The Canon of Scripture

The Canon

The word canon refers to the 39 Old Testament (OT) and the 27 New Testament (NT) books which came to be accepted as the genuinely inspired and authoritative written Word of God. Originally, in Greek, the word canon meant a straight rod, then it was applied to that which tested straightness (as a ruler), and finally to that which was accepted as meeting a particular standard (the rule). So, the canonical Scriptures are those than meet the tests of what Scripture is.

The formation by which this determination was made is called canonization. It should be seen as a "process" rather than as an act or a vote by some ecclesiastical council (e.g. Council at Carthage in A.D. 397). It was also a slow process, a gradual growing consensus of opinion about the books of the NT. There were questions and doubts about some of the books, but these were eventually settled satisfactorily. They determined that they needed an authoritative list as many other documents began to circulate claiming to be canon. Most of the 1^st century believed that Christ would be coming back real soon and when He didn't they began to put together what we now have as the Bible.

There are several sources of evidence concerning the development of the NT canon. First, as the letters were passed and copied they continued to be used by the canonical writings. In fact, I remember reading somewhere that we can just about recreate the NT just by taking the Scripture that is quoted or referenced in early church writings. Not only that, but the churches of Thessalonica, Philippe, Corinth, Rome, Colossae, and many others which received original apostolic letters could testify of that fact. This continued testimony and their usage of these letters was no doubt a powerful witness to the genuineness and authority of those books. In time this initial testimony would spread abroad together with the usage of that particular NT book. Eventually, the opinion of the church would be unanimous and universal. In fact, this issue of what books would be canonical came up in many councils and by the third Council in Carthage (A.D. 397) it had received the full complement of the NT and was generally agreed upon. Another source of evidence is the contents of ancient manuscripts in which contains the entire NT and part of the OT (e.g. Codes Sinaiticus). Lastly, there is apostolic authorship. Jesus spoke from God and was attested by John the Baptist (Jn 5:32-35), His miracles (Jn 5:36; Heb 2:4), God the Father (Jn 5:39). His authority to speak from God was passed along to the apostles (Jn 15:26-27; 16:13; 20:21), and their ministry was authenticated by divine works as well (Acts 2:43; 4:30; 5:12; 6:8). So, when the apostle spoke or wrote in the name of the Lord, his message was considered authoritative and accepted as the Word of God.

For me, apostolic authorship is the most important as they were actually with Christ or, like Luke and James were "near" to the apostles themselves. I think the least in importance is the councils recognizing the canon. I think it's the least important because this would be the last argument that I would use in explaining it to someone. It is truly evident that God has preserved His Word, just by the sheer number of manuscript support. This support is much greater than any other ancient near eastern documents, even that of Plato.

Lastly, there are many people that believe that the canon is still open. By implication, the principle of apostolic authorship leads to the conclusion that once the apostles died, no more could be added to the collection of their writings. So, it is reasonable to say that the canon was complete by the end of the 1^st century, when all the apostles had died, through it took significantly longer for all of the books to be recognized. I think the best Scripture Heb 1:1-2, where Christ was the final authority. Even Paul did not claim to have any new revelation but merely explained what God had already revealed in Christ.

Bibliography

White, James R. (2004) Scripture Alone, Minneapolis, Minnesota: BethanyHouse

Wegner, Paul D. (1999) The Journey from Texts to Translations, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker

Lea, T. D., & Black, D. A. (2003). The New Testament : Its background and message (2nd ed.) (192). Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman & Holman Publishers.