Thought: An Abbreviated Canon

[Ironhold]

Bear with me on this one. 

There's a small chain of movie theaters called Cinergy Cinemas. They're mostly here in Texas, including one where I live. 

Every time there's a local or regional festival of some kind, they have a booth set up to publicize their existence and shill their various special events. This booth has two small carnival games, and if you win while playing at one of the two you get your choice of overstock merchandise from the last few months' various promotions and giveaways. 

Apparently, as a special giveaway for some horror movie they showed a few months ago, they gave away tiny little Bibles, each about the size of a peppermint chew candy. They were at a local festival this weekend, I was curious, so picked one as my prize after winning the game I played. 

When I first looked through it I noted that yes, there were tiny individual pages with tiny print and tiny drawings. This was an actual set of scriptures. 

Then I looked again and found that it's *not* the entire Bible. 

Rather - 

• Genesis
• Leviticus
• 1 Timothy
• Titus
• Philemon
• Hebrews
• 2 John
• 3 John

That's all that was in there. 

On one hand, it wouldn't be realistic to put an entire Bible into a form so small, as even with this as it is it's virtually impossible for a person to read without magnification. 

On the other hand, I'm now curious. Suppose, for a second, that something utterly apocalyptic happened to the point that these were the only books of the Bible to survive. How much of Christianity as we know it would be able to function just off of these works? What elements of theology would be able to survive if these were the only places anyone could look?

 

(edit - there are several English-language renderings of the Bible that are in the public domain, including a few modern renderings where the creators have deliberately chosen to waive their IP protection. I can't tell which translation is being used in this little book I picked up, but I'm presuming it's one of these.) 

Edited December 8, 2024 by Ironhold

[JohnsonJones]

That would have to be some specially selective apocalypse.

[MarginOfError]

Interesting hypothetical. 

A simple answer: none of it.

Genesis is entirely non-sensical without Exodus. Leviticus has no foundation without Exodus. The very premise to the entire Pentateuch is Exodus. Without the Pentateuch, the rest of the Old Testament is useless. (Not that it survived this scenario anyway).

Without the Old Testament, there's no context for Jesus's ministry, which is entirely absent from this Bible. Without the teachings of Jesus, none of the rest of those books carry weight. It's a bunch of advice based on a missing fantasy at that point. 

With just this version of the Bible, Christianity is dead.

[laronius]

Even with all of the books of the Bible it still ended in apostasy and loss of precious truths. It's living prophets that keep us on the right path. Did any prophets survive your apocalypse?

[MarginOfError]

2 minutes ago, laronius said:

Even with all of the books of the Bible it still ended in apostasy and loss of precious truths. It's living prophets that keep us on the right path. Did any prophets survive your apocalypse?

Ah, but the question wasn't about apostasy. With the Bible, even with the apostasy, Christianity was and is very much alive (and would be even absent the Restoration).

[LDSGator]

15 hours ago, Ironhold said:

Apparently, as a special giveaway for some horror movie they showed a few months ago, they gave away tiny little Bibles, each about the size of a peppermint chew candy.

@Ironhold-did you get a pic of them? I think it sounds sort of cool. 
 

 

[Carborendum]

15 hours ago, Ironhold said:

On the other hand, I'm now curious. Suppose, for a second, that something utterly apocalyptic happened to the point that these were the only books of the Bible to survive. How much of Christianity as we know it would be able to function just off of these works? What elements of theology would be able to survive if these were the only places anyone could look?

It would still survive.  But just as the Great Apostasy allowed a greatly diminished version of Christianity to survive, a version with even less light and knowledge would have an even more diminished version of Christianity to survive.  The question would then be: How little is "too little" for it to even allow Christianity to even be recognizable?

Martin Luther famously said that if Jesus were alive in his (Luther's) day, He would look at Christianity as it was and say, "If this is Christianity, then I'm not a Christian."  (apocryphal).  Whether true or not, the sentiment is an important one for the purposes of this discussion.

[Ironhold]

9 hours ago, LDSGator said:

@Ironhold-did you get a pic of them? I think it sounds sort of cool. 
 

 

I only use Twitter and Discord on my phone; I'd have to snap a photo, post it there, and then get back on the desktop to link it here. 

[LDSGator]

1 hour ago, Ironhold said:

I only use Twitter and Discord on my phone; I'd have to snap a photo, post it there, and then get back on the desktop to link it here. 

Oh okay. My bad. 
 

You lead a very cool life bro. Reviewing movies, writing for your newspaper….

[Ironhold]

39 minutes ago, LDSGator said:

Oh okay. My bad. 
 

You lead a very cool life bro. Reviewing movies, writing for your newspaper….

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wouldn't_It_Be_Good

This song is basically my life. 

People forget that even on a "good" day I'm in constant dull pain due to all of the injuries I've racked up, and that I lost over half my life to undiagnosed mental health issues. 

A big part of what I do write is me explaining to people that my life isn't always something to be emulated, and that sometimes I'm a warning rather than an example. 

[LDSGator]

41 minutes ago, Ironhold said:

People forget that even on a "good" day I'm in constant dull pain due to all of the injuries I've racked up, and that I lost over half my life to undiagnosed mental health issues. 

I’m so sorry bro. 

[Ironhold]

13 hours ago, LDSGator said:

I’m so sorry bro. 

Unlike certain other individuals in the public eye, I don't try to hide my flaws or blame scapegoats. I admit issues I have, and recognize that while certain things hindered my decision-making at times I still made certain decisions and engaged in certain actions. 

I'm trying to slowly nudge my audience - which often includes the local schools via the Newspapers in Education program - to be better and not make my mistakes. 

[Traveler]

On 12/8/2024 at 4:44 PM, Ironhold said:

......

On the other hand, I'm now curious. Suppose, for a second, that something utterly apocalyptic happened to the point that these were the only books of the Bible to survive. How much of Christianity as we know it would be able to function just off of these works? What elements of theology would be able to survive if these were the only places anyone could look?

......

The reality is that something apocalyptic did happened.  The only unfiltered excerpts of ancient “Biblical” scripture that has reached our modern times are bits and pieces of Isaiah that is quoted in the Book of Mormon.

It is no wonder that some of histories most horrific pages are annotated by Traditional Christians arguing with one another.  Or that modern Christians cannot seem to agree on anything or even clearly separate good from evil.

Isaiah prophesied that man separates themselves from G-d – not through doctrine – but by transgressing the law, changing the ordinances and breaking the covenants.

Without the reformation followed by the restoration – Christianity was lost; because of transgressions of the law, changing of sacred ordinances and breaking the everlasting covenant – just as Isaiah prophesied.

 

The Traveler

[NeuroTypical]

On 12/8/2024 at 4:44 PM, Ironhold said:

Suppose, for a second, that something utterly apocalyptic happened to the point that these were the only books of the Bible to survive. How much of Christianity as we know it would be able to function just off of these works?

Time to go watch The Book of Eli again!  Excellent movie.

[HaggisShuu]

I feel like an abbreviated canon does exist in the form of the tripple combination. I feel like enough Christian theology is included in the Boon Of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price that the Church could make do without the bible in an apocalypse scenario.