The Holy Scriptures: Revelation, Inspiration, Criticism - Assignment Example

? The Holy Scriptures By Henry Nabea This paper has two sections, section 2 and section 2:2. Section one investigates the development of the New Testament canon as presented by Metzger Bruce in his book, The Canon of the New Testament. The investigation involves analysis of the religious and socio-political factors that necessitated the need for the early Church to determine the correct New Testament Canon. Also, this section looks at the Criteria that the Church used to settle on the 27 books of the New Testament. Section two begins with the Nicholas Aiden’s four criticisms on the traditional view of inspiration (verbal/hypnotic inspiration). The second part of this section gives an outline of Dei Verbum. The section ends with a detailed development of three topics from the Dei Verbum. How did the Church settle on the 27 books of the New Testament? The early Church was prompted to come up with the 27 books of the New Testament by a number of factors. These factors were of, religious, socio-political, or cultural nature. A combination of these factors compelled the early Church leaders, as it were, to come up with the list of authentic and authoritative books in the New Testament. These factors are: Gnosticism: This was a sect of heretical believers who posed a great challenge to the early Christians on the teachings of the church. The central view of the Gnostic scholars was that, the elect souls are divine sparks temporarily imprisoned in the physical bodies as a result of precosmic catastrophe, and as such, these souls have a natural knowledge (gnosis) of their origin and destiny, and this natural knowledge will lead them to salvation. As it can be deduced from this position, for the Gnostics, there was absolutely no need of an authoritative body of knowledge or traditions that would serve as a condition for salvation. Some of the Gnostic scholars were, Basilides, Carpocrates, and Valentinus and Marcion. The early Christians, therefore, had to come up with an authoritative body of knowledge that contained the teachings of their founder, JesusChrist, and the apostles, that would serve as a guide for their followers and that would enlighten the Christians against the heresies and the fallacies of the Gnostics. Montanism was another heretical religious sect that prompted the formation of the New Testament in the early centuries of Christianity. This Christian movement was a charismatic movement that claimed to be a religion of the Holy Spirit, and it was marked by ecstatic outbursts. This sect claimed that this kind of ecstatic outbursts was the only true form of Christianity. To counter this heretical movement and its teachings, the early church came had to come up with correct teachings of the Church which would act as a guide for its adherents. This led to the formation of the 27 books in the New Testament. Apart from the heretical teachings that precipitated the need for the formulation of the authoritative teachings of the Church, another phenomenon in form of persecution of Christians, further, necessitated the need for the articulation of the authoritative teachings of the Church based on the teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles. When the imperial police started persecuting the Christians and demanding from the the teachings of Christianity, it became necessary for the Christians of the early Church to determine the correct teachings of Christianity, from a myriad of other teachings that claimed to be the true teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles. This circumstance, therefore, led to the formation of the 27 books of the New Testament that constitute the authoritative teachings of the Church. Settling on the 27 books in the New Testament Having been influenced by the above factors, the early Church set out to assemble the Christian books that contained the authentic teachings of Christianity. And to distinguish between the authentic and the inauthentic Christian books, the Church employed four guidelines (How the New Testament Canon was Formed, online). These guidelines were, first, authentic Christian book must be written by either an apostle or a close associate of the apostles. Secondly, the content of the book should not contradict other acknowledged inspired books. Thirdly, the style of the book should share the ‘’feel’’ and the character of other inspired books. And lastly, the book must have been quoted by early Christian writers and accepted by many early Christian Churches. The choice of these guidelines was probably influenced by the Alexandrian custom of drawing a list of authors in a given genre whose works were regarded as standard work. The application of these guidelines in the early Christian literature led to the 27 books in the New Testament, which were officially regarded as the New Testament canon. The Settling on the 27 books in the New Testament wasn’t an overnight event, but was an arduous and scrupulous task that lasted for around three centuries. Nicholas Aiden’s criticisms of the traditional theories of inspiration Textual Criticism: the discovery of various biblical manuscripts broadened the biblical scholars understanding of the history of the transmission of the Bible, and this enabled the scholars to understand why the Bible has come to us in different textual families. The availability of the variant manuscripts led to variant reading and interpretations of the Bible. The development of the textual criticism rendered the verbal inspiration theory untenable. This is because, if God was the one who had dictated what was to be written in the Bible, then there should be no varying manuscripts because the Bible would be composed of the direct quotations of God, and therefore, no varying manuscripts. This criticism, therefore, dealt a strong blow to the theory of verbal inspiration. Source Criticism: This form of criticism led to the discovery that some books of the Bible are composite works. A comparison of some books of the Bible reveals striking similarities, for instance, the Gospels are quite similar and the Gospel of John, compared with