Bibliology The Doctrine of the Written Word

1
BibliologyThe Doctrine of the Written Word

• A Sunday evening sermon series at the Parkway
  church of Christ

2
After a letter was written it would remain a
treasured possession of those who received it. In
some cases the letters were circulated and
copied. Eventually the letters were collected.
Some places had more letters than others and
some had different letters than others. This
process of collecting the letters indicates how
the early Christians recognized the authority of
these letters to direct their religious lives.
The letters of Paul were among those collected
first
3

• 1) 7,029 verses of the 7,959 verses of the New
  Testament, or 7/8 of the whole text were
  recognized as inspired almost immediately.
•  2) The term New Testament was first used
  around 190 A.D. and demonstrates that believers
  viewed the New Testament on the same level of
  inspiration that the Old Testament shared.

4

• The real debate over the New Testament Canon did
  not begin until those who had known the writers
  had died and those whom they had instructed had
  also died.

5

• The following tests were applied to each book
• AUTHORSHIP
• The writing had to originate with an Apostle or
  from one closely associated with an Apostle. This
  test determined the status of the following
  books
• The Gospel of Mark because Mark was associated
  with Peter The Gospel of Luke and Acts because
  Luke was the companion of Paul The Books of
  James and Jude because they were the brothers of
  our Lord and were considered to be companions to
  the Apostles.
• b) The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews is
  unknown and many credit it to Paul. The lack of
  known authorship kept this Epistle among the
  debated books for many years.

6

• (1) Did the book indicate God was speaking
  through the writer and that it was considered
  authoritative?
• (2) Was the human author recognized as a
  spokesman of God, that is, was he a prophet or
  did he have the prophetic gift?
• (3) Was the book historically accurate? Did it
  reflect a record of actual facts?

7

• INTRINSIC WORTH
• 1) If the book spoke with authority and its
  message surpassed the normal standards, it was
  judged inspired.
•  2) The Epistle to the Hebrews was canonized
  because of this fact. The early Christians
  refused to discard this epistle even though
  authorship was unknown.

8

• 3) This factor was responsible for eliminating
  most Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal books. The
  gap between the canonical and the non-canonical
  books is so wide, the difference is so clear,
  that it is easy to tell which books should be
  rejected ... These apocryphal books are so
  inferior to the canonical works that comparison
  will show why they were rejected (Neale Pryor,
  You Can Trust Your Bible, p. 37).

9

• CONSISTENCY OF DOCTRINE
• 1) It was expected that any writing from God
  would be consistent in all aspects of doctrine
  and application.
• 2) In this point we can see the providence of
  Gods plan. The long ministry of the Apostles
  allowed Christians to become very familiar with
  inspired teaching and writings. This familiarity
  enabled the Christians to judge the writings and
  determine their validity.
• 3) It was this point that validated the Epistle
  of Jude.

10

• ACCEPTANCE OF WRITINGS
• 1) Were the writings universally accepted or were
  they restricted to a particular region?
•  2) Many of the books were universally accepted
  and this allowed them to be canonized almost
  immediately (i.e. Pauls Epistles, 2 Pt 315-16).
•  3) Many of the Apocryphal Books were
  geographically limited and thus eliminated.
•  4) One of the tests of universality was the
  citation of the writings by authors in the early
  Church. The inspired texts were quickly
  recognized and used by authors writing about
  Christianity.

11

• a) Peter referred to Paul (2 Pt 315-16). Paul
  quoted from Luke (1 Ti 518 cf Lk 107).
•  b) Clement of Rome (c. 96 A.D.) Quoted 1
  Corinthians and others parts of the New
  Testament.
•  c) It is very remarkable that, fifty years
  after the death of the last apostle, there were
  found in the writings of the defenders of the
  faith and also in those of heretics exact
  quotations from the whole New Testament (except
  for six or seven of the very shortest letters)
  both groups referred to it for their authority.

12

•  d) The commentaries and translations of the
  Early Church period established the fact that the
  New Testament writings were inspired while other
  religious writings, while respected and read,
  were thought to be non-inspired.

