Answers Bible Curriculum Year 2 Quarter 2 Lesson 6
In this lesson, David Capoccia examines how the time periods discussed in the different OT books fit together — which books overlap in time and how they do so. David Capoccia also explains the benefits of having multiple historical accounts on the same person or event, which include: confirmation of historical details, expansion of our understanding of a particular person or event, and correction of copying or interpretation errors. On the topic of errors in the Bible, David Capoccia takes time to address the fact of rare errors in biblical manuscripts and how Christians ought to respond.
Auto Transcript
Note: This rough transcript was automatically generated by YouTube’s AI algorithm. We provide it here for your convenience, but know it will surely contain errors as it has not been proofread or edited by a human.
all right well it’s 9 30 so let’s get started welcome to Sunday school we’re breaking from The Narrative from our narrative following Solomon today to talk about one particular issue that is the parallel accounts that we have in our Old Testament histories we’re going to be looking at today how these accounts overlap and what benefit that brings to us as we study the Bible but before we do that let’s review a little bit of what we talked about last week with Solomon when Solomon where God made Solomon King now how did God’s promise about the sword not departing from David’s house once again see fulfillment at the end of David’s reign there was conflict again but in what form remember we had someone who or Solomon was supposed to be king but what happens that was not along that line that’s right remember adonija try to usurp the throne for himself before David died adonaija made a push for the throne now why did adonaija have a good claim a better claim than Solomon’s in some ways he was the he was older than Solomon and was probably the oldest surviving son after Absalom and amnon had died and apparently chiliab as well but Ghana chosen Solomon and David finally made that choice clear to Israel as well and Solomon became king what was David’s foremost counsel to Solomon as a young king I would say that’s part of his counsel to exec um to deal with some of the threats that still remain to Solomon’s Throne he actually didn’t say to executed he point out joab and shimier but there was an even more important counsel before that yeah Rob OTS Commandments that so that he would have good success that’s right he says follow after the Lord keep his Commandments and he tells Solomon directly if you do this God will bless your reign God will bless your rule and he will fulfill the promises in you which he promised to my seed generally so there was it was very practical to follow after the Lord now soon after becoming established uh soon after Solomon was established the Lord appeared to Solomon and offered to give a gift to Solomon now for what did Solomon ask wisdom or an understanding heart and God granted this request since this request honored God God also granted things that Solomon did not ask riches honor and if Solomon continued to fall after the Lord long life and a long reign these come to pass for Solomon and God shows himself to be a rewarder of righteousness he shows his loving kindness not just to people in general but also in specific application of the Covenant to David and God also shows himself to be glorious as a giver now with all of that the question came up at the end of Sunday school last week why did Solomon if he had this wisdom and if he was following after the Lord if he supposedly loved the Lord why did he later turn away from God and away from the blessing that he had experienced I’m going to talk about that more in lesson nine but let’s just say let’s just remember right now that it’s not because that God somehow inadequately provided for Solomon that the wisdom wasn’t good enough or something like that Solomon despite the blessing and wisdom he received from God chose to ignore God’s wisdom and Trust in himself Solomon therefore LED himself and Israel away from blessing into judgment now we’ll talk more about that later on but let’s just make sure we understand that right now he had all that he needed to follow after the Lord and to be a wise King but he chose to ignore at some point in his Reign he chose to turn away from the wisdom of God and Trust in his own wisdom now last week we actually sampled the what the Bible says about true wisdom that is the wisdom of God what were some of the things we noticed as we sample different different scriptures about the nature of true wisdom what’s one thing we noticed yeah yes true wisdom comes from God what else yeah Roy okay what else did we learn about true wisdom last week what does it produce it produces obedience it produces good works it produces good words we also saw that the act of seeking wisdom itself is the most basic part of wisdom realizing you need it another basic part of wisdom is realizing that the wisdom is in God it comes from God and that God has the wisdom fearing God is wise we saw also all wisdom comes from God all wisdom is summed up in Christ God’s wisdom is opposed to the world’s wisdom only God’s spirit can cause one to comprehend his wisdom and God’s wisdom is found in God’s word now this last point is Keith let me emphasize it again if we want to act with true wisdom in this life we must rely on God’s word God’s word is where we find his wisdom that’s the place we pray for wisdom that’s true and we need the Holy Spirit to enable us to understand God’s wisdom but God’s wisdom does not automatically beam into our minds the means of our acquiring God’s wisdom is reading hearing studying talking about and gaining counsel from People based on God’s word have not many dangerous teachings and damning heresies spawned from ignoring this simple truth the Catholic church for instance and various Christian Cults exchange the wisdom of the Bible for the wisdom of man-made teachings and scriptures they come up with their own wisdom and they say it’s comparable to your superior to the Bible many charismatics exchange the scriptures for new words of Prophecy vague Impressions and