What is Scripture?

[McCulloch]

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Assuming that there is a God who has chosen to reveal at least part of his will to humans and assuming that the Protestant Christian Bible is essentially true, then what is meant by All Scripture in the passage above? What is in? What is out? And most importantly, who gets to decide and on what basis is this decision made?

[McCulloch]

As a helpful resource, all of the following texts have been put forth as scripture at one time or another:

• The New Testament
  • Gospel of Matthew
  • Gospel of Mark
  • Gospel of Luke
  • Gospel of John
  • Acts of the Apostles
  • Epistle to the Romans
  • Epistle of James
  • Epistle of Jude
  • Epistle to Philemon
  • Epistle to the Colossians
  • Epistle to the Ephesians
  • Epistle to the Galatians
  • Epistle to the Hebrews
  • Epistle to the Philippians
  • Epistle to the Thessalonians (First and Second)
  • Epistle to Timothy (First and Second)
  • Epistle to Titus
  • Epistles to the Corinthians (First and Second)
  • Peter (First and Second Epistle)
  • John (First, Second and Third Epistle)
  • Revelation of John
• Torah
  • Genesis
  • Exodus
  • Leviticus
  • Numbers
  • Deuteronomy
• Nevi'im
  • Joshua
  • Judges
  • Samuel (I & II)
  • Kings (I & II)
  • Isaiah
  • Jeremiah
  • Ezekiel
  • The Twelve Prophets
    • Hosea
    • Joel
    • Amos
    • Obadiah
    • Jonah
    • Micah
    • Nahum
    • Habakkuk
    • Zephaniah
    • Haggai
    • Zechariah
    • Malachi
• Ketuvim
  • Psalms
  • Proverbs
  • Job
  • Song of Songs
  • Ruth
  • Lamentations
  • Ecclesiastes
  • Esther
  • Daniel
  • Ezra-Nehemiah
  • Chronicles (I & II)
• 1012 Questions
• 28 Agamas
• A Course in Miracles
• Abhidhamma Pitaka
• Akilathirattu Ammanai
• Amitabha Sutra
• Apocrypha Discordia
• Aranyakas
• Arul Nool
• Arzhang
• Atharva Veda
• Baptism of Hibil Ziwa
• Baruch with the Letter of Jeremiah
• Basava Purana
• Bel and the Dragon
• Bon Kangyur and Tengyur
• Book of Enoch quoted in the Epistle of Jude (Jude 14–15)
• Book of Jasher
• Book of John the Baptizer
• Book of Mormon
• Book of Shemaiah the prophet, and of Iddo the Seer are mentioned in the book of 2nd Chronicles. (II Chr 12:14-15).
• Book of the Wars of the Lord (Referenced at Numbers 21:14. )
• Book of the Zodiac
• Brahmanas
• Cippus Perusinus
• Contemplation Sutra
• Conversations with God
• Corinthian letter to Paul referenced at 1 Corinthians 7:1
• Coronation of Shislam Rba
• Dasven Padshah Da Granth
• Diamond Sutra
• Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health
• Divine Principle
• Diwan Abatur, Purgatories
• Doctrine and Covenants
• Earlier Epistle of John referenced at 3John 1:9
• Earlier Epistle to the Ephesians referenced at Ephesians 3:3-4
• Ecclesiasticus (Sirach)
• Edda, Prose and Poetic
• Epistle to the Laodiceans referenced at Colossians 4:16
• Epistle to the Thessalonians forged in Paul's name referenced at 2 Thessalonians 2:2
• Esdras (First and Second)
• Esdras (Third and Fourth)
• First Epistle to Corinth referenced at 1 Corinthians 5:9
• Five Classics
• Four Books
• Gemara
• Ginza Rba
• Gospel of Marcion
• Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
• Guru Granth Sahib
• Hadith
• Haran Gawaita
• Holy Piby
• Idol Bel and the Dragon (Vulgate Daniel 14)
• Infinite Life Sutra
• Isis Unveiled
• Judith
• Karana Hasuge
• Kebra Negast
• Kitáb-i-Aqdas
• Kitáb-i-Ã�qán
• Kojiki
• Liber Linteus
• Lotus Sutra
• Maccabees (First and Second)
• Mahavairocana Sutra
• Mantra Gopya
• Mishnah
• Missing Epistle of Jude referenced in Jude 1:3
• Nag Hammadi library
• Nihon Shoki or Nihongi
• Oahspe
• Pearl of Great Price
• Prayer of Manasseh
• Principia Discordia
• Pyrgi Tablets
• Qolusta, Canonical Prayerbook
• Qur'an
• Rasa'il al-hikmah (Epistles of Wisdom)
• Rest of Esther (Vulgate Esther 10:4-16:24)
• Rig Veda
• Sama Veda
• Shoonya Sampadane
• Siddhanta Shikhamani
• Song of the Three Children (Vulgate Daniel 3:24-90)
• Song of the Three Young Men with the Prayer of Azariah
• Story of Susanna (Vulgate Daniel 13)
• Sutta Pitaka
• Tabula Cortonensis
• Third Epistle to Corinth called Severe Letter referenced at 2 Corinthians 2:4 and 2 Corinthians 7:8-9
• Tobit
• Upanishads
• Urantia Book
• Vachana sahitya
• Vajrasekhara Sutra
• Vendidad,
• Vinaya Pitaka
• Visperad,
• Wisdom
• Wisdom of Solomon
• Yajur Veda
• Yashts,
• Yasna, includes the Gathas.

