1D The bible as a source of wisdom and authority Flashcards
What is the Biblical canon?
- The official and standardised list of scripture est. by the early c.ch (the Bible)
- The books are believed to be divinely inspired
Which books of the canon did the early Christians view to be the most important?
• Hebrew scriptures, Letters of Paul, Gospels
Give some issues with the creation of the canon.
- Disagreement about books
- Different versions of Hebrew Bible
- Some books claimed to be written by imp. figures, but were falsely using names to gain authority
- Scribes paraphrased, misinterpreted, saved time
What are the three parts of the Jewish canon?
1) Torah (Law: 5 books written by Moses)
2) Nevi’im (Prophets: inc. former, latter and the 12 minor prophets)
3) Kethuvim (Writings: poetical, prophetic, historical)
• Referred to by TNK (Tanak)
When did the Hebrew Bible become canon?
- 3 stages: Torah; shared orally for centuries; written down prior to Exile of Judah to Babylon, 6th C
- Luke 24:44 = glimpse into a time when the canon was not considered to be completed: j refers to scriptures as the “Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms” ∴ only one of the ‘Writings’ is mentioned as scripture
- Josephus, a 1st C Jewish hist., mentions Law, Prophets and “four books [which are] hymns to G and precepts for the conduct of human life” - thought to be Psalms, Song of Solomon, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes; final part of canon process
What were the three ways that decisions about the canon were made?
1) Books had to survive - there are references in B to books we have no knowledge of, e.g. Jasher
2) Must be seen as supporting Torah (sometimes referred to as the ‘canon within the canon’)
3) Had to be recognised by a wide variety of Jews in diverse locations as supporting their faith and practice
What is propositional revelation?
• God directly revealing truths about his nature to ppl
What is non-propositional revelation?
• Idea that God does not reveal facts or information during the process of revelation; humans interpret his words into truths
What is the Catholic opinion about proto/deuterocanonical books?
• They are both fully and equally inspired
What was Martin Luther’s opinion of 2 Maccabees 12:46?
• He viewed it as giving support to purgatory, which undermined his key belief that reward = justified by faith and not earned through purgatory
What do Protestants and Catholics call the period between the closing of the Hebrew canon and the beginning of New Testament literature?
- Protestants: intertestamental period
* Catholics: deuterocanonial period
Outline the stages of the New Testament canon.
- Short period in C.ty when the only scriptures C.tians possessed were the Jewish writings; messages were conveyed orally by Apostles, J, prophets
- Letters of Paul to c.chs in 6th decade of CE
- Gospels (70-100 CE)
- Other letters
- Revelation
What is the Diatessaron?
- A harmony of all four Gospels
- Created by Tatian, an Assyrian early C.tian apologist and ascetic
- Used by many c.chs in Syria
What is the Muratorian canon?
• A copy of perhaps the oldest known list of most books from NT
• Discovered by Italian historian Ludovico Muratori in the Ambrosian Library in northern Italy and was published by him in 1740
• Contains 22/27 modern NT books and mentions books that should not be included as they are forgeries
- Shows that early C.tians = careful about selection process
How were New Testament books chosen?
• No written criteria, but three factors guided the early C.ch.
1) Had to have a connection to the Apostles
2) Had to have a connection with c.chs + support faith/practice in diverse places
3) Had to conform to the faith of C.ty
Outline the debate about the New Testament with reference to Marcion.
• Marcion, a 2nd-century C.ch leader, created a Bible composed only of Luke (w/o birth narratives) and the letters of Paul
- He believed that the G of JC = diff. + superior to G of Hebrew B ∴ attempted to remove all references to Judaism from his version
• The Apostolic Fathers rejected Marcion’s B as they believed that the OT should be inc. as the same G was at work in Israel and life of J
Explain the debate about the books of Hebrews and Revelation.
- Lack of clarity about apostolic authorship
- Some heretical groups favoured the two books, which cast doubt on their status
- Eventually the c.ch believed they had apostolic origins
Why were the Didache and the Shepherd of Hermas ultimately rejected?
• Not ∵ they were wrong, but ∵ they were written later than the Apostolic writings
When did the official decision about the 27 books as canon come?