supposed direct communication with God but what they received from God really comes from their own imaginations or even the evil one Prosperity centered Seeker friendly and contextualizing churches also exchange the wisdom of God’s word but for worldly wisdom and issues like marriage gender success the origins of the earth church practice and evangelism we’re under pressure to not seek the true wisdom of God to replace the wisdom of God but there’s actually no reason for us to be confused on this issue because the Bible makes it clear where do you find God’s wisdom the Bible itself true wisdom comes from God through the scriptures since the scripture is all about Christ right and if in Christ or found all the riches of knowledge and wisdom and the Bible is about Christ then we have everything that we need that’s why Paul can Testify the scriptures are what make a man completely equipped and adequate for every good work so if you want wisdom pray for it realize God’s spirit is the one that enables you to have wisdom but the means of those two things acting together the Fulfillment of those things is through the scriptures so questions about that or on what we talked about regarding Solomon last week okay well to today’s lesson rather than studying any passage in detail we’re going to be looking at how the Old Testament histories fit with one another and the other Old Testament books it should have gotten a handout today if you haven’t picked it up yet please check with Roy in the back he has I think some more copies here’s our outline for what we’ll be doing today we’re just going to do an activity with this handout we’ll be sorting the Old Testament books into a timeline and see which ones overlap we’ll then look at an instance in which the book of Kings and the Book of Chronicles Back each other up in their parallel accounts and then we’re going to look at an instance excuse me and which Kings and Chronicles appear to contradict one another and we’ll see what do we do in that situation let’s pray father I pray that you would help me to declare your word clearly and effectively that as we talk about how the different parts of it fit together that people be edified they’ll be better equipped to understand your word to study it themselves and God I pray that our confidence in your word would be buttress today from what we study in Jesus name amen let’s start with our activity if you have your workbooks please open up to page 50.
take a look at what’s there and I’ve replicated some of what’s there on the screen we’re going to do an activity called sort it out recall the books of the Bible as we have them in our Bible the way that they are arranged are arranged thematically not strictly chronologically for the Old Testament as you can see here we first have the historical books Genesis to Esther from the time of creation to the time of Israel’s return from exile then we have the wisdom books job The Song of Solomon now remember that Joe probably takes place from around the time of Abraham or shortly before while the other wisdom books mostly take place during David and Solomon’s Reigns so we kind of jump back in time and then move forward again then we have the Major Prophets Isaiah to Daniel who are taking place from The Divided Kingdom Period to the time of Israel going in Exile and we also have the Minor Prophets who’s there the Malachi starting from the divided Kingdom Period also and then going to Israel’s Exile and even their return from exile so while there’s a general progression of time within each thematic section of the Old Testament there is also overlap between the sections or within a section and even outside a section so how do we make sense of it what’s the chronological progression through the Bible who was writing when which writers are actually contemporaries of one another or writing about the same periods that’s what our activity is going to be all about this chart actually fills in most of that information for you nice but the historical books at the top they’re not filled in they have not been labeled at least not most enough we have the time spans but not the book titles that correspond with those time spans so what we’re going to do now is we’re going to use the Bible’s details to complete this timeline we’re going to look at the beginnings and endings of the historical books to see how they fit together quick reminder this timeline is based off of details on the Bible but the timeline itself is not inspired or an errant this is a timeline provided by Answers in Genesis as you’ve already seen in the in our classes other trusted Bible teachers use slightly different timelines some might be a little bit 40 or 50 years different than what we see here so don’t get confused by that but we’re going to be using answers and Genesis timeline for this activity so let’s start with the with the historical books with that top line all the way to the left which historical book covers the centuries between the conquest and the establishment of the monarchy in Israel Joshua definitely described the conquest what book comes after Joshua before the monarchy judges right judges 2125 the very end of that book says you may remember in those days there was no king in Israel everyone did what was right in his own eyes judges is going to be our first label on this sheet so that bracket that has an arrow going off to the left that’s the Book of Judges this line ends around 1117 BC that’s ancestogenesis estimate for Samson’s death and the end of Samson’s judgeship even though the Book of Judges ends with a story that doesn’t have to do with a particular judge the way the Book of Judges is organized is that it moves chronologically and then it gives you two episodes that don’t have a particular mentioned time it just took place at one point in the Book of Judges so the end of Samson’s judgeship would be the end of or near the end of the Book of Judges Ruth another one in historical books it takes place during the time of the judges it’s already labeled on your sheets so we’ve got two down next book of the Bible that we want to label is Samuel let’s see where Samuel Falls here turn your Bibles to first Samuel chapter 1 verse 12.
