1
00:00:00,800 --> 00:00:06,600
Welcome everyone to lecture #2 
the authenticity and the 

2
00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:10,400
formation authenticity of the 
New Testament Canon. 

3
00:00:10,760 --> 00:00:12,840
Let me pray and then we can dive
right in. 

4
00:00:12,920 --> 00:00:17,320
The Lord be with you. 
Thank you again, Heavenly 

5
00:00:17,320 --> 00:00:22,480
Father, for the gifts of Your 
Word, the Scriptures as you 

6
00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:25,880
speak to us through them. 
Thank you that we can with 

7
00:00:25,880 --> 00:00:30,840
confidence read, mark, learn and
intimately digest the scriptures

8
00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:34,240
as the word of God, that they 
may transform us, that we may 

9
00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:38,200
more boldly and clearly and with
the love of Christ proclaim them

10
00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:41,480
to a world that needs to hear 
the saving message of Christ. 

11
00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:44,720
So bless us, bless this time, 
help us to grow in our faith, 

12
00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:46,760
help us to grow in our 
intellect. 

13
00:00:46,760 --> 00:00:51,280
Lord, as we worship you with 
every bit that you have created 

14
00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:54,240
us to be, we pray in Jesus name,
Amen. 

15
00:00:55,680 --> 00:00:59,760
So let's go ahead and start 
actually right where we left off

16
00:01:00,480 --> 00:01:02,880
last week. 
Let's go to the first slide, 

17
00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:08,600
actually right where we began, 
which is just a recap defining 

18
00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:11,280
the terms. 
The three most important terms 

19
00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:16,640
that we have are the formation, 
the authenticity, and then what 

20
00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:20,360
we mean by an Old or a New 
Testament Canon. 

21
00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:24,240
So to recap, formation is the 
process of composing, 

22
00:01:24,520 --> 00:01:27,120
collecting, and ordering the 
books of the Canon. 

23
00:01:27,400 --> 00:01:30,680
That composition involves what 
we might call today as 

24
00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:33,360
authorship, where there's 
certainly an individual who is 

25
00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:37,480
overseeing the process. 
But composition might have more 

26
00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:43,320
of a of a collaborative function
to it as well that we see in the

27
00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:48,400
ancient world. 
And then the composition of the 

28
00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:51,680
formation of our scriptures is 
not just the authorship of an 

29
00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:55,760
individual book, but also the 
collecting of the books that 

30
00:01:55,760 --> 00:02:00,880
become recognized as the Canon 
and then ordering the books. 

31
00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:06,240
So for example, why do all of 
our Bibles start with the four 

32
00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:08,320
gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, 
and John? 

33
00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:12,720
Why do they end with Revelation?
Why is Acts kind of squeezed 

34
00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:15,640
between the Gospels and the 
Pauline epistles? 

35
00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:18,800
And why are the Catholic 
epistles kind of put at the very

36
00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:21,520
end, right before we get to 
Revelation? 

37
00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:25,680
There's a logic to the ordering 
of the books as well, and 

38
00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:28,920
there's different orderings 
depending on which manuscripts 

39
00:02:28,920 --> 00:02:31,280
you see. 
But even with a diversity of 

40
00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:34,960
ordering, as you'll see a 
consistency of the patterns 

41
00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:39,520
which shows really a theological
intention to the collection and 

42
00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:43,240
the ordering of the books. 
So formation is composition, 

43
00:02:43,240 --> 00:02:46,720
collecting and ordering of the 
books of the Canon. 

44
00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:52,640
Authenticity, as we said last 
week, is we recognize that when 

45
00:02:52,640 --> 00:02:56,080
a text is considered, it's 
considered authentic when the 

46
00:02:56,080 --> 00:03:00,120
genuine origin of that text 
resides in the attributed 

47
00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:03,280
author. 
So Simply put, if the Gospel 

48
00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:07,560
according to Saint Matthew is 
authentic, it has to derive from

49
00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:10,480
a historical person known as 
Matthew. 

50
00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:15,160
Now whether he was the one who 
actually put pen to papyrus, 

51
00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:18,240
which is quite likely that he 
wasn't, because it's it's quite 

52
00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:23,520
likely that he dictated it to a 
scribe and that he had some 

53
00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:26,280
influence in sort of the 
revising of it as well. 

54
00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:30,880
But in terms of it actually 
deriving from this Apostolic 

55
00:03:30,880 --> 00:03:35,720
figure of Matthew, absolutely we
have to ask the questions, do 

56
00:03:35,720 --> 00:03:39,240
the spade work, and see if we 
can genuinely attribute this to 

57
00:03:39,240 --> 00:03:45,360
its Apostolic attributed author.
And then thirdly, the definition

58
00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:48,280
of Canon. 
This is again borrowing from 

59
00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:52,400
Michael Kruger's definition. 
A Canon, whether Old or New 

60
00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:56,360
Testament or a whole Bible 
Canon, is simply the collection 

61
00:03:56,360 --> 00:04:00,200
of scriptural books that God has
given his corporate people, 

62
00:04:00,440 --> 00:04:03,880
which are distinguished by their
divine qualities, their 

63
00:04:03,880 --> 00:04:07,800
reception by the collective 
body, and their Apostolic 

64
00:04:07,800 --> 00:04:11,520
connection either by authorship 
or association. 

65
00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:16,800
So there's three or so facets to
this definition of a cannon. 

66
00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:20,640
It's first of all, it has divine
qualities. 

67
00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:26,520
So this is not simply a book of 
a collection of writings of 

68
00:04:26,520 --> 00:04:30,320
people who have some interesting
things to say about God. 

69
00:04:31,480 --> 00:04:35,240
It is actually, it is a divine 
work. 

70
00:04:35,240 --> 00:04:38,520
It is God's speech in written 
form. 

71
00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:44,680
It's not as if they were written
down by flawed individuals that 

72
00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:47,680
then all of a sudden becomes 
transformed to be Scripture 

73
00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:49,880
sometime after they finish the 
writing process. 

74
00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:53,480
But through and through, the 
divine qualities are permeated, 

75
00:04:53,760 --> 00:04:56,760
are permeating through it 
because it is. 

76
00:04:57,360 --> 00:05:00,360
It is God's speech in written 
human form. 

77
00:05:01,880 --> 00:05:03,920
So that's the first part of that
definition. 

78
00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:08,480
Secondly, after it's not only 
does it have divine qualities, 

79
00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:11,760
but it's received by a 
collective body. 

80
00:05:11,920 --> 00:05:15,320
It wasn't just buried in the 
sand and then rediscovered 500 

81
00:05:15,320 --> 00:05:19,200
years later, but from one 
generation to the next, these 

82
00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:23,760
texts were passed down and 
received as the authentic words 

83
00:05:23,760 --> 00:05:27,880
of the apostles and their 
associates, and therefore the 

84
00:05:27,880 --> 00:05:30,720
authentic word of God speaking 
through His apostles. 

85
00:05:31,320 --> 00:05:36,160
So it's has its divine 
qualities, it's reception by the

86
00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:40,080
church and then finally the 
Apostolic connection. 

87
00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:44,680
So not just any person could, 
you know, appoint himself as a 

88
00:05:44,680 --> 00:05:47,880
man of God and saying and say, 
I'm speaking the words of God. 

89
00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:50,680
And that kind of thing actually 
still happens today really 

90
00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:53,280
across the world. 
And so it's not just it's not a 

91
00:05:53,280 --> 00:05:56,160
self appointed apostle going 
around and saying, let me tell 

92
00:05:56,160 --> 00:06:02,120
you the words of God, but it's 
true Apostolic commissioning by 

93
00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:09,600
Jesus to the 12 and to the to 
their followers as they wrote by

94
00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:12,840
the inspiration of the Holy 
Spirit, the words of Scripture, 

95
00:06:12,840 --> 00:06:15,160
which are God's words in human 
words. 

96
00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:18,760
So those three elements to our 
definition of New Testament 

97
00:06:18,760 --> 00:06:22,240
Canon, that they have divine 
qualities, they're received by 

98
00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:25,280
the church, and they're 
connected to the authoritative 

99
00:06:25,280 --> 00:06:29,200
voice of the apostles. 
That is the, I think, the 

100
00:06:29,200 --> 00:06:33,040
fullest, most robust definition 
we can have of Canon. 

101
00:06:33,640 --> 00:06:36,280
The rest of the lecture today, 
we'll kind of explore those 

102
00:06:36,280 --> 00:06:40,880
elements as they came to be 
recognized historically, from 

103
00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:43,960
when the Gospels and the 
epistles were written all the 

104
00:06:43,960 --> 00:06:49,120
way to when a Canon was then 
finally officially recognized. 

105
00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:53,080
Any questions sort of about the 
groundwork that we've just laid?

106
00:06:55,160 --> 00:06:58,000
OK, we can we can see it kind of
play out. 

107
00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:01,880
All right. 
So last week we explored the 

108
00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:07,640
concept of covenant for as our 
grammar of Canon. 

109
00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:14,840
Covenant being this relational 
commitment between God and his 

110
00:07:14,840 --> 00:07:18,280
people, where they covenant, 
they make a promise that cannot 

111
00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:21,400
be dissolved, that they are 
committed one to another in a 

112
00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:24,960
special union. 
So God with his people, Israel 

113
00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:29,720
made that covenant and gave them
the text of the law through 

114
00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:32,240
Moses that was read out loud to 
the people. 

115
00:07:32,240 --> 00:07:35,920
And they assented on Mount Sinai
saying, al that the Lord has 

116
00:07:35,920 --> 00:07:39,800
commanded us, we will obey. 
Now that same covenantal 

117
00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:44,320
structure as it follows through 
the whole Old Testament is also 

118
00:07:44,320 --> 00:07:51,800
seen in the New Testament. 
And so if we recall from last 

119
00:07:51,800 --> 00:07:54,600
week, the law was revealed on 
Mount Sinai. 

120
00:07:55,200 --> 00:08:00,240
Moses faithfully transcribed it.
It had its developments 

121
00:08:00,240 --> 00:08:02,640
throughout the generations all 
the way up into Ezra. 

122
00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:07,280
But the core of it, the 
foundations of it, and really we

123
00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:11,920
can ascribe the, the, the, the 
whole witness of it is grounded 

124
00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:14,080
in what God revealed through 
Moses. 

125
00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:20,680
And that's what we call the law.
The law leads to the prophetic 

126
00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:24,720
interpretation of the law or the
calling of Israel back to obey 

127
00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:27,840
the law, to repent and return to
the law. 

128
00:08:28,160 --> 00:08:33,400
And so you see this canonical 
structure of law and prophet, 

129
00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:39,320
the acts of God in creation and 
salvation in Genesis and Exodus,

130
00:08:39,679 --> 00:08:43,360
the law of God's commanding the 
people how to obey God 

131
00:08:43,360 --> 00:08:46,960
faithfully, the people 
rejecting, the law disobeying, 

132
00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:51,600
and then the prophets calling 
them back to to faithful 

133
00:08:51,840 --> 00:08:57,400
obedience to their covenant God.
There's a somewhat similar 

134
00:08:57,920 --> 00:09:01,680
grammar or structure in the New 
Testament, which we would call 

135
00:09:01,880 --> 00:09:05,280
the canonical structure of 
gospel and apostle. 

136
00:09:05,680 --> 00:09:12,200
Just as in Genesis and Exodus 
you see creation and redemption 

137
00:09:12,440 --> 00:09:16,840
in the seven days of creation 
and then the redemption from 

138
00:09:16,840 --> 00:09:22,160
Egypt, so also the New Testament
is inaugurated with a new 

139
00:09:22,160 --> 00:09:25,560
creation and with a great act of
redemption. 

140
00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:29,880
If you look at the first words 
of each of the gospels, Matthew,

141
00:09:31,720 --> 00:09:35,640
the book of Genesis, of Jesus 
Christ, the son of David, the 

142
00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:42,200
son of Abraham, Luke, many have 
undertaken to draw up an account

143
00:09:42,200 --> 00:09:45,560
of the things that have been 
fulfilled among us, just as they

144
00:09:45,560 --> 00:09:49,520
were handed down to us by those 
who from the beginning were 

145
00:09:49,520 --> 00:09:51,200
eyewitnesses and servants of the
Word. 

146
00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:55,240
Mark the beginning of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,

147
00:09:55,440 --> 00:09:58,960
and then most famously, John. 
In the beginning was the Word, 

148
00:09:58,960 --> 00:10:00,720
and the Word was with God, and 
the Word was God. 

149
00:10:00,720 --> 00:10:05,120
So beginning is at the beginning
of every gospel, every canonical

150
00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:08,160
gospel. 
So you have creation and 

151
00:10:08,160 --> 00:10:12,000
redemption at the beginning of 
the law and creation and 

152
00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:14,840
redemption at the beginning of 
the Gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke 

153
00:10:14,840 --> 00:10:17,800
and John. 
And then just as the the 

154
00:10:17,800 --> 00:10:22,200
prophets give a a fuller 
interpretation and application 

155
00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:26,560
and a calling of the the people 
back to the acts of God in 

156
00:10:26,560 --> 00:10:31,320
creation and redemption. 
Even so the apostle, namely the 

157
00:10:31,320 --> 00:10:36,360
epistles of Paul and the 
Catholic epistles, they they 

158
00:10:36,360 --> 00:10:41,000
interpret and give more clarity 
to what Christ accomplished on 

159
00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:43,960
the cross. 
And so while in the Gospel you 

160
00:10:43,960 --> 00:10:49,200
might have depicted A narrative 
form the substitutionary death 

161
00:10:49,200 --> 00:10:53,640
of Christ, Paul will draw out 
exactly how that substitution 

162
00:10:53,640 --> 00:10:57,520
worked by talking of the 
propitiation that Christ 

163
00:10:57,680 --> 00:11:01,960
satisfied in Romans 3. 
Or Hebrews will talk about the 

164
00:11:04,160 --> 00:11:09,040
if the ascension of Jesus is 
mentioned in Luke, Hebrews will 

165
00:11:09,040 --> 00:11:12,320
then unpack the theology of the 
ascension and what that means 

166
00:11:12,320 --> 00:11:18,680
for us as the people of God. 
And so this sort of four fold 

167
00:11:18,680 --> 00:11:23,080
structure of law followed by 
prophet, gospel, followed by 

168
00:11:23,080 --> 00:11:26,560
apostle. 
Actually, it's this is an 

169
00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:30,840
ancient way of understanding the
structure of the Canon. 

170
00:11:31,760 --> 00:11:36,440
Even before you have the Canon 
lists, because this is something

171
00:11:36,440 --> 00:11:39,680
you'll hear. 
There is no New Testament Canon 

172
00:11:39,680 --> 00:11:41,360
list. 
They would tell you until the 

173
00:11:41,360 --> 00:11:43,800
4th century that in self is 
debated. 

174
00:11:43,800 --> 00:11:47,200
But most of the time you might 
hear a critical scholar saying 

175
00:11:47,520 --> 00:11:51,400
the New Testament Canon was 
created by the church in the 4th

176
00:11:51,400 --> 00:11:53,880
century. 
And so everything else was kind 

177
00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:55,800
of up in the air until the 4th 
century. 

178
00:11:56,440 --> 00:12:01,600
That's a really, it's kind of a,
it's a very simplistic and I 

179
00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:04,840
would argue an inaccurate way to
describe the formation of the 

180
00:12:04,840 --> 00:12:09,640
New Testament Canon because even
before you have Canon lists, you

181
00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:14,800
have this grammar, this, this 
logic of Canon in the earliest 

182
00:12:14,800 --> 00:12:18,880
of the church fathers. 
So Clement of Rome and we'll 

183
00:12:18,880 --> 00:12:22,960
talk about the, the gospel of 
Jesus and the apostles. 

184
00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:27,640
Ignatius of Antioch will talk 
about having in his hands the 

185
00:12:27,640 --> 00:12:30,320
prophets and the gospel and the 
apostles. 