13

• As these tests were made on the religious
  writings of the Early Church period, two large
  divisions in religious literature appeared.
  Generally speaking, from the time of Irenaeus
  (c. 150 A.D.) on the New Testament contained
  practically the same books as we receive today,
  and were regarded with the same reverence that we
  bestow on them today but there was a minority
  that continued to question the genuineness and
  authority of some of the books for a long time.

14

• The Reliability of the New Testament
• There are now more than 5,300 known Greek
  manuscripts of the New Testament. Add over 10,000
  Latin Vulgate and at least 9,300 other early
  versions and we have more than 24,000 manuscript
  copies of portions of the New Testament. This
  means that no other document of antiquity even
  begins to approach such numbers and attestation.
• In comparison, the Iliad by Homer is second with
  only 643 manuscripts that still survive. The
  first complete preserved text of Homer dates from
  the 13th century.

15

• There is but a smattering of historical literary
  evidence for the Greek and Roman classics, when
  compared with the document-support for the New
  Testament. And yet no one dreams of disputing the
  authorship of the noble compositions of Homer,
  Aristotle, or Tacitus.

16

• Homer, the blind poet of Greece, lived some 900
  years before the birth of Christ. He penned the
  Iliad and the Odyssey. But not a single complete
  copy of these works exists that is earlier than
  the thirteenth century A.D. and there are no
  fragmented copies older than the sixth century
  A.D. This means our modern versions are, at the
  very least, fifteen centuries removed from the
  originals.

17

• Plato was one of the most famous of the Greek
  philosophers. He lived in the early fifth century
  before Christ. He produced a number of important
  works, e.g., the Republic, Apology, Laws, etc.
  Only seven copies of his works have survived, and
  none of these is earlier than around A.D. 900.
  There is a gap of some 1,300 years between the
  original composition and the extant copies of
  today.

18

• Aristotle lived in the fourth century before our
  Lord. He wrote prolifically on science, politics,
  ethics, etc. Of the five copies of his works that
  have survived, the oldest dates from about 1100
  A.D. which is some 1,400 years removed from the
  original.

19

• Julius Caesar (cir. 102-44 B.C.) penned his
  Gallic War between 58-50 B.C. There remain only
  about nine or ten reasonably good manuscripts,
  and they date some 900 years this side of the
  originals.

20

• These four examples surely are illustrative
  enough to make the point we wish to emphasize.
  Contrast the statistics sited above with the fact
  that we now possess, in the various libraries and
  museums of the world, more than 5,300 copies
  (substantially complete or fragmented) of the New
  Testament documents! That is a breath-taking
  figure compared to the numbers for the classics.

21
The Effect of Recent Discoveries

• The amazing finds of the last half-century or
  more provide one of the most interesting links in
  the long chain of the Bible's history. Our world
  is not standing still. Many people who are aware
  of this in terms of material advancements are
  completely unaware that great things are also
  turning up in the world of Biblical knowledge.
  Some of these important discoveries will now be
  noted.

22

• 1. Sinaitic Syriac Manuscript. This fifth-century
  palimpsest was discovered by twin sisters, Mrs.
  Lewis and Mrs. Gibson in 1892. It is the earliest
  and best authority for the Old Syriac Version.
  One item of interest is that it does not contain
  Mark 169-20.

23

• 2. The Washington Manuscript. In 1906 a group of
  Biblical manuscripts was acquired by Mr. Charles
  L. Freer of Detroit. The most important document
  of this group is a copy of the Four Gospels
  dating from the fourth or fifth century.

24

• 3. Koridethi Gospels. This manuscript became
  known in 1913. Although it is of a late date
  (about ninth century), it has received much
  attention in recent studies due to its generous
  contribution of information regarding a
  particular type of text of which it is the chief
  representative. Its discovery is one of the more
  significant developments for textual study in
  recent years.

