I have read a couple of books recently about the problems
involved in reaching back into the first century AD in search the truth.
This book was well-written and lucid but Dr Ehrman started from a
fundamentalist standpoint and it struck me over and over again that,
despite all, he's still there. His search was always for "first
sources"; implying that those first sources therefore possess a "quality
of truth" that are then gradually eroded by layer upon layer of human
error. The fact that those first sources are forever lost to us creates a
sense of near-despair - like a priceless heirloom destroyed for ever.
Surely, this is the Fundamentalist view: not being able to get back to
the text God actually intended means that His intentions will always
allude us.
I found the chapters showing the way that scripture has been manipulated in the light of theological errors along the way (Gnosticism, adoptionism, Arianism, Docetism etc) inspiring because it helped me to form a view exactly opposite to the author. God is no more present in those first sources than He is in the manipulations. Or, put another way, God is just as much present in those manipulations as He is in the first sources. Just as the Spirit of God was at work through those original apostles so is He at work through all the scribes, scholars and theologians down the ages. Similarly though, just as the apostles were men with personal agendas and limited views trying to make sense of strange and difficult mysteries so are the scribes, scholars and theologians that follow them. All trying sincerely to understand but also weighed down by ego and ignorance.
I read a book recently which suggested that Jesus' body, after His crucifixion, was most likely thrown. along with the other criminals, into a lime pit. At first this horrified me but gradually it dawned on me that, whatever happened to His body, He rises again through the literary efforts not only of those who followed Him and believed in Him but also of those who came before. (Namely, the Prophets and more especially the Psalms.)
Ehrman talks much about the literary nature of the Christian and Judaeic faiths and it is through our discernment of these writings that we learn most about God.
The Word.
Not just the first words but all of them. The Bible is just a book until we sit down and actually read it ourselves. This way we become a part, an essential part no less, of that neverending story.
I found the chapters showing the way that scripture has been manipulated in the light of theological errors along the way (Gnosticism, adoptionism, Arianism, Docetism etc) inspiring because it helped me to form a view exactly opposite to the author. God is no more present in those first sources than He is in the manipulations. Or, put another way, God is just as much present in those manipulations as He is in the first sources. Just as the Spirit of God was at work through those original apostles so is He at work through all the scribes, scholars and theologians down the ages. Similarly though, just as the apostles were men with personal agendas and limited views trying to make sense of strange and difficult mysteries so are the scribes, scholars and theologians that follow them. All trying sincerely to understand but also weighed down by ego and ignorance.
I read a book recently which suggested that Jesus' body, after His crucifixion, was most likely thrown. along with the other criminals, into a lime pit. At first this horrified me but gradually it dawned on me that, whatever happened to His body, He rises again through the literary efforts not only of those who followed Him and believed in Him but also of those who came before. (Namely, the Prophets and more especially the Psalms.)
Ehrman talks much about the literary nature of the Christian and Judaeic faiths and it is through our discernment of these writings that we learn most about God.
The Word.
Not just the first words but all of them. The Bible is just a book until we sit down and actually read it ourselves. This way we become a part, an essential part no less, of that neverending story.