Chapter 1 Report Canonicity is absolutely crucial for the scripture found in the Holy Bible. There have been and still are many arguments about which books should be included in the Bible. Due to these constant disagreements, three tests were put in place to ensure canonicity. Three main factors were used to test whether or not a book was canon, and whether or not it should be included in the Bible: author, audience, and teaching. A book of the Bible must pass all three of these tests to be considered canon.
To pass the first canonicity test, the book must have been written by a prophet of the Lord, or some other Spirit-guided person. A normal, human author could not possibly have knowledge of or hope to understand God’s will, unless God’s
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If it were truly God’s Word, it could not be confined to a single audience or generation of people. Rather, it would affect all who read it. An author may have written a book for a certain group of people or generation; however, if a piece of scripture is truly God’s Word, then every person who reads it should be able to apply it to his or her own life. God’s message should impact every person and transcend time itself.
To pass the third and final canonicity test, the book could not contradict previous messages or teachings of the Lord. For example, if a particular teaching held fast throughout the Bible, but if a newly discovered writing claiming to be of God contradicted the previous teaching, then it could not be God’s truth. God’s Word remains consistent throughout all sixty-six books of the Holy Bible; therefore, if a book does not follow the same teachings, it cannot be canon. Thanks to these three tests, humans can be assured the entire Bible is truly God’s truth and can be trusted to provide proper guidance from
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It is understandable though, given the time period and places it was written in are vastly different than what most modern day readers are accustomed to. Thankfully, scholars have come up with several different methods for interpreting the bible. A common way a reader may gain insight is by taking into consideration the grammar rules and syntax of the passages, which is called the grammatical-historical method; however, without proper context, this method is useless. There are three types of context: immediate context, remote context, and historical context. Immediate context is a “plain-text” form of explaining something by using direct explanation. Contrary to immediate context, remote context is found by looking within the surrounding pages of the passage, or in other books to obtain clarity. Lastly, historical context helps us better understand the Bible because when if we know historical or cultural facts about the time period or place, we can apply them to the Bible and gain a clearer
The Bible is read and interpreted by many people all over the world. Regardless, no one knows the absolute truth behind scripture. Walter Brueggemann, professor of Old Testament, wrote “Biblical Authority” to help people understand what he describes as six different parts that make up the foundation to ones understanding of scripture. He defines these six features as being: inherency, interpretation, imagination, ideology, inspiration, and importance. As Brueggemann explains each individual part, it is easy to see that they are all interconnected because no one can practice one facet without involuntarily practicing at least one other part.
For thousands of years there have been many transcriptions and changes to the words of God, For example, just in the last thousand years there has been three different transcriptions, The New Testament, Homer, and also Sophocles. For a person not to look for their own interpretation of the lord’s book is
Writings of historical scholars, Josephus, Aristotle, and Plato, to name a few, are taken as truth and fact, yet the writings of the Scripture are constantly disputed. Why? Perhaps because of the ethical imperatives imposed to which people do not want to adhere. Perhaps because of man’s ego and pride that disallows them to submit to a Higher Authority. Nonetheless, The Bible has been, and still remains, the most widely read and revered book of all
“The Bible is a special revelation from God to man of truths concerning Himself, His purposes, His plans, His will, man and his sinful nature, and God’s redemptive plan for man.”
Even though humans wrote the text, translating it and passing it down from generations to generations, God’s truth is unchanging. Debates of the inerrancy of the bible cannot usurp God as the King of grace. Instead of focusing on the inerrancy of the Bible, individuals who wish to seek a life of faith should focus on the inspiration God is showing them in his word. These revelations should move them into applicable, daily life changing implications from what they have learned. God shows revelations of himself through the Bible, and his character is revealed time and time again throughout scripture. Any faulty facts or discrepancies in grammar or data, should not take away from the value that scripture holds. When we read scripture we bring new meaning of interpretations of the truths God shows us, since new eras and environmental factors will be influential on how we process information. The bible is not just a fact book, telling humans stories of the past, but instead the bible is inspired instructions for how we can deal with spiritual and ethical encounters we
In the story, Sophia’s War, Sophia and her mother witnessed the hanging of Nathan Hale. This was a big life changing event in the story that lead Sophia to the rest of her extraordinary adventures. As stated in the story, “Later we learned that the young man’s name was Nathan Hale. Over time, his death proved of greater consequence than his life,”. This showed that not only did Nathan Hale’s death just affect Sophia, it also affected others as well. While reading through the book, you could identify that Sophia was terrified about the hanging . You could also tell that she didn't what that to happen to William as well by including things like he taught her how to read and write before he left. Sophia used the hanging as a motivation to help
Harris, Stephen. Understanding The Bible. 6 ed. New York City: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages, 2002. Print.
