Lost in Transmission?: What We Can Know About the Words of Jesus

In recent years, I have noticed that many of the twenty and thirty-somethings in my circle ask very pointed questions about the accuracy of the biblical text. Some of the questioners are devoted Christians; others are outside the faith, challenging the foundation of our belief system. Regardless of their background, they are familiar with History Channel documentaries about the Gnostic or Lost Gospels and they have seen movies like The Da Vinci Code. C.S. Lewis famously argued that Jesus must be either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. There are no other legitimate options. Despite the brilliance of Lewis' trilemma, his apologetic falls apart if one disposes with the historical data of Jesus given to us in the Gospels. The Jesus of the canonical Gospels must be either liar, lunatic, or Lord. But once you question the historicity of the biblical picture of Jesus, his identity is once again in dispute. Enter Nick Perrin, former research assistant to N.T. Wright and now the Assistant Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College. Perrin's book Lost In Transmission?: What We Can Know About the Words of Jesus takes on the recent critics of the Gospels' reliability in a winsome and readable manner for laypeople. The impetus for Lost in Transmission is the recent work of Bart Ehrman. Ehrman has made the argument at the popular level that the words of Jesus have been corrupted beyond recovery - intentionally tampered with by the scribes who handed down the words of Jesus. Readers of Ehrman are struck by the personal nature of his writings. Ehrman cannot reconcile the existence of a good God and the existence of horrifying, unspeakable evils. Perrin's response is just as personal. He recounts his own spiritual journey as he dismantles the illogical theses of Ehrman. Writes Perrin: "This book is for different kinds of people. It is for the countless people out there who, though interested in Jesus, are afraid to believe because they think that we cannot know anything about him or his words. It is also for Christians who are afraid to think because they believe we cannot know anything about Jesus. And it is for Christians who, being unafraid to believe or think, have dared to ascend the intellectual climbing wall of their faith, but who, having been harnessed into the Enlightenment understanding of historical evidence, are unaware of the fragility of that harness." (x) Perrin believes that evangelicals need to do business with historical research. We dare not ignore the historical challenges to our faith: "When people succumb to that temptation of ignoring challenges to their faith, they are in the end demonstrating that they are more committed to the feeling of having a lock on truth than they are to truth itself." (xxi) In other words, Perrin sees our refusal to engage in the historical debate as a backhanded denial of the truths at the very heart of Christianity. We must never suppress the historical truths surrounding the life of Jesus Christ p

Great book by Nicholas Perrin that addresses Ehrman's writing, especially Misquoting Jesus. I appreciate his humble and easy going style, but he really knows his material.

Do the words of Jesus that we see in our Bibles today resemble the words that were actually spoken two millenia ago? Or have the Bible's authors, copyists, and translators played fast and loose with them? Bart Ehrman, in his book, Misquoting Jesus, makes a case for the (often systematic) corruption of Jesus' words and of the whole text of the Bible from the earliest times on down to the present. For him, the Bible isn't trustworthy: Jesus words and those of the earliest apostles have been lost in transmission. It is into this discussion that Nicholas Perrin, professor of NT at Wheaton College, enters with this new book. Let me start by saying that this book is decidedly not academic, by design. Perrin, a NT scholar, could certainly mount academic responses to Ehrman and others on these issues, and other authors have in fact done so. Perrin, on the other hand, seeks to both respond in a way that can be understood, but more than that he seeks to put forth a compelling vision of what our New Testament is and why it's worth paying attention to. This whole discussion is encased in a testimony of sorts, as Perrin talks about his own upbringing and his first exposures to the Bible. His journey of discovery makes a great storyline within which these issues can be explored. I recommend this book quite highly. He makes a lot of current research in a number of areas, from Jesus studies to textual criticism, highly understandable. His chapters on Jesus and his Jewishness are worth the price of the book, and his summary of the quests for the "historical" Jesus is one of the clearest I've read. Beyond that, he also (selectively and rather quickly by design) refutes a number of Ehrman's central points, and, probably more important, points toward more fruitful lines of inquiry and more authentic approaches to questions of the Bible's integrity. Perrin's work is full of insights, such as the important assertion that Jesus intended his words be remembered by his disciples, and that, in their Jewish context, it is highly plausible that they would have done so with care. He also makes clear that God chose to impart his revelation into a human context and process, deeming it a sufficient and appropriate vehicle for the intended message. We shouldn't necessarily expect a wooden, flawless, perfect textual tradition, and this fact doesn't lessen the power of God's revelation or diminish it's call on us. In the end, he concludes that "even if that transmission [of Jesus' words] was less than completely perfect, it was faithful" (187). This book has clearly done a service to the church in making some of these discussions accessable. If these are issues that interest you, this book is a great place to start.

