If the Bible Was Written by Humans, Does that Change Its Reliability?

Episode Chapters

1. Intro
   0:00 – 1:16
2. Do you have any new learnings or discoveries since the Making of the Bible series?
   1:16 – 1:21
3. "Allison from Florida “Hi Tim and Jon. I've been listening to your podcast every week on my morning run and have also listened to and started a re-listen of Exploring My Strange Bible. Coincidentally, as you started the short series on how the Bible came to be, next up in my queue on Exploring was a three-part series, Making of the Bible. So my question for Tim is: Since the sermons on Making of the Bible were from over 10 years ago, has there been any new discoveries or learnings you found that contributed to the new series you all just completed? Thanks again for all you do.”"
   1:21 – 7:45
4. Does the Bible being written by humans, but inspired by God, change its reliability?
   7:45 – 7:49
5. "Guinevere from Illinois “Hi. This is Gwenevere White from Illinois, and I was wondering: Does the Bible being written by humans, but inspired by God, change the reliability of it? I can think of times when certain books have small differences. For example, the book of Samuel and the book of Kings have different ages for the kings when they are crowned sometimes. If the Bible is true and God is true and the Bible is the word of God, do these errors happen due to humans making mistakes or something else? Are they even mistakes? Thanks for making all the resources that you do.”"
   7:49 – 17:07
6. What is the relationship between the written word of the Bible and Jesus as the Word at creation?
   17:07 – 17:12
7. "Jodee from Midland, Texas “Hello. Could you please dive into the relationship between the written word, the Bible, and the concept in John that Jesus is the Word present at creation? Is Jesus the spoken aspect of God, God's verbal word, as we see in Genesis—God speaks and various creations happened? Or is Jesus as the Word something more akin to the written word, the Bible. Calling Jesus the Word of God is a difficult concept for me to grasp, and I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thank you.”"
   17:12 – 31:00
8. How do you reconcile humans editing the Bible during its development with Scriptures that command not to add to or take away from God's Word?
   31:00 – 31:06
9. "Rory from Brisbane, Australia “Hey Tim and Jon. I'm Rory from Brisbane, Australia, long-time listener, first-time caller. My question relates to the discomfort people seem to feel about humans modifying or editing the Bible during its development. But there's also several scriptures explicitly commanding not to add to or take away from God's Word, such as Deuteronomy 4 or Proverbs 30. How do you reconcile these two things happening in the Bible? Does it only apply to like once the Bible took its final form or is it more of a ‘don't change the meaning’ sort of thing? Thanks.”"
   31:06 – 42:18
10. What should we do with other writings that closely followed the New Testament?
    42:18 – 43:04
11. "Megan from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada “Hi BibleProject. This is Megan from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Thank you so much for this series, which was exactly what I wanted and needed. My question is: What should we do with other texts claiming to be gospel accounts which were discovered later, such as the Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Thomas? It was recently suggested to me by a spiritual mentor that I read the Gospel of Mary. And as someone who grew up in a Protestant tradition that is extremely suspicious of such texts, I hesitated. Is it worth considering these texts, especially one like the Gospel of Mary that may have been suppressed for sexist reasons, or are texts like this apt to be spiritually confusing?”"
    43:04 – 43:46
12. "Zach from Austin, TX “Hi guys. My name is Zack, and I'm in Austin, TX. I have a question about the New Testament and early Christian writings. You talked about the Deuterocanon, the collection of Jewish writings from the Second Temple period that are categorized with the Old Testament Scriptures but are not considered Scripture by all traditions. There are a similar set of writings for the New Testament, works like the Letter of Clement to the Corinthians, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Didache (which you mentioned on the podcast). From my understanding, they were well enough regarded by some early Jesus following communities to have been considered for inclusion in the New Testament canon but were ultimately rejected. How have they been regarded since then? How should we think of them today? Thanks for all you do.”"
    43:46 – 61:46
13. Show Credits
    61:46 – 62:52