Lecture 13b: Canonicity

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Lecture 13b Canonicity

• And on the day called Sunday there is a
  gathering together into one place of all those
  live in cities or in the country, and the memoirs
  of the apostles or the writings of the prophets
  are read, as long as time permits. Then when the
  reader has ceased the president leader or head
  presents admonition and invitation to the
  imitation of these good things Justin Martyr
  (A.D. 100-165).

2

• If the Scriptures are indeed inspired by God then
  a significant question arises Which books are
  inspired? Historically, it was important for the
  people of God to discover which books God has
  inspired and which ones were not.

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The Canonicity of Scripture

• I. Definition of Canonicity
• II. Canonicity of the Old Testament
• III. Canonicity of the New Testament Debate of
  N.T. Apocrypha.
• IV. Completeness of the Canon
• V. Confirmation of the Canon
• VI. Preservation of the Canon
• VII. Conclusion

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The Canonicity of Scripture

• I. Definition of Canonicity
• A. The word canon is used to describe the
  inspired books. The word comes from the Greek
  kanon and probably from the Hebrew qaneh,
  signifying a measuring rod. The terms canon
  and canonical thus came to signify standards by
  which books were measured to determine whether
  or not they were inspired. It is important to
  note that religious councils at no time had any
  power to cause books to be inspired, rather they
  simply recognized that which God inspired at the
  exact moment the books were written.

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The Canonicity of Scripture

• B. Jews and conservative Christians have
  recognized the 39 books of the O.T. is inspired.
  Evangelical Protestants have recognized the 27
  books of the N.T. as inspired. Roman Catholic
  have a total of 80 books because they recognize
  the Apocrypha as part of the Canon.

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The Canonicity of Scripture

• It is not the antiquity, authenticity, or
  religious community that makes a book canonical
  or authoritative. A book is valuable because it
  is canonical, and not canonical because it is or
  was considered valuable. Its authority is
  established by God and merely discovered by Gods
  people.
• Dr. Norman Geisler.

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The Canonicity of Scripture

• 1. Incorrect View presupposes the
  following
• A. Authority of Scripture is based upon the
  authority of the church
• B. Places the church over the canon
• 2. Correct View presupposes the following
• A. Authority of the church is to be found in the
  Scripture.
• B. The Church is under the canon.
• It is God who regulated the canon man merely
  recognized the divine authority God gave to it.
  God determined the canon, and man discovered it.
  Dr. Norman Geisler

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The Canonicity of Scripture

• Authority Relationship Between Church and Canon
• Incorrect View Correct View
• - Church is determiner - Church is
  discoverer
• - Church is mother of canon - Church is child
  of canon.
• - Church is magistrate - Church is minister.
• - Church is regulator - Church is recognizer
• - Church is judge of canon - Church is witness
  of canon
• - Church is master of canon - Church is servant
  of the canon.

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The Canonicity of Scripture

• In this affair, then, the Church is a servant
  and not a mistress a depository and not a judge.
  She exercises the office of a minister, not of a
  magistrate.She delivers a testimony, not a
  judicial sentence. She discerns the canon of the
  Scriptures, she does not make it she has
  recognized their authenticity, she has not given
  it.The authority of the Scriptures is not
  founded, then, on the authority of the Church
  It is the church that is founded on the authority
  of the Scriptures.
• Louis Gaussen, Theopnesustia.

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The Canonicity of Scripture

• C. Definition of Apocrypha
• This word refers to disputed book that
  Protestants reject and Roman Catholic and others
  accept into the O.T.
• The word apocrypha means hidden or doubtful.
  So those who accept these documents prefer to
  call them deuterocanonical or books of the
  second canon.

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The Canonicity of Scripture

• D. Definition of Apocrypha
• This word refers to disputed book that
  Protestants reject and Roman Catholic and others
  accept into the O.T.
• The word apocrypha means hidden or doubtful.
  So those who accept these documents prefer to
  call them deuterocanonical or books of the
  second canon.

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Why Canonicity? Adapted from McDowells New
Evidence That Demands a Verdict, pg. 23.

• 6 Reasons
• why the N.T.
• Books were
• Collected

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1. They were Inspired. Adapted from McDowells
New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, pg. 23.

