According to the Holman Bible Dictionary, the word canon is defined as a rule or standard; it is a list of books accepted by believers as The Bible. (Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary 201) In order for a book to be eligible to be in The Bible it had to go through tests in order make sure it was authentic to God’s word. These tests upheld the authoritative standards for faith and practice. It is important to know and understand the process of canonization in order to grasp the history of The Bible. The history of the Old Testament and the New Testament were all a part of the canonization process to determine which books could be counted as canon; to be in The Bible. The other books that were not authentic to God’s word and not counted as …show more content…
In the first-century church, Christians gathered to discuss whether the books of The Bible were canon and inspired by God. Although it seems as if deciding which books would actually be in The Bible seemed like a process that humans would decide, it was the people recognizing what God had already determined to be true. In order for the early church to determine which books were inspired and authentic to God, they developed a set of standards that they would ask themselves to ensure that what was written was actually inspired by God. The tests of canonicity were devised questions to ask of each book to make the determination. …show more content…
Is it dynamic, showing God’s life-changing power? Finally, is it received, accepted, and used by believers? These are the steps and tests that the canon books had to go through in order to become part of The Bible in the first-century church. The way that historians recognized the canon books of the Old Testament was by evaluating and recognizing that Christ refers to Old Testament books as Scripture in Matthew 21:42. In A.D. 90 the council of Jamnia acknowledged the thirty-nine Old Testament books. Next, in A.D. 95, Josephus who was the Jewish historian indicated that the thirty-nine Old Testament books were recognized as authoritative.
The study of textual criticism is important when talking about any historical manuscript or text. In particular, when talking about something with as much impact and influence as the bible, textual criticism is a necessary part of scholarship. Brad Ehrman does an excellent job in explaining the basics of textual criticism and how it can be used to determine the accuracy of biblical texts and manuscripts. His book, Misquoting Jesus, serves as a primer to the study of historical biblical manuscripts. As Ehrman states in his introduction, the thesis explained in the text is that biblical manuscripts have been changed throughout history, both intentionally and non-intentionally, and that those changes were affected by the attitudes and beliefs of the scribes.
Although the New Testament is the main source of information regarding Jesus’ life, Jews often disregard it as a reliable source of information. It was not written until two to three generations after Jesus, hence it cannot be considered a primary source. Also, from a Jewish perspective, the aim of the Gospels is not to give an accurate account of Jesus’ life and teachings; the Gospels served as missionary documents containing accounts recorded by biased evangelists. They reflect the aims of the church rather than actual facts, and their writers were more concerned with the advancement of Christianity than the transmission of factual historical information. For these reasons, it is impossible to separate the historical Jesus from the divine Christ presented in the Gospels, and Judaism regards the Gospels as unreliable and irrational.
It contains sixty-six smaller books, and those books are divided into two different parts, called the Old Testament and the New Testament (“Fast Facts about the Bible”). The Old Testament has thirty-nine books, and even those books are divided into sections. The first five books of the Bible make up the Pentateuch, which contains the laws that the early Israelites had to live by. The next group of books are the Historical books, which tell the stories of many different people that Christians look up to. After those come the books of Poetry, and the Major and Minor Prophets. In the New Testament, there are twenty-seven books, which are also made up of different parts. The first four books in the New Testament are different accounts of the Gospel of Jesus, which tells of His life and ministry on Earth. Those are followed by the Church’s history, and Paul’s letters to the churches from that time period. And, the last book of the Bible is a part of its own theme, the prophecy. It depicts the future events of the world, and what will happen during the end
Metzger, B. (1997). The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance. New York.
Kethuvim (the Writings) "…contains the most diverse material…" (Harris, 6), is a miscellaneous repository for all the books accepted later. It contains books of history, prophecy, wisdom, and poetry randomly tossed together in a mixed bag. Jewish books written in Greek such as the Apocrypha were not included as part of the canon of the Hebrew Bible. Apocalypses "…means an "uncovering" and "revelations"…(Harris, 6) symbolic visions to encourage the righteous to remain faithful despite persecution.
