Fragments of Truth

Bob and Faithlife TV:

Thank you for such a well done documentary, Fragments of Truth! I deeply appreciate all you did to make this documentary a reality.

With great skill, you underscored the veracity of the Greek text.

Certainly, I pray this documentary receives a wide circulation.

May God bless you richly!

Chuck

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James Taylor

Bob and Faithlife TV:

Thank you for such a well done documentary, Fragments of Truth!

Amen to that! It was phenomenal. All 5 of us in our group were blown away by both the quality and take away. We definitely learned some new things about the transmission of the text of the New Testament that were fascinating and compelling.

Rodney Phillips

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/976275#Comment_976275

Hope it makes it to FL-TV at some point? I could not attend.

Graham Criddle

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/976308#Comment_976308

Hope it makes it to FL-TV at some point?

That is the plan as per https://community.logos.com/forums/p/165388/976008.aspx#976008

Jeremy White

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/976310#Comment_976310

I also attended last night with 3 of my children (11,12, 14). I thought the production quality was excellent and the evidence presented engagingly. Even my youngest (who was by far the youngest in the theatre) came away understanding the basic hypothesis and was particularly amused at the portion where one scribe is writing in the margins telling the previous scribe what an idiot he was.

I did feel it was a little repetitive, at one stage I genuinely thought there had been a malfunction of the projector and it had skipped back to a previous section. The end result was that the primary point of the longevity of the papyri and codexes ended up feeling a little belabored. It would have been better to provide more color such as comparing the mass of literary evidence for the New Testament with comparable non-biblical sources of that era. Interestingly this came up in the Q&A which make me wonder how extensive the pre-screening process was before release. (I'm volunteering to help with the next one ) I also thought that the section focused on the issue of why four gospels was a little out of place and actually deserving of an entirely separate production

Also, we moved to different locations and speakers quite a lot and it wasn't always consistently captioned. I had a number of moments of "who's this guy again?". I particularly enjoyed the commentary from David Wallace. His 'more perfect onion' example was excellent and combined with the graphics was extremely effective in illustrating the vast majority of textual variants. His comments provoked the most reaction in the theatre with a number of us laughing out loud.

And while John Rhys-Davies has a wonderfully distinct voice I don't think the narration added anything and that was not already there through the comments and direct to camera contributions of Dr. Evans. It is always more engaging to see and hear someone speak who is obviously as engrossed and enthralled with their subject matter as he is.

Overall a great resource that I will be recommending to others and be reusing (when it becomes available) in other contexts. Thank you also for the discussion guide. I'm going to go through that with my kids today, I also will be able to show them some of the examples of the papyri, etc that I have in Logos. Would be great to also have some list of links (maybe on the website or as part of the discussion guide) for additional resources or at least links to the pages related to the locations and personalities featured in the production.

Thanks

James Taylor

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/976331#Comment_976331

David Wallace

That's "Dan" Wallace :-)

Great points above, I enjoyed reading your review. I also found it interesting that Dr. Evans admitting to "learning alot that he hadn't known" making this film and touring those manuscript libraries.

James Taylor

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/976331#Comment_976331

Thank you also for the discussion guide.

I hadn't seen this prior to your post, thanks for mentioning it. I've got it now :-)

John Kight

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/976336#Comment_976336

First and foremost, I really really enjoyed the film. It was very well done and I appreciate everyone's involvement from the top down. Excellent job!

! agree with most of Jeremy's comments. The repetition was obvious and at times seemed somewhat overdone. Additionally, I felt like the comments surrounding the NT canon and its development in relation to Constantine and Nicaea, particularly those lead by Dr. Heiser, were an afterthought to the project.I was a bit shocked to see Heiser leading that discussion given the roster of contributors present throughout the film. Heiser seemed like an unlikely voice in that mix. Personally, I think Michael J. Kruger leading the conversation would have been appropriate, especially since Charles E. Hill from RTS had several important parts. IMO.

Ted Harms

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/976349#Comment_976349

My thoughts are not so critical. I was so thankful that a movie which addresses such an issue was even shown in a secular theater. I was also thankful for the the reinforcement of the great truth that the Bible we have today is without question the very Words of a Holy God. I went out of the theater singing the words of that Great hymn of the Faith "How firm a foundation, ye saints if the Lord is laid for your you faith in His excellent Word..........."

Thank so much Faithlife for producing such a great documentary!

JohnB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/976331#Comment_976331

I also attended last night with 3 of my children (11,12, 14). I thought the production quality was excellent and the evidence presented engagingly. Even my youngest (who was by far the youngest in the theatre) came away understanding the basic hypothesis and was particularly amused at the portion where one scribe is writing in the margins telling the previous scribe what an idiot he was.

I was interested in your children's reactions as I see it being useful for a small bible study my wife runs for some early teenage boys..

Jeremy White

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/976392#Comment_976392

Obviously, there can be quite a range of maturity and ability to focus at that age. It's not an Indiana Jones or National Treasure movie. If it was me I'd be inclined to give them the discussion guide and/or some other prompts prior to watching so that there are more reasons to stay engaged. For instance, having them spot how many different papyri and/or codexes are mentioned and place on a map where they located.

Reuben Evans (Faithlife)

Thank you to Chuck, and all here, for coming out to the theater to support the film. We hoped to engage both people familiar with the topic, and folks new to the topic - who might have needed a bit more summary and restatement, to keep tracking.

It's awesome to hear stories of kids coming out and "getting it." My eight year old daughter was there and seeing those fragments (previously in the trailer) actually transformed her confidence in the Bible.

Simon’s Brother

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/976405#Comment_976405

We hoped to engage both people familiar with the topic

It's great you released it this way, no issues with that but I would like to engage with the film also, so hope you don't take to long make it available for purchase on FL TV. Flying to one of the venues in the US was way to expensive for me - I would have had to sell my Logos Library to do that - and that ain't going to happen.

JohnB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/976398#Comment_976398

I'd be inclined to give them the discussion guide and/or some other prompts prior to watching so that there are more reasons to stay engaged.

Good idea. Thanks