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How We Got The Bible? Part 3 Introduction:
Lesson #1 we dealt with the inspiration of the Bible. Lesson #2 the Bible is a
written document. Meaning there is a trail of manuscripts Vatican Manuscript
300 AD; Sinatic Manuscript 300 AD; and Alexandrian Manuscript 400 AD. There are
also Latin Vulgate Bible and Now we
want to answer some questions: How did the books in the Bible get there? Why are
they there and others are not? What about mistakes in the Bible? What about the
translations we have today? I)
Canon of the Scriptures A)
Canon, Kanon, means reed. The reed was used as a measuring stick and came to
mean the standard or rule. 1.
The books in the Bible were recognized as having divine authority and make up
the Bible. 2.
Canon depends on authority, 1
Corinthians 14.37 and to included in a list or writings later on. 3.
Not all of the letters were included, Ephesians
3.3. The church at B)
Hebrew Canon complete by the time of Jesus, Luke 24.44 1.
Luke 11.51 Jesus refers to the blood of Abel and Zachariah; Abel is in Genesis
and Zachariah is in 2 Chronicles (the last book in the Hebrew Bible). 2.
There are 22 books in the Old Testament; Ruth and Judges are combined as are
Lamentations/Jeremiah, Ezra/Nehemiah; the 12 Minor Prophets are one book. Also 1
& 2 Samuel, 1 &2 Kings, and 1 & 2 Chronicles becomes three books,
Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. C)
New Testament the early church studied the Old Testament, Acts 17.2-3 1.
Collection of Pauls letters, Colossians
4.16, 1 Thess. 5.27. The four Gospels, and then the rest of the New
Testament. 2.
By the second century a list of New Testament books appear. By 367 a list of 27
N. T. books.
a. Keep in mind the apostles had divine authority and recongnized letters
of importance and those of lesser importance.
b. Some writings were rejected. Epistles of Barnabas was not written by
the New Testament Barnabas. D)
Main points 1.
The owes its authority to no one group or individual 2.
The church does not control the canon , the canon controls the church 3.
The authority in inherent in the writings themselves. 4.
By 150 AD a list of New Testament Books had appeared. The question was not about
what was left out but what was included. In some list Hebrews, 1 & 2 Peter,
1 John are not included. II)
Apocrypha means hidden or concealed A)
In total they are 14 or 15 books of the Old Testament 1.
They were written from 200 BC to 100 AD. 2.
The books are : 1 & 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, The Additions to the Book of
Esther, The Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticusm Baruch, The Letter of Jeremiah,
the Prayer of Azariah, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Manasseh, 1
& 2 Maccabees. B)
The Catholic Church recognizes 12 of the books (1 & 2 Esdras, and Prayer of
Manasseh are excluded). C)
Reasons for rejection 1.
Never included in the Hebrew canon 2.
Never referred to by Jesus or the Apostles 3.
Contains mistakes in places and events, some contradictions D)
April 8, 1546 the council of III)
From the Greek to the English A)
Interlinear word for word translations 1.
Problems with sentence structure and phrases. 2.
Proof of what may be literal may not be the best. B)
Translations 1.
Takes the original and translates it into the modern language 2.
Job of the translator is to keep the original meaning. C)
Paraphrases adds to the test so as to explain their doctrine. IV)
Translations A)
Translations taken for granted. Where did they come from and which is best? 1.
2.
700s attempts were made to translate from the Vulgate into English. Catholic
Church considers the Bible a Catholic Document. Therefore, efforts to translate
into English were discouraged. 3.
Wycliffe [
a. Wycliffe was the first translation of the entire Bible (Latin Vulgate
into English0, 1382.
b. Revised by Purvey 1388, widely used until 1600s. 4.
William Tyndale translated Bible from the Hebrew and Greek into English.
a. 1526 New Testament translated; Old Testament from 1531-1535.
b. During this time Tyndale was persecuted. 1536 he was imprisoned,
strangled and burned at a stake.
c. Copies of this Bible were condemned and burned. 5.
Coverdale Bible, 1535 was widely accepted. 6.
Great Bible was a revision of the Coverdale Bible.
a. King Henry 8th had it placed in every church so people
could read
it. Preachers complained that people were reading the Bible instead
of listening to their sermons. 7.
Bishops Bible was revised from the Great Bible 8.
Authorized Version (King James Version) 1611 was a revision of the Bishops
Bible.
a. 1607 King James selected 48 Greek and Hebrew scholars to work
in groups of twos.
b. Each group worked independently but then reviewed the work of
the other groups.
c. This was a translation not from one person but from a group.
d. Weaknesses discovery of Greek Manuscripts after this translation;
archaic words, sentence structure. B)
Translations based on the Manuscripts 1.
Westcott Hort Text, 1881. Took the 2.
Nestle Greek Text
a. New American Standard strength is sentence structure and tenses.
b. New International Version some biased toward sinful nature. V)
Textual Criticism and Mistakes? A)
By examining the various copies the critics seek to weed out mistakes 1.
Higher criticism looks at the manuscripts itself 2.
Lower criticism looks at the process of what the manuscript says.
a. Mistakes made by the scribes. Mistakes are bound to happen,
even with printing we make mistakes. More than 300 mistakes in the
first edition of the King James Version.
b. Unintentional errors changing one word for another (effect for
affect).
c. Omissions one word or a line of words. Repeating words or lines.
d. Intentional errors a scribe changes the text. Matthew 11.19; Luke
7.35 B)
Basic rules of textual criticism. The more difficult reading is preferred. The
quality is more important than the quantity. In parallel texts, as in the
Gospels, different recordings are preferred. See Matthew 11.19; Luke 7.35. C)
There are far more copies of the New Testament than of any other book from the
ancient world. Because of this fact we have more New Testament manuscripts, we
have more variations. Some list 200,000 variations, in truth about 4,000. 1.
Trivial variations leaving out for and the. The spelling of a
word. 2.
Substantial variations which are of no consequence to the text. Omitting verses John
5.53-8.11; Acts 8.37. 3.
Substantial variations which have bearing on the text. Mark
16.9-20 is not found in the Conclusion:
Those that claim the Bible is perverted must do the following: 1) indentify when
this was done, 2) offer a more acceptable text. God has the ability to work
through natural means to preserve His word. (A lot of this material was
taken from, How We Got The Bible, by Neil LIghtfoot). |