we’re gonna be moving around the historical book so get ready to flip to a number of different sections first Samuel chapter 1 verse verse 12.
which judge is mentioned in Evers which judge do we see in verse 12.
what’s his name Eli Eli remember Eli’s a judge he’s a priest and a judge and who’s he actually reproving in this verse Hannah Hannah’s the mother of Samuel who was going to be the replacement judge actually the last judge in Israel so the beginning of Samuel starts or the beginning of Samuel contains Eli’s judgeship and Samuel’s birth now let’s look at the very end of first Samuel first Samuel chapter 31.
who dies at the end of first Samuel yeah Judy that’s all that’s right Saul and his sons are slain at the end of first Samuel so first angle begins with Eli and the birth of Samuel but it first Samuel ends with the death of Saul understandably second Samuel since these books were these two books were originally won second Samuel begins with um David ascending the throne in Hebron in Judah but look at the last chapter of second Samuel that’s second Samuel 24.
and second Samuel 24 who is reigning David David is still reigning he’s actually just taken a wickedly motivated census in this chapter if we go back one chapter chapter 23 verse 1 we learn where we are in David’s Reign at the end of second Samuel where are we the end right because it says these are the last words of David whatever the writer of Samuel has to say about David this is the last part of it these are the last words because David’s near the end of his life the end of his reign so we’re seeing that the book of Samuel or the book of second Samuel begins with David ascending the throne in Hebron but it ends with him still being King that was towards the end of his reign so where does this fit on our timeline well according to answer is Genesis Saul dies around 1055 BC so we can fill in the second line from the top as the two books of Samuel now each bracket is a book so that means the first book first Samuel would be covering the period from about 11 50 to 10 55. so starting in the judges period and moving into the monarchy while the second book of Samuel runs from 1055 to 1017.
you might find it useful not only to label the names of the books but also the events that Mark the beginning and ending of each book so 1150 would be uh judgeship of Eli and the birth of Samuel 10 55 the death of Saul and 10 17.
the end of David’s Reign though he’s not yet dead so this is uh this is what we’re this is what we’re going to do this is how we’re going to figure out where each of these books Falls pretty straightforward so far but we’re about to get some serious overlap as you can even see on the timelines let’s look at the next book that appears in our Bibles after Samuel and that’s Kings so turn to First Kings one First Kings one what’s happening in First Kings one how does First Kings begin when David was old that’s right David is still King but he’s old and he’s about to die that’s where First Kings begins now let’s look at the end of first Kings chapter 22.
look at verses 41 and 51 in particular who is reigning at the end of first Kings we have ahaziah ruling in Israel and Jehoshaphat ruling in Judah okay so at the beginning of First Kings we have David still ruling but about to die and at the end of first Kings we have a divided Kingdom two different Kings Jehoshaphat and Judah and ahaziah and Israel so this is going to help us label the another part of our timeline going to answer to Genesis the kingdom the Israelite Kingdom divides around 975 BC and if each bracket represents a separate book in our Bibles which line then must represent the books of first and second Kings we need something that has a division after the divided Kingdom so which line so First Kings ends after the King has been divided in 975 so we need a mark within a book after 975. so which line the fourth line you see that their their vision is marked in 897 BC so that would be marking the the time that we see at the end of first Kings fan ahazaya Reign after divided Kingdom so that means the first part of that line would be First Kings starting in 10 15 with the death of David and then ending in 562. just so we can see ourselves how how the book of Kings ends look at second Kings chapter 25.
that’s the last chapter in Second Kings we have this date 562 but what’s that all about how does Second Kings End what what event ends it well if you look at the last chapter we see what’s happening at the end of Second Kings Edwin right so by the end of Second Kings Judah goes in Exile Jerusalem has been Jerusalem has been destroyed the temple has been destroyed and one of the Kings has been carried into Exile but that King also has been allowed to be freed from prison jehoiah chin was a brought back into the Court of evil meredoc not Nebuchadnezzar so this is a little bit after the the destruction of Jerusalem but we are at the end of the kingdom of Judah so if you were to put something on your sheet this would be the destruction of the temple and some of the events that take place soon afterwards jehojin being released from prison so that’s where II kings let’s not compare compare the book of Kings to the book of Chronicles we know that they we probably have a vague notion that they are similar in what they describe turn to First Chronicles 10.
the first nine chapters are Chronicles deal with statistical and genealogical information The Narrative really gets going in chapter 10.
how does First Chronicles 10 begin what’s it talking about Yes Man the death of Saul okay so this does not start where first Samuel started it starts considerably later the beginning of Chronicles the first Chronicle starts with the death of Saul and the Ascension of David to the throne now let’s look at the end of first Chronicles in first Chronicles 29.
pay attention to verse 26.
