GEC RE 001-

GOD’S SAVING ACTION IN

HISTORY, OUR STORY:
FROM ABRAHAM TO JESUS

University of La Salette, Inc.

Santiago City

College of Arts and Sciences

Religious Education Department
NATURE OF THE BIBLE THE B I B L E
1) The Bible is a book of Shared memories
a) recalling the past
b) unity/bonding/solidarity
c) Identity
d) Future: it gives a sense of direction (eternal life)
2) The Bible is the word of God
 God’s word expressed in human words.
 Vatican II document, Dei Verbum (Divine Revelation) (#21)
affirms that it is through the Bible that God speaks --- that
“the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his
children and converses with them”.
 Through the Bible, God discloses himself inviting us to
interiority through mutual self-disclosure.
NATURE OF THE BIBLE THE B I B L E
3) The Bible as a means of divine revelation
 It reveals and conceals God’s self-gift. It invites us to an ever deeper
encounter with the divine self-gift.
 Our faith is in the Lord who is revealing himself to us, the Word
who is calling us into personal dialogue and involvement.
 Divine revelation finds it privileged locus in the biblical text, is the
comprehensive reality of God’s self-gift to humanity and human
acceptance.
4) The Bible as a library of books
• It contains books of different literary genres, written at different
times and different places and for varied situations.
• They need to be studied across a thousand or more years of history.
This is what makes the Bible enormously rich.
• This book has become a rule of faith, moral integrity and worship for
Jews and Christians alike.
 THE B I B L E
The Greek: Ta Biblia (Ta Biblia) (plural) which means “The Books”
 a name well chosen because the Bible is a collection of many
individual books, different size, style and content.
The Greek biblion (biblion) (singular) is diminutive of biblos, which in
practice denotes any kind of written document, but originally one written on
papyrus.
 In ancient times, writing was done on papyrus and
parchments.
Since the use of the word Bible was a latecomer in the New Testament, a
synonymous term to denote the Old Testament documents in whole or in parts
is “the writings” or “the Scriptures”.
Matthew 21:42, for instances, says, “Have you never read in the Scriptures?”
(hai grahai).
In 2 Timothy 3:15, Paul uses “the sacred writings” (ta grammata).
 THE B I B L E
The word Testament in the designations “Old Testament” and
“New Testament” can be traced back to the Latin testamentum
and to the Greek diatheke (diatheke) in Hebrew “berith”, in
most of its occurrences in the Greek Bible means “covenant”.
For the Jews, there is only one Testament or Covenant, namely
the Hebrew Bible.
The Filipino rendition of “covenant” is “tipanan”, so we say,
“Lumang Tipan” and “Bagong Tipan”.
The Christian Bible is one book in two parts.
 “Old Testament“
 “New Testament”
This two divisions of the Christian Bible is a Christian
introduction which came into general use in the later of the 2nd
century CE.
 THE B I B L E
“Old Testament“
• close association with the history of the “old covenant.”
• presents the story of God’s participation in the history of a
particular people: “For you are a people holy to the Lord your
God; it is you the Lord has chosen out of all the peoples on
earth to be his people, his treasured possession” (Dt. 14:2).
• “Israel” is fundamentally a sacred name, the name of a people
established by a very special event: a covenant with God.
• The formula of the covenant is best expressed in the words: “I
will be their God and they will be my people.” (Ezek. 37:27;
Jer 32:38).
• Yahweh became the true King of the tribes of Israel.
• As a whole, the main theme of the Old Testament is the
deliverance of the chosen people from Egyptian captivity
under Moses who received at Mt. Sinai the exact terms of a
covenant first given by God to Abraham.
 THE B I B L E
“New Testament“
• are the foundation documents of the “new covenant”
personified and revealed to us in Jesus, the fullness of
God’s revelation.
• God’s promise of a new covenant with His people found its
realization in Jesus Christ of the New Testament.
• The main point of this second testament of books is the
deliverance of all humanity, not just Israel, from sin and
the death it causes, by faith in the cross and resurrection
of Jesus Christ.
 THE B I B L E
The New Testament was never intended to replace the Old
Testament.
The adjective “Old” does not mean antiquated, displaced or
irrelevant; “Old” should be understood in the sense of “ancient” or
“earlier” or “preceding”.
Jesus in the Gospels did not say that he had come into the world to
destroy “the law and the prophets”, but to fulfill them (Mt. 5:17).
It is no wonder, then that the evangelist Matthew portrays Jesus
as the fulfillment of the OT prophecies.
The New Testament was given to complement the Old Testament
and even complete its story. This fulfillment brought about by
Jesus adds a “newness” that renders the law and the prophets
“old”.
 THE B I B L E
For Jesus, OT remains the living word of God but awaiting
fulfillment in his person and mission. It is still awaiting
fulfillment in our lives, our Church, our world.
The New Testament borne out of the apostolic witnesses
continues to interweave Old Testament texts into its own
exposition of the mystery of Jesus the Christ.
Both Jews and Christians, however see their respective
Scriptures pointing toward the consumption of all history at
the end of time, when God will act as judge through an
anointed messiah.
The messiah is as yet unknown to the Jews; Christians
affirm that the messiah is Jesus Christ, the Lord.
 THE B I B L E
The word canon , in classical Greek, is properly a straight
rod , "a rule" in the widest sense, and especially in the
phrases "the rule of the Church," "the rule of faith," "the
rule of truth,"

