Case Closed – A Problem with Scripture’s Canon

Sonogram -- Baby ~ 90 to 100 Days

Case Closed – A Problem with Scripture’s Canon

Paper for Religious Studies Course # 357 --
Dr. Rose Ann Christian, Towson University
By Rev. Ted Miller, Jr.
December 5, 2006

Let me open by declaring my opinion that closing a canon is as controversial as the Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade. In the introduction of that case:

“MR. JUSTICE BLACKMUN delivered the opinion of the Court. This Texas federal appeal and its Georgia companion, Doe v. Bolton, post, p. 179, present constitutional challenges to state criminal abortion legislation. The Texas statutes under attack here are typical of those that have been in effect in many States for approximately a century. The Georgia statutes, in contrast, have a modern cast and are a legislative product that, to an extent at least, obviously reflects the influences of recent attitudinal change, of advancing medical knowledge and techniques, and of new thinking about an old issue. We forthwith acknowledge our awareness of the sensitive and emotional nature of the abortion controversy, of the vigorous opposing views, even among physicians, and of the deep and seemingly absolute convictions that the subject inspires. One's philosophy, one's experiences, one's exposure to the raw edges of human existence, one's religious training, one's attitudes toward life and family and their values, and the moral standards one establishes and seeks to observe, are all likely to influence and to color one's thinking and conclusions about abortion. In addition, population growth, pollution, poverty, and racial overtones tend to complicate and not to simplify the problem. Our task, of course, is to resolve the issue by constitutional measurement, free of emotion and of predilection. We seek earnestly to do this, and, because we do, we [410 U.S. 113, 117] have inquired into, and in this opinion place some emphasis upon, medical and medical-legal history and what that history reveals about man's attitudes toward the abortion procedure over the centuries. We bear in mind, too, Mr. Justice Holmes' admonition in his now-vindicated dissent in Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45, 76 (1905): "[The Constitution] is made for people of fundamentally differing views, and the accident of our finding certain opinions natural and familiar or novel and even shocking ought not to conclude our judgment upon the question whether statutes embodying them conflict with the Constitution of the United States."[1]

Noting Coburn’s and Folkert’s research into open canons, Miriam Levering states: “It is a fallacy …to expect scriptures or canons of scriptures to be neatly bounded. In fact, wherever they appear, scriptures are characterized as being treated as both bounded and open. In the rather rare cases where communities saw value in closing the canon, new scriptural and semi-scriptural forms have been created (e.g., the Talmud) to allow for the ongoing process of insight or revelation.”[2] Levering seems to say here that closing a canon has not stopped new insight and/or revelation from entering into, or becoming included or incorporated into, the closed tradition. I believe I have found at least one case where a closed canon has permanently, and perhaps defiantly, excluded a very controversial revelation of scripture. In citing this controversial scripture as it bears relevance to new insight and moral attitudes, some 2000 years after it was written and then closed out or excluded from the canon, I hope to show the problem with scripture’s canon when the case is closed.
Following is the key scripture on which the controversy is based:

“And near by this flame shall be a pit, great and very deep, and into it floweth from above all manner of torment, foulness, and issue. And women are swallowed up therein up to their necks and tormented with great pain. These are they that have caused their children to be born untimely, and have corrupted the work of God that created them. Over against them shall be another place where sit their children [both] alive, and they cry unto God. And flashes (lightnings) go forth from those children and pierce the eyes of them that for fornication's sake have caused their destruction.”[3]

This is an apocalyptic depiction of the hell women “that have caused their children to be born untimely”[4] will experience. This is, of course, scripture’s prohibition against abortion. This portion is the core of the scripture that will be used for my discussion, but the graphic details of the devouring flames of condemnation in the context of the scripture leave no doubt as to one reason why this scripture was left out of the Christian canon: it is too harsh to even think about being true. It is part of a larger fragment called the Akhmin fragment, and one of “three different apocalypses surviving from ancient Christianity [claiming] to have been written by Peter. …[It] was discovered in 1887 in the tomb of a Christian monk, along with the Gospel of Peter …, and subsequently found in a fuller Ethiopic translation. This apocalypse was well known in early Christianity; some churches counted it among the New Testament Scriptures [and as canon for the first three or four centuries AD]. Even when it came to be excluded from the canon (in part because Christians came to realize that it was pseudonymous), the book continued to exercise a significant influence on Christian thought. This is the first Christian writing to describe a journey through hell and heaven, an account that inspired a large number of successors, including, ultimately, Dante’s Divine Comedy.”[5] Following is the context from the Akhmin fragment of the punishment for sins in which the abortion segment is included.
“(Here begins the description of torments which we have, in another text, in the Akhmim fragment.):

