GENERAL BIBLICAL INTRODUCTION

Three sections:
- The doctrine of inspiration.
- Canonicity.
- Textual criticism.
The Bible did not fall from heaven. These are extra biblical topics concerning the bible.

The book God breathed

1 Pet. 3:15: an apology for the hope. Can we defend the Bible to the point of death?
Would you die for it?
Inspiration defined:
Revelation is the result from inspiration: the product of what God has inspired. The self-
revelation is the only way to know him. Ps. 19:1 is understandable only because He has
revealed himself.
The bible is a book that comes from the mind of a supreme being, but that takes place in the
real world with real people.
Gen. 2:7: God’s breath is in the message too. What makes man alive is in the message: a
living message and not a dead letter.
Rom. 10:17: saving faith comes by the “sayings” or the “breathed messages”.
Is. 55:11
Christianity is a revealed religion: it starts with the revelation from God: The Bible.
The way we approach the Bible is determined by our attitude.
Ps. 117:2: it says something to every generation. History has proven this to be right. 2 Tim.
3:16-17: The Book is theopnustos: Even in a school context it keeps transforming us.
2 Pet. 1:20-21: the definition of inspiration: The choosing of a man with a vocabulary used
by God to say what He wanted to say. It is not dictated, but a using of his capacities: the
miracle of inspiration. Jer. 1:9.
Ezek. 2:7: A message that is given by God but not accepted by the people. Ezek. 3:26-27.
Geisler (41)
1 Cor. 2:13 Paul claimed inspiration for himself and not just the writings.
Geisler 43: why don’t we have the autographs? The importance is in the message and not in
the manuscripts.
The word Bible was originally the name given to the papyrus paper in Egypt. Christians
began to apply this term to the sacred witings around the 2th century.
Testament means agreement: covenant (Berishit and Diatheke). The OT is organized
topically. The organization of the NT is in an unusual way: probably providentially.
Luke 24:44: The complete TANAKH: Torah: instruction; Nebhiim: Prophets; Kethubhiim:
The writings. John 10:34: a statement of the psalms is considered law by Jesus.
John Mark Hicks
Luke 4:16: The book of the prophet Isiah 61:1; The difference between the Hebrew and the
LXX: the same meaning. Jesus calls this translation Scripture.
John 8:24; John 5:39 (how to read this verse? Mosher: ye think that by possessing the
Scrolls you have eternal life).
The Jewish members of the church held the OT writings as sacred just as the words of
Christ. Rom. 3:2. They started to understand that it was not the whole truth. Col. 2:9. They
held the whole Bible as sacred.
2 Pet. 3:15-16: the other Scripture; the gentiles twisted the Old Testament.
The purpose of the Bible is to let me meet God. John 14: Seeing Christ the Father. God
speaks to us. He wants to meet us.
Neh. 8:8: the work of the preacher is only to give the right meaning to the Scripture.
Ps. 19:1-6: general revelation that comes from nature (natural theology). 19:7: Special
revelation: you need to respect the fact that God spoke to us.

What is being discovered?

What does it mean?

The first introduction to the Bible was written in A. D. 440, in Antioch, Adrianus. For
centuries there was no need to introduce the Scriptures.
1717: Johan David Michaelos: introduction to the Scriptures.
This is the beginning point of the study of Scriptures: questions like why the use of the
divine name is used sometimes and not others, etc. Why are some books in not
chronological order? Etc.

Mosher. P. 32 (Ch. 2).

Heb. 1:1-3: The word Theos implies His very existence. There is no argument about the
existence of God in the Bible, it is a known statement.
Faith in God demands reliable evidence.
Acts 14:17: the most fundamental assertion of the Bible: God is.
“God spoke”: there were different mediums of communication, but now the only wat
God spoke because:
- He loves us: 1 Tim. 4:10;
- He knows what we are: Man was crowned with glory and honor: perfect and sinless.
Ps. 8:5. That is why Jesus was made lower than the angels to be a perfect sacrifice
for all man. Heb. 5:8-9: he learned the consequence of obedience: persecution. John
13:34.
- He has a purpose in us: Rev. 4:11: God takes pleasure in ourselves;
- He wants us to know his will.

Inspiration and revelation.