Christians = Old Testament

Jews = Hebrew Scriptures or TaNaK
T = orah ( the Law/Instruction)
N = ebi’im (the Prophets)
K = ethubim (the Writings)
 THE B I B L E
1) Torah ( the Law/Instruction)
 It is a so called five books of Moses.
 This considered by the Jews as the core and the most
authoritative part of the Scriptures.
 It can be found enthroned in every Jewish synagogue
even today.
 The Torah is the written document of the covenant of
love between God and Israel.
 The laws and the stories in it make up the instruction
or guide for living that God wanted to pass on to his
people.
 These five books are not necessarily the oldest books of
the Bible, but they narrate to us how everything began.
 Genesis, for instances, is the first book of the Bible, but
it was not the first one written.
 THE B I B L E
1) Torah ( the Law/Instruction)
In the Jewish tradition the individual books are designated with
titles derived from the opening or key words of the books.
a) Genesis = (“in the beginning”: in Hebrew “bereshit”)
 Tells the story of the beginning of creation and humankind.
b) Exodus = (“and these are the names”: in Hebrew “weelleh
shemot”)
 Narrates the departure of the Israelites from Egypt.
c) Leviticus = (“and he called”: in Hebrew “wayyiqra”)
 Contains laws for the priestly tribe of Levi.
d) Numbers = (“in the wilderness”: in Hebrew “bammidbar” or
“wayyedabber”)
 Contains census lists and number of names.
e) Deuteronomy = (“these are the words”: in Hebrew “elleh
haddebarim”)
 Provides a summary of the law of Moses.
 THE B I B L E

1) Torah ( the Law/Instruction)

