WEBVTT 00:02.029 --> 00:06.239 Prof: What is scripture, and what is canon? 00:06.240 --> 00:09.120 These are not necessarily the same thing. 00:09.120 --> 00:11.720 When you call something "scripture," 00:11.721 --> 00:14.961 what you simply mean is it's some kind of writing that is 00:14.957 --> 00:17.787 taken by somebody as holy and authoritative, 00:17.790 --> 00:18.690 somehow sacred. 00:18.690 --> 00:21.630 Now, different religions--some religions don't have what we 00:21.629 --> 00:23.959 would normally think of as scripture, in Islam, 00:23.960 --> 00:25.380 Judaism or Christianity. 00:25.380 --> 00:27.650 They might have lots and lots of holy writings, 00:27.652 --> 00:30.022 but they don't have a particular, bounded body of 00:30.023 --> 00:31.903 writings that they call scripture. 00:31.900 --> 00:33.320 They have lots of scripture. 00:33.320 --> 00:36.300 What makes something scripture, though, is that it's taken to 00:36.304 --> 00:39.144 be authoritative and holy by some particular community. 00:39.140 --> 00:43.430 Now, notice that does not necessarily mean it's canonical 00:43.434 --> 00:47.654 because scripture in some religions refers to a bunch of 00:47.653 --> 00:48.423 stuff. 00:48.420 --> 00:52.790 But they don't have a set list of things that make something 00:52.790 --> 00:53.680 the canon. 00:53.680 --> 00:57.750 Judaism, Islam and Christianity all have, basically, 00:57.751 --> 00:58.471 canons. 00:58.470 --> 01:00.890 That is it's the Qur'an for Islam. 01:00.890 --> 01:04.080 It's the Hebrew Bible for Judaism. 01:04.078 --> 01:06.438 And it's the Hebrew Bible, plus the New Testament--and 01:06.441 --> 01:08.361 we'll talk about some of the other writings, 01:08.360 --> 01:09.430 too--for Christians. 01:09.430 --> 01:11.550 What does it mean to call something "canon" 01:11.554 --> 01:13.234 that makes it different from scripture? 01:13.230 --> 01:16.430 By calling it canon, we're saying there's an actual 01:16.426 --> 01:20.006 list that a religion body adheres to, with books that are 01:20.006 --> 01:22.496 either in or books that are not in. 01:22.500 --> 01:24.680 So "scripture" can refer to any kind of 01:24.683 --> 01:27.323 writing that a bunch of people consider holy or inspired or 01:27.320 --> 01:28.140 authoritative. 01:28.140 --> 01:30.130 But when you call something "canon," 01:30.132 --> 01:32.752 you mean that there's a group of writing that has boundaries 01:32.747 --> 01:33.187 to it. 01:33.190 --> 01:36.990 And, of course, it just comes from the Greek 01:36.992 --> 01:41.332 word canon, spelled with one "n," 01:41.328 --> 01:42.388 not two. 01:42.390 --> 01:44.050 This Greek word means a list. 01:44.050 --> 01:45.660 It can mean a rod, a staff. 01:45.660 --> 01:47.050 It can mean a measuring rod. 01:47.050 --> 01:51.090 And so it comes to be a list that accounts as authoritative 01:51.087 --> 01:52.757 in early Christianity. 01:52.760 --> 01:56.830 So that's what it means to call something "canonical." 01:56.830 --> 01:59.290 When you talk about something like the Shakespeare canon, 01:59.290 --> 02:01.380 the canon of Shakespeare or the canon of great Western 02:01.376 --> 02:03.896 Literature that's actually using the term in a bit of an expanded 02:03.896 --> 02:04.286 sense. 02:04.290 --> 02:07.790 Because we don't really consider Western Literature to 02:07.790 --> 02:11.290 have an actual closed canon of authoritative texts. 02:11.288 --> 02:14.478 In Christianity, though, it means the list of 02:14.482 --> 02:18.552 texts that are scripture and recognized as different from 02:18.545 --> 02:19.775 other things. 02:19.780 --> 02:22.160 We have to first, also, recognize that the early 02:22.159 --> 02:23.289 Christians, it seems like, 02:23.288 --> 02:25.478 from the very early period, at least a lot of them, 02:25.480 --> 02:27.780 accepted Jewish scripture as their own. 02:27.780 --> 02:30.000 So for example, when the Apostle Paul says, 02:29.995 --> 02:32.995 "Scripture says," he's not talking about the New 02:33.001 --> 02:33.741 Testament. 02:33.740 --> 02:35.960 He's talking about Jewish scripture. 02:35.960 --> 02:37.990 So almost all the early Christians, they didn't 02:37.985 --> 02:40.755 know--the people writing the New Testament didn't know they were 02:40.758 --> 02:42.078 writing the New Testament. 02:42.080 --> 02:45.220 They just thought they were writing a gospel or a sermon or 02:45.218 --> 02:47.058 a letter or something like that. 02:47.060 --> 02:48.820 So when you see the term "scripture" 02:48.819 --> 02:51.329 in the New Testament, every time except, 02:51.330 --> 02:53.720 maybe, one time-- and we'll talk about this when 02:53.720 --> 02:55.690 we get to it-- it refers to Jewish scripture 02:55.693 --> 02:59.173 that Christians accepted, followers of Jesus accepted, 02:59.169 --> 03:00.179 as their own. 03:00.180 --> 03:02.930 The oldest materials that we have for Christianity-- 03:02.930 --> 03:06.080 and so what the lecture today is going to be about is how did 03:06.082 --> 03:09.032 the particular twenty-seven books that came to be the New 03:09.026 --> 03:12.306 Testament canon, how did those get chosen? 03:12.310 --> 03:13.940 By whom--who made the decision? 03:13.939 --> 03:15.379 When did they make the decision? 03:15.378 --> 03:17.158 And what were the criteria they used? 03:17.158 --> 03:19.718 Why did they allow some books in and other books not in? 03:19.720 --> 03:22.990 The oldest written materials of Christianity are actually the 03:22.989 --> 03:23.969 letters of Paul. 03:23.970 --> 03:26.370 This may come as a surprise, because you get to the gospels 03:26.370 --> 03:27.570 first in the New Testament. 03:27.568 --> 03:29.108 And most people assume, "Oh, the gospels, 03:29.113 --> 03:30.283 they're about the life of Jesus. 03:30.280 --> 03:31.460 That must be the oldest stuff." 03:31.460 --> 03:34.450 Well, the gospels are actually all written after the letters of 03:34.448 --> 03:36.278 Paul were written by 20 or 30 years. 03:36.280 --> 03:39.690 So the oldest material we have are the letters of Paul. 03:39.690 --> 03:44.150 And the oldest one of those letters is 1 Thessalonians, 03:44.152 --> 03:48.702 probably, dated to around the year 50 or thereabouts. 03:48.699 --> 03:51.109 Pretty quickly, though, different churches, 03:51.105 --> 03:54.025 probably Paul's churches, initially, started sending 03:54.026 --> 03:56.086 around copies of Paul's letters. 03:56.090 --> 03:58.190 Remember, there's no printing press in the ancient world. 03:58.190 --> 04:00.780 Whenever your church would get a copy of one of these letters 04:00.778 --> 04:02.488 from Paul, you would have scribes, 04:02.490 --> 04:04.500 often slaves, because slaves were especially 04:04.496 --> 04:05.456 trained to be scribes. 04:05.460 --> 04:07.810 They would take that letter, and they would make a copy of 04:07.812 --> 04:08.022 it. 04:08.020 --> 04:10.210 And then, they might keep the original, and they'd send the 04:10.205 --> 04:11.255 copy off to somebody else. 04:11.258 --> 04:13.088 Or they might keep the copy and send the original off to 04:13.092 --> 04:13.462 somebody. 04:13.460 --> 04:16.600 And so letters would be copied, and books would be copied and 04:16.596 --> 04:18.736 sent around from different communities. 04:18.740 --> 04:20.320 This obviously happened. 04:20.319 --> 04:22.559 In Colossians 4:16, which is actually, 04:22.559 --> 04:25.949 I'll argue, not written by Paul, although it claims to be 04:25.949 --> 04:27.159 written by Paul. 04:27.160 --> 04:29.480 The writer says, "When this letter has been 04:29.480 --> 04:31.010 read among you, have it read, 04:31.012 --> 04:32.992 also, in the church of the Laodiceans, 04:32.990 --> 04:35.300 and see that you read, also, the letter from 04:35.303 --> 04:36.223 Laodicea." 04:36.220 --> 04:39.200 So notice this author--who I think is a pseudepigrapher. 04:39.199 --> 04:40.909 He's writing in the name of Paul, but not really Paul. 04:40.910 --> 04:43.670 He's saying that there's another letter sent by Paul to 04:43.673 --> 04:44.853 the Laodicean church. 04:44.850 --> 04:47.950 So let them send you their copy, and you send a copy of 04:47.954 --> 04:49.224 this letter to them. 04:49.220 --> 04:52.840 So we quickly see that even in the letters under Paul's name, 04:52.838 --> 04:55.128 this activity's being spread around. 04:55.129 --> 04:57.369 Also, we see the letter of Ephesians--again, 04:57.367 --> 04:59.967 claims to be by Paul, but I'll argue is not by Paul 04:59.968 --> 05:02.828 when we get to that lecture, way into the semester. 05:02.829 --> 05:05.319 The letter to the Ephesians looks like it was not actually 05:05.322 --> 05:06.592 written to only one church. 05:06.588 --> 05:09.928 It looks like it was a circular letter meant to be circulated to 05:09.927 --> 05:11.037 different churches. 05:11.040 --> 05:12.440 And one of the ways we think this-- 05:12.439 --> 05:15.649 one of the reasons we think this is because in some of the 05:15.648 --> 05:18.978 old manuscripts of Ephesians, "To the Ephesians" 05:18.983 --> 05:19.753 is not there. 05:19.750 --> 05:22.340 It's either blank or it's to somebody else. 05:22.339 --> 05:25.149 So some scholars have suggested that maybe the letter to the 05:25.151 --> 05:27.871 Ephesians was originally intended as a circular letter. 05:27.870 --> 05:29.730 And, maybe, the original writer, sort of, 05:29.730 --> 05:32.570 even left some copies blank so that somebody could fill in. 05:32.569 --> 05:34.679 "Oh, well, we're in Laodicea. 05:34.680 --> 05:36.950 Let's say 'To the Laodiceans,' and we can act like Paul sent it 05:36.952 --> 05:37.652 just to us." 05:37.649 --> 05:40.559 So the manuscript tradition suggests that it was a letter 05:40.562 --> 05:42.592 that was a circular letter in itself. 