The Word: How the Bible Came About THE CANON AND THE COMMUNITY OF GOD THE TEXT AND TRANSLATION Revelation  Questions to be thinking about:  How does God reveal Himself to His people?  Is His revelation static?  How are His people (That’s us!) involved with revelation?  Things to be careful of:  How we interact with each other.  The words we use.  How we might be limiting God. The Canon and Community: The Old Testament “The fixed, definitive Old Testament canon is the final, reflective stage of a lengthy and complex process during which the biblical texts continued to function normatively over an extended series of circumstances.” – Barry Jones The Canon and Community: The Old Testament  The Old Testament  Canon as a “normative” function – a standard by which to live  Earliest “fixed” canon: c. 90 BC By this time it excluded texts that came after Ezra and Nehemiah and any that claimed to be written before the time of Moses.  Other suggested dates could go back earlier   Many portions of the OT took form during the Babylonian exile in 6th century BC The Canon and Community: The Old Testament  Initially it was written down as a preservation of oral tradition  The form of the OT we have is a compilation of material that had previously existed in written or oral form but that has been lost  Economic issues: things were expensive! Preserved texts must have met some pressing needs of the community.  Canonization required publication and official sanction within a community The Canon and Community: The New Testament “Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…” – Jeremiah 31:31 “From a theological point of view, canonicity, or scriptural status, is first of all a divine judgment, though its human echo can be imperfect and not immediately unanimous.” – Charles Hill The Canon and Community: The New Testament  Guiding Questions:  When did the writings of the Bible come to be recognized by the Church as scripture?  Why did the writings of the Bible come to be recognized by the Church as scripture?  Why are certain books included?  Criteria of Canonicity (scholarly)  Apostolicity, Catholicity, Orthodoxy, Traditional Use  They were judged to be inspired because they were accepted as canon, NOT the other way around. The Canon and Community: The New Testament  Why the New Testament?  Apostles given authority from Christ to carry on his message.  They were the founders of the church and needed a standard by which to spread the Gospel.  Primarily used the OT as the written word, but they knew their writings and teachings (and the authority in them) were to be considered the Words of God  Paul himself probably made collections of and reproduced his letters in order to send them to various churches The Canon and Community: The New Testament  Arriving at Canon  By the end of the 2nd century AD there was a “core canon” of 20 books or so that were generally acknowledge by the church  It was not until the end of the 4th century AD that a complete list of 27 books was agreed upon as canon: Athanasius (369 AD), Council of Hippo (393 AD), and the council of Carthage (397 AD)  Only a handful outside the 27 would have even been considered  Only Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and Revelation had objections Canon  Take away message:  The Canon became so because of the community of believers.  God is not limited to the autograph (or even the original oral traditions), but was present throughout the entire process  It doesn’t matter how many people wrote Isaiah (for example), what matters is that the community of faith felt it necessary to listen to what he had to say.  With all that it took to arrive at Canon, it is truly a witness to God how cohesive, consistent, and life changing the Word is. Text and Translation Where did our Bibles come from? Moving from canon to the text… Text and Translation: The Old Testament  Oldest complete Hebrew Texts:  Aleppo Codex – c 10th century AD  Leningrad Codex – c 1010 AD  Modern Texts  Biblia Hebraica – texts derived from the old codices  Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) – regarded by Jews, Christians, and scholars to be the definitive Hebrew text Primarily uses Leningrad Codex (supplemented as well)  Contains Mosoretic Text (vowel points, punctuation, proper cantillation, and other various annotations added to the text)  Text and Translation: The Old Testament  Dead Sea Scrolls  From the area of Qumran  Likely written by the Essenes (a Jewish sect) in the 1st century AD  Much older than Aleppo or Leningrad codices and from a different group of Jews; still does not differ significantly  Main differences are grammatical and some theological based on Essene belief at the time  Helped support (and supplement) the use of the Masoretic Text.  