The Greek speaking believers call the Torah as
Pentateuch (pentateuchos, book in five parts).
It was first used in the 2nd century C.E..
In the Christian tradition, the names Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy come from the
Vulgate and (except for Numbers – a translation of
Arithmoi) are derived from a transliteration of the
Greek names in the Septuagint.
 THE B I B L E
2) Nebi’im (the Prophets)
 “Nebi’im” from the word nabi, prophet.
Divided into two main groups:
A. the Former prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings)
 These books are historical in content that is why they are
called Historical Book in the Christian Bible.
 They tell us how the Covenant and Torah were practiced
from the time Israelites entered the Promised Land after
their long journey from Egypt, how they became a
monarchy until the fall of the Davidic monarchy and
Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E.
 The story covers about six hundred years of history.
 In Israel these books were believed to have been written by
prophets.
 They contain not only Israel’s past record, but also a
prophetic message.
 THE B I B L E
2) Nebi’im (the Prophets)
Divided into two main groups:
B. the Latter prophets
3 major prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel;
12 minor prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah,
Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah,
and Malachi
 They were the great preachers of Israel.
 Their role was to give light on the Law and to remind the
people constantly of the Covenant.
 They admonished the chosen people when they went
astray, and prefigured and prepared the way for the
“messiah.”
 The distinction between major and the minor prophetic
books is based only on length of the text.
 THE B I B L E
3) Kethubim (the Writings)
 (“Kethubim” – from the word katab, “to write”) contain the rest of the books.
 They are the books of poetry and wisdom.
 They show the important place of temple worship.
a) Psalms
b) Proverbs
c) Job
d) Megilloth or “scrolls”: the five scrolls read at annual Jewish feasts in this
chronological order:
 Song of Songs, for the feast of Passover (first month) – the most sensual of all the books
of the OT. But, explain in anthropomorphic language.
 Ruth, for the feast of Weeks or Pentecost (third month)
 Lamentations, for the feast mourning the destruction of the Temple (fifth month)
 Ecclesiastes = Qoheleth (Qahal), for the feast of Tabernacles (seventh month)
 Esther, for the feast of Purim (twelfth month)
e) Daniel
f) Ezra-Nehemiah
g) Chronicles
 THE B I B L E
• differences in the number and order of books of Christian Old Testament
are based on the Septuagint text (LXX) in the 3rd century B.C.E.
• Greek was their basic language.
• A request was made to the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem for a Greek
translation of the Hebrew Bible for apologetic purposes and for liturgical
use in their synagogues, (cf. Letter of Aristeas, ca. 130 B.C.E.).
• 72 scholars from Palestine (six scholars representing each of the twelve
tribes of Israel) were purportedly sent to Alexandria, the capital of Egypt.
• A legend arose about the miraculous agreement among the 72
independently working translators, and that translation in its final form
became to be known as the Septuagint, from the Greek word "seventy."
(Kee, 1997:8).
 THE B I B L E
• Today there is a consensus among scholars that while there is sufficient evidence
that the LXX was made in Alexandria, it was not written by Palestinian translators,
but by Alexandrian Jews.
• "The Hebrew text from which they translated may well have been a parchment
scroll from Jerusalem" (Ewert, 1983:105).
• The Septuagint version was the first translation of the Hebrew Bible into a foreign
language before the time of Christ and the most important of the versions
throughout the history of the Christian church.
• It was widely accepted by so many people around the Mediterranean world, by
Hellenistic Jews and later by Christians as well.
• It became the commonly accepted Bible of the early Church.
• Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, used the Septuagint when he wrote his epistles
to the churches.
• In fact more than half of the New Testament's quotations of the Old Testament is
from the Septuagint (C. Evans, 1992:2), Out of the thirty-seven OT quotations
credited to Jesus in the gospels, thirty-three are from the Septuagint version
(Jensen 1978:25).
 THE B I B L E

