The New Testament references the Hebrew Bible that came to be known as the Old Testament. The New Testament books were not referred to until the second century of the common era. Consensus on its contents did not occur until the late fourth century. There is nothing wrong with different points of view or inconsistencies. The first two chapters of Genesis are not contradictory. The synoptic gospels give different versions of the Baptism of Jesus. Most of us just say “so what?” We understand different points of view. The Bible had different authors over a considerable amount of time. The Old Testament took hundreds of years to complete. The New Testament took thirty to sixty years to finish. Very few could write, so that oral tradition dominated in that society. The texts themselves were rewritten, so that we say that the texts we have, with all its corrections, is the one that God wants us to have.
corrections
A lesson from the other countries (Zeph 3:6-3:7)
“I have cut off nations.
Their battlements
Are in ruins.
I have laid waste
Their streets,
So that no one walks
In them.
Their cities have been made
Desolate,
Without people,
Without inhabitants.
I said.
‘Surely
This city
Will fear me.
She will accept correction.
She will not lose sight
Of all that I have brought
Upon her.
But they were more eager
To make all their deeds
Corrupt.’”
Yahweh, via Zephaniah, warned Jerusalem about what Yahweh had done to other countries. He had ruined their fortresses and battlement stations. He had destroyed their streets, so that people could not walk on them. He had reduced their cities to rubble, so that nobody lived there anymore. Why didn’t Jerusalem fear him? Yahweh thought that Jerusalem would take corrections, since she had seen all the things that he had done for them. However, they were more eager to continue with their corrupt activities, rather than follow Yahweh.
The prayer of Jeremiah (Jer 5:3-5:3)
“O Yahweh!
Do your eyes not look for truth?
You have struck them.
But they felt no anguish.
You have consumed them,
But they refused to take correction.
They have made their faces
Harder than a rock.
They have refused
To turn back,
To repent.”
Jeremiah offers this prayer to Yahweh. He knows that Yahweh seeks the truth. Even after being struck and punished by Yahweh, they still felt no anguish. They refused to take any corrections. Their faces have become harder than a rock. They have refused to turn and repent.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 