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The Making of the Bible Part One: the Canon of the Holy Scriptures

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The Making of the Bible Part One: the Canon of the Holy Scriptures Mark E. Larson The Making of the Bible Part One: The Canon of the Holy Scriptures Introduction: Do the 66 Books of the Bible Constitute All the Books God Gave Us? A. The “BIBLE” (i.e. the books) is a collection of books given by inspiration of God over the course of 1,500 years. B. Yet how do we know that the books we have today are the ones that should be in the Bible or that other books from ancient times should not be included? 1. Why were so many ancient books excluded? First & Second Books of Adam and Eve, First & Second Books of Enoch, 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees. The Gospel of Peter, Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit, Gospel of the Twelve, the Gospel of Basilides, the Gospel of Judas, Gospel of Thomas, Epistle of Barnabas, Gospel of Philip, Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Gospel of the Hebrews, the Acts of Paul, the Preaching of Peter. 2. How were the books we have in the Bible chosen in the first place? (Genesis-Revelation) C. Many today claim that we cannot be confident that the Bible is in fact God’s word that the collection of books in it was arbitrarily chosen by men, by assembly counsels, and synods. D. However, there is a way that we can know for sure! 1. The Bible contains God’s plan of salvation! 2. God warns us that no one is to add to His word or take away from it (Deut. 4:2; Rev. 22:18-19); no one is to change it in any way (Gal. 1:6-9). a. Therefore, there must be a way for us to know if we have all the books or if there are books that are missing. b. We would have no firm foundation to stand upon to know God’s will absolutely if we could not determine this. 3. It is extremely important to be able to prove beyond any doubt that the 66 books of the Bible constitute all the books that God gave us. I. How was it decided which Books belong in the Bible? A. “The Canon of Scripture” 1. Bible scholars refer to the “canon” of the Scriptures. What is meant by that expression? The term “canon” is an anglicized form of the Greek kanon. Originally, the word had to do with a straight rod or rule, to which a builder would compare his work for accuracy. 1 Mark E. Larson 2. Gradually, the term came to be employed figuratively of a “norm or standard.” (e.g. the “rule” [kanon] by which to live – Gal. 6:16). a. Eventually, the expression came to signify that which has “passed the test.” 3. Today, the “Canon” refers to those 66 books which constitute the Bible; all of these books “passed the test” as being genuine “Holy Scripture.” 4. Yet, who determined which books were to go into the Bible? Exactly when did that occur? On what basis were they chosen? B. The standard of determining the Canon of Scripture. 1. External evidence - the testimony of those who had access to the documents originally. How did they view them, and why? 2. Internal evidence relates to the nature of the material itself. Does it claim to be from God? Does it harmonize with the other books? Does it possess factual accuracy? II. The Old Testament Canon. A. The Jews have always accepted the books of the Old Testament (the 22 books as they counted them, the same 39 books of the Bible). 1. The Jews, whom the Old Testament was provided for, have always accepted the books and no other books to be the Old Testament of God. 2. It was the Jews that God originally gave the Old Law. a. Numerous passages indicate it was Moses who penned the first five books (Ex. 34:27; Josh 8:32; 23:6; 1 Ki. 2:3; 2 Ki. 14:6). 3. Who wrote each Old Testament book (as inspired by God) is well recognized; many books were named after the writer of each book. Genesis-Deuteronomy (Moses); Joshua, Judges (Samuel), Ruth (Samuel); 1 & 2 Samuel; 1 & 2 Kings (Jeremiah); 1 & 2 Chronicles (Ezra), Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (Mordecai), Job, Psalms (David), Proverbs (Solomon), Ecclesiastes (Solomon), The Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations (Jeremiah), Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea -- Malachi 4. Jewish tradition traces the collection of all the Old Testament books to the time of Ezra (mid-5th century B.C.). 5. Josephus (AD 37-100), a Jewish historian of the 1st century wrote of the number of books received as "Holy Scripture" by the Jews: "We have not 10,000 books among us, disagreeing with and contradicting one another, but only twenty-two books which contain the records of all time, and are justly believed to be Divine." - Josephus, Against Apion I.8. 