Can I Trust My Bible? From What Was Written to What I'm Reading

In this episode we discuss the basic guidelines textual critics employ when evaluating the quality of variant readings by comparing it to how a jury examines eyewitness testimony. We'll see that this process is not as complicated as it might seem.

In this episode, we'll shift our discussion to how these two ancient texts have impacted the New Testament text and first century Christianity.

After being introduced to these two Old Testament documents, let's sit down with Dr. John Weaver as he helps us better understand their similarities, differences, and impacts on our modern translations.

We know that manuscripts in the original languages are essential when it comes to determining the original text, but what about ancient translations? Let's take a look at the most well known ancient translation of the Old Testament Text: the Septuagint. How valuable is it? And how does it compare to the original Hebrew text?

In episode six, we started talking about the two original languages of the Old Testament, Hebrew and Aramaic.  This episode picks up right where we left off in the middle of our discussion about Aramaic and then moves onto discussing Greek, the language of the New Testament text.

Have you ever heard that the Bible can't be trusted because it's been translated too many times? Is there any truth to this claim? In this episode we begin talking about the original languages of the Biblical text. What they are, what we know about their history, and how this impacts our English Bibles that we read today. ** There was overlapping audio clips between 17:30 and 18:15, but an updated audio file has now been uploaded **

From stone tablets to parchment codices, what varied writing mediums were employed when authoring the originals and inscribing copies?  Did the ancients really have the resources to successfully transmit these sacred texts through time?  Soon we will start looking at different Biblical manuscripts and how they can help us derive the most accurate readings, so let's first get familiar with some of the basics.  What is the manuscript made of?  And what does that tell us about its text?

We continue to speak with Jeff Smelser about the original authors of the New Testament books and when they were written.

Who wrote the 27 books of the New Testament? When were they written, and why does it matter? Let's sit down and discuss the New Testament authorship with a good friend and great Bible scholar, Jeff Smelser.

Before we start talking about the copies of the originals, let's talk a little about the originals themselves.  Who wrote them? and When?  In this episode we will consider the Mosaic authorship or the Pentateuch and why it matters to us today.

In this introductory episode we challenge the claim made by many that the Bible hasn't been accurately transmitted through the ages, and consider the four steps of how we get God's message today: inspiration, transmission, translation, and interpretation.