How We Got

the Bible

© 2008 How We Got The Bible

 Recommended Reading

Roger Beckwith

The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church

F.F. Bruce

The Canon of Scripture

The New Testament Documents Are they Reliable?

John W. Haley

Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible

Walter Kaiser

The Old Testament Documents Are They Reliable Relevant?

George Eldon Ladd

The New Testament and Criticism

Bruce Metzger

The Canon of the New Testament: Its origin, development, and significance.

Frank Morison

Who Moved the Stone

© 2008 How We Got The Bible © 2008 How We Got The Bible
Notes
How We Got
The Bible

1.What’s A Canon
This section addresses the sudden cultural interest in how the
biblical canon was formed. What do we do with extra-biblical
texts? Who decided which books became a part of the Bible?
Can we trust their motives?

2.Lost in Translation
This section addresses many common questions about Bible
translations. Why are there so many? Which one is the best?
Have we lost the original meaning of the text? Aren’t Bible
translations full of errors?

3.Can I Trust the Bible?

The final section deals with questions about the reliability of
the Bible. Does the Bible present the beliefs of the original
followers of Jesus? Were the disciples trustworthy?

© 2008 How We Got The Bible © 2008 How We Got The Bible
 Philosophical Arguments

Part 1 Test for Consistency

What’s A Test for Credibility

Canon? Self Defeating Testimony

Adverse Witnesses

The word Canon comes from the world qaneh – which is a stick used for
measuring. The word was passed on to Greek as kanon and ultimately to Latin
as canon. Over time, the word came to represent a standard, something
authoritative against which other things are measured. The Bible is The
Canon of Scripture; those documents of the Church which were determined to Tests of Divine Revelation
be the most authoritative documents of the Christian faith.

© 2008 How We Got The Bible © 2008 How We Got The Bible
 Archeological Evidence Criteria for Canonicity
The criteria used for determining which books were canonical was gathered from the writings of the Church
Fathers who were confronted with the task of defending the integrity of the apostles teaching from the
The Hittite Empire Gnostic heresies and pseudonymous writings which appeared in the 2nd and 3rd century A.D.

The Dead Sea Scrolls

™ Apostolic Authority
™ Antiquity
™ Orthodoxy
Erastus Inscription ™ Catholicity
™ Traditional Use
™ Inspiration

Notes

© 2008 How We Got The Bible © 2008 How We Got The Bible
 Evolution of the New Testament Canon Weight of Evidence from Manuscripts

