Author: Grant Hastings

A Brief History Of How The Bible Came To Be – New Testament and Onward

Grant HastingsFebruary 12, 20171 Comment on A Brief History Of How The Bible Came To Be – New Testament and Onward

In my last blog, I covered the development of the Old Testament. A Brief History of how the Bible came to be: Old Testament. Today I am going to cover what we know of the development of the Bible after the time of Christ.

Languages of New Testament Times

By New Testament times, Palestine was a very cosmopolitan place with most citizens being multilingual. If you read my previous blog, you can imagine, Jews would have spoken Hebrew, Aramaic, Egyptian and Greek; and with the expansion of Rome, yet another foreign empire to oppress the children of Israel, they would have learned Latin as well. When you consider Jesus communicated with a Roman centurion (Matt 8:5-13), Pontius Pilate (John 18:28-38), discussed the Torah with religious leaders at age 12 (luke 2:28-52), and spoke with a Samaritan women ( John 4:4-26), it seems Jesus was likely conversant in at least the four languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin.

Languages of the New Testament Jews
Hebrew
Aramaic
Greek
Eqyptian
Latin
(more…)

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A Brief History of How The Bible Came To Be – The Old Testament

Grant HastingsFebruary 05, 20172 Comments on A Brief History of How The Bible Came To Be – The Old Testament

The Christian bible as we have it today, varied in versions as it is, went through numerous incarnations before the canon was finally established in the 7th Century AD. In this entry, I am providing a brief history of how the Old Testament came about. There are a few words that pop up when discussing the bible and I have listed them here so that you don’t get confused:

Scripture – inspired writings which may or may not be accepted as part of official canon.
Canon– list of specific scripture that are accepted as authoritative.
Vulgate – 4th century Latin translation of the bible, published in 382 AD by Jerome.
Pentateuch – also known as The Law, includes the first 5 books of the bible, also known as the torah.
Septuagint– translation of Hebrew bible into Koine Greek, also known as the Greek Old Testament
Targum and Peshitta – the Targum is the Jewish translation of the old testament into Aramaic; the Peshitta is the Christian translation, also known as the Syriac.
Extant – still in existence, surviving. Extant manuscripts are early or original manuscripts that are still in existence.
Diaspora – dispersion of Jews beyond Israel. Occurred in 600 BC and 70 AD.
Hebrew –  a Semitic language of the children of Israel; a member of the ancient people living in Israel and Palestine and descendants of Jacob.
Tanakh – Hebrew bible.
Torah – specifically means the five books of Moses, but is also used to refer to the collective Jewish scriptures.
Talmud – the spoken torah (more…)

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What is mormon scripture?

Grant HastingsJanuary 29, 20172 Comments on What is mormon scripture?

For the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon church, there are 4 canons of scriptures.
• The Bible
• The Book of Mormon
• The Doctrine and Covenants
• Pearl of Great Price

Most Christian religions exclusively use the bible with various differences. The Catholic Bible contains what many refer to as apocryphal books for example. Most English speaking Protestants rely on the King James Version of the Bible. The LDS church is perhaps unique in that it accepts additional books that are not related to the biblical narrative.
Here is a brief explanation of each of the texts: (more…)

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It’s Evolutionary My Dear Moses

Grant HastingsJanuary 22, 2017

There are some religious people who teach that, according to Moses, the universe was created in 6 days, and that any evidence from evolutionary biologists can be dismissed because evolution is just a theory. This is, in my view, based on a gross misunderstanding of what the Book of Genesis is actually saying but setting this aside, let’s examine the ‘it is just a theory’ argument.

Is evolution just a theory?

Wikipedia –  A scientific theory is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that is acquired through the scientific method and repeatedly tested and confirmed through observation and experimentation.

Dictionary.com – The Scientific Theory of Evolution: coherent group of propositions formulated to explain a group of factor phenomena in the natural world and repeatedly confirmed through experiment or observation. (more…)

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Will the Real Adam and Eve Please Stand Up?

