Roseavenue.org

 

 Sunday, February 13, 2010 pm        Return to Bible Index        Listen

CAN WE COUNT ON THE BIBLE? (2)
The Canon of the Old Testament

        In Isaiah 40:6-8 we read that the word of God will stand forever.  It is this verse that is repeated in 1 Peter 1:23-25, “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because: "All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, But the word of the Lord endures forever."  In these texts (both Old and New Testaments) we see a promise from God concerning His word – it will last forever.  Man will NOT be able to destroy it OR discredit it.  Some 2000 years this side of the cross we know these words to still be true.  Our study is directed toward that end.

In our study we intend to prove that the Bible we are using today, in the English language, IS the word of God and ought to be treated as such.  In our last lesson, we discussed inspiration and identified that what we have before us in the 66 book which comprise both the Old and New Testaments is God’s revelation to us.  Today, we want to begin examining the Canon of the Bible.

 

 I.                    The Uniqueness of the Bible

a.        The Bible is such an incredible book.  There is NO other book in all of history that comes close to its importance, its influence and its character. 
In considering the inspiration of the Bible it is worthy of note the many unique things about the Bible.  The word unique means, “being the only one” or “being without a like or equal.”  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unique
That certainly applies to the Bible.  Consider that the Bible is:

b.       Unique in its unity

                                                   i.      Written over a period of 1600 years, over 40 generations.

                                                  ii.      Approximately 40 authors including: Moses – a political leader trained in Egypt, Peter – a fisherman, Amos – a herdsman, Joshua – a military leader, Nehemiah – servant to a king, Luke – a physician, Matthew –a tax collector, Paul – a tentmaker and rabbi, etc.

                                                iii.      Written in many different places: Moses wrote in the wilderness, Jeremiah wrote from a dungeon, Daniel from a palace, Paul from inside prison walls, Luke while traveling, John while in exile on Patmos, David, at times while in flight from enemies, etc.

                                                iv.      Written during both peace time and war time.

                                                  v.      Written at times of great joy and times of great despair and sorrow.

                                                vi.      Written on 3 continents – Europe, Asia and Africa

                                               vii.      Written in 3 languages – Hebrew (O.T.), Greek (N.T.), Aramaic – the “common language” of the Near East after Judah’s captivity and return.  Small portions of scripture are written in this language including major portions of Ezra, Daniel, a sentence in Jeremiah 10:11, etc.

                                             viii.      YET, with such diversity you have a book with a unified message that is as relevant today, more than 1900 years this side of its completion as it was when it was being written.  Geisler and Nix said, “The ‘Paradise Lost’ of Genesis becomes the “Paradise Regained’ of Revelation.  The tree of life which was taken from the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3 is found in Revelation 22.
The above from Evidence that Demands a Verdict, pp. 16-17, Josh McDowell, © 1979.

c.        Unique in its circulation

                                                   i.      According to the United Bible Society, in 2002, a report was issued which noted that the complete Bible has been translated into 392 languages, with portions of the Bible in 2287 different languages.  http://www.biblica.com/bibles/faq/19/

                                                  ii.      It is the #1 best seller of all times and any time.

                                                iii.      Between 1816 and 1992, it is estimated that more than 6 BILLION Bibles have been sold.  Nothing else comes close.  http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/bestsellerFARQ.html

d.       Unique in its survival

                                                   i.      Since its original writing, the Bible has been treated with greatest of care throughout the centuries.   Scribes took their roles seriously.

                                                  ii.      Though we do not have any of the original autographs, great care has been taken to preserve the integrity of the message.  We have more manuscripts of portions of the Bible (totaling more than 5000) than the 10 greatest pieces of classical literature combined.

                                                iii.      It has survived persecutions and attempts to destroy it throughout the centuries.

                                                iv.      It has also survived intense criticisms and assaults on its integrity of every type, even to this day.   Our study is geared toward answering some of these criticisms.

e.       Unique in its influence –

                                                   i.      There is NO book in all of history that has had the influence of the Bible.  Even other influential world religions (such as Islam, Mormonism, etc.) that have their own supposedly inspired works, must address the influence of the Bible.

                                                  ii.      It’s influence is also seen in our founding documents and the ethics of multitudes of nations throughout the world.

                                                iii.      The central figure of the Bible, Jesus Christ, enjoys similar influence in contrast to other world religions.

f.         Such considerations ought to provoke us to take this message seriously.  Therefore, let us begin to examine how what we have is what God intends for us to have.

