Bible and the Gospel | How Does the Bible Come to Us?
How did the Word of God go from Moses and Paul’s writings to the Bible in your hands today? In this session, Dr. Trent Rogers explores how the Bible was written, recognized, preserved, and translated. You’ll learn about inspiration, canonization, textual transmission, and translation — and why these processes give us confidence in the authority and reliability of Scripture.
Learn more about Cedarville’s Bible Minor Project: https://cedarville.edu/BibleMinorProject
Time Stamps:
0:00 – Introduction: How does the Bible come to us?
2:04 – Encountering questions about other “Gospels” (e.g., Gospel of Thomas)
4:45 – Why the Gospel of Thomas is not part of the Bible (dating, theology, orthodoxy)
7:18 – Importance of understanding canon and biblical reliability
8:18 – Overview: Inspiration, canonization, transmission, translation
10:49 – God’s role in preserving His Word
11:41 – What is the biblical canon? God speaks, the church recognizes
12:42 – Canonization: 66 books, one divine author
13:45 – Meaning of “canon”
14:47 – Church recognition vs. human authority
15:40 – Old Testament canon formation
16:08 – New Testament recognition in 2 Peter 3:16
18:02 – Missing letters of Paul and the closed canon
19:48 – Timeline: Recognition by the early church and Athanasius’ list (AD 367)
21:04 – Heresy and the clarification of doctrine (Arius, Marcion, etc.)
22:32 – Criteria for canonicity (orthodoxy, apostolicity, antiquity, circulation)
25:55 – Church’s recognition of Scripture’s divine authority
27:00 – Questions and clarifications on canon and orthodoxy
29:01 – Transition to transmission: how the text was copied and preserved
30:27 – Text transmission before printing presses
31:51 – Accuracy of ancient scribes
31:58 – What are textual variants?
32:14 – What is textual criticism? Internal and external evidence
34:36 – Example: Variants and evaluation of manuscripts
35:17 – Example of the “Wicked Bible” printing error (1631)
37:25 – Example of modern printing errors and missing books
38:52 – Greek text examples (Romans 5:1 – “we have peace” vs. “let us have peace”)
42:37 – Understanding meaningful and viable variants
44:59 – How few variants actually matter
46:18 – Types of variants: accidental, harmonization, intentional
48:00 – Principles of textual criticism (older manuscripts, difficult readings, etc.)
50:36 – Transition to translation: how we got English Bibles
51:15 – Translation involves interpretation
52:26 – Why language updates are needed
53:45 – Readability and translation committees
55:05 – Translation theory: formal vs. dynamic equivalence
57:28 – Spectrum of translation approaches
59:05 – Examples of translation philosophy and goals
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