4: Recognized Writings

Sola Scriptura (6 part Devotion) • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Much of what I’ve spent time seeking to learn wasn’t because I wrote a list of questions that I just had to have the answer to and started knocking them out one by one - although that wouldn’t be a bad idea. Instead, I was driven to find the answers when I was challenged by another person who had a differing view.

For example, it wasn’t until I talked with some Jehovah’s Witnesses who said Jesus wasn’t God and the Trinity wasn’t true, that I began to seek WHY I BELIEVED that Jesus WAS God and the Trinity WAS true…but I couldn't explain WHY. What if my parents, pastor, & church were WRONG? What if the Jehovah’s Witnesses were RIGHT?

That QUESTION sparked my hunger to learn WHY I believe WHAT I believe. I was open to being corrected, but it was going to have to be convinced through the Scriptures. So I began to spend some serious time reading through the Gospel of John & other Scriptures.

I think that will happen in your life too.

A family member says he/she doesn’t believe in a place of eternal punishment for those who reject Jesus. You do…but you don’t know WHY…the spark is lit and you dig in to learn WHY you believe WHAT you believe.

A friend tells you that God is fine with sex outside of marriage - heterosexual & homosexual…you disagree, but other than agreeing with your parents, your pastor, or other influences in your life…YOU DON’T KNOW WHY. A hunger begins to develop in you - to learn WHY you believe WHAT you believe.

And here's why that is SO IMPORTANT. You see, the greatest critic you will ever face…IS YOU. As Josh McDowell often says, “The heart cannot rejoice in what the mind rejects.”

THAT’S why we are taking the time to struggle through this series called Sola Scriptura.

Week 1 we introduced this devotion entitled Sola Scriptura, a Latin phrase meaning Scripture Alone.

Definition of Sola Scriptura

Sola Scriptura: God’s Scriptures are the supreme authority over what Christians believe and how Christians behave.

Week 2 we talked about Inspiration - Asking the question - Has God Spoken?

We considered how Jesus His followers viewed the Scriptures and we noted that they believed that God gave the Scriptures to people through people.

Last Week we talked about Preservation - Is what we have now, what they had then?

We were challenged to Examine the evidence & go where it leads.

And we saw evidence that the Scriptures were written down for Preservation, Precision, & Portability.

TODAY we will talk about RECOGNIZED WRITINGS & TRUSTWORTHY TRANSLATIONS

How did we get the 66 recognized writings in the Bible today and what about the other writings that got left out?

How are English Bible translations developed & what are the differences that matter?

RECOGNIZED WRITINGS Canon

These Recognized Writings are also known as the Canon. We aren’t talking about a long steel tube we fire cannon balls from.

Definition of CANON: Canon is the term for the collection of writings we recognize as the Old & New Testament.

Canon is derived from the Greek kanon, which originally referred to a reed that was used to test for straightness or length. By the 4th century, canon evolved to mean “standard”, “rule”, or “norm”, the common word to describe the collection of writings we recognize as the Old and New Testament.

Old Testament Canon & the Apocrypha?

The Old Testament canon was recognized by the people of Jesus’ day. These writings were most often referred to as the Law, Prophets, & the Writings [Hebrew: TaNaKh = Torah (Hebrew for Teaching), Nevi’im (Prophets), & Ketuvim (Writings)]. As mentioned in a previous teaching, Jesus quotes almost all of these writings as authoritative.

On the other hand, there were other writings known to the Jewish people that you might have heard called the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonical - Catholics). These writings contain some strange stories and good Jewish history, yet Jewish people didn’t consider these writings to be Scriptural. Although Jesus & his disciples quoted from the Old Testament extensively, they never quoted these writings as authoritative words from God.

New Testament Canon

Now what about the New Testament? How did those 27 separate writings get compiled and what about the other writings that didn’t make the cut - you know - the “lost books of the Bible” mentioned by the Discovery Channel and other critics.

As we have discussed the NT hand-written 1st century manuscripts were being copied & distributed around the known world as separate writings. We have no evidence that the 27 separate New Testament writings put together in book form by the end of the 1st century. Without an approved canonical list, different churches valued certain Gospels and Epistles over others.

Marcion’s Canon

Then along came a heretic named Marcion who by A.D. 140 had listed 11 of our 27 NT writings as trustworthy - kind of. You see, Marcion believed the God of the Old Testament & the God of the New Testament were not the same. He believed the Jewish God was manipulative, angry, fickle, & cruel while the God of the New Testament was the God of love. Because of this presupposition, Marcion rejected the Old Testament writings that he claimed had been corrupted by Jewish scribes. He recognized 11 of the New Testament writings including the Gospel of Luke & 10 of Paul’s writings (total of 11).

Marcion excluded Matthew, Mark, & John because of their Jewish flavor & affirmations. And although he kept Luke since it was written for Gentiles, he mutilated much of it.

Luke: Marcion didn’t believe Jesus was human and certainly wasn’t born as a human Jewish child so he removed all references to Jesus’ birth, genealogy, or Jewishness, which he attributed to manipulating editors (i.e. Jewish scribes).

Paul: He clipped out much of the Jewish flavor of Paul’s writings as well, contending that Jews had corrupted some of what Paul had written.

Need for a New Testament Canon

Marcion’s canon sounded an alarm for the young Church. Without a clear canon of recognized writings, future heretical claims to go unchecked. Marcion’s list required a response.

The writings were officially Collected because false teaching needed to be officially Corrected. Further, as the Roman Empire began to persecute Christians, they had to know which teachings they were willing to die for.

