Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Onion News Report
I saw this video on the Black Snob blog today and I laughed really hard. Yes, It's a joke but it is a well-done joke!
New Obama Ad Stick it to McCain
I was alerted to this Ad by an article on the Black Snob blog. It's a real good point: If McCain admits that the economy is not his strong suite, they why pick someone who is no better at the dealing with the economy than he is.
Canonicity: Part 2 - The Apocrahpa
Many times Roman Catholics cite Protestants as not having the whole Old Testament. They are referring to a set of books called the Apocrypha and they were written between the final book of the Old Testament, Malachi, and the 1st Century AD. We are talking about a span of about 400 years. The books are called the apocryphal because no one knows indisputably who wrote them and the Jews themselves do not list them in their official list (canon) of inspired by God scripture. This set of books were apparently first written down in Greek while the other canonical Jewish scriptures are originally written in predominantly Hebrew with a smattering of Aramaic. The Apocrypha does contain similarities to the Old Testament. It contains histories that can be be validated from contemporaneous secular sources, poetry, wisdom literature, and additional chapters of Esther and Daniel. What I read was that when the 70 Jewish Scholars translated the Old Testament Scriptures into Greek bringing the Septuagint (which is the translation that we know Jesus, the Jews, the 1st Century church, and the 1st Century world used along with the Hebrew copies and exists today) into existence there were rules that were followed as to whether or not a book would be included or not. As I remember them they were were as follows:
1. It must have been inspired by God.
2. Prophetic books must have contained prophecy that they knew had come to pass.
3. The books must primarily be in Hebrew which is why the Greek portions of Esther and Daniel were ignored.
4. Not tainted by Hellenism (Greek thought and philosophy).
I may be missing others rules they followed but one criteria that amazed me is that just because a book is true isn't enough to make it scripture. Again, by definition, scripture is true but not all truth is scripture.
For example, in the Apocrypha, there are 2 or 4 books (depending on the edition you are reading) called the Maccabees that tells the story of how the Jews temporarily succeeded in revolting against the Greek conqueror Antiochus IV Epiphanes, king of Syria and overlord of Palestine in the 165 BC. Many aspects of the stories can be directly traced to the Bible and to history. Antiochus did indeed set up a statue of Zeus in the temple re-built by the returned Jewish exiles and tried to force the Jews to worship it. For a time, they fought and was able to rededicate the temple. It's celebrated today as Hannukuk. Antiochus is indeed one of the major Antichrists of history. His action of profaning the temple was prophesied in Daniel "the abomination the causes desolation" in Daniel 9:27;11:31;12:11. Here, as an aside, I must also point out that Daniel may have not only been talking about Anitochus because Jesus quoted Daniel in talking about eschalogical events (Matt 24:15; Mark 13:14) meaning that there is another "abomination that causes desolation" waiting to be revealed. Therefore I'm inclined to think that the Maccabees books are mostly historically accurate. Then why is it left out? Because although it is important and historical, it does not, tried as I might, equip one for service to God. There was nothing that I could see that helped me live a more holy life.
Another example: There are 3 more stories about Daniel in the Apocrypha. I think they were left out because I think they were suspected of not being true. The Daniel in these stories is not meek or humble as he is in the canonical stories. He seems rude and haughty even to king Darius whom is also in the Bible stories. I also saw nothing that fit the criteria for scripture that Paul gave Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16,17. they also seemed "cleverly invented" to me.
There is also a book wise proverbs in the Apocrypha called Ecclesiasticus. Most of these proverbs are in the canonical Proverbs and Ecclesiastes which is fine. however some of them also contain Greek philosophy. I was alerted to this when i was studying what the Bible teaches on "free will". The Bible always teaches that we do have free will in that we do make choices that matter, however God's purposes win out. I will have to post more detail about this at a different time but my point is that I read Erasmus' essay from 500 years ago called On the Freedom of the Will and a verse from Ecclesiasticus was used to make his point that we do have free will, but because scripture is difficult to understand that is no way to know for sure. He used that verse because it emphatically says that we have free will. I admit that as a Protestant I immediately thought he lost the argument because he could not use any canonical scripture to agree with Ecclesiasticus fully. Martin Luther wrote a response to Erasmus' work soon after and ripped him apart (more on this in a different post). Ecclesiaticus is tainted. There is no verse in the Hebrew Bible that says our human will can over-rule God and what he wants to do.
As a final point on the Apocrypha there is a song that is said to have been sung by Azariah, one of the Daniel's friends who was thrown int the fiery furnace when he refused to worship an idol Nebuchadnezzar set up, praising God for his deliverance. I have no idea why it was left out of our canon. Also a prayer by King Manasseh of Judah that he prayed confessing his sins when he went into captivity and God heard him and delivered him. our cannon has the fact but not the prayer. I have no idea why this passage were left out either. What I know for sure I'm not going to be adding books into the Bible or taking them out.
If you haven't read the Apocrypha, and you are interested in this subject, you should read it. Just to calm you own fears that you may be missing something. You're not. God will give you the peace you need.
1. It must have been inspired by God.
2. Prophetic books must have contained prophecy that they knew had come to pass.
3. The books must primarily be in Hebrew which is why the Greek portions of Esther and Daniel were ignored.
4. Not tainted by Hellenism (Greek thought and philosophy).
I may be missing others rules they followed but one criteria that amazed me is that just because a book is true isn't enough to make it scripture. Again, by definition, scripture is true but not all truth is scripture.
