Ritch Boerckel Systematic Theology Iritch@bethanycentral.org Week 3 Session 2309-692-1755 (w) The Gospel Institute

BIBLIOLOGY—Lesson 6: Canonicity and Textual Criticism

I. The Canonicity of the Old Testament

“God determined the canon of Scripture by co-authoring it. Man recognized what God had revealed and accepted the canon of Scripture for what it was, the very Word of God. A book is not the Word of God because it was accepted by the people, it was accepted by the people because it was the Word of God. This is an important distinction. The canon was not formed by a council of men. It did not evolve over the years. God led men to discover what He had authored.’ – Valley Bible Church

Greg Bahnsen: The Concept and Importance of Canonicity

R.C. Sproul Q & A: We talk of the Bible as being the inspired Word of God. Would the men who chose the books to be included in the Bible also have been inspired by God?

A. Canon Definition – The word, “canon,” means a rule or standard. It derives from the English word, “cane,” which was used as a measuring stick. In reference to scripture, it refers to the limits or boundaries or what is to be included as authoritative or not authoritative.

“The authoritative teachers sent forth by Christ to found His church, carried with them, as their most precious possession, a body of divine Scriptures, which they imposed on the church that they founded as its code of law. No reader of the New Testament can need proof of this; on every page of that book is spread the evidence that from the very beginning the Old Testament was as cordially recognized as law by the Christian as by the Jew. The Christian church thus was never without a ‘Bible’ or a ‘canon.’” – B.B. Warfield

B. Internal evidence of authority

Exodus 24:4a-7 And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD…Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”

Deuteronomy 31:9-12 Then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law

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Joshua 1:8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

1 Kings 2:3 and keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn

2 Kings 14:6 But he did not put to death the children of the murderers, according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, where the LORD commanded, “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. But each one shall die for his own sin.”

Ezra 7:6, 14 this Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the LORD, the God of Israel, had given, and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the LORD his God was on him…For you are sent by the king and his seven counselors to make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem according to the Law of your God, which is in your hand

Nehemiah 8:1-3 And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the LORD had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.

C. Early compilations

1. The Samaritan canon — only the first five books. See John 4.

2. The Septuagint — The Letter of Aristeas tells the legend of how this Greek translation of the Old Testament came about. It dates to around 280 B.C.

The differences between the Hebrew OT and this translation are several:

1) some books are included in this compilation that are not in the Hebrew2) the text upon which this translation is made appears to differ from the Hebrew text we have3) the order of the books is quite different (our Bibles actually follow this order more than the

Hebrew one). The Septuagint (abbreviated LXX as in indicator of the 72 translators who worked on it) was the Bible for the early church.

D. The evidence and tests for canonicity

Wayne Stiles: The Content and Extent of the Old Testament Canon

1. Was the writing done by a prophet?

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2. Does the person claiming to be a prophet back up his claims?

Deuteronomy 18:15-22 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’ —when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

1 Maccabees 4:46 So they tore down the altar and stored the stones in a convenient place on the temple hill until a prophet should come to tell them what to do with them.

1 Maccabees 9:27 So there was great distress in Israel, such as had not been since the time that prophets ceased to appear among them.

See: R. Laird Harris, Inspiration and Canonicity of the Bible. Zondervan, 1969

E. External evidences of Old Testament canon

1. The New Testament

--three-part divisionLuke 24:44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

The NT cites all portions of the OT with the possible omission of Esther.

“The Jewish canon not only included a clear threefold division of a specific number of books, but their identity was well established as well.” – William Webster

2. The Dead Sea Scrolls

a. About 175 of the 500 scrolls are biblical.b. The commentaries in the Qumran texts are only on canonical books.c. 20 of the 39 books of the OT are quoted or referred to as scripture in the Qumran texts.

“In my opinion the most important conclusion that can be drawn from the scrolls is that the Bible has been copied with amazing faithfulness for thousands of years. The biblical texts discovered at Qumran are so close to the Hebrew texts produced a thousand years later that

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very small fragments of the scrolls can be properly identified, even when they contain only portions of a few words.” – Dr. Nathan Jastram, Assistant Professor of Theology Concordia

3. The Prologue to Ecclesiasticus — about 200 B.C. refers to the three fold division of the OT books — Law, prophets, writings

4. Philo (A.D. 40--referred to the same division)

5. Josephus (A.D. 37-100)

“We have not tens of thousands of books, discordant and conflicting, but only twenty-two containing the record of all time, which have been justly believed to be divine.” Contra Aponium 1.8

The 22 refer to the 5 books of the law, 13 books of the prophets and the remaining books which “embrace hymns to God and counsels of men for the conduct of life.”

Why 22 books when we have 39?

- All minor prophets were one book- Jeremiah and Lamentations were one book- Judges and Ruth were one book

6. The Council of Jamnia (Jabneh) AD 90

a. A meeting of rabbis for the purpose of defining the text to defend Judaism against Christianity.

b. Their focus was on what was not considered to be scripture rather than what was considered to be. As such, they were ratifying a common perception about the canonical status of the various books.

“At the Council of Jamnia, around A.D. 90, the Jews determined that anything written after Ezra was not infallible Scripture; they specifically mentioned the Gospels of Christ in order to reject them.” – Wayne Grudem

David Cox: Why the Apocrypha is not Scripture

II. The Textual Criticism of the Old Testament

A. The Masoretic text — compilation by Jewish scholars around AD 900. They were unbelievably meticulous—to the point of counting letters and knowing the number of letters and the middle letter of books.

