201 Things about Christianity You Probably Don't Know (But Ought To) - Softcover

Preston, David Lawrence

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1504336976 ISBN 13: 9781504336970

Verlag: BalboaPress, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

Award-winning author David Lawrence Preston uncovers the facts about Christianity that most people-including Christians-don’t know and explains why these facts are so important.

Über diesen Titel

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

201 Things About Christianity You Probably Don't Know (But Ought To)

By David Lawrence Preston

Balboa Press

Copyright © 2015 David Lawrence Preston
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-3697-0

Contents

PREFACE, xxi, 
INTRODUCTION, xxv, 
THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES, 1, 
THE NEW TESTAMENT, 9, 
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT YESHUA, 49, 
HIS STORY, 85, 
THE EARLY CHURCH, 127, 
CHRISTIANITY TODAY, 155, 
THE FUTURE, 193, 
BIOGRAPHY, 201, 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, 203, 
RECOMMENDED READING AND VIEWING, 207, 

CHAPTER 1

THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES

12. The Hebrew Scriptures were Yeshua's inspiration

The Christian religion has two main foundations: the Holy Scriptures as presented in the Bible, and the interpretations of church theologians filling in the gaps in Biblical teachings as they perceived them. Christianity depends heavily on the Bible, so it's important to understand how it came to be written and how its two major parts, the Hebrew Scriptures (the correct name for the Old Testament) and the New Testament relate to each other.

You won't find everything that Christians believe and practise in the Bible. Many of the church's teachings do not date from Yeshua's time nor even the decades when the New Testament was written. It has nothing to say on many issues (e.g. homosexuality, celibacy and contraception) so in the 4th Century, following the Roman 'conversion', the church assumed the authority to expand on Biblical teachings where 'gaps' existed. Much church practice and doctrine developed around this time.

13. The Hebrew Scriptures were the original Christian canon

The Hebrew Scriptures were the original Christian canon. They make up more than three-quarters of the Christian Bible. Many Christians think the only relevance of the Hebrew Scriptures is that they prophesy Yeshua's birth and Messiah-ship, but as we shall see, this is a fallacy.

The New Testament writings repeatedly demonstrate that Yeshua was thoroughly grounded in the Hebrew Scriptures. They were the source of his inspiration; they created the culture into which he was born, regulated his day to day activities and shaped his thinking. For example, nowhere in the gospels does Yeshua reject the Jewish custom of circumcision as prescribed in Jewish Law, unlike Paul of Tarsus and the author of Acts of the Apostles who considered it irrelevant.

The New Testament could not exist in isolation; without the Hebrew Scriptures it wouldn't even make sense. So if you think it was a replacement for the Hebrew Scriptures, that made them obsolete, think again. Unless we acknowledge this in full, we will never understanding Yeshua.

14. It took eight hundred years to write the Hebrew Scriptures

The Hebrew Bible is a collection of thirty-nine books, arranged in three sections – the Torah or Pentateuch (Law or Teaching), Prophets and Writings. It was written over a period of eight hundred years and gives an account of the history of the Jewish people over approximately fifteen hundred years. The last book,

Daniel, was completed only one hundred and fifty years or so before the birth of Yeshua, and the definitive list of books to be included was only agreed by the Jewish religious leaders around 90 BCE.

No-one really knows who wrote the Hebrew Scriptures, although we can be confident that we know who didn't write it; for instance, according to Jewish tradition, the revered prophet Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, the Torah, around 1300 BCE, but we can't even be certain that Moses existed outside of Jewish folklore. Scholars today believe that the Torah is more likely to have been compiled by a variety of authors between the 8th and 5th Centuries BCE.

Interestingly for most of this time the Hebrews did not just believe in one G-d, just that theirs was the best. Whenever they were tempted to worship other gods, they believed, the one true G_d punish them until they mended their ways. Then all sorts of good things would flow.

15. Five 'writers' or 'traditions' contributed to the Torah

By analysing the styles, language and ideas in the Torah, scholars have identified five 'writers' or 'traditions' who contributed to its composition:

J - the Yahwist source, so called because the writer refers to G_d as YHWH (Yahweh) or Jehovah. These are the oldest writings, around 950-750 BCE. The J texts include the second creation story (Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden) and Cain and Abel.

E – the Elohist source, written around 850-800 BCE, uses the word Elohim for G_d. The E texts include the stories of Abraham and Isaac, Deborah and Jacob.

D – the Deuteronomist, dating from around 700-600 BCE. D describes the covenant between Jehovah and his people and the cycle of blessing, disobedience, punishment, and redemption which followed over many generations.

P – the Priestly source, written around 550-500 BCE, includes the first creation story (in the opening passages of Genesis), Noah's flood, Jacob and Esau, the Hebrews' escape from Egypt and the Ten Commandments. P formalised the ritualistic laws which formed the background to Yeshua's skirmishes with the Pharisees in the New Testament.