A.D. 100 A.D. 200 A.D. 250 A.D. 300 A.D. 400 There is a lot of evidence for the authenticity of the New Testament from manuscripts, far more
The New The New The New The New Testament as than for many similar historical documents. In considering the weight of manuscript evidence you
Testament used in Testament used by we know it established
Testament used at the council of should consider the number of copies and the proximity to the event or composition.
Rome (The Origen by Eusebius Carthage
Muratorian Canon)
Different parts of
our New The four Gospels The four Gospels The four Gospels The four Gospels Caesars Gallic Wars: 58-50 BC
Acts Acts Acts Acts
Testament were
written but not 10 good copies
yet collected and Paul’s Letters: Paul’s Letters: Paul’s Letters: Paul’s Letters:
Romans Romans Romans Romans
defined as 1&2 Corinthians 1&2 Corinthians 1&2 Corinthians 1&2 Corinthians
Earliest is 900 years after Caesars day.
scripture. Early Galatians Galatians Galatians Galatians
Christian writers Ephesians Ephesians Ephesians Ephesians 142 Volume Roman History of Livy: 59 BC-AD 1
(for example Philippians Philippians Philippians Philippians
Colossians Colossians Colossians Colossians
Polycarp and 1&2 Thessalonians 1&2 Thessalonians 1&2 Thessalonians 1&2 Thessalonians Only 35 books exist today
Ignatius) quote 1&2 Timothy 1&2 Timothy 1&2 Timothy 1&2 Timothy
from the Gospels Titus Titus Titus Titus
Philemon Philemon Philemon Philemon 22 Good Copies
and the letters of
Paul as well as
other Christian Oldest one dates to the 4th century
writings and oral James 1 Peter 1 Peter Hebrews
sources. 1&2 John 1 John 1 John James 14 Volume History of Tacitus: AD 100
Jude Revelation of John Revelation of John 1&2 Peter
Revelation of John (authorship in doubt) 1,2&3 John
The Letters of Revelation of Peter Jude 4 ½ books survive
Paul were Wisdom of Solomon Revelation of John
collected late in 16 Volume Annals of Tacitus
the first century, The Shepherd of Disputed Disputed but well To be excluded
Matthew, Mark Hermas known 10 survive in full 2 in part
and Luke were (For private use Hebrews, James,
collected not public worship) 2 Peter, 2&3 John, James, 2 Peter, the Shepherd of Hermas,
Jude, the Shepherd Jude, 2&3 John, The letter of Barnabas, The History of Thucydides 460-400 BC
together by A.D. of Hermas, The letter Hebrews the Didache and
150 Over 5000 Greek Manuscripts
of Barnabas, the the Gospel of the 8 full manuscripts – earliest AD 900
didache and the Hebrews
Gospel of the The Revelation of Peter Codex Vaticanus c.AD 350
Hebrews The Acts of Peter Papyrus Scraps 1st century
Table 1: Canonical Lists Codex Sinaiticus c.AD 350

Papyrus Fragments
The weight of evidence reveals that that the books that make up our New Testament were known and Fragments of an unknown Gospel AD 150
accepted by the Church as early as A.D. 100. The four Gospels, the book of Acts, and the letters of Paul
were never in dispute. 1 Peter, 1 John and The Revelation of John were a part of the earliest lists. Some Fragments of codex w. John 28:31-33
books like The Shepherd of Hermas, and The Revelation of Peter were well loved by the early Church, but
upon closer scrutiny, were deemed unworthy to be included as scripture. Those books which entered the Quotes of Church Fathers AD 90-160
canon late, such as 2&3 John, James and Jude did so for various reasons (i.e. they lacked wide distribution, Allusions and quotations in their writings
they were not believed to deal with significant issues, or in some cases their authorship was in dispute. The
final decision at the council of Carthage, was by a representative body of believers from Churches around the The New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers,
world. 1905 Oxford Historical Society.

© 2008 How We Got The Bible © 2008 How We Got The Bible
 Notes

Part 3
Reliability

Around the middle of the 19th Century scholars argued that the most
important books of the New Testament did not exist before the middle of the
2nd Century. This theory originated with F.C. Bauer of the Tübingen School in
Germany and was introduced to the United States through Walters Cassel’s
book Supernatural Religion (published anonymously).

© 2008 How We Got The Bible © 2008 How We Got The Bible
 Evolution of the Old Testament Canon Notes

Composition

• Written between 1275-380 B.C.

• Babylonian Exile from 585-538 B.C.

• Ezra and Nehemiah Late 300’s

• Judas Maccabeus 164 B.C.

Canonization

• Book of Jubilees mentions “22 books” - c. 130 B.C.

• NT Quotes - c. A.D.30-90

• Council at Jamnia - c. A.D.90

• Josephus, Contra Apion 1.8 - c. A.D.94

From the death of Moses until Artaxerxes . . . the prophets who followed after Moses
recorded their deeds in thirteen books. The remaining four comprise hymns to God and
rules of ethical conduct for men.(again 22 books).

