1D - The Bible As A Source Of Wisdom And Authority Flashcards

What is the Biblical canon?

- The official and standardized 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 Century Jewish historian, mentions Law, Prophets and "four books [which are] hymns to God 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 Bible 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 people

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 Christians 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 Christian 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 Christianity

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 God of JC = diff. + superior to God of Hebrew Bible ∴ attempted to remove all references to Judaism from his version
• The Apostolic Fathers rejected Marcion's Bible as they believed that the OT should be included as the same God was at work in Israel and life of Jesus

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.church believed they had apostolic origins

Why were the Didache and the Shepherd of Hermas ultimately rejected?

Not because 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/beginning 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 the New Testament, 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 God to a loving NT God.

What is the order of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament?

- Begins with Torah; the heart of the Hebrew Bible supported by legal, prophetic, poetic literature
- Christian Old Testament ends w/ Minor Prophets but Hebrew Bible ends w/ Ezra/Nehemiah and Chronicles ∵ Christian Bible 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?

- 4 canonical gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)
- The Acts of the Apostles
- Letters of Paul (first to Christians, then to individuals (Pastoral Epistles))
- 7 general letters
- 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 Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and Gospels in New Testament.

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- Christians believe that Bible = 'inspired' as they want to think/act differently after reading it- Bible ≠ 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)
• Bible = word of G ∵ = creator of Bible; 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 Bible are not inspired; the authors themselves are.
• Most theologians recognise the clear subjective/human side to inspiration as each book has its own character/tone/'feel' based on personality/unique expressions of their author

Give some objective views of inspiration.

• Many Bible passages present God as speaking directly to/through prophets
• Early theologians believed the writers were possessed by God's spirit + led into a kind of ecstasy
• 2nd Century theologian Athenagoras described God as using the prophets "as a flautist might blow into the flute" - divine dictation
• Medieval Christian 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 Church 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
- Bible writers could have received divine dictation in a rigid way, or through a process that gave them relative freedom•

What was the effect of European enlightenment on the view of inspiration?

• It put emphasis on human knowledge and understanding: traditional beliefs of Bible as God's word = questioned
• Some writers believe there is a link between Bible and God 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 Bible

What does innerancy mean?

Belief that Bible = without 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 enlightenment focus on human wisdom in form of fundamentalism
• Asserted that scientific advancements would never be at the cost of Christian doctrines e.g. creation of world in 7 days
• Heart of fundamentalism = objective view of revelation: God gave each word of Bible 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 Jesus (and not the Bible) 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 God 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 God is the author of Bible
- Other hand: God has worked through human authors, each w/ own style, personality.

What is accommodation?

- Adapt, fit, adjust
- God 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 associated with John Calvin

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 experience.
• Even when simplified, 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 people who believe there are errors in the Bible
- Errors = part of God'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 God's sovereignty + provision of salvation through faith in