Bible as authority

• The process by which Christians determined which books compose the Bible is known as canonisation.
• The word 'canon' is Greek for 'measuring rod'.
• Assumptions of the writers to convey morality and spirituality.
• The Hebrew Bible was a part of the Christian Bible from the time of Jesus and the disciples, as they were Jews and the earliest Christians used the Hebrew Bible.
• At the time of Jesus, the Hebrew canon was fluid, with the Law (Torah) and the Prophets (Nevi’im) considered canon, but there were various views as to which of 'the Writings' (Kethuvim) were canonical.
• The Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, accepted some books originally written in Greek, such as Tobit.
• After the rise of Christianity, Jews accepted as canonical only books originally written in Hebrew.
• The reason that Catholics have a different 'Old Testament' than Protestants is that they use a larger Hebrew canon containing some of the books written in Greek.
• Luther urged his followers to follow the Jewish canon after the first century.
• To be considered canonical, New Testament books had to have been written by (or have a strong connection to) an apostle, be recognised as helpful in Christian formation by churches, and affirm the central teaching in the resurrected Jesus as lord and saviour.
• The order of books in the Hebrew Bible reflects their importance.
• Near the beginning of the Hebrew Bible is the law of Moses and at the beginning of the New Testament are the Gospels.
• John Calvin rejoiced in the Bible because he believed that God, who is beyond language, has accommodated our relatively limited minds through the Bible.
• Christians view the Bible as the Word of God.
• Some recent theologians have used this concept to defend the Bible as God’s word despite errors of science and history.
• Some Christians take a ‘subjective’ view; at the extreme end of this is the view that the Bible is not directly inspired but that human beings were inspired by witnessing meaningful events.
• Calvin’s analogy: a nurse making ‘baby talk’ to an infant; God is the nurse and the Bible is this ‘baby talk’.
• Some Christians take an ‘objective’ view of inspiration; at the extreme end of this is the view that humans played only a passive role and that God used plenary (absolute), verbal means to inspire the Bible.
• God adapts his truth – though there is no error.
• The term ‘inspire’ means ‘to breathe’; II Timothy 3:16 says that the scriptures have been ‘God-breathed’.
• Accommodation refers to ‘making provision’ for a person.
• In this sense, God is a ‘producer’.
• The Hebrew Bible closes with the theme of rebuilding Israel (Ezra-Nehemiah); the Christian Old Testament ends with the minor prophets and the prophecy of the return of Elijah.
• Many Christians believe that God worked through the personalities of the authors in conveying her/his message.