• Because these
• books were
• inspired,
• written by a
• prophet or an
• apostle of God,
• they were
• inherently
• Invaluable. Thus,
• needed to be
• preserved,
• collected,
• circulated.

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2. The Needs of the Early Church. Adapted from
McDowells New Evidence That Demands a Verdict,
pg. 23.

• Assemblies
• needed to
• know which
• books should
• be read,
• revered, and
• applied.

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3. The Rise of Heretics and False Teachers.
Adapted from McDowells New Evidence That Demands
a Verdict, pg. 23.

• As early as A.D. 140,
• the heretic Marcion
• developed his own
• incomplete canon
• and began to
• propagate it. The
• church needed to
• counter influence these false teachings by
• collecting all
• the N.T. Scriptures.

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4. The circulation of counterfeit Writings.
Adapted from McDowells New Evidence That Demands
a Verdict, pg. 23.

• The church needed to gather the inspired books in
  order to set them apart from the counterfeit
  writings and other religious materials that were
  being written and circulated.

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Missions. Adapted from McDowells New Evidence
That Demands a Verdict, pg. 23.

The need to circulate and translate the
Bible into other languages as the Bible began to
spread among people-groups.
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6. Persecutions Adapted from McDowells New
Evidence That Demands a Verdict, pg. 23.

The Edit of Diocletian (A.D. 303) called for
the destruction of the sacred books of the
Christians. Who would die for a books that was
perhaps religious, but not sacred?
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II. Canonicity of the Old Testament

• The Masoretic (Hebrew) text of the O.T. divided
  into three categories
• 1. Law (Pentateuch)
• 2. Prophets (Joshua, Judges, 1 2 Samuel, 1 2
  Kings, major minor prophets)
• 3. Writings (sometimes called The Psalms,
  including poetry and wisdom books-Psalms,
  Proverbs and Job the Rolls- Song of Solomon,
  Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther
  the Historical Books-Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and
  1 and 2 Chronicles).
• Originally these 39 books were counted as 24 by
  combining 1 2 Samuel, 1 2 Kings, and 1 2
  Chronicles, the minor prophets, and
  Ezra-Nehemiah.
• By the N.T. this threefold division was
  recognized (Luke 2422).

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II. Canonicity of the Old Testament

• D. Internally
• 1. The Scripture (John 1035)
• 2. The Sacred Writings (2 Tim. 315-17)
• suggests a generally accepted O.T. Canon.
• E. Externally
• 1. Josephus (A.D. 37-95),
• 2. Bishop Melito of Sardis (A.D. 170)
• 3. Tertullian (A.D.160-250), and others
  recognized the threefold division.

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II. Canonicity of the Old Testament

• F. The Council of Jamnia in A.D. 90 is considered
  by many the occasion whereby the O.T. Canon was
  publicly recognized (while debating the
  canonicity of several books).
• Jamnia, a city 13 miles south of Joppa, was the
  location wherby after the fall of Jerusalem in
  A.D. 70, an assembly of religious Jewish teachers
  were established. This body was regarded as to
  some extent replacing the Sanhedrin, though it
  did not possess the same representative character
  or national authority.

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II. Canonicity of the Old Testament

• G. There is evidence of the manner whereby the
  O.T. were recognized as canonical
• 1. Moses was recognized as writing under the
  authority of God Ex. 1714 3427 cf. Josh.
  831 236.
• a The criterion for acknowledging the
  Pentateuch was whether it was from Gods servant,
  Moses.
• 2. Following Moses, God raised up the
  institution of prophecy to continue revealing
  Himself to His people (cf. Deut. 1815-19 Jer.
  268-15).
• a The prophets to whom God spoke recorded
  their revelation (cf. Josh. 2426 1 Sam. 1025
  Isa. 81) Exek. 4311)

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II. Canonicity of the Old Testament

• H. Additional Information
• 1. Faith of Israel existed independently of a
  book for hundreds of years between the time of
  Abraham and Moses.
• 2. None of the patriarchs before Moses is
  recorded as having written sacred literature
  (Ex. 244, 7).
• 3. Old surviving list of the canonical
  scriptures of the OT comes from about 170, the
  product of Christian scholar, Melito, who made
  a trip to Israel to determine both the order
  and umber of books in the Hebrew Bible.
  Neither his order not his contents agree
  exactly with our modern English Bibles.

