http://vimeo.com/35745638 

The video from January 22, 2012

THAT BOOK YOU HAVE IN YOUR HAND:

Sunday January 08 2011

Charles e Whisnant,  Student

Given By Inspiration is the Word of God. The Study of what the Scriptures are and how they came to us

The Holy Spirit by Whom believers should be God-taught does not render the Scriptures less necessary. He is not given to us in order to introduce new revelations, but to impress the written Word on our hearts; so that here the Word must never be separated from the Spirit. The former works objectively, the latter efficiently; the former strikes our ears from without, the latter opens the heart within. The Spirit is the teacher; Scripture is the doctrine which He teaches us.'

^{Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Vol I, p.59}

"The minister as the chief pastoral agent does not inject food intravenously as it were, but he provides well-prepared food for the flock. He sets it before the flock and persuades them to feed themselves as they partake of it. It is like filling the stomach with food which then must be digested and transmuted into strength and flesh and blood. Whatever is to do the soul good must pass throught the stomach of the mind" (Volbeda, The Pastoral Genius of Preaching, pp. 80-81).

SYSTEMATIC Theology Matters

Parataxis and Hypotaxis: What They Mean and Why It Matters

Languages are distinguished by many features. One of these distinguishing features is the way that the syntax is typically arranged in a sentence.

A paratactic language arranges independent clauses side by side and connects them with coordinating conjunctions (para--beside; taxon—order

A hypotactic language arranges sentences by subordinating several dependent clauses under a single independent clause, connecting them with a variety of devices such as adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions of both the coordinating and subordinating variety, participles, infinitives, etc. (hypo--under; taxon--order). Note the following representative sentence

In order to render Hebrew into natural English,

·        The relentless stream of ands (waw), must be interpreted and shaped into meaningfully complex sentences for maximum understanding. Sometimes the and becomes then or so or but or because. At other times the and becomes a semicolon or a period. Still other times the and is simply omitted as an unnecessary deterrent to understanding. The result is that the single Hebrew sentence that is Genesis 1, for instance, becomes a series of normal, readable paragraphs made from multicolored English sentences

In order to render Greek into natural English,

·        The massive web of clauses, phrases, transitional and connecting devices must be untangled and simplified in order to qualify as excellent English. The result is that the single Greek sentence that is Ephesians 1:3-14, for instance, becomes a normal, readable paragraph of uniform English sentences

·        In doing this, English translations subject themselves to two criticisms, both of which are valid, but both of which are also overstated:

Part Two:

Interpreting Ancient Manuscript

Difficulties of Bible Translation

January 15, 2012

The very process of how we came to have that Bible in your hand is an amazing story in the first place.
The very thought how the process has developed in bringing us to have our 66 books of the Bible is one unbelievable story.

History of the Bible: How The Bible Came To Us
The New Testament

1.    Autographs

45- 95 A.D. The New Testament was written in Greek. The Pauline Epistles, the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Luke, and the book of Acts are all dated from 45-63 A.D. The Gospel of John and the Revelation may have been written as late as 95 A.D.

2.    Manuscripts

There are over 5,600 early Greek Manuscripts of the New Testament that are still in existence. The oldest manuscripts were written on papyrus and the later manuscripts were written on leather called parchment. Papyrus writing material used by the ancient Egyptians, Greek and Romans that was made from the pith of the stem of a water plant

To begin with, the documents that we have the Hebrew and Greek words on them we call manuscripts.

• 125 A.D. The New Testament manuscript which dates most closely to the original autograph was copied around 125 A.D, within 35 years of the original. It is designated "p 52" and contains a small portion of John 18. (The "p" stands for papyrus.)
• 200 A.D. Bodmer p 66 a papyrus manuscript which contains a large part of the Gospel of John.
• 200 A.D. Chester Beatty Biblical papyrus p 46 contains the Pauline Epistles and Hebrews.
• 225 A.D. Bodmer Papyrus p 75 contains the Gospels of Luke and John.
• 250-300 A.D. Chester Beatty Biblical papyrus p 45 contains portions of the four Gospels and Acts.
• 350 A.D. Codex Sinaiticus contains the entire New Testament and almost the entire Old Testament in Greek. It was discovered by a German scholar Tisendorf in 1856 at an Orthodox monastery at Mt. Sinai.
• 350 A.D. Codex Vaticanus: {B} is an almost complete New Testament. It was cataloged as being in the Vatican Library since 1475.