05:42.589 --> 05:46.539 We also have imitations of Paul's letters developing. 05:46.540 --> 05:48.390 For example, I said, Colossians I don't 05:48.392 --> 05:50.882 think is written by Paul, but by a disciple of Paul, 05:50.880 --> 05:52.150 maybe after his death. 05:52.149 --> 05:55.829 Ephesians was written by a different disciple of Paul, 05:55.829 --> 05:59.039 and he was using as his model for a Pauline letter the actual 05:59.035 --> 06:01.385 letters of Paul, or at least some of them that 06:01.389 --> 06:02.589 he possessed and knew of. 06:02.588 --> 06:04.558 But he was, also, using the letter to the 06:04.559 --> 06:05.199 Colossians. 06:05.199 --> 06:08.499 So notice this guy, another guy sort of forging 06:08.497 --> 06:10.287 another letter by Paul. 06:10.290 --> 06:13.570 And he's using another forged letter by Paul as his model. 06:13.569 --> 06:15.959 In fact, he almost quotes it in places. 06:15.959 --> 06:18.409 So we can tell that the writer of the Ephesians seems to have 06:18.408 --> 06:19.468 been a different author. 06:19.470 --> 06:23.160 But he used the letter to the Colossians as one of his models. 06:23.160 --> 06:26.320 So Paul's letters were being imitated, new ones were being 06:26.319 --> 06:28.649 written, and they were being circulated. 06:28.649 --> 06:32.929 Paul's letters actually became so famous and respected, 06:32.930 --> 06:35.090 and at least in some aspects of early Christianity, 06:35.089 --> 06:36.429 that they were called themselves 06:36.430 --> 06:37.470 "scripture." 06:37.470 --> 06:39.540 And this is the one exception I said to when in the New 06:39.538 --> 06:41.678 Testament you see the word scripture, it refers to Jewish 06:41.682 --> 06:42.222 scripture. 06:42.220 --> 06:44.660 The guy who wrote 2 Peter--again, 06:44.663 --> 06:48.303 not really Peter, but a writer writing in Peter's 06:48.302 --> 06:50.542 name-- talked about Paul's letters as 06:50.541 --> 06:52.481 if--and he calls them scripture. 06:52.480 --> 06:54.420 He says, "There are many things in Paul's letters very 06:54.420 --> 06:55.290 difficult to understand. 06:55.290 --> 06:57.470 And some people twist them to their own destruction as they do 06:57.470 --> 06:58.650 other kinds of scripture." 06:58.649 --> 07:01.309 So already by the time 2 Peter was written, 07:01.310 --> 07:04.220 which was much later than the letters of Paul, 07:04.220 --> 07:08.050 Paul's letters have come to be regarded by at least some early 07:08.053 --> 07:10.383 Christians as scripture themselves. 07:10.379 --> 07:13.669 So collections of Paul's letters were gradually being 07:13.665 --> 07:15.745 made and copied and circulated. 07:15.750 --> 07:20.150 That's the first development of what you have a collection of 07:20.153 --> 07:24.413 what would be considered holy writing among Christians that 07:24.410 --> 07:27.640 was more than just the Jewish scripture. 07:27.639 --> 07:30.799 We also know, though, about oral traditions 07:30.795 --> 07:32.295 in Paul's letters. 07:32.300 --> 07:34.810 And this gets us back to how did the gospels come about? 07:34.810 --> 07:36.540 So Paul's letters came about that way. 07:36.540 --> 07:38.500 How did the gospels come about? 07:38.500 --> 07:41.150 We know that there were oral traditions about Jesus. 07:41.149 --> 07:43.549 People would tell stories about Jesus in their churches. 07:43.550 --> 07:45.780 Sometimes, they would tell sayings. 07:45.779 --> 07:50.019 So in Romans 12:14, Paul says, "Bless those 07:50.024 --> 07:51.834 who persecute you. 07:51.829 --> 07:53.829 Bless and do not curse them." 07:53.829 --> 07:57.579 Now, he doesn't say this is a quotation of Jesus. 07:57.579 --> 08:01.699 But it sounds an awful lot like you find in some of the gospels, 08:01.696 --> 08:03.196 like in Matthew 5:44. 08:03.199 --> 08:06.269 So Paul's saying this, probably, passing this along as 08:06.267 --> 08:07.597 a quotation of Jesus. 08:07.600 --> 08:14.650 In 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, here I'll read this to you. 08:14.649 --> 08:18.249 Start bringing your Bible to class if you haven't today. 08:18.250 --> 08:20.780 Because, you know, you can't trust me, 08:20.783 --> 08:24.963 and so you have to check me out and make sure I'm not lying to 08:24.961 --> 08:25.511 you. 08:25.509 --> 08:27.009 Oh, I should do this, now, perhaps, 08:27.011 --> 08:28.911 since it's the beginning of the semester. 08:28.910 --> 08:40.230 The official motto of the class--you have to memorize 08:40.226 --> 08:48.276 this: de omnibus dubitandum. 08:48.279 --> 08:49.799 Say it with me, please. 08:49.799 --> 08:50.999 De omnibus du… Students: 08:50.996 --> 08:52.036 De omnibus dubitandum. 08:52.039 --> 08:53.249 Prof: With feeling. 08:53.250 --> 08:54.080 De omni… Students: 08:54.075 --> 08:55.435 De omnibus dubitandum. 08:55.440 --> 08:56.850 Prof: About twice as loud. 08:56.850 --> 08:58.220 Students: De omnibus 08:58.219 --> 09:00.879 dubitandum. Prof: Write it down. 09:00.879 --> 09:02.859 Say it tonight, before you go to sleep. 09:02.860 --> 09:05.790 Say it in the morning, when you wake. 09:05.788 --> 09:08.068 Every day of the semester say it before you go to sleep. 09:08.070 --> 09:09.180 Say it when you wake. 09:09.178 --> 09:12.528 Can anybody tell me what it means? 09:12.529 --> 09:14.799 "Doubt everything." 09:14.799 --> 09:17.569 Doubt everything. 09:17.570 --> 09:19.000 Okay. 09:19.000 --> 09:22.570 And that includes me, because I'm going to lie to you 09:22.566 --> 09:24.346 a lot all semester long. 09:24.350 --> 09:26.930 Or, at least, somebody will accuse me of that 09:26.928 --> 09:27.748 I guarantee. 09:27.750 --> 09:28.380 Okay. 09:28.379 --> 09:30.859 1 Corinthians 11, if you've got your Bible follow 09:30.864 --> 09:32.214 along with me, verse 23. 09:32.210 --> 09:36.940 09:36.940 --> 09:40.290 "For I received from the Lord," Paul says, 09:40.288 --> 09:42.648 "what I also handed on to you, 09:42.649 --> 09:45.559 that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took 09:45.558 --> 09:47.718 a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, 09:47.716 --> 09:50.486 he broke it and said, 'This is my body that is for 09:50.491 --> 09:50.821 you. 09:50.820 --> 09:52.530 Do this in remembrance of me.' 09:52.529 --> 09:54.289 In the same way, he took the cup, 09:54.293 --> 09:57.333 also, after supper saying, 'This cup is the new covenant 09:57.327 --> 09:58.207 in my blood. 09:58.210 --> 10:01.230 Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.' 10:01.230 --> 10:03.870 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, 10:03.874 --> 10:06.574 you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." 10:06.570 --> 10:07.890 Where did Paul get this? 10:07.889 --> 10:10.949 He says, "I gave it to you as I received it myself." 10:10.950 --> 10:13.400 This is traditional Greek language of passing on 10:13.403 --> 10:14.033 tradition. 10:14.028 --> 10:16.428 So Paul knows he's passing on a bit of tradition, 10:16.434 --> 10:18.394 very, very early Christian tradition. 10:18.389 --> 10:22.089 But Paul was not a disciple of Jesus during Jesus' lifetime. 10:22.090 --> 10:24.800 Paul never saw Jesus, except in his visions. 10:24.798 --> 10:28.618 Paul saw Jesus in apocalyptic visions, but he never saw Jesus' 10:28.621 --> 10:29.751 flesh and blood. 10:29.750 --> 10:32.230 And so Paul was not his disciple. 10:32.230 --> 10:34.950 He must have gotten this from other disciples of Jesus. 10:34.950 --> 10:36.150 So what does this tell us? 10:36.149 --> 10:39.199 This tells us that different disciples of Jesus were 10:39.195 --> 10:42.955 remembering some of his sayings and passing them around to other 10:42.956 --> 10:44.506 people after his life. 10:44.509 --> 10:47.769 Now, the first time--well, also, there's another 10:47.769 --> 10:50.619 interesting passage in 1 Corinthians 9:14, 10:50.615 --> 10:52.345 where Paul says this. 10:52.350 --> 10:54.980 "In the same way, the Lord commanded that those 10:54.980 --> 10:57.710 who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the 10:57.712 --> 10:58.592 gospel." 10:58.590 --> 11:02.970 Now, we actually don't have a saying in the Gospels that Jesus 11:02.971 --> 11:04.481 actually says that. 11:04.480 --> 11:09.000 It does sound a little bit like, maybe, Luke 10:7. 11:09.000 --> 11:12.500 But this is a saying that Paul attributes to Jesus that's not 11:12.501 --> 11:14.021 actually in our gospels. 11:14.019 --> 11:15.859 It also shows, though--it's interesting, 11:15.864 --> 11:18.614 too, that Paul says preachers should make their living from 11:18.606 --> 11:19.786 preaching the gospel. 11:19.788 --> 11:22.658 That is, churches should support the preachers and 11:22.660 --> 11:23.540 missionaries. 11:23.538 --> 11:25.648 Paul says that's a command from Jesus. 11:25.649 --> 11:26.619 He, actually, doesn't obey it, 11:26.619 --> 11:26.919 though. 11:26.918 --> 11:29.688 Because he makes the point that he, himself, is not going to 11:29.687 --> 11:31.797 take money from his churches at that point. 11:31.798 --> 11:34.448 So the earliest Gospel, though, that pulled together 11:34.445 --> 11:37.605 some of these things that we possess is the Gospel of Mark. 11:37.610 --> 11:40.740 It probably was written around the year 70. 11:40.740 --> 11:43.710 And in the next couple of lectures I'll show you why we 11:43.714 --> 11:47.244 think we can pinpoint around the date that the gospel of Mark was 11:47.239 --> 11:47.899 written. 11:47.899 --> 11:50.129 It's a very interesting little process. 11:50.129 --> 11:53.379 Then, Matthew and Luke were both written after Mark, 11:53.379 --> 11:55.419 and they used Mark as sources. 