Bible canon issues-2
Since many Jews did not understand Hebrew, a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures called the Septuagint was made in the period 250-150 BCE. When Christianity spread westward, it was the Septuagint that was virtually the only Bible known to the Greek-speaking Christians.
According to Gareth Lloyd Jones (Scripture Bulletin, 2001), "the ecclesiastical authorities decided in about AD 384 what the foundation documents of the faith were to be; they formed the canon of Scripture... a collection of writings which were regarded as authoritative. It was forbidden to take out any book out of or add any book to the collection. The contents of the Bible had been decided for all time." (Ref 4)
Likewise, Prior says that "the Bible reached the final stage of canonisation in the 4th century AD..." (Ref 5, pg 269)
About 400 CE, the Pope commissioned St Jerome to prepare a new Latin translation of the Bible. The Jewish books added by western Christians were called Apocryphal (hidden or secret) and Jerome recommended that only the Hebrew scriptures be regarded as authoritative. St Jerome's Latin version called the Vulgate became the common Bible of the western church - though access was mainly to clerics. It is also about this time that the practice of dividing the Bible into the Old and New Testaments began. In the 16th century reformation, the Apocryphal books were rejected by the Protestants. The Roman church retained them, with the Council of Trent (1546) declaring them to be as inspired as the others. [So one body of Christians consider the Apocrypha inspired while another rejects them!]
What the Catechism of the Catholic Church says
Para 120 states: “It was by the apostolic tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list if the sacred books. This complete list is called the canon of Scripture…”. This vague statement does not explain anything as to who or what group was responsible and what criteria were used to select one document and reject another. The whole issue is shrouded in mystery - what, for example, was the entire body of writings examined for possible inclusion?
Para 121: "The Old Testament is an indispensable part of Sacred Scripture. Its books are divinely inspired..
Para 122: " even though they contain matters imperfect and provisional..."
Para 123: "The Church has always vigorously opposed the idea of rejecting the Old Testament under the pretext that the New has rendered it void (Marcionism)."
New Testament: James written out
Revisionist theologians are challenging traditional beliefs. The London Times [25 Feb 1997] reported that Dead Sea Scrolls scholar Robert Eisenman's book James the Brother of Jesus is a 1000-page study of the disciple's role in the founding of Christianity. Eisenman argues that James was the principal leader of the early church to whom both apostles Peter and Paul owed their allegiance. Most ordinary Christians are unaware that Jesus had brothers or that James even existed. Orthodox traditional refers to Jesus' brothers as cousins. James' teachings were apocalyptic and xenophobic while Paul was more cosmopolitan. James prescribed vegetarianism, daily bathing and abstention from blood, including Christ's in the Eucharist. The Catholic Church maintains that Mary had only one son and that was Jesus. He had cousins but not siblings.
Dr Tom Deidun, a NT scholar at London University's Heythrop College said that Eisenman's thesis is supported by most NT scholars. In another book, Paul, the Mind of the Apostle (1997), novelist A N Wilson argues that Jesus was a visionary Jewish leader who had no intention of founding a new religion. It is Paul who put forward the view of Christ as Saviour and the Cross as the gateway to salvation.
Has God's revelation ceased or should the canon be revised?
Some Third world theologians have requested a review of the composition of the Bible. For example, Professor Canaan Banana formerly with the Dept of Religious Studies (University of Zimbabwe) needs to be re-written:
"The Bible is a product of a specific culture... The entry of Jesus through a specific race, the Jews, was a mere accident of history...The Bible (in its present form) continues to be an oppressive instrument, maintaining the status quo rather than fully liberating all people.A re-written Bible, embracing the rich plurality of human experience, would be a more authentic and relevant document in today's world... " [Ref 7:Voices from the Margin]
Rev Canaan Banana
said that the events described in the Bible were written down from oral tradition and the process went on for centuries with many editions and revisions in order to connect the past to the present. What appears in the Old Testament (OT) was selected from a much larger body of national literature. It appears that passages were selected for their 'literary beauty or national appeal, because they helped keep alive the worship of Jehovah.'
Jesus and his disciples used the Hebrew Bible while Paul and his converts the Septuagint (Greek). The Jewish canon was closed 'for all time' in AD 90 in the belief that prophetic inspiration had ceased.
Canaan Banana asks:
"Has God's revelation finished? Isn't there more to be added to (and subtracted from) the Bible to make it more appropriate for our times and for different cultures?"
One clear reason why the Jewish canon was closed was the fear that Judaism might yield to Hellenistic influences as that they had done to Christian teachings. The Bible was available to the Christians in Greek and then in Latin. The Christian New Testament had already rejected gnostic (eastern) ideas and Christian teachings increasingly came to be swayed and indeed dominated by Greek thought and Roman legal idiom. A European Christianity with its elaborate doctrinal framework was taking shape and it was this that was later exported to the non-European world.
References (continued from Part 1)
4. Gareth Lloyd Jones, Scripture Bulletin, pg 93, vol 31 (July 2001)
5. Michael Prior, The Bible and Colonialism (Sheffield Academic Press 1997, 1999)
Catechism of the Catholic Church (Chapman 1994)
6.7. Canaan Banana, Case for a new Bible, Voices from the Margin (Orbis 1995)