The New Testament (a historical look)

Amidst all the chaos for planning for the future, I actually have classes that I go to. Being a graduating senior allows for certain perks, like taking 9 hours and being considered a full time student. And having 3 of those hours being online. Yeah, I'm only on campus for a few hours on Tuesday and Thursday. It is as wonderful as it sounds.

My final 9 hours allowed me to take any two communication classes that I wanted, and any other random credit of my choosing. So I chose to take a class on the New Testament.

On the first day of class, my professor walked in, introduced himself, and then promptly announced that he was unafraid to offend and hoped that what we learned in class challenged our beliefs. And rather than sinking down in my seat or looking up other classes to take, my first thought was, "Okay, let's see then."

Honestly, the class hasn't done anything to challenge my beliefs in Christ, or the validity of the Bible, or any other part of my faith. It's kind of done the opposite. All the historical context of when the latter half of the Bible was written is ridiculously interesting. For a 75 minute class, which is normally torture for my short attention span, I rarely look at my watch.

My professor is quirky, and extremely intelligent. He lays out the information objectively (he goes to an Eastern Orthodox church) and it is so clear that he knows what he's talking about. Maybe he's been giving his best efforts to try and dissuade me from my beliefs, but it really has been more affirming than anything.

And it's pretty cool to get historical meaning for who the Pharisees actually were, and how Herod came into power, and how the Bible itself was formed. It's given me context for how important the Temple was, how radical Jesus was, and why different groups reacted the way that they did. And, beyond that, how people reacted after Jesus ascended to Heaven. He made big waves, you guys. The world was immediately changed as people tried to figure out who He was, as Paul and the disciples spread the news around.

A big thing that we focused on the first two weeks of class was about the potential errors of the Bible. Which I get where the argument is coming from--the printing press didn't exist in 60CE, and people had to copy Scripture somehow. Scribes copied and translated and sent out texts. Errors were bound to be made. And, admittedly, there were moments were I did wonder how we could believe what has been copied countless times.

But here's the thing: my God is vastly larger than human error. Jesus died on the cross and then raised from the dead to prove that he was much, much more powerful than any mistake humans could ever make. The point is that no, we do not have the absolute original writings of Mark. But I am confident that the Lord would not let his messages be changed by typos.

I have my first test in that class tomorrow, and while it is a ton of information, it is not information I am uninterested in. I'm a history nerd. I'm learning about the New Testament. And I'm seeing how faithful the Lord is to move through thousands of years. I think, in my last semester of college, I have found one of my favorite classes.