The Canon of Scripture

Introduction

I am going to start off the service tonight with a poll. I want you to raise your hand if you have ever heard of these books of the bible:

Tobit

Judith

Wisdom of Solomon

Sirach or Ecclesiaticus

Baruch

1 and 2 Maccabees

1 Enoch

The book of Jubilees

The book of Mormon

The Pearl of Great Price

The Gospel of Thomas

The Gospel of Mary

The Shepherd of Hermes

I don’t know how you did, but did you know that in some churches these books would be considered scripture or part of the bible. The first set of books are part of what is called the Apocrypha and is held by the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox church. The Orthodox church in Ethiopia expands the number of books in their bible even more. Two of the books I mentioned are held as additional scripture by the Mormon church and the final two are false books that sometimes Liberal theologians would like to add to the bible.

We have covered the doctrines of Inspiration and Preservation so far, but with so much debate about which books should be in the bible, how do we know? Should we consider these other books to be scripture? How do we know? The answer can’t be as simple as its not in the bible in your hands because it is in the bible in someone else’s hands.

Tonight we are talking about what is called the canon of scripture. Often when we talk about the canon of scripture, we are talking about the list of the books included in the bible. We have 66 included in the bible we use. The word canon comes from a word that means a rule or standard. From this we could define the canon of scripture as the body of scripture given by God to rule the church. 

It includes those books of the bible that we believer are authoritative in governing faith and practice in the church. Which books should determine what I believe and what I do? Any other books are just possibly helpful commentary at best and false teaching at the worst. Disagreement on this issue has led to a lot of false teaching in the church.

We believe in what is called a closed canon. What that means is that no new books are being added to the scriptures. God is no longer inspiring any scriptures to be written. When I get up and preach a sermon, my sermons are not inspired; when a good Christian author writes a book, his book is not inspired; when a modern day prophet claims to be giving a new message from God, his words are not scripture.

Historically God gave his word during certain periods of time. During the intervening time periods, nothing was given. Hebrews 1:1–2 “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;” Jesus Christ and the message spoken by His appointed representatives are the culmination of all inspired revelation. We would expect to find new scripture given at that time but then taper off as that era ended.

Generally speaking, the books esteemed by the Church as the word of God have been pretty well recognized from early on.

The Test of Apostolic Authority

The first text applied to determine the authenticity of a book and its inclusion in the canon of scripture was its relationship to the Apostles. Last week we looked at one principle, that relates to the doctrine of the canon of scripture as well as the preservation of scripture. 1 Corinthians 4:1 “Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.” tells us that the scriptures, mysteries of God, were entrusted to the apostles as the stewards and ministers of Christ. God placed it in their care; so we would expect the scriptures to come from these men.

Later in Ephesians 2:20 “And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;” We see that the foundation of the church is built on the apostles and prophets. When building a house, the foundation is important because it holds the entire structure up. Another feature of foundations is that there is only one foundation. You don’t continue to add to the foundation. If God’s scriptures were placed in the hands of the Apostles and Prophets, then that work only needed to be done one time. Principles like this lead us to believe in a closed canon of scripture.

Elsewhere we read the qualifications of an Apostle: Acts 1:21–22 “Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.” gives us two qualifications:

A witness of the life, death and resurrection of Christ

Ordained by Christ

Needless to say, no one after that first generation of Christians could fulfill those obligations as an Apostle. If the ministry of the Apostle is ended, then so is the giving of further scripture for the Church today.

It is too simple to just say a book had to have been written by an Apostle. Among the apostles Matthew, John , Peter and Paul wrote books of the bible, but what about the other books of the bible?

Mark- Mark was a second generation Christian and not one of the original aposltes; however, early church tradition teaches that he wrote his gospel under the guidance of Peter. Mark was clearly around plenty of the apostles to have had first hand knowledge of their testimony.

“Mark became Peter’s interpreter and wrote down accurately all that he remembered, whether the sayings or the doings of the Lord…”- Papias as quoted by Eusebius in Hist. Eccl 3.39.15

Luke, Acts, Hebrews- Luke as well was not one of the early apostles. Personally, I believe Luke wrote the book of Hebrews and I believe he was not a Gentile, but a Jew who grew up outside of Jerusalem. There is historical evidence for all this that I won’t get into tonight, but we know Luke was a companion of Paul and heavily influenced by the apostle Paul. His writtings could in fact have a connection to Paul and were recognized as authoritative because of that connection.