186
00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:37,040
A few a few decades later, 
Irenaeus will talk about the 

187
00:12:37,040 --> 00:12:39,760
law, the prophets, the gospels, 
and the apostles. 

188
00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:43,840
Clement of Alexandria as well. 
We'll talk about law, prophets, 

189
00:12:43,840 --> 00:12:47,600
gospel, apostles. 
And when he draws from texts to 

190
00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:52,000
have authoritative teaching for 
the church, they always appeal 

191
00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:55,040
to law, prophet, gospel, 
apostle. 

192
00:12:55,360 --> 00:12:58,360
There's this parallelism between
what was revealed to the people 

193
00:12:58,360 --> 00:13:03,080
of Israel and then what was 
revealed in Christ and 

194
00:13:03,080 --> 00:13:05,560
distributed, entrusted to his 
apostles. 

195
00:13:06,440 --> 00:13:10,720
And so when you see this 
structure, it's exactly the 

196
00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:16,000
structure that gave birth to our
Bibles that we have that have 

197
00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:20,680
this ordering. 
The Torah always comes at the 

198
00:13:20,680 --> 00:13:23,520
beginning of a copied Bible, 
whether it's an ancient 

199
00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:27,720
manuscript that has the full 
Canon or whether it's our modern

200
00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:30,080
Bibles. 
It Genesis is always the 

201
00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:34,920
beginning, and the New Testament
is always begun by the Gospel, 

202
00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:38,520
by the fourfold Gospel, almost 
always by Matthew, sometimes by 

203
00:13:38,520 --> 00:13:40,760
John, but almost always by 
Matthew. 

204
00:13:41,320 --> 00:13:45,280
And so the Law is introducing 
the first table or the first 

205
00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:48,520
Testament. 
The Gospel is introducing the 

206
00:13:48,520 --> 00:13:52,360
second Testament. 
Prophets are interpreting and 

207
00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:57,160
clarifying the Law and apostles 
are proclaiming the gospel and 

208
00:13:57,520 --> 00:14:02,040
teaching it to the people. 
That grammar was there from the 

209
00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:03,960
outset with Jesus and his 
apostles. 

210
00:14:04,240 --> 00:14:08,640
It was rehearsed and further 
developed by the 2nd century 

211
00:14:08,680 --> 00:14:11,240
fathers. 
And then once you get to your 

212
00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:15,160
full manuscripts of the Bible, 
it was basically a A. 

213
00:14:16,400 --> 00:14:19,320
The skeleton was already there. 
And then it was just putting in 

214
00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:22,840
the books that had been accepted
and widely used up until that 

215
00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:26,200
point. 
So it was really quite a, we 

216
00:14:26,200 --> 00:14:29,840
might call it A what's called a 
natural way of the Canon 

217
00:14:29,840 --> 00:14:33,160
developing, but it's a 
supernatural way really, because

218
00:14:33,360 --> 00:14:38,360
such coherence across 1500 years
of authorship is really 

219
00:14:38,360 --> 00:14:42,560
remarkable in any ancient text. 
And to see that in our new, in 

220
00:14:42,560 --> 00:14:46,440
our New Testament and Old 
Testament Canon is, is a 

221
00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:50,680
beautiful thing to behold. 
One final thing about how this 

222
00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:58,400
develops, within this Gospel 
apostle structure, we also have 

223
00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:02,960
further subdivisions. 
We have the fourfold Gospel, 

224
00:15:02,960 --> 00:15:06,240
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, 
and then we have apostle 

225
00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:11,160
subdividing into the Pauline 
letter collection, the Catholic 

226
00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:15,760
Epistles. 
Acts is considered also a part 

227
00:15:15,760 --> 00:15:19,720
of this Apostolic testimony, but
it's kind of bridging the gospel

228
00:15:20,040 --> 00:15:23,920
to the apostles. 
Revelation kind of fills in this

229
00:15:23,920 --> 00:15:27,920
category that is similar to the 
third category in the Old 

230
00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:32,640
Testament, that of the writings.
I don't have time to describe in

231
00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:37,000
more detail how that features, 
but it is again a parallel with 

232
00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:41,200
Old Testament. 
New Testament, the same logic of

233
00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:45,240
their structure and really the 
coherence of the plan of 

234
00:15:45,400 --> 00:15:49,200
creation and redemption as it 
follows through the Old 

235
00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:55,160
Testament and the New Testament,
and not in a kind of bifurcation

236
00:15:55,160 --> 00:15:58,760
where we used to have law, now 
we have gospel. 

237
00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:01,960
Now, that's why I put a smaller 
arrow there because it's not 

238
00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:06,080
this, this this kind of quantum 
leap from one to the other, but 

239
00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:12,600
it's more just as the law gave 
way to the OR was complimented 

240
00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:17,080
by the prophets, so the gospel 
is complemented by the Apostolic

241
00:16:17,080 --> 00:16:21,720
witness and those two together 
formed this like nuclear bond 

242
00:16:21,720 --> 00:16:25,400
that can't be separated. 
That's really how the Canon of 

243
00:16:25,440 --> 00:16:29,360
Olive Scripture developed. 
We'll look at each of those sub 

244
00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:31,040
collections in the next few 
minutes. 

245
00:16:31,040 --> 00:16:34,240
Are there any questions about 
the logic of Canon? 

246
00:16:36,600 --> 00:16:39,840
No, OK. 
Do feel free to chime in if a 

247
00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:44,320
question comes up at any time. 
OK, let's look first at Gospel, 

248
00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:50,040
how the Gospel Canon, the four 
gospels came together not only 

249
00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:56,960
in their collection, not only in
their ordering, but also in 

250
00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:59,760
their original composition, how 
they were written. 

251
00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:03,520
Do they really derive from Jesus
of Nazareth? 

252
00:17:03,520 --> 00:17:06,599
And this is what I'd like to 
argue today, that every detail, 

253
00:17:08,040 --> 00:17:11,800
excuse me, in the canonical 
Gospels derives either directly 

254
00:17:11,800 --> 00:17:15,839
or indirectly from Jesus of 
Nazareth as he was faithfully 

255
00:17:15,839 --> 00:17:20,040
remembered and proclaimed by the
four Apostolic evangelists 

256
00:17:20,440 --> 00:17:24,520
through the inspiration of the 
Holy Spirit and this same Jesus 

257
00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:27,480
we confess as Lord. 
Let's stay on this slide for 

258
00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:32,440
another minute or two. 
Some scholars, in fact, maybe we

259
00:17:32,440 --> 00:17:36,840
can say a, a majority of 
critical scholars will, will 

260
00:17:36,840 --> 00:17:40,280
operate on this principle that 
you can that there's, there's 

261
00:17:40,280 --> 00:17:43,880
two different ways to think and 
you can't think both of those 

262
00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:47,600
ways at the same time. 
You have to think either as a 

263
00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:51,480
critical historian that only 
listens to evidence and, and, 

264
00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:54,440
and makes conclusions based on 
facts. 

265
00:17:54,840 --> 00:18:00,960
And then you have the the person
of faith who believes in what he

266
00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:04,000
knows, he or she knows not to be
true, but you're taking this 

267
00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:07,800
existential step of faith. 
Good on you for taking that step

268
00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:09,600
of faith. 
And then you kind of leave that 

269
00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:12,920
faith to one side when then when
you look at the evidence and 

270
00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:14,920
have to adjudicate it one way or
the other. 

271
00:18:15,440 --> 00:18:18,640
I don't think anybody actually 
lives that way because we're 

272
00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:21,680
always living with 
presuppositions, with faith 

273
00:18:21,680 --> 00:18:23,680
commitments. 
Everybody here is trusting in 

274
00:18:23,680 --> 00:18:26,320
the chairs and the sofas that 
they're sitting on. 

275
00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:30,080
There is this implicit act of 
faith that we have really with 

276
00:18:30,080 --> 00:18:35,320
any, any facet of life that we 
live or any discussion that we 

277
00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:39,280
have or any piece of information
that we we interpret or digest. 

278
00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:44,720
And so as I come to the text of 
the Gospels, I can pose 

279
00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:49,960
difficult critical questions to 
the Gospels, but I can also at 

280
00:18:49,960 --> 00:18:54,120
the same time have a position of
faith seeking, understanding, 

281
00:18:55,120 --> 00:19:00,000
knowing that this Jesus with 
whom I have come into covenant 

282
00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:04,040
union by baptism, who I have 
received by faith from those who

283
00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:07,960
told me this good news. 
Any reading that I do of the 

284
00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:12,680
Gospels, it's going to be in an 
embodied way that I as a, as a, 

285
00:19:12,840 --> 00:19:17,720
as a person bought by Christ, 
confessing Christ as Lord. 

286
00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:21,160
There is no decision that I can 
make in my life that's not 

287
00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:24,480
impacted or or surrounded by 
this greater commitment I have 

288
00:19:24,480 --> 00:19:27,000
to Christ. 
And so I can have critical 

289
00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:30,320
questions. 
I can engage them and ask 

290
00:19:30,320 --> 00:19:32,760
difficult questions about the 
text, their authenticity, 

291
00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:35,400
etcetera. 
But I don't have to have this 

292
00:19:35,840 --> 00:19:38,440
doubt everything until I can 
show it to be true. 

293
00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:42,800
I can have this faith, genuine 
faith, robust faith, seeking 

294
00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:47,120
greater understanding, even to 
the point of the to the 

295
00:19:47,120 --> 00:19:51,440
microscopic level of of what 
words Jesus spoke, how he said 

296
00:19:51,440 --> 00:19:52,720
them and how they were 
interpreted. 

297
00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:56,920
That's what leads me to make 
this bold claim that I'd like to

298
00:19:56,920 --> 00:19:59,320
make a case for in the following
slides. 

299
00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:07,240
So historians, critical 
historians will say that we 

300
00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:11,680
cannot recover the real Jesus of
history if he's if we're 

301
00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:17,760
separated by 2000 years, what we
have is a historical events that

302
00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:21,600
possibly happens. 
And then it was observed by 

303
00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:27,960
certain people, and then they 
recall it through collective 

304
00:20:27,960 --> 00:20:34,920
memory, eventually kind of 
codifying it in a community. 

305
00:20:35,160 --> 00:20:37,920
And then that's passed on from 
generation to generation. 

306
00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:43,000
Now, depending on how far the 
observation is from the 

307
00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:46,920
historical event, the farther 
that distance is, the less 

308
00:20:46,920 --> 00:20:52,440
reliable your observation is, 
and the farther that the 

309
00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:56,760
recollection memory is from the 
observation. 

310
00:20:57,040 --> 00:21:01,720
Even more, you have greater 
levels of uncertainty as to the 

311
00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:06,320
reality of the historical event.
So that's the problem posed to 

312
00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:09,040
how we can trust whether or not 
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John 

313
00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:11,360
actually reflect the Jesus of 
Nazareth. 

314
00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:17,760
Let's go to the next slide and 
see see 3 arguments. 

315
00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:22,760
I'd like to make three sources. 
I'd like to draw from scholars 

316
00:21:22,760 --> 00:21:25,920
whose work I have learned from 
and I think have made a very 

317
00:21:25,920 --> 00:21:30,160
robust case for the reliability 
of that tradition. 

318
00:21:30,880 --> 00:21:34,160
Richard Balcombe in his landmark
volume Jesus and the 

319
00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:38,480
Eyewitnesses makes a strong case
that the Gospels are based on 

320
00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:42,280
reliable eyewitness memory of 
Jesus of Nazareth. 

321
00:21:43,280 --> 00:21:45,440
Let's go back to the previous 
slide. 

322
00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:51,520
So if these observers were 
actually there, and if their 

323
00:21:51,520 --> 00:21:56,000
witnesses are corroborating one 
another, even if they're giving 

324
00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:59,840
a different angle of the same 
event, the more witnesses you 

325
00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:04,240
have, the more likelihood that 
it's a true witness. 

326
00:22:04,800 --> 00:22:08,200
When we look at the Gospels, 
they're filled with named 

327
00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:12,080
individuals, with entrusted 
named individuals who are kind 

328
00:22:12,080 --> 00:22:13,680
of the guardians of the 
tradition. 

329
00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:16,440
They're even anonymous 
witnesses. 

330
00:22:16,760 --> 00:22:19,920
There are men, there are women, 
there are people of a whole set 

331
00:22:19,920 --> 00:22:23,000
of abilities or disabilities. 
There are Greeks, there are 

332
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:26,200
Romans, there are Jews. 
There are people who don't 

333
00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:28,840
believe in Jesus, people who do 
believe in him, people who are 

334
00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:34,040
transformed. 
A whole set of a diverse set of 

335
00:22:34,040 --> 00:22:41,760
witnesses that observed the 
historical teachings and actions

336
00:22:42,120 --> 00:22:47,800
of Jesus. 
Now when they distributed that 

337
00:22:47,800 --> 00:22:52,880
knowledge through the overseeing
of the apostles who themselves 

338
00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:58,880
were commissioned by Jesus, that
led to greater levels of of 

339
00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:03,280
recollection and memory as these
stories were told and retold and

340
00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:07,280
eventually coalesced into 
different patterns of that 

341
00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:09,760
memory. 
Let's skip two more slides. 

342
00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:16,360
This is a diagram of how these 
eyewitness traditions emerged. 

343
00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:21,480
So if you had the 12 who had 
this unique authoritative role 

344
00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:25,920
in in guarding the tradition and
making sure the story was told 

345
00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:28,960
in the right way. 
And then if you have named 

346
00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:33,280
eyewitnesses like Bartimaeus. 
And then if you have a whole 

347
00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:36,720
host of anonymous eyewitnesses 
like the woman who was healed 

348
00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:44,720
from having been bent over by a 
debilitating disease in Luke 13.

349
00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:50,280
Or if you have the man born 
blind in John 9, or if you have 

350
00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:56,120
the Jairus's daughter or the 
woman with the the 12 years of 

351
00:23:56,120 --> 00:23:58,920
bleeding. 
These are real historical 

352
00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:03,720
persons as the Gospels recount 
them, who would have remembered 

353
00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:06,520
this amazing event, this 
incredible life changing event. 

354
00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:08,200
And so they would have told that
story. 

355
00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:13,680
These folks were living in key 
centers of ancient Christianity,

356
00:24:14,200 --> 00:24:17,000
whether by Jerusalem or in 
Galilee. 

357
00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:22,680
The the major centers of Jesus 
ministry, or whether like the 

358
00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:27,960
apostles after Pentecost they 
dispersed and went to Ephesus in

359
00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:33,360
Asia Minor, or to Alexandria in 
North Africa, or to Antioch in 

360
00:24:33,360 --> 00:24:39,480
Syria, or all the way to Rome. 
These places became hubs, local 

361
00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:43,360
centers of where these memories 
were told and retold. 

362
00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:48,520
And so John eventually sets up 
shop in Ephesus. 

363
00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:51,440
Peter eventually sets up shop in
Rome. 

364
00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:55,640
Matthew probably sets up shop in
Antioch after spending a good 

365
00:24:55,640 --> 00:25:03,200
deal of time in Jerusalem. 
And then Mark worked with Peter 

366
00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:06,360
in Rome to write the Gospel 
according to Saint Mark, and 

367
00:25:06,360 --> 00:25:09,600
then probably Mooj, and then was
martyred in Alexandria. 

368
00:25:10,040 --> 00:25:16,200
And so the major centers of 
ancient Christianity became 

369
00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:21,800
these hubs where the the 
memories of Jesus were told and 

370
00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:25,040
retold and then eventually 
written down. 

371
00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:28,680
And that is why we see a 
remarkable consistency. 

372
00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:36,080
Go to the next slide, one more, 
a remarkable consistency among 

373
00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:40,880
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as
they're recounting these 

374
00:25:40,880 --> 00:25:44,240
memories. 
Because someone could say, oh, 

375
00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:47,320
John, who wrote this gospel, he 
still lives in Ephesus. 

