Study Week 2 – The Four Witnesses

Tonight was part two of the new study – Where did the Bible come from?

So, last week we talked about the resurrection – how these early Christians were obsessed with the real life, real death, and real resurrection of Jesus.  For this faith they lived and died during the early years of the Church.

Symbols for Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; from the Book of Kells

This week we talked about the four Gospels.  We started out talking about the claims made in Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code – that essentially the Christians were trying to choose from thousands of "gospels", and it wasn’t until the 4th century that they finally chose the four we know today – for political reasons, of course.

Well, that’s Dan Brown’s claim…

So, we actually read excerpts from four of these other "gospels" (the so-called gospels of Judas, Thomas, Peter, and Mary), and compared them with the four we know.  We talked about how Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were accepted very early as Scripture.  They were solidly and more or less universally accepted as the four, very soon after they were written.  It sure didn’t take until the 4th century!  And why?  Well, there were some good reasons.  Maybe if you come to the study you can find out what some of those reasons are! 😉

It’s obviously very important to know the real story about this man who claimed to be God – and then who proved it by rising from the dead!  What did He teach?  What did He do?  And what did He have to say about the books of the Bible?

Well, next week we’re going to go back to the Old Testament to find out where it came from.  Then… well, then I have a few days off.  🙂