I’m sorry verse 28 and its context how does First Chronicles end right the end of David’s Reign David dies and Solomon ascends to the throne this is how First Chronicles ends with the death of David so maybe you’ve written this information down your sheet that’ll make this question a little bit easier to answer first Chronicles then corresponds roughly chronologically to which other book second Samuel yes second Samuel begins with the um the death of Saul and the Ascension of David and it ends close to the death of David towards the end of his Reign so not exactly an overlap but second Samuel and First Chronicles cover almost the exact same period thank you so we can now label a third line in our on our timeline and that would be the book of Chronicles because if you just look below the bracket of second Samuel we must find a bracket of First Chronicles so that means that long other section from 10 15 to 537 that’s the period covered by second chronicles uh just so we can see it ourselves let’s look at how second chronicles ends second chronicles 36 so the second book of Chronicles begins with Solomon Solomon’s Reign Solomon coming to the throne but it ends in second chronicles not simply with the destruction of Jerusalem but look towards the end of the chapter and 36 how does it end second chronicles 36 what event closes the book that’s right the Israelites returning or at least give them the commission to return we have the decree of Cyrus and approximately 537 allowing the Israelites to go back to their native land so we see that we see what second chronicles covers from the beginning of Solomon’s Reign to Drew to the Israelites being allowed to return from exile you can also see based on uh the the timeline and also from the events described second chronicles corresponds to what time period of Old Testament books first and second Kings first and second Kings those events that time period is covered wholly by the book of second chronicles so we’re seeing a little bit more of how these things overlap now we only have a couple more books to label here three more books Ezra Nehemiah and Esther Esther is labeled for us uh soon or very close to the date 5 37 but let’s look at Ezra it’s the next books that appears in our Bible after second chronicles Ezra 1.
how does Ezra 1 begin what events the same way the second chronicles had ended with the decree of Cyrus but the Israelites to return to their land that’s how Ezra 1 begins so this should make labeling the last two sections of our timeline a little bit easier if second chronicles ends with the decree in 537 then the book that begins in 537 on your sheet must be Ezra the Ezra one begins with the decree to return and just so we have an idea of where it ends during Ezra the temple is rebuilt Ezra ends in Ezra 10 with the people especially the priests and the Levites committing themselves to separate from the foreign wives that they had married against God’s command so that’s what we see in 467.
and that would be covering the time period there 537 467 this commitment to separate from foreign wise one book remaining obviously since we only have Nehemiah left that last bracket must be Nehemiah from 455 to 416.
but so that we are also aware of how it begins and ends Nehemiah begins with Nehemiah being granted permission by artist Xerxes to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city walls and help the people there Temple’s been rebuilt but the city walls have not been rebuilt Nehemiah does indeed rebuild the walls he reorganizes Judea as a governor he re-establishes the teaching and implementation of God’s law but look at the last part of Nehemiah Nehemiah 13.
it’s kind of interesting How It Ends from verse 23 and following what is the last reform mentioned by Nehemiah what’s his last reforming attempt yeah Dwayne yeah he’s rebuking the people especially the priests from or for marrying foreign wives that’s the exact same way that Ezra had ended right but that was years earlier we still have the same problem in Nehemiah so there we have it our broad overview for How These Old Testament histories fit together yes Rob is that’s right yeah the the date of the dude well the the timelines differ a little bit and the one provided by Answers in Genesis puts the um the final destruction of Jerusalem in around 562 that would be the the date for the end of Second Kings but understand that there were multiple times that people were taking in Exile when Nebuchadnezzar first besieged Jerusalem he takes some of the people back and then when he proceeds to Jerusalem again he destroys the temple and takes more people and he also Masters a whole bunch in the same way when we talk about Cyrus’s decree to allow the people to return to the land not everybody returned all at once that’s why we have later on in Nehemiah some still serving in the Persian Empire later returning to Jerusalem so some of these things are happening in stages yeah so when the Bible says that Babylon Exile was for 70 years what is it what is the 70-ish start did you know what I’m talking about yeah that’s a good question I I don’t want to try and answer that question without actually uh making sure I completely understand it um but I think it would be after maybe the destruction of the temple are certainly one of the times that the people of Jerusalem were carried into exile but I’d have to look into that more specifically to give you more confident answer but other questions that’s correct according to Answers in Genesis timeline so we’ve got judges in the top left then Samuel book of First Samuel second Samuel underneath then the third line would be first Chronicles and second chronicles the fourth line First Kings and second Kings the next line Ezra and the next line Nehemiah other questions now you see that we only focused on the histories but you can see how the other books also overlap how the wisdom books are all around the time of Judges first Samuel second Samuel and First Chronicles the Major Prophets they appear towards the end of The Divided Kingdom Minor Prophets um appear also around the same time period