Inspiration is the process that produces the complete revelation.
Amos 3:7: God has revealed his will and his reasons for what he does. God moved the
prophet’s mouth.
Jer. 7:4: the result of not listening to God; Jer. 8:8: when they denied and change the word
of the scribe they couldn’t say that God was with them.
John 21:25; not everything inspired was written. The men were inspired not only the
writings. In Pentecost there were 12 different NT (?). Job. 19:24.
Ezek. 2:9-10; Zech. 2 Pet. 1:20:
1 Pet. 1:10-12: the prophets wouldn’t fully understand their prophecies.
Revelation: act and word.
The final product of inspiration, inspiration, is both acts and words. Amos 3:7: God has
revealed everything that he has done. God wants us to know what to do and why we should
do it and how to do it.
In the burning bush God showed himself and spoke to Moses: Act and Word. Jesus Christ
is the great example of this. The Lord’s Supper was taken by the Lord, but also left us a
record on how to do it.
Revelation in Hebrew: Galah. Deut. 29:29. Uncovering or unveil: apocalipto.
Twofold necessity of God’s revelation: 1. God is transcendent and far from us. 2. Man has
no internal knowledge of God’s will (Jer. 10:23).
General and specific revelation. Ps. 19:1-12
David started with the general revelation of nature but talking to people that already know
the special revelation. General revelation cannot reveal God without what he has revealed
about himself.
Knowing God through his specific revelation makes his general revelation evident, but not
the other way around. Natural theology cannot bring a knowledge of God himself.
The special revelation tells you how to be saved and makes the general revelation
meaningful. A personal God who chose to speak to us. The Law of the Lord can transform
us in a way that general revelation cannot.
Revelation: propositional.
The revelation is done by means of ordinary words that can be understood. There is one
understanding, one way to understand the Bible. God revealed the complete revelation in
the NT in the fullness of time, the OT was not imperfect, but its purpose was not salvation
itself.
The purpose of revelation is redemptive, not to satisfy human curiosity.
Revelation: “illumination”.
The doctrine that the Holy Spirit has to illuminate us in order to understand the Bible, but
the Scripture talks about our capacity to understand what is written. God can make Himself
known to man.
*Inscripturated: put in writing*
INSPIRATION – VARIOUS THEORIES.
God’s penmen knew that they were being moved by God to write Scripture.
Col. 4:16; 1 Thess. 5:27;
Translations so far as they are faithful they can be the word of God. Jesus used the LXX
and called it Scripture. Neh. 8:9, 14.
The Bible is uniquely inspired
I. 66 books, all with the same purpose and no contradictions: 40 authors in far different
contexts.
II. Only religious book that can be defended logically.
III. A book of superior wisdom.
IV. There is evidence for the historicity of the Bible.
V. Fulfilled prophecy. Ezra 1:1-2
The Bible is the most influential book of history, despite being the most attacked.
Diocletian tried to burn it, but Constantine made it the state book.
1 Pet. 1:25
Protestant views
The corollary of inspiration is inerrancy. The reformers, despite the motto sola scriptura,
sprang many creed books. They usually denied inerrancy and held their creed books more
than to the Bible.
In 20th century the verbal inspiration was denied and the developmental theory was held.
They do not equate Inspiration with authority.
Catholic – Eastern Orthodox
The authority lies in the church, not in the Bible. The interpretation of the priest weighs
more than the text.
They also adopt a developmental view.
Modern views of inspiration.
Traceable to evolutionary teachings in the secular world. Causes of these views:
- Pietism: Doctrine of subjective, personal experience. Arose from the protestant
intellectualism,
- Deism: Natural theology, the denial of a personal God.
- Materialism: The Bible is just a product of man’s thinking.
Neo-Orthodox view of inspiration:
- Presupposes a Christ that is all love and meekness. The word is inspired as long as it
fits this view. However, Jesus was a Judge as much as a Savior.
- Karl Barth: God calling personally: God as the wholly other. The Bible becomes the
Word of God when it addresses you personally, it is just the witness to the absolute
revelation from God in Jesus Christ.
- Bultmann: the demythologization of the historical Jesus. Made out of form-
criticism.
- The right wing liberal position: illumination: illuminated men that wrote about God.
- The left wing version is that they found these by a natural insight.
They denied “super natural revelation”.
2 Pet. 1:20-21
Claims of inspiration in the OT:
- In Gen. there are no explicit claims that the book is inspired. There are claims of
God speaking, though. Also it is in the Torah, which claims inspiration for itself.
- Multiple claims of inspiration in the historical books. 2 Chr. 36:21; 1 King 3:9-10;
o About 3808 references to “thus saith the Lord”.
- Jesus called all of these books in the OT Scripture: Law, Prophets and Writings.
Luke 24:24; John 5:39.
 - The credibility of a book was recognized if it came from a prophet. A prophet was
always a man of God. 1 Kings 14:18: servant of the Lord. * Become a servant: do
not treat people like souls, but as bodies and souls in need for help. A church sign
means that it is responsible for the hungry of the community*. Messenger man. Is.
30:9-10: seer. Hos. 9:7; Micah 3:8: man of the spirit. Ezek. 3:17: watchmen. Amos
3:8. The word navah: to bubble up: to put forth words, to be speaking with a great
emotion. To speak as a prophet is always passive form in Hebrew: being moved by
someone else: never their own message. Num. 11:24-25: the prophet understood
that he was infallible.
- The OT came from mouthpieces of God. Prov. 30:6; Jer. 1:9.
NT references to OT inspiration
1 Tim. 5:18: The first part is Luke (?) and the second part is from Deut. Both are quoted as
Scripture. In 2 Pet. 3:1-18: Paul’s letter as Scripture
Usually the graphe in the NT is a reference to the OT. The did not use the term Scripture in
any other sense than sacred writings.
How to think of the OT? A bad way is in Acts 15:10. The right way is Rom. 15:4. The
principles of God are eternal, but laws are not.
In many places Jesus and the apostles use the OT as Scripture and they consider it as
inspired. John 2:22: They combined Scripture and the words of Jesus as truthful. They are
identified and equated. John 5:39
The NT writers confirmed the OT books: the phrase “it is written”. The books of the OT
points to the Master.
- Synoptic problem:
 Luke-Matt: 250 verses exactly the same.
 Mark-Matt: 500
 Luke-Mark: 380
What is the relationship among them? Before the writing of the gospels there were sayings
(logoi) called Q. Markan priority: Matt. and Luke used it as the source. 1790: this question
was raised.
1st century Matt.? **
Ferrer theory: Luke used Mark and Matt. Augustine believed in the priority of Matt.
Griesbach: the three copy from each other.
Verbal inspiration would solve the problem of the differences of the synoptic gospels.
Matt. 8:27; Mark 4:41; *This is not an example of the differences accounted for in the
theories*
NT claims of inspiration:
2Pet. 3:2: prophets and apostles are equated with the same inspiration. Same description of
Holy writings.
Jesus confirmed the TANAKH and his own words.
2 Cor. 4:7: we are the carriers of this message. God selected us to preach the gospel.

