The Canon

THE CANON

Canonization is the process of recognizing and collecting God-inspired authoritative books of sacred Scripture. The canon is the rule or standard for faith and practice of the church. This includes the Old Testament as well as the New Testament.

The Bible teaches that the Old Testament scriptures were “God-breathed” (II Timothy 3:16). When these “God-breathed” words were written, they became Scripture and possessed absolute authority. Hence, being the very Word of God, it was canonical. Canonicity is determined by God. God inspired sixty-six books; consequently, there are sixty-six books in the canon. Men of God simply recognized and discovered the canon that God had established by identifying its authority and inspiration.  Each Bible book had a human author being guided and superintended by the Holy Spirit so that we can correctly say that both the human author and God wrote these words (dual authorship).

In addition to the fact that these sixty-six books were inspired by God, we also need to recognize another key feature displaying that the Old Testament canon’s authority and accuracy.  It is the teaching and words of God the Son. The Lord Jesus Christ constantly affirmed the whole Old Testament as being an inerrant, plenary-verbal, inspired text (John 10:31–36; Luke 24:44; etc.). Christ's word is final. The Eternal Son has spoken and affirmed the canonicity of the thirty-nine books of our Old Testament. We must follow Him (John 10:27).

The men of God in the early church and before used principles (tests) for discovering the books of the canon. 1) It must be authoritative, deriving its authority from God. 2) It must be prophetic, written by a man of God. 3) It must be authentic and be truthful in all its parts.  4) It must be dynamic, having the life-changing power of God. 5) It must be Messianic (Christocentric). 6) Lastly, it must be received and accepted by the people of God.

The Old Testament canon had a gradual development that was complete by 400 B.C. The literature of this time was divided into four categories, namely, 1) Homologoumena (books accepted by all); 2) Antilegomena (disputed by some); 3) Pseudepigrapha (rejected by all); and, 4) Apocrypha (accepted by some as second class or less in value). The Homologoumena was 34 of the 39 books. The Antilegomena (5 books) was originally accepted by God’s people, but was questioned by later authorities. The reasons for the questioning these five books were understandable but invalid. Consequently, these five remained in the canon. The Apocrypha books each failed in one or more of the above tests and they were accordingly determined as non-canonical.

The New Testament books were also a collection of books from God to be the authoritative rule of faith and practice. The early church added each new book received from the apostles to the Old Testament collection and considered them to be Scripture as well. They collected and kept the books that were written by an apostle or a prophet of God for doctrinal use, to refute heresies, and for church planting.

The canon was completed after the writing of Revelation (65 - 98 A.D.) Translations, canons, and individuals give evidence that only a seven of the 27 New Testament books were ever disputed as authoritative, and by 400 A.D., all twenty-seven were accepted by God’s people. Certain church fathers who questioned one or more of the seven disputed books did not completely reject them, but they lowered them to a semi-canonical status. Nevertheless, each book was recognized by authorities early in church history and all twenty-seven were finally accepted. The New Testament Apocryphal books failed the canonicity test (above) and were only recognized in certain areas for a short time.

The key to the New Testament canon was apostolic authority or approval, not necessarily authorship. Therefore, the books that were written by the Apostles’ companions, the New Testament prophets (Eph 2:20) [i.e. Mark, Luke, James, etc.], were “imposed” on the church with apostolic authority and were received as the Apostles' own books.

Finally, God enabled and continues to enable men to identify the canon. After one has been regenerated, the Holy Spirit opens his eyes and understanding to see the “divine origin” of the Scriptures. The inward witness of the Holy Spirit enables a person to see the Scripture’s source as God. Hence, we must respond in faith (“the persuasion of truth founded on testimony”) and humbly submit to the authoritative inerrant, plenarily-verbally inspired Word of God (John 7:17).

SOURCES CONSULTED

Geisler, Norman and Nix, William. A General Introduction to the Bible. Chicago: Moody, 1982.

Warfield, Benjamin B. The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible. Philadelphia: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1948.

Young, Edward J. “The Canon of the Old Testament” in Carl F. H. Henry (ed.), Revelation and the Bible. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1958.