BIBLIOLOGY
I. The Bible is a remarkable book.
The Bible as literature — translated, etc.
Copies sold
Effect on other literature
Diversity of literature
Up-to-date
Ethics
Unity:
-of theme
-of structure
-of teaching
-of emphasis
Trustworthiness in history.
Theories change, facts do not!
Accuracy of the Old Testament:
-sacred book of Jews and Christians
-topographical and geographical trustworthiness
locations
exact representations of reality
-ethnological correctness
e.g.= Genesis 10 The Assyrian civilization, so Semitic came out of the non-Semitic Babylonia
Canaan was Hamitic, but Semitic with a Semitic language cf. Gezer
-chronology
Egyptians and Assyrian chronology, interwoven with the Hebrew.
-situations:
Joshua 1:4, Hittites
Integrity of its texts.
Text of the Old Testament.
accuracy by scribes (counting)
translations
Syriac, Jerome, etc.
LXX, Samaritan Pentateuch
Text of the New Testament.
Almost 6,000 manuscripts
Extent of revelation. (Beyond human discovery.)
II. Internal Claim of the Bible for Itself
Thousands of passages: Dt. 6:6-9; 17-18; Joshua 1:8, etc. 2 Tim. 2:15; 3:15-17, etc.
III. Arguments for the truth of the Bible
A PRIORI argument
Indestructibility of the Bible.
Diocletian, 303 A.D., demanded every copy of the Bible be destroyed by fire.
Fulfilled prophecy.
IV. Revelation
It is important to distinguish between:
Revelation and reason
Revelation and inspiration
Revelation and illumination (1 Co 2:12)
Forms of revelation:
Creation
Christ
The written word
partial, Dt. 29:29
complete in facts revealed, Co. 2:9,10
progressive
final, Jude 3
V. Canonicity
Not by age
Numbers 21:14; Joshua 10:13
Not by language
A book is canonical because it is inspired.
Contrast:
| Incorrect |
Correct
|
| The Church is the determiner of the canon | The church is the discoverer of the canon |
| The church is the mother of the canon. | The church is the child of the canon. |
| The church is the magistrate of the canon. | The church is the minister of the canon. |
| The church is the regulator of the canon. | The church is the recognizer of the |
| canon. |
How discovered?
Is it authoritative?
Is it prophetic? – by a man of God
Is it authentic? – tell the truth
Was it received?
Was it dynamic?
Apocrypha
Jesus as well as all of the New Testament writers never quoted the Apocrypha once.
Josephus did not list them as canon. A.D. 30-100.
Philo never quoted from them. 20 B.C. – A.D. 40
The Jewish scholars of Jamnia (A.D. 90) did not recognize them.
No canon or council of the Christian Church for the first four centuries recognized the Apocrypha as inspired.
Many of the great fathers of the early Church spoke out against them (Origen, Cyril of Jerusalem, Athanasius, Jerome (340-420)
Many Roman Catholic scholars through the Reformation period rejected them.
Reformers rejected them.
Not until A.D. 1546 in the counter Reformation of Trent, did the Apocrypha receive full canon status by the Roman Catholic Church.
only twelve of fifteen books were accepted.
prayers for dead (II Mac. 12:44-45)
– II Esdras — against prayers for the dead (7:105)
Un-Biblical:
Prayers for dead, II Mac. 12:44-45
Salvation by works, Tobit 12:9
Suicide sanctioned – II Mac. 14:41-46
Murder encouraged
Alms giving. Eccl. 3:30
Neo Gnosticism
Anti-Samaritan
Weakness of style.
Legendary and contains many stories which are absurd.
-e.g. Tobit 1:7f, demon and lover
Most of the Apocrypha was written in the post-Biblical, inter-testamental period.
Never had a place in the Hebrew canon.
Inspiration never claimed by the writers, disclaimed by some.
They are entirely without the prophetic element (prophets had ceased).
New Testament Canon
Author
Universally accepted by the Church
Consistency
Inspiration
New Testament itself:
2 Peter 3:15-16
Co. 4 :16
1 Th. 5:17
1 Ti. 5:18
VI. Reasons why canon is necessary.
Absolute criterion.
Word of God in writing.
Preserve writings.
Know the limits of the inspired writings.
VII. Closing of the canon.
Hebrews 1:1-3
Re 22:18,19 “Prophecy”
History
Factual comparison.
