate
1347. 1:18:21that our new American standard ought
1348. 1:18:23to have that in a footnote.
1349. 1:18:26Now probably the NIV
1350. 1:18:27do you want to have the NIV in here?
1351. 1:18:29Uninertial where do you have it? See if there's not
1352. 1:18:31a footnote on this. See if it doesn't say
1353. 1:18:33and let all the angels worship him
1354. 1:18:35either in the text
1355. 1:18:38in verse
1356. 1:18:4043 or in a footnote.
1357. 1:18:43Does it say it in the text?
1358. 1:18:46Okay look back
1359. 1:18:47in Deuteronomy
1360. 1:18:48look back in the Deuteronomy 32 passage
1361. 1:18:50now here's where the NIV
1362. 1:18:52is more up to date
1363. 1:18:54on the Dead Sea Scrolls than any other version.
1364. 1:18:57The New International version
1365. 1:18:58will tell you
1366. 1:19:00when the Dead Sea Scrolls have added something
1367. 1:19:03and
1368. 1:19:04it's the best one that I've seen so far
1369. 1:19:07that will tell these differences
1370. 1:19:09and we'll let her read it
1371. 1:19:10and read it out of the NIV. Would you read that out of the NIV?
1372. 1:19:12Okay.
1373. 1:19:13Rejoice our nation for the people
1374. 1:19:15for whom all heads of life and service
1375. 1:19:17will take mention of their needs
1376. 1:19:19made atonement for his land and his people
1377. 1:19:21and in the footnote it says
1378. 1:19:23will make his people rejoice their nations
1379. 1:19:26on the Dead Sea Scrolls
1380. 1:19:28and the Septuagint in verse
1381. 1:19:31Okay Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint
1382. 1:19:33and let all the angels worship him
1383. 1:19:35you see. Now they have added that
1384. 1:19:39but in a footnote
1385. 1:19:40and I think they'd be just about to put it in the text
1386. 1:19:42because if you have an ancient
1387. 1:19:44Hebrew manuscript that says it
1388. 1:19:46and the Septuagint
1389. 1:19:47I think that's enough justification
1390. 1:19:49for adding it to the text
1391. 1:19:50and especially when you have
1392. 1:19:52an inspired writer in the book of Hebrews
1393. 1:19:55quoting it as Scripture
1394. 1:19:57see. Over there you've got
1395. 1:20:00three testimonies
1396. 1:20:01the Septuagint
1397. 1:20:02the ancient Hebrew
1398. 1:20:05and above all
1399. 1:20:07an inspired writer saying all the angels worship him.
1400. 1:20:12And I think it's interesting too, look back in Deuteronomy 32 and let me show
1401. 1:20:16you this says it's interpreting it to be Christ.
1402. 1:20:19Look at verse 42 and then look at verse 43 and it says,
1403. 1:20:25I will make my arrows drunk with blood and my
1404. 1:20:29sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives.
1405. 1:20:32But verse 43 now, rejoice relations with his people for he will avenge the blood of his servants
1406. 1:20:43and will render vengeance on his adversaries and will atone for his land and his people.
1407. 1:20:49Now what's the difference between 42 and 43? First and second person.
1408. 1:20:55It's first person in verse 42 who would be man,
1409. 1:20:58the Father, God, and who is his? It's Jesus the Messiah.
1410. 1:21:05And so there you have a transition from the first person to the third person
1411. 1:21:12and the Father is speaking. And so that's the reason that this is a messianic verse
1412. 1:21:16and it's referring to Christ. And the Hebrew writer was justified then in talking about Jesus
1413. 1:21:22over here in Hebrews 1-6. He was talking about the firstborn Son coming in the world
1414. 1:21:26who would redeem the people, you say? And I believe that y'all, I've written it in on mine
1415. 1:21:35in the margin here, let all the angels of God worship you. And it ought to be, I think,
1416. 1:21:41it ought to be an American ought to put it to its tax at least in the footnote like the NIV's
1417. 1:21:45done. And that's where NIV is, I think, very good in giving the evidence from the Dead Sea
1418. 1:21:53Scrolls into the Scriptures. And I think it ought to be part of the Scriptures. I think
1419. 1:21:58it was originally in the Scriptures and it ought to be there. Especially when the Hebrew
1420. 1:22:03writer said it was, that's a divine stamp approved with a Septuagint. See, because the
1421. 1:22:09Greek translation, Septuagint said it all along anyway. And I think that'd been enough
1422. 1:22:14reason too to put it in the margin even without the Dead Sea Scrolls. If you've got the Hebrew
1423. 1:22:19writer saying it's inspired and the Septuagint says it, then it ought to go in the margin.
