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jamie_o 's review for:
Fitting that I should finish this on Good Friday. It's a really good book on the evidence for Jesus, by a man who is a logical thinker, persuaded by facts and solid reasoning. Each chapter is an interview with an expert on that particular topic.
I plodded along, reading in short spurts, because while interesting and valuable to know, it didn't have that unputdownable element.
Just a few of my favorite pieces of evidence/claims/reasons/assertions:
"Son of Man" is often thought to indicate the humanity of Jesus, just as the expression "Son of God" indicates his divinity. In fact, just the opposite is true. The Son of Man was a divine figure in the Old Testament book of Daniel (Daniel 7:13-14) who would come at the end of the world to judge mankind and rule forever. Thus, the claim to be the Son of Man would be in effect a claim to divinity. p.30
"Within the last hundred years archaeology has repeatedly unearthed discoveries that have confirmed specific references in the gospels, particularly the gospel of John - ironically, the one that's supposedly so suspect!" -p.50
"The New Testament, then, has not only survived in a purer form than any other great book - a form that is 99.5 percent pure." -p.65
"More than five thousand (New Testament Greek manuscripts) have been cataloged"... "The quantity of New Testament material is almost embarrassing in comparison with other works of antiquity," he (Bruce Metzger) said. "Next to the New Testament, the greatest amount of manuscript testimony is of Homer's Iliad, which is the bible of the ancient Greeks. There are fewer than 650 Greek manuscripts of it today. Some are quite fragmentary. They come down to us from the second and third century A.D. and following. When you consider that Homer composed his epic about 800 B.C., you can see that's a very lengthy gap." - p.60
"In addition to the Greek documents, he (Bruce Metzger) said, there are thousands of other ancient New Testament manuscripts in other languages. There are 8,000 to 10,000 Latin Vulgate manuscripts, plus a total of 8,000 in Ethiopic, Slavic, and Armenian. In all, there are about 24,000 manuscripts in existence." - p.63
"Archaeology has not produced anything that is unequivocally a contradiction to the Bible," he replied with confidence. "On the contrary, as we've seen, there have been many opinions of skeptical scholars that have become codified into 'fact' over the years but that archaeology has shown to be wrong," - p.100
"The overthrowing of slavery, then, is through the transformation of men and women by the gospel rather than through merely changing the economic system. We've all seen what can happen when you merely overthrow an economic system and impose a new order. The whole communist dream was to have a 'revolutionary man' followed by the 'new man.' Trouble is, they never found the 'new man.' …"if you want lasting change, you've got to transform the hearts of human beings. And that was Jesus' mission." -p.168
"While most people can only have faith that their beliefs are true, the disciples were in a position to know without a doubt whether or not Jesus had risen from the dead. They claimed that they saw him, talked with him, and ate with him. If they weren't absolutely certain, they wouldn't have allowed themselves to be tortured to death for proclaiming that the Resurrection had happened."
-p.248
I plodded along, reading in short spurts, because while interesting and valuable to know, it didn't have that unputdownable element.
Just a few of my favorite pieces of evidence/claims/reasons/assertions:
"Son of Man" is often thought to indicate the humanity of Jesus, just as the expression "Son of God" indicates his divinity. In fact, just the opposite is true. The Son of Man was a divine figure in the Old Testament book of Daniel (Daniel 7:13-14) who would come at the end of the world to judge mankind and rule forever. Thus, the claim to be the Son of Man would be in effect a claim to divinity. p.30
"Within the last hundred years archaeology has repeatedly unearthed discoveries that have confirmed specific references in the gospels, particularly the gospel of John - ironically, the one that's supposedly so suspect!" -p.50
"The New Testament, then, has not only survived in a purer form than any other great book - a form that is 99.5 percent pure." -p.65
"More than five thousand (New Testament Greek manuscripts) have been cataloged"... "The quantity of New Testament material is almost embarrassing in comparison with other works of antiquity," he (Bruce Metzger) said. "Next to the New Testament, the greatest amount of manuscript testimony is of Homer's Iliad, which is the bible of the ancient Greeks. There are fewer than 650 Greek manuscripts of it today. Some are quite fragmentary. They come down to us from the second and third century A.D. and following. When you consider that Homer composed his epic about 800 B.C., you can see that's a very lengthy gap." - p.60
"In addition to the Greek documents, he (Bruce Metzger) said, there are thousands of other ancient New Testament manuscripts in other languages. There are 8,000 to 10,000 Latin Vulgate manuscripts, plus a total of 8,000 in Ethiopic, Slavic, and Armenian. In all, there are about 24,000 manuscripts in existence." - p.63
"Archaeology has not produced anything that is unequivocally a contradiction to the Bible," he replied with confidence. "On the contrary, as we've seen, there have been many opinions of skeptical scholars that have become codified into 'fact' over the years but that archaeology has shown to be wrong," - p.100
"The overthrowing of slavery, then, is through the transformation of men and women by the gospel rather than through merely changing the economic system. We've all seen what can happen when you merely overthrow an economic system and impose a new order. The whole communist dream was to have a 'revolutionary man' followed by the 'new man.' Trouble is, they never found the 'new man.' …"if you want lasting change, you've got to transform the hearts of human beings. And that was Jesus' mission." -p.168
"While most people can only have faith that their beliefs are true, the disciples were in a position to know without a doubt whether or not Jesus had risen from the dead. They claimed that they saw him, talked with him, and ate with him. If they weren't absolutely certain, they wouldn't have allowed themselves to be tortured to death for proclaiming that the Resurrection had happened."
-p.248