How do We Know the New Testament is God's Word?

The canon books were prized text that was held in high regards to wisdom and history of the culture. The content of these books was from the laws of Moses to the birth and death of humanity and all that was in between, about a three-thousand-year timeframe. The preservation of these scriptures including additions to, removal of, or any alterations to the text was guarded by the authors, even

Most Christians do not think about the canon of scripture or know what it is or means in theology. Most take for granted the Bible they have and never question how it came into being. Today, we have 39 books of the Old Testament and 27 books of the New Testament. There was a time, however, that we did not have a canon. Bruce defines canon as books of the Bible that were recognized to be considered scripture (p. 17). The importance of the canon and how it was developed was intriguing to professor and author F.F. Bruce. He dedicated his book The Canon of Scripture to explore and explain the formulation of the canon we have today. Bruce taught in universities, including the University of Manchester, where he began to lecture students on the

However, the volume is not without a few very minor weaknesses. For one, chapter 6, entitled “The Importance of Paul’s Evidence,” when compared to the other chapters in the volume, comes across as lacking. Paul’s contribution to the New Testament documents is extensive and the lack of attention provided by Bruce in this book could leave some of the targeted audience wondering if the lack of attention is due to a lack of evidence. Ironically, in other instances he tends to overwhelm the reader with too much information that does not have historical value as far as proving the reliability of the New Testament documents. This is apparent in the chapter titled “The Writings of Luke,” when he describes Luke’s background. Finally, the only other negative the author of this review could come up with regarding this volume is somewhat of a selfish matter. After reading this volume one is left with the desire for more evidence. Due to the size of the volume Bruce is only able to scratch the surface in some

The Old Testament books are written in many different literary styles such as historical, prophetic, or biographical. Between the Old and New Testaments there were four hundred years during which time books were not written. As the New Testament begins, it starts with four books commonly known as the Gospels. These gospels are a biography of the life and works of Jesus Christ himself. The remainder of the Bible contains mostly letters to various people and churches throughout Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. These are letters of encouragement to the early churches of the world and many Christians who may have been imprisoned or in captivity in several countries. Still one question that plagues the minds of several modern day Christians is, how did the modern day Bible come to be? The Old Testament had been decided upon long ago. Elders in the Jewish church met and decided 39 different books in all. These books had been written over the span of several centuries and became what is today known as the Old Testament. The New Testament was somewhat similar. During the time shortly after Jesus, there was controversy over the books that were truly from God and those that were not. The early church hierarchy settled this dispute during the second, third and fourth centuries. During this time, councils, consisting of church elders, met periodically to determine which books had true divine inspiration and which were frauds. In the mid-fourth century, the New

Evidence for OT and NT canonicity and tests for canonicity are for the OT canonicity is seen in “the Law” originating from the Old Testament in Law of Moses is seen as being “authoritative”. Examples of scripture that supports this are “1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 14:6 and Ezra 6:18”. These writings help justify the first five books of the Old Testament that Moses contributed in writing. Second “from the prophets” is another example of evidence seen where the prophets were inspired with the word from God. The gospels of Joshua, Chronicles, and Daniels are examples of supportive books in the gospel. Third example is “from Malachi 4:5” where the prophecy ends with Malachi and resumes with John the Baptist. Evidence for the NT is “quotations of the old testament to the new”, which shows “250 quotes from the old testament” being used. Second, “Matthew 5:17” shows the Law and the Prophets holding power as spoken by the Lord. Third, “Luke 11:51” the condemnation of Jewish leaders for murdering the Lord's messengers throughout time. The tests for canonicity are first “the test for authority” where the books of the canon were backed up by an authoritative prophet or apostle. Second, “the test for uniqueness” where evidence had to be unique to be placed in the canon. Third, “the test of acceptance by the churches”, where the books had to gain acceptance by the

In order to be declared acceptable to be included within the canon there are specific criteria that are considered for the Old Testament. One of the first questions asked by the curious reader is, “Who authored the Old Testament?” The easy and most appropriate answer to that important question is God. That is to say that the Bible is divinely inspired and is an important, the most important, criterion for acceptance into the canon (Detweiler, 1985).ne can look to 2 Timothy 3:16 for confirmation, “all of scripture is God-breathed’ (NIV). Evidence is found in scripture itself. For instance

The Bible canons of other religions may contain other books. These books may sometimes have different divisions or combinations. Other religious groups may include additional materials in their respective Bible canon. The Bible is not a singluar work. In fact, many Bibles exist each with differing contents.

