canonicity

The Maccabean War and First Century Judea

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This is a paper written for my New Testament introduction class. The prompt was to discuss the effects of the Maccabean war on first century Judaism. Enjoy! Introduction When attempting to determine how to navigate exploring the question of the effect of the Maccabean war on first century Judaism, I found myself in a sea of information. Where to begin? How does one go about looking at the effects of a war, without first looking at the war? How does one look at the war, without looking at the historical context which led to the war? These seem to be … [Read more]

Should She Stay or Should She Go? The Canonicity of Esther

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The Topic Of Canonicity There are some books in the Bible that had a hard time getting there. Esther had the hardest time of all. A book’s canonicity, whether or not it should be accepted as Holy Scripture, is an extremely important issue for each book of the Bible. The New Testament Canon is a much easier subject to discuss than the old because we know a lot more about how it was formed. There are extensive records of the development of the New Testament Canon and we can point to many different Church councils that solidified the New Testament … [Read more]

Who Wrote Hebrews?

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Introduction Among the books that comprise the New Testament, few incite as much controversy about the nature of their authorship as the letter that begins not with a greeting, but with an assertion about how God communicates to his people. Commonly called “Hebrews” because of its extremely Jewish slant in argumentation and assumptions, this book gives an insight into the superiority of Jesus Christ over all previous revelations from God. The question that plagues scholars of the work is simply, “Who wrote it?” This question has been beaten and battered throughout the centuries and no conclusion has been reached. There … [Read more]

The Morality of Esther

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This is a paper I wrote for my historical literature class… not my best work, but not terrible. The prompt was “Write a paper discussing the moral character of Esther.” Enjoy. Introduction The book of Esther, one of the two eponymously feminine books of the bible, details the story of a young woman who’s moral character is tested by being made queen and then forced to make a choice either personal harm for her own nations sake or personal safety at the cost of her nation. Her story will be summarized more fully later in this paper. The purpose of … [Read more]

Just How Was the Bible Written? Views on Inspiration

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Introduction Determining one’s belief on how the Bible was written is a foundational step in doing theology. With that in mind, the following will attempt to explain and evaluate all of the most prominent views and theories about how the Bible was written, and then construct a logical argument for why verbal plenary inspiration is the correct view of inspiration. Each view of inspiration will be defined and explained and then evaluated. Natural Inspiration Definition and Explanation Natural Inspiration: the belief that the Holy scriptures were written by extraordinary men, and God’s only “role” in the writing of the scriptures … [Read more]