EVIDENCE THAT DEMANDS A VERDICT

PART I : EVIDENCE FOR THE BIBLE

Chapter 2: How We Got the Bible

Who Decided What to Include in the Bible?

WHO DECIDED WHAT TO INCLUDE IN THE BIBLE

This question relates to canonicity.

Meaning of the Word Canon

“The word canon comes from the root word reed (English word cane, Hebrew form ganeh, and Greek form kanon). The reed was used as a measuring rod and came to mean “standard.” (Ehrman, The Bible, 375)[1]

Origen, our third-century church father used the word “canon” to refer to what we call today, “the rule of faith” meaning that it is the “standard by which we are to measure and evaluate everything that comes to us as an article of belief.” (Bruce, BP, 86) Later the term meant a “list” or “index.” (Bruce, BP, 86) As applied to Scripture, canon means “an officially accepted list of books.” (Earle, HWGOB, 33)[2]

The church did not actually create the canon. It recognized and discovered which books had been inspired from their inception.

“a book is not the Word of God because it is accepted by the people of God. Rather, it was accepted by the people of God because it is the Word of God. That is, God gives the book its divine authority, not the people of God. They merely recognize the divine authority which God gives to it.” (Geisler and Nix, GIB, 210)[3]

The authority attributed to the writings were recognized much earlier.

Why Have a Canon?

The Old Testament is a treaty document that God made with Israel. (Kruger, QC, 61)[4]

Early Christianity and the New Testament emerged within the larger context of Judaism.

Christians of the early church believed that the Old Testament was unfinished.
Christians of the early church believed that God was ushering in a new covenant.
Christians of the early church believed that the apostles possessed the authority of Christ.

“a written New Testament was not something the church formally “decided” to have at some later date, but was instead the natural outworking of the early church’s view of the function of the apostles. (Kruger, QC, 70)[5]

Biblical history documents help us to discern at least five principles that guided the recognition and collection of the true divinely inspired books.

Was the book written by a prophet of God?
Was the writer confirmed by acts of God?
Did the message tell the truth about God?
Does it come with the power of God?
Was it accepted by the people of God?

“the definitive evidence is that which attests to its original acceptance by the contemporary believers.” (Geisler and Nix, GIB, 229) When a book was received, collected, read, and used by the people of God as the Word of God, it was regarded as canonical.”[6]

The Christian Canon (New Testament)

Tests for New Testament Canonicity

The basic factor for recognizing a book’s canonicity for the New Testament was divine inspiration and the chief test for this was apostolicity.

“Geisler and Nix state, “In New Testament terminology the church was ‘built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets’ (Eph. 2: 20) whom Christ had promised to guide into ‘all the truth’ (John 16: 13) by the Holy Spirit. The church at Jerusalem was said to have continued in the ‘apostles’ teaching’ (Acts 2: 42).”[7]

“It seems much better to agree with Louis Gaussen, B. B. Warfield, Charles Hodge, J. N. D. Kelly, and most Protestants that it is apostolic authority, or apostolic approval, that was the primary test for canonicity, and not merely apostolic authorship.” (Geisler and Nix, GIB, 283)”[8]

The New Testament Canonical Books
Reasons for Their Collection
They Were Prophetic
The Needs of the Early Church

The Rise of the Heretics – when the heretic Marcion published a sharply abridged list of canonical books then the need for a complete canonical list became acute. (Geisler and Nix, BFGU, 132)[9]

The Circulation of Spurious Writings – The Apocryphal books were being used in services in the East – eg Alexandria
Missions – as early as the first half of the second century the Bible was translated into Syriac and Old Latin. Attention was necessarily drawn to the question of which books really belong to the authoritative Christian canon. (Geisler and Nix, GIB, 278)[10]
Persecution – the edict of Diocletian (AD 303) called for the destruction of the sacred books of the Christians.

“Who would die for a book that was perhaps religious, but not sacred? Christians needed to know which books were truly sacred. (Geisler and Nix, GIB, 278)”[11]

The Canon Recognized
Polycarp (AD 115) and his contemporaries (about AD 200) used the phrase, “as it is said in these scriptures.”
Justin Martyr (AD 100-165) – whenever he quoted from the Gospels he would add “It is written” knowing to what it referred and that this introduction designated that the Scripture is inspired.

Irenaeus – “The importance of evidence lies in his [Irenaeus’] link with the apostolic age and in his ecumenical associations. Brought up in Asia Minor at the feet of Polycarp, the disciple of John, he became bishop of Lyons in Gaul, AD 180. His writings attest the canonical recognition of the fourfold Gospel and Acts, of Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, of 1 Peter and 1 John and of the Revelation. In his treatise, Against Heresies, III, ii, 8, it is evident that by AD 180 the idea of the fourfold Gospel had become so axiomatic throughout Christendom that it could be referred to as an established fact as obvious and inevitable and natural as the four cardinal points of the compass (as we call them) or the four winds. (Bruce, BP, 100)[12]

The Muratorian Fragment – ““An early list of new Testament Books, drawn up in the church at Rome towards the end of the second century, is called the Muratorian fragment. . . . The fragment is mutilated at the beginning, but seems to have mentioned Matthew and Mark, because it goes on to mention Luke as the ‘third’ Gospel; then it mentions John.” (Bruce, BP, 100– 101) The fragment also mentions “Acts, the Epistles of Paul, Jude, 1 and 2 John, of the General Epistles, and two Revelations, those of John and Peter (some did not want the latter to be read in the church, he says). He recommends the reading of the Shepherd of Hermas in private, and lists the Wisdom of Solomon. Missing are 1 and 2 Peter, Hebrews, 3 John, and James.” (Ewert, FATMT, 126)[13]
Origen – “In Homiliae Josuam 7.1 (c. 249) Origen lists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, two epistles of Peter, James, Jude, John’s epistles and Revelation, Acts, and the fourteen epistles of Paul (including Hebrews). (Kruger, OL, 108)[14]
Athanasius of Alexandria (AD 367) – gave a list of New Testament books that is exactly like our present New Testament.