[1] With all these various locations, facts, perspectives, identities, and languages that compile the Christian biblical text how can Christians know that the 27 books are the right 27 books? Again, the question of the canon, therefore, is at the very center of how biblical authority is established. [2] Even though the Bible has been established and authenticated for several centuries, the Christian community continues to circulate debate on the New Testament canon. In the introduction of the book (pp 15-24) Kruger states there are various reasons why this conversation is still happening. First, modern critical scholarship has continued to raise doubts about the authorship and date of numerous New Testament books, attributing them to later, pseudonymous authors. Throughout the text many of the models date the completed canon to the fourth century. Second, the later century and a half have been filled with sensational discoveries of apocryphal materials that have raised new questions about which books should be included in the canon. The discoveries of apocryphal gospels such as the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Thomas, the Secret gospel of Mark, and most recently, the Gospels of Judas have raised questions about the state of

Charles: Even though, much of what you said is true because many men were inspired by God and wrote down some of their thoughts that makes up Scripture. A good example is in John’s Gospel, who is one of the Twelve Apostles stated, “But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”(John 22:25). This shows that not all Jesus taught is contained in Sacred Scripture, as well as acknowledging that all they wrote came from His inspiration and not His command for the apostles to write it down. Therefore, showing that would have been impossible to write everything in the Bible.

Canon originally meant a rod or ruler for measuring objects, now it means the application to the books of the Bible. Canon becomes more and more important is because of the church needed. For example: standards for worship and models for prayers, liturgies, and sermons, reading material, a theological standard and a set text to translate. Heresy also plays a decisive role in the necessity of a canon. Around the year 144 Marcion an author from Rome had teachings that appeared to be Christian, but were actually teachings of a violent opponent of the evil deity of law who dominated the Old

Many scholars claim the New Testament is not reliable for many reasons. Some claim that the Bible is not reliably transmitted because it's like the telephone game. Others say that the Bible has been copied so many times there is no way it's accurate. When examining documents like the Bible, we can find out it's reliability by asking some fundamental questions. Was the document written close to the events it describes? Is the document able to be corroborated by multiple external sources? Has the document been reliably transmitted or copied? If we answer yes to these questions, we determine the document is reliable.

The fourth valid criterion is indifference. This principle states “material is more likely to be deemed historically reliable if its contents would have been a matter of relative indifference to the author of the source in which it is found.” A good example of this is found in Mark 6:3 when Jesus was identified to be a carpenter. This statement by the author of Mark’s Gospel is simply informative as a matter of indifference and does not appear to be particularly relevant in terms of theology. This method is also productive at excluding material. There are numerous contradictions found throughout the New Testament that could have been introduced in order to serve the purpose of the author. For instance, the books of Acts and Mark are quoted

We can’t really be expected to lump books like “The Quran”(632 CE), “Don Quixote”(1605 CE), and “The Hobbit”(1937) together, right? There should be a couple more words so we know what’s what. After a classic has stood the test of time and been praised for centuries it enters a new, much smaller, “group”; it’s now part of the canon. The greatest literary works humanity has ever written are included as part of the canon, like “The Epic of Gilgamesh”, “Hamlet”, and “Beowulf”. You could even go a step further, brining all religious texts into the most highly regarded and smallest “group” of all, The Testament. I know this might be a bit confusing; have a look at the chart below to visualize the different

The New Testament was canonized over a period of approximately four hundred years (Stotesberg). From AD 50-125, the books which in the end constitute the New Testament were written. Simultaneously, other books, which did not end up being included in the final canon, were produced. These books are the Epistle of Barnabas, the Didache, I Clement, the seven letters of Ignatius of Antioch, etc. (“Development of the Difficult Canon”). As more and more books were written, Christians realized that it was imperative that they gather and consolidate this material before it became lost. Sometime before AD 100, ten of Paul’s letters were gathered and combined into their own canon. The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) were combined to form another canon soon after the canonization of Paul’s letters. The Gospels and Paul’s letters became the main body of a new group of Scriptures that would soon become the New Testament. Soon Acts, I Peter, I John, and Revelation were inserted into this body of Scripture. Following this, the rest of the books were added to the New Testament (Barker).

During the early history of the church, there was no such thing as a New Testament “canon.” The selection of books that were to be included or excluded from the texts used by the church was the responsibility of each individual church body, and thus varied greatly from location to location. Because there was no canon – (books considered