THE OLD TESTAMENT CANON: Resources for Study

 ARTICLES

*Josephus: Historical Evidence Of The Old Testament Canon. Here is an excellent short article on the clearest evidence that we have for the extent of the Old Testament during the time of Jesus and the apostles. Josephus was a Jew and was from a wealthy priestly family. This article gives two important quotes from Josephus: one tells us of the extent of the Old Testament and the other tells us how firmly it was established that no one dared add or subtract from it. Josephus is our earliest and clearest evidence for these issues.

VIDEOS

*How we got the OT Canon: Evidence for the Bible pt11 by Mike Winger (50 minutes)

*How was the Old Testament canon formed? (8 minutes)

BOOKS

*The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and Its Background in Early Judaism by Roger Beckwith. The standard book on this subject.

*The Canon of Scripture by F.F. Bruce (1988). Covers both the Old and New Testament canons. 

THE GOSPEL OF MARK IS PETER'S TESTIMONY: 6 Early Church Fathers Confirm

Here are six early church fathers who provide reliable, authoritative and independent confirmation that Mark's Gospel is based on the testimony of the apostle Peter. 

These testimonies are all written within 40 to 130 years of the earliest possible date for the death of Mark. 

Dates for the publication of the Gospel of Mark itself range from c.40 to 70 AD. So these testimonies for the origin of Mark's Gospel are all given within a range of 40 to 160 years of its publication. That is extraordinarily early unanimous independent testimony for its origin. I am unaware of any other ancient document that has this kind of testimony to its provenance.

Papias, quoting the apostle John, of whom he was a disciple (writing c.110 AD):

"And the Elder [the apostle John] used to say this: 'Mark, having become Peter’s interpreter, wrote down accurately everything he remembered, though not in order, of the things either said or done by Christ. For he neither heard the Lord nor followed him, but afterward, as I said, followed Peter, who adapted his teaching as needed but had no intention of giving an ordered account of the Lord’s sayings. Consequently, Mark did nothing wrong in writing down some things as he remembered them, for he made it his one concern not to omit anything which he had heard, or to make any false statements in them.' Such, then, is the account given by Papias with respect to Mark" (from Papias' 5-volume work The Exposition of the Oracles of the Lord as recorded in Eusebius' Church History 3.39)

*for more on Papias, see my blog article: The Importance of Papias, The Disciple of the Apostle John

Justin Martyr (writing c.132-165 AD):

“And when it is said that He changed the name of one of the apostles to Peter; and when it is written in the memoirs of him [Peter] that this so happened, as well as that He changed the names of other two brothers, the sons of Zebedee, to Boanerges, which means sons of thunder. . ." (Dialogue with Trypho 106, emphasis mine). Compare this with Mark 3:16-17: "These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), 17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”),...." This is found only in the Gospel of Mark and not in the other three New Testament Gospels or any of the gnostic or apocryphal writings (including the Gospel of Peter that some have carelessly attributed as the source of Justin's statement).

Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of the Apostle John (writing c.180 AD):

"....Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, did also hand down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter." (Against Heresies, Book 3, Chapter 1)

Clement of Alexandria, who assumed leadership of the catechetical school founded by Mark at Alexandria (Clement assumed leadership of this "seminary" and wrote c.180-200 AD):

"But so great a light of godliness shone upon the minds of Peter’s listeners that they were not satisfied with a single hearing or with the oral teaching of the divine proclamation. So, with all kinds of exhortations they begged Mark (whose Gospel is extant), since he was Peter’s follower, to leave behind a written record of the teaching given to them verbally, and did not quit until they had persuaded the man, and thus they became the immediate cause of the Scripture called “The Gospel According to Mark.” And they say that the apostle, aware of what had occurred because the Spirit had revealed it to him, was pleased with their zeal and sanctioned the writing for study in the churches. Clement (of Alexandria) quotes the story in the sixth book of Hypotyposes, and the bishop of Hierapolis, named Papias, corroborates him" (as quoted in Eusebius' Church History 2.15; also see 6.25: written c.324 AD).