For example, in the Apocrypha, there are 2 or 4 books (depending on the edition you are reading) called the Maccabees that tells the story of how the Jews temporarily succeeded in revolting against the Greek conqueror Antiochus IV Epiphanes, king of Syria and overlord of Palestine in the 165 BC. Many aspects of the stories can be directly traced to the Bible and to history. Antiochus did indeed set up a statue of Zeus in the temple re-built by the returned Jewish exiles and tried to force the Jews to worship it. For a time, they fought and was able to rededicate the temple. It's celebrated today as Hannukuk. Antiochus is indeed one of the major Antichrists of history. His action of profaning the temple was prophesied in Daniel "the abomination the causes desolation" in Daniel 9:27;11:31;12:11. Here, as an aside, I must also point out that Daniel may have not only been talking about Anitochus because Jesus quoted Daniel in talking about eschalogical events (Matt 24:15; Mark 13:14) meaning that there is another "abomination that causes desolation" waiting to be revealed. Therefore I'm inclined to think that the Maccabees books are mostly historically accurate. Then why is it left out? Because although it is important and historical, it does not, tried as I might, equip one for service to God. There was nothing that I could see that helped me live a more holy life.
Another example: There are 3 more stories about Daniel in the Apocrypha. I think they were left out because I think they were suspected of not being true. The Daniel in these stories is not meek or humble as he is in the canonical stories. He seems rude and haughty even to king Darius whom is also in the Bible stories. I also saw nothing that fit the criteria for scripture that Paul gave Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16,17. they also seemed "cleverly invented" to me.
There is also a book wise proverbs in the Apocrypha called Ecclesiasticus. Most of these proverbs are in the canonical Proverbs and Ecclesiastes which is fine. however some of them also contain Greek philosophy. I was alerted to this when i was studying what the Bible teaches on "free will". The Bible always teaches that we do have free will in that we do make choices that matter, however God's purposes win out. I will have to post more detail about this at a different time but my point is that I read Erasmus' essay from 500 years ago called On the Freedom of the Will and a verse from Ecclesiasticus was used to make his point that we do have free will, but because scripture is difficult to understand that is no way to know for sure. He used that verse because it emphatically says that we have free will. I admit that as a Protestant I immediately thought he lost the argument because he could not use any canonical scripture to agree with Ecclesiasticus fully. Martin Luther wrote a response to Erasmus' work soon after and ripped him apart (more on this in a different post). Ecclesiaticus is tainted. There is no verse in the Hebrew Bible that says our human will can over-rule God and what he wants to do.
As a final point on the Apocrypha there is a song that is said to have been sung by Azariah, one of the Daniel's friends who was thrown int the fiery furnace when he refused to worship an idol Nebuchadnezzar set up, praising God for his deliverance. I have no idea why it was left out of our canon. Also a prayer by King Manasseh of Judah that he prayed confessing his sins when he went into captivity and God heard him and delivered him. our cannon has the fact but not the prayer. I have no idea why this passage were left out either. What I know for sure I'm not going to be adding books into the Bible or taking them out.
If you haven't read the Apocrypha, and you are interested in this subject, you should read it. Just to calm you own fears that you may be missing something. You're not. God will give you the peace you need.
Canonicity: Part 1 - Introduction
Just Because A Book is in Hebrew or Greek, does not make a book scripture and there was and is no nefarious plot to keep books out of the Bible or from the public. When I was in my early twenties, I really thought about such questions because I had heard of many, many books written 2000 years ago or more that talk about God or give insight and these books were left out of the Bible. I wanted to know why. In my research I discovered that many of these books were not hidden! In fact many of the them are readily available in English. Also many time books that did make it into our bible were once considered by some Christians as books to be left out like Song of Solomon (for being too sexual), Revelations (for being too hard to understand), and the whole Old Testament (for being too Jewish). What I found out was that I had to delve into history to understand how the 66 books of the Bible were collected into a single library. Why are some books left out and others included?
The conclusion that I have come to is that scripture itself is most qualified to determine what is and what is not scripture.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
- 2 Timothy 3:16,17
We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:16-21
Notice, that a book being "true" is not a criteria for scripture. Because it's inspired by God we know it's true. But truth isn't enough to require faith and practice. Scripture must be inspired from God and it must be useful in making you more like Jesus. This takes teaching, correcting, training and even rebuking. God wants us to be equipped to do good. The bible is the only thing I have ever read that fits these criteria. All 66 books fit this criteria.
I am going to be doing a series of posts. This first one is about the Apocrapha. Followed by the Book of Enoch, Jewish Myths, Gnostic Texts, and then 2nd and 3rd Century apocraphal texts such as the Gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Thomas, and others. I want to explore these texts and discuss why they are not in the Bible. There are good reasons! We will be looking at why they do meet the criteria the Bible itself gives as seen in 2 Timothy 3:16,17 and 2 Peter 1:16-21. I probable will not talk much about how our Biblical cannon was formed but I may just point out the reference for more information and instead focus on why these "other" texts were excluded.
I invite comment and please let me know if you think the work i am discussing should have been included and why.
Regime Change
I have decided that single blog does not fit all my interests. I have decided to split things up a bit so that I can better structure my thoughts. This will continue to be my main blog, containing news, articles, videos, movie and television reviews, and such that I find interesting. However because I come across widgets and gadgets I like, as well as graphical user interface stuff I wanna test and new technologies , I will be posting those in a separate blog called: Favorite Gadgets. And thing like fictional character art and profiles, my Mugen and video game projects, and articles will be in my blog called: Favorite Fiction. (Which doesn't have anything on it yet. I may move articles from the Main blog, but I haven't decided yet.) Thanks for your support and reading my blog!