R - the Redactor or 'editor/combiner,' working around 400 BCE. There may have been more than one; indeed this is highly probable. R edited the original texts to remove some of the discrepancies between his sources and made some additions, but we don't know if 'he' took anything out.

As for the Prophets and the Writings, the evidence of authorship is just as shaky. Most were probably passed on orally for centuries until being written down around 400 to 90 BCE. We can be fairly sure that, contrary to popular belief, the great King David didn't write most of the Psalms and King Solomon didn't write Proverbs or Song of Solomon. As for Job, Ecclesiastes, Jonah and the rest – nobody knows.

16. The Hebrew Scriptures are full of inaccuracies and contradictions

We don't have to look beyond the opening pages to find the first significant contradiction in the Bible. In the very first chapter of Genesis, G_d creates the sky, the earth, vegetation and the sun and moon in the first four days (curiously the waters already existed); aquatic creatures and birds on the fifth day; land creatures and finally men and women on the sixth. These nameless humans are given dominion over the earth. Then G_d rests on the seventh.

In the second chapter, the earth, heavens and the first man, Adam, are created on the same day, then a beautiful garden, the Garden of Eden, for Adam's home. Living creatures are created to keep Adam company, and finally a companion and helper for Adam, Eve. There's no mention of six or seven days. I reiterate: in Chapter One, man and woman are created simultaneously as G_d's final flourish; in Chapter Two, the man is created before the animals, and the woman later as an afterthought.

If anyone tries to convince you that the creation stories are literally true, ask them 'which story?' They cannot both be true! But the church papers over the cracks. In my churchgoing years I never heard these two stories read together and compared. No-one ever pointed out the contradictions, nor did anyone seem bothered by them, probably because, like me, they hadn't noticed.

So why the difference? It's because the two stories come from separate sources, 'J' and 'P', written more than three hundred years apart and later combined into a single narrative, probably by the Redactor, 'R'. The 'P' version was probably written in the 6th Century BCE around the time when the Jews were exiled in Babylon. Scholars debate what it meant in that setting. And that's just for starters. If Adam and Eve were the first humans, where did Cain and Abel, their sons', wives come from? If everyone apart from Noah and his family perished in a great flood when they took to the Ark, then surely Noah, not Adam, is the father of humankind? And was he really 600 years old? As Oxford Professor Diarmaid MacCullough, an expert on biblical history, wrote: 'The chronology of the Book of Genesis simply does not add up as a historical narrative when it is placed in a reliably historical context'.

As for the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures, some passages are based on verifiable historical truth, such as the exile, enslavement and return of the Jewish people by the Babylonians around 600-500 BCE, but others have no basis in fact. For example, there is no written or archaeological evidence that the Egyptians ever enslaved the Hebrews (as reported in the Book of Exodus), nor that a large group of Hebrews (or any other tribe) wandered in the desert for forty years before conquering the 'Promised Land'24. This is based on events that almost certainly never happened; indeed, there is no evidence that any of the events described in the Pentateuch are literally true.

17. 'Truth' does not have to be 'true'

The Hebrew Bible is largely a symbolic and highly fictionalised account of a people's struggles and their attempt to understand their world. Even so, stories can contain an element of 'truth' without being literally 'true' – that's the appeal of Aesop, Homer, the Brothers Grimm and almost every great novelist and playwright. Perhaps the ancient biblical writers were not so much concerned with facts as meaning, and it would be more beneficial to ask ourselves, 'What meaning were they seeking to convey?' than, 'Is this literally true?'

CHAPTER 2

THE NEW TESTAMENT

18. All reported speech in the New testament is only an interpretation of what was actually said

As we've already observed, the entire New Testament was originally written in Greek - a language that Yeshua and his disciples barely knew. Their everyday tongue was Galilean Aramaic. He may have understood a smattering of marketplace Greek since Sepphoris, the capital of Galilee and just a stone's throw from Nazareth, was on the main trade route from Greece to Egypt and Asia Minor and it's possible he heard it spoken.

Most Jews also learned Hebrew so they could understand the scriptures, just as Moslems today learn Arabic to read the Qu'ran. Yeshua would also have needed Hebrew to communicate with the temple dignitaries in Jerusalem who would surely not have spoken Aramaic. We don't know if he spoke Latin, the language of the Romans. Probably not, which poses an interesting question – how did he communicate with Pontius Pilate, the Roman Prefect, if indeed he did?

The implications are profound. Since the entire New Testament was written in a language foreign to Yeshua and his associates, all reported speech in the gospels must be at least a third- or fourth-hand translation of what was actually said. Or, more accurately, of the authors' impressions of what was said or what the authors would have wanted him to say. Moreover, Aramaic, Hebrew and ancient Greek are said to be extremely difficult to translate into modern languages. Fortunately today's experts have a better knowledge of these ancient languages and the people who spoke them than ever before, so modern translations are considerably more accurate than their predecessors. Scholars have thrown such additional light upon the original meaning of the scriptures that we cannot assume that a single paragraph of the Bible is understood in our day as it was intended at the time it was written.