We live in a world where the authority of scripture is undermined. Preach with a form of
respect to the Word of God.
1 Tim. 5:18; Luke 1:1-4: claim of inspiration and identification of the other false accounts.
The NT writers knew that they were writing truth and warn against willful distortion. Rev.
22:19. Jude 3: he was told to write an inspired message.
The inspiration was confirmed in the miracles: in John it is confirmed with 7 miracles.
This inspired message brings a new Law of liberty James 1:25 – The complete Scriptures
bring the perfect law of the NT.
All books of the NT have claims of inspiration.
1 Cor. 7:10: some claim that Paul is just giving his opinion (at least he is making a
difference between the authority of Jesus and what is his understanding of that).

The complete revelation is Jesus Christ: the written form is complete. There can be no
theological differences between them, the question is, what does the Bible teaches about
God.
Two kinds of languages about God:
- Anthropomorphic
- Anthropopathetic
How could an uninspired man write of a different God in a context filled with superstition
and wrong ideas of God.
The understanding of man in the Bible is always the same.
The Bible can be defended rationally and logically. An inspired writing *by definition and
of necessity* (what definition and of what necessity? What type of reason? What logical
necessity springs from the “Deus dixit” when that “dixit” is against all forms of logical
reasoning) should be rational. Mat 4:1-11. Jesus defended himself not by interpretation but
by showing him what it says. Every teaching in the Bible is rational just as the world is
rational.
Unity and inspiration
Nature is not sufficient to meet the spiritual needs of man. Man is an embodied soul, which
shall live eternally in some place: theism.
A fair and impartial study of the Bible will show a form of Structure: historical, prophetic,
doctrine. There is absolute unity.
The doctrine is unified; v. gr. The doctrine of Gen. concerning sin is the same as in the NT:
sin can only be cleansed by God’s forgiveness.
Unity of Bible prophecy: the NT writers could wait on the fulfillment of the prophecies.
The prophecies concerning the kingdom.
Unity of Bible ethics: capital sins have always been wrong. Lol.
Organic unity of the Bible: every part is necessary, every part necessarily complement each
other, every part gives life.
Unity of soberness (?): the bible is presented in a clam, rational and dignified way.
Unity of expression.
Inspiration and relevancy to man
There is nothing in man to know God’s ways Jer. 10:23; Ps. 6:1. There is no moral
principle inherent in man, it comes from God.
Man is a “dual” being (no), who yearns for something beyond himself. The bible is an
answer to the question of what is man (?). Bible deals with all parts of man. The bible
answers our insolvable problems (it just accentuates them more for me).
Man’s need for worship is dealt and solved in the Bible.
The problem of sin: Eph. 2:6;
Love thy neighbor as thy self: there is a self we should love; recognize ourselves as
children of God in order to love others: it starts with God loving me.
God came to meet our problem of sin: the reconciliation.
The weakness of man: until you know your limitations you’ll never be able to help
anybody. We are a new creation: dependence on him and never lonely. When you know
your weakness you start to depend on God even more. The Bible teaches about that.
Needing God during trial: the only book to which we can approach in moments of
desperation.
Man’s complete psychology: He understands our needs when he talks to us.
It feeds your intellect: it is a book that can be analyzed and studied intellectually. It is
relevant emotionally also.
Inspiration and historical-scientific accuracy
2 Pet. 1:20-21: claim that the book did not come from man. There can be no historic or
scientific inaccuracy if this has to be true.
Archaeology has proven many accounts of the Bible as historically accurate (?). The
geographical details and data from the Bible has also been proven to be correct.
Nobody claims that science “disproves” the Bible: it disproves the view put in the Bible
when read as a scientific textbook.
No harmony between evolution and the bible account (?). Matt. 19:4-5. The criticism of the
uniformitarianism (?) that do not take into account the “flood”.
Inspiration and Ethics
Ethics divided in General ethics and Biblical ethics: the latter refers to the ethical decision
according to the pattern left by the Bible. Only the Bible has been consistent in its ethics:
the higher good. The midwives were blessed because of their lie.
Constant in demanding inner purity, authority…

