Canonicity

What is the Bible? Canonicity











Canonicity

Test of Canonicity

"The only true test of canonicity is the testimony of God the Holy Spirit to the authority of His own Word."

                         Gleason Archer, Survey of Old Testament Introduction, Pg. 85

Discovery of the Canon

We see in the Bible that God is working through His prophets and apostles.  The Bible is the testimony of the prophets and apostles to God's work. There are some important points about the scriptures that we must understand.

The list of books of scripture (the canon) is not the product of men’s work.  A book is not inspired because men added it to a list. However, we are told to pay attention to the scriptures. So what is the Scripture? Knowing that God has inspired the scriptures themselves, Christians saw that some books clearly reflected the character and knowledge of God, and bore the witness of the Holy Spirit. These books became the canon of Christian scriptures. There were also books that did not belong. These books did not make the canon, and known as the hidden (apocrypha) or false writings (pseudepigrapha).

Questions about a book’s Canonicity

From Geisler and Nix.  A General Introduction to the Bible. “The Discovery and Recognition of Canonicity” Pg. 221-234.











Old Testament Canon

Development of the Old Testament Canon

God’s special revelation through His word was progressive.

Henry Barclay Swete, An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek, “Titles, Grouping, Number, and Order of the Books.” 

Non-Canonical Books Mentioned in the Old Testament

The Old Testament Apocrypha



The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 

Works between O.T. and N.T. and not accepted as Canonical














New Testament Canon

Development of the New Testament Canon

The books of the New Testament, like the Old Testament, arrived in a progression. The New Testament scriptures survived despite the persecutions of the early Church.

Persecution of Diocletian

"It was in the nineteenth year of the reign of Diocletian, in the month Dystrus, called March by the Romans, when the feast of the Saviour’s passion was near at hand, that royal edicts were published everywhere, commanding that the churches be leveled to the ground and the Scriptures be destroyed by fire, and ordering that those who held places of honor be degraded, and that the household servants, if they persisted in the profession of Christianity, be deprived of freedom.

Such was the first edict against us. But not long after, other decrees were issued, commanding that all the rulers of the churches in every place be first thrown into prison, and afterwards by every artifice be compelled to sacrifice."

Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History.  Schaff 8.2.4-5

Persecutions

The persecutions of Decius (A.D. 249-251) and Diocletian (302-305) were particularly hard on the Church.

Persecutions continued until the Edict of Toleration (311) and the Edict of Milan (313).

Constantine’s 50 Bibles

Victor Constantinus, Maximus Augustus, to Eusebius.

“It happens, through the favoring providence of God our Saviour, that great numbers have united themselves to the most holy church in the city which is called by my name. It seems, therefore, highly requisite, since that city is rapidly advancing in prosperity in all other respects, that the number of churches should also be increased. Do you, therefore, receive with all readiness my determination on this behalf. I have thought it expedient to instruct your Prudence to order fifty copies of the sacred Scriptures, the provision and use of which you know to be most needful for the instruction of the Church, to be written on prepared parchment in a legible manner, and in a convenient, portable form, by professional transcribers thoroughly practiced in their art. The catholicus of the diocese has also received instructions by letter from our Clemency to be careful to furnish all things necessary for the preparation of such copies; and it will be for you to take special care that they be completed with as little delay as possible. You have authority also, in virtue of this letter, to use two of the public carriages for their conveyance, by which arrangement the copies when fairly written will most easily be forwarded for my personal inspection; and one of the deacons of your church may be intrusted with this service, who, on his arrival here, shall experience my liberality. God preserve you, beloved brother!”

Eusebius. Life of Constantine.  Schaff. 4.6.4.36

Canon Lists

Lists of books were  made by the Church Fathers to record which books the Church found genuine.

Note: 2 Peter is referenced by Irenaeus (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book V, Chapter XXVIII.3 & XXIII.2)and Polycarp references sentiment from 2 Peter 3:15 (Polycarp, Epistle to the Philippians, 3.1).

Early Christian Books Categorization

The Church Fathers had several categorizations of early Christian literature:

From Geisler and Nix.  A General Introduction to the Bible. Pg. 297.

New Testament Quotes & Allusions to Non-Canonical Sources

The New Testament Apocryphal Books

“The distinction between the Pseudepigrapha and the Apocrypha in most cases is a valid one, but it becomes rather tenuous in some instances.  For the most part, these books were not received as canonical and, like the Pseudepigrapha, they were used heretically by the sects and were even quoted by some orthodox writers.  Nonetheless, on the whole they have one further characteristic, namely, they were not only part of the religious literature quoted by the Fathers, but sometimes appeared in local ecclesiastical canons and Bible translations.”

Geisler and Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible.  Pg. 312-317.

The New Testament Pseudepigrapha

The pseudepigrapha books were not written by the people they were named for.  They were never considered part of the Bible.  Most of the books are written by Gnostics from the 2nd and 3rd centuries. 

On the books of the Pseudepigrapha: 

“By the ninth century Photius listed some 280 of them, and more have subsequently been discovered.”

Geisler and Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible.  Pg. 301

“As Dr. Foakes-Jackson puts it: 'The Church assuredly did not make the New Testament; the two grew up together',  We may well believe that those early Christians acted by a wisdom higher then [sic] their own in this matter, not only in what they accepted, but in what they rejected.  Divine authority is by its very nature self-evidencing; and one of the profoundest doctrines recovered by the Reformers is the doctrine of the inward witness of the Holy Spirit, by which testimony is borne within the believer's heart to the divine character of the Holy Scripture.  This witness is not confined to the individual believer, but is also accessible to the believing community; and there is no better example of its operation than in the recognition by the members of the Early Church of the books which were given by inspiration of God to stand alongside books of the Old Covenant, the Bible of Christ and his apostles, and with them to make up the written Word of God.”

F.F. Bruce. The Books and the Parchments: How We Got Our English Bible.  Pg. 104.

References

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