[IslamCity] Re: LISTEN now to NPR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sat, 31 Dec 2005 14:32:05 -0800

Just so you know, God DID make the message more clear with the QUR'AN.........
(the Final, uncorrupted Word of God)

Andrea Peterson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Asalaamu Alaikoum :-)
Please click on this link and scroll to the middle of the page to listen to this NPR (National Public Radio) interview on the Diane Reem show!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Please listen to it!!!!!!!!!!!    http://wamu.org/programs/dr/05/12/08.php
The man, Bart Ehrman, was a "Born Again Christian", who has become a scholar in the New Testament and studied Greek and the original texts of the Bible in Greek.  He is now a professor in religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 
His book is also Very Interesting, entitled: "Misquoting Jesus : The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why" by Bart Ehrman.
 
Book Description
When world-class biblical scholar Bart Ehrman first began to study the texts of the Bible in their original languages he was startled to discover the multitude of mistakes and intentional alterations that had been made by earlier translators. In Misquoting Jesus, Ehrman tells the story behind the mistakes and changes that ancient scribes made to the New Testament and shows the great impact they had upon the Bible we use today. He frames his account with personal reflections on how his study of the Greek manuscripts made him abandon his once ultraconservative views of the Bible.
Since the advent of the printing press and the accurate reproduction of texts, most people have assumed that when they read the New Testament they are reading an exact copy of Jesus's words or Saint Paul's writings. And yet, for almost fifteen hundred years these manuscripts were hand copied by scribes who were deeply influenced by the cultural, theological, and political disputes of their day. Both mistakes and intentional changes abound in the surviving manuscripts, making the original words difficult to reconstruct. For the first time, Ehrman reveals where and why these changes were made and how scholars go about reconstructing the original words of the New Testament as closely as possible.
Ehrman makes the provocative case that many of our cherished biblical stories and widely held beliefs concerning the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the divine origins of the Bible itself stem from both intentional and accidental alterations by scribes -- alterations that dramatically affected all subsequent versions of the Bible.
 
Book Review::::::
My favorite read all year!, December 25, 2005
Reviewer: J. Boek (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I found Bart Ehrman's book Misquoting Jesus to be very engaging and informative. I feel that he used ample examples and evidence to support his arguments without becoming too repetitive or overwhelming the reader with too much information. Personally it was refreshing to hear someone tell a story (his "testimony" at the beginning) that so closely mirrors my own. As a young convert to Christianity I too had accepted not only Jesus as my savior, but also the Bible as the inerrant word of God. And as a student at bible college preparing for missionary service I began to consider certain errors and inconsistencies in the Bible. Questions concerning the authority and accuracy of the Bible are of paramount importance because, as I understood it (and still do today) without the Bible there is no Christian faith, and no basis for any authority in Christian doctrine, all of which are derived from the teachings of the Bible.
One of the reviewers, obviously a fundamentalist Christian, took exception to many points contained within Ehrman's book. I would like to comment on some of the points he made (his remarks are contained within quotes).

"I suspect the TRUE story of the reasons for his conversion [from Christianity to agnosticism] is buried somewhere in the layers of Bart Ehrman's conscience." A typical reaction by the born-again crowd to someone who no longer believes. Ehrman must be in the grips of the devil to turn away from Jesus as he is portrayed in the Bible. There is no other logical, reasonable explanation why someone would choose not to believe in Jesus. The reviewer says Ehrman's research is more suitably applied to "some other poppycock," like the claims of Joseph Smith. Well sir, as the old joke goes: What's the white stuff in bird poop? That's bird poop too. It often bothered me as a young Christian how vigorously Christian apologists would attack other religion's doctrines (Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.) and then fail to apply the same rigorous standards of proof and critical thinking to their own belief system.

