1. “But surely you can’t take the Bible literally...?”

2. Season 2 – ‘The Midterms’

3. How the Bible has been misused...  It says in the Bible...  Slavery  Imperial Conquest  Oppression of women  Oppression of the poor  Apartheid  Sexual repression and abuse  Weird spiritual visions and supernatural encounters  Financial exploitation  Capital punishment  Control and manipulation of individuals and families  Other...

5. Some Unhelpful Approaches to the Bible...  The Bible as a Rule Book  The Bible as an Answer Book  The Bible as a Science and History Book  The Bible as a Code Book  The Bible as only understood by 'The Elite’  The Bible as ‘Final Authority’

6. Answering our Critics  The Bible is Historical Literature  A Book of the World  The Bible is Theological Revelation  A Book from God  The Bible is Sacred Scripture  The Book of the Church

7. The Bible as Historical Literature

8. Some basic Bible facts...  Library of 66 books – 39 OT and 27 NT  Written by 40+ authors over 1500 years from variety of backgrounds and places  Written in 3 languages  Contains wide variety of literary styles (genres!)  Widely influential across continents and cultures  Survival against critics  The reliability of the OT and the NT as historical documents

9. AuthorBookDate Written Earliest Copies Time GapCopies Homer Iliad800 BCc. 400 BC400 years643 Thucydides History460-400 BCc. AD 9001300 years8 Plato 400 BCc. AD 9001300 years7 Caesar Gallic Wars100-44 BCc. AD 9001000 years10 Livy History of Rome 59 BC – AD 17 4 th C (partial) 10 th C ( most) 400 years 1000 years 1 partial 19 copies Tacitus AnnalsAD 100c. AD 11001000 years20 New Testament AD 50-100 c. 144 fragment c. 200 (books) c. 250 (most NT) c. 325 (NT) +50 years 100 years 150 years 225 years 5366

11. Old Testament Reliability  Manuscript Reliability  Translation accuracy  The Dead Sea Scrolls – Qumran Community: 2 nd and 1 st Century BC  Non-Hebrew manuscripts  Archaeological and Historical Confirmation  New Testament Confirmation

12. Were you to ask me to recommend the most valuable book in the world, I should fix on the Bible as the most instructive, both to the wise and ignorant. Were you to ask me for one affording the most rational and pleasing entertainment to the inquiring mind, I should repeat, it is the Bible; and the most interesting history, I should still urge you to look into your Bible. I would make it, in short, the Alpha and Omega of knowledge. — Elias Boudinot, early American lawyer and statesman (1740–1821)

13. The Bible as Theological Revelation

14. Compare and Contrast  We present you with this Book, the most valuable thing that the world affords. Here is wisdom; this is the Royal Law; these are the lively Oracles of God.  The Bible is a collection of Books written over a long period of time which have come to be recognised by the Christian community as Scripture.

15. Some Tricky Words  Inspiration – how the Bible was brought about by the activity of God  Inerrancy – without error in everything  Infallibility – utterly trustworthy in what it (or the author) seeks to achieve  Authority – God’s authority exercised through the Bible

16. The Bible as Sacred Scripture

17. “God did not give the world a book or a collection of writings. God rather called a community of people to which he is unconditionally devoted and in which he continually acts through his divine Word and Spirit.” T. Hopko

18. “The church could not wait until the critics were agreed among themselves: she had to live. She lived her own life, which had been handed down to her as such, before the texts and together with them, in the texts but not limited to them. She was the church from the time of the Apostles, and not the product of their writings; she used these writings, not following them word for word, as a pupil copies an exercise imposed from outside, but treating them as a mirror and yardstick to recognise and restore her image, in each new generation.” Yves Congar

19. The Bible as Theological Revelation  Doctrine  Discipleship  Devotion

20. “What is important is that the Word of God comes to bear upon human situations as, week in and week out, the Bible informs the preaching and prayer, the study and song, the pastoral care and compassionate outreach of the worshipping, believing community of faith.” JB Rogers

21. “But surely you can’t take the Bible literally...?”