Hi Kyle,

I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I think I have read many of the same books you have. I grew up in the era of Josh McDowell’s evidence that demands a verdict. I am also an academically trained historian with a pretty good working knowledge of Greek.

I have been struck over the years at how much interpretations of the Gospel have been shaped by the cultures and time periods in which they are developed. There is an excellent book by Brooks Holifield called Theology in America. It is a bit dense but it traces all of the different ways that American Christians have thought about their faith from the era of the Puritans until the Civil War. I have been especially intrigued by his idea that after the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution people started reading their Bibles as if they included styles of writing and thinking that had not been developed yet.

History as we know it was developed in the nineteenth century. It would be very surprising to learn that Luke followed the rules of nineteenth century academic history when writing a first century gospel. Over the past twenty years of teaching the Bible, Church History, and topical classes at a large Church I have become particularly interested in the tensions between the Gospels. Why for example does Mark portray Jesus as silent during his trial and John have him engage in a long philosophical conversation with Pilate.

Why are there so many tensions between the four accounts of the Resurrection? I know the “apologetic answer,” if they were too close we would assume they were forged and they reflect the disparities of eyewitness testimony. Ultimately those answers were not satisfactory for me.

A key Old Testament question is why there are two completely different histories of Israel and why do they diverge at many points. My answer as a historian is that they were written at different time periods to answer different sets of questions. I still believe the Bible was inspired, I just think that Inspiration works differently than many of us assume. Pete Enns book, The Bible Tells Me So, is a good introduction to many of theses issues. The problem with going down this path is the God keeps escaping from the tidy Theological boxes we put Him in. I figure that I am only human so I will never completely understand the mysteries of God. But it sure is interesting to reflect on them.

Peace