Our next session of School is tonight starting at 7pm where we’ll cover:

• An overview of the New Testament – brought to you by Andy Dixon; and
• The authority and inspiration of the Bible – in what ways is the Bible God’s word and what does that mean for us? – presented by Greg and Strahan.

One topic we touched on briefly at School last week was why we have so many translations of the Bible.

I mean, why can’t there just be one standard-issue Bible that we can all read from and there be no contention?  That way, when someone reads their Bible from up the front on Sunday, you could be sure that you could follow along with the same words in your own Bible – instead of sometimes feeling like you’ve just got lost in translation… [cue reference to film title to show that even though I am a Christian, I am still culturally relevant - and witty at that]

Well the answer is quite simple.  The Bible is a collection of writings that were originally written in another language – either Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic. And when you try and translate those writings into English, you inevitably find that the translation does not quite marry up perfectly because of the differences in grammar or meaning.

For instance, the Greeks apparently had four different words for the one English word “love”.  How can we capture these different senses of these Greek words in English then?

And what happens when the English language itself changes over time, as it is known to do?

Well, it means that translators do the best they can, either emphasising a word for word approach (such as the King James Version translation) or a thought for thought approach (such as the NIV translation) or even restate the message entirely in a paraphrase (such as the Message translation).

As no English translation is going to be perfect, it is useful to be aware of the approach taken by the translation that you’re reading currently, and it may even provoke you to get a range of different translations so that you can get the benefit of these different approaches.

For more on this, see the notes from the first session which you can download at http://groups.google.co.nz/group/school-at-edge-kingsland.

See you tonight at 7pm.

What if someone was serious about adding their latest work to our Bibles?  Would you let them?

I mean, they could do a nice job of it, print it off on some nice quality A4 and glue in into the back right after Revelation but before the concordance, making sure it didn’t mess with those pretty colour maps.

Would you treat it like it was worthy of being on the same level as Isaiah or Luke?

What if it was fairly theologically accurate – no major issues there – and read really well?  Perhaps with a touch of suspense, like the latest John Grisham?

This is the question of whether the Canon is now closed.  If it is, then sorry, we’re not adding anything more in.  We have what we need.

The Church for the best part of the last 1800 years or so has been of this view – that the Old Testament scriptures and the writings of those who knew and followed Jesus during his time on earth comprise all that we need.  There are no serious contenders for any further books to be added in.

But what if we found another one of Paul’s letters?  What would you say then?

Perhaps this is a point worthy of further discussion at our online discussion group at http://groups.google.co.nz/group/school-at-edge-kingsland.  Or you could come along to School tomorrow night.

So in our first session at School last Thursday, we asked:  “Why does the Canon matter?“

Now we’re not talking about medieval warfare here, or a brand of digital camera, because the word “Canon” in the sense we mean refers to the collection of books contained in our Bible today. And yes, the Bible is not just one book – its a collection of books or writings – 66 different ones, in fact.

So when we ask “Why does the Canon matter?“, we’re asking: “Why does it matter that someone, somewhere decided what books would be collected together to become the Bibles that we have today?“

Maybe its not a question that you’ve ever thought about much.  But if someone asked you: “How do you know that you’ve got the right writings in your Bible there?“, what would you say?

And if you didn’t know what to say, how can you be sure that you can trust how the Bible is put together?  How do you know its worth reading?

If that’s intrigued you, head over to our online discussion group at http://groups.google.co.nz/group/school-at-edge-kingsland where you can download the notes from the first session and join in the discussion.

Last night was the first night of School here at Edge, where we started our series “Eat this Book” – looking at the Bible, where it came from, its story and themes and how we can engage with and interpret it.

Over the next few days, we’ll post some thoughts here about some of the ideas that were raised in the first session.

And as we mentioned last night, you can join the discussion on the these ideas and ask any questions you might have by heading over to our online discussion group at http://groups.google.co.nz/group/school-at-edge-kingsland.  Those teaching in this series will endeavour to answer any questions you might have that you post there.  From that site, you can also download the notes from the first two sessions that we held last night in case you couldn’t make it.

We look forward to having you join the discussion!

Ever wanted to know where we got the Bible from?  Or why Christians think it contains words from God? Or do you want to get a better grip on the Bible’s overarching storyline, and how we can engage with it afresh and interpret it rightly?

Well, you’re in luck.

We’re starting a new teaching series here at Edge, simply called School.  School will be about getting us grounded in the basics of the Christian worldview, but also be focused on training us in practical ways to engage as Christians with the wider culture in which we live.  Over the year we’ll address different topics in a series of four consecutive Thursday nights and featuring a number of different speakers.

The first topic is called “Eat This Book” and is about engaging with the Bible.  Greg, Mike, Linda, Janine, Andy, Mark and Nigel Dixon will be speaking on this topic over four weeks, beginning next Thursday, 4 March at Edge.  So come along.