the other Gospels, seems like an edited and redacted version of the other Gospels; also, in the New Testament, St. Paul borrowed heavily from the local traditions in formulating the Christological hymns. In the Old Testament, the writer of the Chronicles seems to have included a huge chunk of other people’s works in his writing. These facts, further, refuted the hypnotic theory and the verbal theory of inspiration. God could not possibly have used multiple authors to express the same idea (s). Also, God did not need to borrow ideas from the local traditions or from the works of other human writers. The theories of verbal dictation and hypnotic inspiration are, therefore, false. Study of comparative Literature: A research on comparative literature revealed that the books in the Bible were modelled on various types of literature already existent in the ancient Near East. For instance, the books of wisdom in the Old Testament are actually a subsection of the wisdom literature of the Near East as a whole. Many books in the Old Testament are written in the literature style of the Near East. The notions and concepts used in many books of the Old Testament, also, have their roots in the ancient Near East style. In the light of these facts, it is clear that the writers of the Bible used the local literature styles in putting down their ideas, and this shows that the writers did not receive dictations from God of what they were to write. Biblical Archaeology: Biblical archaeology refers to the excavations done in an attempt to prove or disapprove the historical assertions in the Bible. Biblical archaeology provides the possibility of empirically verifying many of the historical claims in the Bible. Through archaeology, some historical claims in the Bible have been proved, while others have been disapproved. This shows that verbal theory of inspiration isn’t true for if it were true, all the historical claims in the Bible would be true, for God cannot make untrue claims. Outline of Vatican Council document, Dei Verbum. Chapter 1: Revelation Itself Chapter 1 deals with how God has revealed himself to human kind throughout the history of humanity. The purpose of God’s revelation to mankind is to reveal to us His hidden purpose and His will in our lives (Eph. 1:9). God’s revelation to mankind started with Adam and Eve, when he manifested himself to them in the Garden of Eden, but after the fall, God promised them savour, Jesus Christ, who would be a full revelation of God to mankind. Jesus Christ, therefore, is the fulfilment of the Old Testament and the ultimate revelation of God to mankind. But before the birth of Jesus Christ, God had continued to reveal himself to his people through Abraham, the patriarchs, Moses and the Israelites, and through the prophets. Jesus was the full and ultimate revelation of God to HIS people. Chapter 2: Handing on Divine Revelation To ensure that His message was faithfully handed on to the later generations in the whole world, Jesus Christ commissioned His apostles to preach what He had taught them to the whole world. The apostles, therefore, have direct authority from Jesus himself to faithfully preach and hand on the teachings of Jesus Christ to the later generations, through the help of the Holy Spirit. The apostles in turn handed on the message of Jesus to the bishops, who are also supposed to faithfully safeguard and preach the traditions that they have received from Jesus Christ himself, through His apostles. Chapter 3: Sacred Scripture, its Inspiration and Divine Interpretation The Holy Church relying on the teaching of the apostles holds that, the books of the New Testament and the Old Testament are sacred and canonical because they were written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. God is the true author of the scriptures, but He used human beings to put down his what He wanted His people to know. Chapter 4: The Old Testament In preparing and planning the salvation of the whole human race, God chose for himself a people to whom He revealed and entrusted his promises. He first made a covenant with Abraham and later, through Moses, He made a covenant with the Israelites. God revealed himself to the Israelites through these covenants, in deeds and in words. God also revealed himself to the Israelites through the prophets. The Old Testament records all of these events as a preparation for the New Testament. Chapter V: The New Testament The central message in the New Testament is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the word of God made flesh, and as such, the teachings of Jesus Christ are the ultimate revelation of God to his people. The four Gospels, Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John, constitute the most important message in the Bible, for they contain the actual teachings of Jesus Christ himself. New Testament is the fulfilment of the Old Testament, and Jesus’ death and resurrection is the fulfilment of the new covenant between God and His people, as prophesied in the Old Testament. Chapter 6: Sacred Scripture in the life of the Church The church values and venerates the word of God, the scriptures, just as she venerates the body of Jesus Christ. The word of God nourishes the faithful, and for that reason, the Church encourages easy access to the sacred scriptures. The Church holds that reading the work of God is listening to God and so, the Christians, especially the clergy are advised to constantly read the word of God and reflect on it deeply. Three Topics that are of Great Importance in Understanding the Scriptures Among the six chapters in the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, three of the chapters, in my view, are critical in understanding the Scriptures. These Chapters or topics are, the Church’s understanding of revelation, the transmission of revelation, and Sacred Scriptures in the life of the Church. A deep understanding of these chapters of Dei Verbum will definitely lead to a deeper understanding of the Scriptures. On divine revelation, the history of God’s revelation is as old as the history of humankind. God’s revelation to mankind started with Adam and Eve. And after the first