HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY PART THREE THE CANONICAL GOSPELS: TRANSLATION FACTS & ISSUES 30 C.E. TO 310 C.E.

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1 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY PART THREE THE CANONICAL GOSPELS: TRANSLATION FACTS & ISSUES 30 C.E. TO 310 C.E. LECTURE ONE This class is dedicated to my 8th grade teacher: Maureen Gallagher (a.k.a. Sister Marca) who inspired me to seek out answers to difficult questions even though it would take 50 years. Biblical Scholar James Dunn: FROM JESUS REMEMBERED - 1 A faith, which regards all critical scrutiny of its historical roots as inimical to faith can never hold up its head or lift up its voice in any public forum. ADVISORY ON LECTURES - 2 Much of the information discussed is not a final solution or the only way to view these facts and issues. Once again, they are an example of one alternative viewpoint that many Biblical Scholars accept and a number of others reject. Here we are trying to explain the many difficulties that are encountered whenever dealing with ancient manuscripts. ADVISORY ON LECTURES - 3 All must bear in mind that they were written long ago during times that have been lost to us for almost two millennia. Our goal is to attempt to understand what these ancient writers were trying to say from that distant past to our current times. WHAT IS A GOSPEL? FROM JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, THE APOSTLES: Always hoped that I'd be an apostle Knew that I would make it if I tried Then when we retire we can write the gospels So they'll still talk about us when we've died

2 DEFINITION OF A GOSPEL - 1 Any ancient writing can be said to be a Gospel that: Describes the actions of Jesus. Contains the words or sayings of Jesus. Has the teachings of Jesus. Has as a main theme the life of Jesus. DEFINITION OF A GOSPEL - 2 Literally the word GOSPEL comes from the Greek word EUANGELION which means GOOD NEWS or GLAD TIDINGS. In Old English the word was GODSPELL which is God s Spell, i.e. Good News. DEFINITION OF A CANONICAL GOSPEL - 0 The word CANON comes from the Greek word KANON which literally meant: a rod or bar used as a measuring standard. In theological usage it meant a rule of standard or norm. When applied to books it denoted an Authoritative Collection. DEFINITION OF A CANONICAL GOSPEL - 1 A Gospel is called canonical if it was accepted into the New Testament and, therefore, became part of the Christian Bible. Today there are four Canonical Gospels: Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. In the past some Christian sects had other Canonical Gospels. DEFINITION OF A CANONICAL GOSPEL - 2 To become a Canonical Gospel the writing must fulfill all of the following criteria: Be authored by or have as its primary source an Apostle or close Disciple of an Apostle. Contain eye-witness accounts of Jesus life. DEFINITION OF A CANONICAL GOSPEL - 4 Dogmatically acceptable to the Orthodox Christian Church of 350 A.D. In 185 A.D the Church Father Irenaeus of Lyons declared the following criterium: There are four Pillars of the Church: it is not possible that there can be either more or fewer than four.

3 DEFINITION OF A CANONICAL GOSPEL - 5 By the year 250 A.D. the four current Canonical Gospels were accepted as being the only true, reliable Gospels. When the New Testament came into final form around 350 A.D., these four Gospels were the only ones allowed into the CANON of the Orthodox Church. CANON LX: THE COUNCIL OF LAODICEA IN 360 C.E. And these are the books of the New Testament: Four Gospels, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; The Acts of the Apostles; Seven Catholic Epistles, to wit, one of James, two of Peter, three of John, one of Jude; Fourteen Epistles of Paul, one to the Romans, two to the Corinthians, one to the Galatians, one to the Ephesians, one to the Philippians, one to the Colossians, two to the Thessalonians, one to the Hebrews, two to Timothy, one to Titus, and one to Philemon. DEFINITION OF A NON-CANONICAL GOSPEL 1 A Gospel is called Non-Canonical if was NOT accepted into the New Testament by the Orthodox Christian Church. Therefore, it did not become part of any of the current mainstream Christian Bibles. DEFINITION OF A NON-CANONICAL GOSPEL - 2 Many Non-Canonical Gospels were: Written after 100 A.D. Not eye-witness accounts of the life or sayings of Jesus. Not authored or sourced from an Apostle or one of his/her disciples. Contained unacceptable doctrine or dogma. GOSPEL OF THE NAZAREANS GOSPEL OF THE EBIONITES GOSPEL OF PETER GOSPEL OF MARY GOSPEL OF PHILIP GOSPEL OF TRUTH GOSPEL OF THE SAVIOR GOSPEL OF JUDAS LIST OF NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS - 1

