How We Got the Bible

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How We Got the Bible 5

• The Canon of the Scriptures
• -What does this mean?
• -How was/is it determined?

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How We Got the Bible 5 The Canon of the
Scriptures

• We sometimes possess a myopic view of first
  second century biblical and extra-biblical
  writings.
• We seem to think that the only books
  (letters/writings) being then written are the
  ones contained in our Bibles.
• This is patently not true.
• In fact, there were many, many things being
  written during this period pertaining to
  Christianity.
• Some were by inspired men- and other by
  uninspired men.
• Some which rightly claimed inspiration- and
  others falsely.
• Some were written by Apostles Disciples- and
  others by subversives- these are called
  psuedopigraphic.
• Some were intended only to encourage and inspire
  other Christians and never claimed inspiration.

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How We Got the Bible 5 The Canon of the
Scriptures

• Given all these potential challenges,
• How are we to determine which books/letters/writin
  gs are to included as scripture and which are
  to be excluded as such?
• The answer is again lies in the field of Textual
  Criticism.
• Lets see if you can find it.

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How We Got the Bible 5 The Canon of
the Scriptures

• I. What is meant by the Canon of the Scriptures?
• Canon is a word from the Greek word kanon and
  the Hebrew word qaneh- it refers to a reed.
• Reeds were used for measuring rods- therefore
  the word came to mean a standard or rule.
• It is also used to refer to a list or index.
• So when it applies to the Bible, it has to do
  with those books which measured up to the list or
  index of those accepted as Holy Scripture.

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How We Got the Bible 5 The Canon of
the Scriptures

• Thus, Canonical writings are those regarding as
  having Divine Origin/Authority (and makeup our
  Bibles).
• However, one thing has to be clearly
  understood
• While Canonicity and Authority are closely
  linked,
• They are not the same thing.
• Canonization refers to the process by which
  books were accepted as scripture.
• This process might take many years.

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How We Got the Bible 5 The Canon of
the Scriptures

• But inspired writings had authority from the
  moment they were penned, 1Cor.1437.
• A book then first has divine authority based
  upon its inspiration, and later attains
  canonicity due to its general acceptance as a
  divine work.
• The Point?
• Men may establish canonicity based upon
  perceived merits, but authority is inherent in
  the book itself based upon its origin.
• Men dont make the books of the Bible
  authoritative- God does!

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How We Got the Bible 5 The Canon of
the Scriptures

• II. Proofs of Inspiration Canonical Tests.
• Initial Observations-
• -There is a certain criteria which must be met
  for books to be accepted as scripture.
• -But, understand that these criterion were
  largely formed after the fact of acceptance of
  most of the Bible.
• -People contemporary with the writings
  themselves largely determined the canon by the
  acceptance of some works and rejection of
  others.
• -Canon was largely formed to explain what had
  for the most part already happened !

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Canonization then, is as much about keeping old
text as it is about adding or excluding new text.
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How We Got the Bible 5 The Canon of
the Scriptures

• II. Proofs of Inspiration Canonical Tests.
• Internal Claims of Inspiration.
• -Obviously, claiming inspiration doesnt make it
  so.
• -But, any work which doesnt even make the claim
  of being inspired by God, certainly should not be
  assigned such a position by an external source.
• -For instance, note a few notable passages which
  claim inspiration 1Cor.210-13 1437
  2Tim.316-17 Eph.33-5.
• -The Writings Apostolic Fathers (a collection
  dating from 80-180 AD) were mostly letters
  written to edify and encourage Christians during
  persecution. They never claim inspiration
  though others have sought to assign it.

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How We Got the Bible 5 The Canon of
the Scriptures

• II. Proofs of Inspiration Canonical Tests.
• Unity/Harmony/Consistency.
• -Any document that contradicts itself, or other
  scripture, fails to harmonize all passages (on
  the subject under consideration), or is
  inconsistent on its treatment of some subject,
• must be rejected as being inspired and therefore
  cannot be proper for canonization, 1Cor.1433.

