The canon of Scripture

The word Scripture conveys the idea of sacredness. When we talk of Scripture we mean the Christian Bible, and the divine authority of what we know as the Word of God. The Bible, in the original languages of Hebrew (and a few short passages in Aramaic) in the 39 books of the Old Testament, and in Greek, in the 27 books of the New Testament, is the first reference point for understanding the life of faith in Jesus Christ. The canon of Scripture means the accepted complete text of the Old and New Testament writings in the original languages.

The Bible tells us that the Law was written by Moses and that it was periodically read to the people [Deuteronomy 31:9-11,24-26].

Other prophets also recorded the Word of God [1 Samuel 10:25; Isaiah 30:8; Jeremiah 36:2; Zechariah 7:12; Daniel 9:2].

The New Testament records that Jesus quoted from the Law, the Prophets and the Holy Writings, or, to use the Hebrew terms, the Torah, Neviim and Ketuvim. Jesus mentioned events like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Noah and the flood, Jonah and the whale. He referred to Adam and Eve, to Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel. Jesus showed His belief in the whole canon of Old Testament Scripture and His literal interpretation of it.

The Bible gives the unmistakable impression that by the time the New Testament was written (ca 40-90 AD) there was a fixed canon of Old Testament Scripture to which authoritative appeal could be made. Certain verses assume the existence of a complete and sacred collection of Jewish writings that were already marked off from other literature as separate and fixed. Jesus is recorded in John 10:35 as saying that “Scripture cannot be broken.”

From the time of the prophet Samuel, the Torah – the first five books of the Law of Moses – was considered authoritative. By the time of Jesus the Old Testament canon had been settled in the minds of Jews. Josephus, the Jewish historian, writing around 100 AD, also assumed that the Old Testament canon, as we know it, was fixed and settled.

New Testament

As in the case of the Tanach we cannot set a date upon which men decided the canon. What we can say is that by around 370 AD there was official recognition of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament.

The following principles were at work:

1. Was the book written by an apostle, or one who was closely associated with the apostles?

   [2 Peter 1:16; 2 Peter 3:15-16]

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   2 Peter 1:16

   “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.”

   2 Peter 3:15-16

   “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”
2. Spiritual content. Was the book read in the churches and did its contents spiritually edify?
3. Doctrinal soundness. Were the contents of the book doctrinally sound? Any book containing heresy, or any teaching contrary to the already accepted canonical books, was rejected.
4. Usage. Was the book universally recognized in the churches and was it widely quoted by the church leaders?
5. Divine inspiration. Did it claim or give evidence of divine inspiration? This was the ultimate test.