The BHS now uses the Leningrad codex with added material from the Dead Sea Scrolls Text and Translation: The New Testament  What we have:  Approximately 6000 Greek Manuscripts  8000 + Latin Vulgate translations (c. 4th century)  Very few complete NT texts One uncial: Sinaiticus (4th century)  58 miniscules: 10th/11th centuries   Problem: We don’t have ANY autographs AND no two are exactly the same: which are the correct versions? Text and Translation: The New Testament  Materials:  Papyrus – reedy plant, short shelf life (2nd through 7th centuries)  Parchment/Vellum – animal skin, longer life: end of 3rd century  Paper doesn’t show up until 12th/13th centuries  Writings:  Uncial – all capital letters, often no spaces or punctuation  Miniscule – cursive script  Lectionaries – collections of scriptures – translations into other languages – most notable: Jerome’s Latin Vulgate P46 P52 Codex Vaticanus Codex Sinaiticus Codex Sinaiticus Text and Translation: The New Testament  Disagreement in the Manuscripts: Variant Readings Some 250,000 variant readings in the 6000 manuscripts  No two are exactly the same  Unintentional errors: skipping a line, doubling a line, mistaking similar letters, aural errors  GODISNOWHERE: “God is now here” or “God is nowhere”?  Intentional errors: grammar improvement, spelling, theology, helping “tough” readings, harmonizing the gospels  Text and Translation: The New Testament How do we choose what is “correct”?  External Criteria  Date of the manuscript – usually the Papyrus and early Uncial editions are preferred.  Text-Type Preference:   Alexandrian – usually oldest and closer to source, most common early on Byzantine – largest number of surviving manuscripts, not as old  Textus Receptus – gave rise to Luther’s Bible, and the King James (also Vulgate)  Western – mostly other language translations (Syriac and Latin) Text and Translation: The New Testament How do we choose what is “correct”?  Internal Criteria – judging “originality”     Lectio Difficilio – a rougher, more difficult translation is usually older and more original Lectio Brevior – shorter readings are preferred. Scribes will conflate or explain some passages. Non-harmonistic reading – scribes had tendency to read the wording of one gospel into another Stylistic agreement – Koine vs. Attic Greek: there should be consistent style within an author. Example Variant “Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at  Feast of the Passover. the And when He became twelve, they went up there according to the custom of the Feast; and as they were returning, after spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. But His parents were unaware of it, but supposed Him to be in the caravan, and went a day’s journey; and they began looking for Him among their relatives and acquaintances.” – Luke 2:41-44 καὶ τελειωσάντων τὰς ἡμέρας, ἐν τῷ ὑποστρέυειν αὐτοὺς ὑπέμεινεν Ἰησοῦς ὁ παῖς ἐν Ἰεροσσαλήμ, καὶ οὐκ ἔγνωσαν οἱ γονεῖς (“knew not the parents”) αὐτοῦ. NA27 shows that the textual reading is supported by ‫ ,א‬B, D, L, W, Θ, f1, etc. Variant reading: “knew not Joseph and the mother” and is supported by A, C, Ψ, f13, etc. Why is this variant here? Which is more original or “correct”? Text and Translation: The New Testament  Take heart!     Variant readings generally do not change Christian theology! There are no glaring contradictions introduced because of variants. Great care was taken in the preservation of these texts – most areas are in agreement. Having 6000 manuscripts attests to the importance of the scriptures – VERY different than most other histories! Translations: How did we get here?  Scholars produce the most accurate text they can using the resources they have:   BHS Hebrew Text Nestle-Aland 27th edition Greek New Testament: “Eclectic” Bible  Translations: Interpretation   Spectrum of translation possibilities Word-for-word vs. thought-for-thought Translations: How did we get here?  Word-for-Word  NASB  ESV  Thought-for-Thought  The Message  “Dynamic”  NIV Translations: How did we get here? Is there a “right” translation?  Where did your Bible come from?   What is it based on? NA27? Vulgate? Others?  What are you using the Bible for?  What are your objectives? Required Reading  “How to Read the Bible of All Its Worth: A Guide to Understanding the Bible” – Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart  “Reading the Bible Book by Book: A Guided Tour” – Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart  “The Last Word” – N.T. Wright  “New Testament and the People of God” – N.T. Wright