ABTI Hermeneutics 3 - Text, Canon, and Translation

2. Where did our bible come
from?
Text, Canon, andTranslation

3. 19 And we have the prophetic word more fully
confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention
as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day
dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,
20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of
Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.
21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of
man, but men spoke from God as they were carried
along by the Holy Spirit.
— 2 Peter 1:19-21 (ESV)

4. What is bibliology?
BIBLIOLOGY is the study of the bible.
Bibliology can be broken down into four areas:
Origin » Inspiration » Canonicity » Interpretation

5. What is bibliology?
BIBLIOLOGY is the study of the bible.
Bibliology can be broken down into four areas:
Origin » Inspiration » Canonicity » Interpretation

6. What is bibliology?
BIBLIOLOGY is the study of the bible.
Bibliology can be broken down into four areas:
Origin » Inspiration » Canonicity » Interpretation

7. Revelation & Inspiration

8. The Doctrine of Revelation
The bible describes two types of revelation:
• General revelation - God’s witness to Himself through creation,
history, and the conscience of man (Romans 1 & 2).
• Special revelation - God’s disclosure of Himself in salvation history
preeminently in the person of Jesus and in the inspired Word of
Scripture.

9. The Doctrine of General Revelation
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their
unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about
God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his
invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature,
have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in
the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
— Romans 1:18-20 (ESV)

10. The Doctrine of General Revelation
14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the
law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not
have the law. 15They show that the work of the law is written on
their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their
conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when,
according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
— Romans 2:14-16

11. The Doctrine of General Revelation
14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the
law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not
have the law. 15They show that the work of the law is written on
their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their
conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when,
according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
— Romans 2:14-16

12. What is Inspiration?
Inspiration is the act of God by which He
superintended (guided) the human authors of the
bible so that using their own individual
personalities they composed and recorded
without error His revelation to man in the words
of the original manuscripts.

13. Theories of Inspiration (Plummer)
• Intuition theory - the writers of the bible exhibit a natural religious
intuition.
• Illumination theory - the Spirit of God impressed Himself upon the
consciousness of the biblical writers in the same way that the Holy
Spirit influences people today.
• Dynamic theory - God gave definite, specific impressions or
concepts to the biblical authors but allowed them to communicate
those concepts in their own words. The phrasing is by human choice,
while the content is from God.

14. Theories of Inspiration (Plummer)
• Dictation theory - God dictated the exact words to the human
authors (like court stenographers).
• Verbal-Plenary theory -The bible is inspired verbally (the very
words, not just the ideas) and completely (“plenary” means
“unqualified, absolute”) — see 2Tim 3:16. Also called the “dual
authorship” theory or “verbal” theory.

15. Theories of Inspiration (Plummer)
• Dictation theory - God dictated the exact words to the human
authors (like court stenographers).
• Verbal-Plenary theory -The bible is inspired verbally (the very
words, not just the ideas) and completely (“plenary” means
“unqualified, absolute”) — see 2Tim 3:16. Also called the “dual
authorship” theory or “verbal” theory.

16. The Dual Authorship of Scripture

17. The Doctrine of Inerrancy
“The inerrancy of Scripture means that Scripture in the original manuscripts does not
affirm anything that is contrary to fact.” —Wayne Grudem

18. Important definitions
• Inerrant - the bible is completely truthful in all things that the biblical
authors assert—whether in geographic, chronological, or theological
details. God superintended the writing process such that every word
written was according to His will. The words were guarded from all error.
• Infallible - Also referred to as limited inerrancy. Infallibility means that the
bible cannot fail at achieving its purpose (salvation and spiritual maturity),
but that the bible may contain errors in matters of science and history.
• Inspired - God was behind the writing of Scripture. (See views of
inspiration above.)

19. Full vs. Limited Inerrancy
Classic Evangelical
View of Unlimited Inerrancy
Neo-evangelical
View of Limited Inerrancy
True in both whole and parts Truth in the whole but not in the parts
True spiritually and scientifically True spiritually but not always scientifically or
historically
True in what it intends and affirms True in what it intends, not in all it affirms
Truth is found in correspondence Truth is found in intention
Consistent use of correspondence Inconsistent use of correspondence
Divine adaptation to finitude Divine accommodation to error—especially
when they utilize pagan literature and genre
criticism
No errors of any kind in the Bible No major or redemptive errors in the Bible
All mistakes are errors Only intentional mistakes are errors

20. Qualifications of inerrancy
• Inerrancy applies only to the original autographs.
• Inerrancy respects the authorial intent of the passage and the literary
conventions under which the author wrote. Literal and figurative
language should be understood accordingly.
• The gospel authors were not intending to give strict chronological
accounts of Jesus’ ministry.
• Inerrancy allows for partial reporting, paraphrasing, and
summarizing. (Important for harmonizing the synoptic gospels.)

21. Qualifications of inerrancy
• Inerrancy allows for phenomenological language.
• Inerrancy allows the reporting of speech without the endorsement of
the truthfulness of that speech.
• Inerrancy does not mean that the bible provides definitive or
exhaustive information on every topic.
• Inerrancy is not invalidated by colloquial or nonstandard grammar or
spelling.The issue is the truthfulness of the speech (Grudem).

