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Responses to Miscellaneous Canon Questions and Objections
1) What is the canon? Is it an “authoritative list of books”? It’s better to think of the canon as the list of authoritative books. An official canon may itself be in some sense authoritative, but in that case it is an authoritative list of authoritative books. Even before any “authority” pronounces what the list…
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Textual Preservation of the Old Testament
Each of the books of the New Testament is well preserved as can be seen using the tools of historical research. Historical research, however, can only get us so far with respect to the Old Testament. For example, until recently the oldest Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament were not very old, and the oldest…
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Twenty-Four Elders – Twenty-Four Books
People sometimes see what they want in allegory. If a modern Protestant sees the number 66 in an allegory, he naturally thinks of the 66 books of the Bible. If the chapter divisions in Isaiah were original, we would be tempted to place significance on that point. If a modern Protestant sees 27 or 39…
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Tobit – One Reason to Reject its Alleged Canonicity
The book of Tobit is told from a first person perspective by a man called “Tobit.” The book begins: “The book of the words of Tobit, son of Tobiel, the son of Ananiel, the son of Aduel, the son of Gabael, of the seed of Asael, of the tribe of Nephthali …” (Tobit 1:1). One…
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Does Allah Preserve His Words?
Since I am on James White’s blogging team, and am friends with him, I was sure to carefully read an article posted with the alarming title, “Exposing James White’s Deceit and Ignorance of Islamic Scripture,” from the “Calling Christians” website. The title wasn’t supported by the body of the piece. “Deceit and Ignorance” turned out…
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Michuta Contra Athanasius
Athanasius’ canon of Scripture, presented in his 39th Festal letter is famous. It’s not nearly as famous as his “Athanasius Contra Mundum” rejection of the Arian heresy, but it is probably the second most famous aspect of Athanasius’ life today (his excellent letter to Marcellinus on the Psalms was famous in ancient times and perhaps…
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The Jews Knew the Old Testament Canon – Guest Post by David King
(the following is a guest post by my friend, David King) One frequent myth often propounded by those who prefer a 4th century Greek canon of the Old Testament (OT) to the Hebrew canon of the OT is the idea that the first century Jews did not know the canon of OT Scripture. The Scriptures…
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Athanasius to Marcellinus: How Sufficient are the Psalms?
Athanasius wrote a letter to Marcellinus regarding the Psalms (full text). Athanasius wouldn’t have fit into post-Vatican II Roman Catholicism very well for a lot of reasons, but one reason is his comment in this letter: “the knowledge of God is not with [the heathen and the heretics] at all, but only in the Church.”…
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The Jews Gave Us the Old Testament
Of course, God gave us the Old Testament by inspiration, but the point is that the apostles did not give us the Old Testament. Instead, it was an existing body of literature that was handed on to them. We see this in Scripture. Romans 3:2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them [that is,…
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Textual Critical Resource – Old Testament Variants
De Rossi’s remarkable Variae Lectiones Veteris Testamenti (various reading of the Old Testament) is now available in full on Google Books including both the original four volumes (1784-88) and the Supplement (1798): Volume 1: Prologue, Index of Manuscripts, Genesis, Exodus, and LeviticusVolume 2: Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1st Book of Samuel/KingsVolume 3: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,…