4 LIST OF NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS - 2 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE HEBREWS GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE EGYPTIANS COPTIC GOSPEL OF THOMAS EGERTON 2: THE UNKNOWN GOSPEL INFANCY GOSPEL OF THOMAS PROTO-GOSPEL OF JAMES SECRET GOSPEL OF MARK LIST OF NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS - 2 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE HEBREWS GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE EGYPTIANS COPTIC GOSPEL OF THOMAS EGERTON 2: THE UNKNOWN GOSPEL INFANCY GOSPEL OF THOMAS PROTO-GOSPEL OF JAMES SECRET GOSPEL OF MARK FACTS ABOUT THE CANONICAL GOSPELS WHO WROTE THE GOSPELS - 1 No one knows who actually wrote any of the Gospels. Not one was signed by an individual nor any author mentioned within the text. All the names that are used today were added to manuscripts sometime in the mid to late 100s. Because it is convenient, scholars continue to use the existing names. WHO WROTE THE GOSPELS - 2 It is doubtful that any of the original Apostles were literate, especially in Greek (KOINE) in which all the oldest manuscripts are written. It is possible that some of the Apostles dictated to individuals who wrote down what they said over time. Then later editors used this material to put together the various Gospels. WHO WROTE THE GOSPELS - 3 Attributing writings to important figures of the past in order to give them more authority was a common practice during this timeframe. The terms for this are

5 pseudonymous writings or pseudopigrapha which means false writing or something written under a false name. WHO WROTE THE GOSPELS - 4 All the Gospels, Canonical and Non-canonical, can be argued as being written by someone other than the name associated with the Gospel. WHEN WRITTEN - 1 No one knows when the original Gospel manuscripts were written down. For dating purposes, scholars look at: The individual words used by the authors. How the words were used singly and in context. Sentence structure. Word placement. Writing style. Spelling of certain words. Description of events. Customs mentioned. Physical locations and names. WHEN WRITTEN - 2 Description of physical structures (tile roof vs. thatched) Names of participants. WHEN WRITTEN - 3 Think of reading an article written in 1865, 1925, 1975, and Even if the article was on the same subject, many of the aforementioned points would lead you to deduce the actual timeframe that the article was probably written. WHERE CRITERIA - 1 The following criteria is a selection of various ways to determine where a document or manuscript may have originated: Vocabulary. Sentence structure. Type of stories. Multiple languages in the manuscript.

6 GOSPEL FACTS FOR MARK 1 WHO: UNKNOWN ATTRIBUTED: JOHN-MARK, DISCIPLE OF PETER WHEN: BETWEEN 65 C.E. TO 70 C.E. WHERE: CITY OF ROME AUDIENCE: ROMAN CHRISTIANS WHY: TO PROVIDE MORE INFORMATION ON JESUS TO THE PERSECUTED ROMAN CHRISTIANS GOSPEL FACTS FOR MATTHEW 1 WHO: UNKNOWN ATTRIBUTED: MATTHEW, ONE OF THE 12 APOSTLES WHEN: BETWEEN 75 C.E. TO 80 C.E. WHERE: NEAR PALESTINE, POSSIBLY ANTIOCH OR DAMASCUS AUDIENCE: JEWISH CHRISTIANS WHY: TO SHOW THE JEWISH FOLLOWERS THAT JESUS WAS THE MESSIAH AND FULFILLS SCRIPTURES. GOSPEL FACTS FOR LUKE 1 WHO: UNKNOWN ATTRIBUTED: LUKE, DISCIPLE OF PAUL WHEN: BETWEEN 80 C.E. TO 85 C.E. WHERE: IN THE REGIONS AROUND ACHAIA (NORTHERN GREECE) AUDIENCE: THEOPHILUS - A WELL TO DO GENTILE CHRISTIAN WHY: TO WRITE A DEFINITIVE WORK ON THE LIFE AND PASSION OF JESUS