 

II.                  What is the Canon? 

a.        The word “canon” is from the Greek word, “Kanōn” which meant a reed.  The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Revised notes that from this word “came the idea of a measuring rod, later a rule or norm of faith, and eventually a catalogue or list.”  In other words, it came to mean the standard. 

b.       When we speak of the Canon of the Bible, we mean “the collection of religious writings divinely inspired and hence authoritative.” (ibid)  More simply, the Canon is those books that have been determined to be the WORD OF GOD!
 In our case, this would be the 66 books which comprise the Old and New Testaments.

c.        But not all accept these as the ONLY inspired books and others reject some of them or portions thereof.  Our goal in this study is to definitively establish that the Bible we use is the WORD OF GOD!

 

III.                The Old Testament Verified

a.        We will begin our study of verifying that the Old Testament is the word of God with.  We will do this because of the relationship it has to the New Testament, because it was the forerunner to and foundation of much that is found in the New Testament (i.e. It was first). 
There is a sense in which it is easier to verify as inspired, as we shall see, than the New Testament.

b.       We understand that we are no longer under the Old Law (Col. 2:14, Matt. 5:17-19, Heb. 8:7-13, etc.) But that does not change that the Old Testament IS the Word of God.
We know that the Old Testament is beneficial to us (Rom. 15:4, 1 Cor. 10:11, 2 Pet. 1:19-21, etc.) though we are not bound by it today.  Nevertheless, we would not understand much of the New Testament if it were not for the Old Testament.  In fact, the roots of the New Testament are traced back to the Old Law.  It is because of this that we need to consider the Old Testament as the inspired word of God.  BUT not all accept the Old Testament before us as divine.  There are some who believe the Old Testament we have is incomplete because it does not contain the Apocrypha. 

c.        A study of Jewish history concerning what they accepted as scripture dates back well beyond the time of Christ.  According to the Wilmington Bible Handbook, by 300 BC, all the OT books (we have) “had been written, collected, revered, and recognized as official, canonical books.”  There was another collection of books known as the Apocrypha which was written mostly between the time of Malachi and the coming of Jesus.  These books were documented and copied and available during the time of Christ and rejected shortly thereafter.  (We will discuss this more at a later time in this series.)

d.       According to Deuteronomy 31:24-26 the Law of God was placed beside the Ark of the Covenant.  It is believed it was kept there (at least attempts were made to keep it there – cf. the lost book found by Hezekiah – 2 Kings 22:3-11) until the Babylonian captivity.  During the captivity many believe (though it cannot be confirmed) the books were carried to Babylon – Daniel 9:2 notes that Daniel consulted Jeremiah and “the writings.”   After the captivity they would have been returned.  We KNOW they were available because of the efforts made to preserve them after their return.  The Dead “Sea Scrolls are evidence of this.  More on that later.

e.       An interesting quote about the inspiration of the Old Testament identifies how the Jews went about determining what belonged in the Canon.  They took very seriously the word of God and would have gone to great lengths to verify that which belonged and reject that which did NOT belong. 
“The books accepted by the Jewish community originated over a period of approximately one thousand years. The first question regarding a writing’s acceptance was whether the book was written by a prophet of God. Generally the book would have statements such as, “thus says the Lord,” or “the word of the Lord came.” Second, miraculous signs or accuracy of fulfillment served as confirmation of a prophet’s message. Third, the book had to be internally consistent with the revelation of God found in the teachings of other canonical books, especially what God gave through Moses.”^[1]
NOTES: In Deut 18:17-22 we read of how a prophet was verified.  It states that if their message contradicted known truth it was to be rejected.

f.         What is interesting about establishing the inspiration of the Old Testament is what we read in the New Testament.  There are several things to consider about the acceptance of the Old Testament as founded in the New Testament.

                                                   i.      Frequent reference to the Old Testament as “scriptures”:
 Matt. 21:42, “Have you never read in the scriptures…”
Luke 4:21, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing…”
 Jn. 7:42, “Has not scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?”
James 2:23, “And the scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 
MUCH of the teachings in the New Testament are devoted to showing the fulfillment of the Old Testament.  It is ALWAYS referred to with reverence.

                                                  ii.      Other references to “the Law” - 1 Cor. 14:21, note, “In the Law it is written” (cf. Isa. 28:11-12).  NOTE: Paul refers to Isaiah as part of the Law, which means the Law included more than the 5 books of Moses (the Pentateuch). 

                                                iii.      In all of the interactions of Jesus, we do not ever find the Jewish leaders, including the scribes rejecting what Jesus appealed to as scripture.  They rejected His application, but not that it was scripture.