- The end of the 4th C/beg. of 5th
* Makes it trustworthy ∵ took a very long time to decide
Why is the order of the Bible important?
• First glance = chronological order from creation of the world (Genesis) to announcement of a new heaven (Revelation)
- But this is not always the case: in NT, Thessalonians = first book written (early 50s) but placed after Gospels
• The order is believed the be divinely inspired and leads you through the journey - from a wrathful OT G to a loving NT G
What is the order of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament?
- Begins w/ Torah; the heart of the HB supported by legal, prophetic, poetic literature
- Christian OT ends w/ Minor Prophets but HB ends w/ Ezra/Nehemiah and Chronicles ∵ C.tian B follows order of Septuagint
- Ending of HB places focus on Jews having returned from exile + rebuilding their nation, whereas the Minor Prophets look ahead to return of Elijah (John the Baptist)
What is the order of the New Testament?
- The life, death and res. of J = placed first
- Narrative of birth of c.ch (Acts)
- Letters of Paul (first to c.chs, then to individuals (Pastoral Epistles))
- Letters not attributed to Paul
- Revelation
What are some other factors on the ordering of biblical books?
- Books of same author placed together e.g. Luke-Acts
- Story-line thread e.g. Joshua through kings tells one successive account
- Type of literature e.g. prophetic books/wisdom books in OT/HB and Gospels in NT
Explain the diverse views on the Bible as the word of God.
• An exp. that leaves us feeling inspired makes us want to think/act differently
- C.tians believe that B = ‘inspired’ as they want to think/act diff. after reading it
- B ≠ merely human inspiration, it is inspired by G
• ‘inspire’ comes from Greek ‘to breathe on or in’: ‘theopneustos’ = word used in NT, meaning ‘God-breathed’ (II Timothy 3:16 + II Peter 1:21)
• B = word of G ∵ = creator of B; but:
- What was the human role in this book?
- Is the Bible partly human and partly divine?
- Did the authors have access to ideas that were not their own or were they simply unconscious tools in hands of G?
- What about the historically/scientifically incorrect passages? Can it be G-breathed of it contains errors?
What is the extreme objective view of inspiration?
• Biblical writers are no more than mere stenographers
What is the extreme subjective view of inspiration?
• The words of B ≠ inspired; the authors themselves are
- Most theologians recog. the clear subjective/human side to inspiration as each book has its own character/tone/’feel’ based on personality/unique expressions of their author
- G acted in human history and exp: the B = inspired ∵ it was written by inspired ppl
Give some objective views of inspiration.
- Many B passages present G as speaking directly to/through prophets
- Early theologians believed the writers were possessed by G’s spirit + led into a kind of ecstasy
- 2nd C theologian Athenagoras described God as using the prophets “as a flautist might blow into the flute” - divine dictation
- Medieval C.tian writers used Aristotelian categories of efficient and instrumental causes to emphasise the objective side
Give some challenges to the objective views of inspiration.
• Many early C.ch Fathers disagreed w/ assigning merely a passive role to the human authors
• 2-3C: Origen described the authors as fully conscious of a process of inspiration + able to express own views
• Thomas Aquinas showed how even instrumental causes could shape divine revelation
• Different notions of the words ‘author’ and ‘dictation’. Previously:
- Latin ‘auctor’ applied to things like bridges/buildings too, can mean ‘producer’
- Ancient world: those dictating letters could give their scribes a general idea of what to write rather than exact words
- B writers could have received divine dictation in a rigid way, or through a process that gave them relative freedom
• Augustine: “It is wicked to doubt that they [the writings of the Apostles and Prophets] are free from all error.”
What was the effect of European enlightenment on the view of inspiration?
• It put emphasis on human knowledge and understanding: trad. beliefs of B as G’s word = questioned
• Some writers believe there is a link between B and G through the inspired exp. of the writers
- Some object to this as it laves the poss. for other books as being equally inspired as the B
What does innerancy mean?
• Belief that B = w/o error/fault
What is plenary verbal inspiration?
• Gives a greater role to the human writers of the Bible while maintaining a belief that God preserved the integrity of the words of the Bible.
Explain innerancy and plenary verbal inspiration.