11:55.418 --> 11:58.088 When you get to the discussion section on the synoptic problem, 11:58.090 --> 11:59.910 which is your first discussion section, 11:59.908 --> 12:02.948 you'll learn all this theory about the relationship between 12:02.947 --> 12:04.307 Matthew, Mark, and Luke. 12:04.308 --> 12:06.668 Who was written first, who copied whom, 12:06.667 --> 12:09.147 who used whom, and that sort of thing. 12:09.149 --> 12:11.679 The beginning of Luke, though, starts off like this. 12:11.678 --> 12:13.688 "Since many have undertaken to set down an 12:13.690 --> 12:16.270 orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among 12:16.269 --> 12:18.009 us, just as they were handed on to 12:18.009 --> 12:20.559 us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and 12:20.559 --> 12:22.889 servants of the word, I, too, decided after 12:22.889 --> 12:26.009 investigating everything carefully from the very first to 12:26.009 --> 12:28.069 write an orderly account for you, 12:28.070 --> 12:30.630 most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth 12:30.630 --> 12:33.650 concerning the things about what you have been instructed." 12:33.649 --> 12:36.069 Now, what does that tell us? 12:36.070 --> 12:38.530 That tells us that whoever wrote the Gospel of Luke-- 12:38.529 --> 12:41.209 and again, I'll tell you that it wasn't the historical person 12:41.210 --> 12:43.130 called Luke, who's a companion of Paul, 12:43.129 --> 12:43.609 probably. 12:43.610 --> 12:47.280 But whoever wrote this says that he did some research. 12:47.279 --> 12:49.279 He collected other sayings about Jesus. 12:49.279 --> 12:50.579 He even looked at other written accounts. 12:50.580 --> 12:53.170 And from those different things, he, himself, 12:53.168 --> 12:54.698 compiled his own gospel. 12:54.700 --> 12:57.730 So we can tell that the gospels start off with oral tradition 12:57.730 --> 13:00.560 that's being passed around, different sayings and stories 13:00.561 --> 13:01.371 about Jesus. 13:01.370 --> 13:04.260 And then, gradually, but only about 40 years after 13:04.264 --> 13:07.044 the death of Jesus, the Gospel of Mark is in the 13:07.041 --> 13:07.751 year 70. 13:07.750 --> 13:10.610 If Jesus was crucified around the year 30 that's a 40 year 13:10.610 --> 13:13.720 period of time between the death of Jesus and the appearance of 13:13.721 --> 13:15.581 the first gospel that we possess. 13:15.580 --> 13:17.790 Although there were other written materials being passed 13:17.793 --> 13:18.843 around during that time. 13:18.840 --> 13:23.810 Now, what does this say about this? 13:23.809 --> 13:28.219 13:28.220 --> 13:31.360 Some of this--we tend to think, as modern people, 13:31.356 --> 13:34.556 that a written text is actually the best thing. 13:34.558 --> 13:38.898 It's better than just rumor or hearsay or oral tradition. 13:38.899 --> 13:41.229 It's interesting, though, that some ancient 13:41.230 --> 13:42.730 people didn't think that. 13:42.730 --> 13:44.930 In fact, there's a guy named Papias. 13:44.929 --> 13:46.069 He's on your handout. 13:46.070 --> 13:51.370 He was a Christian leader who lived, probably wrote about some 13:51.371 --> 13:55.111 of this stuff around the year 130 or 140. 13:55.110 --> 13:58.540 And he says this about his own little research: 13:58.544 --> 14:02.504 "I shall not hesitate to put down for you with my 14:02.503 --> 14:06.533 interpretations whatsoever things I well learned at one 14:06.534 --> 14:11.394 time from the Presbyters," just meaning the old guys, 14:11.389 --> 14:13.029 elders, "and well remembered, 14:13.028 --> 14:14.938 confidently asserting truthfulness for them. 14:14.940 --> 14:18.390 For I did not take pleasure as the multitude does in those who 14:18.389 --> 14:20.759 say many things, but in those who teach the 14:20.764 --> 14:22.184 things that are true. 14:22.178 --> 14:24.698 Nor did I take pleasure in those who recall strange 14:24.696 --> 14:26.706 commands, but in those who recall the 14:26.714 --> 14:29.864 commands given by the Lord to the Faith and coming from Truth 14:29.855 --> 14:30.375 itself. 14:30.379 --> 14:31.649 But if, per chance, there came, also, 14:31.649 --> 14:34.649 anyone who had followed the Presbyters," 14:34.654 --> 14:37.234 the elders, "I made inquiry concerning 14:37.226 --> 14:40.546 the words of the Presbyters, what Andrew or what Peter had 14:40.553 --> 14:42.433 said, or what Philip or what Thomas 14:42.428 --> 14:44.108 or James, or what John or Matthew, 14:44.105 --> 14:46.355 or any of the other disciples of the Lord said. 14:46.360 --> 14:48.580 And what things Aristeon and the Presbyter John, 14:48.578 --> 14:50.278 disciples of the Lord used to say. 14:50.279 --> 14:53.509 For I did not suppose that the things from the books would aid 14:53.505 --> 14:56.195 me, so much as things from the living and continuing 14:56.202 --> 14:57.052 voice." 14:57.048 --> 14:58.868 Notice what Papias says he's doing. 14:58.870 --> 15:02.440 He doesn't interview the actual apostles. 15:02.440 --> 15:03.920 He's too long after their death. 15:03.918 --> 15:07.938 But he tries to find people who are old men, who knew the 15:07.940 --> 15:08.730 apostles. 15:08.730 --> 15:12.360 And he says he questioned them about what they said Jesus had 15:12.355 --> 15:12.775 said. 15:12.778 --> 15:14.158 That's interesting, because it shows this 15:14.163 --> 15:14.963 continuing tradition. 15:14.960 --> 15:18.220 But it's also interesting that he says he trusted that 15:18.220 --> 15:21.420 traditional living voice more than he trusted written 15:21.418 --> 15:22.278 documents. 15:22.278 --> 15:25.608 So that's important to keep in mind. 15:25.610 --> 15:27.710 The next time we see some development in how this New 15:27.714 --> 15:30.264 Testament starts coming about is around the middle of the second 15:30.264 --> 15:30.754 century. 15:30.750 --> 15:32.530 We have a guy named Justin Martyr. 15:32.528 --> 15:35.858 He's called that because he was martyred for the faith around 15:35.856 --> 15:36.686 the year 150. 15:36.690 --> 15:40.010 He mentions "the memoirs of the apostles." 15:40.009 --> 15:41.509 We think he's, probably, talking about the 15:41.508 --> 15:42.928 gospels, but he doesn't actually use 15:42.932 --> 15:45.172 that term as much as he talks about "the memoirs of the 15:45.168 --> 15:45.848 apostles." 15:45.850 --> 15:47.720 So he knows that there's written documents. 15:47.720 --> 15:51.140 We also know that around this time there are several different 15:51.136 --> 15:54.046 things being passed around that look like gospels. 15:54.048 --> 15:56.318 There is Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, 15:56.317 --> 15:57.807 which are in our bible. 15:57.808 --> 16:00.818 But there's also the Gospel of Thomas that we know about very 16:00.817 --> 16:01.367 early on. 16:01.370 --> 16:05.150 And then, you've heard the news about the Gospel of Judas being 16:05.153 --> 16:07.353 discovered recently and published. 16:07.350 --> 16:09.160 So there's a Gospel of Mary. 16:09.158 --> 16:12.098 There are several other gospels that are floating around the 16:12.101 --> 16:12.951 second century. 16:12.950 --> 16:15.110 So that's how these written documents came about. 16:15.110 --> 16:17.560 How did they settle on these four, though? 16:17.558 --> 16:20.648 First, then, we have to talk about Marcion. 16:20.649 --> 16:24.089 I think he's on your handout, is that correct? 16:24.090 --> 16:27.050 Yes, Marcion, who died around 160. 16:27.048 --> 16:30.908 Marcion was this guy from Asia Minor, modern day Turkey, 16:30.912 --> 16:33.232 and just get used to that term. 16:33.230 --> 16:35.180 Because whenever we say, "Asia Minor," 16:35.179 --> 16:37.499 we're talking about that section around the Mediterranean 16:37.504 --> 16:38.754 that now is called Turkey. 16:38.750 --> 16:41.580 But it was called Asia Minor, generally, in the Roman 16:41.580 --> 16:42.560 Imperial Period. 16:42.558 --> 16:45.788 Marcion came to Rome from Asia Minor. 16:45.788 --> 16:48.178 He seemed to be a successful businessman, a ship builder. 16:48.178 --> 16:50.648 He gave the Roman church a huge sum of money. 16:50.649 --> 16:52.909 And so he got a lot of honor. 16:52.908 --> 16:56.038 But then, he started teaching some doctrines that struck other 16:56.043 --> 16:58.463 Christians in Rome as being a little bit off. 16:58.460 --> 17:00.930 For one thing, Marcion said that the God, 17:00.932 --> 17:04.582 who's mentioned in the Jewish scripture, the God who created 17:04.579 --> 17:07.609 the earth, is not the father of Jesus Christ. 17:07.608 --> 17:10.518 He's a bungling or evil or bad god. 17:10.519 --> 17:12.479 He gave all these people these bad rules. 17:12.480 --> 17:15.010 And he punished them if they didn't obey the rules. 17:15.009 --> 17:18.139 That's not the God that Jesus talked about as being the God of 17:18.135 --> 17:19.515 grace and love and mercy. 17:19.519 --> 17:23.189 So he said, "That God is not the father of Jesus Christ. 17:23.190 --> 17:25.950 That's not the God that Jesus was talking about. 17:25.950 --> 17:28.600 So what we need to do is throw away Jewish scripture." 17:28.598 --> 17:31.438 So he said, "Christians don't need Jewish scripture. 17:31.440 --> 17:33.770 That's all about a wrong god anyway. 17:33.769 --> 17:34.679 It's about a false god. 17:34.680 --> 17:35.760 We don't need that. 17:35.759 --> 17:37.679 What we need," he said, "is the 17:37.680 --> 17:38.400 gospel." 17:38.400 --> 17:40.930 And in fact, he chose one of these gospels. 17:40.930 --> 17:42.330 He took the Gospel of Luke. 17:42.328 --> 17:44.178 Why did he take the Gospel of Luke? 17:44.180 --> 17:47.640 Because he believed Luke had been a companion of Paul. 17:47.640 --> 17:51.360 And Luke correctly passed on Paul's gospel. 