Notes on “The Story of the Bible” Class No. 9
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Index
Preliminaries
Luke Timothy Johnson, Emory University, lecturer
Lecture 15: The Protestant Reformation and the Bible
Official outline from The Teaching Company
The Protestant Reformation of the 16th explicitly challenged medieval Catholicism based on the Bible
- they used the printing press to their advantage
- they castigated the corruption and moral character of the clergy
- much of sacrament was not in the Bible, e.g., confession
There was a developing understanding of purgatory
- venial sin = not too bad
- a work of piety could serve as a “get out of jail free” card
- this was called an indulgence
- these were even being bought and sold
- none of this was found in the Bible
The complexities of cannon law and scholastic philosophy were scorned by the reformers to the degree that they replaced Biblical piety
- where was the simple life of faith that Jesus called for?
The fundamental change in the Reformation was that tradition was to be interpreted in terms of the Bible, not vice-versa
- the monks were already doing this
The supreme place given the Bible can be assessed from a number of states
- the Niceen creed
- we believe in one God
- we believe in Jesus
- no reference to Scripture
- no need to mention Scripture because it was take for granted
- Protestants challenged these
Martin Luther
- 1517 tacked 95 theses/positions to be argued
- challenged the selling of indulgences
- Rome objected
- the more he was challenged, the more he dug his heels in
- he eventually left Catholicism
Augsberg Confessions
- this was the wedge for Luther
- claimed that Catholics had lost their trust in God
- the contrast for Luther was that people could intervene, e.g., indulgences
- cult of the saints drew away from what was due God
- argued against current practices based on the New Testament
Reform Tradition
- John Calvin 1509-1564
- broke with Catholicism in 1530
- wrote “Institutes of the Christian Religion”
- derived theories from close reading of Scripture
Three statements of faith
- Ten Conclusions of Baron
- “the church of Christ makes no laws apart from the word of God”
- before you say that you believe in God you have to accept the authority of Scripture
Westminster Confession - John Knox
- Scripture is an absolute authority
- interpretation is itself without need for priests
Church of England
- Thomas Cranmer, England
- time of Henry VIII
- author of Book of Common Prayer
39 Articles 1596 (?)
- nothing should be believe except as what can be confirmed by Scripture
sola fide, sola scriptura = by faith alone, by Scripture alone
- this was Martin Luther's credo
- they rejected all forms of allegory, only the literal sense mattered
- this left all the problems that allegory was invented to deal with
- to deal with inconsistencies and contradictions
- sachkritik = content criticism
- this conflicts with the notion of Scripture alone
- thus, human intervention determines which parts of the Bible are the word of God and which are not
- rapid dissemination of personal Bibles due to the invention of the printing press
- Scripture is full of inconsistencies and contradictions.
- thus, the history of Protestantism is fraught with disunity because of differences in interpretation
In all forms of Protestantism, the Bible is central
A great deal of art and music and literature was affected by Protestantism and Scriptural interpretation of the Reformation
- the work of Johann Sebastian Bach was affected by his Lutheran piety
- John Milton’s Paradise Lost is a classic example of the Protestant vision of reality
Lecture 16: Translating the Bible Into Modern Languages
Official outline from The Teaching Company
The Council of Trent circa 1565
- better educating clergy
- this was called the Catholic Counter-Reformation
The unity of Church and State continued
- Thomas Erastus 1524-1583 asserted the primacy of the state
- cuisu regio eius religio
- “the religion of the prince is the religion of the real”
- this resulted in a European checkerboard of religions
- this is also called a Constantinian principle
Ongoing wars between Catholic and Protestant nations
- e.g., defeat of the the Spanish armada
- competition between branches of Christianity also led to exploration for new lands
- this is why, e.g., Latin American countries conquered by Spain became Catholic
Latin continued to be the language of scholars, but modern languages were taking over
The Bible could support any position
- Protestants drew from Paul
- Catholics drew from James
Thus, interpretation became critical, as it could influence meaning
- e.g., interpreting Greek word as “priest” or “elder”
- or should another word be “church” or “congregation”
- tool used to legitimize various positions
Bible variations
- Jewish TaNaK
- Protestant Bible
- 66 books
- 27 books of the new testament
- plus the Hebrew Canon as its old testament
- preference Hebrew original over Greek or Latin translations
- however, Hebrew Canon was arranged (categorized) differently
- Apocrypha = not to be read as Scripture
- Catholicism
- the Vulgate
- not historical, but faith and moral
- 27 writing of New Testament
- Old Testament, i.e., the Septuagint
- deuterocanonical = second place = diminished importance
- included historical books
- but they are still Scripture
- Eastern Orthodox Tradition
- 77 writings
- 27 New Testament
- 29 Hebrew
- 11 Septuagint
The bottom line is that one had to know who one was talking to before claiming that an argument is supported by the Bible
There were, of course, competing translations
- the Bible became the people’s book as it was translated into multiple languages, but these were not without bias
- Martin Luther translated entire Bible into German, but he added his own commentaries and interpretations
- Luther was always involved with Scripture
- he changed from an Augustinian monk to a reformer
- he connected his liberation to the writings of Paul
- Luther read Paul as countering Jewish writings
- for Luther, this was a labor of love
- he used Erasmus’s Greek text for the New Testament
- for the Old Testament, he used the original Hebrew with the help of a colleague
- Luther’s command of German gave it a unique character
- e.g., “people are made holy only [added by Luther] through works of faith”
Other translations quickly appeared
- Old Testament in 1520 by a rabbi into Spanish
- 1530 French version
- 1695 Port-Royal version
- 1637 Dutch
- Swedish
- these translations cemented into national identity
- 1488 Czech
- 1548 Finnish
- 1541 Hungarian
- 1541-1597 Polish
All this changed happened in decades rather than centuries
- the Bible was available to be read in one’s own language
- could be interpreted by self
In some ways the Bible was almost too familiar
- the inconsistencies that the Church had covered up were now easily seen
- thus, within Protestantism the Bible is important, but not as authoritative
- Christians enter into a situation where there is not one Bible that speaks to all
- comfort could be found only in one’s own version, others’ were subject to suspicion