Biblegateway.com
Evangelicalism believe that it is just a human product (?). Implied in the thought inspiration
theory.
Verbal inspiration pays attention to the human authors but they were chosen by God.
Progressive Christians reject biblical inspiration completely.
Canon: Bruce Metzger – the Canon of the New Testament;
New concepts of inspiration closer to the biblical idea: the relationship of collaboration
between God and man: the pathos of the prophet.
The traditional view of inspiration: The Christians derived their view from the ancient
Israel: the books were sacred: the books that defiled the hands. Lev 16:24; Is. 6:1-5: this is
the Jewish expression of Canon.
“higher critics” have taught us to take a closer look at the historicity of the accounts, take a
look at the genius of Jewish religion.
A. D. 325: there were no question on the inspiration of Scripture.
Carol Osbourne –
The concept of author in Biblical inspiration: there is an analogy: when God collaborated
with the man their minds were in sync: God the author and is the penman.
Scripture is “theopnustos”
The Greek notion of truth: what is (real): speculative. God gave the writing not through this
notion but through the Hebrew: truth is what you live (oh, so it is existential truth!). Rom.
12:1. Greek would be its complement (then, he would have spoken through Plato).
How much respect should I have for the text?
CANONICITY
***God determines canon and man discovers it***
There is a great diversity of books that claim to be Biblical both in the OT and the NT. How
to determine it?
2 Pet. 3:2: one of the key conditions for canonicity was that it was traceable to an apostle or
someone who knew the apostles; 2 Tim. 4:13: the books and the parchments: the biblical
writings available to him at that point.
*******Mat. 24:35: doctrine of preservation is necessary for Canon…(?)
Ps. 119:89: the word is always the same. It does not have to be made relevant.
It is impossible to teach canon without inspiration (?)
The word Canon comes from Sumerian and Hebrew “Kaneh”, lit, reed. It was later used to
measure; the word became the word for a measuring rod. Phil. 3:16. It can be understood as
the boundaries of inspiration
Ezek. 40:3
Ps. 33:6; Gen 2:7: a living man from the breath, just as the words are living.
Trying to prove the accuracy of inspiration by pointing out that Paul got right the
citizenship of the Philippians. What?
Deut. 31:24-26: the sacredness of the book – scrolls. Josh. 1:8; Ps. 119:105.
Amphilochuis, AD 300, first used the word Canon to refer to the Scriptures in his treatise
“Catalogues of the Scriptures”.
Brevard S. Childs – Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture – the community shaped
the canon and the content of the Scripture, and that way it becomes authoritative.
Mosher: the book shaped the community, not the community the book: God revealed and
man discovered it. Catholic doctrine: the church gave the Bible to the world.
- Num. 21:14; Josh. 10:13 – Not because the book is old should be accepted as
canonical Scripture.
Dan. 9:2; Ezek. 28:3; canonization in the Bible itself.
- Not because it is in a specific language (Paleo Hebrew). The Bible is written in
many languages.
- Agreement with Torah does not mean canon: 2 Chr. 21:12: a letter that is not
canonical. 2 Chr. 12:15. Different prophets and writers wrote things that are not
canonical.
- Not because it has Spiritual value.
Four insufficient views about the canonicity of the Old Testament:
It needs the marks of inspiration:
- By a prophet.
- Genuine and authentic.
- Recognized by the first community that is addressed.
A canonical book should rule your life and faith: the have a purpose if they come from
God. OT canon, two fields of study:
- Why 39 divine books?
- How do we find out when were they collected?
To the Jews it was never a problem to discuss the canon. It became a question at about AD
90 because of the abundance of Christian literature.
Two schools of thought about the Bible:
- Completed in 400 BC. Mat. 23.
- Those who deny this claim: take the Pentateuch all the way to the time of the exile.
Colophon principle: the books were joined to the one before.
Five principles:
- Integration (it is useful for the quantity of the books but not for its content, since the
edition process would fit them together at any point, even when the narratives
themselves are not integral, oral tradition would carry these stories and would be
applied to their own situation). Gen.46:27; Ex.6:14-16. Gen. 25; Deut. 2:4.
- Expressed claims or commands: claims of Mosaic authorship, 75 times the phrase:
The Lord said to Moses. 44 times in Numbers. (These are always very specific
sentences that are inserted in the narrative, this is never a claim of authorship for the
book or the section; full of circular reasoning filled with presuppositions).
- Connecting links: historical facts attested in other books.
- Interrelationship between books: The Torah is the presupposition of the following
books.
- Corroboration: Matt. 19:4-5 (ugh); Rom.4:3; Lk. 24:44
The Hebrew Bible is arranged according to emphasis and not topically.
Deuterocanonical: of the second canon, equivalent to the Apocrypha. Communities have
accepted different canons and arrangements of canons.
Among the Jews there are different canons: Beta-Israel, the Ethiopian Jewish Bible. Ge-ez.