7 GOSPEL FACTS FOR JOHN 1 WHO: ATTRIBUTED: WHEN: WHERE: AUDIENCE: WHY: UNKNOWN JOHN, APOSTLE OF JESUS BETWEEN 90 C.E. TO 100 C.E. CITY OF EPHESUS GENTILE/JEWISH CHRISTIANS IN ASIA MINOR TO CONVINCE THE READERS THAT JESUS WAS THE CHRIST GOSPEL MANUSCRIPTS FACTS & ISSUES GOSPEL MANUSCRIPTS FACTS - 1 All the Gospels are written on what we generally referred to as manuscripts of papyrus. These are the source material for the bibles that we read. Almost all old Gospel manuscripts are written in Koine, a version of ancient Greek. Later (by hundreds of years) manuscripts were written in Latin, Syriac, Aramaic, and Coptic. GOSPEL MANUSCRIPTS FACTS - 2 All the original Gospels were first written down in their fullest forms any where from 35 years to 150 years after Jesus of Nazareth s ministry. There are pieces of manuscripts going back to about 110 A.D. (fragment from the Gospel of Mark). GOSPEL MANUSCRIPTS FACTS 3 For the Canonical Gospels, there are over 5686 different Greek manuscripts (19,000 in different ancient languages) that can be used as a source for any Gospel Bible translation. There are over 250,000 minor to major differences among all these manuscripts. No one manuscript is the PERFECT or TRUE version of any Gospel.

8 GOSPEL MANUSCRIPTS FACTS 4 The ages of all Gospel manuscripts reach from a few hundred years old back to the 2nd century A.D., almost 2000 years ago. All Gospel manuscripts are copies of copies of copies of copies, etc. of the original manuscripts. The originals have all vanished due to the aging process. All manuscripts prior to the 1400s were copied by hand. GOSPEL MANUSCRIPTS FACTS 5 In the earliest years, those copiers were often amateurs, some barely literate. After several centuries, copying became the province of PROFESSIONALS, mostly monks in monasteries. Some manuscripts may have been copied by individuals who could not even read Koine. GOSPEL MANUSCRIPTS FACTS 6 The older that a manuscript is the greater reliability that it may reflect what may have been originally written down by the Evangelists. The goal of Gospel scholarship is to WORK one s way back to the earliest copy and determine what may have been added, modified, or deleted by later Editors over the centuries. GOSPEL MANUSCRIPTS FACTS 7 For the NON-CANONICAL Gospels, there are only one to maybe three manuscripts available as sources for translation. THOMAS One full, 3 fragments PETER MARY JUDAS One partial version, 2 fragments One partial, 2 fragments Only one partial (nearly complete) version GOSPEL MANUSCRIPTS FACTS 8 All the points covered previously apply as well to the NON-CANONICAL Gospels with these additions: In many cases, only partial copies exist.

9 Some are written in Coptic which would have been translated from Koine. Very little outside commentary has survived the centuries. GREEK GOSPEL MANUSCRIPT 2 No punctuations, no commas, no periods, no semi-colons, no quotation marks. Referred to as scriptio continua. Sentences are run together one word after the other. No standardized breaks between words. No standardized spellings. No capitalization standards. GREEK GOSPEL MANUSCRIPT 3 In plain terms, the texts are little more than indecipherable squiggles on a page. A person must understand that those squiggles are ancient (Koine). To be understood they need to be read within the context of the language usage of the time that they were written. GREEK GOSPEL MANUSCRIPT 4 And all Bibles, no matter what version or title or source or Christian denomination, come from these Greek manuscripts, which were copied over the centuries by ROMAN CATHOLIC MONKS. FROM JESUS REMEMBERED - 2 TRANLATION CHAIN - 2

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