Trinity (was Re: What Bible?)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Schneider" <rjschn39@bellsouth.net>
To: "gordon brown" <gbrown@euclid.colorado.edu>; "Pim van Meurs"
<pimvanmeurs@yahoo.com>
Cc: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Sunday, March 12, 2006 10:31 PM
Subject: Re: What Bible?

> Bart Ehrman is not a Morman; in fact he was raised in an evangelical
> household and attended Moody Bible College, though he's moved far from
> that tradition. He is presently on the faculty of the University of North
> Carolina, Chapel Hill. Ehrman is a well-acknowledged expert on early
> Christian movements and texts. He has compiled much material to support
> his thesis. There are a number of passages in the Greek NT that are not
> attested to in major manuscripts and appear in the critical apparatus. In
> the NRSV I use as a college text, many of these appear in footnotes. Some
> are bracketted with double brackets; these appear in some major witness,
> but not in others. The brackets indicates that the editors could not
> agree whether they should be included or omitted. One would have to
> examine his arguments for specific passages to see if one thought he had
> made a good case for scribal doctoring in order to advance theological
> positions. In the case of 1 John 5:8, omitted now in the NRSV, I think a
> good case can be made for scribal insertion.

The fact that I Jn.5:8 was not appealed to by Athanasius or any other
defenders of Nicea in the 4th century is pretty much a drop-dead proof that
it was not in their texts.

The "doctrine of the Trinity" in the modern sense is not in the NT. But
there are numerous passages that use triadic groupings like
Father-Son-Spirit, as well as those that point toward divine status for
Christ & the Spirit. Thus it's not correct to suggest that latter doctrines
of the Trinity were invesnted by later Christians with no biblical support.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
Received on Sun Mar 12 22:47:50 2006