I thought I would try something a little different. Instead of posting on a topic, I would like you to discuss a topic.
Does Revelation 22:18-19 mean there can be no more scripture after the New Testament?
Discuss.
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8 comments:
Howdy Andrew,
I'm not sure if I had an opinion prior to joining the church. I had read the New Testament but I don't recall having an opinion about that. Perhaps I thought that it only applied to Revelation? I do remember telling my mate Mathew that we needed a Bible for our day and age and not just a contemporary written one. Guess I was right! Besides, just because it is in our everyday English doesn't mean we are going to understand it without proper guidance.
Yes, I do believe that that particular verse is only intended for the book of Revelation.
Peter
I think it is a tough call to ever try and stretch these verses to include the entire Bible.
Books of the Bible were written after Revelation. Also, John didn't know he was writing the last book in a "Bible" when he wrote down his Revelation.
I would even stress that John says that no "man" is to add to his book. Remember, Joseph Smith [a prophet] added to the Book of Revelation.
Peter and Jayflow22,
I agree that it has specific reference to not tampering with the words written by the author.
So, why do you suppose the Revelator was concerned with people tampering with his words?
John was probably the last living Apostle at this time.
He'd seen what apostasy can do to scriptures.
Andrew,
Possibly he had seen it in a vision, had seen it happen with the old testament, had seen it happen with various writings of the new testament. There are lots of possibilities. It is a concern because the message changes. The message of Christ and His coming and the winning of the war is pretty important. If you had something really important to tell the world wouldn't you want to warn them not to change the words?
Problem is that people do it a lot. We know that Revelation has not survived in pristine condition for a couple of millennium. It is saddening. We also know that the Bible is incomplete and, in some places, changed from it's original.
Peter
Once again, you two hit it on the head, IMO.
John knew people would tamper with his words, so he warned them. See Ehrman, Bart "The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture" and also 1 Nephi 11-14. Interestingly, Nephi saw the same things that John saw in his vision and mentioned that John would write the rest. In this vision, Nephi saw the words that would "proceed out of the mouth of a Jew" and saw that they would be corrupted by conspiring and evil men.
Deut 4:2 states that no one was to add to that which God had given them as a law. And yet many books are written thereafter, including the entire NT. And Christ gave "a new commandment."
Prov 30:6 also has this same kind of statement, and yet Solomon himself was breaking it, if we are to interpret such statements to mean that no Scripture will be added thereafter.
doug,
thanks for stopping by. Good points. Obviously those scriptures can't legitimately be interpreted to mean a closure of canon.
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