Spring Seminar 2022

Session 1: What is the Bible?
In the first session, we take a look at three different ways people have of looking at the Bible. We then examine several things the Bible is not, as well as the traditional Christian view on what the Bible is.

Session 2: The Philosophy of the Bible
In the second session, we examine the nature of philosophy and whether the Bible qualifies as philosophy, and look at the components of a Biblical worldview. We also go over the basic tenets of Christian theism as outlined in the Bible, and look at both the religious and relational aspects of Christianity.

Session 3: Biblical Inspiration
In the third session, we look at what we mean when we say that the Bible is divinely-inspired, how it is different from other forms of “inspiration”, and the different ways people have interpreted that idea of inspiration. We also look at both good and bad reasons to believe that the Bible is inspired.

Session 4: Biblical Hermeneutics
In the fourth session, we look at the basics of Biblical interpretation (hermeneutics). We see the basic principles of interpretation, various difficulties in interpreting the Bible, and the various methods of Biblical interpretation people have used throughout history. We also look at the various perspectives on Biblical translation and give good and bad examples.

Session 5: Biblical Canonicity, The Old Testament
In the fifth session, we look at the history of determining which books belonged in the Hebrew Bible, what Jesus said about the Hebrew Scriptures, the debate over the Apocrypha, and how both the Jewish rabbis and the early church settled on a view of the Old Testament.

Session 6: Biblical Canonicity, The New Testament
In the sixth session, we will look at the criteria used by the early church to identify which books should be counted as Scripture, the various canonical lists that circulated in early church history, and why many so-called “gospels” were excluded.

Session 7: Biblical Manuscripts
In the seventh session, we look at how the Bible was originally written and go through the most important manuscripts for both the Old and New Testaments. We also hear some stories about the discovery of some of these manuscripts. Click on “Resources” for manuscript images.

Session 8 : Biblical Textual Criticism, Part 1
In the eighth session, we look at the preservation of the Biblical texts and the methods used by scholars to determine the original wording of the Bible. We look at the claims of Biblical scholar and skeptic Bart Ehrman, various known additions and changes to the original manuscripts, and how scholars have restored the original rendering.

Session 9: Biblical Textual Criticism, Part 2
In the ninth session, we take a closer look at manuscript variants, seeing how changes were introduced to the Biblical texts, and asking if we should be concerned over the integrity of our current Bible. We also learn a brief history of Biblical textual criticism and the current state of the text of the Bible.

📘Breshears, Jefrey D., Introduction To Bibliology: What Every Christian Should Know About the Origins, Composition, Inspiration, Interpretation, Canonicity, and Transmission of the Bible (2017)