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II. Canonicity of the Old Testament

• H. Additional Information
• 4. During the entire period of biblical
  history, the Jews lived their faith without a
  closed canon of Scripture.
• 5. The books were collected into a canon as an
  act of Gods providence, historically prompted
  by the emergence of apocryphal writings and
  pseudepigraphical literature in the
  intertestamental period.
• - Pseudepigrapha (are writings ascribed to
  someone other than the real author, generally
  with a view to giving them an enhanced authority
  e.g., Book of Enoch).
• 6.

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II. Canonicity of the Old Testament

• The law was accorded the respect of the author,
  and he was known as Gods messenger. Similarly,
  succeeding prophets were received upon due
  authentication, and their written works were
  received with the same respect, being received
  therefore as the Word of God. As far as the
  witness contained in the books themselves is
  concerned, this reception was immediate.
• Laird Harris.

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How was Canonicity discovered in the O.T.?

• Evidence is obviously not complete for all the
  OT books. But evidence is clear for the
  principles of their acceptance. Those written by
  prophets were accepted, and kings and priests
  were also sometimes prophets. Any man to whom
  God revealed His Word was a prophet. Thus David
  and Solomon were prophets as truly as Joshua and
  Daniel. There are, of course, some books whose
  authorship is now not known. These were,
  however, classified by the Jews and by Christ as
  among the Prophets, and in the absence of the
  slightest evidence to the contrary, they may be
  thus accepted. God gave the Jews no test of an
  inspired book or list of canonical books. But He
  did not give them very obvious and practical
  tests of a prophets, and it is clear that they
  accepted the writings of these prophets equally
  with their spoken words.
• Laird Harris, Canon of Scripture-O.T.
  Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia (Chicago Moody
  Press, 1975), 303.

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III. Canonicity of the Old Testament

• 1. Test of Divine Authority. This is a
  question of divine inspiration. Books which
  were held to be inspired were revered and
  received, and were collected into a canon.
  When the question of inspiration
  was answered, so was the question of canonicity.
  The test of inspiration was wrapped up in
  the other tests.
• 2. Test of Human Authorship Is the book
  written, edited, or endorsed by a
  prophet or spokesman from God? Prophetic
  authorship was the key criterion of canonicity.

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II. Canonicity of the Old Testament

• 3. Whether the book could be traced back to the
  time and writer from which it professed to
  come. Was it genuine?
• 4. Is it a record of actual facts? Is it
  authentic? This question relates
  to the contents of the book and its own claims as
  being from God.
• 5. Testimony of the Jews and the later church
  councils and the ancient versions
  of the Bible. How was the book received?

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II. Canonicity of the New Testament

• A. 27 books, written by 8-10 human authors over
  a period of about 2 generations, make up O.T.
• B. The books existed at the end of 1st Century
  A.D. throughout the territory.
• C. The N.T. indicates that canonical writings
  were gathered. Paul encouraged it (Col. 416
  1 Thess. 527). N.T. ascribes to its books an
  authority equal to that of the O.T. Peter
  placed Pauls writings on the same level as
  the O.T. (2 Pet. 315-16). Paul classified
  passages from Deut. And Luke as Scripture (1
  Tim. 518).

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II. Canonicity of the New Testament

• D. Three periods in the history of N.T. Canon
• 1. Period of separate circulation (A.D.
  70- 170).
• The writings of Scripture were circulated and
  read in church gatherings. In principle, the
  N.T. and O.T. canon was fixed during this
  time. The extent of the canon took a bit
  longer, but event his was substantially
  complete by the end of this period.

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II. Canonicity of the New Testament

• D. Three periods in the history of N.T. Canon
• 2. Period of Complete Separation between
  Canonical and non-canonical writings (AD
  170-303). This ended with a civil edict to
  burn the books of the Bible, which gave
  Christians added incentive to collect the
  canonical writings.
• 3.During the last period councils formally
  declared (not formulate) the canon
• a. Council of Laodicea (367AD) requested that
  only canonical books be read in the churches.
• b. Council of Carthage (397) agreed on a list
  of canonical books identical to those in our
  Bible, a decision confirmed by the Council of
  Hippo (419 AD).

