01-23-24 #3 Bible & Canon answers
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Apr 3, 2024
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Week 2
Topic
Reading
Assignment
Jan 23
The Bible, the Canon and the Church
Portier, “The Bible and the Church,” pp. 97-119; Dei Verbum
#14-20
WS #3
Introduction
The Bible
Recognizing that not everyone has the same experience of reading the Bible, this material will serve as an introduction to Christian’s record of God’s revelation. It bears witness to God’s revelation (self-disclosure or self-communication) in the history of Israel and Jesus, but also speaks to Christians today as they proclaim it, read it, meditate on it, and pray with it. In this class, we will be introduced to a general view of the Old Testament and the New Testament. 1)
What are the two separate processes that we must distinguish when we speak about the Bible’s origin from an historical perspective? (98)
a)
The actual composition of the individual books, the production of the text (Genesis, Psalms, Gospels, Paul’s letters, etc.)
b)
The process of gathering these books into a sacred collection of scriptures, the formation of the canon (usually some catalyst for engaging in this process)
2)
What is the difference between the Hebrew canon, used by Jews and Protestants, and the Catholic canon? What accounts for the difference? (98)
Simple answer: Hebrew (Old Testament) canon, used by Jews and Protestants (39 books) is based upon the decisions at the Council of Jamnia in 90 AD.
The Hebrew (Old Testament) canon, used by Catholics and Orthodox (46 books) is based upon the Septuagint in 3
rd
- 2
nd
century BC.
More detailed answer:
-both Protestant and Catholic/Orthodox Bibles are the same in the NT (27 books)
-Catholic and Orthodox Christians have 46 OT books and Protestant and Jewish Bibles have 39 OT books. Why?
-the original Jewish Scriptures (OT) are written in Hebrew (the people are Jewish and this is their language!)
-Alexander the Great Hellenizes the world…Greek language becomes common place
-in 3
rd
C.-2
nd
C. B.C. Jewish people had migrated to Egypt (which had been Hellenized) and needed their scriptures (OT) translated into Greek (they no longer spoke or read Hebrew…just like when people immigrated to USA generations ago and no longer spoke Italian, or French, or German, etc.)
-the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures (OT) into Greek is called the Septuagint. They translated 46 books…these were the number of books that people were using in prayer and worship at the time that they were translated
-the earliest Christians were, of course, Jewish, but quickly the majority were Gentiles and they spoke Greek. In fact, the whole NT is written in Greek. The version of the OT that early Christians used was the Greek one…the Septuagint (with its 46 books)
-after the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans, the whole Jewish people were in upheaval. At the Council of Jamnia in 90 AD, they settled on 39 books as the official number, as these were the number of books they were using in prayer and worship at that time (the official number of books is called the canon…note one “n!”; canon not cannon!
)
-the Greek-speaking Christians continued to use the Septuagint with its 46 books
-at the time of the Reformation, the Reformers thought that the “Catholics” had added 7 books, and they decided to go back to the “original” number of 39 (this was an erroneous assumption…nothing was added, it is just that Christians were using the number of books based upon the Septuagint and the
Jewish people were using the number of books based on the decision at the Council of Jamnia.)
-the 7 disputed books are recognized by Protestant and Jews as holy books, but they are not seen as part of the official number (the canon). They are usually included in Protestant Bibles as the “Apocrypha.” These books: Sirach, Wisdom, Baruch, Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees (as well as some additions to the books of Esther and Daniel).
3)
Why does Portier think it is better to refer to the first part of the Bible as the Old Testament, rather than the Hebrew Scriptures? (99)
First, the version of the Catholic Old Testament comes from the Septuagint, which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew texts…so calling it the Hebrew scriptures does not entirely capture this.
Second, and more importantly, this Old Testament collection of books is
embraced by Christians. The early Christian church rejected proposals to abandon, along with its God, what came to be called the Old Testament. Marcion, a second-century Christian from Asia Minor was the chief advocate to reject the Old Testament. Portier notes that there is a difference in how a Jew or a Christian might read the Old Testament. For the Jew, various texts might refer to God’s promises unfulfilled, while a Christian might see in these same texts references to fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
4)
How does Portier divide the books of the Old Testament and the New Testament? (100-
106)
Old Testament
:
The Law (Torah = teaching or instruction) = The Pentateuch (five books)
The Prophets
The Writings
Historical Books
Wisdom Books
New Testament
Gospels
Pauline Collection
Catholic Epistles
Apocalypse (Book of Revelation)
5)
What is the work of a textual critic? Do you have any experience of textual criticism in your field of study right now? (107)
Textual critics use all the existing copies of a text and compare them to produce the most accurate text. We usually call this the “critical text” or the “critical edition.” This is used for historical documents, literary texts, and in any circumstance where you are comparing copies. You might think of even simple examples of comparing copies of someone’s will after they die. Only 2% of the New Testament texts are disputed because we have so many copies of manuscripts: over
5,800
complete or fragmented Greek manuscripts catalogued, 10,000 Latin manuscripts and
9,300 manuscripts
in various other ancient languages including Syriac, Slavic, Gothic, Ethiopic, Coptic, and Armenian.
