Technology and Translation

     Even though personal computers and much of the technology associated with them are relatively new it is hard to image life without these tools.  However, it is important to remember that technology is a tool, and not the answer to many problems we face.  Tools help us solve problems and make our work easier, yet at times they create other problems and make our work more difficult when they do not work properly.  We will never be able (nor should we want to) to take the human/ personal element out of our work.  This is very much the case regarding the work of Bible translation. 
     During the past week we has discussed the importance of translating the Bible for the many people around the world who do not have access to the Word of God, and we have explored how Wycliffe Bible Translators are addressing this need.  Wycliffe works one on one with native speakers in order to accomplish this task, and therefore the need for trained and gifted personal is vital to the work.  A recent post on Wycliffe's website reminds us of this need and the complexities of this vital work.

https://www.wycliffe.org/stories/details/wycliffe-101-why-not-just-use-google-translate?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=enews&utm_campaign=07SRV

What does the Bible Teach Us About the Family?

     We have finally made it to Ephesians 5:22 where the Apostle Paul turns his attention to the family.  These instructions to the wife and husband are hard to digest for many people in our culture, including Christians.  This is because so much of what we believe derives not from the Bible, but by the culture.  For the next three weeks we will be discussing Paul's instructions to the family, and how fulfilling God's design is for us.  Since our culture is so confused on the definition of a family this is a much needed word to our church. 
     There is so much I am not able to address in three weeks, so I have attached a article which gives a general survey concerning the Bible's teachings on the family.  It was written by Andreas Kostenberger who teaches at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. 

http://www.biblicalfoundations.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/FRC-The-Bibles-Teaching-on-Marriage-and-the-Family.pdf

Baptist Men Challenge

     We had a wonderful time of fellowship at the Baptist Men's Breakfast this past Saturday.  During our devotional time we read 1 Timothy 2

2 First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, ² for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. ³ This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, ⁴ who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

⁵ For there is one God
and one mediator between God and humanity,
Christ Jesus, Himself human,
⁶ who gave Himself—a ransom for all,
a testimony at the proper time.

⁷ For this I was appointed a herald, an apostle (I am telling the truth; I am not lying), and a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

⁸ Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument.

     While thinking about these verses I gave the men three challenges. 

1. Pray for our government. 
Even if we do not agree with our government officials we should be praying for them.  First, pray for their salvation, and secondly pray that they would receive the wisdom from God in order to make tough decisions regarding our country.

2. Pray for the church. 
The majority of the American church seems to be asleep as moral issues in our country deteriorate.  Pray that the church was wake up and stand up for our convictions.  Also, pray that we would respond biblically (with conviction, yet with grace) to our culture.

3. Prayer for unbelievers. I challenged the men to begin praying that the Lord would lead them to one person for whom they would begin praying and reaching out to share the gospel.  It is our hope that one year from this date, every man present will have shared their faith at least one time.

The Formation of the New Testament Canon

     During our discussion last night I mentioned an essay I wrote about a month ago regarding the formation of the New Testament.  I have posted it here for those who might be interested in the more technical issue.  A disclaimer: I did not originally write this essay for this blog, and it is at times very dense.  I quickly prepared it for the blog this morning, so please excuse any typos.  Most of the facts are a summary of a discussion in the New Testament introduction, The Cradle, The Cross, and The Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament  by Kostenberger, Kellum, and Quarles.  A few definitions are in order:
Canon- a Greek word meaning measuring rod or bar.  Within the discussion of Christianity it refers to the collection of books regarded as Scripture.
OT- Old Testament
NT- New Testament
Eusebius- (A.D. 260- 340) 3rd century church historian.
Athanasius- 4th century bishop of Alexandria

Let me know if you have any questions or comments!

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     Understanding the formation of the New Testament canon is a theological and historical investigation which addresses the acceptance and inclusion of a selected body of literature which comprise the teachings of Jesus and His apostles.  The theological aspect addresses the nature and criteria of the books included into the NT.  The historical aspect traces the acceptance of this fixed group of books throughout church history, and attempts to understand both the reason and the criteria which marked the books included.  The discussion concerning the formation of the NT canon has continued to stir much debate as scholars examine, sift, and interpret the data concerning the first few centuries following the life of the apostles.  The theological debate focuses on if the writings included in the NT should be considered the very words of God, and therefore are included in the NT while others writings are excluded (such as the Gospel of Thomas, etc.).  The historical debate examines the timeline of the ‘closing’ of the canon in an attempt to understand why and when certain books were included and others excluded. 