parents of humanity fell, God promised them a saviour, who would emancipate them from the chains of sin. After Adam and Eve, God continued to reveal himself to the patriarchs. After the era of the Patriarchs, God chose Abraham and He made a covenant with him. And through the covenant that God had made with Abraham, He revealed himself to Abraham and his descendants. Many years later, God revealed himself to Moses and the Israelites, and through the covenant that He had made with the Israelites, the Israelites came to know him as their loving father. After Moses and the Israelites, God continued to reveal himself to the Israelites through the prophets, and the prophets prophesied the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who would lead the Israelites to overcome many of the challenges that bedevilled them. In fulfilment of the Old Testament prophesies, Jesus Christ was born many years later. Jesus was the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophesies and He came to reveal to us the hidden secrets of God (Eph.1-9). Jesus, therefore, is the word of God made flesh and He is the ultimate revelation of God the father (Eph.2:18). Jesus Christ as the full revelation of God the father, He is also the mediator between God and the human beings. From this topic, we learn that Go’s revelation to humanity was a long process that started with Adam and Eve and reached its fulfilment in the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. One crucial point in this development is the realisation that there is a lot of consistency in the whole story of revelation; all the events in the Old Testament lead to Jesus Christ who is the ultimate revelation of God to humanity. Equally important in understanding the Scriptures is the chapter on the transmission of revelation. Jesus Christ himself gave the apostles the mandate to preach the Gospel to the whole world. And before his death, Jesus Christ bequeathed upon His disciples the responsibility to protect His teachings and to hand it over to the later generation. From this fact we learn that the apostles of Jesus Christ were the only one with the authority from Jesus Christ himself, to teach and even to write on what they had learned from their master, Jesus Christ. The apostles in turn, added the responsibility to preach and to defend the teachings of Jesus Christ to the Bishops, this marked the beginning of an endless apostolic successions, whereby up to the present times we have bishops representing the apostles. It is important to note that, despite the written documents that the apostles left us, there are many other things that the apostles had learnt from Jesus Christ, and they added on, even these traditions to the bishops. The traditions that they added on to the bishops are of the same importance as the scriptures, for they all come from one source, Jesus Christ himself. The bishops, therefore, have the mandate from Jesus Christ himself to interpret and to teach what He had taught them. Jesus Christ promised His apostle the help of the Holy Spirit in carrying out this responsibility. And besides interpreting and preaching the Scriptures, the bishops, also, have the responsibility to maintain and to protect the traditions of the church, handed down to them from the apostles. The Church continues to reflect more and to contemplate on the word of God transmitted through the apostles, and this contemplation coupled with theological studies helps the faithful, through the teaching office of the Church, to get a deeper understanding of the will of God for His people as expressed through the Scriptures and traditions of the Church. The teaching office of the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, ensures that the teachings that the faithful receives is free of error. Having looked at the Church’s understanding of revelation and the transmission of the revelations down the ages, it is important now to look at the sacred Scriptures in the life of the Church. It is important to note that the Church accords the same respect, and actually venerates the word of God as she does venerate the body of Jesus Christ. In sacred liturgy, the Church shares the bread of life both from the table of God’s word, and from the table of Christ’s body. The word of God, therefore, just like the body of Jesus Christ is central in the life of the Church. As such, the Church encourages its members to constantly read the Bible. By reading the Bible, the Christians will know the will of God in their lives, and this will nourish their lives and give them directions in their lives to live in accordance with the will of God. The Church particularly encourages the Clergy to develop a habit of constantly reading the Bible and reflecting on what they read, so that they may have deep understanding of the Scriptures. This will add to the quality of their preaching and sermons. Due to the high importance that the Church attaches to the sacred Scriptures, the Church seeks to provide easy access to the Bible. And to achieve this end, the Church encourages interpretations of the Bible in different languages. And for deeper understanding of the Scriptures, the Church encourages biblical studies. Reading the Bible, therefore, is central in the life of Christians. You can’t claim to be a good Christian if you don’t constantly read the Bible. Just as we speak to God through prayers, God communicates with us through His word in the Bible. Again, we should give utmost respect to the word of God and we should teach others to also respect the word of God. References Aiden, N. (n.d) The Shape of Catholic Theology: An Introduction to Its Sources, Principles, and History. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press. Web. Bruce, M. M. (1997).The Canon of the New Testament. New York: Clarendon Press/Oxford. Web. Divine Constitution on Divine Revelation- Dei Verbum. Web. Retrieved on, 24/04/2013. From: https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils> How the New Testament Canon was Formed- Early Church History. Web. Retrieved on, 24/04/2013. From: https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.churchhistory101.com/docs> Read More