Tidbits#1 — “What do you know about the canon?”
Determining the canon of Scripture is not only part of the “Battle for the Bible,” it’s also a battle for the nature of our faith.
Two self-attesting verses re: the authority and validity of Scripture are 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:19-21.
The issue here in this discussion series is, what is “all Scripture?”
Let’s start with the canonization of the Old Testament.
Question: What was the first canonization of Scripture ? You may be surprised. Scroll to the end of this blog for the answer.
The OT canon (collection of authoritative words from God) grew in size throughout the time of OT history—from Moses to the last book of Malachi written around 435 B.C. when biblical prophets ceased to appear.
Inclusion was determined by Jewish leaders.
But this canonization was formalized by Jesus. How so?
First, in the New Testament, we have no record of any dispute between Jesus and the Jews over the extent of the canon.
Secondly, the books of the Apocrypha were never accepted by the Jews as Scripture.
Thirdly, according to one count, Jesus and the NT authors quoted various parts of the OT Scriptures as divinely authoritative over 295 times, but not once do they cite any statement from the books of the Apocrypha or any other writings. (The lone exception to this is Jude 6, a quote from 1 Enoch 1:9).
The earliest Christian list of OT books that exists today is by Melito, bishop of Sardis, writing about A.D. 170. He names none of the books of the Apocrypha, but includes all of our present OT books except Esther.
Eusebius quotes Origen as affirming most of the books of our present OT canon (including Esther), but no book of the Apocrypha or the books of Maccabees.
Then why weren’t the books of the Apocrypha or other books included as part of Scripture? Here is a recap of four reasons:
1) They do not claim for themselves the same kind of authority as the OT writings.
2) They were not regarded as God’s words by the Jewish people from whom they originated.
3) They were not considered to be Scripture by Jesus or the NT authors.
4) They contain teachings inconsistent with the rest of the Bible.
Hence, they are considered to be merely human words, not God-breathed words.
It was not until 1546, at the Council of Trent, that the Roman Catholic Church officially declared the Apocrypha to be part of the canon (with the exception of 1 and 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh). Most likely, this was in response to Martin Luther and the spreading of the Protestant Reformation. Also, these Apocrypha books contain support for the Catholic teaching of prayers for the dead and justification by faith plus works, both of which were opposed by the reformers.
Answer: The Ten Commandments was the earliest collection of the written words of God. Twice, God wrote it down on two tablets of stone.
What do you think?
[Much of the content herein is from Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI.: Zondervan, 1994), 54-59.]