Deck 27: Appendix: the Canon and Text of the Bible

Question 1

1. Describe the process of the canonization of the Hebrew Bible. What books were the first to be canonized and when? How did other books come to be added later, and what factors were involved in choosing the books? When was the current canon finally closed?

Answer 1

The five books of the Torah were widely accepted by the late fifth century BC.E. The Prophets (Former and Latter) were codified and accepted by the second century BC.E. (with seemingly prophetic books like Daniel not making it into that collection partly for that reason). The Writings were accepted by around the time of the fall of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. The three primary factors involved in choosing the books to be canonized were language (must be Hebrew, though perhaps including some Aramaic portions), age (books written before the fourth century, with Daniel as an exception as it claims to be written prior to that), and wide usage.

Question 2

2. How did the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls impact our understanding of the text of the Hebrew Bible? Give examples wherever possible.

Answer 2

The Dead Sea Scrolls impact our understanding of what was regarded as scriptural by the first century C.E. The seeming authority of a book like Jubilees, the absence of Esther, and the numerous "rewritten Bible" texts help show that what became canonical was still in flux at that point. The Scrolls also include multiple versions of some books, such as Jeremiah. The Scrolls also show that in many instances, the transmission of the texts of the Hebrew Bible has been remarkably reliable, with texts removed by over a millennium remaining quite close.

Question 3

4. The books of the New Testament were used by a variety of Christian groups, some of which were subsequently labeled as heretical. How did the process of canonization limit possible interpretations of these books and make them acceptable to orthodox Christians?

Answer 3

Although "heretical" groups used texts that were eventually placed in the canon (among them are Matthew, John, and Paul's letters), once a group of texts is canonized, those books are no longer read as free-standing texts with their own individual emphases and Christologies/theologies. Rather, when these books are placed into one book, The New Testament, they are intended to be read together and to shed light on one another. The reader of the New Testament, then, is supposed to read, for example, the Gospel of John in light of the Gospel of Matthew. The juxtaposition of texts containing different views bars a reader from moving too far in one doctrinal direction.

Question 4

5. Some manuscripts of Luke report that when Mary and Joseph found Jesus in the Temple when he was twelve, Mary said, "Your father and I have been searching for you," while others read, "We have been searching for you." Which of these do you think represents the more original passage? Why?

Question 5

6. Many scholars do not believe we can ever be certain that we possess the exact words of the New Testament authors. What arguments might they give to substantiate this claim?

Question 6

1. All of the books in the Old Testament were accepted as canonical at the same time.

Question 7

3. The Kethuvim were largely agreed upon by the second century BC.E

Question 8

4. Only books entirely or largely written in Hebrew were accepted in the Jewish canon.

Question 9

5. Orthodoxy was a primary criterion of the canonization of the Hebrew Bible.

Question 10

6. The Dead Sea Scrolls indicate that the Jewish canon was already fixed by the first century C.E.

Question 11

7. It is impossible to know how much the text of the Hebrew Bible changed before the first century C.E.

Question 12

8. The Dead Sea Scrolls were copied based on the traditions of the Masoretes.

Question 13

9. Some books found at Qumran are closer to the text of the Septuagint than to the Masoretic Text.

Question 14

10. Orthodoxy was a primary criterion for the canonization of the New Testament

Question 15

11. The earliest canon list of all twenty-seven New Testament books is from the late fourth century C.E.

Question 16

12. Marcion seems to have collected the first Christian canon.

Question 17

13. Some New Testament manuscripts date back to the second century C.E.

Question 18

14. We have the original copy of the Gospel of Mark but of no other New Testament book.

Question 19

15. We can know the original words of the Bible for certain.

Question 20

16. Catholic and Orthodox Christians have a larger canon, including books not in the Jewish and Protestant canons.

Question 21

1) The last part of the Jewish canon to be collected and designated authoritative was the

A) Writings.
B) Torah.
C) Latter Prophets.
D) Former Prophets.

