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Old 05-13-2009, 04:57 PM
MPeak MPeak is offline
 
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 8
Default A Question of Scholarly Arrogance

With the KJV as my bible of choice, though I have not quite moved to KJV only, I wonder if perhaps our current technology level and scholarship libraries have made us a little arrogant.

For example, the early church fathers indicated that the Gospel of Mark was written by Mark and after Matthew, making it the second gospel written, as it is placed in the Bible. This tradition has been with the church for well over a thousand years. Suddenly, in the past century, we think that "Mark" was the first gospel written and claim we do not know who wrote it, all based on the latest science, biblical scholarship and archeology. And we also doubt that the last few verses of Mark's gospel are actually legitimate, like the passage of the woman caught in adultery in John 8.

I wonder if perhaps we are producing new translations and new study bibles based on the assumption that we somehow know better than those from whom the church has received its traditions.

It would seem arrogant to say that Christians in the distant past, like our early church fathers, were somehow ignorant or uneducated compared to Christians of today. After all, they lived within a century or two of the events whereas we are a thousand years plus removed. I would say they just might know better than us who wrote what.