Grant HastingsJanuary 15, 20174 Comments on Will the Real Adam and Eve Please Stand Up?
Bill Reid, Raven

The bible begins with the story Adam and Eve. Who were Adam and Eve and when did they live? If you have read my blogs ‘What is Genesis 1 Talking About Part 1 & What is Genesis 1 Talking About Part 2’, you will be familiar with my distinction between figurative and fictional. Often people look at the bible and, since the way the story is told does not match with how a modern historian would record the events, they conclude that the story must be fictional. The story however, can be both figurative and true. Today we have developed both expository and poetic writing styles and we forget that, thousands of years ago, these two styles were merged. For example, we can pick up a book on the history of World War I written in a forthright and objective manner, and we can also pick up a poem such as Flanders Fields. When we read “We are the Dead. Short days ago” we know full well that this is not literally the dead speaking, but rather a poetic way of expressing the trauma of war in ways that a factual exposition cannot.

If we work from the assumption that Adam and Eve were real people, we need to also recognize that the text is both telling history and telling a story. Adam and Eve could have been real people, but the text in Genesis presents them as archetypical people. Einstein, for example, was a real physicist, but he has become an archetype for someone who is really smart. Calling someone an Einstein does not mean Einstein never existed. (more…)

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Can I Have A Word With You?

Grant HastingsJanuary 08, 2017

Yes, a word if I can in whatever language you have to offer. I stand all amazed by people who can speak multiple languages with ease. I do not understand how they can keep them apart, or how they can even remember all the vocabulary, grammar, conjugations and accents. I speak a bit of Spanish and even less French and that is the most my little brain can handle. I recall a teacher I had in high school who was a linguist. He taught English and French, but he was fluent in dozens of languages; not only fluent in grammar and vocabulary, but fluent in their accents. What he was doing teaching high school I don‘t know. He had a PHD in something or other, I just recall he went by the title Dr. He was a very likable guy, but it seemed to me he belonged in a university setting and other teachers, as I recall, felt the same way. Perhaps they had other motives for him changing venues, but I digress.

We had arranged a trip across Canada so parents, teachers and students had gathered for a planning meeting. A good friend of mine was Italian and his father was speaking with the good doctor in his native language. My friend’s father was certain the doctor was from Venice because of his distinct accent, so the teacher changed his accent to match that of my friend’s father who was from Sicily. The latter was stunned. The doctor could speak German, Russian, Spanish, Serbian, and so much more; if put on the spot, I could not even name all of the Japanese car manufacturers, never mind pronounce their names properly. (more…)

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A New Year Just Begun

Grant HastingsJanuary 01, 2017

Another year has just begun, again. I still remember December 31st 1979, it was poised to be the end of a decade, the first that I would have at least in living memory. It came and went and I went back to school on Wednesday and continued on as normal; but I remember the excitement. The 70’s were ending and would be no more. I also remember January 1st 1999. Rather than sleeping in after a night of celebrating, I started the new year by taking a bunch of boys camping up in Manning Park in the rocky mountains of British Columbia. All the way up, the radio was playing Princes ‘1999’ over and over again and we loved every moment of it. (more…)

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My Happiest Christmas

Grant HastingsDecember 25, 2016

My happiest Christmas I recall was a Christmas Eve back in 1976 when I as 8 years old. We had been invited to the homes of several people and I could not have been happier to experience the hospitality, generosity and love of so many.   One of the homes we visited was of the Larson’s who lived in the City of Richmond on Sea Island, which is the same Island where the Vancouver International Airport is located. I still remember arriving at their door, and the rich aroma of food. I remember Betty Larson welcoming us in with her broad smile and bright and gregarious laugher. She gave me a hug and held in her arms. (more…)

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The Early Years of the Saviour – A fresh perspective

Grant HastingsDecember 18, 2016

The New Testament begins with four books known as the gospels: Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. Each book records the life of the Saviour from a different perspective and should each be considered testimonies rather than biographies. The books are certainly not consistent in what events they record. The vast majority of the material in the Book of John, 97%, is unique to that book, on the other hand, only 7% of Mark is unique to itself. There are, to my knowledge, just 11 events that are recorded in all four gospels, and these include the baptism of John, feeding the 5,000, the crucifixion and resurrection. If you want to learn about the Saviour’s early years, only Luke records his birth and early childhood, and only Matthew records the arrival of the wise men and subsequent slaughter of innocent children. Mark and John start right into his ministry. (more…)

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The Bible – is it Inerrant and Complete?

Grant HastingsDecember 11, 20164 Comments on The Bible – is it Inerrant and Complete?

bible-inspired-and-profitable

If you believe that the Bible is complete and that there is no more cannon, that is ok with me. But the bible does not require it to be so. The following verses from the bible are the ones most often shown to me to prove that the bible is completed.

Can the bible be added to?

Revelation 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. (more…)

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