James- The next two are interesting. James and Jude. Both are not part of the early apostles though there are two James in the original 12. This is not that James. Rather this is James the brother of Jesus. He became the central figure in the church of Jerusalem and presided over the conference in Acts 15. Interestingly, Galatians 1:19 “But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.” seems to include him as an apostle. The word apostle was used in two different ways in scripture. Sometimes to refer to the original 12 and other times to refer to other official representatives within the Church.

Jude- Jude is not mentioned in any passage as an apostle, but we know according to Jude 1 “Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:” He was the brother of James who was the brother of Jesus. The early church recognized their writtings because of their relationship to Jesus Christ Himself.

The Test of Catholicity

Another principle we looked at last week that applies to this discussion is the principle of catholicity. That word catholic merely means the whole of the Church. This principle was seen in that the church is the pillar and ground (foundation) on which the truth rests. 1 Timothy 3:15 “But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”

It is important that the main block of Christianity recognize these books as part of the bible. Other books were considered by splinter groups and off shoots of Christianity, but what did the bulk of the believing Church profess to be the scriptures.

Very early on, the church recognized the four gospels, all of Paul’s letters which were already being circulated as a group, Acts, 1 John and 1 Peter. There was some debate over James, Jude, Hebrews, 2 Peter, 2-3 John and Revelation. Our earliest record of the collection of 27 NT books we have today was from Athanasius the great defender of the Trinity in 367 AD.

Taking into account that all the books were written at different times and to different peoples it makes sense that it would take some time for the Church as a whole to recognize all the books.

These books were in use regularly by the church even if they were not listed on some formal list until later.

The Test of Orthodoxy

Jude 3 “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”

There are two principles to derive from this passage that I think are important. Verse 3 is the main theme of Jude’s entire book. Jude was concerned about the influence of false teachers and wanted us to defend the faith. The words once delivered could literally be translated once for all delivered implying that these truths were handed down at a specific time in the past and do not need anything added to them.

When he uses those words the faith he is talking about the core doctrines, beliefs that we hold. So another text that a book must go through to be considered the canon of scripture was its orthodoxy- right belief. The doctrines that it teaches are important. This is where many of the differences between Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, the Mormons etc come in because many of these books were used to teach false doctrines:

Prayers for the dead to raise them up- This passage was used to support purgatory and praying your loved ones out. 2 Maccabees 12:44–45 “for if he had not hoped that they that were slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead: and also in that he perceived that there was great favour laid up for those that died godly, It was a holy and good thought. Whereupon he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin.”

Alms for the dead- Tobit 12:9 “for alms doth deliver from death, and shall purge away all sin. Those that exercise alms and righteousness shall be filled with life:”

Advanced Extrabiblical teaching on Demons- 1 Enoch speaks of dead spirits of the Nephalim as the evil spirits we see in the bible. While Jude and 1 Peter do reference some of the teaching of 1 Enoch, no scripture makes this connection.

Mystical secret knowledge leading to salvation- Gospel of THomas saying 108 “Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me; I myself shall become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to him.”

Women must become men to go to heaven- Gospel of Thomas saying 114 “Simon Peter said to them, “Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life.” Jesus said, “See, I shall lead her so that I may make her male, in order that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Conclusion

Multiple times throughout the bible we find these words repeated over and over again:

Deuteronomy 4:2 “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.”

Deuteronomy 12:32 “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.”

Proverbs 30:5–6 “Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, Lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.”

Revelation 22:18–19 “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”

Now all of these passages except the one in proverbs are properly applied only to the books that they are found in. God is saying don’t add or take away from the law and then in Revelation don’t add or take away from Revelations. But the fact that these words are repeated multiple times in the bible and that verse in proverbs shows us that this is also a general principle that God does not want His words added to or taken away from.

It is important for us to be confident that we have the books that God desired us to have in our bible. Otherwise how would we know that those false doctrines I listed above are not supposed to be in the bible? I have given us three tests for determining the authenticity of a book of the bible. Woven into the points tonight is also a belief that with the end of the apostalic era, God ceased giving more scripture.