25

• 4. Chester Beatty Papyri. On November 17, 1931,
  Sir Frederic Kenyon, Director of the British
  Museum, made an announcement in a news article of
  one of the most amazing discoveries of the
  twentieth century. A group of papyri, said to
  have come from jars taken out of an Egyptian
  graveyard, had been acquired by a well-known
  manuscript collector, Mr. A. Chester Beatty. In
  all there were portions of twelve manuscripts,
  three of which turned out to be early New
  Testament documents.

26

• The first of these three manuscripts contains
  portions of thirty leaves of the Gospels and Acts
  (two leaves from Matthew, six of Mark, seven of
  Luke, two of John, and thirteen of Acts).
  Although to some extent fragmentary, this codex
  is of inestimable value since it dates from the
  third century or earlier.

27

• The second manuscript of the group contains a
  remarkable collection of the Pauline epistles. It
  is more than a fragment, for it contains 86
  leaves out of an original 104.

28

• It is not necessary to emphasize the importance
  of a discovery like this, for here is a codex of
  most of Paul's letters dating at least as far
  back as the third century. The third New
  Testament manuscript consists of ten leaves from
  the middle section of the Book of Revelation. It
  is from about the third century.

29

• 5. John Rylands Fragment. This is only a fragment
  (3 by 2 inches) and would hardly deserve
  mention except for the fact that it is the oldest
  known manuscript of any part of the New
  Testament. It contains a few verses of John's
  Gospel (John 1831-33,37,38) and is housed today
  in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, England.
  It is confidently assigned to the first half of
  the second century.

30

• How it could be wished that we had more than a
  fragment, yet it gives undeniable evidence on the
  circulation of John's Gospel in Egypt (where it
  was found) but a few years after it was written.
  It forevermore answers the old liberal view that
  John's Gospel was not written until the middle of
  the second century. Also, it is important to note
  that although this papyrus piece contains only a
  few verses, these verses from the second century
  are almost precisely like our text many centuries
  later!

31

• 6. Papyrus Bodmer II. In 1956 Victor Martin of
  Geneva published a papyrus codex of John's Gospel
  (John 11-1426 parts of the remaining chapters
  were published in 1958). This papyrus is dated
  about A.D. 200. It is a weighty witness indeed,
  perhaps the oldest book in substantial condition
  of the New Testament.

32

• The Bible The Inerrant Word of God
• The word inerrancy means freedom from error or
  untruths.

33

• Formerly all that was necessary to affirm ones
  belief in full inspiration was the statement, I
  believe in the inspiration of the Bible.
• But when some did not extend inspiration to the
  words of the text it became necessary to say, I
  believe in the verbal inspiration of the Bible.
  To counter the teaching that not all parts of the
  Bible were inspired, one had to say, I believe
  in the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Bible.

34

• Then because some did not want to ascribe total
  accuracy to the Bible, it was necessary to say,
  I believe in the verbal, plenary, infallible,
  inerrant inspiration of the Bible. But then
  infallible and inerrant began to be limited
  to matters of faith only rather than also
  embracing all that the Bible records (including
  historical facts, genealogies, accounts of
  Creation, etc.), so it became necessary to add
  the concept of unlimited inerrancy. Each
  addition to the basic statement arose because of
  an erroneous teaching. (Charles C. Ryrie, Basic
  Theology, Victor Books, Wheaton, IL, 1987,
  electronic media.).

35

• Inerrancy allows for variety in style. The gospel
  of John was written in the simple style one might
  expect of an unlearned fisherman Luke was
  written with a more sophisticated vocabulary of
  an educated person Pauls epistles reflect the
  logic of a philosopher. All of these variations
  are entirely compatible with inerrancy.

36

• Inerrancy allows for variety in details in
  explaining the same event. This phenomenon is
  particularly observed in the synoptic gospels. It
  is important to remember that Jesus spoke in
  Aramaic and the writers of Scripture wrote their
  accounts in Greek, meaning they had to translate
  the original words into Greek. One writer would
  use slightly different words to describe the same
  incident, yet both would give the same meaning,
  albeit with different words.

