Apologetics23

We will start by considering how the collection of books came to be in general terms, what books were not included, and then some of the detail of how the documents came down to us.

1. What does the 'Canon of Scripture' mean?

Answer:

The Greek word kanon means a rule or measuring rod.

Canon first means the collection of books for which prescribed tests have been applied to determine whether they are considered authoritative and worthy of being part of the sacred Scriptures.

Canon also means all the books collectively. The Canon is thus all the Scriptures that constitute the ‘rule of faith' by which all doctrine is tested.

2. How has the Old Testament Canon been Agreed?

Answer:

a) Uncertainty

The origin of the Old Testament canon is unknown and there is little or no evidence outside the books themselves.

The fully developed canon clearly existed by the 2nd century BC .

b) Excluded writings

Not all books of Hebrew antiquity were included

A number of writings between what we now have as Old & New Testaments were excluded.

Similarly other previous books, referred to in the Old Testament itself, were excluded, e.g.:

“So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar.” (Josh 10:13 )

and

“David took up this lament concerning Saul and his son Jonathan, 18 and ordered that the men of Judah be taught this lament of the bow (it is written in the Book of Jashar): "Your glory, O Israel , lies slain on your heights. How the mighty have fallen!” (2 Sam 1:17-19).

and

“That is why the Book of the Wars of the LORD says.... ” (Num 21:14)

and

“As for the other events of Solomon's reign--all he did and the wisdom he displayed--are they not written in the book of the annals of Solomon?” (1 Kings 11:41)

and

“The other events of Jeroboam's reign, his wars and how he ruled, are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel . ” (1 Kings 14:19 ) [Not Chronicles]

c) How was the canon created?

Some suggest it was venerated documents that were considered inspired.

But how were they thus tested?

It probably started with the writings of Moses which would have been considered authoritative, simply because of his position and having encountered the Lord face to face at Sinai.

We have noted on the previous page about Inspiration, how Moses received God's word and wrote it down:

• see Ex 17:14, 24:4-7, 34:27,28 referring to the wars, the Ten Commandments, the treatment of the Israelites and various festivals,

• Num 33:2 referring to a daily recording of their journeys,

• Deut 31:9,22,24 referring to the law and the song.

Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers & Deuteronomy have Moses' 'finger prints' all over them.

Tradition had it that Moses wrote down a combination of direct revelation from the Lord and tradition passed down to form Genesis and thus the first five books together came to be called the Law of Moses, or the Torah.

In respect of Joshua , the Talmud, the earliest Jewish traditions claim that Joshua wrote his own book except for the final section in respect of his funeral (Attributed to Eleazar son of Aaron with the last verse being added by a later editor.)

Joshua gives credence to the earlier books being the work of Moses:

“Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.” (Josh 1:7,8)

and

“He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses…… There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua copied on stones the law of Moses, which he had written.” (Josh 8:31,32)

and

“Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses.” (Josh 23;6)

Similarly, later books make reference to Moses' Law, e.g.

“Walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses.” (1 Kings 2:3) etc.

Many of the Old Testament books refer back to the Law of Moses.

The principle of including the Pentateuch in the canon was not simply antiquity but Moses' authority as God's spokesman.

Now Moses was considered a prophet of significance for Israel – because he spoke from God.

Now the O.T. is littered with prophets and their prophecies – all of which take their authority from their encounter and experience of God. Most books after the Pentateuch have some prophetic dimension to them – foretelling or forth-telling the word of God.

Indeed, with this in mind, we can observe that most if not all of the books of the Old Testament get their credence in the eyes of Israel , from their recording of encounters with God. Even the so-called historical books have considerable references to God in them.

Thus the canon or credibility of the Old Testament books is based upon the fact that they provide a record of the divine encounters with Israel .

3. What Books were Excluded from the Canon?

Answer:

We have already noted above the many references in the O.T. to other ‘books' or ‘annals' that refer to records that were not considered on a par with those included in the canon.

Looking at the books that were rejected from the Old Testament canon helps us see more clearly how the ones that were included were so different.

Some of the well known rejected books are:

a) Ecclesiasticus

• which makes no claim that its author was a prophet or that the Lord spoke by him.

b) The Book of Baruch

• supposedly Jeremiah's secretary,

• supposedly in Babylon though Jer 43:6 says he went with Jeremiah to Egypt,

• in generally inaccurate and contradicts other known details and dates.

c) The Books of Maccabees

• make no claim to prophetic authorship

• records simply secular wars etc.

d) The Books of Tobit & Judith

• full of clear geographical, chronological and historical mistakes

• neither claim to be the works of the prophets

It should be noted that these and other rejected books were not quoted by, or accepted by, Jesus or the apostles.

4. What New Testament Confirmation is given of the Old Testament?

Answer:

a) The N.T. about history

The following is just a starter illustration of the many instances where New Testament references are made to the historical factualness of the Old Testament.

