Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: c9037544@cc.newcastle.edu.au (David Williams) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: The canons Message-ID: Date: 25 Mar 91 10:16:12 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of Newcastle, AUSTRALIA Lines: 54 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , poc@cathedral.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu (Pedro Oscar Cubillos) writes: > > I have a question for this group. How did each of the Christian > religions got to adopt their canon of the OT and NT or whatever they call > the books of the Bible. > > My background: I do not believe in God but I am interested in > the history of religions. > > Thanks > Oscar The Old Testament was organised by Ezra, and a 120-strong group of students that he organised (the name eludes me for the moment). They had certain criteria for a book before they called it a part of the "Word of God". Christians accept the Old Testament, due to this, and that Jesus and the apostles quoted so freely from it. (They did not quota from the Apocrypha, except for two quotations in Jude. Paul however, quoted from pagan poets twice.) When Jesus refers to "The Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets" he is referring to the whole Old Testament, in the three divisions as arranged by Ezra and his school. All of the New Testament books were written before the end of the first century. The authors were contemporaries of Jesus, such as Mark and Luke, or his actual apostles, such as Matthew, John and Peter, his actual brothers (ie: children of Joseph and Mary) such as James and Jude, and Paul, who had a revelation of Jesus on the Damascus road. Such authority gives some weight to their writings. Peter refers to Pauls' writings as scripture, and elsewhere quotes from the book of Luke. Paul himself claims authority for his writings (However, books in the Apocrypha deny any inspiration, such as the conclusion to II Maccabees). And in the field of numerics, 6 is the number of man, and 11 is the number of revelation. 6 x 11 corresponds to the 66 books of the Bible, and indicates it is the revelation of God to man. In the book of Exodus, chapter 25, the lamp-stand is a type, or symbol, of the Word of God. The seven-fold flame refers to the Holy Spirit, and the number of all the ornamentations and such comes to 66. There are 39 on one side, and 27 on another, the exact number of the books in the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Hopefully, this answers the general side of your question, as to the Bible as a whole. Hopefully others will be able to answer more specific parts. The books of the Apocrypha are rather dubious (apocrypha means 'mysterious'). The books of the Maccabbees are good, in that they are history, but others, such as the conclusion to Daniel are quite basically just stories. The book of Mormon is also just a story, many parts contradicting the rest of the Bible, or in fact just an extract from it, Isaiah being a favourite. The fact that everyone seems to use King James english in books that are supposed to be very old is a bit of a giveaway...I must finish here...I am being plagued by a mad mail writer! Sorry ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | David Williams | University of Newcastle, Australia | | c9037544@cc.newcastle.edu.au | Computer Science student | | c9037544@jupiter.newcastle.edu.au | | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | "The decision of Random Numbers is too important to be left to chance !" | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------