• Late 19th/early 20th: Reaction to the enligtenment focus on human wisdom in form of fundamentalism
• Asserted that sci. advancements would never be at the cost of C.tian doctrines e.g. creation of world in 7 days
• Heart of fundamentalism = objective view of revelation: G gave each word of B to human writers w/o error, contradiction, falsehood - a stenographic dictation
• Logic:
a) G ≠ ass. w/ falsehood/error
b) G has inspired B
c) ∴ no errors, contradictions, falsehoods (some fundamentalist thinkers distinguish btwn the perfect original text and later texts where errors may have crept in)
• Uniqueness of fundamentalism = rigid theory that turns all parts of B into propositional truths which can be labelled true/false
• Is a poem/story true/false? Did the writers each receive a verbal message?
- Some passages suggest this to be the case e.g. G speaking through prophets
- But, most B writers make no mention of this process and appear to write personally i.e. Pastoral Epistles
- B contains both prop. and non-prop. lang.
- Books make use of multiple sources and refer personally to their efforts in producing the text e.g. Acts 1:1; contradicts view that each author received verbal dictation
• Many theologians reject v.p.i
Give some other subjective theories of inspiration.
• Barth’s view that J (and not the B) is the ‘word of God’, but if one listens to the B w/ humility and a spirit of obedience, then certain passages can become transformed into the word of G in a reader’s exp.
- Inspiration ≠ the quality of text, but of a reader’s exp. w/ text under certain conditions
• Divine inspir. = far more complex than a text being produced by one indiv.
- Led to ‘social theories of inspiration’ which views B as product of an entire faith community being impacted by G and passing the impact to the author, rather than the B as a product of the indiv. working w/ G
How can subjective and objective views of inspiration be balanced?
- One hand: affirm that G = author of B
- Other hand: G has worked through human authors, each w/ own style, personality, hist. situations
- Not imp. that the B conforms to a view of perfection defined in logical/scientific terms, but that it is ‘true’ on matters of salvation, faith and morality
Give a quote from Vatican II about the books in the canon.
• “These the Church holds to be sacred and canonical […] because, having been written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God for their author.”
What is accommodation?
- Adapt, fit, adjust
- G has communicated to humanity in a way which humans can respond to despite his nature being unknowable + unreachable
- Scripture has accommodated (made allowance for) the original audience’s language + understanding
Who is accommodation most associated with? Give the names of other people who believed in it.
• Most ass. w/ John Calvin
• Others:
- Origen + Aug. developed it, which ensured its continuance into the work of medieval biblical exegetes
- Erasmus of Rotterdam + numerous Reformation theologians, both C and P
- Calvin’s contemporaries: Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, Peter Martyr Vermigli and numerous others
Explain Calvin’s use of accommodation.
• Calvin was aware of the possibilities and limits of our lang. - “We must never forget that God is above and beyond our language.”
• The transcendent God chooses to lower himself to become intelligible in our exp.
• The fact that G has chosen to accommodate his lang. in a book = cause for thanksgiving
• Human authors of B chose to speak in a lang. easily intelligible to most readers e.g. Gen 1:16 - “God made two great lights - the greater light […] and the lesser light.” (sun/moon)
- He = aware of planets e.g. Saturn, which are greater lights than the moon: was Moses (who Calvin believed to be the author of Gen) in error? Not at all.
- Moses = adapting truth to the common person - could have given a long discourse about the nature of heavenly spheres + relative sizes of planetary bodies, but it would detract from communicating the essential message
• Believed the B to be w/o error ∴ said that Gen 1:16 = true: the moon is the light which rules the night from the perspective of someone on earth
- Even when accommodating, scripture = wholly true
What analogy did Calvin use for accommodation?
• A nurse making ‘baby talk’ to a toddler: the nurse can make far more sophisticated expressions but chooses to communicate in a way that encourages interaction
Why do contemporaries use accommodation?
• Used by ppl who believe there are errors in B
- Errors = part of G’s overall calculations when accommodating to human lang.
- Bible’s main message = still relevant since it is not about the scientific, cultural, historical assumptions
- Errors detract nothing from theological message of G’s sovereignty + provision of salvation through faith in J
