The canon of scripture

Which writings belong in the bible and which do not? 

This is an important question given the importance of scripture to the Christian.  To add or subtract from God’s word would be to prevent God’s people from obeying Him fully.

The Old Testament Canon

The idea of preserving writings began with the 10 commandments and constituted the covenant between God and His people.  More writings were added (by Moses) and deposited in the Ark of the Covenant.  Joshua added to it.  He must have been aware of the command no to do so in Deuteronomy 4:2, 12:32 so to add to it he must have been convinced he did so under God’s authority.  Others later added more - principally prophets - right up until the last prophet (Malachi) and the last recorded writings (Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther) were made in approximately 435 BC.  Jews didn’t stop writing at this time but no other subsequent writings were added to the canon.  Why?

Other Jewish literature indicates the belief that divinely authoritative words from God had ceased, and that their recorded history since Artaxerxes (Esther’s time) wasn’t deemed worthy of equal credit.  Jesus didn’t contest the Old Testament canon with the Jewish leaders, nor did New Testament authors quote from other sources claiming divine authority.

The Roman Catholic Church has included other books in the Old Testament – The Apocrypha – but these are excluded by Protestants (and Jews).  When Jerome translated the bible into Latin (The Vulgate, AD 404) he included these books but noted they were not “books of the canon” but merely “books of the church”.  Most of the apocrypha was only formally accepted by the Roman Catholic Church a millennium later, in 1546, at the Council of Trent and this in response to Luther’s reformation.  These books support many Roman Catholic teachings – e.g. prayer for the dead.  Also they contain clear historical errors.

The New Testament Canon

Writing of scriptures primarily occurs with God’s great acts in redemptive history.  The Old Testament closes with the expectation of the Messiah to come.  It is of no surprise that the next scripture written recorded this event: The coming of the Messiah.  Thus the New Testament contains primarily writings of the apostles, who were gifted with the Holy Spirit to recall accurately the words and deeds of Jesus, and to interpret them rightly for subsequent generations (John 14:26, 16:13-14).  Those who held the office of apostle claimed an authority equal to that of Old Testament prophets – an authority to speak and write God’s words (2 Peter 3:2).  To lie to the apostles was to lie to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3) and to God (Acts 5:4).

Peter was willing to place Paul’s letters “with other scriptures” (2 Peter 3:15-16) and Paul quotes from both the Old Testament (Deut. 25:4) and Jesus (Luke 10:7) in 1 Tim 5:17-18.  Paul is apparently quoting from Luke’s gospel and calling it scripture, i.e. part of the canon. 

Most New Testament books are written by apostles but five are not – Mark, Luke, Acts, Hebrews and Jude. (James was considered an apostle in 1 Con 15:7 and Gal 1:19 and performed the functions of an apostle).  Mark, Luke and Acts were accepted by the church very early – probably because of the authors’ close associations with apostles – Mark with Peter, Luke with Paul and Jude with James – and the fact he was the brother of Jesus.  Hebrew’s authorship is unknown.  Some accepted the book on the basis of an assumption that Paul wrote it.  Others accepted it on the intrinsic qualities of the book itself.  The book is self-attesting.

The New Testament canon seems to have been reached on a combination of factors – apostolic endorsement, consistency with the rest of scripture and the perception of a writing as being “God breathed” on the part of the overwhelming majority of believers.  These factors led the early church to decide if a work was in fact God’s words (through a human author) and therefore worthy of inclusion in the canon.  Lists dated AD 367 and 397 contain the exact 27 New Testament books we have today and show the church in the eastern and western parts of the Mediterranean agreeing on the New Testament canon.  All other documents in the early church either contain explicit disclaimers of anointed status or include some doctrinal aberrations that clearly make them unworthy of inclusion in the bible.  

Is that it?

Should we expect more writings to be added to the canon?  Hebrews 1, 2 do not expect any further writings as they describe a final revelation of Jesus “in these last days” of this period of redemptive history.  The New Testament closes with the expectation of a coming of Jesus – just as the Old Testament closed.  Nobody now has the same divine authority to write additional scripture – nor will anyone.  The canon is closed.

Questions for personal application

Why is it important to your Christian life to know which writings are God's words and which are not?  How would your relationship with God be different if you had to look for his words that were scattered among all the writings of Christians throughout church history? How would your Christian life be different if God's words were contained not only in the Bible but also in the official declarations of the church throughout history?

Have you had doubts or questions about the canonicity of any of the books of the Bible?  What caused those questions? What should one do to resolve them?

Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and members of other cults have claimed present-day revelations from God that they count equal to the Bible in authority.  What reasons can you give to indicate the falsity of those claims?  In practice, do these people treat the Bible as an authority equal to the other “revelations”?

If you have never read any parts of the Old Testament Apocrypha, perhaps you would want to read some sections.  Do you feel you can trust these writings in the same way you trust Scripture?  Compare the effect these writings have on you with the effect Scripture has on you.  You might want to make a similar comparison with some writings from a collection of books called the New Testament Apocrypha, or perhaps with the Book of Mormon or the Qur’an.  Is the spiritual effect of these writings on your life positive or negative?  How does it compare with the spiritual effect the Bible has on your life?

What's going to change after reading this chapter?

Right now I don't think this is going to result in a changed behaviour or anything like that.  I've never really questioned or doubted the canon of scripture, but now I have a background knowledge of how and why we arrived at the bible as we know it today.  This will help in the future to guard against any errors that may be suggested - altering the scriptures or questioning the authenticity of some or all of the bible.