Question 22

4) How many books are there in the New Testament?

A) twenty-five
B) twenty-six
C) seventy-seven
D) twenty-eight

Question 23

6) Who established the first Christian canon?

A) Marcion
B) Gnostics
C) proto-orthodox Christians
D) Paul

Question 24

7) Which of the following was not a criterion for which books of the New Testament were canonized?

A) antiquity
B) apostolicity
C) orthodoxy
D) historical accuracy

Question 25

8) In what year did Athanasius name the current 27 books of the New Testament as authoritative?

A) 158 C.E.
B) 288 C.E.
C) 367 C.E.
D) 432 C.E.

Question 26

9) This second-century figure established a canon consisting of some of Paul's letters along with an edited version of the Gospel of Luke.

A) Athanasius
B) Valentinus
C) Clement of Alexandria
D) Marcion

Question 27

10) The Marcionites used a form of which Gospel?

A) Thomas
B) John
C) Mark
D) Luke

Question 28

11) Marcion appealed to ___________ as the authority for his teachings.

A) Peter
B) Thomas
C) Paul
D) Matthew

Question 29

12) Marcion excised passages from his Gospel source and from Paul in accordance with his view that

A) Jesus was Jewish and argued for the continuation of Judaism.
B) Jesus and Paul argued against the practices of Judaism.
C) there was only one God.
D) Jesus created the world.

Question 30

13) Our earliest New Testament manuscript is a small fragment of the Gospel of John from approximately ___________ C.E.

A) 125
B) 200
C) 250
D) 300

Question 31

14) We currently possess about how many fragments and copies of New Testament texts?

A) 56,000
B) 100
C) 560
D) 5,600

Question 32

15) Which of the following represents an intentional scribal error?

A) doctrinal change
B) misspelling words
C) repeating words, verses, or pages
D) skipping words, verses, or pages

Question 33

16) The story of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery (John 7:59-8:11) is

A) an original part of the Gospel of John.
B) an original part of the Gospel of Mark and later inserted into the Gospel of John by the author of John.
C) not an original part of any Gospel.
D) a pagan parable.

Question 34

17) In the story of the women who find Jesus' tomb empty and are instructed by a young man (or angel) to go tell Peter and the other disciples (Mark 16), the last twelve verses of this story in Mark were

A) added to the Gospel of Mark by a scribe.
B) an original part of the Gospel of Mathew and later inserted into the Gospel of Mark by the author of Mark.
C) an original part of the Gospel of Mark.
D) a pagan parable.

Question 35

18) What is the earliest surviving manuscript of the New Testament to date?

A) the entirety of Revelation
B) a fragment of the Gospel of Mark
C) the last five chapters of 1 Peter
D) a fragment of the Gospel of John

Question 36

19) New Testament manuscripts do not

A) contain many mistakes.
B) have many years separating the events written about and the events themselves.
C) have any inaccuracies.
D) show a lack of passion for their topics.

Question 37

20) By what means have early Christian truth claims been handed down from one generation to the next?

A) orally
B) written texts
C) lifestyles
D) all of the above

Question 38

21) How many original copies of books of the Bible do we have?

A) three fragments
B) one entire book and one fragment of another
C) none
D) all of them

Question 39

22) Most copies of New Testament manuscripts come from what time period?

A) Middle Ages
B) Age of Enlightenment
C) Pax Romana
D) Bronze Age

Question 40

24) The ____________ is the stabilized version of the Hebrew Bible that eventually became the standard version.

A) Majestic text
B) Masoretic text
C) Kabbalic text
D) Septuagint

Question 41

25) ____________ is a term that means "second canon."

A) Deuterocanon
B) Apocrypha
C) Talmud
D) scripture

Question 42

26) The deuterocanonical books are typically called the ____________ by Protestants.

A) Pseudepigrapha
B) Apocrypha
C) Talmud
D) scripture