2 Mark E. Larson B. The majority of the O.T. books are quoted or alluded to in the New Testament. 1. The New Testament contains 433 direct quotations from the Old Testament. No less than 30 of the 39 books are definitely quoted and 1,000 allusions are made of Old Testament passages. C. Jesus gave indication concerning the books included in the O.T. Canon. 1. The Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luke 24:44). a. This was the historic, threefold division of the Hebrew Bible. 2. Jesus referred to the martyrs of the Old Testament (Luke 11:50-51) ranging from Abel (Gen. 4:8) to Zechariah (2 Chron. 24:20-21) - The Jewish order of Old Testament was Genesis to Chronicles. D. The Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament). 1. By the time Christ was born, there were two versions of the Old Testament (Hebrew and Greek - Septuagint LXX, 280 B.C.). 2. Gradually in time, the Greek version was bound up with 14 additional books otherwise known as “The Apocrypha.” (Intertestamental Books) 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, The Rest of Esther, Song of the Three Holy Children, History of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, Prayer of Manasses, Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, 1 Maccabees, and 2 Maccabees. - The last seven of these are incorporated into Roman Catholic editions of the Bible. 3. These 14 books did not pass the test to be included in the Bible! a. These books were given during the 300 years when no inspired writings were given by God (Mal. 4:4-5; Mat. 17:10-13; Lk 1:17). b. Jesus and the apostles never quoted from or alluded to the Apocrypha. c. Unlike the Old Testament, the Apocryphal books never made any direct claims of being inspired of God. d. The Apocrypha contains a great variety of historical, geographical, chronological, and moral errors (condoning sin). III. The New Testament Canon. A. When the assembly of Christ was first established (Acts 2), there was no New Testament Canon. 1. The only writing of God or Scripture available was the Old Testament. 2. So they depended on the apostles of Christ to present this new teaching. 3. Soon inspired men came to put in writing the law of Christ directed both to assemblies and individual Christians (Eph. 3:3-5). B. The New Testament authors considered their writings to be just as divinely authoritative as those of the Old Testament Scriptures (1 Cor. 14:37). 3 Mark E. Larson Examples: Paul quotes from the book of Deuteronomy (25:4), and the Gospel of Luke a quote of Jesus (10:7), and classifies both of these as “scripture” (1 Tim. 5:18). Peter places “all” of Paul’s “epistles” in the same category as “the other scriptures” (2 Pe 3:16) 1. The apostle Peter put the “apostles” in the same category as the “holy prophets” of Old Testament times (2 Pet. 3:1-2). C. A book having the right to be in the N.T. canon depended on its inherent God given authority (not the other way around). Example: Many mistakenly believe that the Canon of the New Testament wasn’t complete until the year 367 A.D. when the Catholic Bishiop Athanasius of Alexandria published his list to recognize the 27 books. · Are we to believe that the New Testament canon wasn’t accepted by Christians until nearly three hundred years after the death of the last apostle!?! 1. Books of the Bible did not have divine authority because they were made official by some list made by men. 2. Instead, they were accepted books because they were already acknowledged as having divine authority. D. The 27 books that made it into the New Testament were “handed down” by the apostles themselves (cf. 1 Cor. 11:2; 2 Thes. 2:15; 3:6). 1. Long before the Catholic Church declared it so (367AD), there were an accepted number of apostolically-authored books that comprise the N.T. 2. The writings of the 27 books of the N.T. were already being regarded as authoritative by the early “church leaders” in the late first century (e.g. Clement, Barnabas, Ignatius, Polycarp, Hermas). a. Regardless of how “Catholic” they may or may not have been, it is still of great significance how they referred to the N.T. books. 3. In their writings they describe the Scriptures as having been “handed down” or received by the apostles. Clement (1-99AD): “The four gospels that have been handed down to us.” (Strom. 3.13.93). Irenaeus (35-107AD) “The gospels handed down to us from the apostles.” (Haer. 3.II.9).
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