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II. How was the Canonicity of the New
Testament Discovered

• 1. Looked to the Contents and, esp. at its
  references to the person and work of Jesus
  Christ
• 2. Considered the books claim to inspiration
  and its concurrence with books already
  accepted.
• 3. They evaluated the books moral and
  spiritual aspects, its ability to influence
  and transform peoples lives.
• 4. They asked those closest to the writings of
  the book believed about and how it was
  received by those to whom it was written.
• 5. Was the book written by an apostle or
  someone closely associated with an apostle?

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II. Summary of Discovery regarding Canonicity of
the New Testament

• 1. Test of Apostolicity. Was the author an
  apostle or did he have a connection with an
  apostle? Mark wrote under Peters authority, and
  Luke under Pauls authority.
• 2. Acceptance. Was the book accepted by the
  church at large? The recognition given a
  particular book by the church was important. By
  this canon false books were rejected.
• 3. Content. Did the book reflect consistency
  with what had been accepted as orthodox teaching.
  For example, the spurious gospel of Peter was
  rejected as a result of this principle.
• 4. Inspiration. Did the book reflect the
  quality of inspiration?

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III. Debate about the N.T. Canon in view of N.T.
Apocrypha

• Consider
• 1. Unlike the O.T., additional books have
  never been accepted into the N.T. Canon
  long after they were written.
• 2. There has never been any serious long- term
  debates over the books that were accepted
  into the N.T. Canon.
• 3. Nevertheless, there were some questions
  about some books for some time these books
  will be called the N.T. Apocrypha.

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III. Debate about the N.T. Canon in view of N.T.
Apocrypha

• List of N.T. Apocrypha (hidden books)
• a. Epistle of Pseudo-Barnabas (A.D. 70-79)
• b. Epistle to the Corinthians (c. 96)
• c. Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians (c.
  108)
• d. The Teaching of the Twelve Didache (c.
  100-120)
• e. Seven Epistles of Ignatius (c. 110)
• f. The Ancient Homily
• g. Second Epistle of Clement (c. 120-140)
• h. The Shepherd of Hermas (c. 115-140)
• i. The Apocalypse of Peter (c. 150)
• j. Epistle to the Laodiceans (4th Century?)

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III. Debate about the N.T. Canon in view of N.T.
Apocrypha

• List of N.T. Pseudepigrapha (lit. false
  writings) which are sometimes also called
  apocryphalthese books have been and are
  universally rejected by the Christian church.
  They include the following
• 1. Gospel of Thomas (a Gnostic work),
• 2. Gospel of Peter (contains Docetic
  heresiesdeny the real humanity of Christ)
• 3. Protevangelium of James (contains early
  devotion to Mary)
• 4. Gospel of the Hebrews
• 5. Gospel of the Egyptians.

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III. Reasons for Rejecting the N.T. Apocrypha

• 1. Not one N.T. apocrypha experienced more
  than a local or temporary acceptance
• 2. At best some of them had a quasi-canonical
  status, meaning that they were merely added to
  various manuscripts (as an appendix) or listed
  in table of contents.
• 3. No major canon or church council accepted
  them as part of the inspired Word of God.
• 4. Their limited and temporal acceptance on
  grounds that they were believed wrongly (1) to
  have been written by an apostle, or (2) to have
  been referred to in an inspired book (e.g.,
  Col. 416). Once this was known to be false they
  were completely and permanently rejected by the
  Christian church.

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IV. The Completeness of the Biblical Canon

• There is no evidence that any inspired book has
  been lost. This is confirmed by the following
• 1. The providence of God
• 2. The immediate and careful preservation
  of the church
• 3. The absence of any evidence of any other
  prophetic or apostolic book.
• Alleged contrary examples are easily explained
  as either
• 4. Uninspired works to which the biblical
  author made reference, or
• 5. Inspired works contained in the
  sixty-six inspired books but with another name.

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V. The Confirmation of the Canon

• Unlike other holy books such as the Quran
  the Book of Mormon, the Bible alone has been
  supernaturally confirmed by signs wonders.
  Consider the following
• 1. Only the Scripture were written by prophets
  who were supernaturally confirmed by signs and
  wonders.
• 2. When Moses questioned how his message would
  be accepted, God performed miracles through him
  that they may believe that the Lord, the God
  of their Fathers-the God of Abraham, the God of
  Isaac and the God of Jacob- has appeared to you
  (Ex. 45).
• 3. When Korah rose up to challenge Moses, God
  again miraculously intervened to vindicate his
  prophet (Num. 16).
• 4. Elijah was verified to be a prophet of God by
  supernatural intervention on Mt. Carmel (1
  Kings 18).