17:51.358 --> 17:55.418 Because Paul was Marcion's fave, fave apostle. 17:55.420 --> 17:58.460 Marcion believed that Paul had been the only one of the 17:58.460 --> 18:00.600 different apostles who got it right. 18:00.598 --> 18:03.218 Because he taught people, "You don't have to obey 18:03.221 --> 18:04.361 the Jewish law." 18:04.358 --> 18:06.388 In fact, he taught people, "You shouldn't obey the 18:06.385 --> 18:07.095 Jewish law." 18:07.098 --> 18:09.418 So Marcion said, "Paul got it right." 18:09.420 --> 18:11.150 He threw out the Old Testament. 18:11.150 --> 18:13.630 He threw out the Jewish God, and he introduced the correct 18:13.626 --> 18:14.406 gospel of Jesus. 18:14.410 --> 18:16.460 And Luke recorded that in his gospel. 18:16.460 --> 18:19.110 So Marcion said the only thing that should be scripture for us 18:19.109 --> 18:20.499 is not all that Jewish scripture. 18:20.500 --> 18:21.370 Get rid of that. 18:21.368 --> 18:24.588 We just need the ten letters of Paul that he knew about. 18:24.588 --> 18:26.788 Now, there are actually thirteen letters of Paul--that 18:26.792 --> 18:28.292 claim to be by Paul--in our bible. 18:28.288 --> 18:30.968 Marcion seemed to know only ten of them. 18:30.970 --> 18:33.730 That might be interesting later on in the semester, 18:33.728 --> 18:34.058 too. 18:34.058 --> 18:37.918 But he seemed to only include ten letters in his list. 18:37.920 --> 18:40.300 So the ten letters of Paul, and Luke. 18:40.298 --> 18:42.488 Now, you may have noticed if you've actually read any of the 18:42.486 --> 18:44.436 letters of Paul, and the Gospel of Luke, 18:44.442 --> 18:47.332 that these people seem to believe that the creator God 18:47.330 --> 18:50.660 mentioned in Jewish scripture actually was the father of Jesus 18:50.655 --> 18:51.305 Christ. 18:51.308 --> 18:53.758 Marcion noticed some of those places, too, like when Paul 18:53.759 --> 18:55.509 seemed to be quoting Jewish scripture. 18:55.509 --> 18:56.929 So Marcion said, "Aha. 18:56.930 --> 18:59.310 The other Jewish apostles, the bad apostles, 18:59.306 --> 19:00.906 got hold of Paul's letters. 19:00.910 --> 19:03.580 And they got hold of the Gospel of Luke, and they adulterated 19:03.576 --> 19:03.796 it. 19:03.798 --> 19:05.148 They put all this other stuff in." 19:05.150 --> 19:08.510 So Marcion claimed that he could edit out all the added 19:08.508 --> 19:12.238 stuff out of Paul's letters and out of the Gospel of Luke. 19:12.240 --> 19:16.110 And this edited version of the Gospel of Luke and the ten 19:16.112 --> 19:19.222 letters of Paul, that's what Marcion published 19:19.223 --> 19:20.403 as his canon. 19:20.400 --> 19:24.080 This is the first time we have in Christianity someone 19:24.080 --> 19:27.480 attempting to say, "This is the authoritative 19:27.483 --> 19:28.113 list. 19:28.108 --> 19:31.888 And all these other things are not part of the list." 19:31.890 --> 19:34.670 Marcion, who came to be considered a heretic by orthodox 19:34.665 --> 19:37.435 Christians--remember that at this time, there's a lot of 19:37.442 --> 19:39.262 different kinds of Christianity. 19:39.259 --> 19:42.059 So how do you tell an orthodox Christian from a heretical 19:42.058 --> 19:42.658 Christian? 19:42.660 --> 19:45.480 Well, it's your judgment call or mine in the second century. 19:45.480 --> 19:46.990 You hadn't had, yet, the creeds that would try 19:46.993 --> 19:49.053 to settle these things for good, like you did in the third and 19:49.047 --> 19:50.357 fourth century--the fourth century. 19:50.358 --> 19:53.058 But a lot of Christians in Rome, the Bishop of Rome, 19:53.057 --> 19:55.697 a lot of other people, considered Marcion a heretic 19:55.702 --> 19:56.392 for this. 19:56.390 --> 19:58.070 They kicked him out of the church. 19:58.068 --> 20:01.048 They gave him back his money, that he had given to the 20:01.048 --> 20:02.958 church, and they kicked him out. 20:02.960 --> 20:04.580 And they declared this is heretical. 20:04.579 --> 20:06.239 The creator God really is God. 20:06.240 --> 20:09.050 The Jewish scripture really is our scripture, 20:09.050 --> 20:12.120 and the God of Israel is the God of Jesus Christ, 20:12.118 --> 20:14.418 also the father of Jesus Christ. 20:14.420 --> 20:18.330 But Marcion seems to have really put the scare of bejesus 20:18.333 --> 20:20.013 into the Roman church. 20:20.009 --> 20:23.549 If you didn't accept Marcion's canon, his list, 20:23.549 --> 20:26.089 what was going to be your list? 20:26.088 --> 20:29.448 If you said that the other gospels were just as important 20:29.454 --> 20:32.164 as the Gospel of Luke, who said so and why? 20:32.160 --> 20:33.340 And who's going to pronounce this? 20:33.338 --> 20:36.828 Marcion, though, seemed to have spurred other 20:36.830 --> 20:41.910 Christian leaders to decide what they thought Christian scripture 20:41.909 --> 20:43.019 should do. 20:43.019 --> 20:44.179 So what do you do about the gospels? 20:44.180 --> 20:46.720 You have four different gospels accepted by some people, 20:46.715 --> 20:48.095 five or six by other people. 20:48.098 --> 20:49.968 Generally in Rome around this time, 20:49.970 --> 20:54.160 the four gospels that we have in our bible seem to have become 20:54.164 --> 20:56.714 the most popular accepted gospels, 20:56.710 --> 20:58.390 Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 20:58.390 --> 21:01.740 Now, some people still try to figure out that you've got four. 21:01.740 --> 21:02.720 Why do you have four? 21:02.720 --> 21:04.340 So you have other people, like Tatian. 21:04.339 --> 21:06.279 He's on your handout list, too. 21:06.278 --> 21:09.318 He decided to take the four gospels and do an edition that 21:09.315 --> 21:12.615 would string all the stuff from the different four gospels into 21:12.616 --> 21:13.306 one book. 21:13.308 --> 21:16.158 So he made what we call the Diatessaron, which is a Greek 21:16.161 --> 21:17.741 word that means through four. 21:17.740 --> 21:20.340 He took four books and created one gospel out of it. 21:20.338 --> 21:25.688 You had other people who said, well, you accept the gospel of 21:25.692 --> 21:29.622 Mark because Mark was a disciple of Peter. 21:29.619 --> 21:31.829 This is the way Papias believed. 21:31.828 --> 21:36.058 Elsewhere, he said that Mark had traveled with Peter to Rome, 21:36.061 --> 21:39.731 and Mark wrote down Peter's version of the gospel. 21:39.730 --> 21:43.290 And so Papias said that's why Mark isn't reliable. 21:43.288 --> 21:46.528 Or people would say Luke wrote down the gospel that Paul had 21:46.525 --> 21:48.605 preached, so Luke was authoritative. 21:48.608 --> 21:51.378 They also said, well, Matthew was actually one 21:51.383 --> 21:53.113 of the disciples of Jesus. 21:53.109 --> 21:54.629 He's mentioned in the gospel. 21:54.630 --> 21:59.190 So the Gospel of Matthew is also by a good one. 21:59.190 --> 22:01.730 And John, also, was believed to be that. 22:01.730 --> 22:05.270 Now, the problem with this is that Papias and these other 22:05.272 --> 22:08.882 people didn't really know what they were talking about. 22:08.880 --> 22:12.100 Papias, for example, thought that the Gospel of 22:12.096 --> 22:15.236 Matthew had originally been written in Hebrew, 22:15.242 --> 22:18.112 and only later translated into Greek. 22:18.109 --> 22:19.799 This is wrong. 22:19.798 --> 22:23.468 Any of us who know Greek and know Hebrew can tell that the 22:23.470 --> 22:26.110 Gospel of Matthew was written in Greek. 22:26.108 --> 22:28.568 It doesn't look like a translation from Hebrew. 22:28.568 --> 22:32.668 So we tend to doubt all of these different traditions. 22:32.670 --> 22:35.540 That Mark was the disciple of Peter who wrote Peter's gospel. 22:35.538 --> 22:38.368 That Matthew was written by the actual disciple Matthew. 22:38.368 --> 22:40.348 That Luke was written by the disciple of Paul. 22:40.348 --> 22:43.058 And that John was written by the disciple John. 22:43.058 --> 22:48.628 Basically, what modern scholars believe is that all four of 22:48.630 --> 22:52.760 these gospels were anonymously published. 22:52.759 --> 22:55.199 They don't tell us who their author is. 22:55.200 --> 22:58.550 Notice, they're not pseudonymous. 22:58.548 --> 23:08.448 There's a difference between pseudonymous writings--easy for 23:08.449 --> 23:12.979 me to say--and anonymous. 23:12.980 --> 23:17.040 Anonymous means we don't know who wrote it. 23:17.038 --> 23:19.348 It's published without an author's name being listed. 23:19.348 --> 23:23.088 Pseudonymous means it's published with a false name, 23:23.086 --> 23:25.136 a false author attributed. 23:25.140 --> 23:27.990 The four gospels are not pseudonymous because the 23:27.987 --> 23:30.417 earliest manuscripts of these gospels, 23:30.420 --> 23:33.130 we believe, did not contain the titles, 23:33.130 --> 23:34.900 "Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Mark, 23:34.900 --> 23:36.270 Gospel of Luke, Gospel of John." 23:36.269 --> 23:38.599 They just published the text as it was. 23:38.598 --> 23:41.488 If it ever did have an author's name attached to it, 23:41.490 --> 23:44.610 we don't have any evidence in the manuscript history. 23:44.608 --> 23:48.018 Nor do we have any evidence in any other historical place. 23:48.019 --> 23:52.599 What happened was, these names got attached to 23:52.597 --> 23:54.427 these documents. 23:54.430 --> 23:57.900 And that's, eventually, how they got included into the 23:57.895 --> 23:58.415 canon. 23:58.420 --> 24:01.340 People thought that these documents eventually were 24:01.343 --> 24:04.503 written by the people whose names that they possess. 