because deeper meaning is more forward...
perhaps you could explain a little about what your comment actually meant then....thanks
Sure, this is from the Rothschild Bible thread and is the latest series on what the Bible is, most here would buy right into everything that is promoted no matter how much it actually conflicts with the actual Scriptures.
One example is the verse below is promoted as being written 100's of years after the time the person could have been a witness.
Joh:21:24:
This is the disciple which testifieth of these things,
and wrote these things:
and we know that his testimony is true.
Bible Secrets Revealed? A Response to the New History Channel Series (Part 1) | Canon Fodder
1.
Sensationalistic. Everybody loves a good conspiracy. It is built-in to the human (and particularly American) psyche. We love the idea that the truth has been suppressed for generations only to now be uncovered.
Unfortunately, the title of this new series feeds this conspiracy craving in all of us, and gives a sensationalistic feel to the whole enterprise.
Bible Secrets Revealed. Really? This title implies that secrets have been kept from an unsuspecting public for two millennia (presumably by the church or other Christian leaders), only now to be graciously exposed by these noble scholars. Conclusion: you can trust secular scholars but not the church (or the Bible).
2.
One-sided. This sensationalistic impulse naturally leads a documentary to want to prove that the traditional view is mistaken (after all, the traditional view is rather boring and unexciting). Thus, we are not surprised when we quickly realize that this documentary will not even be trying to present a balanced perspective. It is decidedly geared to
disprove the Bible.
3.
Over-stated Historical Claims. Time and time again, this opening installment in this new video series makes historical claims that are partially true, but also a bit misleading. I cannot mention all of these, but here are a few:
- As it pertains to the authorship of the four gospels, the video quotes scholars as absolutely certain that none of these were eyewitnesses. For instance, Candida Moss declares, “We have four gospels written by four different authors, written decades, maybe as long as a century after [Jesus] died, and none of these authors actually met Jesus.” But, this is a level of certainty that is not warranted by the evidence. She offers no indication that there is any scholarly debate about this (and there is), nor does she suggest there is any positive evidence for the traditional authorship of the gospels (and there is).
- As another example, Elaine Pagels declares, “We had Christianity for three-hundred years before we had a New Testament.” But, this is only partially true at best, and downright misleading at worst. Sure, the edges of the canon were not solidified until probably the fourth century, but the core of the canon (around 22 out of 27 books) was fairly well-established by the mid/late second century. Irenaeus, for example, was keen to use these books and to use them as Scripture. On a functional level, he did in fact have a New Testament.
There are more examples that could be added, but this is sufficient to show that this video over-reaches at a number of points when it comes to the historical facts. Unfortunately,
the average viewer, whom videos like this are targeted to reach, would have no basis for knowing this.
A Response to the History Channel’s “Bible Secrets Revealed” | Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
Anticipation ran high. The program was supposed to be a hard and honest look at the Bible from some of the most notable (and notorious) figures in Biblical scholarship such as
Bart Ehrman,
Mark Goodacre,
Candida Moss, and
Reza Aslan. The disclaimer at the beginning of the program promised a fair presentation of multiple view points, stating, “This program explores the mysteries of the Bible from a variety of historical and theological perspectives which have been debated for centuries.” Such a disclaimer, usually alerting viewers to graphic violence and sexual content not suitable for children, should have warned the unsuspecting public that the content to be presented was anything but “a variety of historical and theological perspectives.” In fact, the program revealed a heavily anti-religious and specifically an anti-Christian bias, where a multiplicity of view points was exchanged for a singular ideology aimed at discrediting religious faith in the Bible. It soon became apparent that what was supposed to be a presentation of the best of objective, secular biblical scholarship was anything but objective. Leading questions suggested the most absurd conclusions, and half-truths masked the real objectivity found in secular scholarship, which is capable of being fair and respectful of religious faith.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2013/11/18/bible-secrets-revealed-history-channel-review
Charges of Fraud and Forgery
Bible Secrets Revealed: Lost in Translation intersperses narration with snippets of interviews with scholars portraying people who accept the Bible as
God’s inerrant Word as uneducated and behind the times. All of the men moved by God to pen His Word (
2 Peter 1:21) are described in the program as “forgers” who lied about the authorship of their material, attributing it to fictional or long-dead people. The program indicates these liars are euphemistically called “pseudepigraphers” because they produced their forgeries for a holy cause. Christian scholars allegedly call these pseudepigrapha (writings falsely attributed to another author) instead of forgeries “because nobody knows what pseudepigrapha means.” Nevermind the fact that the early church soundly rejected actual pseudepigraphal works.
Viewers are told, for instance, that Mosaic authorship of the first five books of the Bible is now “questioned by most scholars.” Jesus Christ, however, affirmed
Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. He told Jewish scholars who rejected Him, “‘Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?’” (
John 5:45–47).
The entire Bible, though penned by multiple human writers (
Deuteronomy 18:18;
Jeremiah 1:9;
Acts 28:25;
Romans 3:2;
2 Peter 1:21) over a period of about 1400 years, is actually the
unified work of
one divine Author (
2 Timothy 3:16–17). Jesus Christ affirmed the authenticity of the Old Testament in
Luke 24:25–27 and in multiple passages where He referenced specific historical events from the Old Testament. These include the creation and marriage of Adam and Eve (
Matthew 19:3–6;
Mark 10:3–9), Abel’s death (
Luke 11:50–51), Moses and the bronze serpent during the plague (
John 3:14), Moses and the manna (
John 6:32–33,
49), Lot and Lot’s wife and the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah (
Luke 17:28–32;
Matthew 10:15), Elijah’s miracles (
Luke 4:25–27), and Jonah and the great fish (
Matthew 12:40–41). Jesus Christ accepted the historicity of the Old Testament, but the “experts” on the History Channel impute greater wisdom to themselves, having also rejected the biblical accounts directly pertaining to Jesus.
