New Testament: Canonicity & Textual Research

Introductory Studies of the New Testament

• Consist of two elements: canoncity studies and research

Canonicity and Textual Research

• Two subdivisions of a general introduction
• Divided into the history and the fundamental question of the canon, canoncity
• Covers textual production and reproduction and textual criticism

Canonicity Study

• Entails investigating the historical circumstances of each document's origin
• Examines the reasons for and process of canonization
• Explores fundamental questions about the validity of assumptions over time

Textual Research

• Focuses on the transmission of New Testament texts through history
• Considers handwritten forms and later printed versions

Sequencing of Introductory Studies

• Scholars disagree on the sequence for dealing with various sections
• Some emphasize the history of the canon or text
• Idea is that the investigator must determine which documents should be the object of investigation.
• Investigation into text(s) of documents is undertaken separately and together
• Construction of the text with which one intends working (textual research) is undertaken for individual study

Alternative Sequence

• Propagates that the history of the textual tradition is first considered
• Focuses on the origins of specific documents and then the process of canon formation
• The sequence is more or less followed in which the processes of the origination of the specific documents, their canonisation, and their transmission historically followed on one another.

Choice of Sequences

• A rigid choice for one or the other of these above-mentioned sequences of investigation cannot finally be made

General vs. Specific Introduction

• "General" introduction studies the canon and transmission of the text
• "Specific" introduction addresses introductory questions relevant to each document

Canoncity: Forming of the Canon

• Early church: Christians held diverse views on which books should be Scripture
• Some books were accepted in some parts of the church but rejected in others
• Views varied on the Gospels of John, Peter, Luke, and Thomas
• Rejection of the three Pastoral Epistles and acceptance of the Epistle of Barnabas.

Diversity of Early Christian Groups

• Groups held different theological and ecclesiastical views
• Disagreements on fundamental issues such as the nature of God and Jesus
• Varied perspectives on the material world and salvation
• Some groups had sacred books, claimed to be written by apostles
• The canon emerged from debates, reflecting the books favored by the winning group

Long Canonization Process

• The process took centuries
• Early Christianity was not one unified entity

After Jesus’ Death

• A wide range of Christian groups emerged
• Groups had divergent perspectives
• Groups include Ebionites, Marcionites, Gnostics, and Proto-Orthodox Christians

Non-Canonical Scriptures

• All Christian groups possessed books considered sacred
• Dozens survived or were rediscovered in modern times
• Literature includes revered works from the early church which didn't make it into the canon

Gospel of the Ebionites

• There may have been more than one Christian group called Ebionites
• Three Gospels that appear to have been used by Ebionite Groups:
• The truncated version of the Gospel of Matthew mentioned earlier
• Another is known simply as the Gospel of the Ebionites
• Intact fragments no longer survive
• Quotes for the Gospel of the Ebionites found by Epiphanius
• Ebionites believed that Jesus became the perfect sacrifice
• Jewish sacrifices in the Temple were no longer required

Coptic Gospel of Thomas

• Most significant archaeological discoveries of non-canonical texts in modern times
• Found among the Gnostic Gospels at Nag Hammadi
• Written in Coptic, an ancient Egyptian language
• Significant because of its unusual character and relative antiquity
• One of the earliest non-canonical Gospels discovered
• Likely dates from just a few decades after the Gospel of John

Sayings of Jesus

• Unlike Gospels of the New Testament, contains only a group of sayings
• Altogether the Gospel presents 114 discrete sayings
• Most are introduced with the words “And Jesus said ...”
• Some sayings are similar to teachings of Jesus in the Gospels of the New Testament and some are canonical accounts

Bizarre Sayings

• Many unique sayings sound bizarre to people raised on biblical accounts of Jesus' teaching
• The Coptic Gospel of Thomas does not narrate Jesus' death and resurrection
• Salvation comes by believing in Jesus' death, but also understanding his teachings:
• ‘Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings not taste death

Acts of Thecla

• Forged by a church leader who was caught and disciplined
• Stories about Thecla circulated long in second half of the second century
• Thecla was a household name throughout parts of Christendom

Thecla's story

• Thecla was a wealthy young woman engaged to be married
• She lived next door to where Christians meet, and heard Paul's sermon
• Paul preaches the gospel of sexual renunciation

Thecla's Conversion

• Thecla converts, which upsets her fiancé
• She breaks off the engagement and becomes a follower of Paul
• Faces threats of martyrdom but escapes through supernatural intervention
• Thrown to wild beasts, but leaps into a vat of "man-eating seals” and baptizes herself in the name of Jesus

