New Testament Canon

The Canon of the NT

• The Canon of the NT shares similar rules and standards for acceptance as inspired with the OT:
  • Authorship
  • Local church acceptance
  • Recognition by church Fathers (direct disciples of the Apostles)
  • Subject Matter: Is the book doctrinally sound and able to edify?

Recognition of the NT Canon

• The NT canon was recognized as early as AD 367, and the OT no later than 150 BC.
• Jesus recognized the law, the prophets, and the writings as such (Luke 24:44, 11:51).

Esther and The Song of Songs

• Esther: although God is not explicitly mentioned, His hand can be seen in the story, controlling seemingly insignificant coincidences to protect His people.
• Song of Songs: a great description of love, God's greatest gift to marital life, with nothing impure about it.

The Apocrypha

• Reasons to exclude a book:
  • Inaccuracies (historical, geographical)
  • Doctrines inconsistent with other scriptures
  • Lack of divine characteristics
• Examples of apocryphal books:
  • Sirach/Ecclesiasticus (180 BC)
  • Baruch (AD 100)
  • 1/2 Maccabees (1st century BC)
• Philo, Josephus, and early Church fathers did not recognize the apocrypha.

Historical Reliability of the Bible - NT

• To test the historical reliability of the Scriptures, the Bible should undergo rigorous tests used for all historical documents.
• Three basic principles for testing reliability:
  • The bibliographical test
  • The internal evidence test
  • The external evidence test

The Bibliographical Test

• Examination of the textual transmission by which documents reach us.
• Answers the question of how reliable are the copies we have in regard to:
  • Number of manuscripts (MSS) and the time they were copied.
  • Credibility of the written document and the truthfulness of the author or witness.

External Evidence Test

• Proofs whether there are other historical documents that confirm or deny the internal evidence of the documents.
• Examples of external evidence:
  • Early Christian Writers Outside the Bible (Eusebius, Papias, Irenaeus, Clement of Rome, etc.)
  • Early Non-Christian Confirmation of the NT (Tacitus, Suetonius, Josephus, etc.)
  • Archaeological Evidence of the NT (support for the Gospel of Luke, earlier records of Christianity, etc.)

Historical Reliability of the Bible - OT

• While some means used in testing the reliability of the NT are applicable, much of the evidence used is different.

The Jewish Oral Law

• The Talmudist (AD 100 - 500):
  • Body of Hebrew civil and canonical law based on the Torah.
  • Represents opinions and decisions of Jewish teachers.
• The Masoretes (AD 500-950):
  • Jewish scholars who gave the final form to the Old Testament.
  • Preserved in writing the oral tradition (masorah) the correct vowels and accents, and the number of occurrences of rare words of unusual spellings.

Witness of the Dead Sea Scrolls

• The Dead Sea Scrolls:
  • Discovered in a series of caves in Jordan, at the north-western end of the Dead Sea in the area of Khirbet Qumran.
  • Covers a period between 1947 and 1956.
  • Includes two of the oldest-known Hebrew copies of the Book of Isaiah, dated 125 BC, and fragments of every book in the Old Testament except Esther.

Evidences for the Reliability of the Bible

• Evidences Through Archaeology:
  • Reconstructing biblical events and matching them with known historical events from the ancient Near East.
  • Determining how close the biblical writers' accounts are to modern historians' understanding of what "actually happened".
• Important areas:
  • Hard Evidence: Artifacts from previous societies that directly testify to biblical events.
  • Documentary Evidence: Extra-biblical texts and written documents that confirm Old Testament history.

Criticisms of Evidences

• Some modern archaeologists raise concerns about the Bible's reliability:
  • They may see the stories as fiction.
  • Despite recognizing archaeological discoveries, they question conclusions drawn by earlier scholars.

The Credibility of Written Documents

• Three key aspects to assess credibility:
  • The Rule of Benefit of the Doubt: Trusting the document's authenticity unless there is substantial evidence to the contrary.
  • Freeness From Known Contradictions: The document should not contain contradictions unless they have a clear explanation.
  • Whether the Writer Used Primary Sources: How geographically and chronologically close the author is to the events they describe.

New Testament Confirmation of the OT

• The NT records can be used to authenticate the OT's historical reliability.
• Jesus and the NT writers recognized the OT as authoritative.