Tertullian (writing c. 207 AD):

"....I mean the Gospels of John and Matthew — while that which Mark published may be affirmed to be Peter's whose interpreter Mark was."(Against Marcion, Book 4, Chapter 5).

Origen, one of the greatest intellects of the early church (writing between 215 and 250 AD):

"The second [Gospel] is by Mark, who composed it according to the instructions of Peter, who in his Catholic epistle acknowledges him as a son, saying, 'The church that is at Babylon elected together with you, salutes you, and so does Marcus, my son.'" [1 Peter 5:13] (as Eusebius notes was recorded in Origen's "first book on Matthew's Gospel, Eusebius' Church History 6.25.3-5: written c.324 AD)

CONCLUSION:

From this we can conclude that the Gospel of Mark is based faithfully and accurately on the eyewitness testimony of the Apostle Peter as written down by his beloved assistant Mark (1 Peter 5:13: "my son Mark"). And note that the Apostle John is emphatic that Mark "made it his one concern not to omit anything which he had heard, or to make any false statements in them." 

Flemish School (c. 1600), Christ Calling Saint Peter (public domain via Wikimedia Commons)

WHO ARE THE APOSTLES & THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS?

 The following are resources used in or as follow-up for a presentation that I am doing February 4, 2023 at 10:30am at Maple City Chapel in Goshen, Indiana for a meeting of the GOSHEN APOLOGETICS FELLOWSHIP: 

• Who Are The Apostles?
• CHART #1: Apostolic Fathers & 2nd Century Church Leaders (Fathers)
• CHART #2: Apostolic Fathers & 2nd Century Church Leaders (Fathers)
• Records of the Apostolic Fathers Relationships to the Apostles
• What the Apostolic Fathers Said about the Apostles
• The Presentation Slides (Unfortunately it did not format correctly but can be used to easily make a new set of presentation slides.)
• The video of the presentation will appear here later.
• My blog page: "Who Are The Apostolic Fathers?"

"If there is a god, why is there so much suffering in the world?"

 I'm in a group on Facebook for those who have a rare form of kidney cancer called chromophobe. And many of us freely share our faith there and how we trust God in spite of what we are going through. Someone shared this beautiful picture of Jesus standing in the midst of the fire with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as an artist's conception of the story from the book of Daniel. This, of course, got a lot of amens from several Christians in the group. But a couple of people had a very different response: "...if there is a god, why is there so much suffering in the world?"

I took the time to respond and I thought I would share that response here, too:

//That is probably the #1 question among both Christians and non-Christians: If God exists, why is there so much suffering in the world?   Interestingly, very few people ask: If God does not exist, why is there so much beauty and good and love in the world? And I think that question presents a much bigger challenge when examined carefully. 

But I don't say that to minimize the difficulty of the question you raise. I found out 9 years ago that I had kidney cancer. And I have been living for 6 1/2 years as a stage 4 chromophobe patient--realizing that I am constantly being threatened with death. And I have seen people that I care about deeply and have prayed for earnestly (including in this group) suffer greatly and die. So, yeah, I have asked this question myself and had my own angry, tear-filled arguments with God. 

To make matters worse, there is no simple answer. No where in the Bible does God send someone with a simple satisfying answer to this question. In the book of Job (which deals with this question more directly than any other place in the Bible), the only answer that Job gets is (to paraphrase): "Job, you aren't big enough to understand. I'm the God who created this world and your just a puny little human. You are just going to have to trust me with this."

That is not the kind of answer that we naturally want, of course. But when we actually learn to trust God, there is a peace that transcends any attempts at understanding.

