Tue Mar 26 08:46:28 1996

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Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 05:42:23 -0800 (PST)
From: "Gregory J. Woodhouse" 
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Subject: Re: "canonical" text
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I find the distinction between "authoritative" and "canonical" to be very 
interesting. If I understand the comments which have been made so far, 
then it seems that the basis of the distinction is a reverential attitude 
toward the text. But is this really central, or even necessary? If I 
consider a text to be an authoritative source from which I can learn the 
Lord's will concerning us, then it would seem that I consider that text 
to be canonical in some sense. On the other hand, it seems proper that 
the Lord should be the object of my reverence, and Him only. On the other 
hand, it could bee argued that affording the text a special honor does 
not amount to reverence. But that seems to be just the point: we seem to 
have something of a continuum in one sense (attitude toward the text per 
se), but in another sense the issue seems more clearcut. This other 
sense, of course, is that of authority. It seems almost an oxymoron to 
call a text somewhat authoritative.

Another complication I see is that there seems to be a distinction 
between the Text and specific texts. I often explain to people, for 
example, that there is no such thing as an original manuscript of the 
Bible. (Okay, maybe it's too obvious to say in this forum!) 
Nevertheless, I consider the Bible to be scripture. But what I consider 
to be scripture is not just one manuscript, fragment, or compendium. 

---
Gregory Woodhouse     gjw@wnetc.com
home page:            http://www.wnetc.com/
resource page:        http://www.wnetc.com/resource/

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