Last Tuesday (5.19.20) I was in a debate with Stephen Boyce on the PA. This brought to mind the two WM podcasts I did in 2014 (hard to believe it was that long ago!) reviewing a sermon by evangelical pastor John Piper in which he makes some of the same arguments as Boyce on the PA, especially in suggesting that the PA is a "true" story that is not in the Bible.
In these podcasts I point out some of the problems I see with this rejection of the authenticity of the the Pericope Adulterae (PA), John 7:53-8:11.
I have added video versions of WM 31 and WM 32 to the Word Magazine channel:
JTR
Dr. Riddle,
ReplyDeleteMost everything textual appears to be in a sort of post-modern flux in the Critical Text (CT) school, which school Dr. Boyce advances in the PA debate you had and noted in this post.
Q: Can the Critical Text engine, however, escape (does it want to escape?) what the German Bible Society states: “the existing text required extensive modification” that will result in a “hypothetical reconstruction” of the wordings as they existed (source: GBS site). This approach is anything but new, though now perhaps speeding up in our day, and the PA is just one of its earlier casualties (sadly, we can probably expect much more out of Münster yet).
Objectively, where does the settled, forever, abiding, sacred and holy Word of our Triune God, of Whom every Word is pure (from which doctrine flows), factor into... text flux? Postmodern thought can make divine providence mean whatever it wants; but divine providence remains what it is.
Before Another Bible - consider: “Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven” (Psalm 119:89). "Every word of God is pure” (Prov 30:5) and "having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides (i.e. continue/endure/remain) forever (i.e. perpetuity)" (1 Peter 1:23).
Blessings in Christ,
Howie