The Bible is read and interpreted by many people all over the world. Regardless, no one knows the absolute truth behind scripture. Walter Brueggemann, professor of Old Testament, wrote “Biblical Authority” to help people understand what he describes as six different parts that make up the foundation to ones understanding of scripture. He defines these six features as being: inherency, interpretation, imagination, ideology, inspiration, and importance. As Brueggemann explains each individual part, it is easy to see that they are all interconnected because no one can practice one facet without involuntarily practicing at least one other part.
The most highly referenced and revered as sacred are The King James Version, considered a masterpiece of English literature, The Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, The Aprocrypha, the books believed left out of some bibles, The Vulgate, the Latin Bible used for centuries by the Roman Catholic religion, and The Septuagint, the first ancient Greek translation of the Tanakh (Geisler and Nix 15, McCallum 4). The Bible is considered a sacred text by three major world religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Many believers consider it to be the literal truth. Others treat it with great respect, but believe that it was written by human beings and, thus is often contradictory in its tenets.
A “ ‘Canon’ a Greek word meaning “reed,” came to refer to any straight stick that could be used for measurement. This basic meaning was extended to refer to any rule or standard by which things could be compared or judged. Greek grammarians use “canon” as literary standards or list. It was used to judge work’s quality, worth, and authority.” (Stewart).
For centuries now Christians have claimed to possess the special revelation of an omnipotent, loving Deity who is sovereign over all of His creation. This special revelation is in written form and is what has come to be known as The Bible which consists of two books. The first book is the Hebrew Scriptures, written by prophets in a time that was before Christ, and the second book is the New Testament, which was written by Apostles and disciples of the risen Lord after His ascension. It is well documented that Christians in the context of the early first century were used to viewing a set of writings as being not only authoritative, but divinely inspired. The fact that there were certain books out in the public that were written by followers of Jesus and recognized as being just as authoritative as the Hebrew Scriptures was never under debate. The disagreement between some groups of Christians and Gnostics centered on which exact group of books were divinely inspired and which were not. The debate also took place over the way we can know for sure what God would have us include in a book of divinely inspired writings. This ultimately led to the formation of the Biblical canon in the next centuries. Some may ask, “Isn’t Jesus really the only thing that we can and should call God’s Word?” and “Isn’t the Bible just a man made collection of writings all centered on the same thing, Jesus Christ?” This paper summarizes some of the evidences for the Old and New Testament canon’s accuracy in choosing God breathed, authoritative writings and then reflects on the wide ranging
New International Version: Containing the Old and New Testaments with Apocrypha. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009. Print.
Every scholar wants to find out the answer to the same question: What is the source of the Old Testament? In recent years, there has been vigorous jockeying by both liberal and conservative scholars to prove they are right when it comes to origins of the Old Testament. At the center of much of this debate has been four documents: The Yahwist (J), The Elohist (E), the Deuteronomistic History (DH), and The Priestly source (P).
The historical reliability of the Bible is the first matter that needs to be discussed. There are three criteria that the military historian C. Sanders lists as principles for documentary historical proof: the bibliographical test, internal evidence test, and the external evidence test (McDowell 43). The bibliographical test is the examination of text from the documents that have reached us. The reliability of the copies of the New Testament is tested by the number of manuscripts (MSS) and the time intervals between the time in which the piece of literature was written and our earliest copy. There are more than 5,300 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament and 10,000 Latin vulgate manuscripts, not to mention the other various translations.
The Hebrew Bible is studied, analyzed, and worshiped by millions each day, it gives insight into the teachings and laws of God. The article “Pentateuch”, obtained from The Zondervan Pictoral Encyclopedia of the Bible by Merrill C. Tenney, deeply examines the authorship of the Pentateuch and displays two compelling arguments of weather the Pentateuch is of Mosaic authorship, or written by authors other than Moses. The Pentateuch is the bases of the entire Bible, it contains the first five books, including Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, thus the literal meaning of “five volumes”. Theses five books make up the Old Testament and are roadmap to God’s teachings.
Thus, an effort is made to highlight how Bible interpretation – through its publication – has developed in the history of Christianity.
Answering these questions is the purpose of this essay. I begin by arguing that the Bible cannot be adequately understood independent of its historical context. I concede later that historical context alone however is insufficient, for the Bible is a living-breathing document as relevant to us today as it was the day it was scribed. I conclude we need both testimonies of God at work to fully appreciate how the Bible speaks to us.