http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865630493/If-any-man-shall-add-unto-these-things-.html
There
are probably few, if any, missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints who haven’t encountered the argument, usually advanced by
evangelical Protestants, that the Book of Mormon and the other revelations
given through Joseph Smith are illegitimate because the Bible forbids
post-biblical scripture.
The
proof-text upon which this argument is based occurs at the very end of the
Bible, in Revelation 22:18-19:
“For I
testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If
any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that
are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the
book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life,
and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”
There
are also probably few missionaries who haven’t countered that argument by
observing that those two verses almost certainly refer only to the book of
Revelation itself and not to the Bible as a whole. In this context, it’s always
useful, as well, to point out that parallel warnings occur at Deuteronomy 4:2 and 12:32.
This
missionary response is entirely sound. To the best of my knowledge, for
example, absolutely nobody believes that those two passages in Deuteronomy, the
Bible’s fifth book, invalidate the rest of the volume (including the entire New
Testament). Here, though, I would like to provide some additional background.
Modern
scripture readers need to keep the fact in mind that the first Christians
didn’t have our modern bound Bibles. In fact, “books” as we know them — the
appropriate term for the earliest ancient books is “codices,” or, in the
singular, “codex” — were only beginning to come into fashion at the very end of
the New Testament period.
For
example, all of the documents recovered from the Nag Hammadi Christian library
in Egypt — which was hidden in approximately A.D. 390 — were codices. It’s in
Egypt that the earliest surviving codex fragments have been discovered. Some
have been tentatively dated to the first half of the second century. A very few
may date to the close of the first century. (Notable among these is Rylands
Library Papyrus P52, containing a portion of the gospel of John, which may come
from A.D. 125-160.) By contrast, every text found in the library of the Villa
of the Papyri, located near Naples in ancient Herculaneum, is in the form of a
scroll. (This library was buried in A.D. 79 by the same eruption of Mount
Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii.)
The
texts of the New Testament probably began to be written around A.D. 51, though.
Dates suggested for the book of Revelation range from A.D. 68 to A.D. 96.
Unless,
therefore, the book of Revelation was among the very earliest texts not only
recorded but also composed in codex form, it seems likely that the Greek word
“biblion,” rendered in the King James Bible and most other English translations
as “book,” doesn't mean “book” in our modern sense. In fact, the Common English
Bible and the evangelical New International Version actually render “biblion”
as “scroll,” and the very conservative Apologetics Study Bible note on
Revelation 22 agrees.
It’s
also improbable that a scroll would have contained the whole New Testament, let
alone the entire Bible. Codices replaced scrolls largely because the latter
were so unwieldy.
Moreover,
the 66-book Protestant biblical canon — with Genesis at the beginning and
Revelation at the end — didn’t instantly flare into existence upon the
completion of the book of Revelation.
Irenaeus
knew a four-gospel canon by about A.D. 180. Shortly thereafter, by A.D. 200 —
which is at least a century after the composition of the Revelation of John —
something like today’s 27-book Protestant New Testament seems to have been
recognized as canonical in certain circles. But there were still hefty disputes
on the subject, and, in any case, the books circulated separately. (Our word
“Bible,” as a matter of fact, comes from the Greek “ta biblia,” “the books.”
The modern Bible is a collection or anthology of texts that were written by
different authors at widely different times.)
“It is
doubtful,” says the Apologetics Study Bible note on Revelation
22:18-19, “the wording here
refers to closing the canon of the Bible.” Rather, it says, with concurrence
from the relevant NIV note, “the warning relates specifically to the book of
Revelation.”
Accordingly,
it cannot count against claims of post-biblical revelation.
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