A gradual consensus began to develop among orthodox Christians, and by the end of the second century the core of the New Testament canon was established with the recognition of the four Gospels, Acts, and the thirteen Pauline epistles (minus the debatable presumption of Hebrews as Pauline).

For example, the Muratorian Fragment (A.D. 170-180) comes from this time period, containing 22 of the 27 NT writings we recognize today. The list includes, the 4 Gospels, Acts, and the 13 writings of Paul, 1&2 John, Jude, & Revelation. These believers were aware of other writings as well. Listen to this quote from the fragment.

There are also in circulation one to the Laodiceans, and another to the Alexandrians, forged under the name of Paul, and addressed against the heresy of Marcion; and there are also several others which cannot be received into the Catholic Church, for it is not suitable for gall to be mingled with honey.

How could one tell the difference?

Criteria for Canonized Writings

Authors Apostles & Associates? Who wrote it? It must have been an apostle (i.e. Matthew, John, Peter, & Paul) or someone closely connected with an apostle (e.g. Luke, John Mark, James, Jude). Eyewitness testimony is essential to authenticate the incredible claims made by Jesus and his followers in the New Testament.

Content Orthodox Teaching? Many false teachers & teachings were trying to worm they way into the church, but the church was to trust the Gospel as taught by the apostles of Jesus, while those opposed the clear teaching of the apostles were condemned.

Galatians 1:6–9 (NET)

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are following a different gospel—not that there really is another gospel, but there are some who are disturbing you and wanting to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we (or an angel from heaven) should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be condemned to hell! As we have said before, and now I say again, if any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be condemned to hell!

That’s a HEAVY HANDED response, isn’t it?

Church Response Universal Acceptance? The writing had to be “accepted by a broad geographic segment of the church.” Considering the cultural diversities within the churches, their agreement of which books belonged in the New Testament canon demonstrates that the Holy Spirit led people from different cultures to universally receive the same writings as canonical.

What about “the Lost Books of the Bible”? Here’s one example:

Gospel of Thomas

MANY WRITINGS FAILED this test, including the Gospel of Thomas. Eusebius (A.D. 260-340) called this a heretical writing. Why? It didn’t meet ANY of the 3 criteria for canonical Scriptures.

Apostles or Associates? NOPE. It wasn’t written until well after the apostles lived - mid-2nd century.

Is the Content Orthodox? NOPE.

The Gospel of Thomas records the following conversation between Peter and Jesus:

"Simon Peter said to them, `Make Mary leave us, for females don't deserve life.' Jesus said, `Look, I will guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the domain of Heaven.

Does that sound like Jesus of the Gospels? NO WAY!

Does it have Universal Acceptance of the Church? NOPE. Down for the count.

Using this criteria, church leaders around the world were able to recognize the 27 NT writings we have today. Hence, these writings weren’t determined by the church, but discovered by the church.

J.I. Packer says it well:

The Church no more gave us the New Testament canon than Sir Isaac Newton gave us the force of gravity. God gave us gravity, by His work of creation, and similarly He gave us the New Testament canon, by inspiring the individual books that make it up.

I gave you more of the New Testament Canon being recognized over other writings.

TRUSTWORTHY TRANSLATIONS

How are English Bible translations developed & what are the differences that matter?

When we say Translation we are talking about the the biblical writings transferred from in their original languages into other languages so the audience can understand it.

Translations of the Bible are nothing new.

The Septuagint was a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (OT) that was completed by 200 B.C., well before the time of Jesus.

This translation was quoted by Greek writers including Jesus’ first disciples, Paul, & the writer of Hebrews.

Key Insight: The New Testament writers believed this Greek translation carried the same authority as the Hebrew writings it was translated from.

A few years ago I was at an event where a representative for a Bible program I use said, “With this software you can read the actual words of Jesus in the original language.” I thought about that statement and realized it wasn’t accurate...and here’s why:

Most of the 4 gospels are actually Translations of what Jesus said. That is, Jesus most often spoke in the common language of Jewish people in His day - Aramaic, but the gospel writers translated what Jesus said...in Greek. Here are a few examples that demonstrate this to be so:

Mark 5:41 (NET)

Then, gently taking the child by the hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up.”

Mark notes the words of Jesus in Aramaic, then he translates to his audience reading this in Greek. YOUR translation takes the Greek and brings it to our language - English.

Mark does the same thing later as Jesus is on the cross.

Mark 15:34 (NET)

Around three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

In other words, the writings we have are already a TRANSLATION of what Jesus said - Aramaic to Greek. We then translate from Greek to English.

Why would the gospel writers translate the words of Jesus from Aramaic into Greek...OR, asked another way...What’s the point of translations?

BIG TRUTH: Translations communicate the message of Jesus in a meaningful way.

From the Greek manuscripts came more translations, like Latin, Coptic, Syriac, and more - so that more people could understand the message of Jesus in a meaningful way.

Miriam Adeney writes: Everywhere Christians go, they translate the Bible. This has been noted by Lamin Sanneh, a Christian with a Muslim background who is Professor of History at Yale University. Muslims insist that people learn Arabic, because that is the language of God. But Christians say, "God speaks your language."

Wycliff Bible Translators note that the Bible has now been translated into more than 2,200 languages...for ONE reason:

BIG TRUTH: Translations communicate the message of Jesus in a meaningful way.

So just How are English Bible translations developed & what are the differences that matter? I’m so glad you asked…and that’s where we will pick up on next week!

HOMEWORK: Read Hebrews this week and note how many times he quotes from Psalms. If you want to watch our teachings on it, you can go here: http://bit.ly/FellowshipVids