376
00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:50,400
If you don't understand what 
this means, I know somebody who 

377
00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:51,760
knows. 
Somebody can ask him, what does 

378
00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:59,560
he mean when he says that's for 
example, when Jesus said I am 

379
00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:02,680
the Good Shepherd, what exactly 
did he mean by that? 

380
00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:06,560
You could you could ask somebody
who knew John who could 

381
00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:10,320
interpret that for you and help 
you figure out the Davidic 

382
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:15,240
kingship motif that John is 
pointing to in John chapter 10. 

383
00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:19,760
Similarly, someone could have 
witnessed Mark being martyred in

384
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:24,400
Alexandria and then been drawn 
to his Gospel and read it afresh

385
00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:28,480
and then figure out, oh, he 
actually his friends who were 

386
00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:33,000
there when he was martyr told us
that he penned this down through

387
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:37,240
the destruction of Peter. 
When did Peter die? 

388
00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:40,600
He died a few years ago in Rome 
after testifying to Christ. 

389
00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:45,200
And so this sort of early 
Christian mafia where everybody 

390
00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:50,840
knew everybody, which then they 
had at that time in history the 

391
00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:54,720
Roman roads and the 
Mediterranean Sea having been 

392
00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:58,560
cleared of pirates, there was 
quite an amazing network of 

393
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:01,560
travel. 
One scholar has called it the 

394
00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:06,480
Holy Internet. 
Basically knowledge could pass 

395
00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:09,560
from one city to the next in a 
matter of days because of their 

396
00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:13,200
travel networks. 
I served in the Horn of Africa 

397
00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:16,560
for about based there for about 
7 years and one of the people 

398
00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:18,720
groups that I have to serve 
among were the Somali. 

399
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:21,040
They call it the Somali 
Internet. 

400
00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:26,720
If you say something in Addis 
Ababa to a Somali, if someone in

401
00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:30,080
this shoot is going to know 
about it the next day, and then 

402
00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:32,320
someone in London will know 
about it. 

403
00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:35,840
And then if you travel to 
Minnesota where there's a large 

404
00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:38,520
Somali community, someone's 
going to be like, oh, you're so 

405
00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:40,800
and so, yeah, my cousin told me 
about you. 

406
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:46,400
It's just so this the Somali 
oral culture is so tightly 

407
00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:49,920
connected by plan that if you 
say something to one person, 

408
00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:52,560
it's going to it's going to the 
rumors going to spread all the 

409
00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:55,480
way around. 
It was very similar in ancient 

410
00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:58,440
Christianity, but it wasn't just
a rumor. 

411
00:27:58,440 --> 00:28:03,120
It was a life changing charisma 
message of preached message of 

412
00:28:03,120 --> 00:28:08,360
salvation where the apostles 
agreed among among among one 

413
00:28:08,360 --> 00:28:15,520
another about the main structure
of this gospel and about the the

414
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:20,480
major events in Jesus's life. 
And then eyewitnesses inserted 

415
00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:24,840
particular stories that are 
uniquely preserved in Matthew, 

416
00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:29,320
Mark, Luke or John. 
And then the followers of the 

417
00:28:29,320 --> 00:28:35,760
followers, that the disciples of
the disciples continue to read 

418
00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:38,760
these traditions as they were 
inscribed in texts of the 

419
00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:43,280
Gospels. 
And all the way up until 9080 or

420
00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:47,840
slightly thereafter, the 
eyewitnesses within this circle 

421
00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:50,760
are still alive until they die 
out. 

422
00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:55,600
And even when they die out, they
themselves made disciples, 

423
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:59,720
disciples of these eyewitnesses 
who could tell you a story or an

424
00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:04,560
interpretation of the Gospel 
that was only a generation or so

425
00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:08,600
removed from Jesus himself. 
And so that's why when we get to

426
00:29:08,600 --> 00:29:12,880
our earliest church fathers, 
that we have Irenaeus, who died 

427
00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:17,040
in 2000. 
Sorry, 202, Justin Martyr, who 

428
00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:22,000
died around 166, or the 
Apostolic Fathers, all who died 

429
00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:27,880
before 150 AD. 
You have a reliable witness to 

430
00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:31,160
what the Gospels were and how 
they were written, how they were

431
00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:34,960
passed down, how they should be 
interpreted and how they should 

432
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:37,160
be read. 
And The thing is, these earliest

433
00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:41,000
readers of the Gospels, they 
weren't reading like we kind of 

434
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:45,520
modern secular people would read
a text, sort of how do I take my

435
00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:48,480
faith and move it to the side 
and just read it critically? 

436
00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:53,280
How do I find a historical data 
and judge whether or not it 

437
00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:56,440
happened? 
They read it from the posture of

438
00:29:56,480 --> 00:29:59,880
faith because they were reading 
as people whose lives have been 

439
00:29:59,880 --> 00:30:04,560
transformed by Jesus. 
And so for them, reading about 

440
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:08,280
something that happened that 
Jesus had accomplished was also 

441
00:30:08,280 --> 00:30:12,760
an act of, of, of challenging 
them towards stronger faith in 

442
00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:16,200
the not only the Jesus that they
read in the text, but the Lord 

443
00:30:16,200 --> 00:30:17,520
that they worshipped every 
Sunday. 

444
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:23,240
So it was a, a web of Christian 
memory receiving the Gospels 

445
00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:26,000
and, and, and reading them 
faithfully. 

446
00:30:26,480 --> 00:30:31,040
And you can also have on the 
other side non Christians, 

447
00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:35,600
pagans, Greeks and Romans who 
encountered these gospels and 

448
00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:39,800
were compelled to faith by 
reading the Gospels who came at 

449
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:44,040
it from a posture of of of 
skepticism saying how can this 

450
00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:50,240
actually be true? 
11 ancient Christian philosopher

451
00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:53,360
that I love to read is Justin 
Martyr. 

452
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:59,160
He started off kind of toying 
around with Stoicism, then put 

453
00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:01,000
then he tried a little bit of 
Pythagoreanism. 

454
00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:07,920
Then he found Platonism and was 
moved by Plato's account of, of 

455
00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:11,440
the one of, of, of the, the 
source of all things. 

456
00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:13,720
But there is an element missing 
in it. 

457
00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:18,000
And then he makes his way to 
Ephesus and finds a bearded man,

458
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:21,880
anonymous bearded man, who 
walking on the shores of the 

459
00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:26,040
Mediterranean, tells him about 
the prophets and tells him about

460
00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:27,880
Jesus. 
And then his life is 

461
00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:30,400
transformed. 
Then he discovers what he calls 

462
00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:34,440
the memoirs of the apostles, 
namely the Gospels, and his life

463
00:31:34,440 --> 00:31:40,200
is transformed and he he is so 
compelled by the witness of the 

464
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:43,640
law and the prophets and the 
gospel and the apostle that 

465
00:31:43,640 --> 00:31:48,360
eventually he's willing to give 
his life in martyrdom for the 

466
00:31:48,360 --> 00:31:51,520
cause of the gospel. 
So not only was it a Christian 

467
00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:56,800
web of remembering Jesus and 
Apostolic web of remembering and

468
00:31:56,800 --> 00:32:01,760
writing about Jesus and then a 
Christian web of receiving the 

469
00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:03,720
gospel texts and faithfully 
reading them. 

470
00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:07,720
There was also a non Christian 
Pagan world that was encountered

471
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:14,440
by this gospel and was compelled
to belief because of how, yeah, 

472
00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:19,720
how compelling the account of 
Jesus was and how the Christians

473
00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:21,920
could say, well, I know so and 
so. 

474
00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:25,400
Who knew so and so who was an 
Ephesus who knew John and John 

475
00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:27,760
knew Jesus. 
This is only a few degrees 

476
00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:31,640
removed from us today. 
This Jesus put your faith in 

477
00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:35,280
him. 
So this is the really a 

478
00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:42,000
thumbnail sketch of about 150 
years of history really deriving

479
00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:46,240
from Jesus of Nazareth, 
faithfully remembered, reliant 

480
00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:50,680
be remembered by eyewitnesses, 
inscribed by gospel authors, 

481
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:55,600
received, read and passed down 
by disciples of those authors. 

482
00:32:55,840 --> 00:33:00,840
And then eventually we get to 
the the stage of the church from

483
00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:05,760
from Edessa, from modern day 
Iraq all the way to modern day 

484
00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:10,200
France, this and then across 
North Africa universally 

485
00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:14,400
recognizing these 4 gospels are 
the ones that preserve for us 

486
00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:18,800
the faithful teachings of Jesus.
Let's go back two slides before 

487
00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:24,480
we get to some questions on this
one more before this. 

488
00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:32,160
So my doctoral supervisor, 
Marcus Bach Mule has taken the 

489
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:37,280
ideas of Richard Balcombe and 
then engaged the question of the

490
00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:42,160
critical scholar who says, OK, 
you can do spade work 

491
00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:45,840
historically and try to make a 
case for the reliability of the 

492
00:33:45,840 --> 00:33:47,720
Gospels, but you're still doing 
that. 

493
00:33:48,360 --> 00:33:51,800
You still have to do that under 
the premises of secular 

494
00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:55,480
historical critical readings. 
You can't do that from the from 

495
00:33:55,480 --> 00:33:59,520
the place of faith. 
What Bothell would argue is that

496
00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:04,440
the very act of remembering 
Jesus at the outset was not some

497
00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:08,320
detached historical observation,
but it was an act of worship. 

498
00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:12,480
To say Jesus rose from the dead 
is a proclamation of allegiance 

499
00:34:12,480 --> 00:34:16,320
to this Jesus. 
And so if the earliest memories 

500
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:20,679
of Jesus were an act of faith, 
an act of allegiance to Jesus, 

501
00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:25,840
then when we study the earliest 
memories of Jesus, the, the, 

502
00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:30,000
the, the most honest, the, the 
most robust, the truest way to 

503
00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:36,159
study it is to make that same 
act of faith as we study it. 

504
00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:39,960
It's almost like saying, how do 
you know how to swing a baseball

505
00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:44,080
bat, right? 
Well, you can say you squash the

506
00:34:44,080 --> 00:34:48,120
bug, you choke up, elbow out 
like a chicken. 

507
00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:52,159
You kind of make sure that the 
power comes from the ground 

508
00:34:52,159 --> 00:34:53,880
through the hips and then you. 
Swing. 

509
00:34:54,480 --> 00:34:56,199
Right, that's how you swing a 
baseball bat, right? 

510
00:34:56,719 --> 00:35:00,480
A detached observer can memorize
every single one of those 

511
00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:04,520
elements to swinging a baseball 
bat, but not until you actually 

512
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:08,920
feel the the the shock of a 
baseball as it hits the bat. 

513
00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:12,480
And as you continue the follow 
through and see the ball go all 

514
00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:15,320
the way to the outfield, you 
haven't really learned how to 

515
00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:19,320
swing a baseball bat. 
OK, in the same way you can 

516
00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:23,640
study how the early Christians 
remember Jesus and you can 

517
00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:25,520
adjudicate whether it's reliable
or not. 

518
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:29,240
You can come to a point of say, 
OK, it's all it's reliable. 

519
00:35:29,240 --> 00:35:32,000
We have a genuine legitimate 
memory of this historical 

520
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:34,920
figure. 
But until you actually worship 

521
00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:39,520
the Lord as you're remembering 
him and studying him, you don't 

522
00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:43,160
actually know what the Gospels 
are doing because the gospel 

523
00:35:43,160 --> 00:35:46,880
writers themselves were writing 
it as an act of worship, as an 

524
00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:51,560
act of allegiance to Jesus. 
And so for us as Christians, the

525
00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:55,160
critical reading of the Gospels 
that asks legitimate historical 

526
00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:59,480
questions can be the same 
reading of the Gospels as those 

527
00:35:59,520 --> 00:36:03,080
who are worshipping Jesus within
this living memory. 

528
00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:07,160
And this memory of Jesus is not 
just something that people with 

529
00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:12,120
pH DS do, but it's something 
that the global church from 

530
00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:16,640
continent to continent is doing 
in different contexts as we 

531
00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:19,640
worship our Lord within the 
memory of the church. 

532
00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:23,880
So this is contextual worship. 
It's historical reality. 

533
00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:28,000
It's not a bifurcation of 
historical questions on the one 

534
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:31,600
hand and then faith commitments 
on the other, since the earliest

535
00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:34,920
memories of Jesus were those two
things coming together in 

536
00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:38,000
worship of Jesus. 
Even so, our historical 

537
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:41,720
questions of Jesus and the 
Gospels can be robustly worship 

538
00:36:41,720 --> 00:36:44,280
as well. 
There will be a number of 

539
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:46,920
critical scholars who would 
vehemently disagree with me, and

540
00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:49,960
I'd love to debate them on that.
But this is the case I want to 

541
00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:53,760
make as someone who's committed,
committed my life to those two 

542
00:36:53,760 --> 00:36:57,960
things coming together. 
And so that's why I wanted to 

543
00:36:57,960 --> 00:37:02,080
linger on this just for a little
bit this this afternoon, why I 

544
00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:05,800
think we can have confidence in 
the Gospels and read them with 

545
00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:10,120
historical lenses at the same 
time, even more fundamentally, 

546
00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:14,200
reading it as an act of worship.
Any questions about this massive

547
00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:15,120
topic, go ahead. 
Can we? 

548
00:37:15,360 --> 00:37:21,560
Bump maybe 3 slides forward. 
Yes, yes, this one. 

549
00:37:22,120 --> 00:37:26,240
So is it that it's a two-part 
question? 

550
00:37:26,720 --> 00:37:31,760
So the Gospel of Matthew and the
Gospel of John were written by 

551
00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:39,760
the disciples Matthew and John 
and the Gospel of and Luke and 

552
00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:43,080
Mark. 
Did they know Jesus or they knew

553
00:37:43,080 --> 00:37:48,120
people or they knew people Who? 
So a really strong case can be 

554
00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:51,080
made that Mark had met Jesus 
personally. 

555
00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:54,080
His mother's house was in 
Jerusalem. 

556
00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:57,160
Acts 12, that's where the 
apostles were gathering. 

557
00:37:58,040 --> 00:38:01,200
A scholar by the name of Thomas 
Odin has made a strong case 

558
00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:05,040
based on North African memories 
several centuries later that 

559
00:38:05,040 --> 00:38:11,000
were written down that the upper
room where Jesus and his 

560
00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:14,600
disciples met was the was the 
room of Mark's family. 

561
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:19,320
That's that's a definitely a 
plausible reconstruction. 

562
00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:24,280
We can't be 100% sure of it, but
just given the fact that Mark 

563
00:38:24,280 --> 00:38:30,160
was probably younger than Peter 
and that his his family network 

564
00:38:30,160 --> 00:38:35,160
was connected to North Africa 
and to Jerusalem, it's quite 

565
00:38:35,160 --> 00:38:38,080
likely that he was at the 
healings. 

566
00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:40,760
He certainly knew a whole lot of
people who were. 

567
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:44,520
And he had walked in the very 
spaces where Jesus had performed

568
00:38:44,520 --> 00:38:46,960
these miracles. 
So the memory was still kind of 

569
00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:49,120
reverberating in the 
architecture of each of those 

570
00:38:49,120 --> 00:38:51,120
spaces that Mark himself 
probably walked through. 

571
00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:53,600
And he was tied to Peter. 
Yeah. 

572
00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:54,840
Absolutely. 
That's the Apostolic. 

573
00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:56,920
Connection. 
That's the most important part, 

574
00:38:56,920 --> 00:38:58,240
yeah. 
And then Luke was. 

