Oracles of God: Unpacking the Formation of the New Testament

The Journey of "Oracles of God"

• 🎬 The film "Oracles of God: The Story of the New Testament" by CBN Films aims to explain the codification of the Gospels.
• 🗓️ Production faced significant delays, starting in 2017, interrupted by COVID-19 in 2020 and the Hamas attack in October 2023, which the director, Erin Zimmerman, saw as divine timing.
• 📈 The film's release coincides with a reported golden age of Bible publishing, with a 22% increase in Bible sales last year and a million more sold this year compared to the previous year.

The New Testament's Origins

• 📜 The film explores the period after Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, focusing on how the apostles' teachings were transformed into written texts.
• 🗣️ Initially, stories were passed down through oral tradition for the first 20-30 years, emphasizing hearing directly from apostles.
• ✍️ The need to write down these accounts arose as apostles began to die off and persecution increased, threatening the loss of firsthand testimonies.

Compilation and Faith

• 👨‍🦳 The church fathers, leaders one or two generations removed from the apostles, provide crucial insights into this era, with some being direct students of the Apostle John.
• ❓ The film delves into questions like why Matthew, Mark, and Luke were written in the AD 60s, while the Gospel of John appeared about 30 years later, and John's motivation for writing his Gospel.
• 💡 Director Erin Zimmerman, initially new to this topic, found the research deeply impactful, filling gaps in her understanding and strengthening her faith by addressing common objections to the Bible's authenticity.

Hope for Audiences

• ❤️ The ultimate hope for the film is to foster a deeper love and confidence in the New Testament text.
• 🚧 It aims to remove perceived roadblocks for those who doubt the Bible due to issues with Christianity or textual integrity, encouraging them to engage with the text itself.
• 📖 Future installments are planned to cover the formation of the canon and the tracing of Bible manuscripts to ensure textual stability.