living waters wednesday teaching c. holoman september 3, 2008
TRANSCRIPT
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