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The Canon and the Church
In the previous part of the reading, we examined how the different books came to be within their historical time frame. This part will focus on how the books of the New Testament were gathered
into one large book that we call the Bible. This agreed upon collection of books in the Bible is called the canon. 6)
The Bibles that we use are translations of the original Hebrew and Greek texts. Based upon what you read in Portier, are these translations accurate? What accounts for the differences in translations? (108-109)
Translations are done by reputable scholars in the field. Some translations are
more literal (sometimes not capturing the tone and nuance of language) and some are freer (sometimes sacrificing accuracy). The translations are made from the critical texts of the Hebrew or the Greek.
7)
How does Portier describe the formation of the New Testament canon? (110-112)
The New Testament does not come directly from the Holy Spirit (“dropped from heaven”), nor does it come down from some authority in the church (“backroom decisions”). Rather it emerges from the “Spirit-led inner workings of the church.” In other words, from experience of church members as they pray, study, worship, and discuss these texts in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
We can see, for instance, that Paul indicated that his letter should be read in public and should be shared with other communities. By the time that 2 Peter is written, it seems that Paul’s letters are in some collective format. 8)
What kind of Christian works were circulating by the end of the 2
nd
century? (112-113)
Portier suggests that Paul’s letters and the four gospels were in circulation from the latter part of the first century and through the second century. He suggests that this core of the New Testament circulated along with other writings:
a)
The writings of the Apostolic fathers such as Ignatius of Antioch and Clement of Rome (which pre-date some of the books of the New Testament)
b)
A vast array of gnostic literature that focused on the hidden knowledge that you needed to have to be saved. Gnosticism devalued Jesus’ humanity and the material world (a bit like Plato…)
c)
Apocryphal gospels that contained imaginative reconstructions of details from the lives of Jesus and Mary.
9)
What are some of the events that contributed to the process of separating the 27 New Testament books from other Christian writings of the second century? (113-115)
a)
Marcion, who proposed a scripture of Paul’s letters and part of Luke’s gospel. (He also wanted to eliminate the Old Testament and its “God of vengeance.”)
b)
Gnosticism and persecutions.
c)
The church father, Irenaeus (ca. 130-200) who was the bishop of Lyons in Roman Gaul. In his work, he distinguished the true faith of the apostles and martyrs from the alleged secret teachings of the Gnostics. Irenaeus’ question: “If Jesus had really revealed all of what you say to Peter, Mary Magdalene, Thomas, and the others, why aren’t your faith and writings preserved in the great apostolic churches of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Asia Minor?”
10) In what way might we say that the Bible is the church’s book? (115-116)
Before there was a New Testament canon, there was an apostolic church, a communion of local churches. The canon came into being to serve as a norm or measure for the church’s apostolic faith. Though the New Testament needs to be read and interpreted within the church, it is not subordinate to the church. In this sense, we cannot separate the scriptures from the church, nor can we subordinate them to the church. 11) What does Portier mean by the phrase “the scandal of Christian division? Has there been progress to heal divisions? (116-119)
While we might think of the experience of Christian pluralism in the USA as a
manifestation of religious freedom, Jesus prayed that those who would follow him “may all be one” (John 17:20-21). The divisions within Christianity is actually a scandal to those outside of Christianity. The work of building unity is called ecumenism. The Bible, along with baptism, are incredible gifts that Christians have in common and are effective
signs of unity. 12) According to Dei Verbum
#15, from a Christian perspective, what is the purpose of the Old Testament? a)
The principal purpose to which the plan of the old covenant was directed was to prepare for the coming of Christ, to announce this coming by prophecy, and to indicate its meaning through various types.
b)
They also reveal to all people the knowledge of God and of humans and the ways in which God, just and merciful, deals with people.
c)
They also teach us God’s ways (divine pedagogy), giving expression to a lively sense of God, contain a store of sublime teachings about God, sound wisdom about human life, and a wonderful treasury of prayers…
in them the mystery of salvation is present in a hidden way. d)
Christians should receive them with reverence.
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