Living WatersWednesday Teaching

C. HolomanSeptember 3, 2008

NEW TESTAMENT SURVEY COURSE AT LIVING WATERS

Beginning Sept 4, 2008, 7:00pm; Dr. Holoman for Providence

Bible College and Seminary. The course will last for 30 three hour

sessions ending in May 2009

For college or seminary credit, students are required to register and pay tuition to the school by

calling 757-625-7996.

For no college credits, students are expected to behave

like students: pay attention, attend the classes on time and

do the course reading.

TEXT D.S.Russell,

Between the Testaments

@ Amazon.com

TEXTThe New Oxford Annotated Bible

with the ApocryphaRevised Standard Version

Second Edition 1977@ Amazon.com

Reading,to the point of familiarly, of D.S. Russell’s Between the

Testaments pages 11-117

is assumed(before class begins)

as these subjects were covered in the last quarter of O.T. Survey.

Hot News for Living Waters On October 26, Sunday PM

will celebrate Sukkoth (the Feast of Booths, Tabernacles)

John chapters 7-9 Lev 23:33-43. Deut 16:13-17.

Ezra 3:4. 1 K 8:2, 65. Neh 8:13-18. Zech 14:16-19.

John 7:37 On the last day of the feast (of Booths), the great day,

Jesus stood up and proclaimed, "If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. 38 He who believes in

me, as the scripture has said, `Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living

water.'"

Hosea 9:5 What will you do on the day of appointed festival, and on

the day of the feast of the LORD?

Hosea 12:9 I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt; I will

again make you dwell in booths, as in the days of the appointed feast.

Canonicity (Part 1)The origin, sacredness, authority

and inspiration of canonical scripture.

Canonization= ‘the rule’(Canonicity, Part 1)

(The OT, Part 2)(Apoc. & NT, Part 3)

That which lasted for almost five centuries. The historical process,

of establishing certain writings to be scripture Cannon, and thus

eliminating other writings.

Hebrews 1:1 In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; 2 but in these last days he

has spoken to us by a Son,..

Revelation unto scripture came ..in many and various ways.. but the source

was God.

Why have the Apocrypha as part of the lesson of the New

Testament Cannon?Answer: Because the Hebrew-

Jewish scripture with the Apocrypha was the Bible of the early church and exerted such a strong influence upon ideas in

our New Testament books.

Apocrypha=hidden booksOur Apocrypha is a small part of

a number of ‘outside books’ written 200 BC-100 AD.

Originally a title of honor, since it referred to books whose secret

doctrines imparted to them special authority

(2 Esdras 14 esp. vs. 42-47).

The Apocrypha, as we have it, is recorded in the LXX, which

was the (Greek) scriptures of the early church. Because of the easy possibility of Christian

interpretations, the Apocrypha was not included in the Hebrew

(Jewish) Bible canonized in 90AD….

The Apocrypha, for the Jews..Additionally, the lack of

manuscripts written in Hebrew, and the Jewish faith-position that

the exact succession of the prophets has ceased in the time

of Artaxerxes that is after the time of Ezra. Similar to the idea that the ‘gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased after the apostles died.’

The ApocryphaThe survival of this body of

literature is due entirely to the Christians who found these

works especially interesting and edifying.

The ApocryphaAlthough there are no direct

quotations from the Apocrypha. in the NT, the influence of these books is felt in every part of the Christian

scriptures. Most of the ideas regarding the future life which are found in the NT writings had their

origin in the apocalyptic writings in the Apocrypha.

Apocrypha Near quotations from the Apoc. as

well as references to unknown works, are scattered throughout the

NT writings. For example:Mat 11:28-30 & Sir 51:23ff

Mat 9:16-17 & Sir 9:10Lk 12:16-29 & Sir 11:18-19Heb 1:1-3 & Wis 7:25-27

Heb 11:35-37 & 2 Mac 6-7Jn 10:22 & 1 Mac 4:59

ApocryphaThe early church fathers treated the canonical and non-canonical books

much alike, the first evidence of distinction was about 386 AD. Jerome (430 AD), the translator of the Catholic Vulgate Bible, recognize a distinction

from the Hebrew-Jewish cannon of 90 AD and the ‘outside books’, however by his time because of church practice

they were included in the Vulgate (Official Latin) Bible.

ApocryphaTwo divergent views continue today.

The ancient churches, Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox, representing the

traditional view of the church include the Apocrypha as canonical.

The Protestant tradition has never regarded these ‘outside books’ as

sacred scripture.

