Essays on Biblical Canon

e The definition of the word “canon” was developed as a description for books that are divinely inspired and belong in the Holy Bible. The Bible was written by nearly 40 different writers over the length of 1500 years, which was why there was a considerable amount of difficulty in determining what was Biblical canon. What made it difficult was that the Bible did not explicitly state which books belonged in the holy text. Jewish rabbis and scholars were the first to conduct a process to determine the canon, which was later continued by the early Christians. Ultimately, God ...

In its first three centuries, Christianity began to separate from Judaism while also selectively incorporating the Jewish Scriptures and laws that it regarded as most useful, as is clear from the Didache. There were Gnostic Christians who were prepared to reject Judaism completely, along with the books of the Bible that finally became known as the Old Testament in the 4th Century. They regarded the Genesis Creator of the Hebrew Bible as a false and evil God and also denied the humanity and Jewish heritage of Jesus and his earliest followers. Orthodox Christianity did not accept the Gnostic argument that ...

SHORT SUMMARY

Jesus of Nazareth was a Palestine Jew who grew up in Galilee, an important center of the militant Zealots and resistance to the rule of the Romans and their local collaborators like the Herodians and the Temple priests in Jerusalem. Contrary to later interpretations, his original message was not intended to undermine the traditional Jewish religion, but to emphasize that the Kingdom of God was at hand and that his disciples should love God and one another. His commandments were for the Jews to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and to love ...