A healthy church

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A healthy church

• .knows the Bible

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The Bible

• What is the Bible?
• Why is it so important?

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The Bible

• Why bother?
• That was what God was saying then
• Whats He saying now?
• How do we know its Gods words anyway?
• Why cant the Church agree on exactly what is in
  the Bible?

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Two ways

• Accept it unquestioningly
• Accept it with questions

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Another time place

• The Bible was written in
• Another time
• Other languages
• Other places
• Other cultures
• With specific audiences in mind
• In different styles
• All of these affect the way we understand and use
  the Bible.

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Cosmology inBible times

• View of the universe
• Heaven
• Here live the gods
• Earth
• The fragile abode of the human
• Underworld
• World of Death

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Our views evolve

• The Earth is flat
• Copernican revolution 17th Century
• The Moon is not made of cheese
• We are not alone
• SETI

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A question of balance

• Weigh the evidence
• Explore the history
• Learn the language
• Understand the culture
• Decode the message
• Try it on for size
• Ask does it ring true?

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Important

• Clearly the Bible is important
• People have gone to war over it
• People have died for it
• Given their life in translating it
• Most Statements of Belief place it fairly near
  the top
• The worlds best seller
• We all have one, or two or three..

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C of E

• Article VIHOLY Scriptures containeth all
  things necessary to salvation so that whatsoever
  is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby,
  is not to be required of any man, that it should
  be believed as an article of the faith, or be
  thought requisite or necessary to salvation.

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Old Testament

• Genesis. Exodus. Leviticus. Numbers.
  Deuteronomy. Joshua. Judges. Ruth. The First Book
  of Samuel. The Second Book of Samuel. The First
  Book of Kings. The Second Book of Kings. The
  First Book of Chronicles. The Second Book of
  Chronicles. The First Book of Esdras. The Second
  Book of Esdras. The Book of Esther. The Book of
  Job. The Psalms. The Proverbs. Ecclesiastes or
  the Preacher. Cantica, or Songs of Solomon. Four
  Prophets the Greater. Twelve Prophets the Less.

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A good read

• The Third Book of Esdras. The Fourth Book of
  Esdras. The Book of Tobias. The Book of Judith.
  The rest of the Book of Esther. The Book of
  Wisdom. Jesus the Son of Sirach. Baruch the
  Prophet. The Song of the Three Children. The
  Story of Susanna. Of Bel and the Dragon. The
  Prayer of Manasses. The First Book of Maccabees.
  The Second Book of Maccabees.

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New Testament

• Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts of the
  Apostles, Romans, 1Corinthians , 2Corinthians,
  Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians,
  1Thessalonians, 2Thessalonians,  1Timothy,
  2Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James,
  1Peter, 2Peter,  1John,  2John,  3John, 
  Jude,The Book of Revelation 

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A library

• The Bible is actually a collection of books
• 37 Old Testament
• 29 New Testament
• 66 books
• Plus 14 from the Apocrypha
• Plus many others

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How is it organised?
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Understanding the OT
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Understanding the NT
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How is arranged?
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Going deeper

• Genesis at a glance

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Going deeper

• Genesis at a glance

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Going deeper

• Genesis at a glance

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Going deeper
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Written over many years

• 15th 5th Centuries BC
• 1000 years!
• Oral culture
• Some were written
• later became part of the Jewish canon.
• The Tanakh (Jewish Bible)
• Torah (tor-AH) -- The Law, also called the
  Pentateuch (Greek for "five books")
• Nebiim ( neh-veh-EEM) -- The Prophets
• Ketubim (keh-tu-VEEM) -- The Writings

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The Jewish Canon

• The canonization of of the Jewish Bible happened
  after the crucifixion of Jesus and the
  destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by Rome in
  70 A.D.
• Before 70 A.D., Judaism was centred on the Temple
  and its rituals after the Temple was gone, a new
  central focus had to be found - the TaNaKh.
• Neither the Scriptural focus nor the exact form
  and order of the Jewish Bible were decided over
  night "canonization" of TaNaKh was an ongoing
  process that extended until about 1000 A.D.

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The Christian Canon

• Composition
• Community
• Criteria
• Collection
• Canon

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But which books?

• The Bible itself makes it clear that there were
  disputes
• James 41
• What causes fights and quarrels among you? Dont
  they come from your desires that battle within
  you?
• 1 Timothy 63-4
• If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not
  agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus
  Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and
  understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest
  in controversies and quarrels about words that
  result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil
  suspicions
• Jude 4
• For certain men whose condemnation was written
  about long ago have secretly slipped in among
  you. They are godless men, who change the grace
  of our God into a license for immorality and deny
  Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord

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But which books?

• 2 Timothy 316
• All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for
  teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in
  righteousness,
• But who says what is Scripture and what is not?

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The canon

• The Muratorian Fragment
• The fragment is a 7th century Latin manuscript
  that scholars detect was a translation from a
  Greek original, of about 170 CE.
• But still they argued
• Council of Laodicea 363
• Synod of Hippo Regius 393
• Synod of Carthage 397

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The Canon

• Always based on Jewish Canon for the OT
• Little disagreement on NT books
• Reformer Martin Luther (1520s) tried to get rid
  of Hebrews, James, Jude and Revelation from the
  Canon
• 1541 Council of Florence adopted Apocryphal books

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Reformed criteria

• Apostolic Origin
• attributed to and based on the preaching/teaching
  of the first-generation apostles (or their close
  companions).
• Universal Acceptance
• acknowledged by all major Christian communities
  in the ancient world (by the end of the fourth
  century).
• Liturgical Use
• read publicly when early Christian communities
  gathered for the Lord's Supper (their weekly
  worship services).
• Consistent Message
• containing a theological outlook similar or
  complementary to other accepted Christian
  writings.

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NT formation

• The Historical Jesus
• Oral Tradition
• Written Sources
• Written Texts
• Distribution

• Collection
• Canonization
• Translation
• Interpretation
• Application

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What matters?

• There are three things that matter
• Application, application, application
• Theres only so much the vicar can do!
• How long do you spend each day with the Bible?
• When did you last do some serious study on your
  own?
• Are you a member of a Homegroup?
• What was the last book you read to help your
  understanding of the Bible increase?

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A healthy church

• Knows the Bible
• How healthy is St. Marks?
• How healthy are you?