The holiest section: Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges and Ruth. The rest of the Hebrew Bible was
of secondary importance. Often it leaves out lamentations, it does not contain the
Apocrypha.
The Samaritan Pentateuch. The Samaritans were created in the times of Nehemiah by
Manasseh. John 4. It begins with the conquest of Samaria. There are differences between
the two versions of the Pentateuch. Samaritan book of Joshua in Arabic, not considered
inspired. For Samaritans they are the “guardians” of the Law. The have the oldest Torah
claimed to be written by Abishag.
The Jewish canon contains either 22 or 24 (depending on the order of Ruth and
lamentations), but it contains the same material as in the English Bible.
The Biblia Hebraica is the basis for the Masoretic Text. Thre scribal traditions, the last one
being the Massorah, it means, handed down. KJV and ASV is taken from this text. In AD
70 the “the great assembly” disappeared: according to tradition 120 scribes would discuss
the text.
Neh. 8:8-9
The Antilegomena of the OT:
- the book of Esther, the only not found at Qumran, however, it is in other places. The
oldest is AD 1,000. It is questioned because of the lack of the name of God;
- Proverbs was questioned because of 26:4-5: an apparent contradiction;
- Ezekiel was questioned because of chapter 40ff: the change of priesthood;
- Song of Solomon was questioned because it was too sensual.
- Ecclesiastes was said to be too dark or skeptical, not spiritual, however it has
religious teaching at last.
The books in the OT were collected as they were written, Ezek. 13:9; 1 Chr. 16:22; Josh.
1:7; 1 Chr. 29:29;
Book of Jasher: means upright, 2 Sam. 1:18, probably a book of poems. The book of the
wars of the Lord. 1 Kings 4:32, some kind of diary or annals of the kings.
The Lord canonized the Old Testament for us. Mat. 3:15; Ps. 119:172 (?); Matt. 4:4.
Quoting from Deuteronomy.
Mat. 24:35; Lk. 24:44: limits of the Old Testament.
The Apocrypha
Produced in the Greco-Roman period between the Testaments.
It means hidden or dark. Mostly Greek productions, although some are written in Hebrew.
The Maccabees are anti-Greek writings.
Some are apocalyptic literature.
1. Esdras
2. Esdras
Tobit
Judith
Greek Additions of Esther
Principles for discovering OT canonicity
1. 2 Pet. 1:20-21: prophetic authorship.
2. Does the book claim to be inspired? Is there good evidence to back up the idea?
3. The authenticity of the content.
4. Acceptance by the community.
5. The dynamic nature of the message: does it change your life? (religious teaching?).
3 steps: inspiration by God, acceptance by the people of God, collection and
preservation by the people of God.
The reverence of the message.
Genuzim; Genizah: the closet where they would put the used Scripture Scrolls. These were
the accurate scrolls.
Sepharim: Scrolls or writings “outside” the ones which do not belong in the synagogue.
PS. 40:9; Heb. 10. Jer. 36:2ff: a process of writing and “canonization”. The awareness of
Jeremiah of writing Scripture. Ezek. 2:9 – 3:3: the attitude towards the Bible. Zech. 5:1ff
The parchment: skins of animals scrapped;
1QISA (Isiah scroll).
- Since God is perfect and infallible an inspired has to be absolutely infallible and
inerrant. The autograph was such.
- Since God is absolutely holy and pure, the inspired book has to be such in his
teaching.
- Since God is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, an inspired book should
have accurate statements: fulfilled prophecy, geographical information, science
information, math information, psychological information…
- Since God is absolute truth, an inspired book cannot contradict another inspired
book.
- Since God is absolutely just, all Bible statements have to be impartial.
John 7:17: we want to believe… faith is a matter of our approach to the word of God. So…
should I have something else apart from the word?
The debate on canonicity is allowed as a form to show our free moral agency. Jer. 28:9. Do
we want to know the word? The will to believe is based on this presupposition.
Jesus and the New Testament
The authoritative nature of the OT attested by Jesus is transferred to the NT: 1. The promise
of the NT in his blood. 2. The great commission connects the idea of God’s authority of the
OT with the NT.
The canon of writings contains commandments of Christ. A body of literature that is “all
truth”. John 16:13. 2 Pet. 1:3.
The canon was delivered to the early church orally (what?). 2 Cor. 4:7; 1 Cor. 2:13. Every
book is an application of the same truth, not a new set of truths. What!?
Development of canon
The early mentions of canon and canonized scriptures are from Paul of Samosata, Origen,
etc. But the main source of our canon is the letter of Athanasius.
The legend of the apostle John collecting the official canonical writings is untenable.
*The lost books of the Bible*
Geisler, 177.
- Prophetic value: same inspiration as the prophets of OT
- Demand of authority
- What books should they defend?
The most important test for the canon of the NT, was the apostolic authority. For us this is
meaningless since we know that very few writings are “apostolic”.
The writers knew that they were writing Scripture… No.
There are interrelations between the books, clear reference that these