     In their introduction to the New Testament Kostenberger, Kellum, and Quarles[i] describe the traditional evangelical view as one which values God’s role in the formation of the canon.  In this view Scripture is considered to be inspired by God, and therefore the words of Scripture are His words.  The church’s role in the formation of the NT was not the creation of the NT, but the recognition of those works which were inspired by God.  Therefore, the final authority is not found in the church, but it is found in the very words of God (Scripture). 

     Several passages of the NT implies other NT writings are Scripture on par with the OT.  1^st Timothy 5:18 states, “For the Scripture says, ‘You must not muzzle an ox that is threshing grain,’ and ‘the laborer is worthy of his wages.’”  While 1^st Timothy quotes from Deut. 25.4 it mentions a quote which is identical to Luke 10.7.  Therefore, it is highly likely that the author of 1^st Timothy considered the Gospel of Luke as Scripture equal with Deuteronomy.  Another passage includes Peter’s comment about the apostle Paul’s writings in 2 Peter 3.15-16:  “…as also in all of his epistles, speaking of them of these things, in which some things are hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.”  This supports the traditional understanding that the works included in the New Testament were viewed by the church as inspired in the same fashion as the OT. 

     The Cradle, Cross, and the Crown (see endnote below) quotes Geisler and Nix who describe five factors which lead the canonization of the NT.  The first is the prophetic nature of the NT books.  Since the NT books were prophetic they were intrinsically valuable and worthy of preservation.  Secondly, there was lacking a selected list of authoritative books, and therefore a selection process was required.  The third stimuli stems from a response to heretical challenges which denied apostolic works and/or included pseudepigraphical works.  Fourthly, missionary outreach necessitated a decision concerning which books should be translated into Syriac and Latin.  The final stimuli involved the persecution of the early church.  Since the edict of Diocletian in 303 ordered all the sacred books of the Christians to be burned, the early church needed to decide which books were worthy of preservation.       

     As stated earlier, the church’s role in the canonization process involves the identification and confirmation of authoritative Scripture and not the creation of the NT canon.  In order to recognize which writings were divinely inspired four major criteria were used.  The first was apostolicity which involved a direct or indirect association with an apostle.  The second was orthodoxy which compared the writing with the “church’s rule of faith.”  The third determined a writing’s antiquity or if the work was produced during the apostolic era.  The final criteria investigated the degree of ecclesiastical usage of a certain work.  Although this was not a list of exact criteria the church used to determine canonicity these categories were compared and contrasted in order to determine which books deserved a place among the NT canon.  

     While this was largely the criteria used by the church to determine the books which reflected divine inspiration, there was some debate regarding several books.  Eusebius categorized the books of the NT three ways.  First, were those writing which were commonly recognized as Scripture.  These included the four Gospels, Acts, Paul’s letters, 1^st John, 1^st Peter, and Revelation.  The second category included books which were questioned by some, but were accepted by most.  These included James, Jude, 2^nd Peter, and 2^nd-3^rd John.  Eusebius’ final category consisted of spurious books which may have been accepted by some, but were now rejected.   Several of these works included literature such as the Acts of Paul, Shepherd of Hermas, the Revelation of Peter, and the Epistle of Barnabas.

     Several church councils dealt with the canon of the NT.  The three which officially addressed the issue were the Council of Laodicea (363), the 2^nd Council of Hippo Regius (393), and the Council of Carthage (397).   A list which describes the books discussed and affirmed at the Council of Laodicea include all the books of the present NT except Revelation.  The 2^nd Council of Hippos Regius in North Africa affirmed all 27 books of the present NT.   The last council, the council of Carthage read the affirmations of previous councils and repeated them.  There seems to be little debate within the councils concerning the inclusion or exclusion of certain books. 

