Revelation Through Sacred Writings If people are to gain knowledge of God, then this occurs either as a result of: people exploring, testing and experimenting on God or God choosing to reveal certain truths to humanity If we accept that God is not the type of being that can be tested or explored, then we are left with God s selfrevelation. Revelation, then, comprises the truths about God which humans could not arrive at by reason. It is the act of God revealing himself or knowledge about himself or his wishes to humans. Sometimes revelation is classified as: General revelation available to everyone all the time, e.g. beauty of creation, voice of conscience Specific Revelation available only to specific people at specific times and places, e.g. Moses Which type of revelation is the Bible?............................... Propositional View of Revelation According to this view, God has chosen to reveal certain truths or facts to humans, and what is revealed must be accepted as the direct speech of God. God may choose to use various methods to reveal things, as in the lives of Jesus and the disciples, or in the Bible. These sources of information are regarded as inspired by the Holy Spirit and therefore the Word of God. This is the view taken by the Roman Catholic Church, Judaism and Islam.
According to this view, faith involves the intellectual acceptance of the revealed propositions; the individual is free to decide to accept the propositions of revelation - it is an act of choice. This view presupposes that God exists and that it is God who has revealed the truths in question. This is established on the grounds of human reason - the philosophical proofs of God s existence (natural theology) and the acceptance of the Bible and church doctrines. This allows people to believe that certain things are true about God. Criticisms of the propositional view this view places too much importance on intellectual belief at the expense of personal trust in God this view suggests knowing and manipulating facts about God is more important than a personal trust in God the image of humans as passively receiving knowledge from God is unrealistic - human nature is to try to understand or find understanding in information, so there is no guarantee that the revelation will be recorded unfiltered by individuals some propositions that were previously held to be the result of divine revelation have now been reclassified as being the product of human opinion - how safe are the remaining truths? - how can their truth be guaranteed? Non-Propositional View of Revelation Supporters of this approach take the view that revelation is not simply about God sending information direct to humans. Rather, God works with humans in their attempts to understand divine activity. Facts and truths are not revealed, but via the writers religious experiences, a relationship is developed with God. The role of faith according to this view involves a trust in God. To trust a friend, you do not need to know facts about them the same applies here it is argued. It is faith that allows people to understand events in the world as revelatory. Faith provides the awareness to recognise revelation as being revelation. Natural theology plays no role in the non-propositional
view - it is religiously experienced events that provide the source of data. A person who has faith that allows him or her to experience God s work in everyday life has no need to prove God s existence with philosophical proofs. This view of revelation allows people to believe in God. Criticisms of the non-propositional view How can we trust someone unless we already know something about that person How can we verify that the revelation is true? - appeals to the revelation beg the question - appeals to data external to the revelation dispense with the need for the revelation The Authority of Sacred Writings Sacred writings, in this case the Bible, are said to have authority for believers because it is seen as revelation from God. It ensures: followers know what to believe followers know how to behave followers know how to worship Basically the followers of a religion need to know what God wants of them, e.g............................................................. They need to be able to distinguish their religion from other religions, e.g............................................................. They need to be able to distinguish God s commands from the commands of others, e.g....................................................
