Evidences Class

21 Questions (probably less) in 45 Minutes

1. What does “canon” and canonical mean?

• Greek “Kanon” and Hebrew “Qaneh”

• Reed (English word “cane”)

• Measuring stick – Standard or rule

• List of books received as Holy Scripture

• All teaching had to bow to its authority

2. I’ve heard that the emperor Constantine established the N.T. canon. Is this true?

Only in Dan Brown’s imagination.

3. I’ve also heard that church councils established the canon. Is this true?

Only in Dan Brown’s imagination.

Fixed a list of canonical books.• Council of Carthage – 393 A.D.• Council of Hippo – 397 A.D.

But There Were Other Canonical Lists …

Athanasius recorded the first complete list of our 27 books – A.D. 367

Eusebius (325 A.D.) grouped in 4 categories

Accepted4 GospelsPaul’s LettersHebrews1 Peter1 JohnRevelation

Widely AcceptedJames2 Peter2 and 3 JohnJude

Spurious

Acts of PaulBarnabas LetterShepherd of HermasThe DiadacheApocalypse of Peter

RejectedAll others

4. If it wasn’t a church council or Constantine, who decided?

You’re not asking the right question.

No church council established scripture as being authoritative. It was authoritative because it came from God.

2 Timothy 3:15-17 (ESV) and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

2 Peter 3:15-16 (ESV) And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

1 Corinthians 2:9-13 (ESV) But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

1 Corinthians 14:37-38 (ESV) If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.

1 John 4:6 (ESV) We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

2 Peter 3:1-2 (ESV) This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles,

There is a difference between the canonicity of a book and the authority of that book. A book’s canonicity depends on its authority … The letter had authority from the moment it was written. It was accepted as canonical because of its inherent authority. No church council by its decrees can make the books of the Bible authoritative. If the words indeed came from God … they possessed their authority long before any church council considered them authoritative.

Adapted from Neil R. Lightfoot

5. Isn’t the Catholic Bible different than ours?

Yes and No.

Catholic Bibles contain the same 66 books as our Bibles. Often they will contain an additional 15 books written between 200 B.C. and 100 A.D. Only a smidgen was written after Christ (4 chapters in 2 Esdras).

6. Isn’t it right that Catholic doctrine depends on the Apocrypha?

Absolutely not.

These are Jewish books … Not Catholic books. They mostly consist of Jewish history, additions to the book of Daniel, warnings against idolatry, etc. There is no reference to confession, the so-called mass, transubstantiation, the priesthood, praying to Mary, etc.

7. How do you know that the Catholic Apocrypha isn’t Scripture?

Jesus didn’t consider it Scripture.Luke 24:44 (ESV) Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." Jesus identifies the Tanekh as being Scripture.

8. The what?

Tanakh – Hebrew ScripturesTorah – The Law

Neviim – The Prophets

Ketuvim – The Writings (Psalms)TorahGenesisthroughDeuteronomy

NeviimJoshua / JudgesSamuel / KingsIsaiahJeremiahEzekiel12 Minor Prophets

KetuvimPsalmsProverbsJobThe Five ScrollsEzra / NehemiahChronicles

Even though the New Testament is written after the Apocrypha … The New Testament never quotes the Apocrypha. The New Testament quotes the Old Testament on nearly every page.

9. What books are included in the Catholic Apocrypha?

1 and 2 Maccabees

Prayer of Azariah

Judith

Esther (Part 2)

Wisdom of SolomonPrayer of Manasseh

Wisdom of Jesus(Son of Sirach)

Bel and the Dragon

History of Susanna

Tobit

Letter of Jeremiah

1 and 2 Esdras

10. But I thought Jude quoted from the Apocryphal book of Enoch???But not the Catholic Apocrypha !!!

Pseudepigraphal - Writings falsely ascribedJude refers to events written in the Assumption of Moses and the Book of Enoch. Neither is a direct quote.

11. What about those suppressed New Testament books like the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Judas?

Only in Dan Brown’s imagination.

Apocrypha means “things hidden” or “works that were not divinely inspired or authoritative.

