The canon of Scriptur

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“More than eighty gospels were considered for the New Testament, and yet only a relative few were chosen for inclusion – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John among them…The Bible, as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great.”

"During this fusion of religions, Constantine needed to strengthen the new Christian tradition, and held a famous ecumenical gathering known as the Council of Nicaea.At this gathering," Teabing said, "many aspects of Christianity were debated and voted upon-the date of Easter, the role of bishops, the administration of sacraments, and, of course, the divinity of Jesus."

"I don't follow. His divinity?"

"My dear," Teabing declared, "until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet.a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal."

"Not the Son of God?"

"Right," Teabing said. "Jesus' establishment as 'the Son of God' was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea."

"Hold on. You're saying Jesus' divinity was the result of a vote?"

"A relatively close vote at that," Teabing added..

A pagan emperorIlliterate bishopsFortunately we have eyewitnessesHistorians Sabinus and Pappus also wrote about it (we know from Socrates)Nobody worshipped Jesus before this

Constantine wasn’t a pagan (though unbaptised)

The bishops weren’t illiterate... just the opposite

The “eyewitnesses” lived a century later

Arians as well as others worshipped Jesus

Pappus lived in the sixteenth century!

The canon of Scripture was never discussed

Constantine was eventually baptised as an Arian!

Socrates was quoting Sabinus to discredit him!

`We have not 10,000 books among us, disagreeing with and contradicting one another, but only 22 books, which contain the records of all time, and are justly believed to be divine.

`Five of these are by Moses… From the death of Moses till the reign of Artaxerxes, the prophets wrote 13 books…

… and the remaining four books contain hymns to God and precepts for the conduct of human life.’

Josephus

The Old Testament apocryphaThe Old Testament apocrypha

Historical materialHistorical material

Religious fictionReligious fiction

Wisdom writingWisdom writing

ApocalypticApocalyptic

1 Esdras 1-2 Maccabees

Tobit Judith Esther additionsDaniel additions

Ecclesiasticus Wisdom of SolomonBaruch Prayer of Manasseh

2 Esdras

Maccabeus fights the enemy

Tobit’s parents

Why would people accept it?Why would people accept it?

It’s quoted in the New It’s quoted in the New TestamentTestament

It was included along It was included along with the Septuagintwith the Septuagint

Some church fathers Some church fathers accepted itaccepted it

It’s found at Qumran It’s found at Qumran with the Dead Sea with the Dead Sea ScrollsScrolls

It’s found alongside It’s found alongside Sinaiticus and Sinaiticus and VaticanusVaticanus

The Council of Trent The Council of Trent accepted 12 books in accepted 12 books in 15461546

Women received back their dead, raised to life againHebrews 11:35

Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these menJude 14

The archangel Michael disputed with the devil about the body of MosesJude 9

None of this implies canonicity

Other books were often bundled together with biblical texts… vellum and parchment were expensive!

Not all church fathers accepted it, and no church council even bothered to discuss it

At Qumran you find commentaries on almost every book of the Old Testament…

… but not one on the Apocryphal books

It’s found alongside Sinaiticus (and Vaticanus) – but that doesn’t imply canonicity either

The Council of Trent’s decision had more to do with politics than scholarship!

The New Testament ApocryphaThe New Testament Apocrypha

The New Testament ApocryphaThe New Testament Apocrypha

Fictional romances about Jesus and PaulFictional romances about Jesus and PaulSpurious letters, `Acts’ and `Gospels’Spurious letters, `Acts’ and `Gospels’Biased heretical material attempting to Biased heretical material attempting to

alter the teaching of Jesusalter the teaching of Jesus

By the end of C1

By the end of C4

By the end of C2

By early C2

Fourfold Gospel

Corpus Paulinum

7029 verses out of 7959

Revelation and Hebrews (7737)

Lists… culminating in Athanasius, 367 AD

`There are also other books outside this list which are not canonical, but have been handed down from our fathers as suitable to be read to new converts… the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Sirach, Esther, Judith and Tobias.’

Athanasius

Why were books accepted?Why were books accepted?authorityauthority

authorshipauthorship

accuracyaccuracy

after-effectsafter-effects

acceptanceacceptance