3.    Translations

Early translations of the New Testament can give important insight into the underlying Greek manuscripts from which they were translated.

• 180 A.D. Early translations of the New Testament from Greek into Latin, Syriac, and Coptic versions began about 180 A.D.
• 195 A.D. The name of the first translation of the Old and New Testaments into Latin was termed Old Latin, both Testaments having been translated from the Greek. Parts of the Old Latin were found in quotes by the church father Tertullian, who lived around 160-220 A.D. in north Africa and wrote treatises on theology.
• 300 A.D. The Old Syriac was a translation of the New Testament from the Greek into Syriac.
• 300 A.D. The Coptic Versions: Coptic was spoken in four dialects in Egypt. The Bible was translated into each of these four dialects.
• 380 A.D. The Latin Vulgate was translated by St. Jerome. He translated into Latin the Old Testament from the Hebrew and the New Testament from Greek. The Latin Vulgate became the Bible of the Western Church until the Protestant Reformation in the 1500's. It continues to be the authoritative translation of the Roman Catholic Church to this day. The Protestant Reformation saw an increase in translations of the Bible into the common languages of the people.

PALEOPGRAPHY: is the study of ancient writing.

This material in general comes from Jon Gleason from Scotland.

I have research others as well in this study

I am thankful for Jon work

GIVEN BY INSPIRATION – THEOPNEUSTOS, ETYMOLOGY AND

 hapax legomenon       January 22, 2012        

Charles e Whisnant

What in the world does THAT title mean?  That’s three big beasts in there, isn’t it?  I’ll explain, don’t worry.

Let’s start with II Timothy 3:16-17:

·       16 All scripture ¹¹²⁴ is (given by inspiration of God²³¹⁶ ), and is profitable⁵⁶²⁴ for doctrine¹³¹⁹, for reproof¹⁶⁵⁰, for correction,¹⁸⁸² for instruction³⁸⁰⁹ in righteousness¹³⁴³: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. l

The English words ”given by inspiration of God” all come from a single Greek word, theopneustos (see, I’ve already explained one of those things in the title, it’s the Greek word for “inspiration by God”).  Chares notes: I have put this on another Document:

There has perhaps been more written about this one Greek word than any other word in the Bible.  Anyone who tells you the proper translation of this word is a simple matter is confused, showing off, or just wrong.

The day of dictionaries Unfortunately hadn’t arrived when the Bible was written, so we don’t have a handy dictionary of Koine Greek (“common Greek”, the language of the Bible) to tell us the exact meaning of the words of the Greek New Testament.  In translating ancient languages, we have to look at the clues to find out what a word means.

No Dictionaries

Some Clues or Evidence as to Meaning

Among the “clues” as to a word’s meaning in a particular document are:

1. The way the word is used in other documents written previously or at the same time.  This can help us to understand what the word meant broadly within the language at the time.
2. The way the word is used in related documents (Scripturally, this would primarily mean other books of the Bible).  This helps even more, because a word might have different meanings in different contexts, but if we can find it in a similar context, that is likely to be a strong indicator of what it means in the context at hand.  For instance, if we want to know what a Biblical author means by a particular word, our best evidence is not how Greek philosophers used the word, but rather how other Biblical authors used it.
3. The way the word is used elsewhere in the document, or in other documents by the same author.  This is even better, because it gives us clues as to what this particular writer meant by the word.  Scripturally, this would mean, for instance, when trying to decide what John meant by a particular word, it is always a good idea to examine how John used that word elsewhere, and that may give us even better evidence than how Luke or James used the word.  If we want to determine what John meant in I John 1:1 by “Word of life,” we need to at least consider the possibility that it is similar to what he wrote in the first few verses of John 1.
4. The way the word is used in the particular context at which we are looking.
5. The words from which it is derived (called etymology — now I’ve explained another word from the title).
6. The way the word is used in later documents.  This can help us understand what the word meant later — but meanings change over time, so it is an imperfect indicator.
7. The grammatical context in which it is used.
8. Any known connotations to the word or its components.
9. Sometimes similar words in other related languages give hints as to meaning.
10. Translations of the text into another language, when available, give further evidence — not necessarily as to the intent of the author, but certainly as to how the translator understood the word.
11. The way the word is used in the particular context at which we are looking.
12. The words from which it is derived (called etymology — now I’ve explained another word from the title).
13. The way the word is used in later documents.  This can help us understand what the word meant later — but meanings change over time, so it is an imperfect indicator.
14. The grammatical context in which it is used.
15. Any known connotations to the word or its components.
16. Sometimes similar words in other related languages give hints as to meaning.
17. Translations of the text into another language, when available, give further evidence — not necessarily as to the intent of the author, but certainly as to how the translator understood the word.

hapax legomenon (one time used)

Words that only appear once are called hapax legomena (singular hapax legomenon), which means “said once” (and that explains the last of the three monsters from the title).  The meaning of these words can be more difficult to determine — we don’t have clues #2 & 3 above. 

The Greek word graphe, for instance, appears many times in the New Testament, so we have many contexts in which to examine it.  Thus, we have enough evidence to know exactly what it means — “Scripture”.  A word that only appears once gives us far fewer clues.  We have to look carefully at its single usage in Scripture, and rely more heavily on the other clues listed above.

                         

The Greek Word for Inspiration — theopneustos

Job 32:8 But [there is] a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. http://www.apostolic-churches.net/bible/wordlist/

The Greek Word for Inspiration — theopneustos

Theopneustos is particularly awkward for us, because it is not only hapax legomenon, but its usage in Koine Greek (“common Greek”, the language of the New Testament) is very limited. 

·       There is no conclusive evidence that it was ever used before Paul used it here in II Timothy — certainly there are no indications that Paul or Timothy had any prior knowledge of the word.  Paul may have actually invented this word (under the guidance of the Holy Spirit).  We can’t assume that any other usage of the word in Greek literature really had the meaning that Paul meant to convey, or the meaning that Timothy received when he read it.  In other words, not only are we without clues #2 & 3, #1 is no help to us, either.

Clue #10 is of limited value, as well.  We don’t have any translations of the New Testament within perhaps 150 years of the writing of II Timothy.  As a result, translations only tell us what someone much later thought theopneustos means.  They may not be entirely useless, because they may reflect an accurate tradition of the meaning which was passed down by Paul and Timothy through other believers, but in general we can’t rely much on clue #10.

The wealth of New Testament manuscripts

"The New Testament text is far better attested to than any other ancient writings"

When we come to the New Testament, however, we find a very different picture. Altogether we possess about 5,300 partial or complete Greek manuscripts. Early on, the New Testament books were translated into other languages, which seldom happened with other Greek and Latin writers. This means that in addition to Greek, we have something like 8,000 manuscripts in Latin, and an additional 8,000 or so manuscripts in other languages such as Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopic, Coptic, Gothic, Slavic, Sahidic and Georgian. As these translations began to be made before the close of the second century, they provide an excellent source for assessing the text of the New Testament writings from a very early date. On this latter point Charles H. Welsh, in his book True from the Beginning, quotes from the third edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica: http://www.christianity.co.nz/bible-3.htm

Does that mean we don’t know what theopneustos meant (and means)?  Certainly not.  We still have clues 4-9.  For now, I’m going to skip over clue #4 and go to #5, etymology.  I haven’t forgotten #4, I’m just deferring it to a later post.