24:04.500 --> 24:08.060 And therefore, they thought they had some kind 24:08.058 --> 24:10.588 of connection to the apostles. 24:10.588 --> 24:16.128 Notice what the canon list eventually have. 24:16.130 --> 24:17.650 This is on your handout, also. 24:17.650 --> 24:21.590 Look at the Muratorian Canon. 24:21.588 --> 24:24.628 Remember, the word canon just means list. 24:24.630 --> 24:28.700 So this was a list of books that some author believed were 24:28.699 --> 24:32.839 scripture and should be read by Christians and churches. 24:32.838 --> 24:35.748 And he mentions others that he believes they should not. 24:35.750 --> 24:37.540 Sometimes he didn't believe they were bad books. 24:37.538 --> 24:40.378 Sometimes he believed they just weren't supposed to be included 24:40.384 --> 24:41.994 with the highest canonical books. 24:41.990 --> 24:45.600 There's a big debate about whether this canon list was 24:45.599 --> 24:49.279 composed around the year 200 or around the year 400. 24:49.279 --> 24:51.829 Scholars tend to line up on one side or the other. 24:51.828 --> 24:53.988 It used to be when I was in grad school that most people 24:53.986 --> 24:55.746 said, "Oh, it was written around the year 24:55.750 --> 24:56.300 200." 24:56.298 --> 24:58.348 Now, I understand that probably the majority of scholars would 24:58.351 --> 24:58.891 say, "No. 24:58.890 --> 25:00.030 It comes from a later period." 25:00.028 --> 25:02.638 That's not really all that important for us because what's 25:02.636 --> 25:04.646 important for us is to see at this point, 25:04.650 --> 25:07.780 either 200 or 400, what was included and what was 25:07.778 --> 25:08.168 not. 25:08.170 --> 25:13.650 This canon list includes these books that aren't in our bible: 25:13.652 --> 25:16.892 The Wisdom of Solomon, which is actually in the 25:16.885 --> 25:18.855 apocrypha-- and I'll talk about that--and 25:18.855 --> 25:20.125 the Apocalypse of Peter. 25:20.130 --> 25:23.400 We do have an Apocalypse of Peter, along with the Apocalypse 25:23.403 --> 25:23.963 of John. 25:23.960 --> 25:25.330 It's just not in our bible. 25:25.328 --> 25:27.868 It's considered New Testament apocryphal writings. 25:27.868 --> 25:31.668 Also, this writer excluded these books that are in our 25:31.674 --> 25:32.254 bible. 25:32.250 --> 25:35.160 The Letter to the Hebrews, one letter of John, 25:35.160 --> 25:39.290 he rejects the Shepherd of Hermas, which is a book that we 25:39.292 --> 25:43.212 include in a groupings of writing we call the Apostolic 25:43.209 --> 25:44.079 Fathers. 25:44.078 --> 25:46.858 It was written in the second century sometime by a guy in 25:46.864 --> 25:49.354 Rome named Hermas, and it's called The Shepherd. 25:49.348 --> 25:52.878 And he excludes other books he calls gnostic books. 25:52.880 --> 25:55.040 We'll talk later in the semester about what does gnostic 25:55.036 --> 25:55.816 mean at this time. 25:55.818 --> 25:59.458 So notice that this could be a very early canon list. 25:59.460 --> 26:01.620 And it doesn't match our list. 26:01.618 --> 26:03.898 It does have the four gospels, though. 26:03.900 --> 26:08.430 Then, the first time you get a list by any Christian that we 26:08.432 --> 26:10.662 still possess, that is extant, 26:10.661 --> 26:13.421 that survives, that has the twenty-seven books 26:13.423 --> 26:16.253 of the New Testament that is in our bible, 26:16.250 --> 26:19.780 is in the year 367. 26:19.778 --> 26:23.638 It's the Easter letter by the Bishop Athanasius, 26:23.635 --> 26:26.175 who was Bishop of Alexandria. 26:26.180 --> 26:28.290 Bishops at this time, especially of major cities, 26:28.289 --> 26:30.799 would sometimes send around what we call a paschal letter, 26:30.796 --> 26:31.716 an Easter letter. 26:31.720 --> 26:33.390 In which they'd give instructions or different kinds 26:33.394 --> 26:34.384 of things to their churches. 26:34.380 --> 26:36.560 And in one year when he's doing this, he says, 26:36.557 --> 26:39.457 "These are the books that you should read and should not 26:39.462 --> 26:40.192 read." 26:40.190 --> 26:43.930 And this is the first time that the precise twenty-seven books 26:43.928 --> 26:47.358 that he lists are the twenty-seven books that we list. 26:47.358 --> 26:49.948 It's interesting, though, he does list the 26:49.945 --> 26:52.845 letters of Paul last, behind the other letters, 26:52.848 --> 26:56.128 rather than before them, as we have in our list. 26:56.130 --> 26:59.920 And then, we don't really start getting any kind of consistency 26:59.917 --> 27:03.577 with this until into the third and fourth and fifth and sixth 27:03.584 --> 27:04.444 centuries. 27:04.440 --> 27:07.620 So what I'm saying now is it took a long time for this to 27:07.615 --> 27:08.235 solidify. 27:08.240 --> 27:11.650 And one of the things we think made it solidify was the 27:11.651 --> 27:13.801 development of codices, a codex. 27:13.799 --> 27:17.759 What is a codex? 27:17.759 --> 27:22.219 Early books were all scrolls. 27:22.220 --> 27:26.830 So if you had a book as long as the Gospel of Matthew, 27:26.825 --> 27:30.035 it'd take up a pretty thick scroll. 27:30.038 --> 27:33.578 Now, what happens if you want to read not the whole book of 27:33.583 --> 27:36.703 Matthew, but you just want to read Matthew 13:13? 27:36.700 --> 27:39.260 Well, you have to unroll your scroll, and unroll, 27:39.258 --> 27:41.068 roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, 27:41.069 --> 27:41.549 roll. 27:41.548 --> 27:43.578 You have to find the place, then, roll it all back up. 27:43.578 --> 27:46.028 And what happens if you want to move back and forth between a 27:46.027 --> 27:47.207 bunch of different letters? 27:47.210 --> 27:48.620 Well, you have to unroll different scrolls. 27:48.618 --> 27:52.218 Scrolls in synagogues, they didn't have books like 27:52.215 --> 27:52.725 this. 27:52.730 --> 27:54.980 They just had a basket or a box or a place called a 27:54.980 --> 27:55.700 geniza. 27:55.700 --> 27:57.530 And they just had scrolls all in it. 27:57.529 --> 27:59.649 So if you wanted to read Isaiah, it actually was more 27:59.646 --> 28:00.376 than one scroll. 28:00.380 --> 28:03.100 So you'd have to take that scroll out and undo it. 28:03.098 --> 28:05.798 Now, what some scholars may have speculated--we don't know 28:05.800 --> 28:06.560 this for sure. 28:06.558 --> 28:08.068 Some time around this period of time, 28:08.068 --> 28:10.428 in early Christianity, somebody got the big idea, 28:10.430 --> 28:14.450 "Hey, let's cut up the scroll into pages, 28:14.450 --> 28:16.820 and sew the pages together. 28:16.819 --> 28:18.409 And then, put it all in a book. 28:18.410 --> 28:20.390 And that way you can flip around in it a lot easier." 28:20.390 --> 28:23.290 Some scholars have even speculated that Christians may 28:23.289 --> 28:26.629 have been the first to do this, because they were arguing with 28:26.626 --> 28:28.156 their friends, the Jews. 28:28.160 --> 28:30.630 Or their enemies, the Jews, in some cases. 28:30.630 --> 28:34.690 And if you want to prove that Jesus really was born of a 28:34.691 --> 28:37.571 virgin, well, you need to go to that 28:37.566 --> 28:40.416 passage in Isaiah where, at least the Greek 28:40.422 --> 28:42.072 version--it's not in the Hebrew-- 28:42.068 --> 28:46.078 but the Greek version of the Jewish scripture said that this 28:46.076 --> 28:48.246 man would be born of a virgin. 28:48.250 --> 28:51.180 That's the prophecy that we read around Christmas time. 28:51.180 --> 28:52.800 A virgin will bear a son. 28:52.798 --> 28:55.418 But you might have to, also, refer to a Psalm over 28:55.422 --> 28:57.512 here or to another passage over here. 28:57.509 --> 28:59.389 And it's too difficult if you're unraveling scrolls and 28:59.386 --> 28:59.836 everything. 28:59.838 --> 29:01.568 So some people believe that Christians, 29:01.568 --> 29:03.828 precisely because they wanted to proof text a lot, 29:03.828 --> 29:06.578 they wanted to run around through a lot of different 29:06.575 --> 29:10.555 texts, they actually invented the 29:10.557 --> 29:11.497 codex. 29:11.500 --> 29:13.650 I'm not talking about tampons. 29:13.650 --> 29:17.680 Codex, with a "d," okay? 29:17.680 --> 29:21.340 All that means is this is a codex. 29:21.338 --> 29:24.718 It just means pages sewn together and placed within the 29:24.720 --> 29:25.910 covers of a book. 29:25.910 --> 29:28.590 So when you see the word "book" 29:28.586 --> 29:32.266 in ancient Greek or Latin, they didn't think of this. 29:32.269 --> 29:33.649 They thought of scrolls. 29:33.650 --> 29:36.130 So when you see the word book, the mechanical thing they're 29:36.134 --> 29:37.724 actually talking about is a scroll. 29:37.720 --> 29:42.200 This was an interesting new invention of a new piece of 29:42.201 --> 29:43.281 technology. 29:43.279 --> 29:48.169 Maybe not quite as revolutionary as the computer, 29:48.166 --> 29:49.386 but close. 29:49.390 --> 29:52.220 Because all of a sudden, cumbersome scrolls-- 29:52.220 --> 29:56.370 what would be contained in the codices we have-- 29:56.368 --> 29:59.288 the plural of this is, is either codexes sometimes, 29:59.288 --> 30:02.038 or if you want to act like you actually know Greek-- 30:02.038 --> 30:05.128 I mean, Latin, you'd use the old Latinized 30:05.125 --> 30:06.475 plural, codices. 30:06.480 --> 30:08.620 And you'll see both of those written in different sources. 30:08.618 --> 30:15.358 A Codex of the bible would be pretty big, maybe that thick and 30:15.363 --> 30:16.693 that wide. 30:16.690 --> 30:19.630 The ones we have, they are stored in the Vatican 30:19.626 --> 30:20.186 Museum. 30:20.190 --> 30:22.280 We have a few of them that survived from this period. 30:22.278 --> 30:24.678 They're pretty impressive looking. 