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V. The Confirmation of the Canon

• 6. In the Gospels even the Jewish teacher
  Nicodemus said to Jesus, Rabbi, we know that
  you are a teacher who has come from God. For
  no one could perform the miraculous signs you
  are doing if God were not with him (John 32
  cf. Luke 722).
• 7. Luke recorded, Jesus of Nazareth was a man
  accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders
  and signs, which God did among you through him
  (Acts 222).
• 8. Hebrews affirms that God also testified to
  it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and
  gifts of the Holy Spirit through him (Acts
  222).
• 9. The apostle Paul proved his apostleship by
  affirming that the things that mark an
  apostle-signs, wonders and miracles-were done
  among you with great perseverance (2 Cor.
  1212).

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The Preservation of the Canon

• The preservation of these books by the church
  confirms the Canon
• 1. A collection of these books were made from
  the earliest times even within the N.T. itself
  this preservation process was put into action
• a. Luke refers to other written records of the
  life of Christ (Luke 11-4), possibly
  Matthew Mark
• b. In 1 Timothy 518 the Gospel of Luke is
  quoted
• c. Peter refers to Pauls collection in 2
  Peter 315-16
• d. Jude had access to 2 Peter (2 Peter 24-6).

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The Preservation of the Church

• The preservation of these books by the church
  confirms the Canon
• 2. The contemporaries of the apostles show a
  concerned awareness of their mentors writings,
  quoted from them prolifically. Following them
  the Fathers of the 2nd to 4th centuries made
  some 36, 289 citations from the N.T., including
  all verses except eleven. This includes the
  following
• a. 19, 368 citations from the Gospels
• b. 1, 352 from Acts
• c. 664 from Revelation
• d. The Fathers of the second century alone
  cited from every book of the New Testament
  except for one (3 John) (this may have been
  because they had no occasion to cite from 3
  John).

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The Preservation of the Canon

• The preservation of these books by the church
  confirms the Canon
• 3. When challenged by heretical teachings, such
  as that of Marcion the Gnostic (c. 85-c. 160),
  who rejected all but part of Luke and 10 of
  Pauls epistles (all but the Pastoral Epistles) 1
  2 Timothy and Titus), the church responded by
  officially defining the extent of the Canon.
  Lists of apostolic books collection of their
  writings were made from early times, beginning
  with 2nd century, which includes the following
• a. The Muratorian canon (A.D. 170)
• b. Apostolic Canon (c. 300)
• c. Cheltenham Canon (c. 360)
• d. Athanasian Canon (c. 367)
• e. The Old Latin translation (c. 200).

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The Preservation of the Canon

• The preservation of these books by the church
  confirms the Canon
• f. This process culminated in the late fourth
  and early fifth centuries of the Councils of
  Hippo (393) and Carthage (410), which listed
  the 27 books of the New Testament as the
  complete Canon.
• g. There has been no significant debate since
  A.D. 410 regarding the 27 books of N.T.
• h. The only addition occurred at Catholic
  Council of Trent in 1546 whereby they added
  the O.T. Apocrypha as infallible (seven
  books and four parts of books) 29 years later
  after Martin Luthers demanded for proof-texts
  for the selling of indulgences to free souls
  from purgatory).

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The Preservation of the Church

• The Council of Trent stated
• If anyone, however, should not accept the said
  books as sacred and canonical, enter with all
  their partsand if both knowingly and
  deliberately he should condemn the aforesaid
  tradition let him be anathema forever cursed.
• Vatican II repeats the same language affirming
  the Apocrypha to be part of the inspired Word of
  God.

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CONCLUSION

• The Bible is the only infallible written
  revelation of God to man. It is complete, since
  both Old and New Testaments contain all the books
  God inspired for the faith and practice of future
  generations. This is confirmed by the following
• 1. The promise of Christ
• 2. The providence of God
• 3. The preservation by the people of God
• 4. The proclamation of the early church.