Third Corinthians

• Two non-canonical letters in the Acts of Paul
• Letter written to the apostle by his converts in Corinth, other the reply written by him
• Exchange called 3 Corinthians, to differentiate from 1 and 2 Corinthians in the New Testament

Letter of Barnabas

• Attributed to Barnabas, an apostolic companion of Paul
• Actually a theological treatise written seventy years after Barnabas's death
• Included the New Testament writings in earliest complete manuscript of the New Testament, known as the Codex Sinaiticus

Anti-Jewish Views

• Largely a discussion of the Jewish religion and Jewish Scripture
• Overarching theme is that Jews are not the people of God
• Jews rejected God because they rejected the covenant made with Moses on Mount Sinai
• Laws given to Moses were misinterpreted by the Jewish people

Apocalypse of Peter

• Considered canonical in some proto-orthodox circles
• Cannot be found in any surviving manuscripts of the New Testament
• Mentioned as belonging, or potentially belonging, to the canon in several early church writings
• Intriguing narrative and the first surviving account from early Christianity of someone being given a guided tour of heaven and hell
• Narrative style common as with Dante’s Divine Comedy

Account of Jesus

• Account begins with Jesus talking to his disciples on the Mount of Olives
• Discussing what would happen at the end of all things
• Peter asks Jesus about the afterlife, and Jesus begins to explain it all to him

The Coptic Apocalypse of Peter

• A Gnostic text discovered along with the Gospel of Thomas at Nag Hammadi
• Provides a firsthand account of the crucifixion of Jesus (bizarre to one familiar with the accounts of the New Testament)
• Peter receives a secret revelation from Jesus
• Peter sees Jesus down below being arrested and then crucified

Formation of the Bible

• For the first three and a half centuries, the Christian Church had no complete and generally accepted Bible
• New Testament was only admitted to the canon at a very late stage
• Documents show that it was not until the fourth century that the Church laid down definite guidelines (consisting of 27 books)
• Manuscripts containing books that were considered parts of the New Testament usually do not include anything besides canonical books

Muratorian Canon

• The earliest list of the New Testament canon (circa 200 CE)
• Discovered in 1740, the oldest known canon or list of books of the New Testament
• Twenty-two of twenty-seven books as canonical
• The canon consists of a survey, which supplies at the same time historical and other information regarding each book
• Then mention is made of the Pastor of Hermas, which may be read anywhere but not in the divine service
• Indicates are forgeries made by the followers of Marcion, are rejected
• Athanasius, consisting of the New Testament as we have it

Aspects of New Testament Study

• The New Testament canon was only finalized in the Western Church at the Synod of Rome (382 CE)
• In the Western Church, it was especially Revelations, Hebrews and 2 Peter that was contested in becoming part of the New Testament canon. Turning to the Eastern Church,
• Earliest canon list is the thirty-ninth Paschal letter of Athanasius (367 CE), consisting of the New Testament
• Canon (κανών): norm or standard
• Church confesses that it accepts Holy Scripture as the only and ultimate norm for faith and life
• Canonical books: books that belong to the canon, thus the books that make up the New Testament canon To canonize: the church did not make certain books in the Bible canonical, but acknowledged them as canonical books.
• Canonicity: normative, authoritative character of a writing
• Pseudepigraphal: a writing linked with the person and the authority of a prominent biblical character
• Apocryphal: a writing linked with the person and the authority of a prominent biblical character but was not included in the New Testament canon

Canonicity of New Testament

• Endeavour has both a historical and a fundamental facet
• Factors that hastened the need for a defined New Testament canon:
• Marcion: reduction of the canon
• Montanism: expansion of the canon
• Death of the apostles
• Rise of Gnosticism

Gnosticism Beliefs

• Emphasizes the relationship between God and man
• Salvation comes through specific knowledge (gnosis)
• World is corrupt and malignant
• World is the creation of either a fallen angel of the one true God (demiurge) or a "lesser" god

Additional Factors

• The finalization of the canon of the Old Testament (at Jamnia in 135 CE)
• The self-identification of the church
• The delay of the parousia
• Beginning of the use of the codex
• Burning of Christian books
• Political pressure by Constantine
• Four main centres who regarded different books as normative
• Constantine's edict in 313 CE and his request to Eusebius to finalise a list

Canonicity Research

• Investigation of canonisation, and also the history that the New Testament underwent subsequent to this and how it impacted on its canonicity.

