Intro to Biblical Studies Midterm Study Guide

Faith

1. “Confidence”

   1. Seeing with your ears

   2. Patiently trusting in God: consistent belief

   3. Curiously seeking after God 

   4. Aligning our beliefs with with truth

   5. A personal conviction that endures

Not faith

1. Blind: not understanding the faith

2.  Superstitious: unhealthy fear (legalism)

3. Formulaic: believing the right things

4. Spiritualistic: a faith of feeling

Wesleyan Quadrilateral

1. The four parts that lead to faith:

   1. Tradition: What has been believed?

   2. Reason: What makes sense?

   3. Experience: What feels right?

   4. Revelation: What does God say?

Purpose of doubt

1. Not the opposite of faith

2. Doubt can take us deeper

3. Doubt (and struggle) can protect us from a fragile faith

Revelation

the CONTENT of scripture

General revelation

1. God’s communication of Himself to all persons at all times and in all places

   1. Nature

   2. History

   3. Human consciousness

Special revelation

“God’s manifestation of himself to particular persons at definite times and places, enabling those persons to enter into a redemptive relationship with him."

Inspiration

the MEANS of scripture

Canon

the FORM of scripture

Implication of scripture being divine word

1. The Bible is a unity

2. The Bible is reliable

3. The Bible is authoritative

4. The Bible is timeless

Implication of scripture being human word

1. The Bible shows wide variety

2. The Bible requires an understanding of its setting to be understood

3. The Bible is time-bound

plenary inspiration

It is verbal and is fully inspired at the word-level

Questioned OT books

1. Song of Solomon

2. Ecclesiastes

3. Esther

4. Ezekiel

5. Proverbs

Apocrypha

“hidden away” - non-inspired works

Pseudepigrypha

1. “false writings” - books written under false names with elements of truth along with religious fantasy

Why the apocrypha isn’t in the Protestant Bible

1. Never were a part of the original Hebrew Scriptures.

2. Jesus and the apostles never directly refer to these books or their contents.

3. In the early kerygma (preaching) of the church, the 400 years between Malachi and John the Baptist are ignored (see Acts).

4. They do not stand up to the tests of canonicity (common acceptance and consistency of doctrine).

5. An intermediate position is inconsistent and only leads to

threefold division of the Old Testament

The law

The prophets

The writings

The law (Torah)

1. Genesis

2. Exodus 

3. Leviticus

4. Numbers

5. Deuteronomy

The prophets (Nebi’im)

1. Joshua

2. Judges

3. Samuel

4. Kings

5. Isaiah

6. Jeremiah

7. Ezekiel

The writings (Kethubin)

1. Psalms

2. Proverbs

3. Job

4. Song of Solomon

5. Ruth

6. Lamentations

7. Ecclesiastes

8. Esther

9. Daniel

10. Ezra-Nehemiah

11. Chronicles

Type of Greek used in the NT

1. “Attic” 

2. “Koine”

principles of canonization for the NT

1. Authority: is the book in some way derived from an apostolic authority?

2. Catholicity: Established use in the Church (universal acceptance)

3. Consistency: Theological consistency- Is the book true to sound doctrine? Is it true to the character of God? Does it conform to the “rule of faith?”

4. Efficacy: Does the book possess the dynamic power of God to change lives?

5. Antiquity: Does the book date to the time of the apostles?

Sometimes rejected NT books

1. Hebrews

2. James

3. 2 Peter

4. 2 and 3 John

5. Jude

6. Revelation

Mostly rejected NT books

1. The Epistle of Barnabas

2. The Shepherd of Hermes

3. The Didache

4. Epistle to the Corinthians, Second Epistle of Clement, ETC.

earliest copy of any New Testament text

John Rylands fragment from 125 AD

What did Athanasius have to say about the New Testament canon?

“Let no one add to these; let nothing be taken away.”

textual criticism

The science of verifying the actual wording of the Bible by comparing thousands of ancient manuscripts

Papyri

animal skin and earliest known manuscripts

Unicials

1. manuscripts characterized by capital letters written on parchment

2. Most important are Sinaitics and Vaticanus

Miniscules

Characterized by lower-case letters

Masoretic Text

Made by Majorettes (scholars) between 7th and 9th centuries

Dead Sea Scrolls

1. collection of approximately 850 Jewish manuscripts discovered in 1947

   • Represent ever OT book except Esther (+ many extra-biblical books)

   • Date to 100 BC

   • Help verify Masoretic text

Septuagint

Greek translation of the Hebrew OT produces between 200-300 BC in Alexandria

Guiding principles for textual critics

1. Internal evidence:

   • Prefer the shorter reading

   • Prefer the more difficult reading

   • Prefer the reading that best fits the author’s style

   • Prefer the reading that best fits the context

2. External evidence:

   • Prefer the reading in the oldest manuscripts

   • Prefer the reading supported in widely separated geographical areas

perspicuity

Clearness of lucidity

Functional translations

1. thought-for-thought (the general idea translated into an understandable form)

   • NIV

Formal

1. word-for-word (the literal word translated)

   • ESV

John Wycliffe

Translated the entire Vulgate into English

William Tyndale

Translated into English from Hebrew and Greek, completer NT in 1526, and was strangled/burned at the stake

Johann Gutenberg

Invented the printing press

Geneva Bible

the Bible used at home during James’ I reign of England produced with Calvinist theological footnotes

When was the KJV completed

1611

What does is mean for the Bible to be authoritative

1. The Bible claims inspiration and therefore authority.

   • Scripture builds and breaks (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

   • Hebrews 4:12-13

   • Hear, attend, affect, reflect, respond (James 1:21-25)

Pushbacks on authoritative scripture

1. Distill every story to its “timeless truths”

2. Understand all the details of the text as prescriptive to us