B. The Dead Sea Scrolls — discovered in 1947. Date from around 150 B.C. to A.D. 68. They corroborate the accuracy of the Masoretes, since the two texts are virtually identical!

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C. The Septuagint — as mentioned above, the LXX differs more than the Dead Sea Scrolls do from the Masoretic text. But even these differences are minor.

III. The Canonicity of the New Testament

B.B. Warfield: The Formation of the Canon of the New Testament

A. Internal evidence of authority

John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

John 16:12-15 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

John 17:20 I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word

1 Corinthians 2:13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

1 Corinthians 14:37 If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 12:12-13 The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong!

1 Timothy 4:13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

1 Timothy 5:18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”

Luke 10:7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house.

2 Peter 3:2, 15-16 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles…And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

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Jude 17-18 But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.”

2 Peter 3:2-3 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.

Revelation 1:19 Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.

B. Internal evidence of apostolic authority

Acts 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Romans 16:25-26 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—

1 Corinthians 11:2 Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.

1 Corinthians 12:28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.

Ephesians 2:20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone

John 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Hebrews 2:3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard

The key test for NT canonicity is apostolicity—was it written by an apostle or approved by an apostle?

C. The four kinds of texts debated in the NT canon

1) The homologumena — these are books that are not debated — universally acclaimed as canonical — 20 of the 27 books are in this category: Matthew to Philemon plus 1 Peter and 1 John.

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2) The antilogumena — these are books lacking universal and uniform recognition in the early church — it is not that they were considered noncanonical or anticanonical, they just were not universally accepted. These are: Hebrews (anonymous), James (thought to contradict Paul), 2 Peter (Greek style differs from 1 Peter), 2 and 3 John (to private audience), Jude (like 2 Peter plus cites non-canonical book), Revelation (who is John? Millennial view presented)

3) The pseudepigrapha — numerous fanciful and heretical books arose which were never considered canonical. These are on the lowest rung of the ladder, yet today are being touted as authoritative!

“They bring forth an endless number of apocryphal and spurious writings, which they themselves have forged. They use them to bewilder the minds of foolish men and those who are ignorant of the Scriptures of truth.” – Irenaeus c. 180 AD

4) The NT Apocrypha — have historical value viewed with respect but not as canonical.

D. Is the canon closed today?

1) The qualification for apostolic office is foundationally temporary — one had to have seen the resurrected Christ.

Acts 1:21-22 So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.”

1 Corinthians 15:7-8 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

2) Scripture came from the apostles3) There are no apostles today4) Therefore, there is no new revelation today.5) In Revelation 11, we are told that God will send prophets; we are not told that they will write

scripture.

We deny that there is new revelation from God today, but we do not deny that there is new activity by the Holy Spirit. There is a sharp distinction between revelation and illumination.

Tim Challies: Visual Theology (graphic) – The Books of the Bible

IV. The Textual Criticism of the New Testament

A. Introduction: While the Old Testament has relatively few manuscripts, the New Testament has many (over 5800 Greek manuscripts!). However, while the differences in OT texts are few, there are over 400,000 variants in the NT text. Don’t let this scare you, though. Most are spelling

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variations; over 99% deal with no theological substance. The problem is not that we have 99% of the original autographs, but that we have 101% of them.

Dan Wallace (professor of NT Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary and Executive Director for Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts): “NT scholars face an embarrassment of riches compared to the data the classical Greek and Latin scholars have to contend with. The average classical author’s literary remains number no more than twenty copies. We have more than 1,000 times the manuscript data for the NT than we do for the average Greco-Roman author. Not only this, but the extant manuscripts of the average classical author are no earlier than 500 years after the time he wrote. For the NT, we are waiting mere decades for surviving copies. The very best classical author in terms of extant copies is Homer: manuscripts of Homer number less than 2,400, compared to the NT manuscripts that are approximately ten times that amount.”

NT Reliability info graphic

Textual Criticism and Canonicity (video, 2:49)

C Michael Patton: Textual Criticism in a Nutshell

B. Types of errors

1) Intentional errors—scribes would insert their own bias into the text.2) Unintentional errors—miswriting or mishearing

Lots of NT variants; but few worthy of attention (<1% are both viable and meaningful variants). See graphic below…

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Infographic:

C. The kinds of manuscripts

1) Papyri made of papyrus — derived from the pithy center of the papyrus plant that grew in the swamps of the Nile delta. Sheets from 6x9 to 12x 15 could be produced and sometimes sewn into rolls. Over 70 papyri of the NT have been found. These are our earliest manuscripts, a couple dating into the 1st century A.D.! Most date 2-4th century.

2) Uncials made of vellum — the skins of animals produced a durable writing product that became the dominant use by the 4th century AD. Uncials were made of this product from the 4th through 10th centuries. These are our most valuable manuscripts generally because they are more complete and well-preserved. Uncials were written in all capital letters with no punctuation or division between the words

3) Minuscules — about 50% of our manuscripts are minuscules dating from 9th century onward. Most written on parchment (vellum) but some late ones are on paper.

4) Lectionaries — these are not whole books of the Bible but more like ancient devotional guides and church reading plans. There are about 2000 lectionary manuscripts. Most date from the minuscule period. Sometimes these were rather artistically done.

D. How to decide among the manuscripts which is best?

1. The oldest reading is best2. The most attested reading is best3. The reading with the widest geographical support is best4. There are times when these principles conflict, but I have never known it to create a theological

problem

Recommended Resource: Entry level textual criticism videos available at CSNTM itunes page (Dan Wallace ministry- Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts), very well done, incredibly informativehttp://itunes.apple.com/us/institution/center-for-study-new-testament/id416966041