but also going into the Exile period now we haven’t covered any of those books or their events yet but we will later on in our course so definitely hold on to this I think this would be useful for you to be using in Sunday school but also for your own personal study this is a I think a helpful resource now we’ve we’ve seen how the books overlap but there’s actually great benefit to us that we have overlapping histories and books overlapping the same time periods why is that a benefit to us why would that be event yes Roy yeah exactly we have multiple confirmations of the events that are described and what else not just confirming that certain events happened when you have multiple accounts or commentators as you said Roy how else is that a benefit that’s right we get a greater view of that of that time we don’t just say oh okay people return or there’s a decree from Cyrus to return from Exile but you can see a little bit of the circumstances or you can see um how people reacted to those things what are you gonna say boy very very good confirming proofs for historians look back yeah for sure I mean going back to our first point and even in the Old Testament law itself facts are established by multiple Witnesses you can’t just have a something established by one witness in a court of law and even in the way the Bible is written we see that many of the historical details are established by more than one witness if not directly then indirectly like we have the apostles confirming the account of creation or even more directly here we have multiple writers confirming certain historical events but not just confirmation they fill out those events for us so we can get a better understanding of it and better understanding of how people were reacting to it that helped us in our interpretation and application and this is the same in the New Testament right we have four gospels that all are telling us about the life of Jesus and um while they confirm any of the details they also expand on each other they have different empathies now let’s look at a specific example of how this kind of helpful confirmation and expansion happens we’re going to be looking at a passage from First Kings and a passage from First Chronicles so turn back and first to First Kings chapter two we’ll look at verses 10 and 11. it’s just a little detail here but we’re going to see how this process of benefit from these parallel accounts plays out in a specific way so let’s first look at this couple of diverses First Kings chapter two verses 10 and 11.
it says then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David the days of David Reign Over Israel were 40 years seven years he reigned in Hebron and 33 years he reigned in Jerusalem okay historical detail there the length of David’s main let’s see what Chronicles has to say look at First Chronicles chapter 29.
verses 26 to 30.
First Chronicles 29 verses 26 to 30.
page 445 in The View Bible verse 26 now David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel the period which he reigned over Israel was 40 years you Reign on Hebron seven years and in Jerusalem 33 years then he died in a ripe old age full of days riches and honor and his son Solomon reigned in this place now the acts of King David from first to last are Written In The Chronicles of Samuel The Seer in The Chronicles of Nathan the prophet and in The Chronicles of Gad this year with all his Reign his power and the circumstances which came on him on Israel and on all the kingdoms of the lands okay this is interesting notice a few things how long did David Reign according to both of these sources 40 years and they have the same breakdown seven years in Hebron and 33 in Jerusalem the same information what additional words however are given by the author of Chronicles commenting on David’s Reign and death how’s he characterize David’s death yeah Danielle yeah he died at a ripe old age and he even at his death he enjoyed many of the blessings that he had throughout his Reign he was blessed with riches and honor that’s not information that was given in the account from First Kings we also get some information about sources what other books did the author of Chronicles mentioned says you can find more about oh go ahead exactly he says you want to find more about the acts of David more information about his Reign see The Chronicles of Samuel the senior The Chronicles of Nathan the prophet and The Chronicles of God this year now one of these we actually have right we have the chronicles of Samuel or what is called the book of Samuel the other two we don’t have but the writer of Chronicles knew about them and he had access to these writings it’s possible that Nathan and gad’s works are actually part of the material that the author Chronicles used to compose his history of David he’s basically telling us about some of the sources he used and had access to and sources that we could go to presumably in his own time for confirmation of what he’s talking about so again this is extra information it helps it helps to fill out some things that first Kings didn’t really talk about and we’re not the emphasis of First Kings so we have here then a specific example of how the writings of the Old Testament confirm and expand on each other and this is of course to be expected when you have a real history written about written by real people about real people all by the spirit of God we would expect to find confirmation we’d expect to find different writers emphasizing and expanding on different aspects of the history there’s another way that the overlapping overlapping accounts are helpful and to see this we’re going to look at another set of parallel passages and this is in the context of describing the wealth of Solomon look at First Kings once again in First Kings chapter four active person First Kings 4 verse 26.
again we’re gonna get some historical details First Kings 4 26 says there it is Solomon had 40 000 stalls of forces for his chariots and 12 000 Horsemen okay we get the number of stalls and horses but there’s a parallel account go to Second Chronicles 9 25.
