Continuing my series on the Canon of Scripture (which books make up the Bible). Today I will briefly describe how the New Testament books were recognized by the church as being part of the canon.
First, the church did not decide what was “in” and what was “out.” They simply recognized which books came from God. Much like you don't decide who your mother is but learn to recognize her voice even from infancy. You learn that she is your mom because she feeds you and cares for you. In a similar way, there is a recognizing of the books that God had inspired to feed and care for his people.
Did the church decide which books were in?
First, the church did not decide what was “in” and what was “out.” They simply recognized which books came from God. Much like you don't decide who your mother is but learn to recognize her voice even from infancy. You learn that she is your mom because she feeds you and cares for you. In a similar way, there is a recognizing of the books that God had inspired to feed and care for his people.
So what were the character traits of the books that revealed them to be, in fact, God's Word?
If a book was from God it would be apostolic: written by an apostle or in his company. The word "Apostle," in the Greek, means "An official representative charged with a commission"*). Jesus called the apostles for this purpose- to testify about Him (see John 16:12-15). This is in keeping with the fact that God had his spokesman or ambassadors (ie. the prophets) in the Old Testament times too.A book from God would also be catholic: that is widely, if not universally, recognized by the churches as divine (not Roman Catholic). If it is the Word of the Father, then his children should, in general recognize it. To put it another way, since the churches all had the same shepherd, Jesus, and all his people would all listen for His voice, then they all should recognize it.
A third characteristic the churches would expect from a God inspired book was orthodoxy: not to be in contradiction to any book that is already in the canon. Since God does not lie and is powerful enough to oversee the writing of His Word, this makes sense.
How did the canonization take place?
The NT books began circulating** among the churches by A.D. 90 or 100 and were viewed as authoritative (Col. 4:16, 2 Peter 3:16). During the early years of the church that followed (post-NT), it became clear from the writings of the early church fathers that an implicit canon existed (they cited from books we now have in the NT as authoritative sources). By A.D. 367 we have all 27 books of our NT listed together in a letter by Athanasius (lists occur prior to this, but this is the first time the exact 27 we have in our NT are listed together). Two church councils in A.D. 393 and 397 recognized the 27 books as authoritative.Why not earlier?
Remember, that travel and communication was hard in the early centuries. Also, it took some time to see which books were accepted widely in the church. Third, remember that these books were all in use from the time they were written, but it was not until the late 300’s that a recognized list is compiled to show which books had proven inspired. Earlier than this, Eusebius (ca. A.D. 260-340) had already mentioned that there were books which were: 1. universally confessed, 2. some which were debated, and 3. others which were spurious (Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica 3.25.1-5).
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*[Myers, A. C. (1987). In The Eerdmans Bible dictionary (p. 67). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans."]
** They were written prior to that and being read in local churches. But by 90-100 they were actively on the move throughout many churches.
*[Myers, A. C. (1987). In The Eerdmans Bible dictionary (p. 67). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans."]
** They were written prior to that and being read in local churches. But by 90-100 they were actively on the move throughout many churches.
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