"Then shall men and women come unto the place prepared for them. By their tongues wherewith they have blasphemed the way of righteousness shall they be hanged up. There is spread under them unquenchable fire, that they escape it not. Behold, another place: therein is a pit, great and full (of . .) In it are they that have denied righteousness: and angels of punishment chastise them and there do they kindle upon them the fire of their torment. And again behold [two: corrupt] women: they hang them up by their neck and by their hair; they shall cast them into the pit. These are they which plaited their hair, not for good (or, not to make them beautiful) but to turn them to fornication, that they might ensnare the souls of men unto perdition. And the men that lay with them in fornication shall be hung by their loins in that place of fire; and they shall say one to another: We knew not that we should come unto everlasting punishment.
And the murderers and them that have made common cause with them shall they cast into the fire, in a place full of venomous beasts, and they shall be tormented without rest, feeling their pains; and their worms shall be as many in number as a dark cloud. And the angel Ezrael shall bring forth the souls of them that have been slain, and they shall behold the torment of them that slew them, and say one to another: Righteousness and justice is the judgement of God. For we heard, but we believed not, that we should come into this place of eternal judgement.
And near by this flame shall be a pit, great and very deep, and into it floweth from above all manner of torment, foulness, and issue. And women are swallowed up therein up to their necks and tormented with great pain. These are they that have caused their children to be born untimely, and have corrupted the work of God that created them. Over against them shall be another place where sit their children [both] alive, and they cry unto God. And flashes (lightnings) go forth from those children and pierce the eyes of them that for fornication's sake have caused their destruction. Other men and women shall stand above them, naked; and their children stand over against them in a place of delight, and sigh and cry unto God because of their parents, saying: These are they that have despised and cursed and transgressed
thy commandments and delivered us unto death: they have cursed the angel that formed us, and have hanged us up, and withheld from us (or, begrudged us) the light which thou hast given unto all creatures. And the milk of their mothers flowing from their breasts shall congeal, and from it shall come beasts devouring flesh, which shall come forth and turn and torment them for ever with their husbands, because they forsook the commandments of God and slew their children. As for their children, they shall be delivered unto the angel Temlakos (i.e. a care-taking angel: see above, in the Fragments). And they that slew them shall be tormented eternally, for God willeth it so.”[6]

This is only a small portion of the torments promised to be waged against sinners unfaithful to God’s Holy Word. Is it any wonder this scripture was eventually excluded from the canon as a teaching not true enough to believe? However, the Christian Church Fathers used a different set of criteria to determine what scriptures met the standard of canon (kanõn in Greek). The Encyclopedia of Religion gives some history of canon: “…in the Roman church during the first three centuries, the term occurs frequently and can signify almost any binding norm of true Christianity, expressed with a variety of nuances. For instance, Irenaeus, in the second century, could already speak of various familiar canons: “the canon of truth” (in preaching), “the canon (rule) of faith” (Lat., regula fidei, or the essential truth of the gospel), and “the ecclesiastical canon” (Lat., regula veritatis, expressing both true confession and correct ritual participation in the church). Likewise, the term could characterize any authorized list or collection of decisions or persons. Thus one could speak of “canonized” saints, papal decretals (ninth century), church leaders, monks, nuns, and so on. Hence, early in the history of Christianity, the Greek kanõn was carried over as canon or regula in the Latin used in churches of the East and the West. …The earliest Christian scripture was either the Hebrew Bible of Judaism or the old Greek version of it (the so-called Septuagint). Within Judaism, neither pre-rabbinic nor rabbinic literature ever chose to refer to this scripture as a “canon.” At about the same time as the flowering of rabbinic Judaism in the second century, Irenaeus – probably borrowing the use of the term from Marcion, his Gnostic competitor – began to speak of a “New Testament” as a group of “inspired” Christian traditions distinct from the “Old Testament” inherited as scripture from Judaism. … [Not] until shortly after 450 CE did the term canon begin to be used by Christians, apparently first by Athanasius, to designate the biblical books of scripture.”[7]
“Contrary to what one might expect, it was not until the year 367 CE, almost two and a half centuries after the last New Testament book was written, that any Christian of record named our current twenty-seven books as the authoritative canon of Scripture. The author of this list was Athanasius, the powerful bishop of Alexandria, Egypt. Some scholars believe that this pronouncement on his part, and his accompanying proscription of heretical books, led monks of a nearby monastery to hide the Gnostic writings discovered 1,600 years later by Bedouin near Nag Hammadi, Egypt.”[8] The prevailing thought, or criterion, may simply have been to counter Marcion’s heretical canonical list and his anti-Hebraic canon sentiment, but also considered was the question of authorship. As the Apocalypses of Peter and the Gospel of Peter could not be authenticated, they were excluded from the canon. I think they were just too apocalyptic for the majority of the faithful sinners of the day. Following is a portion of the Apocalypse of Peter found at Nag Hammadi. It shows the inspired and esoteric nature of Peter’s revelations; esoteric in that only Jesus’ closest inner circle of friends were privy to such divine knowledge, and thereby dooming this scripture to Gnosticism.