second chronicles 9 25.
and here’s what it says now Solomon had four thousand stalls store horses and chariots and 12 000 Horsemen and he stationed them in the Chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem uh got a problem what’s the apparent contradiction one says 40 000 stalls the other says 4 000 stalls now there are some other verses that make comments about chariots enforcement I’ll just mention them too briefly First Kings 10 26 now Solomon gathered chariots and Horsemen and he had 1400 chariots and 12 000 Horsemen and he stationed them in the Chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem second chronicles 1 14. it says the exact same thing Solomon of mass chariots and Horsemen he had 1400 chariots and 12 000 Horsemen and he stationed them in the Chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem so the number mentioned in the first two verses we looked at 12 000 Horsemen is totally consistent but when it comes to the Stalls which is not mentioned in those last two verses latter two verses I just said we don’t have consistency so what is going on now knowing what we do about the Bible can the bible really contradict itself no it cannot it claims to be the word of God and God does not make errors or lie moreover we already know because of the way God has saved us that the word of God is true it’s the mirror that shows us reality we cannot help but recognize that what it says is true and real in the original autographs then as is often said the Bible cannot and did not contain any errors so that’s what is a possible explanation to the differing figures we have in the pathogen Kings and Chronicles regarding the Stalls what’s one possible vaccination yeah description there okay could it be an error in the copies a copyist or a transcription error what else might be an explanation yes right it could be an issue of a translational interpretation maybe one is referring to 40 000 somethings that is different from the four thousand somethings that the other one is referring to maybe 40 000 refers to the number of horses in the Stalls well four thousand refers to the number of stalls somehow there must be an explanation because in the originals these passages made sense with one another but likely the the most likely explanation here is that it’s merely a copyist error because after all four thousand and forty thousand are pretty close one just has an extra zero or one has a missing zero now we should understand that in the original text these are not written as numbers but as words so it’s not like one simply forgot a zero they were not written in Arabic numerals however slightly unclear or missing stroke in one of the words could result in a similar error or more ancient copies of the text that weren’t written with words here that may have been written with tally marks and an abbreviation indicating thousands or something of that nature there could have been a mistake there that was later translated into words or written out as words and that’s the that’s the version that we have now later scribes who are copying passing down this information to us they perhaps notice the difference between these two accounts but because they wanted to preserve exactly what had been passed down to them they left the number there they didn’t want to purposely alter or purposefully alter the scriptures that they had received so this probably is just a copious error now you may find this disconcerting you mean to say that there are errors in our copies of the Bible well yes but this is not this should not be troubling to you and for a number of reasons some of these I’ve already shared with you in previous classes but I’ll say them again as we encounter this issue of a copious error we should not find this particularly troubling because first of all mistakes in our copies are rare and most have already been filtered out or identified via the science of textual criticism now what is textual criticism again it’s Roy that’s right it’s the process of looking at the copies of a text and comparing their similarities and differences to determine what was the original form of that text this is different from higher criticism don’t get those two things confused High criticism is questioning the credibility of the Bible as a whole textual criticism is a good thing and it is recovering the original version of a text by comparing the copies for example uh one way that this will play out if there’s something included in some later copies of a particular scroll or book of the Bible but it’s not included in the earlier copies most or all of the earlier copies then we know that that inclusion was not part of The Originals it was added later the earliest texts don’t contain it but the later ones do it can’t be original or if we have if we go back to those earliest copies of the text and let’s say some texts don’t include something but most of the texts do then we know that that misting section was likely part of the original since the majority of the oldest texts have it this is the kind of uh analysis that one is doing in textual criticism this is why for instance many modern Bibles put in Brackets the story of the woman caught in adultery in John 7 53 to John 8 11. you’re probably familiar with that story that’s what a woman’s caught in adultery and they say Jesus what do you say to do with her the law says that we should kill her right now when we compare our copies of the New Testament we can confidently say that this account was not part of John’s original gospel why do we say that because the account does not appear and the oldest most reliable copies of the Book of John and in the newer text in which it does appear its seldom appears in the same spots different parts of the Book of John or sometimes outside of the Book of John now if that’s the case the evidence points that that was not part of the original Book of John that’s not really the scripture this is what textbook criticism does now there are whole books on the topic of textual criticism and on the reliability the Old and New Testaments but let me just repeat two poignant statements first because of textual criticism or no actually let me say this the most copied and therefore the most reliable ancient document by far is the Bible if far exceeds any Egyptian Mesopotamian Roman or Greek literary work so it’s extremely reliable second because of the vast number of copies we can be confident that 99.99 of