1D - The Bible as a source of wisdom and authority (Canon + Inspiration) Flashcards
Establishment of the Jewish Bible
The OT has it’s roots in the Jewish Bible – Jewish believers would not consider it be ‘old’ – it is seen as God’s revelation to Israel.
All Jews agree on the books of the Hebrew scriptures – the central part is the Torah, 5 books believed to be written by Moses, the prophets and a diverse set of writings that includes poetry, prophecy and history.
Many scholars believe that these three parts represent successive stages in the formation of the Jewish canon – the Torah recognized first having been previously been shared orally, the writings of the prophets likely occurred around the time of the Exile of the Jews to Babylon. The collection of writings were not recognized as authoritative by Jews until around 1st century CE. (Jesus for example refers to the scripture as Moses, Prophets, Psalms.
Books accepted into the canon on the basis of survival from generation to generation, being seen as supporting the Torah (which is sometimes described as the canon within the canon) and being recognized by a diverse range of Jews as supporting their faith and practice.
Differences between Catholic and Protestant Old Testaments
There is diversity in Catholic and Protestant versions of the OT as there is overlap between the finalizing of the Jewish canon and the beginning of the NT. Some NT writers used the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible (the Septuagint) which included some Jewish writings written only in Greek which were later excluded from the Jewish canon. These books are sometimes described as ‘deutero-canonical’ (of the 2nd canon). However they are often referred to as ‘Apocryphal’ by Protestants and either not included in their Bible or included in a separate section.
Initially the term Apocrypha referred to books giving hidden meaning or insight to believers – however over time the word became synonymous with being false or heretical. Luther referred to these books as heretical and undermining key NT doctrines of justification by faith.
Differences in the orders of versions of the Old Testament
Order – the sequence of the respective versions of the OT are different. The Jewish Bible begins with the Torah (focused on the establishment of the Jewish nation as God’s chosen people and receiving covenant) followed by the Prophets (documenting the highs and lows of living in light of the covenant) and finally the writings (giving insight on living faithfully in different situations).
On the other hand the Christian OT ends with the minor prophets – some theologians have noted that while the Jewish Bible ends with a focus on the rebuilding of the Jewish nation in the book of Nehemiah, the Christian OT looks ahead to the coming of Elijah (believed to be John the Baptist) and the subsequent events of the NT to come.
Establishment of the New Testament
In the earliest phase of Christian history messages would have been conveyed through the teachings of the Apostles, shared sayings of Jesus and through prophets who would have shared truths inspired by the Holy Spirit.
The next phase in the Christian canon came with the letters of Paul to various churches – these letters were prized by the Churches that received them and were copied and circulated.
Quickly after the Gospels were established as well as other letters and one book of prophecy – the book of Revelation.
By the 2nd century there was a growing understanding that these weren’t just any normal writings but in fact were ‘scriptures’ of significance equal to the Jewish Bible. Many churches in Syria at this point used a harmony of the 4 Gospels called the Diatessaron – meaning ‘made of four’.
170 CE – The Muratorian Canon – the earliest known list of books of the NT, contains 22 of the 27 NT books. It also mentions books that should be considered forgeries – demonstrates the earliest Christians were careful as to what they should or should not include.
Debate about the NT Canon including Marcion’s Bible
Whilst we do not have access to written criteria used it appears that three key factors were used to determine if something is Scripture – firstly it needed to have a connection with an apostle, secondly to be seen as supporting faith and practice amongst a range of Churches and lastly the books had to be consistent to and supporting the central tenets of the emerging Christian faith – i.e. the significance of the life, death and resurrection of Christ and it’s impact on man’s relationship with God.
2nd Century – Marcion develops a Bible composed only of the Gospel of Luke without birth narratives and the letters of Paul aiming to show that the God of Jesus was different and superior to the God of the Hebrew Bible. This was rejected by the Apostolic Fathers who rejected Marcion’s Bible – they believed that the Christian Bible should contain the OT as well as Christian writings since the same God who was at work in Israel was active in the life of Christ.