Dan Brown Says:

The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned … Fortunately for historians some of the gospels Constantine attempted to eradicate managed to survive. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1950’s hidden in a cave near Qumran in the Judean desert. And, of course, the Coptic scrolls in 1945 at Nag Hammadi.

Gnostic Gospels

Mary Phillip Thomas Judas

• Written in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Centuries• Not authentic• Few copies (none in the Dead Sea Scrolls!!!)

From The Gospel of Thomas

Peter: Let Mary go away from us because women are not worthy of lifeJesus: Lo, I shall lead her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit, resembling you males. For every woman who makes herself a male will enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Number of copies …Author Book Date Written Earliest Copies Time Gap No. of CopiesHomer Iliad 800 B.C. c. 400 B.C. c. 400 years 643Herodotus History 480-425 B.C. c. A.D. 900 c. 1350 years 8Thucydides History 460-400 B.C. c. A.D. 900 c. 1300 years 8Plato 400 B.C. c. A.D. 900 c. 1300 years 7Caesar Gallic Wars 100-44 B.C. c. A.D. 900 c. 1000 years 10Tacitus Annals A.D. 100 c. A.D. 1100 c. 1000 years 20

Date Written Earliest Copies Time Gap No. of CopiesA.D. 50-100 c. 114 (fragment) 50+ years 5366

c. 200 (books) 100 yearsc. 250 (most of NT) 150 yearsc. 325 (Complete NT) 225 years

New TestamentBook

12. Who were the gnostics?

"Gnosticism" is the name given to a group of related religious ideas that were popular around the time when Christianity was getting its start. In general, Gnostics claimed to possess knowledge that others did not have, and they emphasized knowledge over faith. (The Greek word gnosis means "knowledge.")

Eusebius points to Simon the Sorcerer as the first heretic (might be legend).

Some Gnostic Ideas

The God of the Old Testament is different than the God of the New Testament

Illicit sexual relations were a way of getting closer to God (Jude 8)

Celibacy (1 Tim. 4:3) The Gospels are not reliable Jesus was not God (Jude 4) Jesus did not come in the flesh (2 John

7)

The New Gnosticism (Dale Robbins)

The Da Vinci Code The Gospel of Judas The “Historical” Jesus

13. What about all the copy errors? Wasn’t the transmission just like playing telephone?

The Wrong Idea

Colossians 4:16 (ESV)And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.2 Peter 3:14-16 (ESV) And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.

3 Different Text Groupings

Western Text

Byzantine Text

Alexandrian Text

14. How certain are we about the New Testament text?

• 97-99 percent certain

• 400 words

• 40 verses

• Little doctrinal significance

15. I’ve heard that Mark 16:9-20 is not in some Bibles?

Codex Vaticanus Codex Sinaiticus

Alexandrian Text

But …. CodexVaticanus

All other Manuscripts include Latin Vulgate Irenaeus mentions in the 2nd Century Curious space in both Codex Vaticanus

and Sinaiticus

16. I’ve heard that there is some dispute about Matt. 19:9. This seems to have doctrinal significance.Matthew 19:9 (NKJV) And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery."

Not in the two earliest manuscripts though it is present in some early MS

Matt. 5:32 includes the disputed phrase

17. What about John 7:53-8:11 (the woman caught in adultery)?

One early manuscript (Codex Bezae)

No other manuscripts till the 8th Century

Included in Luke in some manuscripts

18. What about 1 John 5:7?

Only 4 or 5 very late Greek manuscripts

Erasmus was very stubborn about including it in his Greek text

Watch the NKJV – NU and M text omit

1 John 5:7 (NKJV) For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.

19. How many horsemen did David capture, 1700 or 7000?

2 Sam. 8:4; 1 Chron. 18:4

20. How many baths, 2000 or 3000?

1 Kings 7:26; 2 Chron. 4:5

21. Was Ahaziah 22 or 42 when he began to reign?

2 Kings 8:26; 2 Chron. 22:1

Undoubtedly copyist errors. Numbers were tough in Hebrew.

14

Used letters for numbers