30:24.680 --> 30:27.880 But they would be big, but still that would be a lot 30:27.884 --> 30:31.724 easier to transport and handle than a whole box or closet full 30:31.717 --> 30:32.657 of scrolls. 30:32.660 --> 30:37.590 So this was a very innovative piece of technology. 30:37.588 --> 30:42.028 But one problem that this also caused is if you're going to put 30:42.031 --> 30:44.661 all the books, the documents that you think 30:44.655 --> 30:47.125 are scripture, between two covers and not just 30:47.131 --> 30:49.991 have a bunch of scrolls lying in a box or a closet-- 30:49.990 --> 30:51.560 with the scrolls, you can take one out and put 30:51.557 --> 30:52.007 another in. 30:52.009 --> 30:54.259 If you decide that you think Daniel is not scripture, 30:54.261 --> 30:56.511 or you think the Revelation of John is not scripture, 30:56.513 --> 30:57.903 just take it out of the box. 30:57.900 --> 31:01.040 Put it somewhere else in the synagogue or the church. 31:01.038 --> 31:04.878 But once you start publishing things in between covers, 31:04.881 --> 31:09.221 you actually have to decide what goes in and what goes out. 31:09.220 --> 31:11.750 And so around this time, the third, fourth, 31:11.746 --> 31:14.326 and fifth century, we get different codices, 31:14.333 --> 31:16.563 different codexes, that is books. 31:16.558 --> 31:19.658 And we can tell, then, what sorts of books they 31:19.657 --> 31:21.677 included in their scripture. 31:21.680 --> 31:26.970 And notice on your handout just some examples of this. 31:26.970 --> 31:30.850 The canon of Mommson, early fourth century canon, 31:30.851 --> 31:33.921 includes Matthew, Mark, John, and Luke, 31:33.923 --> 31:35.383 in that order. 31:35.380 --> 31:39.260 So it has our four and only our four, but in a different order. 31:39.259 --> 31:42.239 It excludes the Letter to the Hebrews, the Letter of James, 31:42.240 --> 31:43.320 the Letter of Jude. 31:43.318 --> 31:45.178 And this is one of the interesting things about it. 31:45.180 --> 31:48.280 It argues that the books must be exactly twenty-four, 31:48.281 --> 31:51.511 because Revelation 4:10 has twenty-four elders in God's 31:51.505 --> 31:52.455 throne room. 31:52.460 --> 31:57.680 Convincing argument; right? 31:57.680 --> 32:01.430 Codex Sinaiticus, which is around the year 350, 32:01.425 --> 32:05.905 we think, is one of the earliest codices of the bible we 32:05.905 --> 32:06.635 have. 32:06.640 --> 32:09.320 It includes the Letter of Barnabus, which we don't have in 32:09.315 --> 32:12.125 our bibles, but we do possess it, and the Shepherd of Hermas, 32:12.131 --> 32:13.681 which I already talked about. 32:13.680 --> 32:16.440 Which was written somewhere around the year 100 in Rome or 32:16.440 --> 32:17.360 right after that. 32:17.359 --> 32:19.509 It also excludes Jude. 32:19.509 --> 32:22.469 So it has two books that we don't include and excludes one 32:22.469 --> 32:23.559 that we do include. 32:23.558 --> 32:26.268 Codex Claromontanus from the sixth century, 32:26.269 --> 32:28.339 so in the 500s, includes Matthew, 32:28.336 --> 32:29.946 John, Mark, and Luke. 32:29.950 --> 32:31.570 Again, it has all four, but they're in a different 32:31.566 --> 32:31.826 order. 32:31.828 --> 32:35.428 It has the Letter of Barnabus, the Shepherd of Hermas, 32:35.428 --> 32:38.348 the Acts of Paul, along with the Acts of the 32:38.347 --> 32:41.197 Apostles, and the Revelation of Peter. 32:41.200 --> 32:43.430 So it has that Revelation of Peter, again. 32:43.430 --> 32:46.430 It excludes Paul's letter to the Philippians, 32:46.432 --> 32:49.232 which is in our bible, Hebrews and 1 and 2 32:49.230 --> 32:50.460 Thessalonians. 32:50.460 --> 32:53.720 Now, notice that means that some people would say that they 32:53.723 --> 32:56.263 use that 367 date, when Bishop Athanasius sent 32:56.257 --> 32:57.887 around his Easter letter. 32:57.890 --> 33:00.700 And they say that's when the Christian canon of the New 33:00.699 --> 33:01.739 Testament was set. 33:01.740 --> 33:03.380 Because it's the earliest that we have. 33:03.380 --> 33:04.370 But that's not really right. 33:04.369 --> 33:07.159 He was just bishop of one area. 33:07.160 --> 33:09.860 His letter was not binding on anybody else, 33:09.864 --> 33:13.024 except the churches in his Alexandrian diocese. 33:13.019 --> 33:15.169 So it didn't set the canon. 33:15.170 --> 33:18.400 367 is simply the time when we get the earliest list that 33:18.401 --> 33:21.981 matches our list of twenty-seven books of the New Testament. 33:21.980 --> 33:24.030 But you can see when you look at all these different codices, 33:24.028 --> 33:27.038 different canon lists, from a century later in the 33:27.038 --> 33:28.908 400s, two centuries later in the 33:28.913 --> 33:31.153 500s, three centuries later in the 600s, 33:31.150 --> 33:33.420 you still get different lists. 33:33.420 --> 33:38.920 So it took a long time for the twenty books that we have to get 33:38.916 --> 33:40.066 settled on. 33:40.068 --> 33:44.008 And we'll talk about how that actually happened, 33:44.013 --> 33:45.193 also, still. 33:45.190 --> 33:50.650 What really happened was consensus. 33:50.650 --> 33:53.440 Different bishops in different major cities and different 33:53.441 --> 33:56.281 councils would sometimes try to decide, and they'd put out 33:56.280 --> 33:56.880 decrees. 33:56.880 --> 34:01.080 But they never completely settled the question for all 34:01.079 --> 34:04.329 Christians everywhere around the world. 34:04.329 --> 34:06.199 This is surprising. 34:06.200 --> 34:10.340 But what counts as the bible is still not agreed upon by 34:10.340 --> 34:12.600 Christians around the world. 34:12.599 --> 34:15.609 So generally, the canon of the New Testament, 34:15.612 --> 34:19.112 our twenty-seven books, is accepted by all Christian 34:19.106 --> 34:20.746 churches, generally. 34:20.750 --> 34:25.030 Except that the Revelation of John is still not part of the 34:25.025 --> 34:28.925 lectionary or canon in some Eastern and Middle Eastern 34:28.931 --> 34:29.891 churches. 34:29.889 --> 34:31.839 So, for example, if you--I can't remember which 34:31.842 --> 34:34.262 of these there are--but there are churches all through the 34:34.262 --> 34:35.752 Middle East and the East, also. 34:35.750 --> 34:39.010 And some of them don't have the Revelation of John in their New 34:39.009 --> 34:39.639 Testament. 34:39.639 --> 34:42.209 The canon of all the scripture therefore has never been 34:42.206 --> 34:44.676 completely the same for all Christians everywhere. 34:44.679 --> 34:48.189 The Western Roman Catholic canon, and the Greek Slavonic 34:48.190 --> 34:50.720 bibles, have for example, 34:50.715 --> 34:54.595 Tobit, part of the Old Testament, 34:54.599 --> 34:58.759 Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, 34:58.760 --> 35:01.500 Baruch, and the letter of Jeremiah, 35:01.500 --> 35:03.710 and 1 and 2 Maccabees. 35:03.710 --> 35:06.730 They also have a longer version of Daniel and a longer version 35:06.726 --> 35:07.316 of Esther. 35:07.320 --> 35:11.490 So the Western Roman Catholic canon and Greek and Slavonic 35:11.485 --> 35:14.625 bibles will include our canon that you have, 35:14.628 --> 35:15.578 probably. 35:15.579 --> 35:17.569 But they'll also, maybe, include things that if 35:17.572 --> 35:19.742 you grew up in a Protestant church, was not in your 35:19.739 --> 35:20.649 Protestant bible. 35:20.650 --> 35:24.750 The Greek and Slavonic bibles also accept 1 Esdras, 35:24.750 --> 35:29.700 the Prayer of Manasseh, Psalm 151--they have another 35:29.704 --> 35:31.784 Psalm-- and 3 Maccabees, 35:31.775 --> 35:33.565 another Maccabean book. 35:33.570 --> 35:35.530 You don't need to memorize all this. 35:35.530 --> 35:38.290 I'm just trying to give you an idea of the variety of different 35:38.289 --> 35:40.649 canons for different churches in different regions. 35:40.650 --> 35:44.820 The Slavonic and Latin Vulgate also accept Psalm 151 and 3 35:44.820 --> 35:45.700 Maccabees. 35:45.699 --> 35:50.349 And the Greek canon also accepts 4 Maccabees. 35:50.349 --> 35:54.279 Why is the Protestant canon like it is? 35:54.280 --> 35:57.160 Well, at the time of the Reformation, 35:57.159 --> 36:00.259 Roman Catholics had not only the 27 books of the New 36:00.255 --> 36:02.435 Testament canon that we now have, 36:02.440 --> 36:05.220 and they had what Protestants came to accept as the Old 36:05.221 --> 36:05.841 Testament. 36:05.840 --> 36:09.520 But they had several other books that we now call the 36:09.516 --> 36:13.896 Apocrypha, such as Judith or Tobit or the 1 and 2 Maccabees. 36:13.900 --> 36:16.970 When you buy your bible, if you buy the one I ordered, 36:16.969 --> 36:19.809 it's called the New Oxford Annotated Bible with 36:19.806 --> 36:20.846 Apocrypha. 36:20.849 --> 36:23.469 And they take these certain books, and they put them in a 36:23.469 --> 36:24.919 special section of the bible. 36:24.920 --> 36:27.440 To show that they're not exactly part of the Hebrew 36:27.438 --> 36:30.258 Bible, but they're also not part of the New Testament. 36:30.260 --> 36:32.720 But early Christians accepted all these books. 36:32.719 --> 36:36.279 Early Christians didn't read the Hebrew bible in Hebrew. 36:36.280 --> 36:38.250 They all read it in Greek. 36:38.250 --> 36:41.010 So when they were first dealing with Jewish scripture, 36:41.007 --> 36:43.867 they didn't read it in Hebrew, they read it in Greek. 36:43.869 --> 36:47.779 There were several other Greek Jewish documents that weren't 36:47.777 --> 36:50.357 part of the traditional Hebrew bible. 36:50.360 --> 36:52.600 But they were still accepted by a lot of Jews, 36:52.596 --> 36:55.176 and therefore by a lot of Christians as scripture. 