                                                iv.      The Old Testament Quoted in the New Testament:

1.       The Old Testament is quoted more than 250 times in the New Testament.  If you include indirectly or partially quoted  texts, the number rises to more than 1000 times.  Holman Bible Dictionary http://www.studylight.org/dic/hbd/view.cgi?number=T4699

2.       According to www.Theopedia.com, the UBS, 4^th edition (1993) Greek New Testament recorded 343 direct quotations with no fewer than 2,309 allusions and verbal parallels. http://www.theopedia.com/New_Testament_use_of_the_Old_Testament

3.       According to the Blue Letter Bible research site, 24 of the 27 New Testament books have quotes from the Old Testament (all except Titus, Philemon, 2 & 3 John) (Blue Letter Bible, Study Tools, Parallel passages in New Testament Quoted in Old Testament http://www.blueletterbible.org/study/misc/quotes.cfm)

4.       At least 24 of the 39 books of the Old Testament are directly quoted in the New Testament. (Samuel G. Dawson, Old Testament Passages Quoted in the New Testament, Appendix 1, http://gospelthemes.com/otquotes.pdf)

5.       These do not include the indirect quotes.  According to www.bible.ca, 34 Old Testament books are quoted or alluded to in the New Testament (all except Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Ecclesiastes, & Song of Solomon).  http://www.bible.ca/b-canon-jesus-favored-old-testament-textual-manuscript.htm

                                                  v.       Consider also the fulfilled prophecies.  They within themselves declare God’s hand (or tongue) in the scriptures.

                                                vi.      The point is that when we establish the New Testament as the Word of God (next week), it overwhelmingly verifies the inspiration of the Old Testament.

g.        Luke 24:44, “The law, the psalms and the prophets concerning Me.”  The statement Jesus made to one who is not familiar with the Bible of Israel would think that Jesus was simply saying that whatever propheicies were made concerning Him had been fulfilled.  However, there is significance to what Jesus said.

                                                   i.      The Jews divided their scriptures into 3 parts.  They consisted of 24 books and were called:

1.       The Torah (Gen – Deuth),

2.       The Nevi’im which consisted of 8 books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel {combines 1 & 2), Kings (combines 1 & 2), Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and “The Twelve” (Our minor prophets).

3.       The Kethuvim or writings which consisted of 11 books including Psalms, Job, Proberbs, The 5 rolls (Meginoth) –Ruth, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations & Esther; and the Historical books – Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah (combined) and Chronicles (combines 1 & 2).

                                                  ii.      Jesus in this text made reference to the three portions of the Old Testament.  It seems to be much more than coincidental.

                                                iii.      Remarkable is that Jesus does not mention the Apocrypha, nor does He or His disciples quote it.  More on the Apocrypha later.

h.       Matt. 23:35.- The blood of Abel to Zechariah.

                                                   i.      Found at the conclusion of Jesus’ scathing rebuke of the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, Jesus condemns them noting that their conduct made the guilty as they rejected the true prophets of God.  Jesus said, “Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar”

                                                  ii.      This is another passage that requires understanding of Jewish scripture to apply it.  It does NOT mean, the prophets from A to Z, as that is not the set up of the Hebrew Alphabet.

                                                iii.      Also, chronologically, there were prophets who died after Zechariah.  His death is recorded in 2 Chronicles 24:20-22 where he died at the hands of Joash, King of Judah.  After Zechariah we read of the deaths of other prophets.  Jeremiah 26:20-23 records the death of Urijah during the prophecies of Jeremiah which occurred during the reign of Jehoiakim just before Judah was carried away into Babylonian captivity. The time difference between Joash and Jehoiakim was nearly 200 years.  This is but one example recorded.  Other prophets were  believed to be murdered by kings or others.  THE POINT: Jesus had another reference in mind.

                                                iv.      What did He mean? IF you consider the Jewish divisions of the Bible with 24 books as listed in our previous point, you will notice the first book IS Genesis and the LAST book is Chronicles.  So Jesus was saying, you murdered the prophets from the beginning to the end of recorded scripture.

                                                  v.      This VERIFIES Jesus’ acceptance of the Old Testament which is equivalent to what we have.

                                                vi.      The internal arguments very strong that what we have is God’s inspired word to the Jews to prepare for the coming of our Messiah.

In our next lesson we will continue our study by examining a few more points about the Old Testament and then we will proceed to verify the Canon of the New Testament. May our faith be increased and God glorified in these studies.