575
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:03,960
Tied, yes, so. 
Luke had a whole set of 

576
00:39:03,960 --> 00:39:07,160
eyewitnesses. 
He was most closely tied to 

577
00:39:07,160 --> 00:39:09,680
Paul. 
Paul as a Pharisee, actually 

578
00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:12,000
this is not. 
This is really underexplored as 

579
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:15,160
a Pharisee probably had heard 
about Jesus, if not had 

580
00:39:15,160 --> 00:39:18,600
witnessed Jesus himself. 
Having travelled from Tarsus, 

581
00:39:18,600 --> 00:39:21,280
probably back and forth to 
Jerusalem quite a few times, 

582
00:39:21,840 --> 00:39:25,840
there's a strong likelihood that
he had himself had been in a 

583
00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:29,520
crowd when Jesus was there. 
Even if he hadn't, he had been 

584
00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:32,880
in the locations where Jesus had
committed, had performed many of

585
00:39:32,880 --> 00:39:36,520
his miracles, and the memory is 
still reverberating in those in 

586
00:39:36,520 --> 00:39:41,720
those geographical regions. 
Luke connected to Paul and 

587
00:39:41,720 --> 00:39:46,320
having probably drawn from 
several other Apostolic sources,

588
00:39:46,480 --> 00:39:51,840
whether Peter or John or others,
Was, was, was, was, was deriving

589
00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:54,520
the stories and the traditions 
from those same sources. 

590
00:39:54,840 --> 00:39:56,760
So what are some of the most 
contested? 

591
00:39:57,600 --> 00:40:01,280
Books of the New Testament, 
we'll get to that. 

592
00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:02,320
That's a really good. 
Question. 

593
00:40:02,320 --> 00:40:05,080
OK, Alfreda, sorry hand up. 
So maybe this is. 

594
00:40:06,280 --> 00:40:13,240
A basic question. 
Matthew, Mark. 

595
00:40:13,240 --> 00:40:14,360
No, wait, sorry that the Gospel 
was. 

596
00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:21,480
Known. 
To identify yeah, yeah, yeah, 

597
00:40:24,240 --> 00:40:30,480
yeah, yeah. 
And the fact that Matthew and 

598
00:40:31,240 --> 00:40:39,880
Luke have identical passages 
from yes, uh huh is the argument

599
00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:51,280
that yeah, yeah. 
These different, yeah. 

600
00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:55,120
These are different. 
The analogy is working even. 

601
00:40:55,200 --> 00:40:59,040
Better than I had hoped, OK. 
So oh, these are OK. 

602
00:40:59,040 --> 00:41:02,520
Perfect. 
OK, so these are awesome. 

603
00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:07,720
There's four different ones. 
OK, so so. 

604
00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:09,760
All the men in the room who are 
liking me are slightly 

605
00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:11,160
colorblind. 
I hear men are more color 

606
00:41:11,160 --> 00:41:13,920
blinded women. 
It's a stereotype, but these all

607
00:41:13,920 --> 00:41:16,640
look the same, right? 
Unless you look closely, you can

608
00:41:16,640 --> 00:41:19,320
see the difference. 
Now imagine. 

609
00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:26,840
OK, Much different to your eyes.
Yeah. 

610
00:41:27,240 --> 00:41:30,920
Wow. 
All right. 

611
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:39,400
OK, well, OK. 
They're all coasters. 

612
00:41:41,240 --> 00:41:43,320
Let me choose two that look much
more similar. 

613
00:41:43,440 --> 00:41:46,560
OK, All right. 
I'll tell to two that are like 

614
00:41:46,680 --> 00:41:48,640
identical and the other two are 
identical. 

615
00:41:48,640 --> 00:41:54,080
OK, now imagine if I could pass 
these around for several 

616
00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:58,880
centuries or decades and they 
would never be confused. 

617
00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:01,480
And so they're so they're very 
similar, but they're never 

618
00:42:01,480 --> 00:42:04,240
confused. 
How would you differentiate 

619
00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:06,480
between these two, between these
four? 

620
00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:10,480
If they were very similar, maybe
you'd mark them up right, put a 

621
00:42:10,480 --> 00:42:14,560
name or two. 
So I put. 

622
00:42:14,560 --> 00:42:17,480
Matthew on this one. 
Mark on this one, Luke on this 

623
00:42:17,480 --> 00:42:21,760
one, John on this one. 
The Gospels as they were 

624
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:24,680
distributed. 
Luke was never confused for 

625
00:42:24,680 --> 00:42:27,160
John. 
John was never confused for 

626
00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:29,240
Mark. 
Matthew and Mark, even though 

627
00:42:29,240 --> 00:42:33,800
they're so similar in many ways,
Mark was never accidentally 

628
00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:37,040
called called Matthew and 
Matthew was never accidentally 

629
00:42:37,040 --> 00:42:39,720
called Mark. 
That tells us that that 

630
00:42:39,720 --> 00:42:45,320
signifies to us that very early 
on when Mark was written, it had

631
00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:49,880
a title saying according to 
Mark, Matthew had a title 

632
00:42:49,880 --> 00:42:53,120
according to Matthew. 
Luke had a title according to 

633
00:42:53,120 --> 00:42:54,880
Luke. 
John had a title according to 

634
00:42:54,880 --> 00:42:58,800
John. 
And then when, when a, a, a, a 

635
00:42:58,920 --> 00:43:02,560
church father like Irenaeus 
would come across Matthew, he'd 

636
00:43:02,560 --> 00:43:05,280
say, oh, I know that's Matthew. 
He begins with the genealogy. 

637
00:43:05,720 --> 00:43:08,360
Oh, I know that's Mark because 
he begins with the the 

638
00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:10,520
inauguration of the Gospel. 
And that's got to be John. 

639
00:43:10,520 --> 00:43:13,560
I know it's John because begins 
with the beginning, the word. 

640
00:43:13,960 --> 00:43:17,880
And every copy I've ever read of
this says according to John, 

641
00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:19,520
according to Matthew, according 
to Mark. 

642
00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:23,720
And I know Pathias, my buddy 
Pathias, where was he? 

643
00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:28,840
He's in the middle. 
I know my buddy Pathias, he died

644
00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:35,440
30 years ago, but I heard 
directly from him that that Mark

645
00:43:35,440 --> 00:43:40,720
was Peter's follower and wrote 
down Peter's oral proclamation 

646
00:43:40,720 --> 00:43:43,920
of Jesus. 
And so that is how I know that 

647
00:43:43,920 --> 00:43:47,440
Mark is always Mark. 
And it's always been called Mark

648
00:43:47,720 --> 00:43:53,160
because Habeas, who knew Mark's 
disciple, passed on this 

649
00:43:53,160 --> 00:43:56,760
tradition from Mark, who had 
written what had, what Peter had

650
00:43:56,760 --> 00:43:58,440
been writing or had been 
speaking. 

651
00:43:58,840 --> 00:44:03,360
And so Irenaeus with all four 
gospels able to differentiate 

652
00:44:03,360 --> 00:44:06,720
them because of their names. 
Their names were consistent 

653
00:44:06,720 --> 00:44:10,080
because they were very early on 
attributed to the to the the 

654
00:44:10,080 --> 00:44:12,320
gospel authors. 
And that's why we have a 

655
00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:17,200
consistency across usages of the
four gospels by the earliest 

656
00:44:17,240 --> 00:44:20,160
patristics and across the 
manuscript tradition. 

657
00:44:20,360 --> 00:44:25,080
That lack of confusion in that 
utter consistency shows kind of 

658
00:44:25,080 --> 00:44:29,600
bespeaks an early date to the 
the Gospels being attributed to 

659
00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:32,160
these authors. 
One follow up, Alfred, and I'll 

660
00:44:32,160 --> 00:44:33,280
go to the next question. 
Yeah, yeah. 

661
00:44:34,880 --> 00:44:35,600
So so to. 
Me. 

662
00:44:35,600 --> 00:44:39,480
That sounds very plausible, but 
doesn't like the only plausible 

663
00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:43,120
reason why. 
OK, so the four gospels have 

664
00:44:43,400 --> 00:44:45,240
elements that are very distinct.
Yeah. 

665
00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:47,800
Yeah. 
The fact that I can different 

666
00:44:47,800 --> 00:44:51,840
sheep doesn't mean necessarily 
there was a label the Gospel 

667
00:44:51,840 --> 00:44:53,440
according to Mark or Matthew or 
John or Luke. 

668
00:44:53,840 --> 00:44:58,640
Yep, that differentiation is not
necessarily tied to the author. 

669
00:44:59,080 --> 00:45:00,480
OK. 
And so. 

670
00:45:02,120 --> 00:45:05,640
I, I struggle with this because 
it seems like those 4 gospels 

671
00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:07,400
are written to specific 
audiences. 

672
00:45:08,440 --> 00:45:11,920
Like so, so Mark was written and
he has to like explain what he 

673
00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:15,080
just said in Aramaic. 
So his audience is from the 

674
00:45:15,080 --> 00:45:17,600
Greek right? 
So, so if the way written for 

675
00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:22,440
those audiences, it stands to to
reason to me that these 

676
00:45:22,520 --> 00:45:25,400
different audiences knew the 
contents of these different 

677
00:45:25,880 --> 00:45:28,320
gospels, uh huh. 
So over time, folks are able to 

678
00:45:28,520 --> 00:45:30,880
identify them as different types
of as different gospels. 

679
00:45:31,200 --> 00:45:37,680
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 
This because your your 

680
00:45:37,720 --> 00:45:40,040
definition of authenticity. 
Uh huh. 

681
00:45:40,040 --> 00:45:40,680
To the authorship. 
Yeah. 

682
00:45:41,560 --> 00:45:45,480
Who was the person yeah that 
broke this particular scripture?

683
00:45:46,200 --> 00:45:48,960
Yeah, so really. 
Good question. 

684
00:45:49,520 --> 00:45:54,640
In the early Christian reception
of Apostolic texts, there was no

685
00:45:54,640 --> 00:45:58,840
room for a pseudonymous text to 
be accepted as Apostolic. 

686
00:45:59,200 --> 00:46:03,800
So if any Christian in their 
right mind knew that this was 

687
00:46:03,800 --> 00:46:07,440
falsely attributed to Mark, they
would have discarded it. 

688
00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:13,240
There was a Gospel according to 
Peter that was read in the late 

689
00:46:13,240 --> 00:46:15,320
2nd century. 
Was kind of interesting. 

690
00:46:15,640 --> 00:46:18,440
It gave a new perspective on 
Jesus's resurrection. 

691
00:46:18,720 --> 00:46:24,960
But then a Bishop approached. 
So Bishops Sarapian approached 

692
00:46:24,960 --> 00:46:29,880
the Bishop of Ross in in Cyprus 
and said you should stop reading

693
00:46:29,880 --> 00:46:34,720
this because we cannot 
legitimately connect it back to 

694
00:46:34,720 --> 00:46:37,240
Peter. 
Stop reading this spurious 

695
00:46:37,240 --> 00:46:40,040
writing. 
So there's a really strong 

696
00:46:41,480 --> 00:46:46,080
commitment to authenticity that 
if any of these were questioned,

697
00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:48,320
there would have been a reason 
for it to be brought to the 

698
00:46:48,320 --> 00:46:52,040
light right away. 
Another thing regarding how we 

699
00:46:52,040 --> 00:46:58,600
know that it was how we can 
connect distinctness to 

700
00:46:58,600 --> 00:47:01,960
authorship. 
Matthew pretty much. 

701
00:47:03,800 --> 00:47:09,000
He repeats 90% of of of Mark. 
And in antiquity when you have a

702
00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:13,120
better version, sort of when 2 
point O comes out, 1.0 

703
00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:15,520
oftentimes just kind of falls to
the side. 

704
00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:21,600
It could be you can view 1.0 as 
rough notes and then 2.0 is much

705
00:47:21,600 --> 00:47:26,040
better. 
And so whether it's Roman 

706
00:47:26,040 --> 00:47:30,280
historians recalling events 
taking previous versions when 

707
00:47:30,280 --> 00:47:33,560
they do a much better job than 
previous version, previous 

708
00:47:33,560 --> 00:47:38,160
version dies out unless previous
version has some value to it 

709
00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:41,280
that the community that reads 
the history history thinks is 

710
00:47:41,280 --> 00:47:45,360
valuable to remember it by. 
So Matthew, historically 

711
00:47:45,360 --> 00:47:48,800
speaking, should have replaced 
Mark, and Mark should have been 

712
00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:53,080
thrown away as just rough notes 
that Matthew developed further. 

713
00:47:53,520 --> 00:47:57,880
But because Mark was associated 
with Peter and because Mark as 

714
00:47:57,880 --> 00:48:02,560
an Apostolic writer under 
Peter's authority was giving a 

715
00:48:02,560 --> 00:48:08,440
genuinely Petrine exposition of 
the Gospel, even though you can 

716
00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:12,600
get 90% of Mark in Matthew, the 
early church kept Mark because 

717
00:48:12,600 --> 00:48:16,720
they said this is valuable to 
remember because it derives from

718
00:48:16,720 --> 00:48:19,840
an apostle in a different way 
than what this thing called 

719
00:48:19,840 --> 00:48:23,280
Matthew does. 
So that is how difference and 

720
00:48:23,280 --> 00:48:28,120
consistency really points to 
Apostolic origins that is worth 

721
00:48:28,480 --> 00:48:30,800
worth, worth preserving in their
difference. 

722
00:48:31,080 --> 00:48:33,400
So the unity and the difference 
really points us to the 

723
00:48:33,400 --> 00:48:36,400
authenticity Dan another 
argument. 

724
00:48:36,440 --> 00:48:42,400
Related to this has to do with 
the locations, the aspera of the

725
00:48:42,440 --> 00:48:45,800
apostles, the locations where 
they ended up turned into copy 

726
00:48:45,800 --> 00:48:48,360
centers. 
Yeah, Oh yeah, copy centers. 

727
00:48:48,840 --> 00:48:55,800
Were very meticulous in. 
Copying and recopying these 

728
00:48:55,800 --> 00:48:59,160
manuscripts. 
And they were extremely loyal, 

729
00:48:59,840 --> 00:49:02,720
more loyal than Jacob is to the 
Tigers. 

730
00:49:05,040 --> 00:49:09,240
Proud and loyal of their. 
Work and they had somebody that 

731
00:49:09,240 --> 00:49:11,520
they were honoring in their work
of copy. 

732
00:49:11,960 --> 00:49:16,560
Yeah. 
And all of this points to a high

733
00:49:16,560 --> 00:49:17,280
degree of certainty. 
Yeah. 

734
00:49:17,280 --> 00:49:22,040
About authorship. 
Yeah, from the very absolutely. 

735
00:49:22,200 --> 00:49:24,280
Time for one more question. 
Alex, it's Alex, right? 

736
00:49:24,840 --> 00:49:27,120
Yes, yes. 
So my. 

737
00:49:27,520 --> 00:49:41,440
Understanding is that. 
That produced the Gospel of 

738
00:49:41,440 --> 00:49:41,960
Mark. 
Yeah, here. 

739
00:49:42,240 --> 00:49:45,000
You're saying that these? 
People all knew each other. 

740
00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:46,960
They were all in kind of 
communication. 

741
00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:50,680
Yeah, with each other. 
My question is, if they were in 

742
00:49:50,680 --> 00:49:53,600
that kind of close contact with 
one another, yeah. 

743
00:49:53,960 --> 00:49:57,360
Why, then do we have, for 
example, in the Bible, two 

744
00:49:57,440 --> 00:49:59,960
different accounts of the 
circumstances surrounding 

745
00:50:00,080 --> 00:50:02,880
Jesus's birth, two different 
genealogies for Jesus? 

746
00:50:03,680 --> 00:50:09,040
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 
OK. 

