By Mary Hill
During the A to Z Blogging Challenge, I am going to use Mary-andering Among the Pages to review books written about Christ through the years. The word “Apologetics” deals with the branch of Christianity that examines evidence for the defense and establishment of the Christian faith.
During the month, I am going to present excerpts from books that I am using for research of my A to Z Blogging Challenge on Mary-andering Creatively: Christ, A to Z. The first book that I am reading is: The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel.
My first quote for the day for you to ponder comes from Strobel’s book:
Dr. William Albright, who used to the direct the American School of Oriental research in Jerusalem and later taught at John Hopkins University says he’s convinced that the different books of the New Testament were written within 50 years (not 100) after Jesus died — and more likely closer to 45 years. Another scholar, Craig Blomberg, thinks the time gap was almost 30 years between Jesus’ death and when Mark wrote the gospel. This means the New Testament was available in written form while plenty of eyewitnesses were alive to say either, “Yes, that’s the way it happened,” or, “I was there, and that’s not what I saw!.”
I was also impressed by this fact that Strobel included in his book:
“There are over 5,000 copies of New Testament manuscripts copied in Greek. And 8,000 to 10,000 in Latin. Eight thousand more in languages such as Ethiopic, Slavic, and Armenian. Throw in a a few other miscellaneous manuscripts, and there are 24,000 New Testament manuscripts in all. The amazing thing is that they say the same thing!”
Jesus walked the earth more than 2,000 years ago. He brought a message that revolutionized the world of His day. He was a simple man with a powerful message of love and salvation. He claimed to be the very son of God.
Christianity is a matter of belief and faith.
I hope you will join me on my personal quest this month of faith, love and inspiration.
This post is for both the A and B entries in the challenge:
Also joining:
New follower here. I’m stopping by from the “A to Z” challenge, and I look forward to visiting again.
Sylvia
http://www.writinginwonderland.blogspot.com/
I read The Case for Christ a while ago and found it really worth the time.
http://carolsnotebook.com
Good luck with the A to Z challenge. I enjoyed your review of the Andersonville Prison book.
Information coming to light about the writings (50 years from the Crucifixion) are interesting and faith-promoting to those who already have faith in Christ. You can’t convince non-believers with things like this, as you point out, but as one who does believe, I find it exciting and it add to my testimony that Jesus is the Christ. Thanks for sharing your research.
Yes! The little bit of Fulton Sheen’s Life of Christ that I’ve read points out that Christ must either 1) Be who he says he is, or 2) Be the greatest shyster of all time. That’s my paraphrasing of it anyway. Thanks for linking up!