How to Criticize the Bible

This video is about how to do text criticism.
Thanks a ton to everyone who support The Ten Minute Bible Hour! If you don’t already, you can support TMBH on Patreon if you’d like. It’s easy to set up and it helps a ton.
Patreon.com/tmbh
Resource Links:
Free Bible Translations online: biblegateway.com
Free access to a giant Greek manuscript collection: csntm.org
Learn New Testament Greek
www.amazon.com/Learn-Read-New...
The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable
www.amazon.com/New-Testament-...
Bear Spray:
www.amazon.com/10-2-Counter-A...
A General Introduction to the Bible
www.barnesandnoble.com/w/gene...
The Journey From Text to Translations
www.amazon.com/Journey-Texts-...
The Text of the New Testament (Metzger and Ehrman)
www.amazon.com/Text-New-Testa...
Revisiting the Corruption of the New Testament
www.christianbook.com/revisit...
Word Studies From the Greek New Testament
www.amazon.com/Word-Studies-G...

[@andyjones7121]

That beginning music had me fired up to learn Greek. I don't want to waste time learning though. Just do an '80s style montage with clips of me in the library, in Greece, looking at ancient literature carved in a cave, and someone putting a blanket on me when I fall asleep at my desk studying, with "Don't Stop Believing" played over the top, then 20 seconds later I'd be a Greek scholar! Can you make that happen? Montage me, Team America style.

[@MattWhitmanTMBH]

Team America made me believe I could do anything if properly montaged.

[@pingpong1138]

This comment made me smile :)

[@rayhchc6451]

That music got me 🔥 up to unsubscribe. Will stick with a more civil channel, like Mark Ward the one fine gentleman 👏 😉

[@SimplyDudeFace]

Your presentation is spot on. You don't have a preacher voice on. Your not wearing an announcer persona. You aren't doing the condescending teacher thing. And, you aren't dumbing the topic down. You are doing a good job. Keep it up please. :-)

[@MattWhitmanTMBH]

That comment means a lot to me on a lot of levels. Thanks for understanding what I'm going for with my presentation style.

[@pumpknhd]

At first I read your handle as "Matthew's Parents", and I was going to go, well, yeah, of course they like it.

[@stevesloan5935]

I've watched probably a dozen of your videos in the past 36 hours. You are articulating big concepts and difficult concepts in a concise, interesting, fair, intelligent, objective and effective way. I loved the Mt. Rushmore analogy; keep up the excellent work! Even with the gift of faith, it can be an act of worship to wrestle with God's word anyway. In the end, if the sum total of every intellect ever created could be poured into one person, that person would still have to come to God as a little child. I find it beautiful, like the repentant thief next to Jesus on the cross, that one can "get there" without a scrap of scholarship, apologetics or anything else, and furthermore get there "one minute to midnight" (Two Minutes to Midnight if you're a Maiden fan, or at the last hour per some workers in the vineyard). Check out some Francis Chan and Tony Nolan sermons & books. A very, very sincere "Thank You" for all your work on delivering this content!!! Please keep it coming!!! :)

[@jayjackson5932]

I've been going through a ton of your videos recently, just stumbled across your channel. I just have to say, this is incredibly illuminating. It's such a subject that is hard to figure out where to start and this just shows so many great resources. Thank you for this.

[@dabeamer42]

Yay! Textual Criticism! (that's what it was called when I went to seminary) This is now the best video on KZbin! Seriously, an excellent intro to a gi-normous topic. Scholarly, honest, and heartfelt. -- NotYourMomEither

[@MattWhitmanTMBH]

Thanks David. It's a lot to bite off, but hopefully this will be useful for people who are curious.

[@GeekSpeakDesign]

You’re doing a great job creating content that is super educational & entertaining. (Not Matt’s mom speaking here😉)

[@37squarepetals]

Hi Matt's mom.

[@ego347]

That final statement is exactly why I'm subscribed. Thank you for your work. I really appreciate it.

[@MattWhitmanTMBH]

Thanks for hearing me on that and accepting my flawed process of faith for what it is and where it's at.

[@Godseeker-2020]

You test your faith against The Faith...You are processing just fine.

[@theroachoftheroachea9199]

Love your videos just started watching this playlist tonight. I work night shifts and often maintain my schedule on my nights off. This video makes me grateful that I can go to the source of the original and study the Bible through prayer. Still these are excellent methods to check and strengthen your connection to the spirit.

