Confessions of a Seminarian

Babel-On

So this is the long awaited last video on the Jewish prehistory passages in Genesis. The tower of Babel is a story that has received much critique and debate, so hopefully this will help along the discussion. Obviously, all the issues surrounding the text will not be fully addressed in my 5 minute video, so feel free to ask further questions.

Oral Preaching, Written Preaching

The Bible has undoubtedly been one of the most important documents in world history.  Many Christian believe it is totally true.  However, you have to inquire as to the nature of this book.  God did not descend from heaven and hand mankind the Bible, (although some Christians might try to sell something like that).  The Bible is not one document; it is a collection of documents.  The Bible has many authors, Old Testament and New Testament alike.  They were written at different times (over a period of about 1500 years) and for varying reasons.

Over time, various documents were collected together, and recognized as authoritative.  They were canonized.  There is a lot of debate over this issue (that’s an understatement), and I think it’s an important one.  I used to think canonization had to be nice and neat.  In reality, it wasn’t until the 4^th century that the Bible (in its current form) was all bound up together.  I have often wondered why early Christians didn’t deal with the issue sooner, and I think they approached the issue differently.

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