22. Variations on the Doctrine of Inerrancy
• Absolute Inerrancy
• Affirms verbal-plenary inspiration while distancing itself from a mechanical
dictation view.
• Affirms the accuracy of the bible in all matters including science and history
“to a great degree of precision.”
• Critical (Natural) Inerrancy
• Affirms the truth of everything in the bible to the degree of precision
intended by the author.
• Usually regards biblical references to scientific as phenomenal.
• Does not seek to harmonize every detail of Scripture because it recognizes
that the authors wrote for different purposes.

23. Variations on the Doctrine of Inerrancy
• Limited Inerrancy
• Affirms that the bible is inerrant in all matters of faith and practice, as well as
matters that can be empirically verified.
• Inspiration does not grant modern understanding, hence the bible may
contain errors of science or history.
• Nuanced Inerrancy
• Affirms that how one understands inerrancy depends on the type of biblical
literature under consideration.

24. Variations on the Doctrine of Inerrancy
• Functional Inerrancy
• Affirms that the purpose of the bible is to bring people to salvation and
growth in grace. The bible accomplishes its purpose without fail.
• Affirms that the bible is sufficiently accurate in factual matters to accomplish
its purpose, but seeks to avoid describing the inerrancy of Scripture primarily
in terms of facticity. Instead, it speaks of the bible in terms of
trustworthiness and faithfulness.”
• Spontaneous Inerrancy
• An expression of simple trust and faith in the bible.
• Often marked by little, if any, awareness of, or interest in scholarly
discussions of the doctrine of inerrancy.

25. What about errors in manuscripts?
• The field of studying manuscripts and their transmission to ascertain
the original text is called textual criticism.
• There are more than 5,600 known Greek manuscripts of the New
Testament with more being discovered every day.
• There are over 19,000 early manuscripts written in Latin, Syriac,
Coptic, and Aramaic.
• The NewTestament has been quoted more than one million times by
early Church fathers.

26. What about errors in manuscripts?
• There are more than 400,000 variants in NT manuscripts. Most of these
variants are errors in spelling and punctuation.
• The NewTestament accuracy is 99.5% and as more manuscripts are
discovered, our understanding of the NewTestament becomes more
accurate.
• Any passages in question are clearly marked in the footnotes of modern
translations (John 7:53-8:11, Mark 16:9-20).
• No uncertain passages affect any foundational Christian doctrine.
• The majority of the NewTestament was written beforeAD 70.

27. Understanding Bible
Translations

28. Understanding Bible
Translations
“Why do we have so many different versions of the bible?
Which is the ‘right’ version?”

29. Translation is intepretation
When you read an English translation of the bible, you are engaged in
interpretation.
Bible translators often have to make difficult choices as to what the
original Hebrew or Greek was really intending to say.
(Refer to handout “TextualVariants in BibleTranslations.”)

30. Approaches to biblical translation
There are two primary approaches to rendering the bible in modern
English:
• Translation - starts with the best available manuscripts and
translates the text into modern English.
• Paraphrase - not concerned primarily with accurately translating the
text word-for-word; instead focuses on freely wording the meaning
of the biblical text.

31. Approaches to biblical translation
There are two approaches to translating the bible into modern English:
• Formal Equivalence (“word for word”) – attempts to keep as close to the
“form” of the Hebrew or Greek, both in words and grammar, as can be
conveniently put into understandable English.
• Dynamic Equivalence (“thought for thought”) – attempts to keep the
meaning of the Hebrew or Greek but to put their words and idioms into
what would be the normal way of saying the same thing in English.

32. Approaches to biblical translation

33. Understanding the Biblical
Canon
“Why did some books make it into the bible when others didn’t?
Wasn’t there some sort of ‘conspiracy’ to keep ideas out of the bible?”

34. The Canonicity of the Bible
“For Protestant Christians, the canon is not an
authorized collection of writings (in that the church
conferred its authority or approval upon a list of
books). Rather, the canon is a collection of
authoritative writings.”
— Plummer, 57

35. OldTestament Canon
• Some books of the OldTestament canon were recognized instantly
on the basis of their self-authenticating nature or a prophetic word
being fulfilled.
• Other books may have taken some time to be edited or fully
recognized.
• The NewTestament affirms the canon of OldTestament Scripture.
• Jesus quoted from 24 OldTestament books.
• The NT as a whole quotes from 34 OT books.
• The only books that are not quoted in the NT are Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther,
Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon.

36. NewTestament Canon
The early church used the following three criteria for identifying the
NewTestament canon:
• Apostolic - written by or tied closely to an apostle.
• Catholic - widely, if not universally, recognized by the churches.
• Orthodox - not in contradiction to any recognized apostolic book or
doctrine.

37. NewTestament Canon
T.C. Hammond, quoted in Plummer (61), provides a helpful summary
of the recognition of the NewTestament canon.
• The NewTestament books were written during the period A.D. 45-
100.
• They were collected and read in the churches A.D. 100-200.
• They were carefully examined and compared with spurious writings
A.D. 200-300.
• Complete agreement was obtained A.D. 300-400.

38. Discussion Questions
• What impact does the doctrine of inerrancy have on our
interpretation of the bible?
• What impact does the canonicity of Scripture have on our
interpretation of the bible?
• How would you respond to a critic who suggested that the modern
bible cannot contain the original text because it is a “translation of
translations?”