747
00:50:09,040 --> 00:50:14,160
So specific question about the 
genealogy, more broad question 

748
00:50:14,160 --> 00:50:18,880
about the differences. 
And then how do those, how does 

749
00:50:18,880 --> 00:50:21,280
that specific question, how does
the broad question of 

750
00:50:21,280 --> 00:50:26,760
differences relate to the 
interconnectedness of the Gospel

751
00:50:26,760 --> 00:50:29,920
communities? 
I'd like to start with the first

752
00:50:29,920 --> 00:50:32,800
premise about there being 
specific communities that the 

753
00:50:32,800 --> 00:50:37,720
Gospel authors are writing to. 
I actually don't think that 

754
00:50:37,720 --> 00:50:45,680
there was that, that the Gospels
were at any point exclusively 

755
00:50:45,680 --> 00:50:51,000
written to a single community. 
So I don't think that Matthew 

756
00:50:51,000 --> 00:50:55,000
wrote just for Antioch, for 
example, or Mark just wrote for 

757
00:50:55,000 --> 00:50:57,720
Rome. 
I think he wrote initially 

758
00:50:57,720 --> 00:51:01,280
distributing it. 
They initially distributed it in

759
00:51:01,280 --> 00:51:05,440
their local region, but they 
wrote with this understanding of

760
00:51:05,440 --> 00:51:07,760
a global mission. 
And so they were distributed 

761
00:51:07,760 --> 00:51:10,360
really quickly after their after
their writing. 

762
00:51:10,360 --> 00:51:14,600
And so Mark has an early Roman 
and Alexandrian provenance. 

763
00:51:14,920 --> 00:51:21,200
John, though it has an early 
Ephesian provenance is really 

764
00:51:21,200 --> 00:51:26,280
quickly taken up in Alexandria 
and then also shows up in Rome 

765
00:51:26,280 --> 00:51:30,280
pretty early on. 
And so the, the, the kind of the

766
00:51:30,280 --> 00:51:33,640
cross pollination of of many of 
these communities, I think was 

767
00:51:33,640 --> 00:51:37,440
was very early on, which presses
the question your second or your

768
00:51:37,440 --> 00:51:40,680
main question really, what do we
do with all of these 

769
00:51:40,680 --> 00:51:44,000
differences? 
I think the differences are 

770
00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:48,400
actually really important 
theologically because they show 

771
00:51:48,400 --> 00:51:54,440
us they they, they show us 
different facets of Jesus's 

772
00:51:54,440 --> 00:51:59,680
identity. 
So when you get to Matthew's 

773
00:51:59,680 --> 00:52:04,800
genealogy versus Luke's 
genealogy, Luke's genealogy is 

774
00:52:04,800 --> 00:52:07,040
showing Christ as the second 
Adam. 

775
00:52:07,360 --> 00:52:11,000
Matthew's genealogy is showing 
Christ as the son of Abraham. 

776
00:52:11,320 --> 00:52:14,600
And so you have Abrahamic 
Israelite stories that are 

777
00:52:14,600 --> 00:52:16,840
fulfilled in Jesus and Matthew's
genealogy. 

778
00:52:17,120 --> 00:52:25,480
And then you have Pan Gentile 
salvation movement that you see 

779
00:52:25,480 --> 00:52:29,280
in Luke's genealogy. 
And so if they're, you know, 

780
00:52:29,760 --> 00:52:32,320
let's let's suppose that there's
a setting where Matthew and Luke

781
00:52:32,320 --> 00:52:34,840
were in the same building and 
they're like, hey, you did it 

782
00:52:34,840 --> 00:52:37,720
differently than me. 
There's a reason why they're why

783
00:52:37,720 --> 00:52:42,320
that difference was preserved. 
And in fact, when you get to 

784
00:52:42,320 --> 00:52:49,440
Irenaeus, mid to late 2nd 
century, he will say that each 

785
00:52:49,440 --> 00:52:54,000
individual gospel is supposed to
have its unique contribution. 

786
00:52:54,280 --> 00:52:58,280
You don't want to obliterate the
differences, you want to respect

787
00:52:58,280 --> 00:53:03,480
the differences because they 
they there. 

788
00:53:03,840 --> 00:53:07,080
There's several metaphors that 
he uses, but the musical one is 

789
00:53:07,080 --> 00:53:10,280
the one he uses the most. 
If you have unison, you just 

790
00:53:10,280 --> 00:53:12,640
have unison. 
If you have a whole bunch of 

791
00:53:12,640 --> 00:53:14,400
sounds, you have cacophony or 
dissonance. 

792
00:53:14,400 --> 00:53:23,240
But harmony is only possible if 
you have difference that works 

793
00:53:23,240 --> 00:53:26,360
together for 1/3 or the greater 
entity greater than the sum of 

794
00:53:26,360 --> 00:53:29,760
its parts. 
And So what what Irenaeus will 

795
00:53:29,760 --> 00:53:32,920
do is he'll say that, well, I'm 
going to spoil something. 

796
00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:35,800
Actually, we probably won't have
time to go through the text of 

797
00:53:35,800 --> 00:53:41,360
stuff, but if you look at your 
if you look at your quotes, your

798
00:53:41,360 --> 00:53:46,240
quote here from Irenaeus Books 
against Heresies, Book 3, he'll 

799
00:53:46,240 --> 00:53:51,680
basically say you have in 
Ezekiel the four, the four 

800
00:53:51,680 --> 00:53:53,480
cherubim, the four living 
creatures. 

801
00:53:54,600 --> 00:54:00,320
And then you have in Psalms 
Psalm 80 verse one, how the Lord

802
00:54:00,320 --> 00:54:04,240
is seated between the cherubim. 
And so if you have 4 living 

803
00:54:04,240 --> 00:54:07,640
creatures and if you have the 
presence the temple in the the 

804
00:54:08,280 --> 00:54:13,400
ark of the covenant presence of 
God seated between the four 

805
00:54:13,400 --> 00:54:19,080
living creatures. 
Then when you have 4 gospels, 1 

806
00:54:19,080 --> 00:54:22,160
represented by a man, 1 
represented by an OX1 

807
00:54:22,160 --> 00:54:25,080
represented by a lion, 1 
represented by an eagle. 

808
00:54:25,520 --> 00:54:29,120
These are like the four living 
creatures, the four cherubim, 

809
00:54:29,480 --> 00:54:32,960
that in their difference, 
they're each holding up the 

810
00:54:32,960 --> 00:54:34,920
throne where Christ himself is 
seated. 

811
00:54:34,920 --> 00:54:40,600
It's an aesthetic argument for 
unity and difference because I, 

812
00:54:40,960 --> 00:54:44,560
I, let's go four or five slides 
down and I'll show why this is 

813
00:54:44,560 --> 00:54:47,200
important in the reception of 
the Gospels. 

814
00:54:47,480 --> 00:54:50,760
Keep going, keep going, keep 
going, going. 

815
00:54:51,360 --> 00:54:55,160
I keep going. 
OK, yeah, we're going to. 

816
00:54:55,160 --> 00:54:59,920
This is like keep going. 
We got to get to the Canon. 

817
00:55:00,720 --> 00:55:01,520
There you go. 
Sorry, there. 

818
00:55:01,520 --> 00:55:06,240
OK Martian will say I hate these
differences. 

819
00:55:06,520 --> 00:55:11,640
This, this is like, so he's 
writing in 144 AD, he actually 

820
00:55:11,640 --> 00:55:15,720
shows up at Rome and tries to 
tries to bribe the the Bishop of

821
00:55:15,720 --> 00:55:18,400
Rome and they anathematize him 
at that point. 

822
00:55:19,800 --> 00:55:27,560
And so he comes to Rome 144AD 
and he is kind of a textual 

823
00:55:27,560 --> 00:55:29,360
critic and amateur textual 
critic. 

824
00:55:29,680 --> 00:55:32,640
And he's like, oh, any good 
textual critic will say, I have 

825
00:55:32,640 --> 00:55:37,600
copy one, I have copy 2. 
If one disagrees with the other,

826
00:55:37,600 --> 00:55:41,040
if there's differences, then I 
have to find which one's earlier

827
00:55:41,040 --> 00:55:43,520
or which one's more reliable and
I get rid of the one that's not 

828
00:55:43,520 --> 00:55:46,840
reliable. 
He basically did that with with 

829
00:55:46,880 --> 00:55:52,000
with Luke and then with Mark and
Matthew, perhaps John, but most 

830
00:55:52,000 --> 00:55:54,800
most likely with Luke, with Mark
and Matthew. 

831
00:55:55,080 --> 00:55:58,320
And he preferred the consistency
in his mind of Luke. 

832
00:55:58,520 --> 00:56:00,960
And then he chopped up Luke to 
what he thought might just be 

833
00:56:00,960 --> 00:56:03,360
genuine. 
And also he had some theological

834
00:56:03,360 --> 00:56:05,520
motivation. 
So for him it was unison. 

835
00:56:05,720 --> 00:56:07,560
He couldn't take any difference 
at all. 

836
00:56:07,760 --> 00:56:12,320
And plus he had a theological, 
an ideology that that influenced

837
00:56:12,320 --> 00:56:14,800
his knife as he was chopping up 
the manuscript and just saying, 

838
00:56:14,800 --> 00:56:18,440
I want 1 little bit of this Luke
gospel and that's going to be my

839
00:56:18,440 --> 00:56:20,320
gospel. 
He called it his El angelion. 

840
00:56:21,200 --> 00:56:25,360
Then on the other end of the 
spectrum, you have Tatian about 

841
00:56:25,360 --> 00:56:33,320
17172AD who he he he has he has 
access to a whole bunch of 

842
00:56:33,320 --> 00:56:38,960
Gospels in the late 2nd century.
And so he could have drawn from 

843
00:56:38,960 --> 00:56:42,760
Thomas and from Gospel of Peter,
a Gospel of maybe he didn't 

844
00:56:42,760 --> 00:56:46,520
access to Judas, but a whole 
bunch of other Gospels, but he 

845
00:56:46,520 --> 00:56:51,400
had an Apostolic commitment to 
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. 

846
00:56:51,800 --> 00:56:55,160
Yet perhaps some scholars 
surmise that this might have 

847
00:56:55,160 --> 00:56:59,520
been for evangelistic purposes. 
He wanted to piece them all 

848
00:56:59,520 --> 00:57:02,120
together into a a continuous 
narrative. 

849
00:57:02,600 --> 00:57:08,280
And So what he does is by by 
codifying different passages, 

850
00:57:08,280 --> 00:57:11,000
like putting a different symbol 
probably on each of the passages

851
00:57:11,360 --> 00:57:13,960
of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 
John, he finds a way to bring 

852
00:57:14,000 --> 00:57:18,080
all of their contributions 
together into one massive super 

853
00:57:18,080 --> 00:57:24,840
gospel because he wanted to to 
minimize difference without 

854
00:57:24,920 --> 00:57:26,920
without obliterating it 
completely. 

855
00:57:27,520 --> 00:57:30,840
Tation does that by creating a 
super Gospel of Matthew, Mark, 

856
00:57:30,840 --> 00:57:32,720
Luke, and John. 
He almost gets there. 

857
00:57:33,280 --> 00:57:35,720
Irenaeus is between these two 
options. 

858
00:57:35,840 --> 00:57:39,080
He says we need more than one 
gospel and we need the harmony 

859
00:57:39,080 --> 00:57:41,720
of the gospel. 
But the best way to do that is 

860
00:57:41,720 --> 00:57:44,960
to keep all four and read them. 
Keep reading them, keep 

861
00:57:44,960 --> 00:57:48,680
rereading them, and together 
when you read their collective 

862
00:57:48,680 --> 00:57:52,000
voice, you see the the full 
picture of Jesus as the apostles

863
00:57:52,000 --> 00:57:55,040
proclaimed him. 
Long answer to a short question.

864
00:57:55,240 --> 00:57:58,560
The differences actually create 
harmony in the Gospels rather 

865
00:57:58,560 --> 00:58:01,640
than a bland unison of their 
testimony. 

866
00:58:02,080 --> 00:58:05,520
So, OK, one more question then 
we got to go to the epistles. 

867
00:58:05,520 --> 00:58:07,640
Yeah, just quickly what you just
said made. 

868
00:58:07,640 --> 00:58:10,080
Me think of this the way you 
describe Marcion's editing 

869
00:58:10,520 --> 00:58:13,520
process was that he had kind of 
a theological motivation process

870
00:58:13,760 --> 00:58:16,120
yeah, yeah, I'm curious to what 
degree the kind of consensus 

871
00:58:16,160 --> 00:58:20,640
spokes like in that second row 
there maybe also had that Yep 

872
00:58:20,640 --> 00:58:23,960
what was the question among. 
The earlier just like just like 

873
00:58:23,960 --> 00:58:25,040
who actually saw? 
Jesus. 

874
00:58:25,280 --> 00:58:28,160
Yeah, what is that? 
OK, let's go back. 

875
00:58:28,160 --> 00:58:33,640
Three slides, keep going. 
OK, there's much more than three

876
00:58:33,640 --> 00:58:38,920
aside, but keep going. 
One more right there, right 

877
00:58:39,000 --> 00:58:43,400
there. 
OK, one more First Corinthians 

878
00:58:43,400 --> 00:58:46,960
15, one through 11. 
I want you to know, brothers, 

879
00:58:46,960 --> 00:58:53,360
the gospel that I preached to 
you, which how is it, which I 

880
00:58:53,360 --> 00:58:56,960
passed down to you and by which 
you are saved, if you, if you, 

881
00:58:57,120 --> 00:59:00,440
if you really have believed it, 
that Christ died for our sins 

882
00:59:00,440 --> 00:59:04,160
according to the Scriptures, 
that he was buried and that he 

883
00:59:04,160 --> 00:59:07,120
rose again on the third day in 
accordance to the Scriptures. 

884
00:59:07,360 --> 00:59:11,360
And that he appeared to, to 
Cephas, to James and to the 12 

885
00:59:11,360 --> 00:59:15,960
last of all he appeared to me. 
So that's abbreviated version of

886
00:59:15,960 --> 00:59:18,120
First Corinthians 15 one through
11. 

887
00:59:18,560 --> 00:59:22,600
That is what we call the 
karigma, the, the proclamation 

888
00:59:22,600 --> 00:59:24,760
of the apostles as four key 
elements. 

889
00:59:25,280 --> 00:59:30,120
Christ, that's Messiah died for 
our sins according to the 

890
00:59:30,120 --> 00:59:33,440
Scriptures, that he that's 
buried, that he rose again on 

891
00:59:33,440 --> 00:59:36,440
the third day in accordance with
the Scriptures. 

892
00:59:36,440 --> 00:59:40,480
So Messiah, substitutionary 
death, resurrection on the third

893
00:59:40,480 --> 00:59:43,320
day, accordance with the 
Scriptures, that was the 

894
00:59:43,320 --> 00:59:48,400
uniform, that was the the 
standard Apostolic message that 

895
00:59:48,400 --> 00:59:51,440
was proclaimed by every one of 
the apostles across the entire 

896
00:59:51,440 --> 00:59:55,840
Mediterranean basin and further 
east and further South that 

897
00:59:55,840 --> 01:00:03,440
that's the Apostolic karigma. 
This is actually the the DNA or 

898
01:00:03,440 --> 01:00:06,960
the schema for all four of the 
canonical Gospels. 

899
01:00:07,560 --> 01:00:10,760
This is actually the Canon. 
If we want to talk about a 

900
01:00:10,760 --> 01:00:13,400
religious rule, original 
definition of Canon. 

901
01:00:13,600 --> 01:00:16,600
This is the earliest Canon that 
we have. 

902
01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:20,880
And so if people say Canon came 
400 years after the New 

903
01:00:20,880 --> 01:00:24,240
Testament, actually Canon came 
before the New Testament was 

904
01:00:24,240 --> 01:00:28,680
even written. 
This Canon, this rule of faith 

905
01:00:29,200 --> 01:00:33,840
of four points of the Apostolic 
Charisma, it was proclaimed 

906
01:00:34,240 --> 01:00:36,080
again across the Mediterranean 
basin. 