the Bible we have today is exactly as it appeared in original texts we want to say well there’s an error here maybe maybe all of it’s erroneous no we’ve nailed down 99.99 of it so while there is an extremely slight possibility that a copyist error remains in the Bible textual criticism has shown that the Bible generally is extremely trustworthy and also it identifies many of the questionable unclear or even erroneous sections that remain yes Roy copy of Sarah’s yes that’s my next Point yeah getting a little ahead of me Roy but yes uh we’re gonna see that of any of the errors that remain they’re not significant that is exactly my next point the remaining errors and unclear sections are not doctorally or practically significant they don’t affect any Doctrine it’s not like oh because we can’t understand this text uh what do we do oh nothing like that for instance if we could never tell if forty thousand or four thousand stalls was the correct numeral here that’s not really going to affect our understanding of Solomon God or the Christian life because the intent of the author is abundantly clear even without that specific figure the author intends to show us Solomon’s blessed opulence and Solomon’s disregard to the command to not multiply horses forty thousand or four thousand that’s still a lot of horses that you shouldn’t have or shouldn’t be maintaining as the king of Israel so not only are any errors unclear sections extremely rare of those that remain they’re not significance third the Bible itself in its parallel accounts is partly a check on any copious errors scripture cannot be broken Jesus says God’s spirit saw fit to give us more than one account of various events so that we could check them with one another the fact that we can even identify four thousand forty thousand in the in between these two texts shows us the reliability of the Bible we have multiple accounts we can say oh there’s a copyist error here there must be a copy of error here or there probably is copious error here because we have more than one account and fourth and this undergirds all of this God has promised that he would preserve his word so we can’t just say oh maybe it’s all lost maybe it’s not recoverable which is the claim of many Christian Cults and Gnostic groups oh the original things are have been lost and corrupted you need to pay attention to our new scripture it’s convenient way of getting rid of what contradicts what they want to say but Jesus says my words will never pass away and in the Old Testament there’s a similar statement grass of the field Fades the flowers wither but the word of the Lord stands forever this is not true in every instance God did allow for various reasons for misinterpretations or even for access to the scriptures to be diminished but in general he preserves this scripture and certainly we can see that fulfilled in our own time we have an abundance of biblical resources so how about we to react all this information about sexual reliability and some remaining copious errors well let me just first clarify two ways that we should not react not react to the idea of oh here’s an error the first way we should not react is an outright dismissal of the Bible we should not use any true error in our copies or translations of the Bible as an excuse to dismiss the whole thing this is the exact line of reasoning that the skeptic will take the mocker he says oh ho the numbers don’t line up this just shows the whole thing it’s also known trustworthy actually it doesn’t we actually have a means of identifying or and or explaining the errors that do remain so that the Integrity of the whole is upheld the argument does not follow that from one copious error the whole thing is therefore untrustworthy second way we should not react is we should not use the slim possibility of a copious error as justification to reinterpret any section of the Bible we want kind of say well there’s an error here then that other section that I always thought was a little bit unreasonable must be a copious error can’t say for instance I don’t think the Earth was really created in six 24-hour days that must just be an error in the copy after all it’s not reasonable so it must be a scribal error how many parts of the Bible have been rejected or reinterpreted because man does not think they’re reasonable the existence of a copyless error is not carte blanche to cut up the Bible oftentimes the solution to an apparent contradiction or something deemed unreasonable lies in reestablishing biblical presuppositions one does not need to use the excuse of copious error to resolve any and all textual issues it’s a rarity and with a little patience it’s amazing how many biblical puzzles are solved if you just try and make sense of the text if you just look at the context if you just compare it to the rest of the scriptures as one writer said if we just had a little bit of patience with the Bible we would see just how reliable it is we should never just say oh must be copious error must be an error it must be an error must be an error we can’t do that how should we react then if there’s a copious area that we can identify how should that affect our view of the Bible as a whole well really we should examine any other supposed error on a case-by-case basis and fairly consider the biblical evidence and to say oh one error the whole thing must be erroneous or you can’t say um there must not be any other errors this is the only one you have to be fair you have to look at the evidence provided by the copies provided by the Bible itself and then come to a reasonable conclusion you’ve already seen because of technical criticism and the abundance of biblical copies that the majority of the Bible is not up for debate or deserving of Suspicion 99.99 of the text must be as it originally was created of that remaining slim percentage you must be prepared to carefully consider the situation and make a reasonable conclusion is there really a good enough reason from the biblical text in its copies to accept four thousand over forty thousand is there really good enough reason from the biblical text and it’s copies to reject the account of the adulterous woman in John 8 as being part of The Originals sometimes as you ask these different questions about supposed errors remaining unclear sections sometimes answer will be yes sometimes the answer will be no sometimes the answer will be I can’t determine it not all situations