The New Testament Cannon

Questions that we will explore

Are the NT documents that we have are the right ones that we should be looking at?

How can we have any confidence that these are the right documents to be looking at and that others are not?

How did the NT cannon come about and did/does that process give us confidence to rely on these books to give us accurate information about and picture of Jesus?

How did the Cannon Come About: Did/Does that process give us confidence to rely on these books to give us accurate informatio

Digging Deeper Discussion: &

After you have read this letter, pass it on to the church at Laodicea so they can read it, too. And you should read the letter I wrote to them. And say to Archippus, “Be sure to carry out the ministry the Lord gave you.”

HERE IS MY GREETING IN MY OWN HANDWRITING—PAUL.

Remember my chains.

May God’s grace be with you.

Colossians 4:16–18 NLT

After you have read this letter, pass it on to the church at Laodicea so they can read it, too. And you should read the letter I wrote to them. And say to Archippus, “Be sure to carry out the ministry the Lord gave you.” Here is my greeting in my own handwriting—Paul. Remember my chains. May God’s grace be with you.

Colossians 4:14–18 NLT

Luke, the beloved doctor, sends his greetings, and so does Demas. Please give my greetings to our brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church that meets in her house. After you have read this letter, pass it on to the church at Laodicea so they can read it, too. And you should read the letter I wrote to them. And say to Archippus, “Be sure to carry out the ministry the Lord gave you.” Here is my greeting in my own handwriting—Paul. Remember my chains. May God’s grace be with you.

Colossians 4:14-18

2 Peter 3:15–16 NLT

And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him—speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.

What stands out to you in the two passages of scripture above?

What is Cannon?

The word canon comes from the Greek language, where it refers to a rule or standard.

When we talk about the biblical canon, what we mean is the list of books that are accepted by Christians as, among other things, authoritative sources of information about Jesus.

When we talk about the biblical canon, what we mean is the list of books that are accepted by Christians as, among other things, authoritative sources of information about Jesus.

These are the documents that together and exclusively represent the standard by which the life and doctrine of Christians are to be measured, shaped, evaluated, and, if necessary, corrected. - Greg Gilbert

2 Timothy 3:16–17 NLT

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.

these are the documents that together and exclusively represent the standard by which the life and doctrine of Christians are to be measured, shaped, evaluated, and, if necessary, corrected.

The Methodist Church Official Position on Scripture: Article V (25 Articles of Religion)— Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation

The Holy Scripture contains all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical books of the Old and New Testament of whose authority was never any doubt in the church. The names of the canonical books are:

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, The First Book of Samuel, The Second Book of Samuel, The First Book of Kings, The Second Book of Kings, The First Book of Chronicles, The Second Book of Chronicles, The Book of Ezra, The Book of Nehemiah, The Book of Esther, The Book of Job, The Psalms, The Proverbs, Ecclesiastes or the Preacher, Cantica or Songs of Solomon, Four Prophets the Greater, Twelve Prophets the Less.

All the books of the New Testament, as they are commonly received, we do receive and account canonical.

Quick Note about the Old Testament Cannon:

By the time of Jesus, the Old Testament canon enjoyed near universal agreement, and both Jesus and his early followers accepted that canon without question.

The Real Question: How did the New Testament Canon Come to be? At stake is historical confidence that they give an accurate picture of Jesus.

Are our reason for looking or privileging of the New Testament Sound:

if there are no historically accessible reasons for privileging these books and not others except, say, a personal “feeling” about their truthfulness, then we won’t be able to have much historical confidence in them. To put it simply, if we’re going to have historical confidence in what the New Testament documents tell us, then we have to ask, “Are our reasons for looking at these books, as opposed to others, sound?”

Gilbert, Greg. Why Trust the Bible? (9Marks) (p. 63). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

First, we need to dispense with the idea that so many people adopted in the wake of The Da Vinci Code—that the New Testament canon was created by a conspiracy of powerful bishops who acted nastily and unfairly to suppress a bunch of equally noteworthy documents. And second, we need to ask if the early Christians had good reasons for privileging the documents they finally did.

Gilbert, Greg. Why Trust the Bible? (9Marks) (p. 63). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Point: the only Christian writings that have been confidently dated to the first century are the very ones that finally made up the New Testament.

Gilbert, Greg. Why Trust the Bible? (9Marks) (p. 64). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

The idea that there was a roiling, boiling sea of “Gospels” and other documents to choose from in the first two centuries of Christian history is simply untrue. There were the books of the New Testament, and then—a century later—there were the books that emerged trying to challenge them.

Gilbert, Greg. Why Trust the Bible? (9Marks) (pp. 64-65). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

the evidence shows that, although the church debated the authority of a handful of New Testament books into the fourth century, Christians widely recognized the vast majority of what we know as our New Testament as authoritative no later than the end of the second century.

Gilbert, Greg. Why Trust the Bible? (9Marks) (p. 65). Crossway. Kindle Edition.