The Canon of Scripture (3) - The New Testament Canon

One major argument against Christianity is, as I have mentioned before, the idea that the Christian faith as we know it today was the result of Constantine acceding to power in the Roman Empire and changing Christianity to suit his own political agenda.

Central to this charge is the accusation that Constantine in cahoots with controlling church leaders effectively invented the New Testament by imposing on the church a canon of books that suited their own ends.

If for no other reason, therefore, we should be clear as to what is in the New Testament canon, why it is there and how the canon came about.

The Writings of the Apostles

The New Testament scriptures are a collection of the writings of the apostles. Mark, Luke, Acts, Hebrews and Jude, were not written by apostles but by those asscoiated with them and endorsed by them. See Grudem for further comment in these writings.

They record the words and deeds of Jesus and interpret their meaning. Jesus indicates in John 14.26 and John 16.13-14 that the Holy Spirit will give the disciples the ability to remember what Jesus had taught them and will lead them into truth that at that time they had not discovered.

The high level of authority that the apostles held can be seen in scriptures such as 2 Peter 3.2, Acts 5.2-4, 1 Corinthians 14.37, 2 Corinthians 13.3, Galatians 1.8-9.

Apostolic authorship or endorsement meant that a particular writing was accepted as being God's very word.

New Testament writings on a par with the OldTestament scriptures

Peter recognises the writing s of Paul as scripture (2 Peter 3.15-16) and Paul recognises Luke's gospel as scripture (1 Timothy 5.17-18). Here Paul quotes Luke 10.7. The term scripture is a technical term used to refer to God's words, and therefore the Old Testament as we have it today. It is evident then that at a very early stage in the history of the church, the books of the New Testament were considered part of the canon of scripture.

Athanasius' List

The first exact list that we have of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament as we have them today is found in the Thirty-Ninth paschal Letter of Athanasius dated 367 A.D.. This list represented the books accepted as scripture in the Eastern church. In 397 A.D. the Council of Carthage produced a list of the same books which were in use in the Western Church.

How did the canon come about?

It wasn't the case that the church imposed the canon on the church, rather the church gradually recognised the writings that were in use in Christian communities all over the Roman empire.

A formally drawn up canon came about mainly as a result of heretical teaching. Calims made for gnostic works to be recognised as divinely authoritative had to be tested and measures against the original writings of the apostles.

What we might call the formal canon, therefore developed over almost four centuries as a response to religious developments that affected and even threatened the church and her teaching. However, it could be said that an informal canon functioned within the churches from the earlist days of the faith.

The Canon of Scripture (2) - the Old Testament Canon

A definition

"The canon of scripture is the list of all the books that belong in the Bible"

The word canon comes from a word referring to a measuring rod. The canon of scripture determines what's out and what's in when it comes to what should be included in the Bible or excluded from the Bible.

The Old Testament Canon (Grudem, ch.3., pp.54-59)

The Origins of the canon - the ten commandments

The Old Testament really began with the ten commandments, written by God on tablets of stone and given to Moses for the people of Israel (Exodus 31.18, 32.16)

Moses and others wrote additional words

Moses added to what the ten commandments (31.24-26). This scripture indicates that Moses wrote Deuteronomy and in the light of other references reveal that he wrote the first four books of the Bible as well.

Joshua contributed to the scriptures. As did the prophets (e.g. Isaiah, Jeremiah), kings (e.g David), along with others.

Their writings make up the Old Testament as we know it today.

The close of the Old Testament canon

After 435 B.C. - when Malachi was written - there were no further additions to the Old Testament scriptures. The rebbinic tradition, Josephus and the religious leaders of Jesus day were unanimous that the Old Testament canon closed at the time of Malachi.

The Old Testament Apocrypha - Jewish literature outside of the Old Testament which is not recognised as the Word of God.

• The apocrypha is never quoted in the New Testament as authoritative
• No record of any dispute between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders about the Old Testament canon
• Early Christian leaders - Melito, Origen, Eusebius and Athanasius excluded the apocrypha from the canon

Roman Catholic Church includes the apocrypha in the canon of scripture. The protestant church excluded the Old Testament apocrypha from the canon of scripture because:

• It wasn't included in the Jewish canon
• It wasn't included by early Christian leaders
• It is of dubious doctrinal value

The above is a brief explanation as to why we accept the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament as we have it today as God's Word and why we don't accept other writings of that era.

The Canon of Scripture (1)

You probably wouldn't fill the 02 Arena if you were organising a conference the theme of which was The Canon of Scripture. For many the term might well be associated with dusty old tomes of theology, dates that hardly anyone can remember and DWEMs (Dead white European males). Incidentally, some of the greatest theologians of the early church were neither white nor European. Athanasius, for example, was an African, as was Augustine. Some of the strongest centres of early Christianity were to be found in North Africa.

Back to the canon of scripture. This topic is one which underlies many of the questions about the authority of the Bible and why we should accept the Bible as we have it. The criticism is usually that the church invented the Bible as we have it and therefore we should see it for what it is - a piece of literature compiled for political purposes. Critics claim that the writings rejected by the church, like the gnostic scriptures, are actually the real Christian scriptures which were suppressed by Constantine and the Catholic Church. That's the kind of thinking behind the (fictional) storyline of The DaVinci Code.

Understanding how the canon of scripture came together is important in our dialogue with people who have questions about the Bible's reliability.