907
01:00:36,080 --> 01:00:40,440
And then when the Gospels were 
written, the Gospels that came 

908
01:00:40,440 --> 01:00:47,000
in line with this and accorded 
with this Canon and were 

909
01:00:47,000 --> 01:00:50,480
attributed, were properly 
attributed to Apostolic figures.

910
01:00:50,760 --> 01:00:53,080
These were the Gospels that 
stood the test of time. 

911
01:00:53,600 --> 01:00:58,520
The Gospels that did not come in
line with this Canon and then 

912
01:00:58,520 --> 01:01:02,040
also were not associated or be 
able to be were able to be 

913
01:01:02,040 --> 01:01:04,760
verified as Apostolic in their 
origin. 

914
01:01:05,080 --> 01:01:07,720
They were, they were just 
rejected, maybe entertained for 

915
01:01:07,720 --> 01:01:12,720
a little while, but then it was 
widely shown that they were 

916
01:01:12,720 --> 01:01:15,960
rejected because they fell short
of this standard. 

917
01:01:18,320 --> 01:01:22,600
And so so this is the argument 
by a scholar named Simon gather 

918
01:01:22,600 --> 01:01:25,480
call in his book, The Gospel and
the Gospels. 

919
01:01:26,280 --> 01:01:30,640
He really makes the case that 
the ideology, as it were, the 

920
01:01:30,640 --> 01:01:35,680
theology really preceded the the
the inscripturation of the 

921
01:01:35,680 --> 01:01:39,440
gospels. 
And so since this theology is 

922
01:01:39,440 --> 01:01:42,760
the backbone of all four of the 
gospels, then it's entirely 

923
01:01:42,760 --> 01:01:46,200
appropriate if this theology is 
how we judge which gospels are 

924
01:01:46,200 --> 01:01:48,880
genuine after the gospels are 
written. 

925
01:01:49,280 --> 01:01:52,240
So when Martian comes along, he 
doesn't preach this. 

926
01:01:52,480 --> 01:01:54,280
Jesus is not the Messiah of 
Israel. 

927
01:01:54,280 --> 01:01:57,800
The God of Israel is a Pagan God
that shouldn't be worshipped. 

928
01:01:59,720 --> 01:02:02,200
This was not in accordance with 
the Scriptures because we need 

929
01:02:02,200 --> 01:02:06,400
to reject the Old Testament. 
So Marcion's gospel was not 

930
01:02:06,400 --> 01:02:09,720
Apostolic, and so he had the 
wrong ideology, the wrong 

931
01:02:09,720 --> 01:02:13,120
theology by which to adjudicate 
what's the true gospel? 

932
01:02:13,440 --> 01:02:19,480
Whereas Irenaeus, Justin Martyr,
Papius, Polycarp, Tertullian, 

933
01:02:19,760 --> 01:02:23,640
Clement of Alexandria, they had 
the Apostolic gospel in their in

934
01:02:23,640 --> 01:02:26,280
their DNA. 
And so for them to read a 

935
01:02:26,280 --> 01:02:29,960
gospel, they could, they could, 
they had the internal sense 

936
01:02:29,960 --> 01:02:33,400
about whether it was genuine. 
And they could trust the witness

937
01:02:33,400 --> 01:02:37,760
of the apostles as they've been 
passed down to them because of 

938
01:02:37,760 --> 01:02:41,000
the way that the four gospels 
accorded one with another and 

939
01:02:41,000 --> 01:02:43,680
with the Apostolic testimony 
that preceded all of them. 

940
01:02:43,880 --> 01:02:47,160
So good question. 
OK, Danielle on this and 

941
01:02:47,160 --> 01:02:52,320
generally I'm. 
Wondering how like top down 

942
01:02:52,320 --> 01:02:55,680
versus bottom up this was like 
how much was it like it was 

943
01:02:55,680 --> 01:02:59,080
everything was properly accepted
or how much was like a specific 

944
01:02:59,240 --> 01:03:02,280
church council like picked 
books. 

945
01:03:02,280 --> 01:03:04,640
Yeah, I guess with this for. 
Example with. 

946
01:03:04,640 --> 01:03:08,960
This like widely accepted and 
then recognized by the Council. 

947
01:03:10,640 --> 01:03:11,920
Yeah. 
Church council first, Yeah. 

948
01:03:11,920 --> 01:03:13,080
OK. 
So the first one widely 

949
01:03:13,080 --> 01:03:16,320
accepted, then the church 
council was like, this is the 

950
01:03:16,320 --> 01:03:18,880
craft way to put it was 
basically the theological, the 

951
01:03:18,880 --> 01:03:22,960
ecclesial cherry on top of what 
was already widely accepted. 

952
01:03:23,680 --> 01:03:28,400
And you have several elements to
that for why it was widely 

953
01:03:28,400 --> 01:03:34,720
accepted. 
Let's go 11, slide down. 

954
01:03:35,560 --> 01:03:38,160
Let's see here. 
Keep going, keep going. 

955
01:03:38,160 --> 01:03:42,160
We won't deal with that or that,
sorry, just combined. 

956
01:03:42,160 --> 01:03:45,040
OK, So go back to this little 
complex structure. 

957
01:03:45,040 --> 01:03:51,720
OK, so if we have Jesus of 
Nazareth, the the recollections 

958
01:03:51,720 --> 01:03:58,320
of the traditions leading to 
eventual inscripturation, Mark, 

959
01:03:58,520 --> 01:04:02,600
Matthew, Luke, John. 
This is 1 hypothesis of how the 

960
01:04:02,600 --> 01:04:06,480
gospels themselves are related. 
That could lead to a whole other

961
01:04:06,480 --> 01:04:07,760
lecture. 
So please don't ask any 

962
01:04:07,760 --> 01:04:13,000
questions about that today. 
Then what happens is these 

963
01:04:13,000 --> 01:04:21,120
become the most popular gospels 
and even the gospel, even the 

964
01:04:21,360 --> 01:04:26,240
the non canonical gospels that 
are written, they they have to 

965
01:04:26,560 --> 01:04:30,560
pay homage as it were, to the 
fact that these 4 gospels are 

966
01:04:30,560 --> 01:04:34,360
the ones that everybody knows. 
And so they're going to base 

967
01:04:34,360 --> 01:04:38,520
their new gospel on the 
authority of what's already been

968
01:04:38,520 --> 01:04:40,040
written and accepted as 
Apostolic. 

969
01:04:40,720 --> 01:04:43,880
So the Gospel of Thomas is 
basically someone ran out of 

970
01:04:44,160 --> 01:04:46,600
someone didn't have many 
original ideas and said Matthew 

971
01:04:46,600 --> 01:04:48,120
and Luke, a lot of people like 
it. 

972
01:04:48,120 --> 01:04:51,560
So I'm going to take 67% of my 
book is going to be basically 

973
01:04:51,560 --> 01:04:53,960
quoting Matthew and Luke, but 
I'm going to put my own little 

974
01:04:53,960 --> 01:04:59,480
spin on it. 
And then it kind of snowballs in

975
01:04:59,480 --> 01:05:01,920
its own little sphere of 
influence, but then kind of 

976
01:05:01,920 --> 01:05:07,600
fizzled out. 
You can get a whole so that 

977
01:05:07,600 --> 01:05:11,400
there could be a history written
out in each of each of these non

978
01:05:11,400 --> 01:05:13,520
comical gospels. 
But what they're all doing in 

979
01:05:13,520 --> 01:05:17,040
common is they're taking the 
material from the gospels and 

980
01:05:17,040 --> 01:05:19,720
saying that's what everybody 
likes in the 1st place. 

981
01:05:20,040 --> 01:05:23,040
And so we're going to riff on 
what everybody else already 

982
01:05:23,040 --> 01:05:29,480
accepts as authoritative. 
But none of these ever, ever 

983
01:05:30,760 --> 01:05:34,680
stood a chance to become a fifth
gospel, a exclusive 

984
01:05:34,680 --> 01:05:37,720
interpretation of one or four of
the gospels. 

985
01:05:38,160 --> 01:05:41,840
But then you actually have some 
like the Epistle of the Apostles

986
01:05:42,160 --> 01:05:45,920
or the Deoteseron, where their 
whole project is to show you the

987
01:05:45,920 --> 01:05:49,080
reliability of the four. 
And so if you read the epistle 

988
01:05:49,080 --> 01:05:51,680
the apostle, that's basically 
saying, here's the apostle 

989
01:05:51,680 --> 01:05:54,040
Gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke and 
John. 

990
01:05:54,240 --> 01:05:58,200
And here's my here's my way to 
tell you that it's legitimate. 

991
01:05:58,200 --> 01:06:04,920
So trust this gospel. 
And so, so basically there's no 

992
01:06:04,920 --> 01:06:07,160
church councils happening in 
this period. 

993
01:06:07,520 --> 01:06:10,560
And even the heretics are using 
Matthew and Luke. 

994
01:06:11,000 --> 01:06:14,040
Even the heretics are writing 
commentaries on John. 

995
01:06:14,680 --> 01:06:20,800
Even the even the heretics are 
writing like sort of small 

996
01:06:21,360 --> 01:06:25,880
biblical interpretive works 
drawing from Matthew and John at

997
01:06:25,880 --> 01:06:30,160
the same time. 
And so it's not a political move

998
01:06:30,280 --> 01:06:33,480
of the Orthodox party saying 
these and only these burn 

999
01:06:33,480 --> 01:06:37,040
everything else. 
It's basically choose your kind 

1000
01:06:37,040 --> 01:06:41,360
of ancient Christianity, 
Gnostic, Valentinian, Sethian or

1001
01:06:41,360 --> 01:06:45,360
Orthodox. 
They're all using the same base 

1002
01:06:45,360 --> 01:06:48,520
text as the ultimate 
authorities, just some are 

1003
01:06:48,520 --> 01:06:52,240
interpreting it according to the
paradigm of the apostles, and 

1004
01:06:52,240 --> 01:06:56,440
others are buying into this 
newfangled esoteric stuff and 

1005
01:06:56,760 --> 01:07:00,200
trying to write their own 
gospels in addition to what are 

1006
01:07:00,200 --> 01:07:04,240
the most authoritative ones. 
So then in terms of widespread 

1007
01:07:04,240 --> 01:07:08,320
use, when you get to the end of 
the 2nd century, Irenaeus is 

1008
01:07:08,320 --> 01:07:12,040
basically stating the obvious 
saying we know that these and 

1009
01:07:12,040 --> 01:07:15,040
only these, these four are the 
genuine gospels from the 

1010
01:07:15,040 --> 01:07:19,480
apostles that have been accepted
all across hill named Jerusalem,

1011
01:07:19,720 --> 01:07:23,840
Libya, Rome and his own Gaul, 
modern day Leon. 

1012
01:07:25,560 --> 01:07:28,200
One final thing about that 
question. 

1013
01:07:28,680 --> 01:07:34,840
Irenaeus also has this really 
fun description of the the the 

1014
01:07:34,840 --> 01:07:37,320
Gauls that the Gallic people 
among whom he's serving. 

1015
01:07:37,560 --> 01:07:41,880
He was like, look, even talk to 
a Gallic person who can't read. 

1016
01:07:42,480 --> 01:07:46,480
They like, if you have one of 
these heretics coming from, you 

1017
01:07:46,480 --> 01:07:49,520
know, from Valentinus in 
northern Egypt over here to Gaul

1018
01:07:49,520 --> 01:07:53,160
and preaching them from one of 
these false gospels, they'd stop

1019
01:07:53,160 --> 01:07:57,560
their ears and run because of 
how how, how I forgot the phrase

1020
01:07:57,560 --> 01:07:59,040
that he used. 
But basically he's like, they 

1021
01:07:59,040 --> 01:08:02,520
could tell a true gospel from a 
false gospel and they couldn't 

1022
01:08:02,520 --> 01:08:06,880
even read. 
And so he was probably relating 

1023
01:08:06,880 --> 01:08:10,760
the the local faithfulness to 
the Apostolic Gospel that did 

1024
01:08:10,760 --> 01:08:14,160
not require the erudition of a 
Bishop like like Irenaeus who 

1025
01:08:14,160 --> 01:08:16,359
was trained. 
It was this was from the 

1026
01:08:16,359 --> 01:08:22,399
grassroots up one more example 
of grassroots up the amulets 

1027
01:08:22,399 --> 01:08:25,279
that were made. 
So these are quasi superstitious

1028
01:08:25,279 --> 01:08:28,080
Christians. 
The amulets that were made never

1029
01:08:28,080 --> 01:08:35,760
used never used sayings from the
from the gnostic gospels or the 

1030
01:08:36,040 --> 01:08:39,640
non canonical gospels. 
If you want power to heal you 

1031
01:08:39,640 --> 01:08:43,439
don't quote gospel autonomous. 
If you want power to heal you 

1032
01:08:43,439 --> 01:08:47,680
put the inkipit of Mark. 
Okay, so these aren't seminary 

1033
01:08:47,680 --> 01:08:54,560
educated, always say like 
Orthodox, you know, really good 

1034
01:08:54,560 --> 01:08:56,319
Apostolic preachers. 
These are just everyday 

1035
01:08:56,319 --> 01:08:59,319
Christians who want healing and 
so they go wherever they can and

1036
01:08:59,319 --> 01:09:01,800
their grandparents use amulets 
praying to Egyptian gods. 

1037
01:09:01,800 --> 01:09:04,520
So all they know is to write 
scripture and wear it. 

1038
01:09:04,800 --> 01:09:07,680
Where do you go to find power 
Apostolic gospels? 

1039
01:09:07,720 --> 01:09:10,880
And which gospels did they use? 
The four canonical gospels? 

1040
01:09:11,240 --> 01:09:15,479
So even amulets kind of show 
this grassroots, what's most 

1041
01:09:15,479 --> 01:09:18,920
widespreadly, what's most widely
used in its spread. 

1042
01:09:18,920 --> 01:09:22,880
It's the Apostolic 4 Gospels. 
So I almost made this whole 

1043
01:09:22,880 --> 01:09:25,479
lecture about this and we only 
have a few minutes left. 

1044
01:09:25,800 --> 01:09:28,600
One more question Outback and 
maybe we can see where we can 

1045
01:09:28,600 --> 01:09:29,279
take that. 
Go ahead. 

1046
01:09:29,279 --> 01:09:32,200
Taking this just a question 
about writing styles. 

1047
01:09:32,200 --> 01:09:34,600
Yeah, Yeah, in the. 4 gospels, 
are they? 

1048
01:09:34,840 --> 01:09:38,800
Distinctive even when. 
Describing the same events? 

1049
01:09:38,800 --> 01:09:40,880
Yes, absolutely. 
Especially John. 

1050
01:09:42,560 --> 01:09:44,680
In comparison to Matthew, Mark 
and Luke. 

1051
01:09:45,040 --> 01:09:49,120
And then even Matthew, Mark and 
Luke will have their their 

1052
01:09:49,120 --> 01:09:51,279
distinct way to describe 
something. 

1053
01:09:52,000 --> 01:09:54,160
Luke's. 
So Luke's Greek is really 

1054
01:09:54,160 --> 01:09:55,720
polished. 
It's beautiful Greek. 

1055
01:09:56,440 --> 01:10:03,760
Matthew's Greek will have a lot 
of semitisms to it, like it will

1056
01:10:03,840 --> 01:10:06,640
kind of sound like someone who's
been trained in Hebrew 

1057
01:10:06,640 --> 01:10:08,720
scriptures but also is fluent in
Greek. 

1058
01:10:10,160 --> 01:10:18,520
Mark's Greek is very, it's very 
rough and kind of he'll say 

1059
01:10:18,520 --> 01:10:22,240
something very, very pithy kind 
of way, very in your face. 

1060
01:10:22,240 --> 01:10:26,920
It's abrupt, not very 
grammatically beautiful in terms

1061
01:10:26,920 --> 01:10:31,080
of what like ancient grammarian 
would say, but each in their own

1062
01:10:31,080 --> 01:10:33,640
way are contributing to the same
Apostolic message. 

