The Canon of Scripture

How the Books of the Bible got to be in the Bible and how we arranged

them within in the Bible

Overview of Scripture

• We are told: – Scripture is God’s Word – God is the author of scripture – The Old Testament is the Jewish scriptures – The New Testament is the Christian scriptures – Our faith is based on the scriptures

• But each of these phrases is just off, each is misleading and thus taken together can lead to a misunderstanding of the bible itself.

Overview of this Presentation

• We want to understand how each of the statements on the previous slide is just off

• We want to understand how the scriptures came to have the authority that they have

• We want to understand how the scriptures came to be formed the way they are

• We want to understand in what way the scriptures are important for us as Catholics

The Key to the Scriptures

• First off we start with Jesus

• All scripture points to him (Jn. 5:39)

• Both Jesus and the Scriptures are called the Word of God

• Our understanding of Jesus and of scripture are bound together

The Key to the Scriptures • Just as the Word is

present in Creation and only slowly revealed through faith

• So too is Jesus both present and only slowly revealed through faith – Faith is both the encounter

with the person Jesus at the level of our being (substance) and our response to Jesus (trust in Him and growth in our understanding the truth He reveals)

Jesus is God and man, scripture is God’s Word in human words. We say that God inspired people who were real authors of scripture. Jesus is the key to the bible, because both are human and divine.

The Key to the Scriptures • Our understanding of

Jesus and the scriptures grow together and nourish each other.

Jesus opens our eyes to see the truth of scripture. “Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures” (Luke 27:24).

The Key to the Scriptures

• We do not believe in the bible and then in Jesus and then in God

• We believe in God, who reveals himself in Jesus, whom we encounter in the scriptures.

The New Testament • At the council of Jerusalem

the apostles and presbyters decided that anyone can be a member of the Body of Christ.

• The decision was based on: – The experiences Phillip, Paul

and Peter; – Baptism not circumcision; – The experience of the Holy

Spirit; – It was not based on the

scriptures. • The whole New Testament is

written after this council.

The New Testament • The council was called because

Gentiles were becoming Christian without becoming Jews!

• The Church was proclaiming her identity as the Body of Christ

– Experienced in the tradition of handing on the faith

– Expressed in words by the Church authority.

– All before any New Testament scripture is written.

• The scriptures are the record of our faith, the experience of our life in Christ. Not the foundation of our faith.

– Jesus is the author of our faith (Heb. 12:2)

– Church is the pillar and foundation of truth (1 Tim 3:15)

Scripture is Founded on our Faith

• Church, tradition, and scripture form the tripod that holds the revelation of God in

Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.

Gathering The Scriptures • The writings that we call scripture

begin to be passed around and collected together

– Paul tells the Colossians to send the letter on and to get another one 4:16

• By 80 a collection of Paul’s letters are put together and used by other authors and Churches

• By the early part of the second century there are four gospels also being circulated

– The collection of writings and the source of the writings is part of a tradition

– (2 Thes. 2:15; 1 Cor 11:23; Lk 1:3) • The author(ity) behind the writings

was always a Church leader (apostle or one associated with them)

• Thus we see scripture, tradition and Church Authority united from the beginning of the Church

– The Church uses the scriptures in worship

– The Word is presented in the scriptures and in the Eucharist

– 1 Tim 5:17 (presbyters); Luke 24:13-35 (Emmaus)

Forming The Canon

• For a long time what books were considered canonical was in flux or open and various churches used different books.

Forming a Canon

• The books that finally made it into the canon were the books that the Church used most often in the most places for worship.

The New Testament Canon

• Notice the way the New Testament is structured – Gospels – Acts of the Apostles – Letters – Revelation

• They begin with Jesus’ life and end with his second coming – They are not in

chronological order

When The Canon was Named

• The first list of New Testament books that is identical to ours today is found in a letter that St. Athanasius wrote in 367.

• The synods that named the canon were: Rome in 382; Hippo in 393; and Carthage in 397.

The Catholic Understanding • As Catholics we look at

the scriptures as: – God’s gradual self-

revelation that culminates in Jesus

– The scriptures do not explain themselves, they need to be interpreted in the light of faith

• This is why we say that the scriptures are founded on our faith and not that our faith is founded on the scriptures

The Catholic Understanding

• This forming of our scriptures shaped the way we read the Hebrew Scriptures.

• Jesus was hidden in the Old and Manifest in the New.

• The Old Testament was itself part of God’s gradual self-revelation.

The Jewish Scriptures

• The Jewish scriptures are divided into three parts: – Torah – Prophets – Writings

• The main part of the Jewish scriptures is the Torah – The Law or Teaching

The Jewish Scriptures

Torah or Teaching--Centered on the Sinai Covenant

Prophets--the Call to faithfulness to the Torah

Writings--the wisdom needed to be faithful to Torah

This helps us to see how the Jewish people formed their scriptures.

The Jewish Scriptures

• The first time a book is called God’s word is in 2Kings 22:14-20, before that it was the scroll of Moses.

