The first part of this series may be found here.
Part I, Chapter 2 of the Bible Wheel book is available in html format for viewing in your browser here.
Critique of Part I, Chapter 2 of the Bible Wheel Book:
The second chapter is called The Canon Wheel. It begins with an explanation that the word “canon” refers to the list of books that “belong” in the Bible. I acknowledged that this list differs amongst various Christian groups, but maintained that the differences do not matter for the study of the Bible Wheel per se because the Bible Wheel is defined by the traditional Protestant canon of sixty-six books. I then reviewed the structure of the Old Testament and showed that it exhibits a pattern of perfect symmetry on multiple levels:
I then reviewed the structure of the New Testament and showed that the entire Bible naturally falls into seven categories, and when theses seven categories are labeled and colored on the Bible Wheel, we discover the Canon Wheel:
The Canon Wheel
This categorization of the Bible is one of the most common points of attack by those who attempt to refute my work. They argue that the categories are “arbitrary” and so “meaningless.” But this attack is easily refuted. Most of the categories have been documented by other scholars for more than a thousand years. For example, no one can deny that the Torah has been known as the “Five Books of Moses” for thousands of years. Likewise, the “12 Minor Prophets” have been known as a group since the second century B.C.E. because they were on a single scroll. There are many ancient witnesses to this categorical system which is the basis of the Septuagint. Cyril of Jerusalem listed both the number and content of the 5 books of the Torah, the 12 OT History books, the 5 Wisdom books (which he called “verse”) and the 12 books of the Minor Prophets in the fourth century C.E. in his account of the Biblical canon. I present this evidence in my article Historical Evidence for the Sevenfold Canon. Furthermore, these categories can be discerned one from the other by unique word distributions which justify the traditional definitions, as explained in my article called Biblical Evidence for the Sevenfold Canon.
Conclusion:
As with Chapter 1, I cannot find any errors of fact in this chapter. It passes my critical review. As always, I invite the reader to comment if they think they can find any error in what I have written.
Such wheels and charts ought to also consider that which the included scriptures referenced as scripture. For instance, the book of Jude quotes from the book of Enoch, under the understanding that Enoch did indeed prophesy and that this prophecy was found in a book attributed to Enoch. The Torah refers to other, now since lost, historical sources. And the apocrypha was included even with the Protestant Bible until roughly a century ago (originally included with the kjv).
Also, you place the book of Isaiah under “books of prophecy” although poetry and wisdom are plentiful in its pages. Alternatively, the pages of Psalms are considered a rich source for messianic prophecy by Christians, yet you categorize it strictly under “poetry, wisdom, and praise.” Your clean symmetry ignores the beauty of this mess.
Hi Daniel,
There is no end to the dispute over which books belong in the canon. The Ethiopian canon accepts Enoch, but most denominations do not. They reject (rightly, in my estimation) your argument that a mere citation is sufficient to prove canonicity. For example, Paul cited a the Greek poet Aratus in Acts 17:26. By your logic, should his poem be considered Scripture and included in the Bible?
It is not I who classed Isaiah amongst the prophets. Both Jews and Christians class that book as prophecy, and the NT refers to Isaiah as a prophet. Likewise, the book of Psalms has been classed in the “Poetry” section since at least the fourth century. See my article Historical Evidence of the Sevenfold Canon.
The arguments you present do not impact the Bible Wheel in any way at all because I did nothing to create the pattern. I simply “rolled up” the 66 books in the order received from history, and noted that the seven divisions create a symmetric pattern that “just happens” to be isomorphic to the traditional tri-radiant halo of Christ. The pattern has always been implicit in the 66 book canon. I merely made it explicit by displaying the books in the pattern of the Wheel.
All the best,
Richard
Am inspired with these teaching and am looking forward to learn more from this platform please may I have more teachings from you it’s very important and my life will be never be the same am sure.