...s distorted by authors who are not qualified in writing it and the chance for a soul to be transformed by the Word of God is lost. There are many works out there that misrepresent the image of God and His word. People take it and mold it into what they want it to be, and what they need to hear. There must be an understanding of the importance of God’s word. In order to preserve the Bible for future generations, the Bible must stay intact in its original form, translated rather than rewritten.
The contents of the Bible have dealt with controversy in regards to its inerrancy since publication, and will surely continue to. Historians progress to learn more about biblical stories in order to provide evidence for the reliability of information. Many believers today understand that not everything in the Bible has been factually proven. An outstanding topic many scholars pay attention to lies within the four gospels. The three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, replay essentially the same story with minor inconsistencies, while John portrays Jesus in an entirely different way. The differences in each gospel are due to how each gospel entertains different portrayals of the life and understanding of Jesus himself, in order to persuade
Authority of Scripture reconciles the community with God and can transform our lives. To participate in the fuller blessing of understanding, it is important to view Scripture with historical and literary sensitivity, interpret theocentrically, ecclesially, and contextually. I realize each of these can be overwhelming to the average person who is seeking direction for a specific concern in their life. Therefore, Migliore reminds us, interpreting Scripture is practical engagement in the living of Christian faith, love, and hope in a still redeemed world. When we listen carefully to the voices of the past, from a worldwide culture, and guided by the Holy Spirit, we will open ourselves to those transformational opportunities.
For centuries now Christians have claimed to possess the special revelation of an omnipotent, loving Deity who is sovereign over all of His creation. This special revelation is in written form and is what has come to be known as The Bible which consists of two books. The first book is the Hebrew Scriptures, written by prophets in a time that was before Christ, and the second book is the New Testament, which was written by Apostles and disciples of the risen Lord after His ascension. It is well documented that Christians in the context of the early first century were used to viewing a set of writings as being not only authoritative, but divinely inspired. The fact that there were certain books out in the public that were written by followers of Jesus and recognized as being just as authoritative as the Hebrew Scriptures was never under debate. The disagreement between some groups of Christians and Gnostics centered on which exact group of books were divinely inspired and which were not. The debate also took place over the way we can know for sure what God would have us include in a book of divinely inspired writings. This ultimately led to the formation of the Biblical canon in the next centuries. Some may ask, “Isn’t Jesus really the only thing that we can and should call God’s Word?” and “Isn’t the Bible just a man made collection of writings all centered on the same thing, Jesus Christ?” This paper summarizes some of the evidences for the Old and New Testament canon’s accuracy in choosing God breathed, authoritative writings and then reflects on the wide ranging
Secondly, the imagery used by the sources differs greatly. One example is worth noting: verse 7 in the Tyndale translation speaks of the testing of the faith; whereas The Message uses the imagery of gold to communicate the same idea. What can be deduced from the differences is the interpretive freedom which developed over the history of Bible exegesis.
The historical reliability of the Bible is the first matter that needs to be discussed. There are three criteria that the military historian C. Sanders lists as principles for documentary historical proof: the bibliographical test, internal evidence test, and the external evidence test (McDowell 43). The bibliographical test is the examination of text from the documents that have reached us. The reliability of the copies of the New Testament is tested by the number of manuscripts (MSS) and the time intervals between the time in which the piece of literature was written and our earliest copy. There are more than 5,300 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament and 10,000 Latin vulgate manuscripts, not to mention the other various translations.
With the advent of the printing press and the protestant reformation in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Word of God became available to the common believer. Now, in the twenty first century, people all over the world, can read for themselves the scriptures in their own languages. Consider the Bible studies going on in any given country on any given evening, where people are encouraged to interact with the sacred scriptures. As encouraging as this may be, it may present a problem. Could discussions of what a scripture ‘means to me’ cloud out what the scripture originally meant? Is it even possible to know the author’s intent? Even if we could understand a first century text as its author intended, can we also grasp what it’s supposed to mean to us?
The Christian Canon was very interesting to read about. Since I do not know too much about religion of any sort it taught me a lot. The term “canon” implies that it is like a rule of thumb or a standard to live by. The Christian Canon is a gathering of inspired scriptures and different religions have different canons. In Christianity the canon is a set of scriptures that are in the Bible and consist of 27 books that are in the New Testament.