AD. 165: Muratorian Canon.

The Peshita is from
393 – 395: the council for Canon. Hippo and Carthage.

Homolegoumena and antilegoumena of the New Testament

Some reasons for the canon lists were the heresies taking over some books to put it over the
others and make up their doctrines.
The Homologoumena:
- Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1-2 Cor., Gal., Eph., Phil., Col, 1-2
Thess., 1-2 Tim., Titus, Philemon, 1 Pet*, 1 John*
Disputed:
- Hebrews: Mostly because we don’t know the author; most traditions claim that it
was Paul; It was used by the Montanists;
- James: omitted mostly by Gnostics such as Marcion (this disputation continued up
to the reformation with Luther).
- 2 Peter: arguments against Petrine authorship.
- 2, 3 John: disputed authorship as well.
- Jude: the quotations from Enoch.
- Revelation: its misuse by millennilists.
Two schools of thought
- Alexandria Egypt:
o Greek Jewish learning: allegorical interpretation (Origen).
o Three levels of interpretation: the body (literal sense); the soul (allegorical);
Spiritual.
- Antioch Syria: used the word practically and apologetically.
o Literal meaning of the text.
o Sober exegesis.
New Testament apocrypha
Around 280 apocryphal writings of the NT. Eusebius called them “absurd and impious”.
The churches never accepted these writings** (Some did).
There were many different forms of Christianity, not just proto-orthodox.
The Mandeans Gnostics: creation of the World and the Alien Man.
Nag Hammadi; the odes of Solomon.
18572166700
Code: 328497

TEXTUAL CRITICISM
Textual criticism: lower criticism.
Textual critic: the one who studies the transmission of the manuscripts of the Bible to
determine the authentic TEXT of the Bible.
Recension: a critically done text.
Higher criticism: historical criticism of the Bible: denies the supernatural inspiration of the
text.
Bruce Metzger; Kurt Aland – Leading collators of the text.
3 different types of manuscripts: cursive, minuscule and uncials. A version is a translation;
a revision is just done on the version. The earliest version was the Peshitta: common Syriac.
Richard Simon, the father of higher criticism.
Source criticism: made us aware that there is a historical context for the Bible.
Form criticism: The documentary hypothesis in the OT and the Q source. Coming from
Tubingen. Discovering the traditions behind the texts.
Redaction criticism: the different editions of the text.
Languages of the Bible
The oldest form of Hebrew is called Paleo-Hebrew.
The first record of human writing phonogram: a visual form of words. They knew how to
write.
There is great evidence for writing in the ancient world.
The writing instruments.
The different collections and orders help the textual critic to know what family of
manuscripts do they belong.
The ancient sections of the NT: 170.
Chapter division came by the end of hand-copies: 13th century (1227).
In the Wycliff bible there
The vulgate had some kind of chapter divisions.
The fifth edition of Erasmus Greek Testament is known as the Textus Receptus.