• The Septuagint version of the Old Testament arranged the books in the four
divisions that we commonly use today.
• This four-fold arrangement is perpetuated (via the Latin Vulgate version-
383-405 C.E.) in most Christian editions of the Bible.
• This arrangement was deemed truer to chronological sequence of the
narrative contents of the Bible than that of the Hebrew Bible.
• Thus, when we look at the New American Bible (1986) and the New
Jerusalem Bible (1985) we find the books of the Old Testament divided into
(a) the Pentateuch, (b) Historical Books, (c) the Wisdom Books, and (d) the
Prophetical Books.
• The Christians arranged the Old Testament books according to similarity of
subject matter (see next page for comparison).
 THE B I B L E
APOCRYPHA/DEUTEROCANONICAL BOOKS
• The comparative list also shows that there is a difference in the content of
the biblical canon.
• The usual explanation proposed is that by the end of the 1st century C.E.
there were two canons in Judaism.' a shorter Palestinian canon supposedly
fixed at Jamnia and a longer Alexandrian canon (Septuagint).
• The Jews favored a more restricted number of books consisting of 24, while
the early Christian Church adopted the Alexandrian canon which has seven
extra books.
• These include the first and second books of Maccabees, Tobit, Judith,
Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch and somewhat larger editions of Daniel and Esther.
• The common reason given why these books were not included in the
Hebrew Bible was that they were not written in Hebrew or Aramaic
languages.
 THE B I B L E
APOCRYPHA/DEUTEROCANONICAL BOOKS
• In the 16th century, the Protestant reformers led by Martin Luther,
in their desire to translate from the original languages, grew very
suspicious of those books which were not available in Hebrew or
Aramaic.
• Luther refused to include them in his 1534 translation of the Bible
into German. Hence, they were all agreed that the Old Testament
canon consists of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible.
• The 24 books are actually the equivalent of the 39 books of the
Protestant OT Bible. Those seven extra books have been
designated by both the Jews and Protestants as Apocrypha
(meaning, hidden or secret writings).
 THE B I B L E
APOCRYPHA/DEUTEROCANONICAL BOOKS
• For them, these books may be read but they are not considered inspired and
canonical.
• Anything outside of the Septuagint, Protestants call Pseudepigrapha, meaning
"false writings."
• Hence, copies of the Bibles produced under Protestant patronage, like the King
James Version (KJV) or the New International Version (NIV), contain the same
material as the Hebrew Bible.
• The Catholics and other Christian groups, on the other hand, regard the extra
books found in the LXX and Latin Vulgate as deuterocanonical books ("second or
wider canon" of inspired books), and the books found in the Hebrew Bible as
"protocanonical" (books whose place in the canon was never questioned).
• Actually it can be argued that a good number of the so-called deuterocanonical
books were originally written in Hebrew (e.g., Sirach, Judith, 1 Maccabees) and
Aramaic (Tobit).
 THE B I B L E
APOCRYPHA/DEUTEROCANONICAL BOOKS
• The Qumran discoveries prove that some of these books were in
circulation in Palestine and were accepted by some Jewish groups.
• The major norm in the decision to include them in the Catholic
Bible came from pastoral practice: Which books were used for
worship and instruction over a long period of time?
• The 46 books accepted by Catholics as comprising the OT were
first listed as belonging to the canon by the local councils in North
Africa in the 4th century: Council of Hippo in 393, Councils in
Carthage in 397 and 417 C.E.
• Though widely accepted as binding, it was the Council of Trent
(1546) that gave solemn approval to the Catholic Canon of Sacred
Scriptures.
 THE B I B L E
APOCRYPHA/DEUTEROCANONICAL BOOKS
• In essence, the Jews, Protestants, and Catholics hold a common body of
sacred books which is substantially the same.
• The basic message is the same no matter which version of the Bible one
accepts. Some common translations of the Bible, a collaborative work of
interdenominational scholars, (e g., Philippine Bible Society) now include
the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books inserted between the Old and
New Testaments.
• The New Revised Standard Version also includes those books accepted by
the Greek Orthodox Church (e.g., 1 Esdras, Psalm 151, the Prayer of
Manasseh, 3-4 Maccabees) and the Russian Orthodox Church (1-2 Esdras,
Psalm 151, and 3 Maccabees).
• PSALM 151 (A psalm ascribed to David as his own composition) An
example of OT apocrypha/pseudepigrapha
 HEBREW CANON CATHOLIC CANON
CANONICAL (authoritative list of the books PROTOCANONICAL (those belonging
of the Hebrew Bible) to a first list of books that were
Law
universally accepted)
Prophets
Writings
APOCRYPHA (books not included in DEUTEROCANONICAL (second listing
the list of inspired writings) of inspired books)
Tobit / Judith / Wisdom / Sirach
Baruch / 1-2 Maccabees Add. to
Esther Add. to Daniel
PSEUDEPIGRAPHA (“false” writings) APOCRYPHA
 THE B I B L E
Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants all accept the canon of 27 New
Testament books.
New Testament books were composed during the seventy years after
the death of Jesus.
