What Forces Were At Work In The Development Of The Canon Of Scripture

In fact, the presence and identification of errors within the texts of Scripture do not serve to weaken the doctrine of preservation; rather it serves to strengthen preservation by the recognition and elimination of textual error. DEVELOPING THE NEED FOR A CANON

Bruce offers a solid explanation of the formation of the canon chronologically starting with the Hebrew scriptures (p. 21) until the 4th century where church councils started to present the first spoken finished canon (p. 97). Bruce shows the importance of the Old Testament scriptures, but writes most about the New Testament. He not only shows how the New Testament came to be a canon but offers a deep analysis of non-canonical scripture called the Apocrypha (pp. 48, 90-93).

The ministry of Jesus brought about a new religion: Christianity. Jesus’ teachings were apocalyptic in that he preached the nearness of the Kingdom of God. He also taught, “To love your neighbor as yourself” Mark 12:31[NIV]. “Since Jesus was a Jew and preached to Jews, Christianity was closely linked to Judaism.” “Early Christian missionaries, being Jews, interacted at first with the Jewish communities in the empire’s cities.” “This was only natural and gave them common ground with other groups in the provinces in which Jews were a minority.” “Among the Jews, however, resistance to Jesus being the Messiah was often encountered, and early on, the Christians or the church gained converts from non-Jews.” “Christianity in its early stages used the Jewish synagogues, allowing it access

Because Christianity could not be completely purged by the Empire, it created an opportunity for Christians to display how strongly they were devoted to the religion. The way in which they responded made all the difference. Under pressure, they would not submit, and this was proof of the force and influence of Christianity.

In Jerusalem, Jesus was treated fairly by everyone, but Romans and Jews didn’t except him, so he had to be executed. This shows that Romans and Jews would kill anyone who was dangerous, or threatening. Till this day, Jesus is a major part of believe and religion.

Pope Urban ll started the Crusades so that he could rise to power politically and convince people to convert to the Roman Catholic church. In contrast, the lower class people of Europe believed the Crusades would improve their lives religiously, financially, and physically. The Crusades were holy wars fought between Europe and Muslims in the Middle East between 1095 and 1291. Religion drove the Crusaders to join the Crusades. But in comparison, the Pope introduced the Crusades to gain political power.

.Christian is one of the most popular religions in the western Europe that believe in Jesus Christ, but the Jews forged hatred with Christian since the ancient age by betrayed Jesus and nailed christian’s faith on the cross, which is reason why that only fewer christian are willing to save Jews

Jerusalem is of significant value to all Christians since it is the city where Jesus Christ lived and died. Therefore, it is no surprise that Christians would want to protect this city from Muslim invaders, just as Muslims had conquered North Africa, Palestine, Mesopotamia, the Persian Empire, and territories in southern Asia and the Indian subcontinent for their jihad. The word jihad can be translated as struggle or holy war. Further, Christians often had to work side-by-side with Muslims in the territories they captured, specifically when the crusaders formed an alliance with Egyptians against invading Seljuk Turks because the captured territories often lacked settlers and defenders. This would mean that crusaders were far more likely to

Because the people stopped worshipping the emperor, the political importance started to fail. No one really cared if they were the emperor; they were not being praised or worshipped any more so what was the point? Since no one cared to be the Emperor the government started to fail. Popes, Pastors, and other church leaders actually got more into the political affairs, making the government a little bit more complicated than it was before. Before Christianity was even a question, the Roman Empire was becoming bankrupt all because of the Roman politicians. They used all of their money creating huge, amazing, unnecessary empires consisting of roads and extraordinary safe traveling conditions so the people using the roads would have safe and easy travels. Christianity was not blamed for all of this doing and the bankruptcy because the Christians and the Christian religion had nothing to do with the bankruptcy. How could the people put all their faith in someone who was failing to keep their empire going? He was the reason they had no more money. It was hard for them to their trust in a pagan god when their “god” (the leader) was failing them. All the people tried to find a new “religion”, they wanted someone or something to put their

(The Six Day War).For Jews it was the holiest city in Judaism. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the designation of other holy sites made Jerusalem a destination of Christians. And the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque were built on the site where the Jewish Temples had once stood, so Jerusalem became the third holiest city in Islam (The Six Day War). now instead of coming to an agreement about sharing the holy land, they decide to constantly fight over it. By taking part in this, they are violating the principles they decided to believe in and breaking the rules they must abide by to even claim they are associated with said religion ( Canne).

Before the birth of Jesus Christ and Christianity, there was Judaism, the religion where Christianity originated from. In the years of 65 B.C. through 63 B.C., The Roman and the Jews had several complications with each other, especially with Pompey the Great interfering with Jerusalem and its people. Pompey the Great invaded Jerusalem due to their opposition of worshipping the Roman gods and the Jews’ belief in only one God. In addition, he did it to elevate his status as a more powerful figure in Roman society, since Julius Caesar, another Roman political figure was also competing for power and attention from the people. His conquering over the Jews and the ongoing brawls set the stage on how Christianity and the Roman Empire intertwined with each other and the tense relations that were formed,

Years ago, I remember a Drash performed by a member of a minyan (I have previously discussed here: Add the Link) named Gene who discussed what caused the destruction of the Temple. Within history, the Temple’s destruction came during the Seize of Jerusalem with fighting between Jewish residents and the Roman soldiers such as found in typical warfare. The losers of conflict often see the destruction of what they consider

The temple in Jerusalem being cast down was a very important historical event for every believer to come. The people of that time thought that the physical temple in Jerusalem was the only place God dwelt. The temple was their center of life and they trusted in the temple more than they trusted in God himself. The Bible makes a slight hint that the destruction of the temple was an event sent by God saying, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the Lord will deliver up the sheep of His pasture, and their sheep-fold and tower, to destruction.” However, this is also a warning and prophecy for what is to come during the end of the world.

The New Testament was canonized over a period of approximately four hundred years (Stotesberg). From AD 50-125, the books which in the end constitute the New Testament were written. Simultaneously, other books, which did not end up being included in the final canon, were produced. These books are the Epistle of Barnabas, the Didache, I Clement, the seven letters of Ignatius of Antioch, etc. (“Development of the Difficult Canon”). As more and more books were written, Christians realized that it was imperative that they gather and consolidate this material before it became lost. Sometime before AD 100, ten of Paul’s letters were gathered and combined into their own canon. The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) were combined to form another canon soon after the canonization of Paul’s letters. The Gospels and Paul’s letters became the main body of a new group of Scriptures that would soon become the New Testament. Soon Acts, I Peter, I John, and Revelation were inserted into this body of Scripture. Following this, the rest of the books were added to the New Testament (Barker).

Perhaps the greatest achievement to come from early church history is the establishment of a universal New Testament Canon. While we may not put much thought into it today, which books should be included or excluded from the New Testament was once the center of much controversy. It took the church many years to settle upon the current collection of books as being the proper Canon, making it more of a process than an event. Ironically enough, the need for a universal Canon was only realized after many disputes over the version suggest by the Christian heretic Marcion. Marcion’s collection of books were revised by Athanasius and later endorsed by the church through councils. Once the New Testament Canon was established, all other suggested books became part of a collection known as the Apocrypha and their use dismissed by the church.