Edited to add Eddas

[Coyotero]

You forgot the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda

[McCulloch]

You forgot the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda

I am sure I forgot quite a bit. But thanks.

[Heterodoxus]

How can you tell the inspired stuff from the frauds?

Not by comparing English language texts (which all say the same thing in different ways), but by performing a word-for-word comparison of a canonized scripture to its source document; e.g., Matt. 1:16 to P1, or John 14:17 to P75, etc.

Not easy to do, but doable for those with the interest and training to do it.

I'll leave the answering of your compound question to others, but the some of the answers you seek are common knowledge within the areas of Church History and the evolution of the Bible.

[McCulloch]

I'll leave the answering of your compound question to others, but the some of the answers you seek are common knowledge within the areas of Church History and the evolution of the Bible.

If the Bible is a revelation from God, how can it evolve? How does church history validate the decision of whether a particular text is from God or from humans?

[Heterodoxus]

I'll leave the answering of your compound question to others, but the some of the answers you seek are common knowledge within the areas of Church History and the evolution of the Bible.

If the Bible is a revelation from God, how can it evolve? How does church history validate the decision of whether a particular text is from God or from humans?

In short, "eye of the beholder."

The earliest Christians read the source documents and believed they saw their concept of God and Messiah-Christ in them. The documents they preferred/used the most were copied, sometimes several times.

Later, some of those copies were compiled into collections of favorite documents (codices). It's the contents of these earliest codices which have evolved, from the time of the Nicean-era catholic; i.e., universal church via numerous revisions, re-copying, and other "official" or approved publications, into today's orthodox Christian dogma.

"God" might have sent a revelation from and of himself, but it was man who decided which parts of that "revelation from God" they would keep or discard, honor or dishonor, and the like. It's those "keepers," as viewed thru the eyes and dictates of early and dogmatic churchmen, and as defended and enforced by their cronies, which have evolved into today's Christian Bibles.

Like I said, "eye of the beholder."

[elena]

If the Bible is a revelation from God, how can it evolve? How does church history validate the decision of whether a particular text is from God or from humans?

If you follow Sola Scriptura, church history shouldn't mean too much to you at all. I know it means quite a lot to some adherents of Sola Script. all the same, but logically it doesn't make sense. The only answer Protestants give (to my knowledge) when questioned about canonization is basically: this is what we have. When questioned about how they know the Protestant canon is correct instead of the Catholic canon or the Eastern Orthodox canon they don't seem to have any clear answer. They basically follow the canon the reformer's proposed with a few exceptions (Luther did not consider James and Revelations canonical). They sort of make an appeal to history when they have basically forfeited by adhering to Sola Scr

[Heterodoxus]

Like I said, "eye of the beholder."

To briefly continue in this vein, I add: "Scripture" can be anything to anybody --

• > to a extremist Christian, Jew, or Muslim, it's the words within their respective sacred writings;
  
  > to an American domestic terrorist wannabe, it might be "The Turner Diaries";
  
  > to a judge, lawyer, or Peace Officer, it's the pertinent laws of the land within their jurisdiction;
  
  > to a soldier, it might be a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and appropriate field manuals and regulations,

and so forth, and so on . . . . .

[Heir]

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Assuming that there is a God who has chosen to reveal at least part of his will to humans and assuming that the Protestant Christian Bible is essentially true, then what is meant by All Scripture in the passage above? What is in? What is out? And most importantly, who gets to decide and on what basis is this decision made?

Throughout the gospels, Jesus told us what scripture was, refering to the entire OT in various ways: Moses and the prophets; the law and the prophets; the law;the writings, etc. He was clearly refering to the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible which is the same as the 39 books of the Christian OT. Note: there is no reference to the Apocrypha.

Later on Paul, Peter and John believed they were speaking and writing the Word of God.

The church did not claim to decide, they simply recognized that these Words are of God.


Heir