Sources of Revelation God Advantage.............. Disadvantage.............. Those who have received a revelation from God Advantage.............. Disadvantage.............. Those who have had a religious experience Advantage.............. Disadvantage.............. Those who can interpret the word of God that others have received Advantage.............. Disadvantage.............. Clearly the strongest religious authority is that which comes directly from God in oral or written form e.g. God speaks to Moses, Jesus (God in human form) speaks to disciples. The weakest form is those who interpret the word of God. The State of Scripture Today Old Testament Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Joshua Judges Ruth 1 Samuel 2 Samuel 1 Kings 2 Kings 1 Chronicles 2 Chronicles Ezra Nehemiah Esther Job Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes Song of Solomon Isaiah Jeremiah Lamentations Ezekiel Daniel Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi 39 Books Apocrypha / Deuterocanonical Books Tobit Judith Additions to Esther Wisdom of Solomon Ecclesiasticus Baruch Letter of Jeremiah Additions to Daniel 1 Maccabees 2 Maccabees Prayer of Manasseh Psalm 151 3 Maccabees 2 Esdras 4 Maccabees New Testament Matthew Mark Luke John Acts of Apostles Romans 1 Corinthians 2 Corinthians
Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians 1 Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians 1 Timothy 2 Timothy Titus Philemon Hebrews James 1 Peter 2 Peter 1 John 2 John 3 John Jude Revelation 27 Books The Development of the Bible & Apocrypha Apocrypha is a Greek word meaning hidden. Its usage changed from books hidden from the majority, seen by only an inner circle, to eventually refer to books hidden because they were considered sub-standard. The first Christian bibles were Greek translations of the Hebrew Scriptures. In addition to the Hebrew Scriptures, some later passages that were originally written in Greek were included. Fragments found near the Dead Sea indicate that these texts were around in the first century. Christians quoted Jewish scriptures to support their claim that Jesus was the Messiah. Jews responded by saying that the scriptures quoted were inaccurate in Greek. The Jews, then, rejected all scripture that was not written in Hebrew as not being inspired by God. The Christians still used the Greek Bible, including the books rejected by the Jews. In the fourth century some Christian writers rejected the non- Hebrew books of the Old Testament. The scholar Jerome rejected them, calling them apocrypha, by which he meant spurious. Saint Augustine, on the other hand, said the books should remain in the Bible as it was Church tradition to accept them and Pope Innocent I agreed and the books were included in the Western Latin Bible, the Vulgata.
In the sixteenth Century reformers rejected the books, attaching more importance to scholars views on authenticity and less importance to Church tradition. The Anglican Church did not completely reject the books, calling them apocyrpha and placing them between the testaments. Calvinists rejected them completely. The books contained in the Vulgate, but not in the canon are called deuterocanonical, added secondly or later to the canon. If the Bible is a sacred book containing the revelation of God, what issues are presented by the above discussion? Translations of the Bible It should be clear that the issue of the language that the Bible is read in has been a controversial one. Orthodox Jews today believe that the word of God in the Bible can only be heard in Hebrew. It may be noted that Muslims do not translate the Qu ran for the same reason, that the precise meaning is lost in translation. This is not hard to appreciate if you have ever studied a foreign language, where, for instance, in one language an object may have no gender, in another language it may be masculine or feminine and in another language it may be neuter. The problem with the authority of Bible translations can be seen from part of the history of its translation into English: King James Version 1611 (Biblical studies advance, older manuscripts are found). British Revised Standard Version 1881-1885
American Standard Version 1901 Revised Standard Version 1952 Apocrypha 1957 Increased Apocrypha 1977 NRSV 1989 The decisions as to what to include and how to translate specific words are made by scholars (viz. human decisions). The scholars make judgements on what are the best reconstructions of text from fragments as earlier documents are found. Decisions as to what translation is most appropriate are influenced by increasing knowledge of beliefs in Biblical times. The RSV is officially authorised by Protestant, Anglican, Roman Catholic and Easter Orthodox Churches. However, no single translation is acceptable to all groups, and after the RSV was published, twenty-six other translations soon followed. Key words: Apocrypha meaning........................ Canon meaning........................ Deuterocanonical meaning........................ Vulgate / Vulgata meaning........................ Explain how and why Jerome and Augustine differed in their views of the apocryphal books.
Just to confuse things even further, different Christians interpret the Bible in different ways. The academic study and application of interpretation theories is called hermeneutics (it is used for non-religious texts too). These theories focus on the relationships found between the author, reader and text. E.D. Hirsch, for example, argued that the meaning of a text is determined by the author's intent. Hans-Georg Gadamer argued that the meaning of the text goes beyond the author, and therefore the meaning is determined by the point where the horizons of the reader and the writer meet. Paul Ricœur argued that the text is independent of the author's intent and original audience, and therefore the reader determines the meaning of the text. Christians also interpret the Bible from a: fundamentalist viewpoint - as the infallible and literal Word of God, to be followed without question. liberal viewpoint the bible is meant to be taken allegorically / symbolically and focuses more on the concepts of forgiveness of others, not judging, etc. conservative viewpoint a fairly literal interpretation of the bible, which tries to maintain the traditional values and teachings. Test Yourself! General revelation is............................................. Specific Revelation is............................................ Faith, according to the Propositional View of Revelation can be defined as Natural Theology is..............................................