[@DustinHarms]

Been waiting for this video for a while. EXCELLENT reference! Thank you!

[@MattWhitmanTMBH]

I appreciate you Dustin. Thanks.

[@TroyLFullerton]

What a wealth of resources, Matt! Thank you for that---definitely going to consult your list while compiling materials.

[@jakerobinson6981]

Love this channel, thanks so much. As a Christian to Athiest to Christian, I've loved going through these videos, especially this one. Looking forward to going through these resources.

[@Pastor4all52]

Matt, you are too funny! and informative as well. Really enjoy your videos.

[@codyfrohmader3741]

This is great info. I recently started trying to learn Hebrew, and then I planned to learn Greek, so this is very helpful. It is not easy finding good material for learning Hebrew. I would love it if you did a similar video about Hebrew.

[@ctrlaltshift]

This is awesome! Thanks Matt. I honestly want to learn NT greek now.

[@MrDude271]

Awesome ending Matt. I love your honesty! I’m the same way.

[@sethtbaguley]

Apart from loving everything on your channel, Matt.... I want to please request a TMBH playlist on Spotify 😂 The music in all your videos is so epic. God bless legend 💪🏼

[@TasJess]

Reading list is now very long. Thanks for this. It can be difficult to sift out where to start with this type of study without guidance.

[@EmethMatthew]

This was awesome and now I have some books to add to my reading list.

[@cbeech8622]

Was that bear spray in that can? Also its crazy for me to hear a Pastor say he doesn't have faith. My church just reads from the bible and expects you to just believe and have faith. I've never got any of these resources from my church. I'm very grateful for you, your channel and these videos.

[@CodyDWorks]

He didn't say he doesn't have faith he said he doesn't have the gift of Faith. which is a little different. But I hear what you are saying and I agree. His humility and honesty are what keeps me tuning in for more... not to mention the humor and nerd references. I spent most of my childhood thinking in order to be a christian you had to be perfect and that's not the case.

[@MattWhitmanTMBH]

Cody's remarks are on target. I'd say I'm a person of faith, I'd just say I'm constantly getting there the hard way.

[@reepicheepsfriend]

My opinion is that the "faith" the Bible mentions is very different from what most people think of when they say faith. Read Hebrews 11. Ask yourself, were any of those people told to randomly believe something because it was written in a book somewhere? No. They experienced something real that God did, and then God asked them to obey him out of faith that his character would continue to be such that they had already experienced. That's what I think faith means most of the time.

[@610garage]

I'd criticise the bible, but it's all greek to me. :) Get it, cause it's greek. Hey, somebody was going to make this joke. No, just me? Ok. I'll see myself out. LOL :)

[@Boaxiho]

610GARAGE Dude you killed it with the end bit. The joke was actually funny.

[@davidtaylorsr]

ha, theres a reason why that's a saying.

[@610garage]

Boaxiho Thanks. Comedy is like golf. It's all about the follow thro... :)

[@Punnybone55]

@@610garage Is it Greek to you or Geek to you? :P

[@Paldasan]

Hey Matt, been listening to NDQ for a while, and thought "Why haven't I started listening to his youtube channel", so here I am. I'm enjoying the content and shall be sharing your videos like this one with my friends of varying beliefs (or as some atheists insist, non-belief). Great stuff.

[@chaplainpaul5326]

I Love this video! Thanks!

[@drc97086]

I am reading Richard Bauckham's 'Jesus and the Eyewitnesses', so I am being introduced to this field's way of viewing things. Text criticism, Form criticism, et.al, I am getting my introduction to this field by Bauckham and TMBH.

[@DenNavnlos]

I may not fully jump into textual criticism, since I’m easily one of the laziest people alive, but that end message rings true for me. It’s taken a lot of work since I’ve become a Christian to plug logic, history, reason, philosophy, etc. into something that other people are gifted enough to just lovingly accept, and still have those intellectual ups and downs as I work through Christianity’s logic. This series helps immensely because it covers that gift of faith in hard evidence, intelligent and honest critiques, and educational content. And paints it in a beautiful spandex 80s montage vibe. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

[@MattWhitmanTMBH]

Sounds like we have elements of faith in common. There will be more spandex music.

