The JEPD Theory (or Documentary Hypothesis of the Pentateuch)Ĭalled by various names such as the Documentary Hypothesis, the Graf-Wellhausen Hypothesis, the JEDP Theory, or even simply a composite view of the Pentateuch, adherents claim that the Torah is not a literary unity and Moses did not write it. The following list provides us with the top ten most common objections to the Bible’s historicity, popular in academic circles today.ġ. In this article, we will examine the charges made by the Bible’s detractors and equip you with a “messianic perspective”-to help you give an answer for the hope that is in you. Or, as George Ramsey similarly questioned regarding the biblical account of Joshua’s conquest, “If Jericho be not razed, is our faith in vain?” 3 Obviously, the implications for our faith are enormous if we concede to popular detractions from the Bible’s historical reliability. One could similarly say that if the Exodus did not occur, our Passover-informed faith in the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is in vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we witnessed against God that He raised the Messiah, whom He did not raise,” (1 Corinthians 15:14-15). Paul, the first-century rabbi and apostle, cautioned believers at Corinth, “If the Messiah has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, and your faith also is vain. If the Bible’s historical claims are not true, it would be right to doubt its religious ones.
But the real problem is that most of these historical claims are aimed at eliminating the more important religious truth claims made in the Scriptures. We can expect similar seasons’ greetings from the History Channel, the Public Broadcasting System, and other “educational” outlets. These attacks against the Bible’s historical value are nothing new, and they won’t be going away anytime soon. “Rethinking the Resurrection” favorably cited German New Testament scholar Gerd Ludemann, who called the historical claims to Jesus’ bodily resurrection “‘an empty formula’ that must be rejected by anyone holding a ‘scientific world view.’” The author of the article readily included the scholar’s opinion that “Jesus’ body ‘rotted away’ in the tomb.” 2 Happy Easter! Unsurprisingly, Newsweek, notorious for its hypercritical views of evangelical faith, greeted the season with a less than faith-inspiring cover story. “The truth is that virtually every modern archeologist who has investigated the story of Exodus agrees that the way the Bible describes the Exodus is not the way it happened, if it happened at all.” 1 What a strange way to say, “Happy Passover!” One front-page story in the Los Angeles Times was titled “Doubting the Story of Exodus.” It featured the modern Conservative rabbi, David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Westwood, California, as he shared his skepticism about the Bible’s historical claims in his pre-Passover sermon. Often these attacks against the Bible’s historical reliability are published just before major Jewish or Christian holidays. Upon this basis, they deny the Bible’s truth claims and reject the need for personal faith. Many skeptics have challenged that the Scriptures merely provide modern readers with myths and literary fictions from the ancient world.