Can We Trust the New Testament? by J. A. T. Robinson

[John Reece]

Can We Trust the New Testament?

Continued from the last post above↑

INTRODUCTION

In a book like this I could have followed one of two methods. I could have surveyed the conflicting opinions, said what everyone else believes and kept my own judgement out of it (though it would no really have been out of it). Or I could, as I have done, present one man's view, while trying at the same time to be fair to those from whom I would differ and warning the reader where there would be general agreement and where there would not. Since therefore my own presuppositions will not be suppressed, I had better state where I stand.

To be continued...

[John Reece]

Can We Trust the New Testament?

Continued from the last post above↑

INTRODUCTION

But it is too early to worry about results. This book is an invitation to trust, to go hand in hand with the scholar of the New Testament, to see what he is up to and watch him as he goes about his work. And the first thing to recognize is that no scholar comes to his work without his presuppositions. He does not start with a blank mind but with one formed by all the influences, beliefs, and convictions that have made him what he is. In this he is just like the rest of us. Hence it is not surprising that in this and in every other field of knowledge experts differ, and differ widely. This is bewildering to the layman, whose reaction is not to know whom to trust and therefore to trust no one. In fact such is the confusion of voices in this field that many have lost the confidence that there is any agreed truth to arrive at. So they either give up believing anything or become reinforced in their judgment that they know what they believe and the less they let 'the critics' near the better. Both of these reactions I hope to show are fundamentally faithless and unjustified.

To be continued...

[John Reece]

Can We Trust the New Testament?

Continued from the last post above↑

INTRODUCTION

Now you cannot test that claim without being prepared to go to history, and therefore to the methods of historical inquiry and verification. And these methods are neutral to the faith: they cannot be guaranteed to reinforce it. There is always the risk that the results of the investigation may turn out negative. And at best none of the answers in any historical inquiry will be more than extremely probable: even the existence of Napoleon or Julius Caesar is not a matter of absolute certainty. Many religious people have therefore feared and distrusted these methods. They have thought to settle questions of history―whether, for instance, Jesus said or did this or that―not by the historical evidence, but by assertions of faith. In this they have shown themselves to be obscurantists―and left the tools of historical investigation to the faithless. The Church owes a great debt to its scholars over the past two hundred years who have refused to do this. They have been prepared to accept the risks. In the process 'the critics', as they have come to be called, have often appeared to the faithful to be doubtful allies―if not downright traitors. Indeed there is a fatal ambiguity in the phrase 'biblical criticism', since it appears to mean being critical of the Bible, and therefore destructive. In fact it means using one's critical faculties on the Bible like any other book―and its results can be entirely positive, confirming rather than undermining.

To be continued...

[John Reece]

Can We Trust the New Testament?

Continued from the OP.

INTRODUCTION

A portrait, not a photograph. And a portrait not of a dead man, but the one who was for its writers now and forever the human face of God. Yet if that portrait turned out to bear no relation to the sitter behind it, to the historical individual they claimed to have seen and heard and handled, then they would on their own confession be found liars. You cannot 'trust the New Testament' without trusting the claim at its very heart that it is not just an imaginary picture but a faithful portrait―full of faith, to be sure, but also true to fact.

To be continued...

[John Reece]

Subscribing

I always appreciate your excellent work!

That is a very encouraging comment; thanks!

[Cow Poke]

Subscribing

I always appreciate your excellent work!

[John Reece]

In 1977 John A. T. Robinson wrote a tiny little paperback book titled Can We Trust the New Testament?, the original price of which was $2.46; the used copy I have has a price tag for $3.00 pasted on the front cover. I obtained this copy from Amazon.com for $0.01 plus $3.99 shipping. As best I can ascertain, the book has not been published, printed, or reprinted since 1977, when it went to market in the U.S.A. as a printing by Eerdmans that was copyrighted by A. W. Mowbray, and published by A. R. Mowbray & Co Ltd., The Alden Press, Osney Mead, Oxford OX2 OEG ― without any sanction whatsoever against any use of it, or against any reproduction of the contents. I checked Eerdmans' website and found that they do not list the ISBN number (ISBN o-8028-1682-7) as one of their publications. In fact, the exact title has been used by a number of other authors and publishers in recent years.; if one does a Google search (as distinct from an Amazon search), this little book by Robinson does not come up, whereas others with the same title do. So, I propose to present excerpts from Robinson's little 1977 out-of-print-book. That the book is based on the Greek text of the NT will become apparent in due course ― lest anyone question why I am presenting this in the Biblical Languages 301 forum.

INTRODUCTION

Can we trust the New Testament? It's an odd question when you come to think of it. Its not a question that a Hindu would ask of the Bhagavad-Gita or a Muslim of the Koran or even a Jew of the Old Testament. Or if they did they would mean, Can you trust it as a guide to life, as the way to walk in? And this is a perfectly valid Christian question too. In fact a number of times in the so-called Pastoral Epistles (the brief letters written by Paul or in his name to Timothy and Titus) we have a phrase which means exactly this. 'Here are words you may trust' (New English Bible); in the Authorized or King James Version (AV): 'This is a faithful saying'). For the Christian message is offered as a faith and a way of life which you can trust. Indeed the primary purpose of the Gospels is succinctly put by St John when he says that he has written 'that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name' (John 20.31). But of this 'word of life' the same man says, 'We have heard it: we have seen it with our own eyes; we looked upon it, and felt it with our hands' (1 John 1.1). And there lies the difference. For 'the way, the truth, and the life' for the writers of the New Testament is not a timeless prescription for good living, but a person born at a moment of history. And trusting the New Testament is trusting it for a portrait of that person.

To be continued...