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How We Got the Bible 5 The Canon of
the Scriptures

• II. Proofs of Inspiration Canonical Tests.
• Scientific, Historic, Geographic Accuracy.
• -No work with known errors in these fields could
  be counted as inspired.
• -But, the Bible has certainly out-paced human
  knowledge in these fields. For example,
  Scientific foreknowledge
• Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873) noted that
  Psalm 88 spoke of the paths of the sea. He
  investigated and discovered the circulatory
  systems of our oceans seas as well as the
  interaction between wind and water. His text on
  oceanography is still considered a basic text for
  studies of this sort. Psalms was written mostly
  during the tenth century B.C. Mans knowledge
  sometimes has to catch up!

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How We Got the Bible 5 The Canon of
the Scriptures

• II. Proofs of Inspiration Canonical Tests.
• Agreement/Harmony with, and Recognition by,
  other Accepted or inspired works.
• -This was a major factor in the formation of the
  OT.
• -Luke 2444 where Jesus recognized the Law of
  Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms.
• -There are also other clues, Luke 1151
  Mt.2335 where Jesus chronicles the history of
  the biblical text by its martyrs Abel -
  Zachariah (2Chron.2420-21).
• -It must be remember that 2Chronicles is the end
  of the Hebrew-arranged OT text (the books are
  located between Gen. 2Chron.).

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How We Got the Bible 5 The Canon of
the Scriptures

• II. Proofs of Inspiration Canonical Tests.
• Acceptance as Inspired by Contemporaries or
  Near-Contemporaries.
• -As per Peters recognition/acceptance of Pauls
  writings, 2Peter 315-16.
• -Or as historians such as Josephus and Philo of
  the first century or Origen and Jerome (400
  A.D.)
• We have not 10,000 books among us, disagreeing
  with and contradicting one another, but
  twenty-two books which contain the all the
  records of all time, and are justly believed to
  be divine. (Jospehus, Against Apion, I.8)
• (22 books of the Heb. OT correlate directly to
  39 Eng. OT)

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How We Got the Bible 5 The Canon of
the Scriptures

• II. Proofs of Inspiration Canonical Tests.
• Absence of Obviously Fictitious or Legendary
  Accounts.
• -This is be more obvious when dealing directly
  with the Apocrypha.
• -So much of the Bible can be verified from
  external sources that this becomes a source for
  determining inspiration and therefore canonicity-
  especially with regard to historical accounts
• -The Hittite nation (Gen.237 2Kings 76) were
  for a long time used by skeptics to try to
  discredit the Bible. Eventually, archaeology
  verified their existence.

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How We Got the Bible 5 The Canon of
the Scriptures

• II. Proofs of Inspiration Canonical Tests.
• Fulfilled Prophecy.
• -This is a great source of confirmation of
  biblical books.
• -When specific prophecies made (and historically
  verified) hundreds of years in advance and often
  against all logical assumptions can be shown to
  be accurately fulfilled, the veracity of the text
  is mightily demonstrated.
• gtCyrus was named by Isaiah 4428 - 4525 as
  the deliverer of Judah from Babylonian
  captivity.
• gtBoth Isaiah and Cyrus can be confirmed from
  history to have lived approximately 150 years
  apart!

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How We Got the Bible 5 The Canon of
the Scriptures

• II. Proofs of Inspiration Canonical Tests.
• Generally, these are the tests used
• gtInternal Claims of Inspiration
• gtUnity / Harmony / Consistency
• gtScientific, Historic, Geographic Accuracy
• gtRecognition Acceptance by other Inspired
  Works
• gtAcceptance as Inspired by Contemporaries or
  Near- Contemporaries.
• gtAbsence of Obviously Fictitious or Legendary
  accounts.
• gtFulfilled Prophecy.

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How We Got the Bible 5 The Canon of
the Scriptures

• III. Conclusion
• While all that weve mentioned helps to bolster
  our confidence in the text we now have and helps
  explain why some works are excluded, it can all
  be boiled down to 2 primary factors
• 1. Was its claim of inspiration accepted by the
  early church?
• 2. was it written in the first century by either
  an Apostle or close Disciple of Jesus Christ?
• The other seven tests are really by subdivisions
  of these primary two.

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