Can the Bible have errors? Tom Explains | Ask NT Wright Anything

Tom Wright addresses a listener's question about the Bible's accuracy and how we should approach the 'Word of God'. Is the Bible truly infallible? 📜🤔 Can there be errors in a book written by humans? Join Tom Wright as he explores the trustworthiness of the Bible and offers 'cool' insightful guidance on how we should read and understand it.

🔍 #biblestudy #oldtestament #scripture #theology #tomwright #godandjustice #oldtestamentquestion

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Ask NT Wright Anything Podcast
The show that connects you to NT (Tom) Wright’s thoughts and theology through your questions. Produced by Premier Unbelievable in partnership with SPCK and NTWrightOnline.

About NT (Tom) Wright: Tom Wright is one of the world’s leading New Testament scholars and the author of numerous books including Surprised by Hope, The Day The Revolution Began, Paul: A Biography and most recently Jesus and the Powers. He is senior research fellow at Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford. Wright is ordained in the Church of England and, among other roles, served as Bishop of Durham between 2003 – 2010. He is much in demand as a lecturer around the world and the author for the bestselling For Everyone commentary series and the New Testament For Everyone Bible translation. Wright is married to Maggie and they have 4 children. As well as being a voracious reader, he loves classical music and opera and enjoys playing the guitar!

[dougbell]

I always greatly benefit from the wonderfully relevant teachings of Bishop Tom Wright. ✔️
Thanks for sharing.

[ChildofGod]

Lord please hear my prayers. As a single mother I’m struggling to provide for my sons both are special needs I’m overwhelmed! Every month is a battle. Jesus help me to overcome my fears. Because as I struggle I am fearful. I trust in you Lord Jesus please give me strength as I struggle to buy groceries and as I struggle to pay rent I know you will make a way. I know that God will provide he has this far.💕

[ianpaterson]

No denying it’s got errors but the thread of thought never waivers. It’s like the perfect imperfect book..

[marklabuschagne]

Did anyone notice how he didn't actually answer the question? He answered a question, but he didn't answer, "can it [the Bible] err."

[andyzar]

What about evil moral commands, for example stoning to death for adultery? Women specifically? That was a command attributed to God himself, then Jesus rebuked it, but why do we still read the Old Testament then?

[tederose]

What verses in Mark about the bread are they talking about?

[midlander]

"If it's ok with you I won't answer the question"
"No problem boomer"

[chuckm]

To those who need to pretend it is something more than it is, they will never give a direct answer to that question. To the sane among us, of course it’s chock full of errors and statements that are not factual. It’s just some stories about how people a few thousand years ago struggled to understand the ephemeral..

[billyg]

How would NT Wright respond to this point:

Mark 10:18
Luke 18:19
Matthew 19:17

These verses refer to the same event. Mark and Luke present the same question, but Matthew doesn't. It asks a different question. It's not just that the evangelist worded the same question differently, which would be just fine, but he wrote a different question. So what did Jesus actually ask or mean to ask? Did he ask both, but Mark and Luke only recorded one, while Matthew recorded the other?


How do we square this? Seems difficult.

[zytigon]

I have been interested in the Matthew 7v3-5 since childhood and i guess there are several interpretations. I think that, "There is a speck in what you are doing that i disagree with" is actually a high resolution, specific and best practice phrase. Well really the best critique that could be used is, "What you have done is suboptimal in one or more respects". Yet in the NIV v5 the narrator says, "You hipocrite" which is low resolution, ad hominem, name calling whereas "you are being hypocritical" is more specific. So it appears the narrator is the one with the log in their eye. I was at the beach this week and over heard the father saying to his child, "You idiot, don't put your sandy feet in those sandals, i just cleaned them and was about to clean the sand from your feet before you get in the car" I thought it was a tad severe to use the term, "You idiot" but it can be seen what was meant was, "don't be like the prototypical idiot or "don't be idiotic / silly" . But what if he had said, "Look please don't put your sandy feet in the shoes i just cleaned, wait until i clean the sand off your feet. The child's behaviour was sub optimal in the respect that it was making the father do the task again and use up valuable time" Are we really not allowed to make a critique of what others say and do or is it just that we shouldn't share our opinion with others when it hasn't been sought ? Well look although when i see something that i am displeased or annoyed by i aim to think, "I have negative emotions towards what is being done as it is not best practice, not best use of time / money / effort" i find it is so easy as a first response to go in with the sledge hammer ad hominem ( name calling ) under my breath. So i relate to the idea by St Paul, "I'm unhappy that i do not do the good that i know i should". But if those are the common phrases of society is it possible to be so different ? No man is an island ?

[michaelpaulholmes]

What about Quirinius being the functional hegemon since he was mentoring the new leader in Syria at that time?

[tcampe]

Inerrancy is a faith statement and commitment. Nothing more.

[rayleneberryman]

Dear Tom, we so appreciate your wisdom and insight. I’m just wondering if you would mind letting Justin finish his sentences before you share your perspective please. I value his input too. ❤ Thank you kindly.

[richardredmond]

As long as a perfect God chooses to use imperfect servants, the results may include an acceptable degree of human error. That is my experience in life generally in 45 years as a Christian, and applies to scripture also. There is also more than enough right in the Bible to give us what we need to have a correct picture of the spiritual matters that are essential to life. Even Bart has admitted that much, whilst of course for a completely different set of reasons having nothing to do with the Biblical texts, having dismissed all spiritual realities.

[kentonnur]

Heavens forbid that a base minion such as I question the great NT, but wasn’t it Jesus quoting Abiathar, not Paul ?

[Ragamuffin]

Notice that he dodges the original question, which was about how we know whether the Bible is true. He immediately veers into talking about interpretation. To restate: supposing we've interpreted the Bible correctly, how do we know that it's true? The answer, of course, is that we don't. If there is a God, then he has obviously allowed many bad things to happen in the world. So if the Bible is full of falsehoods, then that would just be one more bad thing that God has allowed to happen, which would not be out of character for him.

[stevencarr]

Can there really be an error in a book which says that eyewitnesses saw Jesus flying into the clouds on his way to Heaven?

[helpmaboabb]

The greatest barrier to me accepting Christianity is the level of historical and theological somersaults needing to be turned by its supporters to make sense of it. Presumably God is unperturbed by the fact that 2000 years later, it still needs intellectuals to "explain".

[MarkVincent-vi]

Define without error? Or, error. Not helpful! Wright always used too many words to get the point across. That bugs me.

[NickSandt]

Like the gentleman said, it depends on what you mean by errors. Its garden of Eden story and its great flood story were retellings of the ancient Mesopotamian stories, and in the ancient Mesopotamian flood story it’s one character called Enlil who is mad at the world and decides to flood it while his brother called Enki warns a certain man of the coming flood telling him to build an ark but the Bible says it’s the same character who floods the earth and who tells Noah to build the ark. Why turn two characters into one single character? I’m not sure 🤷🏻‍♂️ but I don’t need to explain why this is very problematic!