That is not to say that we should not seek any kind of answer or that the Scriptures give us no answer. I myself have spent more than 40 years thinking about these difficult kinds of questions and doing my best to answer them reasonably and with integrity. Thirty years ago I took a masters level class exploring this very issue. And the issue is very very complex. But if I were to boil it down, I think the overall answer looks something like this: God created us as beings with free will because he wanted beings like himself that are able to love--and you can't get that with a robot programmed to do only what you want it to do. He did it knowing that we would inevitably do what was unloving. And we did and continue to do so. And those unloving acts are what we call sin. And sin destroys and causes suffering and ultimately death. And we all recognize that at some level. We at least recognize the pain and suffering that others cause us--though we may be slow to recognize how some sins do so...especially our own. And we may be slow to understand how our sin has led to the decay in the world that leads to natural disasters and disease. 

And again, though God knew all this would result, he had a plan to bring something beautiful out of all of it. He has a plan to limit the extent of this destruction of sin. It will not go on forever. When the time is right, he will intervene and make all things right. And the suffering of this world will seem like nothing in light of our eternity with him. For "our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all" (2 Corinthians 4:17).

But I think there is a nagging question that really lies behind this question: "Does God care about our suffering? Or does he just sit out there on his throne far removed from us in some other dimension that we call heaven?" And the Bible does give a clear answer to that important question--a clear and emphatic answer. He became one of us and lived in the midst of our pain and experienced it in every way that we do. And then he died and suffered a very cruel and humiliating death to pay the cost for the sin that he allowed--our sin. And he did it so that he could be both just and the justifier of those who put their trust in Jesus (Romans 3:25-26).

So that is as concise an answer as I can give to this very thorny and emotional question. I hope it helps. I know that it has been helpful to me. Blessings, friends.//

 

AN UNDESIGNED COINCIDENCE Between Acts and Archaeology

 I recently learned a new undesigned coincidence while watching a documentary. The documentary ("The Last Apostle"--included with Amazon Prime) features a modern-day William Ramsay named Dr. Mark Fairchild. Fairchild is professor of New Testament at Huntington University in Huntington, Indiana. And the documentary follows Fairchild on a two-week trip through Turkey, following the footsteps of Paul. Very interesting and worth the two hours.

Anyways, in Acts 13:4ff, Paul and Barnabas meet the proconsul Sergius Paulus on the island of Cyprus and he becomes a believer. After they leave Cyprus, they sail to Perga and from there make the 3-4 week trek by foot to Pisidian Antioch. Towards the end of the documentary, Fairchild begins to talk about this event as they head towards Pisidian Antioch. And he says (in a rather matter-of-fact way) that after the proconsul Sergio Paulus is converted, he asks Paul and Barnabas to go to Pisidian Antioch to bring the Gospel to his friends and relatives. 

I didn't remember reading that, so I turned to Acts 13 and found that Acts says nothing about such a conversation--not even a hint. So I'm a little confused at this point. (Maybe I missed something Fairchild said, as I was doing something else as I was watching.) At any rate, after Fairchild reaches Pisidian Antioch, he heads to the local museum where they are housing a recently discovered inscription bearing the name Sergius Paulus! So Fairchild concludes rather confidently that Sergius Paulus is from Pisidian Antioch and that the reason that Paul and Barnabas travel to Pisidian Antioch is because Sergius Paulus pleads with them to do so. This makes good sense in light of the recent find of this inscription of Sergius Paulus at Pisidian Antioch--yet Luke does not even hint at it in Acts.

This is an interesting way in which archaeology fills in information that Acts does not give us but which makes perfect sense in light of what Acts does tell us. This does not happen with fiction. This happens with reliable eyewitness accounts. 

Check out this excellent article from Bible Archaeology Report that not only has a photo of the Sergio Paulus inscription featured in Fairchild's documentary but also another found near Pisidian Antioch and others from Cyprus (where Paul met Sergius Paulus in Acts 13).

Also, here is the link to The Last Apostle documentary where I first learned about this.

To learn more about what an "undesigned coincidence" is, why it is such a powerful evidence of reliable eyewitness testimony and to see many more examples....see my article here.

Elymas the sorcerer is struck blind before Sergius Paulus. Painting by Raphael. Public domain.

ARE THE GOSPELS FACT OR FICTION?: A conversation with three experts

The YouTube video that preserves this live stream event is found here.

............

Don't miss this! I am super excited about this opportunity--as I've been asked to host this interview!

Here's your chance to hear evidence for the Gospels that you likely never heard before....as three experts offer new and creative insights into the Gospels from philosophy, literature, ancient history, and comparative religions.

FREE ONLINE SEMINARY: Course of Study, Phase 3

NOTE: Phase 3 is still partly under construction, but I wanted to make this available since it has been a year since Phases 1 and 2 were made available.

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in Phase 3, you will:

• start building an understanding of systematic theology,
• survey the New Testament, completing an overview of the Bible,
• look closely at the life, death and resurrection of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke,
• learn how the Gospel began to spread through the world as seen in Acts,
• take a brief look at the apostolic fathers, their contemporaries and their disciples,
• gain an understanding of the formation of the canon of Scripture,
• be encouraged to be an intercessor for others,
• continue to build on your knowledge of New Testament Greek, and 
• keep working on your major project.

1. SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY
*ONLINE CLASS: "Systematic Theology" by Wayne Grudem. Do the first half of this class for this phase and the last half for Phase 4.

*MEMORY VERSES: Don't forget to make note of verses used in the lectures to memorize as you work through this class.
*READING: Choose from the following:

*Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. Cheaper at Ebay. FREE at Internet Archive. (Make sure you get the complete book and not one of the partial editions. The revised edition was published in December 2020, and if you can afford it, you should get that. If not, the first edition will be fine and will save you a lot of money.

*Old Paths: Being Plain Statements of Some of the Weightier Matters of Christianity by J.C. Ryle. FREE at Internet Archive and here. FREE audio here (or Librivox app). One of the great preachers and Christian thinkers of the 19th Century. In this book, he confronts the liberal "Christian" movement (whose heirs today often call themselves "progressive Christians") that was beginning to have great influence and would sadly soon take over the mainline denominations. See a brief biography of Ryle here with links to much more (including an audio biography).

*Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof. (Kindle only $2). Hard copies cheaper at eBay. FREE at Biblical Training's Online Library. A classic reformed work on systematic theology. Theologian Wayne Grudem (whose systematic theology is considered by many to be the best today) has called Berkhof's Systematic Theology "a great treasure-house of information and analysis....probably the most useful one-volume systematic theology available from any theological perspective." (as quoted in the Wikipedia article on Berkhof)

*Introduction to Dogmatic Theology by E.A. Litton. FREE at Hathi Trust. A systematic theology by a 19th Century Anglican that has recently been republished and received a lot of positive reception.

*ASSIGNMENT: Choose an issue of theology has focused your heart on God or helped you greatly in your understanding and create an essay, blog article, sermon, devotional, or YouTube....or perhaps write a hymn.


2. NEW TESTAMENT SURVEY
*ONLINE CLASS: New Testament Survey: Part 1 (Gospels) by Dr. Robert Stein
*ONLINE CLASS: New Testament Survey: Part 2 (Acts to Revelation) by Dr. Robert Stein

*MEMORY VERSES: Choose memory verses from your reading of the New Testament.
*READING: Read the entire New Testament in coordination with the classes.
*WRITING ASSIGNMENT: Keep a notebook or document for writing a brief summary of each book of the New Testament following the class related to that book.
*OPTIONAL READING (but highly recommended as a resource that you can turn to again and again): An Introduction to the New Testament by D.A. Carson and Douglas Moo. Or find it cheaper at Ebay or Addall.
*Also, don't forget that you can find many more FREE resources here: "Bible & Theology Reference Works Online: Massive Selection + My Recommendations"




3. GOSPEL OF LUKE

*INTRODUCTION TO THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS:

*Video: "What Are the Synoptic Gospels and Where Do They Come From?" (9 minutes)

*Article: "Why Four Gospels?" by David Alan Black

*Article: "The So-Called Synoptic Problem" by Brad Cooper. There is a short article followed by lots of resources if you want to study this issue further.

*ONLINE COURSE: "The Gospel of Luke from the Outside In" by Dr. D.A. Carson

*MEMORY VERSES: Choose verses to memorize as you are reading through Luke.
*READING: 

*Read or listen to the Gospel of Luke once. Then read through it again in conjunction with the online course above.

*CHOOSE A  COMMENTARY BELOW TO FOLLOW THE ONLINE COURSE:

*Expository Thoughts on Luke by J.C. Ryle. (After clicking on the link to the FREE PDF version, scroll down in the PDF file to find "Expository Thoughts on Luke.") If you want a commentary that will fill your mind with wisdom, application and fire, this is it. Also FREE in audio in 2 volumes: Volume 1 & Volume 2....or on the Librivox app. FREE PDF at Internet Archive: Volume 1 and Volume 2. Paperback and FREE Kindle version at Amazon. 

*Luke (The IVP New Testament Commentary Series) by Darrell Bock. An excellent and relatively concise, non-technical commentary.

*The Expositor's Greek Testament (General Editor, Nicoll W. Robertson): Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke by A.B. Bruce: Introduction to the Synoptic Gospels & Commentary on Luke. This is a classic commentary and one of the best older technical commentaries for exegesis of the Greek. But you will have to have some knowledge of Greek to make good use of this. Also available in Kindle format for $2.99. Also online here.

**If you have the money to spend (and there are cheap copies of the first one), check out these excellent commentaries:

*The NIV Application Commentary: Luke by Darrel Bock. An excellent non-technical commentary by one of the greatest living authorities on Luke. Also at Ebay.

*Luke (IVP Commentary series) by Darrel Bock. Also at Ebay.

*Luke (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) by Darrel Bock. An incredible 2-volume technical commentary. My personal favorite. Also on Ebay and Addall.

*Also, don't forget that you can find many more FREE resources here: "Bible & Theology Reference Works Online: Massive Selection + My Recommendations"

*WRITING ASSIGNMENT: Suggested Options: Create a Bible study with questions and answers for teaching a class through Luke, a theme from Luke or a passage from Luke. Write a sermon based on a passage in Luke. Write a blog devotional or even a series of devotionals based on Luke. Write a paper answering a question that  you have concerning the Gospel of Luke.


4. ACTS 

(I recommend that you complete the course on the GOSPEL OF LUKE above first.)

*Timeline for Acts by Brad Cooper
*ONLINE COURSE: "23 Lectures on Acts" by Dr. Craig Keener

*MEMORY VERSES: Choose verses to memorize as you are reading through Acts.
*READING: 

*Read or listen to Acts once. Then read through it again in conjunction with the online course above.

*CHOOSE A  COMMENTARY BELOW TO FOLLOW THE ONLINE COURSE: 

*A Commentary on Acts of Apostles by J. W. McGarvey. A classic. Also here. Several cheap editions on Kindle.

*The Expositor's Greek Testament (General Editor, Nicoll W. Robertson), Volume 2: Commentary on Acts. This is a classic commentary and one of the best older technical commentaries for exegesis of the Greek. But you will have to have some knowledge of Greek to make good use of this. Also available in Kindle format for $5.98. Also online here.

**If you have the money to spend (and there are cheap copies of the first one), check out these excellent commentaries:

*Acts (New International Commentary on the New Testament) by F.F. Bruce. An excellent non-technical commentary by one of the greatest New Testament scholars of the past century. Also at Ebay and Amazon.

*Acts (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) by Darrel Bock. An excellent technical commentary. Also on Ebay and Amazon.

*Also, don't forget that you can find many more FREE resources here: "Bible & Theology Reference Works Online: Massive Selection + My Recommendations"

*WRITING ASSIGNMENT: Suggested Options: Create a Bible study with questions and answers for teaching a class through Acts, a theme from Acts or a passage from Acts. Write a sermon based on a passage in Acts. Write a blog devotional or even a series of devotionals based on Acts. Write a paper answering a question that  you have concerning Acts.


5. WHO ARE THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS?
*ARTICLE: "Who Are The Apostolic Fathers?" by Brad Cooper
*LECTURE: "Apostolic Fathers" by Dr. Ryan Reeves (28 minutes)
*READING: Read or listen to the Apostolic Fathers for yourself using The Apostolic Fathers (2nd Edition) by Lightfoot, Joseph Barber and J.R. Harmer. Edited by Michael W. Holmes. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1989. A standard collection of the writings of the apostolic fathers with introductions and commentary. An older edition of this work is in the public domain and is available for FREE! many places. You can find both the text and MP3 audio files FREE! to download here (click on the book icon next to the title you want).  Also available FREE! in ebook here. It may be read online or downloaded as a PDF. A nice online version is also available FREE here.

*ASSIGNMENT: Create an essay, blog article or YouTube explaining the importance of the apostolic fathers or focusing in on just one of them that you find most intriguing.


6. APOLOGETICS: THE BIBLICAL CANON
*MEMORY VERSES: Choose verses from the resources below.
*LECTURE: "How we got the Old Testament Canon" by Mike Winger (49 minutes)
*DIALOGUE: "James White & Michael Kruger on the Biblical Canon" (60 minutes)
*ONLINE COURSE: "The Origins of the New Testament Canon" by Michael J. Kruger (4 sessions)
*"The New Testament Canon: Human Invention Or Divine Gift?" by Brad Cooper
*READING: The Historic Evidence of The Authorship and Transmission of the Books of the New Testament by Samuel Prideux Tregelles. (London: Samuel Bagster & Sons, 1881). Available for FREE at Internet Archive.
*OPTIONAL READING (but both highly recommended): 
*Canon Revisited by Michael J. Kruger
*The Heresy of Orthodoxy by Michael J. Kruger

*ASSIGNMENT: Create a paper, blog article, YouTube video or class explaining why we can have confidence that the books of the New Testament are the books that God wanted us to have.


7. PRAYER & INTERCESSION
*SERMON: "
*MEMORY VERSE: Choose verses from the resources below.
*READING:  

*Power Through Prayer by E.M. Bounds. Paperback version is cheaper on eBay. And FREE here in ebook and audio. "Power through Prayer has been called one of the truly great masterpieces on the theme of prayer." The complete collection of E.M. Bounds on prayer: The Complete Collection of E. M. Bounds on Prayer. FREE here.

*Article: "The Proof Of The Living God As Found In The Prayer Life Of George Müller Of Bristol" by A.T. Pierson. FREE! Optionally read Pierson's biography of Muller. (Free Kindle book). Also FREE at Internet Archive. Also FREE in audiobook (or Librivox app)

*JOURNAL: Continue your daily prayer journal. Make the entries as long or as brief as you want. Write down prayer requests, answers to prayer, thanksgiving and worship, etc.  If you have nothing to write down, then simply make note of that.


8. NEW TESTAMENT GREEK

*READING: A Manual Grammar of The Greek New Testament by H.E. Dana and Julius R. Mantey
*Choose from the FREE resources at my blog page here. I will try to find more advanced FREE resources to post there.

9. MAJOR PROJECT
*By now you should be starting to gain a firm grasp on your subject--perhaps even having gained a certain level of expertise (depending on many factors). 
*Do more reading in this area. Search for courses or videos related to tis area. Continue working on your project.

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THOUGHTS FOR YOUR JOURNEY