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.
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...
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...
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