Tidbits #4 – “What do you know about the canon?”

The Criteria for Canonicity?

 

Because the canon represented a collective decision reached by the Christian community at large over a period of centuries, no document exists in which the criteria for inclusion are given in detail—only hints were dropped.

 

So here are four criteria we can surmise for each book:

 

1)  Was it highly valued by a number of Christian communities?

2)  Was it cited in another early writing as a reason to take it seriously?

3)  Did it have apostolic authorship (but a decision still had to be made whether or not an apostle actually wrote it or was it merely a claim / attributed to him or an outright forgery)?

4)  Was it consistent with the apostolic tradition—i.e., called in Latin regula fidie – the “rule of faith”?  This was the major consideration.

 

So was the canon ever “closed”?  The answer is, no.  The canon was never “officially” and “unalterably” closed by any council or Christian document.

 

Are there any books in our present canon (OT and NT) that should not be there?  Most say, no.

 

Are there any missing books that should have been included?  Again, most say, no.  But I say, there may be one—a very important one.

 

I will address this possible omission in my next blog.

 

But what do you think?

 

[Much of the content herein is from Howard Clarke Kee, Understanding the New Testament: (Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: 1983, Fourth Ed.), 379.]