• During the Babylonian Exile scribes rewrote the Torah and the prophets to show God’s faithfulness and their unfaithfulness

From the book of Exodus on, each one of the 10 commandments is broken, ending with the exile of the Chosen People in Babylon

The Jewish Scriptures

• The Torah shows the establishment of the Covenant of Sinai

• The Prophets are a theological reflection on the faithfulness of God to an unfaithful people

• The Writings are the wisdom to live faithfully in God’s Covenant

Micrograph of Ezekiel

Catholic Use of the Jewish Scriptures

• Because we start with Jesus, we do two things to the Jewish scriptures that change the books and the order of the books – We put the books in a

Historical order so that the whole bible begins with creation and ends with the New Creation so that the role of Jesus is seen throughout

– We include books written in Greek (Deuterocanonical) because this shows that Jesus is both a Jew and meant for all people (universal)

So most of the Old Testament is the Jewish bible for some of the Jews. The Torah is the whole bible for some Jews. But the whole old and new testaments comprise our Bible. Jesus, our Rabbi opens our eyes to read the same words with different meaning.

The Jewish Scriptures Jewish Canon of Scripture Our Canon of the Old Testament

Pentateuch • Genesis; Exodus; Leviticus; Numbers; Deuteronomy

Historical Books • Joshua; Judges; Ruth; 1 & 2 Samuel; 1 & 2 Kings; 1

& 2 Chronicles; Ezra; Nehemiah; *Tobit; *Judith; *Esther; *1 & 2 Maccabees

Wisdom Books • Job; Psalms; Proverbs; Ecclesiastes; Song of Songs;

*Wisdom; *Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) Prophetic Books • Isaiah; Jeremiah; Lamentations; *Baruch; Ezekiel;

*Daniel; Hosea; Joel; Amos; Obadiah; Jonah; Micah; Nahum; Habakkuk; Zephaniah; Haggai; Zechariah; Malachi

– * Deuterocanonical Books--in whole or part

Torah • Genesis; Exodus; Leviticus; Numbers; Deuteronomy Prophets • Early Prophets

– Joshua; Judges; Samuel; Kings • Later Prophets

– Isaiah; Jeremiah; Ezekiel • The Twelve

– Hosea; Joel; Amos; Obadiah; Jonah; Micah; Nahum; Habakkuk; Zephaniah; Haggai; Zechariah; Malachi

Writings • Psalms; Proverbs; Job; Song of Songs; Ruth;

Lamentations; Ecclesiastes; Esther; Daniel; Ezra/Nehemiah; Chronicles

– Notice that some books are in different places (Ruth; Lamentations; Daniel; Ezra/Nehemiah; Chronicles) and that there are no “history” books in the Jewish scriptures

The Whole Canon is Named • Torah – History Books – Wisdom – Prophets – Gospels – Acts – Letters – Revelation

• Our Scriptures start with the beginning of time and end with the end of time--all to show work of the Word of God (Jesus) in history. – God creates and works with us as we shape our world – God prepares for us to

know God – God sends prophets to call us to faithfulness and reveal to us the faithfulness of God – God comes among us as Emmanuel – God incorporates us into the Divine Life (Church) – God reveals how all this leads to a New Creation.

• Notice that the whole purpose of our bible is to point to Jesus, to witness to him.

• The use of the books in worship is what lead to naming these books as bible. – Creation is God’s temple. Humans are the priests who offer back to God what

God has given us. We hold back from God and keep as possessions his gifts. God comes to us to live among us so we can learn to live the life of the Trinity (pure gift). We keep struggling with this gift. But in the end it leads to a New Heavens and a New Earth. Behold he makes all things new.

Summary of Scripture • We call Scripture God’s word not

because he dictated them, but because he reveals himself in human history and inspires humans to see more within their experience than they originally saw.

• The Old Testament is written by the Jewish people, but we read the same words with different eyes because of our encounter with Jesus. We even rearranged the books.

• Our Faith is not based on the Scriptures but on Jesus who opens our eyes to understand him in the Scriptures.

Answers to the Opening Statements

• Scripture is God’s Word – Yes but it is God’s word in human words

• God is the author of scripture – Yes, but so are human beings. – God uses our understanding to expand our understanding

• The Old Testament is the Jewish scriptures – Yes, but they are also ours, although read with the eyes of Christ – Yes, but we have more books because God was preparing the world for the

Incarnation of God’s Word--Jesus • The New Testament is the Christian Scriptures

– Yes, but so is the Old Testament – The whole bible is read with the eyes of Christ who opens the scriptures for us

• Our faith is based on the scriptures – No! If it was then atheists would believe as soon as they read the bible – The bible is based on our faith, formed by our faith and is part of our faith. It is

part of the Apostolic Tradition. (See the Reading Assignment)

Bringing it Together

• Jesus formed a Church that passes on her faith to others (tradition) and grows to understand her faith in worship and recognizes in these writings her own experience of Jesus. – Church, tradition, and

scripture are the tripod that balances the revelation of God in Jesus