36:55.179 --> 36:58.099 Those books were accepted by Catholics, by Roman Catholics 36:58.097 --> 37:00.397 and by Christians up until the Reformation. 37:00.400 --> 37:02.640 At the Reformation, the reformers, 37:02.639 --> 37:05.949 Martin Luther, Calvin, Melanchthon, 37:05.949 --> 37:08.879 they decided that--this was, remember, 37:08.880 --> 37:13.320 after the Renaissance and the beginnings of the rediscovery of 37:13.322 --> 37:17.842 the study of Greek and Latin text in the original documents. 37:17.840 --> 37:19.600 They wanted to go back to the Hebrew. 37:19.599 --> 37:20.859 So they learned Hebrew. 37:20.860 --> 37:23.140 They started reading the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew, 37:23.141 --> 37:24.891 not in Greek or Latin translation. 37:24.889 --> 37:27.539 They, also, tried to come up with the correct Greek text of 37:27.539 --> 37:29.089 the New Testament documents, 37:29.092 --> 37:30.512 by doing textual criticism. 37:30.510 --> 37:33.530 They were practicing what was burgeoning scholarship of the 37:33.529 --> 37:35.549 period, in the sixteenth century, 37:35.554 --> 37:37.664 to go back to the original texts, 37:37.659 --> 37:39.049 as close as they could get. 37:39.050 --> 37:41.830 What these reformers then did, they said, "Wait a minute. 37:41.829 --> 37:46.059 Look at all these Greek Jewish books that aren't part of the 37:46.063 --> 37:47.143 Hebrew Bible. 37:47.139 --> 37:48.349 They don't exist in Hebrew. 37:48.349 --> 37:49.609 They only exist in Greek." 37:49.610 --> 37:51.170 So they said, "We're not going to accept 37:51.166 --> 37:52.686 those as part of the Old Testament." 37:52.690 --> 37:56.920 They decided to go back to what the Hebrew texts of the Old 37:56.923 --> 38:00.943 Testament, and not accept the Greek Jewish documents. 38:00.940 --> 38:02.900 The Roman Catholics decided, "No. 38:02.900 --> 38:04.870 We're going to keep these documents, also." 38:04.869 --> 38:09.099 Which is why the Roman Catholic Old Testament is larger than the 38:09.097 --> 38:10.907 Protestant Old Testament. 38:10.909 --> 38:12.989 The Roman Catholic Old Testament has the same books 38:12.994 --> 38:14.544 that the Protestant Old Testament has, 38:14.539 --> 38:16.749 but they kept these other Greek Jewish documents. 38:16.750 --> 38:19.510 We call those the Apocrypha, "the hidden 38:19.505 --> 38:21.695 writings," is what it means. 38:21.699 --> 38:21.909 Yes, sir? 38:21.909 --> 38:22.939 Student: > 38:22.940 --> 38:24.200 Prof: When and how did Jewish scripture become settled? 38:24.199 --> 38:27.939 The Jewish bible started developing in the Rabbinic 38:27.936 --> 38:28.606 period. 38:28.610 --> 38:30.920 So what the rabbis--now, this is all after Jesus and 38:30.922 --> 38:31.242 Paul. 38:31.239 --> 38:32.719 So we're talking about the third, fourth and fifth, 38:32.724 --> 38:33.264 sixth centuries. 38:33.260 --> 38:38.470 They started teaching people that only the Hebrew scriptures 38:38.472 --> 38:40.862 in Hebrew should be used. 38:40.860 --> 38:42.770 In other words, the rabbis, eventually, 38:42.771 --> 38:44.991 started rejecting the use of the Greek bible, 38:44.987 --> 38:45.437 also. 38:45.440 --> 38:46.770 This took time, though. 38:46.768 --> 38:50.158 Because at the time of Paul and Jesus, more Jews actually had 38:50.164 --> 38:53.504 Greek as their first language than had Hebrew as their first 38:53.503 --> 38:54.243 language. 38:54.239 --> 38:57.389 Most Jews in the first century would've used Greek as their 38:57.393 --> 38:59.843 first language, not Hebrew or even Aramaic. 38:59.840 --> 39:01.990 So they read their scripture in Greek. 39:01.989 --> 39:04.539 And some people would believe--this is a debated 39:04.539 --> 39:06.669 question-- I would even say that one 39:06.670 --> 39:10.050 reason the rabbis started using Hebrew more and taking the 39:10.047 --> 39:13.187 Hebrew Bible is because they were reacting against the 39:13.186 --> 39:16.776 predominance of Christianity, as it grew more and more strong. 39:16.780 --> 39:20.990 So as Rabbinic ideas and as Rabbinic practices developed in 39:20.992 --> 39:23.942 late antiquity, they taught that they should 39:23.936 --> 39:26.596 reject the Greek bible, not use the Greek bible. 39:26.599 --> 39:27.659 Except, I mean, you could use it, 39:27.655 --> 39:28.775 but not use it as authoritative. 39:28.780 --> 39:31.320 And they started teaching that the Hebrew Bible should be the 39:31.322 --> 39:32.172 one that Jews use. 39:32.170 --> 39:34.930 So the Jews today, what they call it is Tanakh, 39:34.925 --> 39:38.455 which is an acronym from Torah and then, prophet--the Torah, 39:38.461 --> 39:41.101 the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. 39:41.099 --> 39:43.529 So they will call their bible Tanakh often, 39:43.530 --> 39:44.690 or just the bible. 39:44.690 --> 39:48.430 And it includes only those Hebrew documents that the rabbis 39:48.431 --> 39:51.531 eventually said were part of the Hebrew Bible. 39:51.530 --> 39:52.990 Good question. 39:52.989 --> 39:57.059 So notice how Jews have one bible that's basically centered 39:57.063 --> 39:58.753 on the ancient Hebrew. 39:58.750 --> 40:01.400 Protestants have followed the rabbis, in a sense, 40:01.400 --> 40:04.660 and accepted the Hebrew Bible as being the Old Testament. 40:04.659 --> 40:07.579 Roman Catholics actually followed more what was ancient 40:07.577 --> 40:10.927 Christian tradition of accepting not only the Hebrew Bible, 40:10.929 --> 40:13.789 although it was translated into Latin and Greek most of the 40:13.793 --> 40:16.023 time, But also Jewish documents that 40:16.016 --> 40:18.996 came from that period and were surviving in Greek, 40:19.001 --> 40:19.611 itself. 40:19.610 --> 40:22.800 So that's why Christian, Protestants have one set of 40:22.802 --> 40:26.622 texts, Roman Catholics have another, and Jews have another. 40:26.619 --> 40:30.089 Now, what about those Episcopalians? 40:30.090 --> 40:31.800 As one of my friends says, "Those 40:31.800 --> 40:32.910 whiskey-palians." 40:32.909 --> 40:35.799 They decided to be in the middle. 40:35.800 --> 40:39.130 So they wanted to be somewhat Protestant and somewhat 40:39.126 --> 40:39.826 Catholic. 40:39.829 --> 40:43.299 So if you go to an Anglican church, they will also, 40:43.302 --> 40:46.222 most of the time, accept the Roman Catholic 40:46.219 --> 40:48.859 canon, along with Roman Catholics. 40:48.860 --> 40:51.140 Even though a lot of Episcopalians and Anglicans--a 40:51.143 --> 40:53.563 lot of them, not all of them--will consider themselves 40:53.563 --> 40:54.253 Protestant. 40:54.250 --> 40:58.020 So Anglicans follow the Roman Catholic canon a bit more. 40:58.018 --> 40:59.908 Protestants and Jews have different ones. 40:59.909 --> 41:02.159 That's kind of where we are right now. 41:02.159 --> 41:04.899 But notice how long it took us to get there, 41:04.900 --> 41:06.750 how many centuries it took. 41:06.750 --> 41:11.790 Now, the big question is who did it and why did they do it? 41:11.789 --> 41:14.749 Basically, some councils in the early church, 41:14.751 --> 41:17.711 councils that would be called by the Emperor, 41:17.713 --> 41:19.933 for example, by Constantine or his 41:19.934 --> 41:21.084 successors. 41:21.079 --> 41:24.299 Sometimes they would get so tired of churches--you know how 41:24.304 --> 41:26.254 Christians squabble all the time. 41:26.250 --> 41:28.780 You know, when I was a kid growing up in Texas, 41:28.777 --> 41:31.747 one of our sayings was, "Let's make like a Baptist 41:31.746 --> 41:33.226 church and split." 41:33.230 --> 41:37.060 So, you know, Christians are always 41:37.056 --> 41:38.516 squabbling. 41:38.518 --> 41:41.448 So the emperors would try to call together councils to get 41:41.452 --> 41:42.792 them to agree on things. 41:42.789 --> 41:45.089 To get them to agree on doctrine, to get them to agree 41:45.088 --> 41:45.738 on the canon. 41:45.739 --> 41:48.259 So some councils did try to set the canon. 41:48.260 --> 41:50.070 And so you had some councils doing this. 41:50.070 --> 41:53.300 But generally, the canon developed over time 41:53.300 --> 41:56.380 through a process of general consensus. 41:56.380 --> 41:58.430 And then, as I said, through these different 41:58.434 --> 42:01.114 institutions of Christianity ending up coming to somewhat 42:01.112 --> 42:02.262 different decisions. 42:02.260 --> 42:04.010 But why do they include things? 42:04.010 --> 42:06.800 Why were some texts included in the New Testament and other text 42:06.802 --> 42:08.402 not included in the New Testament? 42:08.400 --> 42:12.440 The reason is not the one that most modern people think is the 42:12.443 --> 42:13.043 reason. 42:13.039 --> 42:15.939 Most modern people say, "Why is this text 42:15.936 --> 42:16.706 scripture? 42:16.710 --> 42:17.850 Why is it canon?" 42:17.849 --> 42:19.729 And most Christians will say, "Because it is 42:19.733 --> 42:20.403 inspired." 42:20.400 --> 42:23.090 That's not what the ancients believed. 42:23.090 --> 42:24.860 They believed that inspiration--there were lots of 42:24.864 --> 42:26.894 texts that were inspired, and there were different levels 42:26.891 --> 42:27.581 of inspiration. 42:27.579 --> 42:29.779 So just because a text is inspired, 42:29.780 --> 42:33.510 or even if you believe it's inspired by God and that God 42:33.505 --> 42:37.355 told somebody to write it, that wasn't enough for ancient 42:37.362 --> 42:40.962 Christians to include it in their bible, in their canon. 42:40.960 --> 42:43.730 So inspiration, contrary to modern assumptions 42:43.728 --> 42:47.298 was not the criteria you hear ancient people talk about. 