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First-Century Biblical Canonization

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First-Century Biblical Canonization Eruditio Ardescens The Journal of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary Volume 2 Issue 1 Article 7 4-2015 First-Century Biblical Canonization James B. Joseph Liberty University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/jlbts Part of the Christianity Commons, History of Christianity Commons, and the History of Religions of Western Origin Commons Recommended Citation Joseph, James B. (2015) "First-Century Biblical Canonization," Eruditio Ardescens: Vol. 2 : Iss. 1 , Article 7. Available at: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/jlbts/vol2/iss1/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Crossing. It has been accepted for inclusion in Eruditio Ardescens by an authorized editor of Scholars Crossing. For more information, please contact [email protected]. First-Century Biblical Canonization Parts of this article were originally published in Faith & Mission Volume 18, Number 3 (Summer 2001) under the title “Second-Century Heresy Did Not Force the Church into an Early Canonization” Dr. James B. Joseph Tobaccoville, NC April 7, 2015 Introduction In our twenty-first century world, it is clear for those who listen to God that Satan is hard at work trying to discredit the authority of God’s Written Word, the Bible. Led by Satan, there are many today who would like everyone to believe that God’s Word is like all other literature, a work of man that is not inspired by a loving Creator who wants the best for His creation. If one accepts this deception, then God’s Word becomes open for individual interpretation allowing personal desires and rationalization to control meaning. In reality, the Bible then becomes a way for each person in his or her sinful state to get God to agree to their own agenda and/or to totally disagree with what is written because it is not of God but of earlier less knowledgeable man. Within this scenario, there are no absolute truths but instead ineffective acceptance of all forms of ungodly behavior ranging from minor affronts such as little lies to horrendous destruction through all forms of ungodly living including every form of sexual perversion, which is destroying many children and adults, to mass murder of our unborn. With such clear attacks against God, His Word, and those who are trying to faithfully follow Him, it is clear that an accurate understanding of the formation of our contemporary Bible is worth investigating. This article clearly shows that through the leading of the Holy Spirit, God protected His Inspired Word from its inception making it clear to His followers how His Word had been fulfilled through Jesus, the Messiah; He accomplished this through inspiring some of His Early Church leaders to write timeless works declaring the Gospel and proper holy living, which eventually became known as the New Testament. These inspired writings help all who listen to understand more fully the spiritual battles that were and are raging as Satan continues to deceive as many as possible. God has and will continue to protect His Inspired Word for all who faithfully follow Him. Canonization: Was It Established by God or through Councils? When anyone looks back in history at the biblical canonization process, they come away with two irrefutable facts: from a practical standpoint, the contemporarily accepted New Testament books of the Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox churches were being used by a majority of the churches of the Mediterranean world and beyond by the end of the first century, and secondly, the Roman Catholic Church formalized our contemporary Bible through an agreed upon canon by the end of the fourth century through several councils. So in reality, the real question becomes, whether or not God establish the Canon of the Bible and the churches recognized His work, or did God stand apart from His redemptive work and gave different church groups the responsibility to figure out the canon on their own through logical reasoning and then finally present an agreed upon canon? 1 When one looks at the history of canonization, most would agree that the entire Bible of Jesus’ day was what is now known as the Old Testament, and that it was firmly established and utilized by Jesus and His disciples as the authoritative Word of God. It consisted of the Tanakh (Torah/Teachings, Nev’im/Prophets, and Ketuvim/Writings); these parts are still used by most contemporary Christians. Upon examination of the quotations from Jesus’ disciples of the Tanakh into Greek, it is noted that many of the quotations came directly from the Septuagint, which was a second-third century B.C. translation of the original Hebrew into Greek. Secondly, it is important to note when Christians started using the writings of some of Jesus’ early disciples as authoritative Scripture alongside the Tanakh. If Early Church leadership especially Jewish leaders used specific writings to supplement the Tanakh and considered them equal in authority, this would show that God was guiding them because without His direction, no Jewish follower of Christ would go against God by adding to His Word. Jesus Himself said that He came to fulfill God’s Word versus abolishing or changing any part of it (Matt 5:17–19; Luke 16:16-17; et al.). Early Church Usage of the Books of the New Testament Although the Canon of Scripture as we know it today was not ratified by the Western Church through the Councils of Hippo (A. D. 393) and Carthage (A. D. 397 & 419) until the fourth century,1 it can be shown that the Early Church as early as Peter’s writings showed Paul’s writings to be considered equally important in understanding God and His ways as the Tenakh (2 Peter 3:13–15). In addition, it is clear that many of Christ’s first century followers were proclaiming a Gospel messages that showed the world how God had and was fulfilling the prophetic messages regarding the coming Messiah contained within the Tanakh (Acts 8:25; 14:5–7, 21–22; 15:7; 20:24; cf. 2 Cor 8:16–18; Luke 1:1–4; Rom 15:15–16; 1 Cor 15:1–6). By early to mid-second century, many churches already had their own collections of inspired writings that were authoritative and similar to each other. It is important to note that there did not appear to be an urgency for leaders of the various areas to come to a collective agreement on an agreed upon canon even during times of extreme heresy such as Marcion’s false teachings in the second century.2 In fact, after hearing Marcion’s 1 Bruce M. Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987), 98. 2 John Knox, Marcion and the New Testament (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1942), 1-2. Marcion came to Rome around A. D. 130 and was expelled around 140 because he had gone against orthodox Christianity proclaiming that the god of the Old Testament was not the God of Grace proclaimed in the New Testament. Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem, trans. by Ernest Evans (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), §IV: 5, 269-273; §V:2-21, 513-641. What is important to us is that Marcion viewed Paul as the great apostle of the Gospel of Grace and based his version of the New Testament on a modified version of Luke’s Gospel and ten of Paul’s letters Marcion’s New Testament collection as described by Tertullian is the oldest surviving 2 view of God and Scripture at a special hearing before the church leaders in Rome, Marcion was immediately excommunicated from the Church.3 If Marcion and other heretics were such an imminent threat to the Gospel proclamation, it seems that the Church would have signed off on a formal canon during the second century. But, in reality, although there was not a known formal canon ratified by any specific council(s), we have evidence from second-century church leaders such as Irenaeus, that God had already solidified a canon for His Church; it was recognizing heresy according to alterations and/or misrepresentations of existing Scripture (Heresies 3.15.1). The Evidence for Early Canonization: Textual The Gospels Although there are no known early-second century codex with all four gospels, that does not prove that they did not exist. As Bruce discusses the fact that P(45), an early third-century Alexandrian codex,4 contained the fourfold Gospel and Acts, it was also very possible that P(75), a late second-century or early third-century Alexandrian codex could have easily contained all four gospels, although its present state only witnesses to two gospels (Luke and John).5 Even the small remnant of P(52), a late first century or early second-century codex containing a small portion of John, might have originally contained all four Gospels.6 Paul’s Letters Regarding Paul, the oldest textual evidence that is currently known is manuscript P(46); this manuscript provides textual evidence of an early Pauline corpus that existed in the mid-second century. Y.K. Kim points out that palaeographical evidence indicates that there is a good chance that P(46) is actually a late first-century or early second-century document.7 canonical list to date. Justin Martyr (A.D. 100-65), 1 Apology 26. Justin, a Christian teacher at Rome, says that Marcion had many followers around the world during his lifetime. 3 Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament, 90-91. 4 Bruce, The Canon of Scripture, 129. P(45) is an early-third century codex. Bruce Manning Metzger, The Text of the New Testament, 2 ed.
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