The Bible Flashcards
What is the Bible
Biblos (greek) collection of texts/scriptures God's revelation to humans moral and spiritual truth: creeds and beliefs Christians follow God's commandments behaving socially and morally history of Judaism and Christianity
How many books are in the protestant bible and catholic bible and what is the difference called
P: 66
C: 73
difference: Apocrypha
What is the original languages of the testaments
OT: Hebrew - for Christianity and Judaism
NT: Greek - for Christianity
2 Timothy 3:16
All scripture is God-breathed
Old Testament content
announces arrival of messiah The law (5): genesis, exodus, Leviticus, deuteromony, numbers History (12): History of Israel The Prophets (7): Isaiah The Poetical (5): Psalms, Job
New Testament content
The Gospels (good news): synoptic gospels; Matthew, mark, Luke, John, to tell the story of Jesus
The acts of apostles: the foundation of the church
The Epistles: Letters, Paul, Romans, 1 corinthians
Revelation - apocalypse
what is the canon?
refers to list of authoritative scriptures
athanasius ultimately created first list of canonical books, long process
The Bible as a source of authority and divine revelation
2 Timothy 3:16
Does not have to be literal
The Bible as a source of NML
links to ethics NML
God had intentions for us to live a certain way
e.g. 10 commandments and Leviticus
Leads to divine commandment theory: the basis of making moral decisions is to act in accordance with God’s law
W: OT and NT sometimes contradict
The Bible as a source of scripture and tradition
Some denominations, like CC believe tradition is essential to revelation
Only Popes and Bishops can interpret scripture correctly, must go through them
Magisterium - teaching office at CC made up of Popes and bishops
Sola scripture - ‘by scripture alone’
Lots of controversies in Early Church, particularly amongst Gnostics
Revealed theology
God gradually reveals himself through history, can see a pattern of this throughout Bible
Jesus is the full and ultimate revelation
Aquinas: we can achieve this knowledge of God through reason
Paley: can infer the existence of intelligent design
Strengths and weaknesses of revealed theology (3)
S: actual reference point helps people get closer to him fits idea of personal God W: disagreements between new and old testament difference in interpretation canon issue
Natural theology
Observing God from the the world using reason
2nd to revealed - more explicit
e.g. looking at beauty of the word could lead to a natural revelation with God
God has always been available through the things he made
order of the world allows God and his perfection to be seen
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have clearly been seen” - Romans 1:20
Strengths and weaknesses of natural theology (2,4)
S: looks at intrinsic good of world
suggests that God’s always present
W: opinion based, could interpret incorrectly
doesn’t allow God to be perfect
big leap from what you see to what you conclude
not confided to formation of bible, no reference point
Interpretation of scripture and biblical exegesis
Writers applied editorial judgement and were influenced by beliefs in which community they’d lived
e.g. Paul has limited references to OT
BE: work of trying to interpret text within context
What are the 4 criticisms of biblical exegesis
redaction criticism
historical criticism
literacy criticism
form criticism
literary criticism
evidence from writing and historical sources to determine authorship date and intended readership
S: helps find accuracies and enables a fuller understanding
W: word of god, why do we need to know authorship/context, to what extent is this info helpful
form criticism
looks at patterns, traces back to original form
s: letters are more likely to be factual
w: doesn’t present disagreement ab form’s meaning
redaction criticism
looks at how pieces have been put together to reveal intention
S: allows deeper meaning
W: bias, could negatively effect other groups, e.g. Jews
historical criticism
historical context, compared with other texts from the same time period
S: non-faith based evidence for contextualising it
W: could backfire, fail to back something up or bias
What is mysticism
a spiritual reality which is accessible from personal subjective experience
What do mystics seek + W
truth in themselves, disregarding reason or the Bible
W: significance of mysticism could be reduced, the experience of subjective (unreliable, can’t be proved as true)
Examples of mystical experiences
could consist of dreams, visions or inner voices
could use the Bible to get a word from God, they could not take into consideration the wider meaning when doing this
W: significance of mysticism could be effected again - it could be hugely significant to the individuals revelation, but what would it mean for wider revelation?
Moses and the burning bush (exodus)
Holy Spirit’s role in mysticism
Holy Spirit discloses himself through the passions of Christ
‘he will give you another advocate to help and be with you forever - the Spirit of truth’, John 14:16-17
enlightens the mind to the nature of God and his works
Holy Spirit is how Christians experience God
Pentacost
Holy spirit is sent on day of the Pentecost - Acts 2
Born - lives - dies - resurrects - ascends - Pentecost (holy spirit comes down on the day of the Pentecost)
revealed theology for mysticism
Could argue that the Bible, as revealed theology, is, to an extent, the result of mystical experiences, e.g. Moses and the burning bush (exodus)
hugely significant, Bible is reliant on mystical experiences to be revealed theology
Sola scripture - through scripture alone - works with the Holy Spirit to ensure the Bible is a living document of faith but would NOT undermine the truth or revelation of the Bible