that we Encounter of contradictions post contradictions or errors in the Bible are the same not all accusations carry the same amount of support so again I say we must be prepared to fairly consider the evidence provided by biblical arguments and we must be careful to be aware of personal bias as well as the influence of the world’s ideas and beliefs this is an example that again It’s Curious end point is that no one really questioned the reliability of the Genesis creation account until the 1800s when science came up with a new and more popular theory of the world’s Origins I say science man’s ideas scientific ideas wasn’t an issue in the text it was initial what man thought was reasonable but certainly as I say again we are privileged to live in a time where we have such an abundant of resources to make reasonable and fair conclusions about the scriptures we have an abundance of resources to assess and confirm the Bible so all that to say yes probably the correct reading of First Kings 4 26 is 4 000 not forty thousand stalls but this really is not a strike against the Bible as I said it actually shows us the value one of the benefits of having these overlapping histories One account provides a check to the copied information in another account we have multiple Witnesses so we’re better able to identify and address any unclear or erroneously copied sections questions good question is there a difference between making a a careless or accidental mistake in copying the Bible and intentionally altering the Bible I think for sure um we can perhaps come to us slight difference of opinion over how severe the difference is but as with any kind of unhelpful or evil act motivation determines a lot certainly the people who did make the mistakes perhaps we could we could if we if we knew the situation we could say oh you were being careless and therefore you uh you will be held to account for that you ought to be punished for that but sometimes people are being very very careful and they nonetheless make a mistake I mean that’s our experience isn’t it even today not just with the Bible but with other things we’re trying to be careful how we talk to people we’re trying to be careful in our interactions in the church and things like that yet we still make mistakes not purposely the Bible does give abundant not abundant but it does give a number of clear warnings against intentionally altering the Bible if you’re not an authorized representative which you aren’t because they’re all dead by now the prophets and the apostles then you have no business trying to add to or take away from God’s word certainly no one ever had any business of taking away but adding to the scriptures Proverbs as Pastor has mentioned in previous sermons it says don’t add to his his words or God will prove you a liar and Revelation says the same thing he who adds this prophecy will add the curses to himself he takes away from this prophecy will take away his portion in God’s holy city and in The Book of Life so yeah other questions yeah Rob this is kind of like just sharing a lot of solvent over everything everything for good for believers so he must be Sovereign over this copious error right right and it’s just interesting why God like the thing about why God chose to leave this in there I wonder if like one reason is to just it’s really exciting to remember that these really are like actually historical document that were copied or thousands and thousands of years yeah uh tribute your comment and God sovereignty is over this whole thing and he chose to do it this specific way to allow copious errors to happen those few copious errors that did and why did he do that why as you as you mentioned it emphasizes that this was these were real people who wrote this down and uh there’s a real effort to copy it but even though God’s spirit was over the thing over the whole thing it’s creation and its preservation nonetheless humans were involved we do always want to be aware of what what some people will do is they’ll say oh if God’s Sovereign over his preservation then when certain people interpreted it or translated it they were inspired by the spirit we’ve seen this a number of times historically people said this about step two agent said it’s about the Vulgate they said about the King James version they said it was inspired it was the perfect translation no there is no perfect translation of the Bible um it’s not inspired in that way only the original autographs were inspired by God’s spirit we have the process of diligently preserving and analyzing the text so we can get back to those inspired copies but that work has largely been done and though it goes um yeah so the what though there’s still some questions and still some people who have to defend various sections of the scripture we can be confident what we have perhaps the copious error is one way of God showing how sparingly he gives the gift of Prophecy and the hospitality which secures a person’s ability to make email and communication very few are given yes ability yeah that’s the interesting about I hmm that’s an interesting point uh bill I’ll just repeat it perhaps one of the things that brought out from the idea that God would allow copious error is to make the point that very few people were able to or were given inspired scripture that the copyists were just human and the translators are just human and we’re just human even though God did at special times and the special people reveal his inspired words we have I’m sure more things to say about it but we need to wind down because we’re out of time there are a number of good application questions in the workbook please take a look at those if you have other questions or comments please see me afterwards done with our memory verse the one from second Samuel 7 22 we’ll be getting a new one next week as we return to The Narrative of Solomon with his building of the Temple right father I thank you for the reliability of your scriptures that even with the things that are unclear or erroneous you’ve enabled a number of copies and people to identify those things so we can make reasonable conclusions about them thank you for these multiple testimonies these parallel accounts because it shows your word is real it shows that it is true or it’s further further support that it is true but we know the greatest testimony is your spirit I pray that you bless the rest of the service today amen all right