[@Meerkatonfire]

Keep up the great work Matt

[@michaelraveling8323]

Dang. I have the uneasy feeling that I will be reading all of the books you just mentioned over the next several months. ...or years. ...decades, perhaps. Why did you do this to me!? Seriously though, great job. Keep it up.!

[@MattWhitmanTMBH]

Lol. Glad this one heaped some work on you. It's fun stuff.

[@davidtaylorsr]

To quote a recent car commercial, "Dang!" Thanks for this Matt.

[@anewnameisunavailabl]

if you have a copy of that test, would you please make a downloadable version (possibly with an answer key)

[@IamGrimalkin]

Any ideas how you might move on to Old Testament textual criticism and translation Matt? I imagine you might have to look at some of the same stuff since a good amount of it is based on the septuagint, but what else do you need to look at?

[@MattWhitmanTMBH]

I'm entertaining it. My guess is that most viewers are more interested in the New Testament on something like this. So that's a strong maybe.

[@Jokl92]

Just went back to this video to look for some TR stuff. Could you do a video about the Textus Receptus and why people hold to it? Or recommend a book about it that is not totally mean to "the other side". I'm just trying to make sense of that whole topic at the moment.

[@mgtowp.l.7756]

There Is The Living Torah One ( 1 ) Page In English And The Other Page In Hebrew I Highly Recommend The Living Torah.... A Good Read..

[@aloser09]

i like your manatee matt.also good vid. ps. i use esword a free app/software that has strong's concordance especially helpful going from english to greek. also thoughts on the ESV?

[@AlexCFaulkner]

I liked this video within the first 30 seconds

[@MattWhitmanTMBH]

aaaaaaaaand then the bottom dropped out :)

[@nathanprindler]

Was that seminary test like geography, names, and dates? Or was it more like story and other content? I feel like I could do really well with the latter, but not the former. XD

[@MattWhitmanTMBH]

A little bit of names, but mostly themes and ideas. It was embarrassing.

[@nathanprindler]

Multiple choice? XD

[@hello-jy9hf]

gotta love how he linked to the bear spray as well

[@Thomas...191]

Hey Matt I really like the video. Would you consider doing one on Jordan Peterson's bible lecture series? He is garnering a lot of attention and I'd really like to hear a pastor's view on this.. thanks

[@MattWhitmanTMBH]

That guy is smart. Don't know or care if I agree with all of his theology, but I think he's brave and going for honest.

[@purplejoeler]

I just wanna say, thank you for existing, and thank destin for me for existing as well,

[@noahwilhelm9201]

Gives me a new respect for the people who translate the Bible. Also, wondering if the pepper spray is for making sure no one interrupts you or to give yourself an excuse for a break? 😉

[@ROPname]

I'm dumbfounded :P yet this is awesome. need to find some of those books for noobies Thanks a lot and keep them coming!

[@MattWhitmanTMBH]

Yeah, it's a tick overwhelming, but the point is, it's doable.

[@veroniquebarbie3741]

What is text criticism? Many of the ideas you cover are difficult to understand and even more so when English isn't my native language. Is text criticism the beginning of a translation project? You're very entertaining.

[@danbuter]

What did the original Christians use? The Old Testament only? Or maybe one or two Gospels? I'd love to know, and it is hard to find any good sources. Most limit themselves to just how books were picked for the Bible.

[@productivepaste6876]

Word of mouth and the one true Catholic Church

[@daniellowry]

What streets are you walking down?

[@jonsisk87]

on your next video you should talk about the spray that you needed

[@MattWhitmanTMBH]

It's pretty simple. If anything seems threatening at all, even for a second, mercilessly hose it with bear spray.

[@dougholck4276]

Heard a story about someone who thought bear spray was a repellant... like OFF. Sprayed themselves to keep bears away. I think their day was ruined.

[@torspedia]

Something that I am nowhere near ready for...

[@PeteGoode]

20 minutes later, Matt is sitting behind a stack of books and you see his hat bobbling behind to the tempo of his voice.

[@MattWhitmanTMBH]

It's kind of a lot.

[@AmendMD]

If it should take that much education to criticize the bible, then should it take as much education to believe it? What's your opinion?