     Other lists concerning the writings of the NT canon are found in the works of individuals such as Athanasius (296-373).  The bishop of Alexandria, included in his Easter letter of A.D.367 the same 27 books included in the NT.  Irenaeus, the second century bishop of Gaul, argues for and assumes that the canon included the four Gospels.  In his book which addresses modern conspiracy theories of the canon, C.E. Hill, mentions that many scholars attacked Irenaeus because his views of the four Gospels seem two mature and advanced for the 2^nd century.  Another important canonical list is the Muratorian Canon, which the bears the name of it discoverer in the 18^th century.  This is a fragment of a 2^nd century work which includes a list of at least 22 books considered at the time to be Scripture.

     The concept of canonicity has endured much recent attention among scholars.  The discussion addresses questions such as who decided which books should be included in the NT, and at what time did they decide this?  With the discovery of the Gospel of Judas and other gnostic writings these two question have revived with new intensity and vigor.  Scholars such as Elaine Pagels and Bart Erdman argue that the books included in the NT reflect one flavor of Christianity which won out and claimed orthodoxy.  They believe the NT canon was in flux as late as the fourth century. 

     There are reasonable critiques to these interpretations by modern scholars.  Kostenberger, Kellum, and Quarles argues that the Muratorian Canon is considered by many to be a 2^nd century list of canonical books which indicated the agreement of NT books much earlier than Erdman proposes.  It is also important to remember that the absence of terminology does not indicate the absence of a concept.  Therefore, the absence of the term canon in earlier writing does not indicate the absence this concept.  This argument from silence has no proof to support its claim. 

     Several scholars argue the presence and popularity of unorthodox writings indicates that there was little agreement concerning the NT canon in the early church.  However, if there were no record of dissenting voices among the early church, then scholars would have more reason to be suspect.  It is natural to expect some dissenting from the church and therefore, their presence argues against the Erdman thesis.  C.E. Hill has also argued that one should be careful drawing conclusions based on manuscript evidence.  Since most ancient manuscripts are the result of random discoveries of limited archaeological sites we must not assume the findings of these sites are universal.  Scholars should tread lightly in making unsupported limited claims.

     The canonical discussion is a complex and difficult issue.  While there are different interpretations of the evidence the most consistent and conservative position seems to be the traditional evangelical view- That God spoke through men and has given to His church a wonderful and trustworthy NT. 

 

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[i] Andreas Kostenberger, L. Scott Kellum, Charles L. Quarles, The Cradle,, The Cross, and the Crown.  B&H Academic, 2009.

Bible Translations

     This past Wednesday evening we talked about translations of the Bible, and we discussed how thankful we should be to have English translations.  God has chosen to speak to us and it is vital for the growth, health, and ministry of the church that we understand his Word.  It is very apparent that language is complex and changes over time.  Therefore, it is important for translations to be revised from time to time in order to compensate for the development of languages.  This in no way implies that the meaning of the Bible changes, for we believe God’s word does not change.  We should thank the Lord for scholars who are willing to do the hard work of understanding the languages of the Bible in order to give us a faithful translation that we can understand.  Below, you will find a diagram which explains the different translations on a spectrum: 

 

Tales from the Other Side

     Baptist Press News recently published an article regarding Lifeway's decision to stop selling books which claim to be a testimony of life after death.  Lifeway describes the books as "experiential testimonies about heaven."  This decision follows a Southern Baptist Convention's resolution which warns Christians not to allow "the numerous books and movies purporting to explain or describe the afterlife experience" to "become their source and basis for an understanding of the afterlife." The fear is that Christians will allow these books to shape their understanding of heaven instead of Scripture.
     As a pastor, I believe it is fine for Christians to read these books as long as they understand these testimonies are simply someone's claim of experiencing heaven.  There is no way their claim can be proven or disproven.  Therefore, this individual's testimony could be trustworthy or it may not be.  Our sure guide in understanding heaven is God's Word.  Let make sure we are allowing Scripture to inform our understanding of life after death!
     Here is the link to the article from Baptist Press News:
  http://www.bpnews.net/44434/lifeway-pulls-heaven-visitation-resources




I am also listing a link to a lecture given at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary by Dr. David Jones regarding this topic.
http://multimedia.sebts.edu/?p=6017

Patrick the Missionary

St. Patrick's Day is wonderful opportunity for us to think about the Great Commission.   Baptist Press has a great article about this mysterious saint. Check it out:
http://www.bpnews.net/44391/the-real-st-patrick-incredible-missions-zeal