The Word:
The Same Yesterday, Today and Forever
Questions to consider:
• Do I trust the Bible?
• Why do I trust it?
• What’s at stake?
What’s at stake?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Is it a true account of origins?
Is it a true account of purpose?
Is it a true account of destiny?
Did God reveal Himself, His plans and
purposes to man?
Is Jesus Christ who He said He was?
Is sin real?
Do I really sin?
Am I saved from a perfect, holy and righteous
God?
Do I have an eternal future in His presence?
How do we know which books
should be included in the New
Testament?
How did the early church decide
what was Scripture and what
was not?
What were their criteria?
How do we know that our four
Gospels should be there rather
than, say, the Gospel of
Thomas, the Gospel of
Barnabas or some other work?
Canonicity
The New Testament
Canon, from the Greek word kanon, means
“rule” or “standard”
Question:
Is the New Testament a
collection of authoritative
books or an authoritative
collection of books? In
other words, were the 27
books of the New
Testament discovered to
be authoritative because of
their intrinsic worth, or were
they determined to be
authoritative by some other
authority?
Quote from our culture
“Eventually, four Gospels
and twenty-three other
texts were canonized
(declared to be Holy
Scriptures) into a Bible.
This did not occur,
however, until the sixth
century.”
-- Dan Burnstein,
Secrets of the Code, 116
Quote from our culture
“It is a remarkable fact that
although nearly all modern
forms of Christianity do not
question the texts included
in the New Testament, in
the first four centuries every
single document was at some
time or other branded as
either heretical or forged!”
--Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy,
The Jesus Mysteries, 224
Quotes from our culture
“More than eighty gospels were
considered for the New
Testament, an yet only a relative
few were chosen for inclusion--Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
among them.”
--- Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, 231
“The early church needed to
convince the world that the mortal
prophet Jesus was a divine being.
Therefore, any gospels that
described earthly aspects of
Jesus’ life had to be omitted from
the Bible.”
--- Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, 244
Criteria Used
1. Apostolicity – Was a
book written by an
apostle or an
apostle’s associate?
2. Orthodoxy – Did it
conform to the
teachings of other
books known to be
written by apostles?
3. Catholicity – Was it
accepted early and by
a majority of
churches?
Criteria Used
IMPORTANT!!
Age was of importance.
If a book was perceived
to have been written after
the time of the apostles, it
was categorically
rejected. The emphasis
was not in bringing books
into the canon, but
keeping them out.
Question:
When was the first canon list assembled?
A.D. 140 by Marcion
Marcion (the heretic)
• Marcion was a Docetist (i.e. – one
that believed Christ only
“appeared” to be human, which was
compatible with a Gnostic belief
system)
• Anti-Semitic
• Denied that the OT was
Scripture
• Denied Jesus was the Son of the
OT God, but rather the Son of
the good God of the NT
• Only used Gospel of Luke, which
he heavily edited
• Only used 10 of Paul’s letters
(also, edited)
Related considerations of the heresy
1. Prompted the church
to formalize a list
(collections were in
circulation – Paul’s
letters, the Gospels)
2. Why weren’t works
such as the Gospel
of Thomas or the
Gospel of Mary or
the Acts of Peter
included in Marcion’s
canon?
Think about this question!
Why weren’t works such as
the Gospel of Thomas or the
Gospel of Mary or the Acts
of Peter included in Marcion’s
canon? In other words, if Marcion
wanted to insert early Gnostic
teaching into the genuine
gospels/letters being circulated
among the churches, then why not
use the Gnostic writings themselves
instead of editing what was circulating at
the time?
COULD IT BE THAT
THESE WRITINGS WEREN’T
EVEN AROUND YET?!
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Before the end of the second century, a canon of
Scripture had been decided upon which included:
The four Gospels (Matt., Mark, Luke and John)
Paul’s thirteen letters
The book of Acts
1Peter
1John
Hebrews (East)
Revelation (many circles)
Eusebius of Caesarea
(c. 260-340) discussed
at length the attitudes
of still earlier church
fathers, Clement and
Origen concerning the
canon of Scripture and
the then disputed
books, which were:
1. James
2. Jude
3. 2Peter
4. 2John
5. 3John
Forgeries
• 3Corinthians – forgery
• Gospel of Peter – forgery
• Letter to the Laodiceans
-forgery
• Letter to the Alexandrians
- forgery
Death Blow to the Gnostic
Gospels
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
5 Points of the Death Blow
Recent productions; no stamp of antiquity
Gnostic tendencies or full-blown Gnostic
Non-narrative; JC’s teaching w/out context
Severe embellishments
Self-consciously promoted their claim to
apostolic authorship
“But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to
you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let
him be accursed. As we have said before, so I say again now, if
any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you
received, let him be accursed.” Gal. 1:8, 9
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
5 Points of the Death Blow
Recent productions; no stamp of antiquity
Gnostic tendencies or full-blown Gnostic
Non-narrative; JC’s teaching w/out context
Severe embellishments
Self-consciously promoted their claim to
apostolic authorship
“But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to
you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let
him be accursed. As we have said before, so I say again now, if
any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you
received, let him be accursed.” Gal. 1:8, 9
It was from this book
that material in this
presentation was
excerpted. I highly
recommend this to
anyone who is
interested in this
subject (and we all
should be)…
…especially since
things like this keep
showing up on the
racks!
Canonicity
The Old Testament
“The only true test of canonicity is the testimony of God
the Holy Spirit to the authority of His own Word.”
Gleason Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, 85
If God exists, how could we know anything about Him?
He would have to reveal Himself
The writers of the Scriptures say
that He has done that very thing.
“The Lord
commanded…”
“God said…”
“The Lord spoke…”
“The Lord said…”
500 times
“Your word (s)” – 42 times
The Historical Fact of the Jewish Nation
“Here before us we see the great outstanding objective fact
of the Jewish nation. The Old Testament, as we have it, is
at once the means and the record of their national life. It
rose with them, grew with them, formed them, and at the same
time witnessed against them, and it is to the Jews alone we
look for the earliest testimony to the Old Testament
canon.
In the face of these historic facts, it is not too much to say
that the trustworthiness of the Old Testament is wholly in
accord with the historic growth and position of the Jewish
people. And so we can test the Old Testament by the
history of the Jews and find it in entire agreeement with all
that we know of Hebrew national life.”
-- W. H. Griffith Thomas
How We Got Our Bible, 29, 30
The Tripartite Division of the
Hebrew Canon
1. Law – Torah (or, Pentateuch)
2. Prophets – Former Prophets (Josh., Judges,
1&2Sam., 1&2Kings) Latter-Major Prophets
(Is., Jer., Ezek., 12 Minor Prophs)
3. Writings – Poetry & Wisdom (Ps., Prov., Job)
Rolls (Song, Ruth, Lam., Esth.) Historical
(Dan., Ez., Neh., 1&2Chron.)
Jesus’ Use of the Scriptures
“Did not Moses give you the
Law, and yet none of you carries
out the Law.”
John 7:19
“Do not think I came to abolish
the Law or the Prophets;”
Matt. 5:17
“that all things which are written
about Me in the Law of Moses
and the Prophets and the Psalms
must be fulfilled.”
Luke 24:44
“that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on
earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, “
Matt. 23:35