Jerome and Augustine followed suit shortly after Athanasius and defined the New Testament canon of twenty-seven books.
Church Councils – The Synod of Hippo in Ad 393 also listed 27books and recorded their previously established authority.

Four years later, The Third Synod of Carthage re-promulgated the same thing.

Since that time there has been no serious questioning of the twenty-seven accepted books of the New Testament.[15]

The Canonical Classified

The Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
The History – Acts
The Pauline Epistles – Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Hebrews, Titus, Philemon
The General Epistles – James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude
The Prophecy – Revelation

The New Testament Extracanonical Literature.
Pseudepigrapha – writing that is produced by a person who is falsely claiming to be someone famous (Ehrman, The Bible, 298)[16]

Eg – “The Gospel of Thomas (early second century) • The Gospel of the Ebionites (second century) • The Gospel of Peter (second century) • The Gospel of the Hebrews (second century) • The Gospel of the Egyptians (second century) • The Gospel of Philip (second century) • The Gospel of Judas (late second century)[17]

Other Extracanonical Writings – some were considered higher than the pseudepigrapha but were not considered canonical eg Christian hymns, sermons, and apologies. (Ewert, FATMT, 118) Although many of the church fathers considered several of these books to be canonical, the testimony of the church in general disagreed with their view. (Geisler and Nix, GIB, 313)[18]
Examples of Catechetical Writings – “Epistle of Pseudo-Barnabas (AD 70– 79) • Epistle to the Corinthians (about AD 96) • Shepherd of Hermas (about AD 115– 140) • Didache, Teaching of the Twelve (about AD 100– 120) • Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians (about AD 108) • The Seven Epistles of Ignatius (about AD 100)[19]
Examples of New Testament Apocryphal books – The “Real” First Corinthians (possibly alluded to in 1 Cor. 5: 9; however, no such piece of literature is now extant) • Ancient Homily, or the so-called Second Epistle of Clement (about AD 120– 140) • Apocalypse of Peter (about AD 150) • The Acts of Paul and Thecla (AD 170) • Epistle to the Laodiceans (probably fourth century) • The Gospel According to the Hebrews (AD 65– 100)[20]

Why They Are Not Canonical

(1) None of them enjoyed any more than a temporary or local recognition. (2) Most of them never did have anything more than a semi-canonical status, being appended to various manuscripts or mentioned in tables of contents. (3) No major canon or church council included them as inspired books of the New Testament. (4) The limited acceptance enjoyed by most of these books is attributable to the fact that they attached themselves to references in canonical books (e.g., Laodiceans to Col. 4: 16), because of their alleged apostolic authorship (e.g., Acts of Paul). Once these issues were clarified, there remained little doubt that these books were not canonical. (Geisler and Nix, GIB, 317)[21]

The Old Testament Canon

The idea that some rabbis convened in AD 90 to agree on which books should be included in the Hebrew canon (The Jamnia Theory) is a misinterpretation since what really happened is that questions were raised about some books that were already in, but none were removed.

“Prominent New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman states, Most scholars agree that by the time of the destruction of the second Temple in 70 C.E. most Jews accepted the final three-part canon of the Torah, Nevi’im, and Kethuvim. . . . This was a twenty-four-book canon that came to be attested widely in Jewish writings of the time; eventually the canon was reconceptualized and renumbered so that it became the thirty-nine books of the Christian Old Testament. But they are the same books, all part of the canon of Scripture. (Ehrman, The Bible, 377) Bible scholar David Ewert explains that no human authority and no council of rabbis ever made an [Old Testament] book authoritative. These books were inspired by God and had the stamp of authority on them from the beginning. Through long usage in the Jewish community their authority was recognized, and in due time they were added to the collection of canonical books. (Ewert, FATMT, 72)[22]

The evidence clearly supports the theory that the Hebrew canon was established well before the late first century AD, more than likely as early as the fourth century BC and certainly no later than 150 BC. A major reason for this conclusion comes from the Jews themselves, who from the fourth century BC onward were convinced that “the voice of God had ceased to speak directly.” (Ewert, FATMT, 69) In their minds, no word from God meant no new word from God.

“Concerning the Intertestamental Period (approximately four hundred years between the close of the Old Testament and the events of the New Testament) Ewert observes, In 1 Maccabees 14: 41 we read of Simon who is made leader and priest “until a trustworthy prophet should rise,” and earlier he speaks of the sorrow in Israel such “as there has not been since the prophets ceased to appear to them.” “The prophets have fallen asleep,” complains the writer of 2 Baruch (85: 3). Books that were written after the prophetic period had closed were thought of as lying outside the realm of Holy Scripture. (Ewert, FATMT, 70) The last books written and recognized as canonical were Malachi (written around 450 to 430 BC) and Chronicles (written no later than 400 BC). (Walvoord and Zuck, BKC, 1573; 589) These books appear with the rest of the Hebrew canonical books in the Greek translation of the Hebrew canon called the Septuagint (LXX), which was composed around 250 to 150 BC. (Geisler and Nix, GIB, 24)[23]

Christ’s witness to the Old Testament Canon

“New Testament scholar and author Craig A. Evans notes, “Jesus quotes or alludes to all of the books of the Law, most of the Prophets, and some of the Writings. Superficially, then, the ‘canon’ of Jesus is pretty much what it was for most religiously observant Jews of his time.” (Evans, SJ, 185)”[24]