42:47.300 --> 42:50.830 Apostolic authorship was one thing they talk about. 42:50.829 --> 42:53.759 So for example, Papias and other ancient 42:53.762 --> 42:55.442 writers, they said, "Well, 42:55.440 --> 42:56.950 we accept the Gospel of Mark because, 42:56.949 --> 42:58.499 well, if it wasn't written by an apostle, 42:58.500 --> 43:00.110 it was written by someone very close to an apostle. 43:00.110 --> 43:03.150 And it was Peter's gospel that Mark just published. 43:03.150 --> 43:06.350 Or Luke published Paul's gospel." 43:06.349 --> 43:09.949 So, often, some people in the ancient world, 43:09.949 --> 43:12.029 if there was a gospel they didn't like, 43:12.030 --> 43:13.320 they didn't want it to be included, 43:13.320 --> 43:17.060 they would argue against it being authored by an apostle. 43:17.059 --> 43:19.589 So that at least, they claimed for some that 43:19.592 --> 43:23.072 through these texts that they wanted apostolic authorship or 43:23.067 --> 43:25.067 close to apostolic authorship. 43:25.070 --> 43:29.070 The problem was we can tell historically that these texts 43:29.067 --> 43:31.277 were not written by apostles. 43:31.280 --> 43:33.960 Nor do we believe they were written even by the close 43:33.961 --> 43:35.201 disciples of apostles. 43:35.199 --> 43:37.299 They're anonymous texts. 43:37.300 --> 43:40.150 So if that was the reason they were included in the ancient 43:40.148 --> 43:42.268 world, it's not the reason they're 43:42.266 --> 43:44.476 still in now, because modern scholars don't 43:44.483 --> 43:47.143 believe the apostles actually wrote all of these texts in the 43:47.137 --> 43:47.887 New Testament. 43:47.889 --> 43:51.419 Flexibly, here are the criteria. 43:51.420 --> 43:54.630 If it's not necessarily apostleship, and it's not 43:54.628 --> 43:57.368 inspiration, what are the real reasons? 43:57.369 --> 44:00.759 First, it seems that the text that at least these people 44:00.764 --> 44:04.594 believed were the most ancient and had the closest proximity to 44:04.592 --> 44:05.212 Jesus. 44:05.210 --> 44:07.450 Like I said, they wanted them to be traced 44:07.445 --> 44:08.695 back to the apostles. 44:08.699 --> 44:11.379 So even if they weren't, it's because that's what people 44:11.384 --> 44:12.804 believed about these texts. 44:12.800 --> 44:16.670 A second big reason was simply general acceptance. 44:16.670 --> 44:20.940 Apparently, the texts that were the most popular over a bigger 44:20.940 --> 44:24.790 geographical space tended to be the ones that got in. 44:24.789 --> 44:26.839 Now, it's true, there were different gospels 44:26.842 --> 44:29.712 that were popular in different parts of the Mediterranean. 44:29.710 --> 44:31.780 So for example, the Gospel of Thomas seems to 44:31.782 --> 44:34.612 have been especially popular in certain parts of the East. 44:34.610 --> 44:37.650 And in Rome there would be other document--or different 44:37.652 --> 44:39.232 parts of the Roman Empire. 44:39.230 --> 44:41.170 But, generally, as time went on, 44:41.173 --> 44:45.063 it seems like Christian leaders tried to include those gospels, 44:45.063 --> 44:48.453 those documents that were more generally accepted. 44:48.449 --> 44:49.979 In fact, if you wanted to argue against, 44:49.980 --> 44:51.490 say, the Letter of Hebrews being included, 44:51.489 --> 44:53.579 you could say, "But all the people in the 44:53.577 --> 44:56.637 East don't accept the Letter of Hebrews as part of their canon, 44:56.639 --> 44:57.999 so we shouldn't, either." 44:58.000 --> 44:59.760 So general acceptance was big. 44:59.760 --> 45:03.710 But the most important criterion--this probably won't 45:03.706 --> 45:08.406 shock you, especially if you're as cynical as I am--theological 45:08.413 --> 45:09.783 acceptability. 45:09.780 --> 45:13.430 People tended to want to include the documents that 45:13.425 --> 45:15.535 matched their own theology. 45:15.539 --> 45:18.729 In other words, you believed something was 45:18.733 --> 45:22.163 apostolic if it taught stuff you believed. 45:22.159 --> 45:24.689 So, of course, documents that did teach that 45:24.686 --> 45:28.036 the creator God was an evil demonic god and not the father 45:28.036 --> 45:30.416 of Jesus Christ-- and there are early Christian 45:30.418 --> 45:33.258 documents that teach this-- they were excluded. 45:33.260 --> 45:34.440 Why were they excluded? 45:34.440 --> 45:36.590 Well, some of them claimed to be by apostles. 45:36.590 --> 45:39.590 Nobody exactly knew how old they were. 45:39.590 --> 45:43.180 They were excluded because they taught a doctrine that other 45:43.177 --> 45:46.337 Christians thought was heretical and not accurate. 45:46.340 --> 45:48.580 So when you say, though, theological 45:48.577 --> 45:52.157 appropriateness is what ended up being the most important 45:52.159 --> 45:55.229 criterion for including stuff in the canon, 45:55.230 --> 45:57.900 you actually have to say then, "Appropriate to 45:57.896 --> 45:58.586 whom?" 45:58.590 --> 46:00.520 And of course that means you have a judgment call. 46:00.518 --> 46:02.588 But generally, the documents that came to be 46:02.594 --> 46:04.764 accepted were the ones that people we call the 46:04.764 --> 46:06.264 "proto-orthodox." 46:06.260 --> 46:08.270 This is a term that Bart Ehrman uses in his textbook. 46:08.271 --> 46:08.891 You'll see it. 46:08.889 --> 46:10.419 And he explains what he means by this. 46:10.420 --> 46:12.090 In the second century you can't really use the term 46:12.088 --> 46:13.158 "orthodox Christianity" 46:13.155 --> 46:14.525 versus "heretical Christianity," 46:14.525 --> 46:16.525 because there wasn't-- orthodoxy hadn't been 46:16.525 --> 46:17.435 established, yet. 46:17.440 --> 46:19.680 It was all in a state of flux. 46:19.679 --> 46:21.379 People believed all kinds of different things. 46:21.380 --> 46:24.380 And what this class will do is talk about how did orthodox-- 46:24.380 --> 46:26.480 what became orthodox Christianity--how did it become 46:26.480 --> 46:28.480 orthodox Christianity, rather than one of the other 46:28.476 --> 46:29.266 kinds of Christianity? 46:29.268 --> 46:30.928 And we'll talk about that repeatedly. 46:30.929 --> 46:33.539 In the second century, though, it's anachronistic to 46:33.536 --> 46:36.856 talk about orthodox Christianity versus heretical Christianity. 46:36.860 --> 46:39.070 So what some scholars have done is create this word 46:39.074 --> 46:40.364 "proto-orthodox." 46:40.360 --> 46:44.230 And all they mean is those Christians who believe the kinds 46:44.230 --> 46:48.240 of stuff that would later be proclaimed as orthodox in creeds 46:48.235 --> 46:49.365 and councils. 46:49.369 --> 46:53.279 So what happened was the people who were the Christians in the 46:53.284 --> 46:55.994 second century, and the third century, 46:55.989 --> 46:58.879 who resembled what later became Nicean, 46:58.880 --> 47:02.480 Orthodox Christianity, they were the ones who had the 47:02.478 --> 47:05.558 most say, eventually, in what became part 47:05.561 --> 47:06.581 of the bible. 47:06.579 --> 47:09.759 So in the end, the canon is a list of the 47:09.764 --> 47:15.104 winners in the historical debate to define orthodox Christianity. 47:15.099 --> 47:17.499 Questions? 47:17.500 --> 47:18.750 Comments? 47:18.750 --> 47:20.120 Outbursts? 47:20.119 --> 47:23.009 Rantings and ravings? 47:23.010 --> 47:24.410 No? 47:24.409 --> 47:26.049 Yes, sir? 47:26.050 --> 47:34.780 Student: > 47:34.780 --> 47:35.460 Prof: Okay. 47:35.460 --> 47:37.300 If the books were written anonymously how did the names 47:37.297 --> 47:38.657 that are associated with them… 47:38.659 --> 47:46.029 Student: > 47:46.030 --> 47:51.340 Prof: Yeah, most of the stuff that we'll 47:51.338 --> 47:55.038 say has a wrong name attached in the New Testament is not 47:55.039 --> 47:57.549 anonymous, although there are some. 47:57.550 --> 47:58.640 It's pseudonymous. 47:58.639 --> 48:00.269 But there are some that are anonymous, too. 48:00.268 --> 48:02.778 The gospels we say are anonymous, because they didn't 48:02.780 --> 48:05.050 come attached with a name, as far as we know. 48:05.050 --> 48:07.360 How did those names get attached? 48:07.360 --> 48:10.210 By different people--partly it was because they wanted this 48:10.206 --> 48:12.166 text to be authoritative in some way, 48:12.170 --> 48:15.590 and so they tended to attach the name of a particular apostle 48:15.585 --> 48:17.575 to them or a particular disciple. 48:17.579 --> 48:18.899 Or in some ways, for example, 48:18.902 --> 48:21.362 the Gospel of Luke may have gotten its name Luke, 48:21.360 --> 48:22.990 because in the Acts of the Apostles, 48:22.989 --> 48:24.909 which is also written by the same author, 48:24.909 --> 48:28.219 Luke is an actual character who follows Paul around. 48:28.219 --> 48:31.029 So it may have been that the name Luke and the Acts of the 48:31.034 --> 48:33.804 Apostles got connected with the acts of the apostles, 48:33.800 --> 48:35.950 and the Gospel of Luke as its author. 48:35.949 --> 48:37.669 So sometimes, it's something in the text 48:37.672 --> 48:40.062 itself that may have prompted someone to think that. 48:40.059 --> 48:42.109 Often, we just don't know how it got it, and it just happened 48:42.105 --> 48:43.975 because somebody just said, "It's authoritative. 48:43.980 --> 48:45.230 It must've been written by an apostle." 48:45.230 --> 48:46.510 We have time for one more question. 48:46.510 --> 48:47.190 I think I saw a hand up. 48:47.190 --> 48:48.860 Then, we need to dismiss. 48:48.860 --> 48:50.270 No more questions? 48:50.269 --> 48:50.659 Okay. 48:50.659 --> 48:51.159 See you next time. 48:51.159 --> 48:53.559 Remember, we are meeting on Friday. 48:53.559 --> 48:58.999