Apocrypha ,Protestant tradition Martin Luther gathered the ‘outside books’ which to this time had been

scattered among the OT Hebrew-Jewish cannon books and placed them at the end of the OT. He wrote in his German translation (1534) “These books are not held equal to the sacred scriptures, and

yet are useful and good for reading.’

Apocrypha Protestant tradition This (1534) was the beginning of the end for the Apocrypha in Protestant circles,

for their inferior rank was now emphasized by their position between

the testaments, and their being grouped together made it more easy to remove them in a body from the Bible, if and

when desired.

Apocrypha Protestant traditionLuther’s practice of segregating the

Apocrypha to between the testaments is evident in early editions of the KJV.Growing antagonism to the ‘outside

books’ in Great Britain led the British and Foreign Bible Society, followed by

the American Bible Society to announce that they would exclude those books

from their printed copies.Since 1927 the Apocrypha has been

omitted from most KJV copies.

Apocrypha Roman traditionThe Roman church, in reaction , formally canonized the Vulgate at the Council of

Trent (1870) and again at the Vatican Council of 1870. Roman Catholic

scholars often refer to the Apocrypha as “deutero-canonical works”- with no

intention of implying, however, that they are of inferior rank or authority.

The ApocryphaThe long-standing controversy regarding

the canonicity to the Apocrypha. Thus thus ended in a stalemate, with each side

regarding its decisions final and irrevocable. It should be added. However, the attitude toward the

Apocrypha has changed considerably in our time.

It has been said that no one can have the complete Bible, as a source book for the cultural study of our religion without the

Apocrypha. From the earliest Christian times down to the age of the KJV they belonged to the Bible; and while critical judgments and religious attitudes deny them a position of equality with the Old and New Testaments

scriptures, historically and culturally they are still an integral part of our Bible.

Forward of the 2nd RSV Annotated Bible “..the Apocrypha belong to the

common heritage of the Church from Judaism, and have been a part of the

great English translations of the Bible, including the KJV of 1611..”

“..the complete cannon of the Septuagint Version..” used in the

early and orthodox churches.

What is the real issue concerning the canonization of the

Apocrypha?

Canonicity

Canonicity of ScriptureThe origin, sacredness, authority

and inspiration of canonical scripture was of God.

It was God’s teaching to his people of what He purposed for what we call existence and how to relate to it as God’s people.

Deciding Canonization yourself! Do we accept the conclusions of others or examine the writings ourselves? The answer rests in

our confidence in either the historical processes, tradition or our own knowledge, hearing and

discernment of the Spirit of Prophecy.

Cannon of the New TestamentThe letters of Paul, written in the

50-60s were collected and in circulation by 100AD.

Collections of the standardized first-person remembrances of

Jesus-the ‘proto gospels’.

II Clement (150 AD) is the earliest Christian document to cite a passage from the Gospels as

holy scripture. About this same time Justin Martyr describes with some fullness that “the memoirs of the Apostles (Gospels) or the writings of the Prophets are read

as long as time permits.”

Thus he (Martyr) makes clear, not only that books (Gospels) are the

source of his knowledge of Jesus, but also that these same

books are being read in the liturgy interchangeable with the prophets of the ancient Hebrew

scriptures.

One group of Christian writings-the Gospels- has been

established in ecclesiastical usage in the place hitherto

reserved to the inspired scriptures of Judaism.

The decisive development takes place 150-200 AD. First the gospels are treated as holy

scripture in writings and liturgy. Soon afterward the letters of Paul

are associated with them in similar usage; and before 200 AD

a variable number of other writings gather around the

nucleus of gospel and apostle.

The cannon of the New Testament had emerged in essentials; it only remained to determine its limits by the exclusion of such writings as

cannot secure and maintain a title of apostolicity. What is apostolic is

canonical; whatever cannot be recognized as stemming from the

apostles is not canonical.

Tertullian (155-222AD) is the first writer to use the term ‘New

Testament’ in the sense of a collection of books, and he

leaves no doubt that for him it possesses exactly the same

authority as the ancient scriptures.

The council in Hippo 393 and at the Third Council of Carthage 397 concluded that only these books

(our current New Testament) could be read in the church as

divine scripture.

The canon was actually determined more by usage, by

the common consent of the Christian community, testing the

books in its daily life over centuries, rather than by formal

authority.Self Authentication.

Mark 12:24 Jesus said to them, "Is not this why you are wrong,

that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God?

John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they

follow me;

Planned EndSept 3, 2008