New Testament Canon

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New Testament Canon

• Three Important Questions

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1. Why?

• Why was a canon needed?
• 1. Christianity, like Judaism was monotheistic.
• 2. The canon of Marcion-Bruce ch. 9
• 3. The reading of the texts in worship.
• 4. The persecution for withholding holy
  books-Bruce pp. 216-17

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Who?

• Who formed the canon?
• 1. The first formal list of what today are the
  27 canonical books comes from the pen of
  Athanasius in 367 A. D.-Bruce, pp. 208-9
• 2. This does not mean that he is the one who
  formed the canon or finalized the canon.
• 3. The books were canonical because they were
  inspired. No one made them cannonical.

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How?

• How were the books recognized as being canonical?
• This is one of the most difficult questions in
  evangelical theology.
• It has been met with a number of different
  answers, as well as often being met with silence.

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Evangelical Answers to How?

• 1. B.B. Warfield
• Warfield argued that the primary criterion was
  that of apostolicity.- cf. Bruce, 256-8
• He stressed that apostolicity was somewhat wider
  than strictly apostolic authorship.
• Thus there were some books that were not written
  by apostles but were under apostolic sanction.

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Warfield, Cont.

• Gods authoritative agents in founding the church
  gave them as authoritative to the church which
  they founded
• Warfield took up the most difficult case the
  book of 2 Peter
• He then dealt with the most serious objections to
  the canonicity of 2 Peter.

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• The objections Warfield dealt with were six.
• (1) Peters name was frequently forged in the
  ancient church.
• (2) The external support of 2 Peter is
  insufficient.
• (3) The epistle plainly has borrowed largely
  from Jude, which by some was judged unworthy of
  an apostle, while others held this to be a proof
  that 2 Peter belongs to the second century, due
  to the assumed lack of genuineness of Jude.
• (4) The author exhibits too great a desire to
  make himself out to be Peter.
• (5) The author betrays that he wrote in a later
  time by numerous anachronisms.
• (6) The style of 2 Peter is too divergent from
  that of 1 Peter to have been written by the same
  individual

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Warfield, Cont.

• Warfield then showed that the evidence was
  nowhere near strong enough to overturn the
  presumption in favor of the truth of 2 Peter.
• However, even his colleague and friend at
  Princeton, Francis Landy Patton, in eulogizing
  Warfield noted that the rationalism of Warfields
  system of logic was built upon probability which
  precluded the absolute certainty of his
  conclusions.

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Evangelical Answers to How?

• 2. R. Laird Harris
• Harris painstakingly demonstrates that the
  crucial question for the early church was, Was
  the work written by an apostle?
• Harris states We are reminded of Tertullians
  use of the phrase apostolic men, referring to
  Mark and Luke. In both cases it should be noted
  that these are not mere companions of the
  apostles but are, as it were, assistants,
  understudies, who reproduced their masters
  teachings.

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Harris, Cont.

• Harris sees Hebrews as written by Paul and
  translated by Luke, or with Barnabus as his
  amanuensis.
• He also states that there may have been other
  books which were written by an amanuensis.

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Evangelical Answers to How?

• 3. Geisler and Nix
• They propose five principles
• The first of these principles is that of
  authority.
• The second test for canonicity was that of the
  prophetic nature of the book.
• The third test for canonicity which Geisler and
  Nix contend was operational in the early church
  was that of authenticity

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Geisler, Cont.

• The fourth test was one of power.
• The fifth and final test was its reception Was
  it generally accepted by the orthodox church?
• The problems with these criteria is that none of
  them seem to have been used by the early church.

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What Should We Think?

• The starting point of canonicity must be a
  recognition that at the most basic level it is
  the risen Lord Himself who is ultimately the
  canon of His church.
• A proposed threefold program for determination of
  the canon

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3 Fold Program

• Note that the criteria get more significant and
  more important.
• 1. The Testimony of the Church.
• 2. The character of the Scriptures themselves.
• 3. The witness of the Holy Spirit.
• To the particular writing
• By the writing to assure the church
• That the writing was part of the whole of
  Scripture

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Conclusion

• This does not solve all of your problems or
  answer all of your questions.
• What other ways might you see to answer the
  question of canonicity?