1063
01:10:33,880 --> 01:10:38,280
And it's in those little quirks 
are unique things that each of 

1064
01:10:38,280 --> 01:10:41,720
the gospels does each of the 
authors contributes that you get

1065
01:10:41,720 --> 01:10:48,960
a lot of deep theology. 
Even even the fact that let's 

1066
01:10:48,960 --> 01:10:55,400
see here Mark will say the word 
immediately too many times and 

1067
01:10:55,400 --> 01:10:58,840
immediately Jesus did this and 
immediately and immediately he 

1068
01:10:58,840 --> 01:11:03,000
is, is, is showing the the in 
breaking of the Kingdom of God 

1069
01:11:03,000 --> 01:11:07,040
as it as it contrast with the 
with the World of Darkness into 

1070
01:11:07,040 --> 01:11:09,720
which it comes. 
That immediacy of the coming of 

1071
01:11:09,720 --> 01:11:14,560
God's Kingdom is displayed 
passage to passage by Mark's 

1072
01:11:14,560 --> 01:11:17,560
sort of clunky style. 
So I would really encourage you 

1073
01:11:17,560 --> 01:11:20,640
to look at each of the gospels 
and find those quote UN quote 

1074
01:11:20,640 --> 01:11:23,960
eccentricities of each of the 
gospels and actually in those 

1075
01:11:23,960 --> 01:11:26,240
differences you'll find some 
really deep theology. 

1076
01:11:26,440 --> 01:11:32,080
So we have to somehow in 15 
minutes talk about the Pauline 

1077
01:11:32,080 --> 01:11:34,160
corpus. 
I'm sorry that this I didn't 

1078
01:11:34,160 --> 01:11:38,280
time this Well, let's, let's see
the most important thing I can 

1079
01:11:38,280 --> 01:11:42,520
kind of can show for your 
consideration for the Pauline 

1080
01:11:42,520 --> 01:11:44,560
corpus. 
We've got Jesus and the Gospels.

1081
01:11:45,360 --> 01:11:48,800
Let's go quickly now down a 
couple of slides. 

1082
01:11:53,920 --> 01:11:58,960
OK, So while we're finding the 
slides, I like to think, yes, 

1083
01:11:58,960 --> 01:12:01,640
the stay on this one. 
I like to think of the New 

1084
01:12:01,640 --> 01:12:04,520
Testament Canon by by sub 
collection. 

1085
01:12:04,600 --> 01:12:08,880
So just like we saw how the law,
the Torah itself is a sub 

1086
01:12:08,880 --> 01:12:13,520
collection that is then 
interpreted and proclaimed by 

1087
01:12:13,600 --> 01:12:18,680
the prophets, Similarly we see 
the Gospel as a sub collection. 

1088
01:12:19,080 --> 01:12:23,120
And then we see the letters of 
Paul as a sub collection. 

1089
01:12:23,560 --> 01:12:26,720
And then the Catholic Epistles 
is another kind of sub sub 

1090
01:12:26,760 --> 01:12:30,920
collection. 
And you can see each of these as

1091
01:12:30,920 --> 01:12:34,160
sort of centers of gravity that 
are emerging, that are 

1092
01:12:34,160 --> 01:12:36,720
clustering. 
And then really it's just a 

1093
01:12:36,720 --> 01:12:40,120
matter of bringing these 
clusters together and they form 

1094
01:12:40,400 --> 01:12:43,040
this nuclear bond of the New 
Testament Canon. 

1095
01:12:43,040 --> 01:12:46,360
So you see those clusters coming
together in the earliest stages 

1096
01:12:46,360 --> 01:12:50,120
of Christianity. 
It's very plausible that Paul 

1097
01:12:50,120 --> 01:12:54,320
himself collected his own 
letters. 

1098
01:12:54,880 --> 01:12:58,960
Does everybody have Gmail or 
some e-mail service? 

1099
01:12:59,520 --> 01:13:01,480
OK, what's right below your 
inbox? 

1100
01:13:03,560 --> 01:13:04,760
Sent, sent. 
So. 

1101
01:13:04,760 --> 01:13:06,840
Your inbox. 
Your e-mail. 

1102
01:13:07,880 --> 01:13:12,600
Software is saving every single 
one of your sent emails unless 

1103
01:13:12,600 --> 01:13:15,760
you want to delete it so that no
one can can can see what you're 

1104
01:13:15,760 --> 01:13:20,520
writing. 
The ancient form of the sent box

1105
01:13:20,520 --> 01:13:25,040
was when you make a copy, you 
dictate a copy, you send that 

1106
01:13:25,040 --> 01:13:28,400
copy, but then you also have 
your menu insist your scribe 

1107
01:13:28,680 --> 01:13:32,240
keep a copy for yourself. 
And then you make a collection 

1108
01:13:32,240 --> 01:13:34,400
of all the copies of those 
letters. 

1109
01:13:34,400 --> 01:13:37,120
And if you're missing a couple, 
you write again to someone that 

1110
01:13:37,120 --> 01:13:39,640
you wrote, ask them to send you 
a copy of the letter that you 

1111
01:13:39,640 --> 01:13:41,600
wrote and you forgot to make a 
copy for yourself. 

1112
01:13:41,920 --> 01:13:45,160
And then by the at the end of 
your life, you collect all of 

1113
01:13:45,160 --> 01:13:49,000
these, all of these writings and
you, you, you put them together 

1114
01:13:49,000 --> 01:13:51,640
into one volume. 
And that's what you bequeath to 

1115
01:13:51,640 --> 01:13:56,120
your son or to your heir or to a
trusted friend. 

1116
01:13:56,440 --> 01:14:03,680
So letters of Cicero, pre 
Imperial Republic, Roman 

1117
01:14:04,720 --> 01:14:10,160
senator, letters of Pliny the 
Elder and the Younger, the So 

1118
01:14:10,160 --> 01:14:15,320
you have several 
correspondences, plenty to 

1119
01:14:15,320 --> 01:14:20,440
Trajan or plenty to Tacitus. 
There's a whole, there's several

1120
01:14:20,440 --> 01:14:24,840
collections of ancient Roman 
letters where you see this 

1121
01:14:24,840 --> 01:14:28,040
towards the end of 1's life 
process of collecting your 

1122
01:14:28,040 --> 01:14:30,560
letters. 
Now when Paul is about to die, 

1123
01:14:30,600 --> 01:14:34,160
about to be martyred, and he 
pens his last letter, second 

1124
01:14:34,160 --> 01:14:39,320
Timothy, he asks Timothy to come
and bring him his cloak. 

1125
01:14:39,320 --> 01:14:44,200
It's probably cold in in his 
Roman prison where he is, but 

1126
01:14:44,200 --> 01:14:49,840
then he also says in verse 13, 
do your best to bring the cloak 

1127
01:14:49,840 --> 01:14:53,160
that I left. 
Also the books and above all the

1128
01:14:53,160 --> 01:14:55,880
parchments. 
Now what he refers to there in 

1129
01:14:55,880 --> 01:15:00,440
parchments is probably copies of
his letters that were kept in 

1130
01:15:00,440 --> 01:15:05,480
parchment form that could then 
be turned into the the the Roman

1131
01:15:05,480 --> 01:15:09,920
codex form so that he could keep
them with him at the end of his 

1132
01:15:09,920 --> 01:15:12,960
life and so that he could pass 
them on to someone that he 

1133
01:15:12,960 --> 01:15:20,360
trusted, maybe even Luke. 
And so we can see the Pauline 

1134
01:15:20,360 --> 01:15:24,840
letter collection emerge as as a
as a collection, not just as 

1135
01:15:24,840 --> 01:15:27,920
individual letters that happen 
to be left in different 

1136
01:15:27,920 --> 01:15:31,760
churches. 
Also, you see the number 7 

1137
01:15:31,840 --> 01:15:37,640
showing up, You have 77 churches
that he wrote to, Rome, Corinth,

1138
01:15:38,520 --> 01:15:44,360
Galatians, Ephesians. 
So Galatia, OK, Romans, Rome, 

1139
01:15:44,360 --> 01:15:48,760
Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, 
Philippi, Colossae, 

1140
01:15:49,720 --> 01:15:52,880
Thessalonica. 
He's got 7 churches that he's 

1141
01:15:52,880 --> 01:15:56,440
writing to. 
And then he has his four letters

1142
01:15:56,440 --> 01:16:00,160
to individuals, First, Second 
Timothy, Titus, Philemon. 

1143
01:16:01,200 --> 01:16:05,200
Then how many letters does John 
write in Revelation? 

1144
01:16:05,320 --> 01:16:07,160
How many, how many churches does
he write to? 

1145
01:16:08,000 --> 01:16:11,320
Seven. 
Ignatius of Antioch, he wrote to

1146
01:16:11,320 --> 01:16:13,720
seven churches. 
So this sevenfold letter 

1147
01:16:13,720 --> 01:16:16,080
collection was an ancient 
Christian pattern. 

1148
01:16:16,440 --> 01:16:21,120
So it's quite likely that Paul 
intentionally preserved as a 

1149
01:16:21,120 --> 01:16:25,480
complete witness of how he is 
going to disciple the church, a 

1150
01:16:25,480 --> 01:16:27,920
collection of seven churches and
the letters. 

1151
01:16:27,920 --> 01:16:32,240
So a sevenfold letter collection
of Paul probably emerged really 

1152
01:16:32,240 --> 01:16:37,400
early on. 
Interestingly, even the heretics

1153
01:16:37,400 --> 01:16:41,440
like Marcian collected letters 
of Paul. 

1154
01:16:41,440 --> 01:16:45,120
So Marcian collected only 10 
letters of Paul. 

1155
01:16:45,920 --> 01:16:51,320
He didn't use the Pastoral 
Epistles and so Marcy and 

1156
01:16:51,320 --> 01:16:56,720
because of his theological 
motivation, he had a truncated A

1157
01:16:56,720 --> 01:16:58,960
truncated collection of Paul's 
letters. 

1158
01:16:59,720 --> 01:17:04,160
But Even so, even heretics then 
had their own Pauline letter 

1159
01:17:04,160 --> 01:17:09,680
collections. 
Peter arguably is the earliest 

1160
01:17:09,680 --> 01:17:13,800
to give us an example of 
collecting Paul's letters in 

1161
01:17:13,800 --> 01:17:17,280
Second Peter chapter 3. 
If you ask me about the 

1162
01:17:17,280 --> 01:17:19,480
authenticity of Second Peter, 
I'll have to give another 

1163
01:17:19,480 --> 01:17:23,960
lecture, but just presuppose 
with me now that Second Peter is

1164
01:17:23,960 --> 01:17:28,000
genuine. 
He mentions the letters plural 

1165
01:17:28,000 --> 01:17:32,880
of Paul, Second Peter, chapter 
3, verse 15. 

1166
01:17:33,600 --> 01:17:37,480
Just as our beloved brother Paul
also wrote to you according to 

1167
01:17:37,480 --> 01:17:41,160
the wisdom given him, and he 
does in all he does in all of 

1168
01:17:41,160 --> 01:17:44,160
his letters when he speaks in 
them of these matters. 

1169
01:17:44,520 --> 01:17:48,960
So there is a plurality of 
Pauline letters circulating in 

1170
01:17:49,280 --> 01:17:51,400
Rome when Peter is about to be 
martyred. 

1171
01:17:52,000 --> 01:17:55,520
So an early letter collection 
that Paul probably had an 

1172
01:17:55,520 --> 01:17:59,600
influence on if he was writing 
like any ancient teacher, any 

1173
01:17:59,680 --> 01:18:03,240
Greco Roman teacher probably had
an influence on his own letter 

1174
01:18:03,240 --> 01:18:06,320
collection. 
Let's skip go down to the next 

1175
01:18:06,320 --> 01:18:10,320
slide. 
And even Hebrews, I'd argue, 

1176
01:18:10,640 --> 01:18:14,600
would have a role in this. 
There's a recent case that's 

1177
01:18:14,600 --> 01:18:19,120
made for the Pauline influence 
on Hebrews. 

1178
01:18:19,440 --> 01:18:24,520
This actually is a modern 
argument for a very, very old 

1179
01:18:24,520 --> 01:18:27,600
argument that origin of 
Alexandria and Caesarea made, 

1180
01:18:28,080 --> 01:18:32,120
which is basically Hebrews is 
both Pauline and not Pauline. 

1181
01:18:32,120 --> 01:18:36,040
It sounds like Paul in many 
ways, but it also doesn't sound 

1182
01:18:36,040 --> 01:18:41,840
exactly like Paul in many ways. 
So it's we'll accept it because 

1183
01:18:41,840 --> 01:18:44,920
of how close it is to Paul, even
if only God knows who really 

1184
01:18:44,920 --> 01:18:47,080
wrote it. 
That's sort of a summary of 

1185
01:18:47,080 --> 01:18:50,160
origins argument regarding 
Hebrews. 

1186
01:18:50,720 --> 01:18:56,800
But if you look at Paul's 
speeches in Acts, Acts 13 X 20 X

1187
01:18:56,800 --> 01:19:04,120
26, Acts 28, the Greek actually 
resembles the the the genius of 

1188
01:19:04,120 --> 01:19:09,360
the letter to the Hebrews. 
The Greek is genuinely the voice

1189
01:19:09,360 --> 01:19:14,720
of Paul as he's speaking 
publicly and also it's the has 

1190
01:19:14,720 --> 01:19:19,520
the historians touch of Luke as 
he's recalling the speeches of 

1191
01:19:19,520 --> 01:19:23,160
Paul and writing them in 
rhetorically brilliant Greek. 

1192
01:19:23,800 --> 01:19:27,400
So what's what one scholar has 
recently proposed is that 

1193
01:19:27,400 --> 01:19:31,480
Hebrews is a synagogue speech 
that Paul gave. 

1194
01:19:31,760 --> 01:19:35,840
In fact, Luke, acts, Acts 13 
actually says a Lagos 

1195
01:19:36,040 --> 01:19:40,720
paraclesios, a word of 
exhortation is what Paul gives 

1196
01:19:40,720 --> 01:19:42,680
to the synagogue in Pacinian 
Antioch. 

1197
01:19:43,320 --> 01:19:46,400
You know what the author of 
Hebrews in Hebrews 13 calls his 

1198
01:19:46,400 --> 01:19:50,360
letter, He calls it a Lagos 
paraclesios. 

1199
01:19:50,400 --> 01:19:52,560
He's like, this is a word of 
exhortation. 

1200
01:19:52,960 --> 01:19:57,040
So there's a strong case to be 
made that Paul's influence is 

1201
01:19:57,040 --> 01:19:59,960
running through Hebrews and 
that. 

1202
01:20:01,240 --> 01:20:05,760
It was inscribed, it was, it was
transcribed by a faithful 

1203
01:20:05,760 --> 01:20:09,040
follower of Paul. 
And that's why it's packaged 

1204
01:20:09,040 --> 01:20:12,600
together with Paul's letters 
from very, very early on, our 

1205
01:20:12,600 --> 01:20:16,680
earliest manuscript that has 
nearly the entirety of Paul's 

1206
01:20:16,680 --> 01:20:21,960
letter collection, Papyrus 46, 
it has Hebrew sandwich between 

1207
01:20:21,960 --> 01:20:25,800
Romans and 1st Corinthians. 
So it's a, it's a, it's a codex 

1208
01:20:25,800 --> 01:20:28,280
that decreases in size of the 
letters. 

1209
01:20:28,280 --> 01:20:32,800
So you start with Romans and 
then the last one is First 

1210
01:20:32,800 --> 01:20:35,400
Thessalonians. 
And then you have several 

1211
01:20:35,400 --> 01:20:37,640
missing pages. 
So scholars are like, why? 