Copies are called Scripture: there is a preservation “by God”. No, there is not.
All bibles before the printing press are manuscripts.
First statement about preservation was in the Westminster confession of faith.
It is not a defense that the autographs still exist, but that the whole body of Scripture is
present in the copies.
Tannaim: to hand down orally; they started the work on the Masoretic Text. These were
around the time of Jesus.
Rabi Akibah A. D. 55-137.
The three periods of scribal tradition:
Sopherim.
Emoraim
Masoretes
Eight rules of the Tannaim, for the Scribes (masoretes)
- It had to be done on a clean animal
- Every column could have no fewer than 48 to 60 lines vertically with at least 30
letters
- Line the page with the penknife and suspend the letter from the line, four letters
above the line.
- Black ink with specific recipe
- You cannot write a letter from memory.
- Between each consonant there was a hair space and between each word a space of a
very tiny consonant.
- They took a bath before writing.
- They had to use a new pen for the writing of YHWH
Around A. D. 500 they had to write in square Hebrew; they could not write in any other ink
but black.
They could not erase any mistake. They would write the errors on the margin.
Two prominent Masoretic families:
- Asher family
- Neftalite family.
8 minor differences from the different families of Manuscripts.
The Masoretes developed the system of notation for the Hebrew language. There is no real
meaning for each one of them.
The Biblia Hebraica follows one Manuscript: the Leningradensis. AD 1005
The common or private copies were not used in the synagogue.
Kethib: the way it is written. Every scroll had many aid markings.
Old Testament textual criticism
A critically done Hebrew Bible has two latin words: Matres lectonus (the mother reading).
Textual criticism: the science and art that seeks to determine the most reliable reading of
the Biblical Text.
It is important for three reasons:
- Sets the most reliable reading.
- Helps us to avoid dogmatism without evidence.
 - Makes us be confident that we have the text
Resolves:
- Mistaken letters
- Homophony Is. 9:3; KJV – not increased; NRSV increased.
- Hapiography Judg. 20:13
- Didography saying things twice: Jer. 51:3
- Reverse the order of words or letters: Metathesis. Deut. 31:1
- Fusion: incorrect division of words Lev. 16:8
- One word written as two Hos. 6:5
- Homoioteleuton: confusing two words with the same ending.
- Two words starting the same.
- Deliberate changes on the text.
The textual critic has to know which script the scribe was coping.
The standardization of the text was done in A. D. 100; it looks the same as the DSS.
Neh. 13:28; Manasseh, name given by Josephus: the starter of the Smaritan cult. The
Samaritan Pentateuch is a great tool for the textual critic.
Barkay found the silver bracelets or amulets with the oldest known verses from the Hebrew
Bible, they date to 650 B. C. It contained the priestly benediction.
The DSS
Every book ex
1QIsa: The Isaiah scroll.
The Habakkuk commentary
The caves are about 7 miles south of Jericho
Three independent witnesses to the Hebrew Text: silver scrolls, DSS, SP.
The Nash Papyrus: damaged copy of the Decalogue. 167 BC. Contains Ex. 20:2-17, it
never was part of a complete scroll.
In 1951 other caves beside Qumran were found with Scrolls: wadi El-murabbaath. 11 miles
south of Qumran. In cave 2 they found pieces of the Pentateuch and Is. Oldest papyrus
found in Israel. They found a letter of a man that was part of the Maccabean revolt.
In Massada they found copies Gn. Lev. Deut. Ps. Ezek. Dated to about AD 68
Zechariah fragment;
The largest Genizah is in the Ezra Synagogue in Cairo.
The fact that we do not have the autographs does not mean that we cannot determine the
accuracy of the text.
The textual criticism is a science, it has method, but it is an art in the application of those
methods: it has to make decisions.
Three old translations of the OT in Greek.
- Aquila Bible.
- Symmachus Bible
- Theodotian Bible
Targums: a commentary on Aramaic. We have some of the 3rd century. We have about 9
targums. Ongelos targum: the official Babylonian Talmud on the Pentateuch. We have one
copy from the Middle Ages. On the prophets is the Targum of Jonathan. Looks like the
ongelos targum.
The Jewish commentaries
Latin vulgate
The Syriac Peshita
Basic principles of OT textual criticism.
- The critic knows that the vowel pointing system has been corrupted. One can know
when.
o In Luther’s times there was a controversy on the inspiration of these vowels.
o The textual critic proof reads the Manuscripts
- Notice the script that the copyist was using.
o Three scripts used
- The age of the manuscripts-
o It is not counting but weighing.
o The older is, usually, the best.