[@cherriedee31]

DStephen I know random strangers may not be your target audience for that question but it really got me thinking and I had to say thanks for that. A couple of those thoughts I wanted to share: would we ask the same question of other academic topics? Or, do we all play different roles in answering it? For example... some research, some teach, and some learn and receive and celebrate what others have discovered. It makes me think about what he was saying at the end about different gifts. I think we all do each of those things to a different extent, but it’s impossible to be an expert in everything, so we get to work together and have different individuals teaching and learning different things. It’s really a pretty sight when they all come together.

[@RyanMartin1]

I've studied NT Greek a little. You can either be brilliant with languages, or be a normal person that is also stubborn and doesn't give up when the brain hurts. I definitely am not brilliant with languages.

[@nathanm6138]

What about James white

[@pumpknhd]

Destin was happy at 13:13, because you can no longer see the manatee.

[@tintinismybelgian]

I had to pause at 0:50 to make sure you weren't sneaking in The Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price.

[@slpk]

There's too much space between the W and Y!!!

[@buildtolove]

Bart was dishonest in giving "example" to support his case, he gave the worst possible ones without mentioning that there are better examples. Honestly, he doesn't care.

[@PeteGoode]

so, go find a verse I think I understand.... like Jesus Wept... i mean, did he weep? or was it just like a soft sob? or was it ugly cry?

[@IamGrimalkin]

Pete Goode Jesus wept is an interesting one because although it is (famously) the shortest verse in the bible in the KJV Bible, whether it is the shortest verse in the New Testament in Greek depends on whether you include "Jesus" as "nomina sacra" or not. (In the early Greek manuscripts, various "holy" names are shortened to two letters with a bar on top, and with the earliest letters, these words are restricted to only include ones associated with the father, son, and spirit; including Jesus, which becomes ΙΣ. All the earliest manuscripts with those words in include some kind of nomina sacra, but it's still debatable if some form of nomina sacra was in originals or a convention of later scribes).

[@PeteGoode]

Then there's the other verse which talks about how Jesus Swept... wait, that's not in the bible? maybe the NIV? No? oh well.

[@IamGrimalkin]

1 Thessalonians 5:16 in greek reads παντοτε χαιρετε, whilst john 11:35 reads εδακρυσεν ο ιησους , which is one letter longer: unless you have nomina sacra, in which case it reads εδακρυσεν ο ισ , which is two letters shorter. This might tie with luke 20:30 depending on which manuscripts you are using, with some saying και ο δευτερος but others saying και ελαβεν ο δευτερος την γυναικα και ουτος απεθανεν ατεκνος. On another note, I've found something which might more directly answer your original question: classic.net.bible.org/verse.php?book=joh&chapter=11&verse=35

[@ttarabbia]

+

[@bangmedia1]

Thank you. Bless you.

[@OliverMark0001]

you can choose to have faith. It is as simple as that. Once I had a boss. He was a great boss. I loved to work with him. But in our team there was anger and stress and I started to be unfriendly in our team. So the team chose to kick me out. It happened at my vacation time, and my boss was in his vacation time also. He told me, he did not want me to be kicked out, but it was a team decision. I said "I have chosen to believe in what you are saying is the truth!". And so I believed him, not knowing the truth. But that did not matter. What is the "truth" nowadays? It is so hard to see or understand the "truth". But you can always chose to say: I believe and I chose to have faith. sorry for I am not native english.

[@CJFCarlsson]

Bart Two-face Ehrman eh?

[@MattWhitmanTMBH]

I disagree with him on a lot of things, but I respect his scholarship.

[@CJFCarlsson]

@@MattWhitmanTMBH Maybe because you are a better kind of person. From what I hear listening to other well known christians who have come up against him he is snotty (dr White) and has different messages depending on if he is in an atheist gathering where he will be voicing things for which there are no backup in science or if he is in academia where he will be more stringent (I have a source here but have forgotten, maybe William Lane Craig, talking about bad-bart and good bart, if you have the time you will eventually come across that here on the youtube).

[@jasonissel217]

:: shaking uncontrollable:: all those real books, my goodness man have you never heard of logos bible software?

[@MrImagin]

how in the world are you reading text criticism books while fishing....

[@christophersnedeker2065]

Audiobooks?

[@opajohann]

Uh, the Greek Orthodox.

[@Logan-qi4nx]

I'm gonna make love to my pizza! *Wait no*

[@NathanielMitchellnm]

You read a lot.

[@wjckc79]

Your bible IQ is of the scale.