1212
01:20:38,160 --> 01:20:39,880
What's in the last bit of that 
codex? 

1213
01:20:40,240 --> 01:20:43,800
But anyway, if you if you 
decrease in size in the letters 

1214
01:20:43,800 --> 01:20:46,840
of Paul, you start with Romans 
and you end with Philemon. 

1215
01:20:47,240 --> 01:20:50,960
You put Hebrews between Romans 
and 1st Corinthians only if you 

1216
01:20:50,960 --> 01:20:54,240
think it's of the same kind as 
the rest of those letters. 

1217
01:20:54,720 --> 01:20:59,360
So I think Hebrews canonicity is
because of its proximity to 

1218
01:20:59,360 --> 01:21:03,560
Paul, whether it was Paul 
himself writing it or whether it

1219
01:21:03,560 --> 01:21:08,720
was in an oral form of his 
teaching given in a Jewish 

1220
01:21:08,720 --> 01:21:12,760
context, perhaps a synagogue 
context that was transcribed by 

1221
01:21:12,800 --> 01:21:16,520
a faithful follower. 
So I think Hebrews closely is 

1222
01:21:16,520 --> 01:21:19,920
connected to the Pauline 
collection, which very early on 

1223
01:21:20,120 --> 01:21:26,280
was another center of gravity 
that came to be that came to, to

1224
01:21:26,600 --> 01:21:30,480
to be paired together with the 
fourfold Gospel. 

1225
01:21:31,400 --> 01:21:33,960
So you had the fourfold gospel, 
the Pauline letter collection. 

1226
01:21:33,960 --> 01:21:36,320
Those were two centers of 
gravity that came together 

1227
01:21:36,640 --> 01:21:41,920
really by the mid 2nd century. 
OK, 2-3 more minutes if we can 

1228
01:21:41,920 --> 01:21:44,480
zip through this. 
So that's Hebrews, keep going. 

1229
01:21:45,000 --> 01:21:53,240
OK, the Catholic epistles again,
it's the number seven shows up, 

1230
01:21:53,720 --> 01:21:57,800
James first, second Peter first,
second, third, John, Jude. 

1231
01:21:58,520 --> 01:22:01,440
I don't think it's a coincidence
that these letters that were 

1232
01:22:02,320 --> 01:22:08,080
recognized eventually as 
Apostolic and as canonical, that

1233
01:22:08,600 --> 01:22:14,120
they #7 paralleling the, the, 
the sevenfold letter collection 

1234
01:22:14,120 --> 01:22:17,640
of Paul. 
And they are not written to 

1235
01:22:17,640 --> 01:22:21,800
specific churches, but to the 
Church Catholic. 

1236
01:22:22,520 --> 01:22:27,000
They they include Apostolic 
figures like John, Jude, Peter, 

1237
01:22:27,000 --> 01:22:31,800
and James, which is basically 
giving us in letter form the 

1238
01:22:32,000 --> 01:22:36,520
Apostolic collective that we 
have at the Jerusalem Council in

1239
01:22:36,520 --> 01:22:43,840
Acts chapter 15. 
And so later on in, in church 

1240
01:22:43,840 --> 01:22:47,480
history by the 3rd and then 
eventually the 4th century when 

1241
01:22:47,480 --> 01:22:52,040
you had in the 4th century 
specifically full manuscripts of

1242
01:22:52,040 --> 01:22:55,960
the whole New Testament. 
These are not just miscellaneous

1243
01:22:55,960 --> 01:22:59,200
epistles that are kind of shoved
at the end, but they're a 

1244
01:22:59,200 --> 01:23:07,000
collective sevenfold group that 
is placed next to Acts in the 

1245
01:23:07,000 --> 01:23:11,640
manuscript form to show these 7 
epistles are not just kind of 

1246
01:23:11,640 --> 01:23:14,720
catch all. 
They are giving us a 

1247
01:23:14,720 --> 01:23:18,360
complimentary witness to the 
Apostolic testimony we have in 

1248
01:23:18,360 --> 01:23:21,240
Acts. 
It's complimenting Paul's 

1249
01:23:21,760 --> 01:23:24,720
exposition of that same 
Apostolic witness. 

1250
01:23:25,080 --> 01:23:31,640
And so Gospels, Pauline 
collection, Catholic epistles, 

1251
01:23:31,960 --> 01:23:35,760
Acts, you can see these pieces 
coming together as they're 

1252
01:23:35,760 --> 01:23:40,760
handed down, as they're read and
reread in every Sunday in 

1253
01:23:40,760 --> 01:23:44,080
corporate worship. 
And then eventually, let's go to

1254
01:23:44,080 --> 01:23:49,000
the last slide, one more slide 
down, one more slide down. 

1255
01:23:49,320 --> 01:23:53,760
Revelation comes in having been 
written by John who has 

1256
01:23:53,760 --> 01:23:58,080
Apostolic pedigree. 
Revelation comes in and 

1257
01:23:58,080 --> 01:24:03,520
completes the whole narrative 
art from Gospel to the very end 

1258
01:24:03,520 --> 01:24:05,600
of the Apostolic witness in 
Revelation. 

1259
01:24:05,880 --> 01:24:08,520
Not only that, but obviously it 
complements the very beginning 

1260
01:24:08,520 --> 01:24:11,280
of the whole biblical Canon in 
Genesis. 

1261
01:24:11,480 --> 01:24:14,880
So these are theological 
coherences that are not just 

1262
01:24:14,880 --> 01:24:18,400
what we as moderns read. 
But when any ancient Christian 

1263
01:24:18,400 --> 01:24:22,440
would see this, the Christian 
could easily recognize the 

1264
01:24:22,440 --> 01:24:26,760
coherence that Revelation would 
bring as a capstone even as it's

1265
01:24:26,800 --> 01:24:30,120
ending the the whole Bible with 
this testimony. 

1266
01:24:30,360 --> 01:24:34,080
If anyone removes the books 
words from this book, his name, 

1267
01:24:34,080 --> 01:24:36,120
let it be removed from the 
Lamb's book of life. 

1268
01:24:36,640 --> 01:24:40,320
And so that kind of covenant 
curse that resembles the 

1269
01:24:40,320 --> 01:24:43,920
covenant curse of Deuteronomy 4 
verse 2, where Moses says if 

1270
01:24:43,920 --> 01:24:48,160
anyone takes away or adds 2 
words of this Torah of this law,

1271
01:24:48,520 --> 01:24:51,200
may his, may he be a cut off 
from the covenant. 

1272
01:24:51,680 --> 01:24:55,280
So you have this covenantal 
ending to the whole Canon of 

1273
01:24:55,280 --> 01:25:02,360
Scripture with revelation as the
capstone, as it's received, as 

1274
01:25:02,360 --> 01:25:08,040
it's as it's given its authority
through the figure of John who 

1275
01:25:08,040 --> 01:25:12,640
is sent by Jesus and given that 
revelation. 

1276
01:25:13,800 --> 01:25:17,160
Now, to give you the full 
picture, one more slide 2 slides

1277
01:25:17,160 --> 01:25:20,000
down. 
Let's get to this. 

1278
01:25:20,080 --> 01:25:24,360
Yeah, this symbol here. 
Now the case that I made for the

1279
01:25:24,360 --> 01:25:31,280
Gospels I think was really 
strong in early Christianity as 

1280
01:25:31,280 --> 01:25:36,000
well as the 13 epistles and 
Hebrews as well. 

1281
01:25:37,400 --> 01:25:43,400
These were ones that very early 
on these arguments were being 

1282
01:25:43,400 --> 01:25:47,080
made and were very universally 
accepted. 

1283
01:25:47,680 --> 01:25:54,920
When we get to several of the of
the Catholic epistles, 

1284
01:25:54,920 --> 01:26:00,520
especially second Peter, Second 
and third John, Jude, these were

1285
01:26:00,520 --> 01:26:03,720
never considered. 
They were never anathematised 

1286
01:26:03,720 --> 01:26:06,360
and never considered 
inauthentic. 

1287
01:26:06,760 --> 01:26:10,360
They were however considered 
disputed at some time. 

1288
01:26:10,760 --> 01:26:16,400
If we have 3 categories we have 
recognised, disputed and then 

1289
01:26:16,400 --> 01:26:21,000
spurious or inauthentic. 
None of these were ever 

1290
01:26:21,000 --> 01:26:25,000
recognized and and declared to 
be spurious. 

1291
01:26:25,040 --> 01:26:29,000
End of story. 
They were at worst disputed and 

1292
01:26:29,600 --> 01:26:34,160
there were Christians at various
parts of, of the ancient 

1293
01:26:34,160 --> 01:26:37,840
Christian world who basically 
said, hang on a second, we don't

1294
01:26:37,840 --> 01:26:41,320
have this in our library or I 
haven't seen this one yet. 

1295
01:26:41,800 --> 01:26:44,880
Let's look into it before we 
before we can have the 

1296
01:26:44,880 --> 01:26:47,560
confidence that we have with 
these other books. 

1297
01:26:48,040 --> 01:26:54,840
And so through that process, 
because of the vigilance to 

1298
01:26:54,840 --> 01:26:58,800
protect the Apostolic Carrigma 
that undergirds these 

1299
01:26:59,400 --> 01:27:04,080
acknowledged books, there was a 
process for these to eventually 

1300
01:27:04,080 --> 01:27:06,880
pass the test. 
But then once that happens in 

1301
01:27:06,880 --> 01:27:12,480
the 4th century, you have this 
unanimity among Greek and Latin,

1302
01:27:13,280 --> 01:27:17,040
and then also Coptic and 
eventually Ethiopic canons, 

1303
01:27:17,280 --> 01:27:22,880
where this core of the New 
Testaments, or what we would 

1304
01:27:22,880 --> 01:27:26,880
call our full New Testament then
is recognized. 

1305
01:27:27,200 --> 01:27:32,520
The only witness that doesn't 
continue with that unanimity is 

1306
01:27:32,520 --> 01:27:37,600
the Syriac Peshitta, which 
because of the uncertainty of 

1307
01:27:37,600 --> 01:27:43,400
these continued to to make its 
copies without these witnesses. 

1308
01:27:43,720 --> 01:27:47,360
But that's but there are other 
Syriac Syriac voices who would 

1309
01:27:47,360 --> 01:27:52,960
include these in their Canon. 
So these to my mind, are really 

1310
01:27:52,960 --> 01:27:56,800
the exception to prove the rule 
or the exception to show the 

1311
01:27:56,800 --> 01:28:01,600
vigilance by which Christians 
judge whether or not a text was 

1312
01:28:01,600 --> 01:28:04,600
to be received as genuinely 
Apostolic. 

1313
01:28:05,000 --> 01:28:08,720
And it showed that they had the 
mechanism to question the 

1314
01:28:08,720 --> 01:28:11,200
mechanism to test and see if 
it's true. 

1315
01:28:11,600 --> 01:28:15,640
But then also the unanimity once
the once the recognition had 

1316
01:28:15,640 --> 01:28:19,720
been made that after that point 
it was never really disputed 

1317
01:28:19,720 --> 01:28:24,320
again. 
That is a rapid fire history of 

1318
01:28:24,320 --> 01:28:26,240
the New Testament as it came 
together. 

1319
01:28:26,640 --> 01:28:30,560
These other gospels and 
Apocrypha, those kind of 

1320
01:28:31,120 --> 01:28:34,760
balloons or spawned or kind of 
rapidly multiplied. 

1321
01:28:35,800 --> 01:28:40,560
But the thing about it is at 
best they were kind of esoteric 

1322
01:28:41,280 --> 01:28:45,720
unique books that some sectors 
of the Christian world like to 

1323
01:28:45,720 --> 01:28:50,880
read, but they never really came
close to becoming either a 

1324
01:28:50,880 --> 01:28:53,640
separate collection. 
You know, you don't have any 

1325
01:28:53,640 --> 01:29:00,720
ancient collection of, of, of 
apocryphal gospels. 

1326
01:29:00,760 --> 01:29:05,920
You know, there's not like a a 
book that has, you know, the, 

1327
01:29:06,400 --> 01:29:11,080
the the non canonical gospels as
a separate Canon to be read in 

1328
01:29:11,080 --> 01:29:13,320
public. 
It's usually maybe two or three 

1329
01:29:13,320 --> 01:29:16,680
packaged together, but that are 
kind of stuffed away in some 

1330
01:29:17,040 --> 01:29:21,760
monks cloister in in in ancient 
Egypt or maybe something that 

1331
01:29:21,760 --> 01:29:24,400
pops up in someone's quotation 
from another part of the ancient

1332
01:29:24,400 --> 01:29:26,920
world. 
But those were never actually a 

1333
01:29:26,920 --> 01:29:30,960
separate corpus that occupied 
any kind of religious 

1334
01:29:30,960 --> 01:29:34,160
affiliation similar to what 
these corpora had. 

1335
01:29:34,800 --> 01:29:40,360
So we do have diversity. 
We do have a slightly longer 

1336
01:29:40,360 --> 01:29:44,520
process of recognition for this 
set of New Testament texts, but 

1337
01:29:44,520 --> 01:29:48,320
really the paradigm that was 
followed was what happened to 

1338
01:29:48,320 --> 01:29:54,080
the Gospels and the Pauline 
epistles and Hebrews and James, 

1339
01:29:54,240 --> 01:29:59,560
first Peter and John. 
This is really the the Apostolic

1340
01:29:59,560 --> 01:30:04,480
process of recognition of 
canonical Scripture that was 

1341
01:30:05,920 --> 01:30:11,600
relatively uncontested on that 
even even heretics would ascend 

1342
01:30:11,600 --> 01:30:17,040
to because of the widespread 
recognition of these deriving 

1343
01:30:17,040 --> 01:30:20,040
from the apostles. 
Which brings us today to our New

1344
01:30:20,040 --> 01:30:22,520
Testament Canon. 
We can trust it. 

1345
01:30:22,640 --> 01:30:26,000
It's Apostolic. 
It derives from a long tradition

1346
01:30:26,000 --> 01:30:32,120
of passing down I Athanasius, I 
think, gets it down really well 

1347
01:30:32,120 --> 01:30:36,280
when he quotes from Luke. 
If you look to your, to your 

1348
01:30:36,280 --> 01:30:43,120
hand out here #3 Athanasius 
Festal. 

1349
01:30:43,120 --> 01:30:47,560
Letter 39, Section 3. 
I shall adopt to command my 

1350
01:30:47,560 --> 01:30:50,240
undertaking the pattern of Luke 
the Evangelist. 

1351
01:30:50,880 --> 01:30:54,000
For as much as some have taken 
in hand to reduce in order for 

1352
01:30:54,000 --> 01:30:57,720
themselves the books termed 
apocryphal, and to mix them up 

1353
01:30:57,720 --> 01:31:00,800
with the divinely inspired 
Scripture, concerning which we 

1354
01:31:00,800 --> 01:31:04,240
have been fully persuaded, as 
they who from the beginning were

1355
01:31:04,240 --> 01:31:07,400
eyewitnesses and ministers of 
the Word, delivered to the 

1356
01:31:07,400 --> 01:31:09,440
Father's. 
It seemed good to me, having 

1357
01:31:09,440 --> 01:31:13,000
been urged hereto by true 
brethren, and having learned 

1358
01:31:13,000 --> 01:31:16,800
from the beginning to set before
you the books included in the 

1359
01:31:16,800 --> 01:31:20,440
Canon and handed down and 
accredited as divine. 

1360
01:31:20,960 --> 01:31:25,440
So handed down, accredited as 
divine, these books delivered to

1361
01:31:25,480 --> 01:31:28,960
the Fathers. 
That pattern is what gave birth 

1362
01:31:28,960 --> 01:31:33,480
to and finally solidified what 
we have as the New Testament 

1363
01:31:33,480 --> 01:31:35,960
Canon. 
Thanks for your attention in a 

1364
01:31:35,960 --> 01:31:37,600
very long winded lecture.