1424. 1:22:25Now here's another evidence that they've got here that I thought was interesting in Exodus,
1425. 1:22:31chapter one, verse five. Look at Exodus one, verse five. Either way, I'm taking this from
1426. 1:22:40page 262 of Gisler and Nix. And he's got it revised now since this one, mine's the old one.
1427. 1:22:47You've got probably the revised. You may have the old one too. I think I had a bunch
1428. 1:22:51of copies of the old one. I don't know if you've got the revision or not. But anyway,
1429. 1:22:55it mines on page, see if yours is on page 262 there, David, where I'm reading these right now
1430. 1:23:00of Gisler and Nix. It could be his revision has something different. It might be on a
1431. 1:23:04different page if you've got the revised section. Okay, look at Exodus chapter one,
1432. 1:23:10verse five. It says, And all the people who came from the loins of Jacob were 70 in number.
1433. 1:23:16But Joseph was already in Egypt. Okay, now, what does the NIV say on that?
1434. 1:23:24It says 75. They found in the Dead Sea Scrolls where it says 75. Now look at Acts 714.
1435. 1:23:49In Joseph's sent word, invited Jacob, his father, and all his relatives come to him,
1436. 1:23:5375 persons in all. So what did Luke think was the number? 75, say, and so see our old,
1437. 1:24:02our Hebrew said 70. The Greek in Acts 7 said 75, but the Septuagint said 75. And so the ancient,
1438. 1:24:11now they found the Dead Sea Scrolls also says 75. So there is another, I think another place
1439. 1:24:17where here our new American standard has not put it in. And I would write it in at least in the
1440. 1:24:22margin. I think it ought to go into the text. So X is one verse five put in the margin 75 in
1441. 1:24:30LXX is the sign for the Septuagint. That's 70 in Roman numerals. And then and Dead Sea Scrolls.
1442. 1:24:40And Acts one verse five. Okay, now let's look at another one here.
1443. 1:24:52Acts 714. Okay, now let me see. This is not a good example. Let's see if I can find a better one.
1444. 1:25:13I think that's all the examples that we'll look at. The others that he has aren't as good.
1445. 1:25:17But at any rate, those are just those are the main ones, very few, aren't they?
1446. 1:25:26In the rest of the cases, the Dead Sea Scrolls confirm our present Hebrew manuscripts.
1447. 1:25:33That gives us more confidence then again in the New Testament writers that when they did quote
1448. 1:25:37the Septuagint, they quoted it because they were revealed by God that that was the more
1449. 1:25:42accurate reading in that particular case. Because now we have Hebrew manuscripts
1450. 1:25:45backing that up. But overall it still shows the Hebrew manuscripts are superior to the Septuagint.
1451. 1:25:51Because the Septuagint differs very many times with the Hebrew, even on numbers of kings and
1452. 1:25:57things like that. Till's book that I told you about earlier on the chronology of the Hebrew
1453. 1:26:01kings, the mysterious numbers of the Hebrew kings, all of his findings show that the Septuagint
1454. 1:26:07numbers are grossly changed and that the Hebrew numbers are the ones that are the more
1455. 1:26:13accurate. The Hebrew manuscripts are far superior to the Septuagint on the numbers of the Hebrew kings.
1456. 1:26:19And so overall the Hebrew that the Maseritsa had done has been proved to be the most
1457. 1:26:25reliable that we have. But anyway, you can see how the textual variation goes. Now,
1458. 1:26:31back to our Acts 13 passage in the Greek New Testament,
1459. 1:26:38he comes on down here toward the end to give you the textual variation of the King James.
1460. 1:26:47And let me see if I can find that. Okay, here's the earliest one for the King
1461. 1:27:10James is letter D. And it has a little D on it, which that means there's just a
1462. 1:27:16one manuscript of it. Look over here on letter D. It is a fifth or sixth century Greek manuscript
1463. 1:27:25of an unseal. It has that letter E it has. That is a sixth century. Letter P is a ninth century
1464. 1:27:36unseal. And then it has C, which is a eighth and ninth century. Now look it,
1465. 1:27:42in other words, those are the evidence for the King James right there.
