YOUR BIBLE: what's IN and what's NOT
Mel Gibson certainly confounded the movie moguls and critics alike with the success of his film The Passion of The Christ, which set new records in Hollywood. Clearly, he has the ability to create films with topics that appeal to the masses. No doubt his latest film featuring the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus Christ almost gave him a winner from the start, with even the criticism giving the film promotional publicity. Now Mel says he intends to produce a film on Boadicea the Celtic queen who attacked the Romans, and another dealing with the Jewish Maccabees, who ruled Palestine in the period between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament.
While both will have plenty of blood and gore, which is his style, the latter will, maybe, demonstrate that he lacks the anti-Semitic agenda alleged by critics of The Passion, as a film on the Maccabees would be dear to the heart of every Jew. However, it raises serious questions in our contemporary world. The story of the Maccabees comes from a book of history called 1 Maccabees, which is not part of the Holy Bible, but is included in what is known as the Apocrypha.
Coupled with this is an upsurge of interest in other non-biblical books from the early centuries, such as The Gospel of Thomas and The Gospel of Mary. The best-selling novel the Da Vinci Code also raises issues in this area, suggesting that the establishment church through the ages has suppressed details of a relationship between Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. Some such details are found in The Gospel of Mary.
So people ask, how did we get our Bible? What were the criteria for its formation? And what of the books that constitute the Apocrypha? Can we trust the Scriptures as God-given for us today?
some terms
All Christians today agree on the place of 66 books of the two sections of the Bible—39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. The differences come when one looks outside those generally accepted books of the Bible, referred to as “the canon.” The word canon comes from the Hebrew word for a reed, cane or measuring rod.
The Catholic tradition includes an additional 12 books (to the 66 of the canon). These are part of what is called the Apocrypha. Catholics call them the “deutero-canon,” meaning “second canon.” The Council of Trent of 1546 voted to include the 12 as part of their Bible. Then an additional three books were added as an appendix to the Bible.
It was this council that met to determine an answer to the teachings of Martin Luther and the Protestant movement that was sweeping Europe. Being already divided, the rest of Christendom rejected these books.
in or out?
On what basis were books chosen to be included in the canon or excluded? This question is particularly pertinent today, when interest is being focused again on these areas.
Commencing with the Old Testament books, the oldest Hebrew manuscript is the Cairo Codex. It dates to around 900 AD. There are other manuscripts, but the message of the Old Testament is confirmed by the Septuagint, a translation of the Hebrew into Greek by 70 scholars based at Alexandria, Egypt, in around 250 BC. (It is fascinating to read how the ancient manuscripts of the Bible were discovered, but that’s another story.)
The Jewish religious leadership had agreed upon the Old Testament canon, as we know it, by the time of Jesus. Evidence of inspiration and claim of authorship are among the reasons for accepting the books into the canon.
Additionally, Jesus Himself affirmed Moses as the author of the Book of the Law (the first five books of the Old Testament). Also, He quoted only from those books that comprise the accepted Old Testament. He did not quote any of the books of the Apocrypha.
While the order of books in the Hebrew Bible is a little different to the Bible of today, all of them are there. The Jewish leaders met at Jamnia near the coast of Palestine around the end of the first century and confirmed the books as we know them today.
A further criterion applied at that time was the inclusion of the concept of the covenant—the promise God had made to redeem His people. Legends and myths were rejected.
a major breakthrough
The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 served to confirm the Scriptures we have today as coming to us through the centuries with only minuscule changes.
Millar Burrows said, “It is a matter for wonder that through something like a thousand years the text underwent so little alteration.”
Renowned scholar F F Bruce has also commented on this, saying, “The new evidence confirms what we had already good reason to believe—that the Jewish scribes of the early Christian centuries copied and recopied the text of the Hebrew Bible with the utmost fidelity.”
Thus the canon of Scripture, although written by dozens of authors over 1500 years, shows a high degree of integrity and unanimity of belief, and reveals the inspiration of writers by a God who was directing His words to humankind.
New Testament writings
The writings of the apostles—today’s New Testament—in circulation from the first century AD, were gathered together firstly by the churches to which they were addressed. Then they were shared with other churches.
As early as the second century there were already lists of letters considered to be authentic. Certainly many spurious letters also circulated. By 367 AD Athanasius of Alexandria had made a list: it contained the same 27 “books” we have today.
There is also evidence suggesting that the early Christians made distinctions between these New Testament books and other extra-biblical Christian writings. There was no church council making a decree that the 27 books of the New Testament constituted the canon. They had been received by the churches, who knew the apostles.
The Bible, then, carries its own authority. The authors all claim to give messages from heaven to the church. The books of the New Testament (apart from Hebrews) all state their authorship. Again myths and legends were not included.
The books of the Apocrypha and other writings called the Pseudepigrapha contain fanciful stories and espouse beliefs not in harmony with the rest of Scripture.
With the discovery of other ancient manuscripts, we can confirm that the Bible we have today is essentially identical to that held by Jesus, and that accepted by Christians of the first few centuries after Jesus.
We can have confidence in its authority and accuracy, and that it is, indeed, the Word of God.
Bibliography:
F F Bruce, The Canon of Scripture, Chapter House, Glasgow, 1988.
Neil Lightfoot, How We Got the Bible, Baker, 1963.
Hans von Campenhausen, The Formation of the Christian Bible, Adam and Charles Black, 1972.
Floyd Filson, Which Books Belong in the Bible? Westminster, 1956.
R Laird Harris, Inspiration and Canonicity of the Bible, Zondervan, 1957.
“How We Got Our Bible,” in Christian History, Issue 43 (Vol XIII, No 3).
Canon selection criteria
The reasons for selection of present-day books of the Bible (which constitute the canon) and why those of the Apocrypha were excluded, are as follows:
1. The Bible owes its authority to no church council or resolution.
2. The authority of the Bible is not controlled by the church—it is inherent.
3. Early historians, such as Josephus, never listed the apocryphal books in the canon of Scripture.
4. The apocryphal books of the Old Testament were never included in the Hebrew Bible.
5. Jesus affirmed the authorship by Moses and other prophets; He never quoted from events mentioned only in the Apocrypha.
6. The apocryphal books give no evidence of inspiration as do the books in the canon of Scripture.
7. Much of the Apocrypha contains legendary and fictional stories.
8. The apocryphal books have been shrouded in continual uncertainty.
9. The Old Testament books of Scripture feature or use the language of the covenant.
10. While the books of the Bible support the central concepts of salvation and God’s dealings with humankind, the apocryphal books contain much that Is not in harmony with the canon of Scripture.
| This is an extract from November 2004
|
Home - Archive - Topics - Podcast - Subscribe - Special Offers - About Signs - Contact Us - Links
 |
 |
|
Copyright © 2006 Seventh-day Adventist Church (SPD) Limited ACN 093 117 689