The numbering of the books in the Hebrew canon differs from that in the Christian Bible because certain
writings were taken as single books.

e.g.
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Ruth & Judges = 1 Book, 1&2 Samuel = 1
Book, 1&2 Kings = 1 Book, 1&2 Chronicles = 1 Book, Lamentations & Jeremiah = 1 Book, Isaiah, 12
Minor Prophets = 1 Book, Daniel, Ezekiel, Ezra & Nehemiah = 1 Book, Esther, Job, Proverbs, Psalms, Song
of Songs, Ecclesiastes.

© 2008 How We Got The Bible © 2008 How We Got The Bible
 Translation Theories Notes

There are two major philosophies of translation.

Formal Equivalence Dynamic Equivalence

Attempts to render a word for word translation Attempts to render a thought for thought translation

KJV NLT

NASB NIV *

RSV NRSV *

*These translations attempt to strike a balance between the two theories.

© 2008 How We Got The Bible © 2008 How We Got The Bible
 Do Words Have Meaning?

Modern linguists have come to the conclusion that words do not have inherent meaning outside of their
context. This can cause problems for communication in our own language, let alone for interpreters.

Part 2
For instance,

• The meaning of words can change over time.

• Words can have more than one meaning.

• Words can even mean the opposite things.

Lost in Notes

Translation

Why are there so many Bible translations? How serious are the differences
between them? Did we lose the meaning of the original text?

© 2008 How We Got The Bible © 2008 How We Got The Bible
 Communication Theory Establishing the Text

Communication Theory states that successful communication requires a certain amount of overlap in the We have no remaining copies of the original writings found in the Bible. But we have plenty of copies. Two
experience of the sender and receiver. strategies have been devised to arrive at the content of the original text.

Sender/Receiver Sender/Receiver
Majority Text Eclectic Text

Asserts that the most accurate reading is the Asserts that the most accurate reading is the
reading which is found in the largest number of reading found in the oldest and most reliable
manuscripts. manuscripts.

The Majority Text strategy was devised by Jerome when he created the Latin Vulgate in 1500. It is the text
behind the King James Translation.

Due to the discovery of older manuscripts and the theories of textual criticism, all Modern Translations use
the Eclectic Text.

A simple chart can show why the Majority Text reading may not be the most accurate. Scribes A, B and C
Where there is little or no overlap in experience, communication is difficult or impossible. Translators are each produce a copy from a source document. In the first generation of transmission, copy A is Copied 1
separated from the experience of the authors by culture, language and time. In order to correctly translate time (A1). Copy B is copied 4 Times (B1) and Copy C is not copied. Now let us assume that in the next
we must bridge these gaps. generation all copies of A and B are copied 4 times. That means there will be four copies of A2 and 16
copies of B2.
Sender Receiver From this it is clear that one cannot simply count the number of manuscripts and go with the majority
reading. If an error exists in copy B, it will exist in all the manuscripts descending from that line. If Texts
from family A and C are in agreement, then we can assume that they more likely represent the source
document.

Source

Copy A Copy B Copy C

Copy A1 Copy B1 Copy B1 Copy B1 Copy B1

© 2008 How We Got The Bible © 2008 How We Got The Bible
 Mistakes in the Bible? Notes

Sometimes you will hear people say “the Bible is full of mistakes.” The kinds of mistakes found in Biblical
Texts however are called scribal errors, and they are found in copies of the Bible made before the modern era
of print. They are easily recognizable and scholars correct them using a wide variety of manuscripts to
determine the correct reading.

Scribal errors fall into two categories

Unintentional Mistakes Intentional “Mistakes”

1. Faulty eyesight – careless inspection of 1. To try and make the meaning clearer.
the original
2. To Harmonize Related Passages.
2. From similar pronunciation or incorrect
spelling. 3. To remove difficulties that would be
difficult to explain.
3. From errors of memory or anticipation.
4. To emphasize or safeguard important
4. From incorporating marginal notes teachings.
wrongly taken as corrections.
5. To reflect or promote monastic customs.
5. From wrongly taking marginal notes as
corrective additions.

© 2008 How We Got The Bible © 2008 How We Got The Bible