• We have to remember that Christianity is a religion with its origin
in a person: Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God.
• In the Old Testament, we see God revealing himself "to our
ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets but in these
last days he has spoken to us by a Son..." (Heb. 1:1-2).
• Indeed, "when the fullness of time had come, God sent his son,
born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those
who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as
children” (Gal. 4:4-5).
 THE B I B L E
The New Testament, therefore, is fulfillment and completion of God's new
covenant ratified with the blood of Jesus, the Redeemer of humankind.
This redemptive covenant is a unifying theme that binds the 27 books of
the New Testament.
• The New Testament is actually an anthology of books, originally
written in Koine ("common") Greek, that reflects a wide diversity of
authors, themes, personalities, literary forms, backgrounds, and
purposes.
• There are four literary types that comprise the New Testament: the
Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles ("history" of the early Church), the
Letters, and, finally, the Apocalypse (Revelation).
• Each literary type is distinct in itself requiring different sensitivities,
principles, and methods of interpretation.
 THE B I B L E
The four Gospels are the most familiar to us. The word "Gospel means "good
news/message" that is, the good news which Jesus brought us.
The Gospel tradition has three stages:
1) It all started with Jesus Event: the words and deeds of Jesus himself; The
actual preaching and teaching of the earthly Jesus during the brief period
between the launching of his mission in Galilee and his death in Jerusalem.
Jesus proclaimed the arrival of the Kingdom of God
2) The Apostolic Preaching: The apostles and disciples of Jesus told stories of
the things they remembered about him. They preached of the things that
he said and did while their Master was still alive. It was first proclaimed in
Palestine and later in the Hellenistic world;
3) The Written Gospel: Many of these stories and sayings were written down
and later on edited, and out of these writings came the four Gospels. The
role of the evangelist.
 THE B I B L E
The "Gospels" are not "history" or biography" in the modern
scientific sense.
The evangelists were interested in conveying the "truth" about Jesus.
For them "truth" is not simply equated with "matters of fact."
The Gospels are four different experiences of the Jesus event shaped
by tradition and written down in four unique but complementing
ways.
Each, however, has a radically different view of Christ:
 Matthew's Christ is a king like David;
 Mark's is a common man;
 Luke's is a sacrifice for us; and
 John's is an eternal loftiness (Tollers & Maier, 1979:103).
 THE B I B L E
The chief purpose of the Gospels is to create faith in Jesus Christ.
They are distinguished from one another by the Greek
preposition kata ("according to") followed by the name of the
writer. It is a scholarly consensus that the authors' names were
added later, though we possess no extant manuscripts that omit
the author's name.
The Gospels, nevertheless, were not the earliest Christian
writings circulating among the early Christian communities.
The earliest were the letters/epistles of the Apostle Paul written
between 50 and 60 C.E.
The oldest of these letters is Paul's first letter to the
Thessalonians (ca. 50 C.E.).
 THE B I B L E
The Gospel of Mark which is considered as the oldest gospel and
became a source to Matthew and Luke was written sometime in
70 C.E.
This would mean that the first written gospel came to existence
some 40 years after the death of the Lord The four Gospels were
written to meet specific needs of the Christian communities.
Mark s Gospel was probably compiled during the time of Nero’s
persecution that brought about the destruction of Jerusalem in
70 C.E.
Thus, Mark s Gospel is written to encourage a Christian
community to be steadfast in the midst of suffering and
persecution. It portrays Jesus as the perfect model of one who
suffered for others.
 THE B I B L E
The Gospel of Mark which is considered as the oldest gospel and
became a source to Matthew and Luke was written sometime in
70 C.E.
This would mean that the first written gospel came to existence
some 40 years after the death of the Lord The four Gospels were
written to meet specific needs of the Christian communities.
Mark s Gospel was probably compiled during the time of Nero’s
persecution that brought about the destruction of Jerusalem in
70 C.E.
Thus, Mark s Gospel is written to encourage a Christian
community to be steadfast in the midst of suffering and
persecution. It portrays Jesus as the perfect model of one who
suffered for others.
 THE B I B L E
The Acts of the Apostles (ca. 95 C E ) should be read as the
second part of Luke's Gospel.
It is the story of the preaching of some apostles who
experience the power of the risen Christ and describes the
growth of the early Christian church under the working of the
Holy Spirit.
At a time when many Christian communities were being
founded and that physical presence of the early leaders was
quite impossible, the writing of letters/ epistles substituted
for the absence and filled the spiritual need of the infant
churches. Thus, they saw the letter as a means of establishing
personal presence from a distance.
 THE B I B L E

