Errors in the Bible?
Christians (like myself) who believe in the truth of scripture can sometimes feel like they are fighting a losing battle, particularly when studying theology at a secular university. Some, who have never been exposed to some of the huge tensions in scripture simply bury their head in the sand, or worse abandon a high view of scripture. Sadly the number of evangelical Christians who start their studies with a strong view of inerrancy and who have now ended up as Professors in many university faculties with a profoundly liberal view of Scripture is quite large. Others, and by God’s grace this is where I have ended up myself, relish the challenge of sorting out apparent problems in the Bible and so far have yet to come across something which has convinced them that the Bible is flawed. There are profound difficulties, yes, but in most cases very convincing answers.
When dealing with such issues and facing throwaway comments by very erudite scholars such as “well obviously, Jesus didn’t actually say this” or “Paul didn’t write the pastoral epistles”, it is very consoling to know that some of the top biblical scholars (and I mean top, not just top within the evangelical world) are staunch supporters of the truthfulness of scripture. I am thinking of such people as Tom Wright, D. A. Carson, Ben Witherington, Simon Gathercole, Peter Williams and Richard Bauckham to name a few. These are scholars who are all highly respected in critical biblical scholarship and yet believe in the truthfulness of the Bible.
For those of you who wish to see this in action, I found a short youtube video of heavyweight New Testament scholar Greg Beale (whose commentary on revelation is probably the best in the English language) explaining that believing in the innerrancy of the Bible is not about simply burying ones head in the sand and ignoring the arguments of critical scholars, but precisely engaging with them, and sometimes pointing out details that they had missed because they had themselves buried their heads in the sands of liberal bliss. Enjoy:
