Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by George on November 15, 2011 at 5:41am

Where are you where a stranger is walking up to you and pulling books out of your hands?  

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Permalink Reply by Regina Goodwin on November 15, 2011 at 6:44pm

Houston

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Permalink Reply by George on November 16, 2011 at 3:56am

Was this at a public library?

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Permalink Reply by Regina Goodwin on November 17, 2011 at 3:36pm

No, at the park.

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Permalink Reply by Matt VDB on November 15, 2011 at 7:55am

Hi Regina,

 

Let me first say that you should have the right to read whatever you want, wherever you want. The woman you talked to was obviously suffering from extreme religious delusion.

However, your reply was still nonsense, and I have to point that out:

 

"Jubilees, Jasher, Enoch, Thomas, Judas and other so-called obscure books were part of the bible before the Council of Nicea made the final decision of what books are to be incorporated in the book of confusion"

 

First of all, the Council of Nicaea had nothing to do with the formation of the Bible Canon. Nothing at all. The Council of Nicaea dealt with the Arian heresy, a quibble with regards to Trinity (namely whether the Son was made of the same substance as the Father, or whether he "proceeded from the Father"). No decisions on the Biblical canon were made at Nicaea; it wasn't even discussed, despite the many myths to the contrary.

The Biblical canon had been debated on for many centuries before Nicaea and would be debated for many centuries thereafter (up until its official canonization after the Middle Ages). However, on most books, a consensus already existed as soon as the Late Second Century CE. The Muratorian canon, for instance, dates to around that time but already accept 23 out of 27 books in the current New Testament as canonical. There was still debate after that point, but it was mostly centered around specific books (notably the Shepherd of Hermas).

And the Old Testament had obviously been canonized long before that (the very late First Century CE).

 

And second, books like Jubilees, Enoch and Jasher were never in any of the canons, either New or Old Testament. To say that they were part of "the Bible" does not make sense (since the Bible isn't a book anyway, it's a canonized collection of books). They are examples of Jewish apocalyptic literature (midrash), but were never in any actual canon. The same goes for pseudo-epigrapha like Thomas and Judas: these were never part of a New Testament canon since the early churches apparently worked out that these were later works quite fast (Judas in particular is clearly gnostic and a much later work).

 

I'm all for educating Christians on the history of their Bible with a couple of facts, but you do have to make sure those facts are correct...

 

Kind regards,

 

Matt

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Permalink Reply by Pat on November 15, 2011 at 8:29am

I'm with George on this one.  Where were you, and could you have called the police for an unprovoked assault?

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Permalink Reply by Regina Goodwin on November 15, 2011 at 6:42pm

Houston.  The police won't do anything but lecture you.  I have a friend that reported a attempted sexual assault.  The criminal was arrested but the cop labeled it as a "Disturbance."

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Permalink Reply by Ryan Papp on November 15, 2011 at 9:11am

I got the same reaction one time while  was donating plasma, I was sitting in the chair with a gigantic needle in my arm, reading the Necronomicon, and some older woman comes and tells me I shouldnt read that around her, it was making her uncomfortable. I pretty much did the same thing, and politely asked her to mind her own business, and assured her demons would not come flying out of my book at any time.

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Permalink Reply by Madhukar Kulkarni on November 21, 2011 at 1:31am

If god tells me not to read scriptures, that will be one command of him I will obey most willingly!

Madhukar Kulkarni.

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