37

• Inerrancy demands the account does not teach
  error or contradiction. In the statements of
  Scripture, whatever is written is in accord with
  things as they are. Details may vary but it may
  still reflect things as they are. For example, in
  Matthew 85-13 it is noted that the centurion
  came to Jesus and said, I am not qualified.
• In the parallel passage in Luke 71-10 it is
  noted that the elders came and said concerning
  the centurion, He is worthy. It appears the
  elders first came and spoke to Jesus, and later
  the centurion himself came. Both accounts are in
  accord with things as they are. (Enns, pp.
  167-168).

38

• The New Testament Canon was
• fully established by the fourth
• century and its formulation can
• be summarized in five stages. We only notice the
  major trends in
• each stage.

39

• 1) The First Century Within the writings are
  repeated exhortations for reading and study (1
  Thess. 527 213 1 Cor. 1437 Col 416 Rev.
  13). In 95 A.D. Clement of Rome wrote to
  Corinth using a free rendering of material found
  in Matthew/Luke. His writings also reflect
  influence from the books of 1 Timothy, Titus, 1
  Peter, Ephesians, and Hebrews.

40

• The First Half Of The Second Century The John
  Rylands papyrus shows Johns writings were
  revered and copied by about 125 A.D., within
  30-35 years of his death. There is evidence that
  all of the Gospels and Pauls Epistles were known
  and used in the centers of Christianity.
  Acceptance of the books as inspired happened
  spontaneously as authorship and content became
  known. The first three Church Fathers (Clement,
  Polycarp, Ignatius) used the bulk of the New
  Testament in ways that authenticated their
  origin.

41

• The Second Half Of The Second Century Irenaeus
  quotes from almost all of the New Testament on
  the basis of its authority and asserts the
  Apostles inspiration. Tatian (pupil of Justin
  Martyr) made a harmony of the four Gospels
  asserting that while other gospels had come
  into existence only four were recognized as
  inspired.

42

• About 170 the Muratorian Canon was made which
  accepted the majority of New Testament books (it
  was mutilated at both ends so some books were
  missing) and it rejected by name various
  heretical books. By 170 A.D. The New Testament
  Canon is represented with no additions and only 2
  Peter was not listed!

43

• The Third Century Origen was a scholar and
  writer. He wrote commentaries on most every book
  of the New Testament. Dionysus of Alexandria
  (student of Origen) stated the West accepted the
  book of Revelation while the East rejected it
  the West rejected the book of Hebrews while the
  East accepted it. Other books under question
  were 2 Peter and Jude.

44

• The Fourth Century Early in this period the
  status of Canon clarified. Eusebius (bishop of
  Caesarea and noted historian) stated these points
  in regard to the Canon (1) Universally
  recognized were the four Gospels, Acts, Pauls
  Epistles which included Hebrews, 1 Peter, 1 John,
  and Revelation. (2) Admitted as canonical by a
  majority, but disputed by some were James, 2
  Peter, 2, 3 John, and Jude. (3) Listed as
  spurious were The Acts of Paul, the Didache, and
  the Shepherd of Hermas.

45

• In the latter half of this period the New
  Testament Canon found final approval. In 367 A.D.
  Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria issued a letter
  eliminating the use of the Apocryphal books and
  listing the twenty-seven New Testament books as
  the final authority.
•  At the close of the century (397 A.D.) The
  Council of Carthage decreed that the twenty-seven
  books were inspired and only these were to be
  read in the church.

46

• a. The Canon was decided early in history. By 200
  A.D. the New Testament Canon was added to the Old
  Testament Canon and recognized as Gods revealed
  Word.
•  b. These tests were performed by those who had
  close ties with the writers and were familiar
  with the writings. Their close proximity allowed
  them to discern critically the authentic and
  judge the authoritative.

47

• c. The testimony of history verifies that an
  absoluteness existed concerning the Canon. Early
  Church History testifies that the Canon was fixed
  and unaltered until later Church History (i.e.
  The Council of Trent, 1546).