History of the Church I: Week Four

The Canon: How did we get the Bible?  Why the Bible is important: read p. 57/show video  Early Christians considered the Bible as one book (Jerome – 4 th century)  In the ancient world testament meant a covenant or a special relationship between two parties  The word canon meant measuring stick in Greek  Split in two: the O.T. promised; N.T. fulfilled

The Canon  “The Scriptures were composed through the Spirit of God, and have both a meaning that is obvious, and another which is hidden from most readers…The whole law is spiritual, but the inspired meaning is not recognized by all- only by those who are gifted with the grace of the Holy Spirit in the world of wisdom and knowledge.” - Origen

Apocrypha  Luke 24:44 – Jesus referred to the 39 books in Palestine which were the O.T. – these are the same 39 books in the modern Protestant Bible  Elsewhere, the Greek Septuagint added the books of the Apocrypha which others outside of Palestine accepted as canon  There is evidence to suggest Jesus nor the apostles never quoted the Apocrypha  Augustine/Reformation

How did we get the New Testament? 1. Self-evidencing quality – Justin Martyr, Tatian, Augustine 2. Used in Christian worship (Col. 4:16) 3. It had to have a tie to an apostle (either written by or had close contact with)

Canon Trials  First threat to the Canon: Marcion 1.A.D Wealthy ship owner 3.Thought O.T. was evil – Only accepted parts of Luke and Paul’s letters as canonical 4.He was ex- communicated in A.D. 144 but his churches flourished 5.Church now had to face heresy about what was the real Bible

Marcion Solution  Church decided to restore the Gospels and link them to the book of Acts to form the N.T.  O.T. was needed to understand N.T. so it was restored as well  Two important points:  1) The faith of the Christian had to reconcile wrath/love  2) Christianity is a historical faith

Montanus  Late in the 2 nd century, the church started to become ecclesiastical or an accepted institution in the Roman world  With this change came new problems. In particular, the church became more secularized  Some believed the church was becoming too much a part of the world

Montanus  Sometime between A.D. 156 and 172, a man and his two prophetesses appeared in Asia Minor  They claimed to be filled with H.S. and said the end times were upon us  They spoke in a state of ecstasy in which in their bodies appeared to be in-dwelt  They also claimed that anyone who spoke against them blasphemed the H.S.

Montanus Solution  Montanus believed the age of Christ and a new age of the Spirit was upon us  How could the church keep the message of Christ and the apostles witness central to the teachings of the Church?  The answer is to make all later Christian teachings center in Christ – to do this the Church set apart all apostolic teachings as authoritative