We can see in the writings of the Early Church Fathers (late 1st/early 2nd century) which books were accepted universally and which were debated – on the one hand some books such as Hebrews and Revelation were debated and accepted due to eventually being accepted as having Apostolic authorship – on the other hand other books such as the Didache and the Shepherd of Hermas were rejected on the same basis.
Objective Views of Inspiration
Key idea – that God directly moved the Biblical writers to write certain texts.
Some early theologians posited that the Biblical writers were possessed in a special way by God’s spirit – so that the complete message could be seen as coming directly from God.
Athenagorus – God used the prophets ‘as a flautist might blow into a flute’ – i.e. inspiration is a divine kind of dictation.
Others link to Aristotle’s ideas of efficient and instrumental cause. The writer is the instrument used by God the efficient cause of the text (like a saw is used by a carpenter).
Plenary verbal inspiration / Inerrancy – God gave each word of the Bible to the human writers – so that there would be no error, contradiction or falsehood – much like dictation. Logic of idea states that if God is perfect, and the Bible is inspired by God then therefore the Bible must be perfect.
Within spectrum of position there are views that allow for a more active role for the writers – for example Origen believed that the authors of the Bible were conscious of the process of inspiration and were able to express their own views.
Aquinas developed ideas of instrumental cause – pointing out that the nature of the instrument will have an effect on the outcome (as the tool used might be revealed by the finished product).
Even when people talk about dictation – do we understand it accurately? In time of writing of Bible the word ‘auctor’ can mean producer of builder of bridges rather than just scribe.
Subjective views of Inspiration
Some thinkers of the Enlightenment era viewed inspiration as a human rather than divine activity. They believed the Bible could still be meaningful even if the writers were in fact witnesses of God’s work in the world and the life of Jesus rather than directly inspired.
As such there is a link between the Bible and God – not through the words written but in the inspired experience of the writers.
Many Biblical writers make no mention of a process of inspiration (in comparison to prophets for example who do) – instead many seem to write personally (for example Paul’s pastoral letters). Other books (i.e. Gospel of Luke / Acts) make note of their use of a range of sources and their role as author in the process.
Karl Barth described Jesus as the ‘word of God’ - therefore inspiration is not the quality of the text but of a reader’s experience with the text under certain circumstances.
If one listens to the Bible with humility and obedience passages can become transformed into the word of God in someone’s experience.
‘Social theories of inspiration’ – the Bible is not the product of individuals working but of entire faith communities being impacted by God and passing that impact onto an author.
Some modern thinkers seek to balance objective and subjective views – on the one hand they affirm the idea that God is the author of the Bible, on the other hand they state that God can work through unique human authors each with their own style, personality, historical situation.
It’s more important for the Bible to be ‘true’ when it comes to matters of faith, salvation and morality than to conform to a scientific or rational definition of truth
Calvin’s Doctrine of Accommodation
When you accommodate something (e.g. a new pet) you make changes to your arrangements in order for the gap between the two parties to be reduced.
Just like there is a gap between us and our pets there is a gap between God’s reality and character and ours. Therefore God chooses to accommodate us in his choice of language and knowledge communicated in the Bible.
Calvin begins from an awareness of the limitations of human language and knowledge, ‘we must never forget that God is above and beyond our language’. The transcendent God therefore must chose to lower himself to become intelligible in our experience.
Calvin uses the illustration of the ‘baby talk’ a nurse or mother uses to communicate with their child – the nurse could chose to make much more sophisticated expressions but chooses to communicate in a way that facilitates and encourages communication.
Calvin speaks of the human authors of the Bible choosing to speak in a language that would be intelligible to most of their readers.
Gives the example of the description of ‘two great lights’ in Genesis 1 – whilst technically there are greater lights than the sun and moon – Calvin argues that the author has simply adapted truth to make sense to the common reader / hearer of the era. A long discourse on the nature of heavenly bodies would not have been understood.
Beyond this from the perspective of earth this passage is practically true – the sun does rule the day whilst the moon rules the night. Therefore the Bible is without error whilst also managing to accommodate the average man.
Modern theologians have adapted Calvin’s idea as a way to address things they see as errors in the Bible – where authors had scientific or cultural assumptions that by today’s standards are wrong – these errors are part of God’s overall calculations when accommodation to human language. However the overall message is still true and relevant.
