What is the Bible? Part 3

Posted on November 23, 2020 by J. J.

This is an examination of the popular Christian biblical canon of scriptures, and the manuscripts thereof. This is not an interpretation of what the Bible means. I made it personal in Part 1 to give you some context of where I’m coming from. Part 2 details the development of the Old Testament. Here in Part 3, I will dive into the New Testament and provide my answer to the question, “What is the Bible?” My goal is the give you the tools through a field called “textual criticism” to answer that question for yourself. Hopefully the “Biblical canon manuscripts.xlsx” spreadsheet from Part 2 will help you with that answer. I’m packing a lot of nerdy terms into this post that are easily Googleable, or found on Wikipedia, but the synthesis of those terms and ideas is my own.

1612 King James “She” Bible* (Insight of the King)

What is the Bible? Part 2

Posted on November 23, 2020 by J. J.

This is an examination of the popular Christian biblical canon of scriptures, and the manuscripts thereof. This is not an interpretation of what the Bible means. I made it personal in Part 1 to give you some context of where I’m coming from. Here, in Part 2, we’ll start with the Old Testament to start answering, “What is the Bible?” My goal is the give you the tools through a field called “textual criticism” to answer that question for yourself. Hopefully the included “Biblical canon manuscripts.xlsx” spreadsheet will help you with that answer. I’m packing a lot of nerdy terms into this post that are easily Googleable, or found on Wikipedia, but the synthesis of those terms and ideas is my own. Continue to Part 3 for the conclusion.

Spreadsheet of Biblical books and manuscripts (.xlsx)

What is the Bible? Part 1

Posted on November 23, 2020 by J. J.

This is an examination of the popular Christian biblical canon of scriptures, and the manuscripts thereof. It acts uniquely as a short memoir and a spreadsheet of biblical books (I couldn’t find a list like this, so I made my own). This is not an interpretation of what the Bible means. The main reason I’m putting this together is help people come up with their own answer to, “What is the Bible?” As I was answering this big question for myself, it got very personal. If you want to skip that part, continue to Part 2, the more objective portion of this biblical study. The conclusion is in Part 3.

NIV Study Bible, 2002 — My study Bible, published in 2002

Book review: Love Is an Orientation

Posted on November 2, 2010 by J. J. — 6 Comments ↓

Considering I’m neither queer nor Christian, you may wonder why I would promote a book written by a self-proclaimed “straight, white, conservative, Bible-believing, evangelical male” who is sympathetic to the Queer Question. Even so, Andrew Marin’s Love Is an Orientation strikes me as a brave discussion on the civil rights struggle between various Christian sects and the greater GLBT community in the United States. Impressively, Marin has devoted his entire career to building bridges between these communities.

Love Is an Orientation book
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Chasing the theological rabbit

Posted on October 5, 2010 by J. J. — 2 Comments ↓

It’s been over a year since I’ve shared some theological musings with Zepfanedites. This is an abridged version of an email chain I recently had with a friend. Names and places have been changed to protect the innocent. I’ll repeat here something I mentioned in the e-mails – in case you don’t want to read through the whole thing: what I’ve concluded is that people either believe or they don’t. I spent about three or four months trying to maintain my belief in Christianity and I even shared my doubts with fellow Christians. In the end, I couldn’t force myself to believe anymore – it’s like that spirit just left me. (For a related biblical passage that has always stayed with me, however, see Romans 1-2, particularly 1:18-32.)