(December 22, 2017 at 5:02 am)alpha male Wrote: How do you know how often it leads to false information? Regarding Biblical scholarship, consider the Q source.It was invented by Biblical scholars with nothing else to do. It's never been found. Yet, many scholars assume it existed.
Also, see nihilist and wyrd's posts above. The Timothy passage seems to strike them as a Biblical claim of inerrancy.
Scholars can infer the existence of Q, just as the police can infer that someone was shot by a handgun even though the gun used to kill them cannot be found. In the latter case, they can infer the type of weapon used based upon the bullet that was found in the victim's body.
Matthew and Luke wrote independently of each other, that is, they did not have each other's gospel in front of them, but yet, they did each have a copy of Mark (which neither of them mentions), because they both quote verbatim from Mark. They also have material that is unique to both of them (called 'M' and 'L', respectively), but they both also quote verbatim from another document, which, like the Gospel of Thomas, was a "sayings" gospel. Scholars refer to this lost document as being 'Q' (which, in German, simply means "source").
