Manuscript under scrutiny by our friend Textual Criticism

"Now British scholar pours water on 'fake' papyrus text that claimed Jesus had a wife." See the full article at the Daily Mail.

"New Testament scholar Professor Francis Watson of Durham University says the fragment, which caused an international sensation this week, is a collage of texts from the Gospel of Thomas, copied and reassembled out of order."

A Harvard Divinity professor, Dr. Karen King, brought the papyrus into the spotlight.  Scholars dated it to the fourth century AD (300s) and said it was probably from Egypt.

As soon as I saw the headlines earlier this week, I knew there would be LDS members getting excited that this was proof that Jesus had to marry to achieve godhood. But keep in mind that if the manuscript is not a forgery, it was written well after the time of Jesus and even Dr. King said it isn't reliable as a biography compared to the other sources we have.

Who really wrote the Bible?

Ever heard of the Documentary Hypothesis? I hadn't until about a month ago. My pastor handed me a book called, "The Bible with Sources Revealed." It was written by the same fellow whose "Commentary on the Torah" had been helpful to me earlier. Richard Elliott Friedman is his name and he is a well-known Biblical scholar. I read the introduction and wanted to understand it better, so I purchased a used copy of "Who Wrote the Bible?" It is Dr. Friedman's first offering to the public of his theory, published in 1987.

He did not invent the Documentary Hypothesis; it evolved in the 1700s and 1800s. People studying the Bible noticed certain trends, like some stories appearing two times with different renderings. The Creation story does this, as does the Flood. These scholars surmised that someone might have edited together documents by different authors. Other clues were the way God was called "Elohim" sometimes and "Yahweh" other times. There were other patterns, like how those who used "Elohim" don't mention the Ark and those who wrote "Yahweh" don't talk about the Tabernacle.

At first, learning about this rocked my world in a bad way. Hadn't I always heard that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible? Apparently I wasn't the only one who didn't like hearing that this might not be the case, at least not in the form as the Pentateuch exists today. As I read about the evolution of the hypothesis, I found out that people were excommunicated and put to death for suggesting such things.

But as I continued to read, I saw that Dr. Friedman did not rob me of hope. He states that the editors and authors of the Bible as it stands today put together their works from older records, either oral or written. So far as I understand it, the Documentary Hypothesis is not saying that the Bible is myth, or its writings were invented well after events, but that the Bible as it appears today is a composite. That intrigues me.

Lee Strobel believes the Bible is reliable

I love this guy.  He was an atheist journalist who became a Christian pastor.  When I began to transition to being a Christian myself I read his book "The Case for Christ."  When I found myself wondering if there really was a God, I read "The Case for a Creator."  He presents common doubts and questions and interviews scholars about them.  Each time God is revealed in the evidence.

I find myself needing a boost now and then, so I am currently reading "The Case for the Real Jesus."

I still have doubts pop up over stuff that I thought I was sure about.  The other evening I read about the apostle Paul and how his letters have information that conflicts with the story written in Acts.  That started me worrying about the reliability of the Bible all over again.  Funny when I've just been writing about how trustworthy it is.  I don't have an explanation for that discrepancy yet, but I am sure I am not the first person to wonder about it.  Turns out the world of Christian apologetics is rich in explanations and full of different denominations.  I don't have to take anyone's word for it, I can study it myself, which I both stress over and enjoy.  It used to be simple to just accept what the LDS leaders said and not question. That is the path to hell, in my mind anyway, to rely on the words of men who claim to know God's will and have His authority, but whose policies change over the decades according to culture and the economy.

It's harder to take in opposing viewpoints and sort through a lot of information.  I am sure there are Christians who are content to not dig around, but I don't want to be like that.  I want to know for myself and I want to be able to explain to others when they are hurting for answers, like Lee Strobel does.