When you read a quotation in the Gospels, you can be confident that it is the exact words Jesus and his contemporaries said, right? I mean, that’s why we refer the Gospels as having the “Gospel truth,” isn’t it? Well, the situation is more complex than that. In this episode, Jimmy Akin shows what the ancient audiences actually believed about the way the Gospels convey truth, and it isn’t as simple as modern audiences assume.
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Thank you Jimmy
Doing the Jimmy Akin thing: Liking, Commenting, and Subscribing! 🔔🔔
Heyyy! I remember learning about such things as punctuation (or anything like modern punctuation), and chapters and verses not coming into existence until very late. There’s no telling what the early unpunctuated manuscripts would have looked like.😊
I think this is important for interfaith dialogue, too, especially with Muslims, when it comes to expectations of our respective holy books.
Many Muslims believe their Quran is perfectly preserved: word-for-word and "mark for mark" (referring to diacritical marks in Arabic). While it's demonstrable that this is, at best, very unlikely, one riposte they use boils down to pointing out that the Bible has similar differences in early manuscripts, copies, and the like. Of course, it doesn't have much weight on the original discussion of the Quran's authenticity, but it may be worthwhile to note that the Bible isn't believed to have been authored directly by God, or contain 100% precisely what occurred; however, the indirect authorship of the Holy Spirit assures the fundamental message is intact.
It doesn't sound like much, but coming to an understanding to the expectations of each others' holy books can go a long way to improving dialogue, especially if you're only speaking/evangelizing with a friend, coworker, or acquaintance.
This is especially important because it's often a source of pride and affirmation to the believing Muslims that they have the perfectly preserved and authored word of God. That belief often holds a lot of weight, so learning to properly understand and counter it can actually give you leverage in converting someone rather than becoming a stumbling block.
Also! I think some folks who immediately jump to criticizing Allah for the many hateful, violent, perverted, bigoted, and strange verses in the Quran immediately question the Muslims' understanding of God. The ultimate goal is to convert them to Christ, so I think by finding a way for them to reject the Quran rather than rejecting God as a concept is a better first step.
Thanks for always teaching in ways. That you don't have to be a theology scholar to understand ❤
Thank you as always for a helpful presentation
Just one question; is it fair to say that when the Gospels preserve an Aramaic word or phrase, that the Evangelists are presenting that as a faithful echo of Jesus' actual words? Like 'talitha kum' when raising the little girl or 'ephphatha' when healing the deaf and mute?
Demons often speak plural of themselves so there's no contradiction in that narrative.
I remember reading Thucydides. Right in the opening he mentions that the goal was to basically capture the gist of what was said. I'd imagine the same held true in the first century as well.
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Jimmy, can you do an episode on the Trinity, please? ❤
Hi Jimmy,
If “legion” was used in Mark writing to Roman Gentile converts.
Was there another word used when translated back to Greek.
Was it meant as a jab against the Army oppressing Christians?
Thanks
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We know the Bible does not contain exact quotations in the New Testament because 99% of the time they were speaking Hebrew or Aramaic, and not Greek.
Thanks, this is very valuable info.
Important video considering how The Chosen portrays the writing of the gospels which seems misleading.
Thank you, Jimmy. Once again you have illuminated a deeper understanding of scripture authorship. I wish more people knew about it. Keep up the good work.
Jimmy hard to describe what a blessing your cyborg brain is to us human seekers. In all honesty though thank you for being you. The Catholic world needs you!
IIRC, research has shown that people in primarily oral cultures have substantially better memories than we do when it comes to remembering the content of speech long-term. So the words are partly reconstructed, but probably significantly closer to precisely what was said than we might expect based on our own tech-influenced memories.
Amazing as always
Thanks Jimmy for this amazing information in this video ❤👍👍👍👍👍
I love the history of punctuation— ever since a teacher told me that punctuation is manners and politeness in writing.
Jimmy, if you are familiar with Mike Licona’s work, do you view his position as compatible/consistent with Catholic teaching?
Very interesting. Thank you!
John 3:16 is a famous quote that is disputed. IMO the evidence lands on Jesus not having said that, rather, John was inserting commentary. The verse doesn't make sense otherwise.
Jimmy, love the video and your great work. Just a loving constructive thought, I think the word Truth would have better conveyed the "gist" 😉
May the Lord continue to bless you and keep you!!! ( you are my favorite apologist 😉 )
Subscribed always, liked almost always, commenting occasionally. Much love Mr Akin.