Bible
Canon

“Canon” is what is commonly accepted as authentic and authoritative—in our consideration, which writings are ‘inspired’ directly by God.

The Jewish scriptures are called the Tanakh after the initials of the three parts of the Jewish traditional scriptures: “T” for Torah which is the teachings of Moses (first five books), “N” for Nevi’im which is the books of the prophets, and “Kh” for Ketuvim which is the Writings including the psalms and wisdom literature. The Torah is the foundation of both law and tradition and is also called the Pentateuch. The books of the Tanakh are the same as in the Christian Old Testament albeit in different order and small variations in textual acceptance. In the Tanakh there are 24 books but these are divided into 39 books in the Old Testament. The canon for the Tanakh was accepted sometime in the mid-160s BC and are so recognized by Rabbinic Judaism.

“Canon” refers to the recognized collections of texts that a particular community considers authoritative and inspired. Word “canon” comes from Greek for “rule” or “measuring stick” which reflects the process of determining which texts meet the standards for faith and practice.

The Old Testament as used by the in the era of Jesus and by his followers was the same text as the Tanakh but as mentioned in the Transmission section, the trade language of that time was Koine Greek and the translation from Hebrew to Greek as the Septuagint was in use in that era. The language in which the New Testament was transmitted was Koine Greek with a few passages and words transliterated from Aramaic, the common Jewish language of the time.

Both the Rabbinical Jewish tradition and the foundational (historical) Christian community consider the canon to be closed – meaning that no more additions are to be made to the existing canon. Obviously there is a conflict between the two canons as the Jewish canon closed in the mid-160s BC while the entirety of the New Testament postdates the life of Jesus. The canon of the Christian New Testament contains 27 books that were selected as both authoritative and inspired by God and were recorded by the apostles of Jesus, from eyewitness testimony of Jesus’ life or by those who encountered him directly after the Resurrection. All of the original texts were dated to the First Century and attributed to those with direct contact to Jesus or his immediate followers. The Apostle Paul apparently did not have personal contact during the lifetime of Jesus but his was direct and after the Resurrection; his witness was also attested by the Apostles. The setting of the cannon from the numerous writings available centered upon those with apostolic sanction, use by the earliest disciples and were in conformity with all other texts accepted as inspired. The final compilation was confirmed by the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD which was the accepted “close” date for the Christian canon of the full Bible.

As mentioned earlier, original manuscripts do not exist, at least to date. While pop culture has produced the entertaining “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “The DeVinci Code”, these are self-represented as fictional no matter how many believe the possibility of the Ark of the Covenant being lost in a warehouse in Washington, D.C.

The New Testament of the modern era was translations of various manuscript copies of early texts. One of the oldest Bibles extant is the Codex Vaticanus which was written circa 325 which became the basis for the Latin Vulgate Bible circa 383. Remember, hand-copied, one word at a time, probably on parchment. Other early copies of early manuscripts are the Codex Sinaiticus 350, Codex Alexandrimus 440 and on. Many of the early copies are incomplete in that the total text has parts lost through the centuries so parts that were in the original copies are missing through age, environment or other damage.

In current textual analysis, scraps of manuscripts are compared to existing and favored manuscripts to produce what is considered the most accurate renderings of the originals. Because all of these were hand-written, penmanship can be a factor; changes in characters, deterioration of the stock upon which the text was written all make analysis difficult. Comparison of fragments has to ascertain the validity of the source, if the source was believed to be writing an exact copy, had a view that entered into the coping of words that were difficult to discern, was scribed by a community with a variant belief which “improved” the text, was the fragment of the era it purported to be and with some small fragments, where in the text it fits.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, recovered initially from 1946 to 1956 Qumran Caves on the northern shore of the Dead Sea, were the earliest intact manuscript copies to date and those copies ranged from Third Century BC to First Century AD. The final tally of scrolls and fragments totaled over 15,000 pieces and include not only the texts of the Tanakh but also records of daily life, community processes and history of the community mindset during the time when Christianity was birthed and Rabbinic Judaism was practiced. Forty percent are Jewish scriptures, 30% are later works not accepted as part of the canon, and the other 30% are documentation of elements of community life. The significance of the Scrolls was to confirm the accuracy of the scribal transmission of the later manuscripts which were the basis for the primary Codices being used. There were no theologically significant variations in text but many gaps in small details were enhanced with clearer manuscripts.

Historical-Critical Criticism is the study of biblical manuscripts and their contents to identify the accuracy of what the historical text recorded and is actually approached through textual, source, form and literary schools with each looking at a different element of measuring the validity of any manuscript. It typically compares and contrasts the current with other sources for conformity to actual. It is not opinions about what philosophers or pundits think or don’t think about Scripture.

Up until the 1700s there were few resources for textual criticism and most textual comparisons were between the recognized codices. With the expansion of travel and access to formerly isolated assets as well as new discoveries of early documents and manuscripts, the comparison and critical analysis of accepted texts to “discovered” texts became possible. This was no longer the study of opinions but rather had more elements of value to consider. The application of evidence criticism precludes creating a text from an agenda which many groups and religious orders have done. It is limited to compiling accuracy within the scope of the canon.

Additional Readings:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_Bible
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_the_Hebrew_Bible_canon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Jamnia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masoretic_Text
|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koine_Greek
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_the_New_Testament_canon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textual_variants_in_the_New_Testament