Nicholas Perrin is Assistant Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL. His areas of research include the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus' identity as the temple, Paul and Jewish self-definition, and the Gospels. Two of his more recent publications are Thomas: The Other Gospel (London, SPCK; Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2007) and The Judas Gospel (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006). One can hardly watch or read the news without hearing about the latest research on the Gnostic gospels of Thomas or Judas and how Christianity as we know it will be shaken to its very core. It is a very unique time we live in, where the Gnostic gospels and New Testament textual criticism have gained such prominence in the popular media. The work of Bart Ehrman and others has ignited a heightened interest on these topics within the public square. This book engages and examines certain claims made by Ehrman in his widely popular book, Misquoting Jesus (New York: HarperOne, 2007). Based on the subject matter alone, you might expect this book to be highly technical, stuffy, and boring. It is not any of these things. The audience the author has in mind for this work is the uninformed non-Christian and the church. As such, it is written in a manner that makes it very accessible to the reader who has a limited background on this subject matter. The themes of the chapters are as follows: 1. Lost in Transmission? 2. Did Jesus Live? 3. History, Faith, and Certitude 4. Lord of the Ring 5. Jesus the Jew 6. Can You Hear Me Now? 7. The Evangelist's Hand 8. Gospel Truth or Gospel Truths? 9. Mistaking Matters 10. Misleading Pens 11. Translation Wars With the intended audience in mind, the catchy, yet somewhat cliché chapter titles seem to be an attempt to keep a light-hearted feel within subject matter that is often anything but. Each chapter of the book has a specific three-part structure. First, there is a short excerpt from Ehrman's book Misquoting Jesus. Second, there is a related, personal story from the author. Third, the topic of the chapter is engaged and examined. Throughout the first eight chapters, Perrin engages Ehrman's points in an indirect manner. This trend changes in the final three chapters as Perrin's refutations become more passionate and direct. My conjecture is that this change can be attributed to the subject matter in chapters nine through eleven more closely aligning to Perrin's areas of expertise and personal interest. All things considered, I found this to be an enjoyable book. It is a quick read at a mere 224 pages. Perrin does a good job of keeping the subject matter at the level of his intended audience. This work is by no means exhaustive nor is it overly technical. In light of this, it would make a great introduction for the layperson with little to no exposure to modern Jesus scholarship and New Testament textual criticism. The other real value in this book is found in the author's personal stories. I appreciated the ho

Know anyone who lost his faith over "Misquoting Jesus", in which Ehrman claims the bible we have now has been so corrupted, so changed by hundreds of scribes, that there is no way of knowing whether or not we have the original message of Jesus? Perrin has written a response to that book. Perrin is a first class scholar, whose recent books dated the Gnostic "Gospel of Thomas" to after 170 AD, much to the chagrin of the Jesus Seminar. "Lost in Transmission" is aimed at the general reader, however. You don't need any kind of background to read this book. Perrin starts out by clearing up some common claims in popular anti-Christian books, starting with "The Jesus Mysteries" by Freke and Gandy. They claim Jesus never existed. Perrin chews their thesis to bits. Freke and Gandy are English teachers, not bible scholars, and it's a simple matter to run through all the ridiculous errors in their book. Perrin also takes on Gotthold Lessing, who wants tolerance to prevail, to the point of forbidding religion. What logic! Then there are those that argue that all religions are essentially the same. No, from the start "Judaism...was different from the Eastern religions in that it took history seriously" (p 115). While much of the eastern religions say that "suffering is an illusion, both Judaism and Christianity take suffering seriously" (p 116). Ehrman's errors and exagarations are many. Certainly he never explains the care the ancient Jews took with copying their scriptures. He points out that "we have roughly 5,500 manuscript witnesses to the New Testament. There is no other book and no other set of books that can even come close to comparing with this level of attestation" (p 142). In fact, Ehrman's book ultimately "promises far more than it delivers" (p 144).