- Identify the source of the mistake that the caused the different bad readings.
- The additions are familiar to the place of writing.
- The scribes add, not subtract: the shortest reading is usually right.
- The historical and geographical context.
External evidence to determine readings:
- Other mss
- Versions
- Quotations
- Language is not the most important: A Greek can be older than a Hebrew.
- Pay attention to some biases in the textual critic.
- The source of the material is not important.
 - Avoid comparing two witnesses.
The date of the mss: one can probably know how many times it was copied. This can trace
back all copies to one common source.
New Testament Textual Criticism
No autographs: how to stablish the credibility of the NT text? By the overwhelming number
of sources.
2 John 12: paper: karteis: a single piece of papyrus; Ink: melan: black ink.
Some of the teachings of the NT circulated orally; 1 Thess. 2:13; Paul had amanuensis in
his writing. Rom. 16:22; 2 Thess. 3:17; Eph. 6:21-22. The NT was circulating as soon as it
was written. Col. 4:16.
- The integrity of the OT text is stablished when we consider the accuracy of the
copysts.
- The NT rests on a multitude of MSS evidence: around five or six thousands.
Is there a silence of the church fathers in the 2nd or 3rd century?
Why so many copies? People would be hired to copy books professionally. There was no
special class of copyists. This would account for the amount of variants.
2 Tim. 4:13: already familiar with parchment.
2 cursives codex from the sixth century on purple vellum.
It is surprising that so early manuscripts exist.
Edict of Diocletian.
Paleography: the history of writing: this is the method of determining the date of
Manuscripts. The uncials were written from the first to the sixth centuries. No punctuation,
no spaces: continuum scripta.
About 100 uncials, most of them in parchment. Some complete and some fragmentary.
The cursive manuscripts were a development for saving time, the minuscule came about 8 th
century.
The difference from version and revision.
Earliest known Greek Miniscule, from Consantinople Turkey AD 835 kept in St.
Petersburg. Contains the four gospels.
Palimpsest: palin sao: to scrape again or rescripts. Because of inferred technology is
possible to read the first writing.
The first recorded divisions of the NT text are found in the Codex Vaticanus. The early
divisions are very diverse.
Steven Langton added the chapters and verses to the Vulgate.
Robert Stephanus 1551, added chapter divisions to the NT.
The first English bible containing verse divisions is the Geneva.
Lectionaries: a list of verses to be read in the church services, a way to read the bible in a
certain amount of time or in public, the lector. Usually they started at Easter.
The work of Catholic monks: would spent hours everyday copying the biblical text. Some
of their notes would slip into the text. The additions at the end are colophons.
It takes a type of mindset to be a NT textual critic. But it is also a science: there is need to
weight evidence.
The verbal agreement between the MSS is greater than between the English translations.
The amount of variants have no bearing in any doctrine. Mostly variants of spelling.
Brook Foss Westcott, 1825-1901, born in Birmingham England. Attended trinity college at
Cambridge and became teacher. He taught J. B. Lightfoot. F. J. A. Hort, was 3 years
younger than Westcott and died in 1892.
English revised version and ASV come from the theory of Westcott- Hort: the uncials are
better because of old.
The texts are divided in families:
- Alexandria: Egyptian family.
- Western: north Africa
- Caesarian: in Palestine.
- Byzantine: mostly in Turkey.
The variants tell the family in which they belong.
Three sources: Manuscripts, lectionaries, patristic citations. The UBS has collected and
computerized for research.
Tischendorf and Tregelles
VERSIONS
The Syriac is probably the earliest. The Peshitta might precede the Diatessaron.
The Latin versions (Western).
Egyptian (Coptic) versions.
Vulgate (A. D. 390-405) by Jerome

History of the English Bible.

Around the beginning of the 1500s Erasmus started to work on the edition of the Greek
Testament, at the same time of the edition of the Complutensian Polyglot.
Luther used the second edition of Erasmus’ edition for his German translation.
Robert Estienne in Paris also produced a Greek NT.
Theodore de Beza: made 9 editions of the GNT. He added a critical apparatus. He had what
is known now as the Codex Bezae.
The English language:
- Belongs to the Indo-European family: Sub divisions:
- The Westerns Division:
o The Teutonic group:
 East Teutonic: represented by the Gothic language.
 North Teutonic: Scandinavian.
 West Teutonic: the beginning of the English language.