What does one call the non-Christian writings which are
found in the bible? I was going to ask, “What
do we call the Jewish writings in the Bible?” But that is a mistake, because
most, if not all, of the first Christians were in fact Jewish. Ergo, the New Testament writings are also Jewish
writings.
“Old Testament” is a phrase never used by the early
Christians. Paul’s phrase ἡ παλαιὰ διαθήκη (‘the old covenant,’
2 Cor. 3:14) is not a reference to the Mosaic Law, not the Jewish canon of
Scripture found in the Christian bible. Some
scholars favour the phrase “Hebrew Bible” but this is confusing because the early
Christians used the Greek translation of these writings, not the Hebrew. Furthermore, some of the writings in the
collection are written in Aramaic. Others
use the phrase “Israel’s scriptures.”
But do they belong only to Israel?
Which Israel? (Gal. 6:16) The new
one or the old one? (1 Pet 2:9-10) Are
there two? Other scholars use the
phrase, “First Testament.” But this
phrase is anachronistic, as the history of Christian interpretation has never
referred to their scriptures in this way.
And the New Testament is the continuing story of the First Testament, but
with significant changes, climaxes and plot developments. And some days I have a sneaky suspicion that
those who champion “First” may have an inferiority complex with the notion of “Old.”
Early Christian writers favoured the phrase, ἡ γραφὴ (‘the scriptures,’ see Lk.
4:21; Jn. 7:38, 42; 10:35; 13:18; 17:12; 19:24, 28, 36; Rom. 4:3; 9:17; 10:11;
11:2; Gal. 3:8, 22; 4:30; 1 Tim. 5:18; Jas. 2:23; 4:5; 1 Cl. 34:6; 35:7; 42:5;
2 Cl. 6:8; 14:2; Barn. 4:7, 11; 5:4; 6:12; 13:2; 16:5). With this comes the complicated question, “what
scriptures?” Is any writing they then
quote “Scripture”? Jude cites Enoch;
does that mean it is Scripture? Are we to think in terms of a functional canon,
i.e., the Scriptures we actually use are our “Bible”? What about the first Christians who used the
LXX, was that their Bible? Should those
extra writings in the LXX be considered “ours”?
And by ‘ours’ I mean the Christian church universally.
As you can see, what to call the “First/Old/Hebrew/Jewish/Israel/Testament
scriptures,” is not as easy as it first appears. While I am having fun with the above, there
are some serious questions here which are in desperate need of some radical and
honest thinking.