Most of these New Testament letters written by

early Christian leaders were addressed to church
communities in countries around the
Mediterranean Sea.
These letters contained teachings, encouragement
and warm personal greetings as well as some
criticism of those Christians who were not doing
the right thing.
 THE B I B L E
In the NT there is a total of 21 letters/ epistles:
Romans (ca. 55-58 C.E.) 2 Peter (ca. 110 C.E.)
Titus (ca. 100/110 C.E.) Colossians (ca. 62/70 C.E.)
1 Corinthians (ca. 53-54 C.E.) 1 John (ca. 100 C.E.)
Philemon (ca. 52/54 C.E.) 1 Thessalonians (ca. 51 C.E.)
2 Corinthians (ca. 55/56 C.E.) 2 John (ca. 100 C.E.)
Hebrews (ca. 90 C.E.) 2 Thessalonians (date uncertain)
Galatians (ca. 55 C.E.) 3 John (ca. 100 C.E.)
James (ca. 65-85 C.E.) 1 Timothy (ca. 100/110 C.E.)
Ephesians (date uncertain) Jude (date uncertain)
1 Peter (ca. 90 C.E.) 2 Timothy (ca. 100/110 C.E.)
Philippians (ca. 52/54 C.E.)
 THE B I B L E
Thirteen of these letters/epistles are usually attributed to Paul, the
once fierce persecutor of the Christians who became a Christian
himself sometime 35 C.E.
After a period of reflection, he began his missionary activities by
founding churches in Asia Minor and Greece.
As his communities grew, he kept in touch with them either by
personal visits, by messengers (like Timothy), or by letters.
Around 49 C.E. he wrote 1 Thessalonians, the first Christian
literature.
The basis for the arrangement of the Pauline letters was their length,
i.e., the Letter to the Romans was the longest while Philemon was
the shortest.
 THE B I B L E
Of these 13, seven are indisputably written by
Paul while the authorship of the others are
disputed.
The Letter to the Hebrews was written by an
unknown author.
The seven remaining letters (1 and 2 Peter, James,
Jude, 1,2, and 3 John) are known as the "catholic"
or "general" epistles because they are not
addressed to a specific church but to all Christians.
 THE B I B L E
Revelation (ca. 95 C.E.)
This is the last book in the New Testament canon and the most
obscure of all biblical books.
It is the only book in the whole New Testament written in an
apocalyptic genre.
It professes to be a record of the prophetic visions given by Jesus
to John of Patmos.
The author never refers to himself as an apostle or disciple of the
Lord.
The book reveals a Christian community in conflict with the state,
a community experiencing tension between Roman ideology and
Christian messianism.
 THE B I B L E
Revelation (ca. 95 C.E.).
The author is convinced that the only solution to the
situation of the church in the world is the appearance or
disclosure of Jesus Christ on earth. Thus, the overall view of
the book is that this evil world is approaching the end of
the age long conflict between God and Satan.
Rome (rendered as "Babylon"), the dominant power at that
time, is seen as the instrument of Satan.
In the end, God shall be victorious over unjust earthly
powers and the "holy ones" shall be rewarded.
All these are described in a profusion of imagery drawn
from the Old Testament and other ancient literature.
 THE B I B L E
Revelation (ca. 95 C.E.).
The canon of the New Testament was a result of gradual
development.
The earliest listings of New Testament writings were given by
Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History3.25) and the Muratorian Canon.
But these listings were not yet complete and both considered
James, Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John as disputed works.
While most of the writings in the New Testament were accepted
canonical in many churches by the end of the second century
C.E., it was only in the 5th century C.E. that the New Testament
canon was stabilized, and it was not until the Council of Trent in
the 16th century that this canon received its dogmatic definition.
 THE B I B L E
What became the criteria for the acceptance of the sacred books into the
canon?
First and foremost is the apostolicity of the writing. For instance, the canonicity
of Apocalypse and the Letter to the Hebrews was debated because it was
doubted whether they were written by John and Paul respectively. Did an
apostle have a traditional connection with a given work? Today, however, it can
legitimately be asked whether a single NT work comes directly from any of the
Twelve.
The second criterion is the catholicity of the book, that is, the writing must have
a universal acceptance. This means that a document that is acknowledged only
in a little corner of the Christian world was unlikely to win canonical status.
Third, the writing must come in the "period of the incarnation." This comprises
the period from the birth of Christ to the death of the last apostle.
Fourth, the biblical writing must conform to the rule of faith ( Regula Fidei").
Fifth, the biblical writing must be read m churches during worship.
References:
Bragado, Erlinda H., Monera, Arnold T., “Kaloob : interweavings on the
Christian story”, Malate, Manila, Philippines : De La Salle University
Press, 1998.
 The End
Thank You and Stay
Safe Always!