1466. 1:27:47It starts with the sixth and goes to the ninth of the unseals. Those are the oldest
1467. 1:27:51that they have for it in favor of it. Here the other had the four oldest Greek manuscripts
1468. 1:27:58contained this other eight, and yet he gives it just a D. It's not it's not fair
1469. 1:28:03evaluation. It really isn't. It's not fair at all. I can show you on many, many other
1470. 1:28:09instances. Well, for instance, I have here verse 26 here at Acts. Look right across
1471. 1:28:15on verse 26 on the opposite page. Here he's got the same Greek manuscripts and the same
1472. 1:28:24papyri, the very same ones that were over here in verse 20. And look what the letter is on it.
1473. 1:28:29Letter B. He has a letter B right across the page, the same Greek manuscripts that he had
1474. 1:28:37on verse 20. And on verse 26 he writes it B, and on verse 20 he writes it D. And it's the
1475. 1:28:45very same ones. Now that shows how the man is biased. He's not accepting the manuscript
1476. 1:28:52evidence. He's letting his own theory override what the manuscript evidence is. And his
1477. 1:28:59theory is, if it contradicts, that's the original, you know, because later writers
1478. 1:29:06try to correct it. Well, that's not what happened in this particular case. The evidence
1479. 1:29:12is decidedly in favor of the readings that we have in all of our modern versions, the
1480. 1:29:16international version, the new American standard, the American standard, the biased standard.
1481. 1:29:19All of these follow the reading of this text, but he does put that in the text, you know.
1482. 1:29:24He does put it just like the NAS is in the text. He doesn't follow the King James,
1483. 1:29:29but he only writes it a D. And that's not a fair right. Okay, now what you can do,
1484. 1:29:34you can do this with almost any take. Let me show you one example. Look in Revelation
1485. 1:29:38chapter one. Has that the second bell? Good. Let me show you this one last point.
1486. 1:29:45Revelation chapter one.
1487. 1:29:49Look at verse five. From Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the
1488. 1:29:54dead, the root of the kings of the earth, the hymn who loves us and released us from our sins.
1489. 1:29:59Okay, Alfred, you got the King James. What does it say there?
1490. 1:30:05It says, okay, Bob has washed us from our sins. Okay, now this says released. The King James version
1491. 1:30:12says washed. And all of our modern versions say released or loosed or freed.
1492. 1:30:23Freed or released. Now, why does the King James have that? Well, the difference in
1493. 1:30:29Greek on those two words is this. The Greek word for washed is this. And the Greek word
1494. 1:30:37for loosed is this. One letter difference.
1495. 1:30:44One letter difference. And it sounds exactly the same. And what happened when scribes wrote,
1496. 1:30:50oftentimes the way they wrote, they did not look in right. They listened.
1497. 1:30:53One person read and the other one wrote. And if he could pronounce this word from loo,
1498. 1:31:01it would sound exactly. He pronounced this one loo and you pronounce this one loo.
1499. 1:31:06And see how easy it would be for him to write. One of the scribes wrote down
1500. 1:31:11correctly this one and the other one loo and thought washed because isn't it true also
1501. 1:31:16that we're washed from our sins? We're washed from, it's not a false doctrine to have washed,
1502. 1:31:21but all the more ancient Greek manuscript show that it's loosed, not washed.
1503. 1:31:27See, when you look at the manuscript evidence, it's, it's loosed. And also when you look at the
1504. 1:31:32context, it's loosed because in the context, look what it says in Revelation one verse five,
1505. 1:31:39he is the ruler of the kings of the earth. He loved us, released us from our sins by
1506. 1:31:43blood. And he made us to be a kingdom and priests in the old Testament. When the,
1507. 1:31:47in Exodus 19, they became a kingdom and priests when they were released from what?
1508. 1:31:52Egyptian bondage. He freed them from Egyptian bondage and made them a kingdom. And so the context
1509. 1:32:00here is free instead of wash because he freed us from a bondage to sin and made us to be a kingdom
1510. 1:32:08of priests to God. So the context was favored as well. But the signing factor is what
1511. 1:32:14did the Greek manuscript say? We didn't have time to evaluate the Greek manuscripts, but
1512. 1:32:19it would have been just like the other case. The more ancient Greek manuscripts have loosed
1513. 1:32:24instead of washed, say, and so that decides the case. But that's the reason for these
1514. 1:32:30differences here. I'm sorry we didn't have more time to discuss that. That just kind of gave
1515. 1:32:34you a little introduction to the text of criticism. Now on your task questions,

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