“72 …And he [Jesus] said to me, “Peter, I have told you many times that they are blind ones who have no guide. If you want to know their blindness, 15 put your hands upon (your) eyes – your robe – and say what you see.” But when I had done it, I did not see anything. I said "No one sees (this way)." 20 Again he told me, "Do it again." And there came in me fear with joy, for I saw a new light greater than the 25 light of day. Then it came down upon the Savior. And I told
him about those things which I saw. And he said to me again, "Lift up 30 your hands and listen to what 73 the priests and the people are saying." And I listened to the priests as they sat with the scribes. The multitudes were shouting with their voice. When he 5 heard these things from me he said to me, "Prick up your ears and listen to the things they are saying." And I listened
again. As you [Jesus] sit 10 they are praising you.” And when I said these things, the Savior said, “I have told you that these (people) are blind and deaf. Now then, listen to 15 the things which they are telling you in a mystery, and guard them. Do not tell them to the sons of this age. For they shall blaspheme 20 you in these ages since they are ignorant of you, but they will
praise you in knowledge.”[9]

In chapter 9 of Luke’s gospel, the account of the Transfiguration includes verse 32: “Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake z, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.” The Interpreter’s footnote “z” is explained “Or but when they were fully awake.”[10] This is not unlike the trance a shaman or medicine man might experience when traveling into the spirit world. And speaking to the occasion of the vision, and to the inner circle of Jesus’ closest friends, we have the pleasant side of the apocalyptic vision, the depiction of Heaven that has indeed been included into the canon:

“Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’ Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean.”[11]

Note that the disciples “kept the matter to themselves,” as they had been instructed, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. This portion thereby made it into the canon. The next portion of Peter’s vision, as recorded in the non-canonical scripture of the Apocalypse of Peter, brings me to the main point that I wish to make concerning the problem of closing of a canon. “Ideally a canon, once fixed, is permanent. Nothing is to be added, nothing to be taken away.”[12] Some canon purists have mistakenly taken John’s revelatory admonition at the end of the New Testament to include the entire canon of the Christian Bible: “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”[13] Note in Peter’s revelation, following, that Jesus instructs Peter to “[present that which you saw] to those of another race who are not of this age.” Jesus himself instructs Peter to exclude this message from the first canon.

"These things, then, which you saw you shall present to those of another race who are not of this age. For there will be no honor in any man who is not immortal, but only (in) those who were chosen from an immortal substance, which has shown 25 that it is able to contain him who gives his abundance. Therefore I said, 'Every one who has, it will be given to him, and he will have plenty' (Mt 25:29). 30 But he who does not have, that is, the man of this place, who is completely dead, who is removed from the planting of the creation of what is begotten, 84 whom, if one of the immortal essence appears, they think that they possess him – 5 it will be taken from him and be added to the one who is. You, therefore, be courageous and do not fear at all. For I shall be with you in order that none 10 of your enemies may prevail unto you. Peace be to you, Be strong!" When he (Jesus) had said these things, he (Peter) came to himself.”[14]

Imagine, centuries after Jesus, Peter, James and John have departed this earth, when Christianity tries to record in a canon exactly what took place at the time of these revelations, how too cautious the canonization process might have been, now to exclude such a vital part of the vision of the cosmology of our Faith. Stietencron partially explains the problem: “Such unavoidable historicity is the one major defect in every canon. Several generations later, spoken language may have changed so much that people have difficulty understanding the original message. Social and economic structures may have undergone drastic transformations or different paradigms of thought may have redirected human intellectual attention to entirely different topics. Even if the language problem were solved, people might not later be able to derive from canonic texts meanings relevant for their problems, their times. In other words the very object of the canon – to fix a timeless truth or guideline – also inevitably leads to a continually growing gap between the canon and its addressees, to the people living in time and changing with time.”[15] The rest of the problem, as I see it, is how might Christianity come to accept the revelations of God that where meant for a different race of people in another age in time? I, for one, am amazed and in awe of how Jesus in history, in the Spirit, was able to keep the revelations of Peter from being included in the canon. My concern now is how will the Spirit of Jesus, which dwelleth in the Church, the Faithful People who persist to believe, come to accept this message that so long ago was left behind? Is the Spirit in me calling me to pursue this matter in earnest? Does the case of Roe v. Wade indicate that the age for this revelation has finally arrived? Will the Spirit of Saint Peter play a role in revealing the message to the authority of the canon? Stay tuned, and …keep the Faith.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Ehrman, Bart D., The New Testament, A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 3rd Ed., 2004, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.
2. Ehrman, Bart D., The New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings, A Reader, 2nd Ed., 2004, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.
3. Eliade, Mircea, Ed. in Chief, The Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol. 3, CABA to CONA, 1987, Macmillan Publishing Co., New York, NY.
4. Folkert, Kendall W., The ‘Canons’ of ‘Scripture’, from Levering, Rethinking Scripture.
5. Graham, William A., Scripture as Spoken Word, from Levering, Rethinking Scripture.
6. James, M. R., The Apocryphal New Testament; The Apocalypse of Peter, Translation and Notes, 1924, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
[Online: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/apocalypsepeter-mrjames.html]
7. Levering, Miriam, Rethinking Scripture, Essays From a Comparative Perspective, 1989, State University of New York Press, New York, NY.
8. NRSV – New Revised Standard Version Bible with Apocrypha, 1989, The New Interpreters Study Bible, 2003, Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN.
9. Robinson, James M., The Nag Hammadi Library in English, Rev. Ed., 1988, Harper & Row, San Francisco, CA.
10. Stietencron, Heinrich von, Charisma and Canon: The Dynamics of Legitimization.
11. U.S. Supreme Court, ROE v. WADE, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), 410 U.S. 113, ROE ET AL. v. WADE, DISTRICT ATTORNEY OF DALLAS COUNTY, APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS, No. 70-18., Argued December 13, 1971, Reargued October 11, 1972, Decided January 22, 1973. [online: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase]

