Introduction to the Greek New Testament

Dirk Jongkind of Tyndale House at Cambridge wrote this small, 124 page book, chronicling how the editors at Tyndale House produced a new version of the Greek New Testament. You do not need to know how to read Greek to read this book. The book is just an explanation of how the new edition was put together. The author introduces the reader to manuscripts, textual criticism theory, and textual variation all in a very readable work.

The author provides background information on how and why decisions were made to use certain words over others.  In addition, the editors rejected the use of the Textus Receptus and the Byzantine Text, also known as the Majority Text, as their source text because those texts were from later time periods. I was quite surprised by this as I thought that most Bible translations used one or the other as their source text. Tyndale House used a Greek New Testament text from Samuel Prideaux Tregelles. Tregelles lived in the 1800s and produced his own Greek New Testament that was based on ancient manuscripts. The author also discussed the differences between a translation, an edition and an original. A section on how to spot an error in a manuscript was interesting as well as another section discussing decisions on what to print.

I do not read Greek. What will I remember most from this book? Probably that the early church scribes used what is now called nomina sacra to abbreviate the words for God, Jesus, Christ and Lord. The scribes would only write the first and last letters of those words and write a line over the top of them to connect the letters. Some of the early manuscripts that were analyzed to produce this new edition of the Greek New Testament had nomina sacra writings on them. These contracted words are still seen in Greek icons today.

This was a great book introducing a new edition of a Bible. I wish all translation committees would publish a book like this one so readers would know how decisions were made on what to include and what to exclude.

5 out of 5 stars.

Can We Trust the Gospels

Can We Trust the Gospels is a short, 140 page, book outlining the reasons why Matthew, Mark, Luke and John can be trusted to be historically accurate. The author's intended audience are non-Christians. However, the arguments presented in the book are also encouraging for Christian believers.

The author uses the writings of non-Christians such as Tacitus,  with his Annals, and Josephus, with his Antiquities, to corroborate the gospels. He also tests the gospel writers' knowledge of geography, culture, names, and Jewish law. For example, all four gospel writers mentioned obscure, small towns and villages in Israel as well bodies of water.  They had to have been familiar with these places in order to write about them. If the gospels were written hundreds of years later or were forgeries, the writers would not have known the names of some of these places. They were not on any maps. Similar arguments are presented for Jewish culture, law and personal names.

Other details that demonstrate the authenticity of the gospels include what the author calls undesigned coincidences. In an undesigned coincidence, the gospels will give incidental details that someone without eyewitness information could not possibly have known about. For example, Luke and John give two different stories about the sisters Mary and Martha. However, the personalities of the two women are the same in both gospels. One is an activist while the other is contemplative. Thus, both Luke and John are describing real characters. There are a few more examples in the book.  In addition, questions concerning whether we have Jesus' actual words, whether the text of the gospels changed over the years, and contradictions are also discussed.

It is pretty amazing how much data is contained in this small book. The information presented is highly detailed, includes charts and tables, but it still easy to understand and is a quick read. The  topic was well-researched. I am interested in reading a few of the books the author referenced in writing his book. While this book is a good one for skeptics or for those new to the faith, it would be nice to delve more deeply into the subject. So, to answer the question that the title poses...can we trust the gospels? My answer is yes.

2020 Christian Reading Challenge

I was not going to sign up for the challenge this year since I didn't read much in 2019. I am a sucker for challenges though. Of course, I am signing up at the lowest level, Light Reader, which requires that 13 books be read throughout the year from the above categories. If you fulfill that level then you automatically move up to the next level and continue reading. I will do my best but it is hard for me to find religion books that I will like. The popular Christian books do not interest me and the serious theology books tend to be too academic for me. Another issue is that I do not know how to write a review on this type of book. Writing the review is more challenging than reading the book. We shall see what 2020 brings.