[@lclyd]

"lol i only need one dank meme to know the bible and hate it" - atheists

[@RenAigu]

watwhy Nah, it's more like "the summary of that book doesn't sound right to me, so I'm not gonna use that to try and fill a void I don't have."

[@retiredatlast1976]

Why on earth would Matt encourage learning to 'criticize the bible"? What we need is for people to implement the easy stuff they should already know and be using every day, but are not in such a large part of the American's who call themselves "christians". Examples of the easy stuff: The Ten Commandments; The two Commandments of Jesus; The Beatitudes of Jesus; The Parables of Jesus; We have millions of Americans who attend church on Sunday and maybe another day or evening in the middle of the week. But, what of their business life, their political life, their personal prejudices and how they treat other people? There are many in this group who lie as does Donald Trump. There are many who cheat customers, or employees out of what they legally owe them. There are many of them who are prejudiced against anyone from South of our border, or from some overseas nation, or who don't have white skin, ore who speak a foreign language. Or who deny that certain peoples are their neighbors as was Jesus' intent that all people are our neighbors. But those folks will proclaim themselves to be followers of Jesus and to be true "Christians." People need to put the "easy stuff of Jesus" into practice before they start to "criticize the bible."

[@MattWhitmanTMBH]

I don't think you're understanding what criticize means in this context. It means thinking critically about it, and as someone who thinks it's accurate and God is behind it, engaging in historical and literary criticism is a gesture of respect toward the text not one motivated by a desire to dismantle its credibility.

[@retiredatlast1976]

@@MattWhitmanTMBH This is from the Dictionary.com: "criticize [ krit-uh-sahyz ] SEE SYNONYMS FOR criticize ON THESAURUS.COM verb (used with object), crit·i·cized, crit·i·ciz·ing. 1. to censure or find fault with. 2. to judge or discuss the merits and faults of: to criticize three novels in one review. verb (used without object), crit·i·cized, crit·i·ciz·ing. 3. to find fault; judge unfavorably or harshly. 4. to make judgments as to merits and faults." I was taught and use the #'s 1 and 3. It appears you are a #2 and a #4 type of guy. I relate to useage like these: "Words related to criticize excoriate, chastise, denounce, chide, blame, censure, castigate, reprimand, blast, condemn, review, scrutinize, trim, rip, slam, rap, skin, reprove, zap, reprehend" Whereas, it looks like you are this kind of guy: "Words nearby criticize critical value, critical volume, criticality, criticaster, criticism, criticize, critique, critique of pure reason, crittenden compromise, critter, crius"

[@mchaywood83]

Daniel Wallace? Is that David Wallace's brother? LOL! J/K!

[@jasonpratt5126]

Dr. Ehrman is, actually, kind of a dirty liar. He knows to play straight when it's just him and other experts, but when non-experts are in the room he bamboozles hard. He's hugely notorious in the field for this (enough so that there's a theory going around among his peers, who know he's not that incompetent, that he's not even doing it on purpose but has actually gone insane). But it gets him a lot of attention. And some amount of extra income, since there aren't many (or any) other competent scholars making his (very, very hyper-)sceptical claims about the textual transmission situation. Having said all that, I have never heard anything bad ever said about Metz's 4th edition that he helped edit (nor do I have it myself, having learned from the prior edition and having other priorities than checking to see if Dr. E snuck some bits of insanity into the book), and it's still a standard work in the field. Naturally there has been some nervous/humorous speculation about what the 5th edition will look like someday if Dr. E is more involved with it, but I suspect he has burned his credibility bridges enough with his popular antics that the publishers won't let him near it again just to be safe.

[@jasonpratt5126]

Also, I've read and enjoyed Wallace's "Revisiting the Corruption of the NT" -- it's where I first heard the Dr. E insanity theory, if I recall correctly (don't have it handy at the office atm) -- but I don't recall it responding to Metzger 4th ed so much as responding Dr. E's other more controversial works.

[@jasonpratt5126]

While I'm thinking of it, "Credo House" offers a quite in-depth college-level course in Text Criticism -- which I've watched and can recommend, but keep in mind the topic is about as dry as the texts themselves! -- from Dr. Wallace, which can be found here: www.credocourses.com/product-category/textual-criticism/ Those require dropping some serious coin, but I thought I ought to mention those lectures as an option. (I have no connection to CH.)