Quote:
Originally Posted by Timotheist
I admittedly rushed the part about the "Greek stuff coming later."
Hellenization ran rampant through Judaism for hundreds of years BC, creating all kinds of crazy variants of "scripture". The job of the canonizers was to identify and remove Greek-influenced texts from the Bible.
Did they do a perfect job? No. Ecclesiastes probably should have been discarded, along with parts of Proverbs.
And when Jesus said "Sophia is justified by her children", it makes me pause and wonder if He really said that. But, He was probably being sarcastic, and we need an emoji indicating that in the Greek. 
... |
What does this do to the bedrock of Christian Theology...that the Bible is the infallible Word of God? What do Paul and James have to say...especially James.
Rather than take it "off topic," I'm opening a new topic, responding to partial statements in your post from "No place like hell" (above). You make interesting points about the scriptures...what should be canonized and what maybe shouldn't have been included.
That brings us to Paul and James differ and justification by faith v. works.
From Paul:
Romans 3:28 Therefore we conclude that
a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. (works)
Romans 5:1 Therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
Galatians 2:16
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Galatians 3:11 But that
no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
Then there's this little jewel from James:
James 2:24 Ye see then how that
by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
We all heard WL's opinion that the book of James should not be in the Bible...was he right?
Is it possible (likely) that God allowed the book of James to be canonized for a specific reason? We are told several places to "test all things".
Acts 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and
searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
There is some good stuff in James, but v. 2:24 is a showstopper.
Nell