Here's the key. When reading any Bible passage we should ask ourselves, 'What meaning did these events and sayings have for people living in that place at that time?' Then look for the meaning behind the words.

19. The King James Bible was the best English translation available, but is no longer

A good example is the King James Version of the Bible much beloved in English speaking countries. It was published in 1611, roughly when William Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, and was the best English translation available at the time. It is still widely used. It was based on a version produced by the Dutch scholar, Erasmus (1466 – 1536). He didn't attempt to go back to the earliest texts, but relied on hand-written copies of copies passed down through generations of scribes. But nowadays its language is difficult to understand and we know it is not always true to the 1st Century authors' intentions.

Some recent editions of the New Testament have merely changed the King James Bible into modern language, but the best versions go back to the oldest possible sources to uncover the meaning intended by the authors. Since there are now much better and more accurate translations, surely the King James Bible should be consigned to history and read in the same spirit as we would read Shakespeare or Chaucer.

20. The content of the New Testament was only finalised in 382 CE

We tend to think of the New Testament as a book, or at least, part of a larger book (the Bible), but it was not written in this form. It was originally separate manuscripts hand-written on papyrus or leather scrolls, and copied by hand. They circulated for around three hundred years until in 382 CE church leaders in Rome agreed which 27 texts should make up the official New Testament. It was then added to the Hebrew Scriptures to create the Christian Bible.

21. The earliest passages in the New testament are in the seven letters of Paul of tarsus

The earliest passages in the New Testament appear in letters written by the apostle Paul of Tarsus around 52 CE. They predate the first gospel, 'Mark', by 15-20 years. They are important because the Christian community had been heavily influenced by Paul's views by the time the official gospels came to be written (between 70 CE and 105 CE). Paul's genuine letters are the only New Testament writings of a known individual describing his experiences first hand. This cannot be said of any of the others, including the gospels and Acts of the Apostles.

Thirteen letters in Paul's name appear in the New Testament. Paul wrote, or more accurately, dictated, seven of them; the other six were not written by him; they are forgeries, made, presumably, by Paul's followers and successors. Some of the early letters probably reached their final form several decades after his death.

'Paul's' letters are arranged in the New Testament according to length, the longest (Romans) first and shortest (Philemon) last. This is not in the order in which they were written, nor does it reflect their authenticity, subject matter, literary quality or importance.

The seven definitely written (or, more accurately, dictated) by him, all between 52-62 CE, are:

• Thessalonians 1

• Philippians

• Philemon

• Corinthians 1

• Corinthians 2

• Galatians

• Romans

Four letters are so different in style, content and doctrine and written so late that they could not have been by the same man:

• Ephesians (80-100 CE)

• Timothy 1 (95-100 CE)

• Timothy 2 (95-100 CE)

• Titus (95-100 CE)

Colossians and Thessalonians 2 are also attributed to Paul, but scholars are divided about their authenticity. The consensus is they were probably written in the seventh or eighth decades.

Forgeries? Yes, but in those days it was considered perfectly acceptable to use the name of a respected deceased person, either to add authority to a document or express what the writer thought he would have said had he still been alive.

22. The New Testament letters justify slavery

Paul's letters have been used to support many things, among them misogyny, sexual abstention, gender inequality, self-flagellation (more of these later) and slavery. Keeping slaves was a common practice in Greek and Roman society, and the coming of Christianity made little difference.

There are several references in the New Testament that appear to accept it. For example, in Paul's letter to Philemon (which was actually written by him) he pleads with the addressee to take back a former slave 'no longer as a slave but as ..... a beloved brother.'

The author of the First Letter of Peter urged Christian slaves to accept the authority of their masters with all deference and take whatever punishment they were handed out whether they had 'earned' it or not. Neither letter said that slavery was wrong.

These letters were widely used to justify slavery, especially the kind of racial slavery seen in the Americas and Caribbean in the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries where it was used to advance European economic interests. Thankfully slavery is not sanctioned in most Christian countries today, but it has never been entirely eliminated and still has its apologists in some Christian circles.

23. Around 100 CE some of Paul's letters were compiled into a single document

Around 100 CE, shortly after the letters to Timothy and Titus were written, some of Paul's letters were compiled into a single document. These later found their way into the New Testament.

Paul's letters were addressed to named audiences on specific subjects and were not intended for publication. He would probably be amazed that people are still reading them today, especially since, like Yeshua and his disciples, he thought the known world was about to end. They contain some of the most exquisite passages ever written, such as his reflections on love in his First Letter to the Corinthians. If you've never read this, I urge you to do so; it's beautiful.

Paul must have produced many writings subsequently lost or discarded, since some of the surviving letters read like one side of an ongoing debate, like listening to a person on the telephone without hearing the person at the other end. We can only speculate on what these had to say.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from 201 Things About Christianity You Probably Don't Know (But Ought To) by David Lawrence Preston. Copyright © 2015 David Lawrence Preston. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: BalboaPress
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1504336976
• ISBN 13: 9781504336970
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 250
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar