Their primary intention is to help the reader of the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible understand it better; for that reason scriptural/biblical examines the Greek and Hebrew texts (textual criticism) the historical setting of the various literary questions regarding how, when and why the books of the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible were first written (literary criticism). These methods of study, when done with reverence for Scripture, should assist a reader's appreciation for the "Inspiration of the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible."
Textual Criticism - This is the attempt to determine, as accurately as possible, the wording of the text of the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible as first written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Since none of the original documents has survived and the text is available only in copies, it is necessary to compare the early copies with each other. This allows the textual critic to classify these early copies into groups exhibiting certain common features and to decide why their differences occurred and what the original wording most likely was. The early copies on which textual critics work consist mainly of manuscripts in the original languages, translations into other languages, and scriptural/biblical quotations made by Jewish and Christian writers.
Historical Criticism - The examination of the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible in light of its historical setting. This is particularly important because the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible was written over a period of more than one thousand years. The story the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible records extends from the beginning of civilization in the ancient world to the Roman Empire of the first century A.D.
Historical criticism is helpful in determining when the books of the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible were written. It is also helpful in determining a book's 'dramatic date' that is, when the people it describes lived and its events happened. The dramatic date of Genesis, for instance, is much earlier than the date when it was written. Historical criticism asks if the stories of the patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph - reflect the conditions of the times in which they lived.
Literary Criticism - The study of how, when, where, and why the books of the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible were written. Literary criticism may be divided into questions concerning sources, tradition, redaction, and authorship.
Source criticism attempts to determine whether the writers of the books of the Sacred Scripture used earlier sources were oral or written. Some scriptural/biblical books clearly indicate their dependence on earlier sources: 1 and 2 Chronicles, The Gospel according to Saint Luke, and The Acts of the Apostles. Some of the sources from Chronicles are still available to us in 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings, which were written earlier. The author of Luke and Acts says much of his information was handed on by "those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word." - Luke 1:2 -
However, these sources usually have not survived independently and their identification and reconstruction cannot be certain. It is fairly clear, however, that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke draw on common sources; their two most widely agreed sources are one that related the story of the Lord Jesus Christ and one that contained a collection of His teachings.
Tradition criticism (including form criticism) studies how information was passed from one generation to another before it was put in its present form. Tradition is simply that which is handed down; it is divinely authoritative, or it may be merely the tradition of men.
The Pharisees and some of the scribes.......asked Jesus, Why do your disciples not respect the tradition of the elders...Jesus answered, It was of you hypocrites that prophet Isaiah so rightly prophesied in this passage of scripture:
This people honors me only with lip service,
while their hearts are far from me.
The worship they offer me is worthless,
the doctrines they teach are only human regulations.
You put aside the commandment of God to cling to human traditions. And Jesus said to them, How ingeniously you get round the commandment of God in order to preserve your own tradition!....... In this way you make God's word null and void for the sake of your tradition which you have handed down. And you do many other things like this. - Mark 7:1-13 -
You must live your whole life according to the Christ you have received - Jesus the Lord; you must be rooted in him and built on him and held firm by the faith you have been taught, and full of thanksgiving. Make sure that no one traps you and deprives you of your freedom by some secondhand, empty, rational philosophy based on the principles of this world instead of on the Lord Jesus Christ. - Col. 2:6-8 -
Sometimes a tradition was handed on by word of mouth for several generations before it was written down, as in the record of the patriarchs in Genesis. Sometimes a tradition was handed on by word of mouth for only 20 to 40 years, as it in records of the works and words of Jesus before the Gospels were written.
Tradition criticism attempts to trace the stages by which these traditions were handed down, the forms which they took at those various stages, and the forms in which they reached the people who committed to them in writing.
Form criticism is the branch of tradition criticism that examines the various 'forms' for example parables, miracles, discourses - by which the traditions took shape. Classifying sections of the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible according to the form they take can provide an additional perspective from which one can be better understand the text of Scripture.
Redaction criticism attempts to understand the contribution to the finished manuscript made by the person who finally committed the oral or written traditions to writing. It is important to remember that an author's personal contribution to the finished book was no less reliable than the tradition which he received. Unfortunately, some redaction critics make the error of assuming that the author's work is unauthentic, ignoring the work of the Holy Spirit in inspiring the writers of the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible.
Authorship and destination criticism involve the attempts to determine the authorship of a work, as well as the person, group, or wider public for whom it was written. Sometimes there is no need for inquiry into these matters; Saint Paul's letter to the Romans, for instance, is clearly the work of the apostle Paul and was sent by him to the Christians in Rome. But the judicious use of literary criticism will throw further light on the circumstances which led to the writing of the book and the purpose for which Romans was sent. When, however, a work is anonymous, critical inquiry may help us to discover what sort of person the author was.
For instance, we do not know for certain who wrote the letter to the Hebrews. However, by looking critically at Hebrews we can learn much about the character of the author and a little about the letter was written.
Living righteously, doing what is good and refraining from what is evil in accordance with the will of God refers to Scriptural/Biblical Ethics. The terms refers not to human theories or opinions about what is right and wrong but to God's revealed truth about these matters. Questions of human conduct prevail throughout the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible. God's revelation through His written Word narrates the story of human ethical failure, God's redeeming grace, and the ethical renewal of His people.
God's people are called to be holiness because they are God's people: "You therefore must be holy because I am holy." - Lev. 11:44-45, 19:2 - The New Testament counterpart to this principle, "You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect." is found in Matthew 5:48.
Do not behave in the way that you liked to before you learnt the truth; make a habit of obedience: be holy in all you do, since it is the Holy One who has called you, and scripture says: Be holy, for I am holy. - 1 Peter 1:15-16; James 1:4; 1 John 3:3 -
God gave the Law to the nation of Israel as a standard of righteousness. This was the revealed will of God for His people. But His commandments were given in a context of "Grace." When the Ten Commandments were given through Moses, they were introduced with a statement supporting the relationship that had already been established between God and His people whom He delivered from Egypt - Ex. 20:2; Deut. 5:6 - God commandments are always given to those who are already His people by grace.
This truth carries through to the New testament. Jesus' ethical teaching in the Sermon on the Mount was preceded by the Beatitudes, which reminded Jesus' disciples that God's grace comes before His commands - Matt. 5:1-12 -
This connection between God's demands and His grace means that scriptural/biblical ethics must always be understood in terms of what God has already done for His people. Grace precedes Law, just as doctrine precedes ethics in the letters or epistles of the New Testament. So ethics should not always be regarded as the center of the Christian faith. Correct behavior, attitude, character are the outflow or product of God's grace - the proper response in those who have encountered and experienced God's grace. For the Christian the standard of ethics is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Christian is not under the Law of the Old Testament. But since the ethical teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ sum up the true meaning of the Old Testament Law, following His teachings fulfills the Law and Scripture. So there is a direct relationship between the concept of righteousness as revealed in the Old Testament and later in the New Testament.
But now in Christ Jesus, you that used to be so far apart from us have been brought very close, by the blood of Christ. For he is the peace between us, and has made them apart, actually destroying in his own person the hostility caused by the rules and decrees of the Law. This was to create one single New Man in himself out of the two of them and by restoring peace through the cross, to unite them both in a single Body and reconcile them with God. In his own person he killed the hostility. Later he came to bring the good news of peace, peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near at hand. Through him, both of us have in the one Spirit our way to come to the Father. - Eph. 2:13-18 -
He had overridden the Law, and cancelled every record of the debt that we had to pay; he has done away with it by nailing it to the cross; and so he got rid of the Sovereignty and the Powers, and paraded them in public, behind him in his triumphal procession. - Col. 2:14-15 -
The Ten Commandments, for instance, are referred to as positive ethical instruction in the New Testament. Yet the commandment concerning the Sabbath is no longer in force. And the ceremonial law, involving sacrificial rituals in the Temple, no longer is in effect because the ultimate sacrifice of Christ Jesus. - Rom. 13:9-10; Col. 2:14-16 - "He, on the other hand, has offered one single sacrifice for sins, and then taken his for ever, at the right hand of God, where he is now waiting until his enemies are made into a footstool for him. By virtue of that one single offering, he has achieved the eternal perfection of all whom he is sanctifying. The Holy Spirit assures us of this;... - Heb. 10:12-18 -
Jesus' commandment to love is the essence of Christian ethics. When Pharisees and scribes asked Jesus to identify "the greatest commandment in the law" Jesus answered, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." This is the first and greatest commandment. The second resembles it: "You must love your neighbor as yourself." On these two commandments hang all the whole Law and the Prophets also. The apostle Paul also declared that all the commandments are "summed up in the above saying. This greatest love commandment summarizes and fulfills the intention of the Old Testament Law. - Lev. 19:18 - Deut. 6:4-6 - Matt. 22:34-40 - Rom. 13:8-10 - Gal. 5:14 - James 2:8-9 -
While love is the summary of Christian ethics, the New testament contains many specific ethical instructions. A basic pattern for this ethical teaching is the contrast between our old existence before faith and love in Christ and our new existence in Him. Christians are called to leave behind their old sinful conduct, attitude, and behavior and to put on the new, to walk in newness of life, and to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit.
In particularly, I want to urge you in the name of the Lord, not to go on living the aimless kind of life that pagans live. Intellectually they are in the dark, and they are estranged from the life of God, without knowledge because they have shut their hearts to it. Their sense of right and wrong once dulled, they have abandoned themselves to sexuality and eagerly pursue a career of indecency of every kind. Now that is hardly the way you have learnt from Christ, unless you failed to hear him properly when you are taught what the truth is in Jesus. You must give up your old way of life; you must put aside your old self, which gets corrupted by following illusory desires. Your mind must be renewed by a spiritual revolution, so that you can put on the new self that has been created in God's way, in the goodness and holiness of the truth. - Eph. 4:17-24 -
If you are led by the Spirit, no law can touch you. When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious: fornication, gross indecency and sexual irresponsibility; idolatry and sorcery; feuds and wrangling, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels; disagreements, factions, envy; drunkenness, orgies and similar things. I warn you now, as I warned you before: those who behave like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. What the Spirit brings is very different: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control. There can be no law against things like that, of course. You cannot belong to Christ Jesus unless you crucify all self-indulgent passions and desires. Since the Spirit is our life, let us be directed by the Spirit. We must stop being conceited, provocative and envious. - Gal. 5:18-26 -
Although as Christians we are free from the Law, we are not to use that liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love to serve one another. Love is best expressed through service and self-giving. These points led to naturally to the observation that Jesus Himself is the supreme example of righteousness. Christian ethics are summed up not only in the Lord Jesus Christ teaching, but in His life as well. So true discipleship consists of following the Lord Jesus Christ and being conformed to His image and likeness.
The call for righteousness is directed to the individual, but ethics also has an important social dimension. The centrality of love indicates this very clearly. The prophets of the Old Testament emphasized the connection between righteousness and social justice. The ethical teaching of the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible as followed by Christians will have an impact on the world. But in spite of all these truths, the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible does not call for a social program to be imposed upon the world. As Christians follow scriptural/biblical ethics, the world will be affected for good by them.
You are the salt of the earth. But if salt becomes tasteless, what can make it salty again? It is good for nothing, and can only be thrown out to be trampled underfoot by people. You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill top cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp stand where it shines for everyone in the house. In the same way your light must shine in the sight of people, so that, seeing your good works, they may give the praise to your God/Father in heaven. - Matt. 5:13-16 -
And indeed, everybody who does wrong
hates the light and avoids it,
for fear his actions should be exposed;
but the man who lives by the truth
comes out into the light,
so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God. - John 3:20-21 -
Page 8
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Sunday, May 24, 2009
I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!
I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.
HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -
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