You are invited to note, as you read the N.T. the incredible numbers of supporting Scriptures:

Mt 12:-4 David eating the bread

Mt 12:40 Jonah in the fish

Mt 12:42 The Queen of Sheba coming to Solomon

Lk 4:25,26 Elijah going to the widow

Lk 4:27 Naaman cleansed of leprosy

Lk 12:29- Sodom and Gomorrah

Jn 3:14 Moses and the serpent

Jn 4:6 Jacob giving a field

Acts 7:2-50 Detailed history of Israel

Acts 13:17-23 Overall history of Israel

Rom 4:10 Abraham believing

Rom 4:19 Abraham 100 years old

Rom 9:10-12 Rebekah and children

b) The New Testament about prophecy

It is suggested by scholars that there are over 300 prophecies that Jesus Christ fulfilled.

The N.T. is full of references to the O.T. prophecies. The following is, again, merely a starter selection taken from Matthew's Gospel, and the student is invited to go through the N.T. and note the many similar references:

1:22,23 Jesus to be born of a virgin

2:5,6 Born in Bethlehem

2:15 He would come out of Egypt

2:17,18 There would be weeping over children

2:23 He would live in Nazareth

3:3 The coming of John the Baptist

4:13-16 He would minister in Galilee

5. How many Old Testament documents do we have today and how reliable are they?

Answer:

Josh McDowell in New Evidence that Demands a Verdict , categorises in detail the thousands of manuscripts we have available today around the world, that attest to the validity of the O.T.

In comparison to what we might expect, there are a limited number of such manuscripts.

The reason suggested for this limitation is that of age – 2 or 3 thousand years is a long time to expect a document to last – and destructibility of materials.

However, beyond those two reasons, a primary reason was to do with the destruction of documents when they became damaged.

To understand this more fully it is useful to understand how documents came down us:

1. An original author wrote on clay, rock (early materials), papyrus (most common material, made from reeds), or parchments (later usage, made from animal skins) or vellum (calf skin, often dyed purple).

2. Copies would be made – and here the detail should be noted:

• So concerned were the ancient scribes over the copying accuracy of sacred documents that they wouldn't write even one letter from memory, only from what they had immediately in front of them.

• To achieve accuracy they even counted every letter on a line and checked it with the original.

• They numbered lines and words and letters to ensure accuracy.

• If they made a single mistake they destroyed the copy and started again !

• When a new copy was guaranteed perfect, they would destroy the old one because physicaldamage gradually occurring might mean mistakes in reading it.

Our earliest complete O.T. manuscript comes from the 10th century AD. although we have plenty of older fragments .

Unlike the New Testament documents, it is really impossible to trace back to the originals. The finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 changed things considerably however.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of scrolls dating from between 3rd Century BC through to the 1st century AD.

To quote McDowell, “ They include one complete Old Testament book (Isaiah) and thousands of fragments, which together represent every Old Testament book except Esthe r,” and these have been used to confirm the evidence of thousands of other documentary fragments that reveal the O.T.

6. How can we Summarise all this?

Answer:

Old Testament ancient manuscript absence is because of the incredible care and accuracy used to pass copies down through the centuries and their unwillingness to let damaged old copies remain.

Although there are many fragments which go to make up our present O.T. the earliest complete one is only a thousand years old.

However, the Dead Sea Scrolls find has so many fragments that go back to the time of Christ and before, that they ratify the previous existence of all except one of our O.T. documents that make up books.

We may add that there is so much material available on this subject, that that which is covered on this page is possibly the most limited summary of all the pages in this section of the site.

This is an area of great research and scholarship and there is little doubt that what we call our Old Testament is what it was when it was written.

Where there are doubtful words you will normally find a note to this effect at the bottom of the page in your Bible. The amount of such doubtful words are minimal and in no way affect the overall information.

7. A Final Word

It has to be accepted that the Old Testament canon rests really on the veneration down through the centuries of these documents by the Jews.

However, even their criteria for feeling that about these documents is quite clear:

• the writer had to have authority,

• the writing had to have life and credibility in respect of the Lord,

• there had to be an absence of obvious mistakes.

These things are made especially clear when you compare the books that have been excluded from the canon, documents which have a completely different feel, lack authority and often are full of obvious errors.

In addition to these things which have convinced scholars in recent centuries, one might ask the following:

• why should at least 30 different people, down through at least a millennium, take the trouble to write such vast amounts unless they were not utterly convinced about the central thesis - they were writing about The Living God?

• how could at least 30 different writer, down through at least a millennium, write with such amazing uniformity that can only been seen when you read all the books?

To brush off these questions with casual, trite dismissals says more about the critic than it does about the writings.

To dismiss these writings as superstitious nonsense requires the following:

• a total disregard for truth, in the light of the above two questions,

• a total disregard for the amazing beliefs and experiences of an entire nation for over a millennium,

• a total disregard for the remarkable scholarship over the last two centuries that have provided such a vast wealth of knowledge supporting this book.

Dare you do it! The alternative is that you read the Book! Study it, question it, search it and talk to God about it. It says some wonderful things and reveals an even more wonderful God.

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