Criteria for Canonicity

• Jesus Christ has to be the content of a document
• Document must show a continuity with the Old Testament
• Apostolic authorship
• The "canon of faith” (regula fidei)
• The autopistia (self-authentication and inspiration) of the Holy Spirit
• The inner witness of the Holy Spirit
• The criterion of preaching
• General use in the early church (liturgy, preaching, mission)
• Date (must have been written in the age of the apostles)
• Applicability of content in changing situations

Canonicity of the New Testament

• Whether the canon should be viewed and treated as "Revelation" or as "closed"
• In this case, “Revelation” is understood as meaning that the twenty-seven documents need not be taken as the final number,
• While "closed" means that in no respect might documents be added or taken away.

Canon Content

• Answers to these questions or a principled position in this regard is absolutely crucial for the canon
• Informs New Testament theology and church practice
• Canonicity of the New Testament has a much more important task than simply historically
• It considers the process of canonisation and the canonical destiny of the New Testament.
• Theologians think that a study of the theology of earliest Christianity should not be limited to the canon

The History of Text and Textual Research

• Textual research as a scientific endeavor in the modern sense has only been practiced since the middle of the nineteenth century.
• Developed into an indispensable science with in New Testament Scholarship
• Study of the New Testament can, as a matter of course, not commence until a text is available.
• It is the task of textual research in its various manifestations to posit what is most probable text.

Textual Research Phases

• Study of the history of the text
• Its physical production, and reproduction
• Textual criticism based on the results and insights attained during the first phase.

Textual Production and Reproduction Research

• Investigates all the relevant information relating to the origins of texts,
• not only during the New Testament period but also in the centuries afterwards
• The following are attended to:
• Scriptor, Types of Writing, Writing materials

Reproduction of the Text

• Adventures and misadventures of the text since its origin, as it was handed down
• The sounding board against which answers to the many questions in relation to textual variation
• Attempts at reconstruction become clear.
• inquiry is not only concerned with the nature of the differences among the many texts, but also variations consciously or unconsciously inserted either unknowingly or intentionally

Intentional Changes to the Text

• Addition of words or sentences like interpolations
• Deletion
• Combination and conflation
• Moving or transposition
• Replacement or substitution
• Rounding off
• Linguistic improvements
• Expansion of the name of God
• Atticism

Non-Intentional Changes to the text

• "Eye mistakes"
• Letter confusion
• Nomina sacra
• Haplography and dittography
• Errors of judgment

Ear Mistakes in Text

• Mass production
• Sound or consonant confusion
• Lotacism
• Dividing of words
• Idea-or remembering-mistakes
• History in handwritten transmission has to also take cognizance of its printed transmission

Textual Criticism

• Understood as entailing the reconstruction of most probable text
• Done with reference to all the manuscripts, by taking account of the differences,
  named variant readings or readings which may range to the deletion or addition of entire paragraphs.

Egerton Papyrus 2

• Oldest non-canonical manuscript with relates to Jesus in a few stories
• The first being with a story between Jesus and Jewish Leaders
• A narrative about stoning and arrest
• The story of healing of the leper
• Regards to the paying of taxes to royalty
• And contains a fragmental narrative of Jesus at the river Jordan
• That can be concluded that the author knew John

The earliest availble manuscripts of the four gospels are:

• Matthew: P64 (Mt 26:7–8, 10, 14–15, 22–23 en 31–33), P67 (Mt 3:9, 15; 5:20-22 and 25–28) en P77 (known as the Oxyrhynchus papyri; Mt 23:30–39)—200 СЕ
• Luke: P75 (known as the Bodmer-papyri; sections of Lk 1 to 8 and 15)—200 СЕ

Chester Beatly Papyrus

• In 1930
• Seven Old Testament and three New Testament parts in biblical manuscripts
• Parts of the Gospels with Acts, the Pauline Epistles

Additional text with scripture from testament, The text is as such

1 (codex Sinaiticus¹), dated 300 CE (fourth century).

• Quarter of a million variance make testament study to be paramount
• How can the best probable version be used

Point to to text and textual criticism

• Testal critisism and available aids are used to attempt to find what is the most probable text

• No last word will ever be spoken, but the texts have evolved over time

• Multiiple testal editions need a balance of sciense and knowledge

• Originality of the new testament have to be knowledged

• Copies were made much later

• Books are written in greek

• Scribes have made mistakes

• There are more differences in our manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament.

• Can still spell no matter and more over come to the overall meaning of many can be fixed but some meanings can affect the verses

Textual Criticism Process

• Task is both to figure out what the author of a text actually wrote and to understand why scribes modified the text
• There are some passages where serious and very smart scholars disagree about what the original text said
• Some places where we will probably never know what the original text said