ADDITIONAL SUGGESTED READING

1. Arthur, Rose Horman, The Wisdom Goddess, 1984, University Press of America, Inc., Lanham, MD.
2. Beare, F. W., The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. A-D; entry on Canon.
3. Brockington, L. H., A Critical Introduction to the Apocrypha, 1961, Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd., London, GB.
4. Charles, R. H., The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Vol. II, Pseudepigrapha, First Published 1913, Reprinted 1973, Oxford University Press, London, GB.
5. Charlesworth, J. H., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the New Testament, 1985, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, GB.
6. Corrigan, John, Jews, Christians, Muslims, 1998, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
7. Corrigan, John, Readings in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, 1998, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
8. Crossan, John Dominic, Four Other Gospels, 1985, Winston Press, Minneapolis, MN.
9. Dart, John, The Jesus of Heresy and History, 1988, Harper & Row, San Francisco, CA.
10. Ehrman, Bart D., Christianity in Late Antiquity, 300-450 C.E., A Reader, 2004, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.
11. Ehrman, Bart D., Paul the Apostle, The Man and His Mission, 2004, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.
12. Ehrman, Bart D., The Traditions of Jesus in Their Greco-Roman Context, 2004, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.
13. Fieser, James, and Powers, John, Scriptures of the World’s Religions, 2nd Ed., 2004, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.
14. Grant, Robert, A Short History of the Interpretation of the Bible, 1984, Fortress Press.
15. Jonge, Marinus de, Outside the Old Testament, 1985, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, GB.
16. Kee, Howard Clark, Understanding the New Testament, 5th Ed., 1957, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
17. Robinson, James M., Nag Hammadi Studies, Vol. IV, 1975, Wm. B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids MI.
18. Schiffman, Lawrence H., Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1994, The Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, PA.
19. Schurer, Emil, The Literature of the Jewish People, 1972, Schocken Books, New York, NY.
20. Vermes, Geza, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 4th Ed., 1995, Penguin Books, London, England.

FOOTNOTES

[1] U.S. Supreme Court, ROE v. WADE, introduction.
[2] Levering, Rethinking Scripture, page 12.
[3] M. James, The Apocryphal New Testament; http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/apocalypsepeter-mrjames.html.
[4] IBID.
[5] Ehrman, The New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings.
[6] M. James, The Apocryphal New Testament; http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/apocalypsepeter-mrjames.html.
[7] Eliade, Mircea, Ed. in Chief, The Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol. 3, page 63, listing: canon.
[8] Ehrman, The New Testament, A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, page 13.
[9] J. Robinson, The Nag Hammadi Library in English, page 373-374. [Paragraph breaks removed].
[10] NRSV, The New Interpreters Study Bible, page 1871 (Luke 9:32).
[11] NRSV, Bible, page 1825-1826 (Mark 9:2-10). [Paragraph breaks removed].
[12] Stietencron, Charisma and Canon, page 15.
[13] NRSV, The New Interpreters Study Bible, page 2240.
[14] J. Robinson, The Nag Hammadi Library in English, page 377-378, [Paragraph breaks removed].
[15] Stietencron, Charisma and Canon, page 16.

BLOGGER NOTE: Formatting of this original 14-page term paper was lost in the post to Blogger. Attemps to correct the transferred formatting produced dubious results. In the coming days (weeks) I will try to return the formatting to its former state.