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editorials:meme_spin_on_how_the_list_of_books_in_the_bible_was_arrived_at [2019/06/12 08:25]
adminuser 		editorials:meme_spin_on_how_the_list_of_books_in_the_bible_was_arrived_at [2019/06/12 12:59] (current)
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 +// Back to [[editorials:]]... //
 +
 ====== Meme spin on how the list of books in the Bible was arrived at ====== ====== Meme spin on how the list of books in the Bible was arrived at ======
 //Continued from [[Futility inherent in do-it-yourself religion, what's the point]]...// //Continued from [[Futility inherent in do-it-yourself religion, what's the point]]...//
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   * The meme might be true, but given the problems I noted in first paragraph, it has the feeling of a conspiracy theory spin. The truth might not be at the extremes, but possibly somewhere in the middle.   * The meme might be true, but given the problems I noted in first paragraph, it has the feeling of a conspiracy theory spin. The truth might not be at the extremes, but possibly somewhere in the middle.
  
-It turns out that was not even entirely correct. That is the problem in responding to a meme. However, it did trigger me to do some more research, and I learned more about the process from reputable sources.+It turns out that was not even entirely correct. The meme had other serious errors.  And those errors led me into a response that had some errors. 
 + 
 +That is the problem in responding to a meme. However, it did trigger me to do some more research, and I learned more about the process from reputable sources.  What follows is the results of that research. 
 + 
 + 
 +===== Bruce Metzger's Book on New Testament Canonicity ===== 
 + 
 +==== Who was Bruce Metzger? ==== 
 + 
 +Here is how one author describes Bruce Metzger and his book on New Testament canonicity: 
 + 
 +  * Bruce Metzger was professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary, and a board member of the American Bible Society. He was chief editor of the Reader's Digest Condensed Bible, and according to its preface approved each section. He was the general editor of the New Revised Standard, and one of the editors of the United Bible Society's standard Greek New Testament. 
 +  * Without doubt he is a scholar of considerable breadth of learning and erudition. His 1987 work „The Canon of the New Testament‟ is often cited by evangelicals as a valuable reference work. Metzger‟s view of the New Testament is plain from his first sentence. „The recognition of the canonical status of the several books of the New Testament was the result of a long and gradual process, in the course of which certain writings, regarded as authoritative were separated from much larger body of early Christian literature‟1 
 + 
 +Some questions asked by this author: 
 +  * Does the data warrant such radical conclusions?  
 +  * Does Metzger‟s work provide a sound and credible description of the genesis of Scripture, or has the work fallen prey to influences quite apart from the evidence?  
 +  * How soundly founded are Metzger's basic judgements and how secure his conclusions? 
 + 
 +Source: 
 +  * https://strateias.org/metzger.pdf - Bruce M Metzger, the canon of scripture and the denial of 2 Peter 3.16: - A focus on Clement of Rome's epistle. 
 + 
 +==== The Full Text of Bruce Metzger's Book "The Canon of the New Testament" ==== 
 + 
 +A link to the full text of his book is here: 
 +  * [[https://archive.org/stream/OUPBruceM.MetzgerTheCanonOfTheNewTestamentItsOriginDevelopmentAndSignificance_201708/OUP%20-%20Bruce%20M.%20Metzger%20-%20The%20Canon%20of%20the%20New%20Testament%2C%20Its%20Origin%2C%20Development%2C%20and%20Significance_djvu.txt|The Canon of New Testament, complete text as PDF]] 
 + 
 +Some more scholarly discussion of canonicity, and reference to Bruce Metzger's work: 
 +  * http://sgfcanada.com/files/frps/canon.pdf - From the fellowship for reformation and pastoral studies, Vol 29, No. 7 by Michael A. G. Haykin 
 +    * "Vigorous controversy over the exact limits of the canon can be found throughout the second century. This controversy has prompted some classical liberal scholars like Adolf von Harnack (1851-1930) and Hans von Campenhausen to point to the Gnostic author Marcion (fl. 140), a wealthy shipowner from the seaport of Sinope in Pontus, as having set the precedent in creating a New Testament canon... This perspective ... though, is mistaken." New Testament scholar Herman N. Ridderbos has more thoroughly examined that claim. 
 +    * Early Christans often "were Jews, for whom it would have been unthinkable to have questioned the authority of the Old Testament as divine revelation."  
 +    * "But why did the early Christians come to add another book of writings to the Old Testament and come to regard them as Holy Scripture and ultimately as canonical as the Old Testament? In nuce the answer may be found in one word: authority. Ultimately, they discerned in these books the authoritative voice of God and the authority of their Lord Jesus.(14) In other words, the church did not create the canon. She recognized what God had constituted.(15)" 
 +    * "Is the canon of the New Testament open or closed?" ... "in the words of Bruce Metzger, “a collection of writings that bear witness to what God has wrought through the life and work, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and through the founding of the Church by his Spirit.”(38) Those events are past history, and the witness to them must be contemporaneous with the events. Moreover, the written witness to these events has been foundational for the church (see Ephesians 2:20) and the foundation cannot be relaid. “In short, the canon cannot be remade—for the simple reason that history cannot be remade.”(39) 
 +      * (38) Metzger, Canon of the NewTestament, 271. 
 +      * (39) Metzger, Canon of the NewTestament, 275.  
 +  
 + 
 + 
 + 
 + 
 + 
 +=== Bruce Metzger's summary statement from his book === 
 + 
 +  * "Thus, side by side with the old Jewish canon, and without in any way displacing it, there had sprung up a new, Christian  canon. 8 This history of its formation is the history, not of a  series of sporadic events, but of a long, continuous process. It  was a task, not only of collecting, but also of sifting and rejecting. Instead of being the result of a deliberate decree by  an individual or a council near the beginning of the Christian  era, the collection of New Testament books took place gradually over many years by the pressure of various kinds of  circumstances and influences,..."
  
 +This is in direct contradiction with the meme. And the later quote from the International Bible Society does not claim that the church father Athanasius decreed the list of books, only that he was the first who provided the "complete listing of the 66 books belonging to the canon."
 ===== Examining a meme prejudiced against how the modern list of books in the Bible was created ===== ===== Examining a meme prejudiced against how the modern list of books in the Bible was created =====
  
editorials/meme_spin_on_how_the_list_of_books_in_the_bible_was_arrived_at.1560327911.txt.gz · Last modified: 2019/06/12 12:25 (external edit)

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