The Biblical Canon Of The Bible

Those readers who have attended Bible college or seminary will likely have used a New Testament or Old Testament introduction. Such books provide a survey of each book of the Bible, considering questions of date, authorship, occasion for writing, an outline and overview of the contents, and so forth. Such works, which are frequently academic in nature, typically give significant space to technical matters related to critical theories regarding date and authorship.

The process by which Scripture has been preserved and compiled is one whose history is worth noting. The early church had many opportunities to share the Good News of Christ via word of mouth, but from the time of Christ’s resurrection until the mid-second century, there had not been a single culmination of writings considered to be essential for the purposes of

Bruce offers a solid explanation of the formation of the canon chronologically starting with the Hebrew scriptures (p. 21) until the 4th century where church councils started to present the first spoken finished canon (p. 97). Bruce shows the importance of the Old Testament scriptures, but writes most about the New Testament. He not only shows how the New Testament came to be a canon but offers a deep analysis of non-canonical scripture called the Apocrypha (pp. 48, 90-93).

How the Old Testament is known today, it was composed of works from the first-century B.C.E. However, on the other hand the books themselves date back to later dates close to the eleventh centuries or even maybe earlier. [Source]

The Bible is a sacred book of scriptures that Christians and people of the Jewish faith believe is the written account of the word of God. Many different authors composed the works that make up the Bible. It is said that Jesus Christ is the son God who was sent to be the Lord and Savior of all people. Many Christians and Jewish people believe the Bible is the way of life. Those who believe and follow the beliefs of the Bible and God’s word will have eternal life if they accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. The Bible has been in print and given to others for hundreds of years. The first King James Bible was published back in the year 1611. Within the King James Version, it used to contain what are now known as the canons. A biblical canon is a set or series of related books. The canons, within the King James Version, these were called the books of the apocrypha. Apocrypha means ‘hide away’ in Greek. The apocrypha is a collection of books that were located in between the Old Testament and the New Testament. For over 270 years, the books of the apocrypha were published in the King James Version of the Bible.

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

As we move further into the research of this paper, defining some terms under the viewpoints of the selected authors is necessary. Millard Erickson defines inspiration as “that supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit upon the Scripture writers which rendered their writings an accurate record of the revelation or which resulted in what they wrote actually being the Word of God.” While inspiration primarily concerns the quality of the finished product rather than the process of that period of time in which the entirety of the Scriptures came into being, the divine-human authorship raises the tension as to how those Scriptures came into being. The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy states: “We affirm that inspiration, strictly speaking applies only to the autographic text of Scripture.” The leads to the question “What constitutes an autograph or the autographs?” In general, scholars use the term autographs to refer to the first or original copies of the biblical documents which is the material the author actually wrote himself. One customary definition of the term “autographa” in a theological discussion refers to the unchanging form of text whereby the original document is identical to the final canonical form of a given OT biblical book. Since canon involves the list of all books that belong in a bible or those reckoned as Holy Scriptures which

Michale J. Kruger is professor of New Testament and academic dean at Reformed Theological Seminary, is the author of the Gospels of the Savior, and the coauthor of Gospel Fragments and the Hersey of Orthodoxy. His research on the Christian origins has made him a trusted authority on the development of the New Testament canon. In Canon Revisited, Kruger looks deeper than the traditional surveys of councils and creeds, mining the biblical text itself for direction in understanding what the original authors and audiences believed the canon to be. While there are many interests, critiques, and approaches to understanding the biblical canon regarding authenticity, authority, and historicity in this text Michale Kruger takes on the problem of canon

There is much debate over the accuracy and the inerrancy of Scripture. Pertaining to this debate there exists an underlying question as to whether or not the New Testament is considered part of the canon or for that matter if it is actually given by the inspiration of God. How did the books that are in the New Testament get there? Who decided which books should be added or taken out? Do we have all the books that we should have? Many ask these questions, but Christians are ill equipped to give an answer. For centuries, Christians have claimed that they have the absolute truth, are saved only by faith, and claim the Scriptures as inspired by God. In spite of these

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

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

Generally, most biblical scholars agree that scripture’s authority is found in the sovereign God Himself; but their doctrinal positions differ from that point. Wisely enough, Wright avoids the “locked suitcase” melee on biblical inerrancy or biblical infallibility. Instead, he focused on God’s purpose for scripture and why it is demonstrably authoritative. Scriptures are not merely human books or collections of human opinion; they are books which contain God 's revelation of

In his book The Question of Canon, Michael Kruger disputes the overriding image in a good deal of modern-day biblical scholarship, which regards the concept of canon as something completely extraneous from early Christian religion and as merely an ecclesiastical production of the second through fourth centuries. While answering different tenets of this view; what he defines as the extrinsic model, Kruger proposes the merits of an mutually exclusive model, which he defines as the intrinsic model, which comprises “that the idea of Canon is not something imposed from the outside but develops more organically from within the early Christian religion itself”. (21) Kruger carefully surveys the extrinsic model by locating five of its major tenets and disclosing its major trouble. Each chapter critiques the extrinsic model and opens up the threshold for the intrinsic model.

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