"Ehrman is postulating nothing that the Christian church has not been aware of for literally thousands of years." Maybe that's true, but I have never read such a lucid book on the subject. And I found numerous examples there which I hadn't known about before. In my studies at bible college I came across the same figures which the reviewer cites: that we can deduce the second century texts with 98.33% certainty. This figure might satisfy the credulous, but not me. It shouldn't satisfy anyone. If only a single contradiction in scripture exists, then the bible could not have been "inspired". And if a single contradiction exists, then possibly others exist too. And if others exist, how many others exist? Who knows? And at what point would we be forced to admit that the bible is a book of human origins and not of supernatural origins? It makes much more sense to say that the authors of the various books in the Bible were conveying their own personal insights about God as they understood him, than it does to say that each of them were inspired in every word they wrote. By admitting the obvious we can suddenly and easily account for the many contradictions (yes, contradictions) between the teachings of the various writers. If one cannot admit that such contradictions exist in the Bible, then interpreters of the Bible are forced to create ever elaborate and meandoring qualifications to explain why the contradictions we may think exist (possibly because of the trickery of the devil) don't really exist at all. I suspect it was not the devil who led Ehrman away from God, but the words of the Bible itself. And if God wanted to make his message any more clear then he certainly could have.

"The notion that Ehrman only discovered this at Wheaton College is troubling to me. You mean he had all that education at Moody and didn't know the first thing about textual variants?" In all fairness, according to interviews with Bart Ehrman on NPR and KQED radio, he did know about textual variants at Moody. But you wouldn't expect to get a fair and balanced treatment of the subject at Moody Bible Institute would you? After all, Bible is their middle name. He has said that at Moody they were taught that, yes, there are variants, and no, we don't have the originals. The job of the bible scholar is to apply oneself and to try to determine what those originals say. And Ehrman concludes (correctly, I believe) in the KQED interview and in the concluding pages of his book that it would be no greater miracle to preserve the words of scripture than it would be to inspire the words in the first place. And since those original words had not been preserved then it is reasonable to say that they also had not been inspired.

"Too bad some are impressed by ancient and long ago refuted contentions." One wonders which universe this reviewer is imagining when he says this.

Finding Ehrman's book was a breath of fresh air, and I can't wait to read his other works.
 


jessi frenzel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From: "jessi frenzel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re:Listen RIGHT NOW to NPR
Date: Sat, 10 Dec 2005 09:14:50 -0600


check drshow.org, maybe they have it?



 
From: Andrea Peterson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], Jessi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re:Listen RIGHT NOW to NPR
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 18:42:15 -0800 (PST)

Salaam Alaikoum sisters, could you guys find the transcript from this interview?  If you did, please email it to me, I'd be interested in reading it, or listening to it ...!!!!!  I couldn't find it......
Jazakum Allahu Khairen, wasalaam,
Andrea

"Ntifi, Anna" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
 

From: jessi frenzel [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2005 10:22 AM
Subject: SPAM: Listen RIGHT NOW to NPR




Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barkatahu
 
RIGHT NOW on NPR (90.3 in Dallas area) on the Diane Reem show she is hosting a guest (Didn't catch his name) who is the author of Misquoting Jesus.  The author is considered to be a top Christian scholar and on this show he is talking about his studies of ancient manuscripts of the Bible and the differences among them and how the current Bible was constructed.  It sounds very informative and interesting. It just started so I don't have more details but try to catch it if you can or check www.npr.org
 
Assalamu alaikum
Jessi Frenzel Umm AbduRahman

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Back to Huma's Homepage on Islam...
Salaam (Peace be upon you), Andrea (Saleema)   "To God belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth. Whether you show what is in your own selves or conceal it, God will call you to account for it. Then He forgives whom He wills and punishes whom He wills, for God is Able to do all things."  (Qur'an 2:284).




Back to Huma's Homepage on Islam...
Salaam (Peace be upon you), Andrea (Saleema)   "To God belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth. Whether you show what is in your own selves or conceal it, God will call you to account for it. Then He forgives whom He wills and punishes whom He wills, for God is Able to do all things."  (Qur'an 2:284).



Back to Huma's Homepage on Islam...

Salaam (Peace be upon you), Andrea (Saleema)   "To God belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth. Whether you show what is in your own selves or conceal it, God will call you to account for it. Then He forgives whom He wills and punishes whom He wills, for God is Able to do all things."  (Qur'an 2:284).



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{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)

{And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33)

The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]

The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)  also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all."
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
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