Inter-Varsity Press

Contents

Foreword by Dr Ravi Zacharias
Introduction
1 Isn’t it all a matter of interpretation?
2 Can we know anything about history?
3 Are the biblical manuscripts reliable?
4 Is the content of the manuscripts reliable?
5 What about the canon?
6 What about the other holy books?
7 Isn’t the Bible sexist?
8 What about all the wars?
9 Isn’t the Bible out of date on sex?
10 How can I know?

Introduction

In some countries of the world the book we are discussing here is contraband. Smuggling operations exist with the sole aim of getting Bibles secretly across closed borders and into the hands of those who want to read them. I will never forget getting off a train in the middle of China at four o’clock one morning and making my way to a rendezvous with three Chinese church leaders. A team of us were delivering bags filled with Bibles which were to be distributed amongst the churches further north. When our Chinese friends unzipped the bags and looked inside the tears began to flow down their cheeks. These books were so precious to them that they were prepared to risk imprisonment and persecution in order to get hold of them. I found it intriguing that the Bible should inspire such sacrifice and courage in the hearts of those who want to read it.

But why is the world’s best-selling book rubbished by so many? Have you ever had the experience of someone turning to you and saying, ‘You don’t honestly believe all that stuff, do you?’ I remember desperately searching for something credible to say when a friend came straight out and asked me, ‘Noah’s ark – do you believe in that?’ I managed a feeble ‘Yes’ which was met with scorn and laughter by the group I was eating with. I’m sure many of us can identify both with being asked questions about the Bible and with asking them ourselves. After that early experience of finding myself speechless, I became determined to look for answers that would satisfy. Would the Bible really stand up to tough questioning?

That is what this book is all about. Many good Christian books have been written with the aim of giving clear answers to the questions which sceptics often ask about the Christian faith. Questions like ‘Why is there suffering in the world if there is a God of love?’ or ‘Hasn’t science proved that there is no God?’ or ‘What about all the other religions?’ In these books there is usually a question along the lines of ‘Can we really trust the Bible?’ While the answers given are extremely valuable, I have found that all sorts of questions are raised about the Bible – each of which deserves a good answer in and of itself. That is what I am trying to do in this book. I have taken the ten questions about the Bible which have been asked most frequently in my experience and have attempted to look for some answers. Most of the answers offered here have been used in a simplified form in real-life conversations, although each chapter will also be looking for the bigger ideas behind the questions and placing the answers in a broader context.

My search for answers led me to study theology at University. But in my wildest dreams as a student at Oxford I never thought that one day I might have to defend my Christian faith before the dons of the University. That is, not until February of my final year. I was reading Theology at Christ Church, preparing for finals, when one night I dreamed that I would be viva-ed for my degree! A ‘viva voce’ is an oral examination which involves appearing before a panel of examiners and defending what you have written in your finals exams. This particular form of torture is usually reserved for examining doctorates. But sure enough, a couple of weeks after my degree was finished, towards the end of June, I received a phone call letting me know that I was required to appear before the theology faculty so that I could ‘answer a few questions’. The date of the viva voce happened to be the day before my wedding! During my interview with these professors I was asked a number of questions about my Christian convictions. But one of them stands out, and I remember it as clearly as if it happened yesterday: ‘You don’t honestly mean to tell us that you think Jesus actually said the words recorded in the Gospels, or, for that matter, that the events recorded in the Bible really took place?’

My first impulse was to reply by asking, ‘On what basis do you assume out of hand that Jesus did not say those words?’ The astounding prejudice demonstrated here by highly intelligent people draws our attention to the scepticism with which the Bible is treated by many people in all walks of life. A conviction that the Bible must be wrong, held by those at the highest level of academic excellence, seems, in turn, to have been embraced at a popular level by many people who have barely glanced at the Bible, but who feel sure that it is not to be trusted.

My viva became the first of many occasions when I have been involved in defending the intellectual credibility of the Bible and, indeed, of the Christian faith, in different settings. As I go around with the Zacharias Trust and answer questions about the Christian message, I find that again and again many questions are asked specifically about the Bible. In our culture, which many call ‘postmodern’, the experts tell us that people are not interested in truth any more and are certainly not interested in authoritative texts like the Bible. And yet, time and time again, questions about the Bible come up in the course of my work with the Trust.

Initially I was surprised by many of the questions that were articulated. They were less about facts and evidence and more about ethics and interpretation. The questions of today seem to contain nuances of pluralism and postmodernism. All the questions dealt with in this book have been posed to me by non-Christians on many occasions.

After six years of working in the field of Christian apologetics, I have become convinced that if we are able to sensibly answer the concerns of the truth-seekers we come across, many will be brought to faith in Jesus Christ. For this reason, in this book I want to address the ten questions I am most commonly asked about the Bible.

Today there is a widespread belief around that the Bible is some kind of powerful patriarchal conspiracy which has been used to oppress women. As a female speaker, I find that this question frequently comes: ‘How can you, as a woman, promote such a sexist book? The church has tried to keep women down!’ Even as I have been writing this chapter, I have had two such conversations with women outside of the faith for whom this question looms large. It is important, as with other questions, to realize that there could be all kinds of circumstances and experiences behind a question like this. The Christian should be sensitive to the issues which underlie such an emotive question. While it may indeed seem to be the case that women have been discriminated against by religion, the Bible itself deserves closer examination on the subject. What does the text itself have to say about this matter? How is it that many of the greatest Jewish and Christian pioneers have been women – Florence Nightingale, Elizabeth Fry, the Suffragettes, Catherine Booth, Rosa Luxemburg and Ernestine Rose – to name but a few. What does the Bible really say about this subject?

Throughout the Bible there are numerous positive images of women and stories which involve women. In the Old Testament women share the image of God at creation. At the end of time at the Second Coming of Jesus, the church is represented as the bride of Christ. Right the way through, from beginning to end, the Bible includes the feminine as an integral part of the Judaeo-Christian tradition. While it is true that the Bible was written over a long period of time in specific cultures, and some of these contexts did not give equal social advantages to women, it would not be true to say that the message of the Bible is sexist or discriminatory against women.

Women in the New Testament

In the New Testament there are quite a number of significant events involving women – particularly considering the conservative cultural attitudes of the context in which it was written. This context is opened up to our view by a simple statement in John’s Gospel in the famous encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well (chapter 4 ). There is a telling little sentence in verse 27 which sheds a great deal of light on just how radical the Bible is in affirming women. The disciples come across Jesus during his conversation with the woman and we are told they ‘were surprised to find him talking with a woman’. This is the context of Jesus’ ministry, and yet he goes against these cultural trends time and time again.

He does this firstly by having female disciples. In a culture where the idea of women travelling around with a group of men or having the status of disciple was seriously questionable, a number of women are included in Jesus’ travelling circle:

The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.
(Luke 8:1–3)

By mentioning these women by name, the tradition offers praise and gratitude to them for their financial contributions to the ministry of Jesus. A sharp contrast may be seen here with authors such as Ben Sirach of Jerusalem (c. 195 bc ), who reflect a more prevalent attitude of the time with statements such as: ‘Bad temper, insolence and shame hold sway where the wife supports the husband’ (Sir. 25:22). In Matthew 12:46–50, when Jesus is told that his mother and brothers are waiting outside to see him, he points to his disciples and says, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers.’ This statement is unthinkable unless there were women among his disciples. In the Middle Eastern culture of the first century it would be unspeakably offensive to point to male disciples and use female imagery to describe them.

We also see Jesus teaching women in the New Testament. In Luke 10:38 we read of Mary, who sits at the feet of Jesus and engages in theological study, much to her sister’s chagrin. ...