February 22, 2025 • 26 mins
Have you ever wondered how the Bible, the cornerstone of the Christian faith, was formed and recognized as divine Scripture? This episode promises to uncover the true meaning of the term "canon" and dispel popular myths about how the books of the Bible were chosen. Tune in to gain a profound understanding of the Bible's formation and its lasting impact on the Christian faith.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Faithfully Living, the Podcast where we
learn how to live for Christ inour daily lives.
I am Dwan, your host, and Iwould like to invite you on a
journey with me to explore andlearn how to be a faithful
follower of Christ.
Hey everyone, welcome toFaithfully Living, the Podcast,
(00:26):
where we strive to encourage youto live for Christ faithfully.
We're offering guidance onstudying the Bible, how to
understand the Bible better andhow to remain faithful to
historic Christianity in acontemporary society.
In today's episode, we will beexploring the canon of Scripture
.
So here are some scriptures foryou.
(00:47):
2 Timothy tells us allscripture is inspired by God and
is useful to teach us what istrue and to make us realize what
is wrong in our lives.
It corrects us when we arewrong and teaches us to do what
is right.
God uses it to prepare andequip his people to do every
(01:10):
good work.
2 Peter 1 20-21 says Above all,you must realize that no
prophecy in scripture ever camefrom the prophet's own
understanding or from humaninitiative.
No, no, these prophets weremoved by the holy spirit and
they spake, and they spoke fromgod.
So these so there have been,you know, some stories that have
(01:35):
fultoned around about how thebooks of the bible came to be,
and it has been said that youknow people from the early
church, or the Pope or theEmperor, or church council
selected the books that we havein the Bible.
So we are going to explore howwe got the Bible we have today,
(01:58):
and we should keep it at the topof mind that the Bible is a God
inspired Bible.
God used humans to produce whatwe have now.
All right, first let's defineterms, as always.
So let's define canon.
The term canon comes from aGreek word meaning standard or
(02:21):
rule.
It says canonical books of theBible are those regarded by
Christians as the standard orrule of the faith, of the faith
Define a written authority inall matters of faith and
practices.
And that was a definition fromUrban Legends of Christian
(02:42):
History, and they kind ofcontinue in that book as a quote
.
That also says it is importantto emphasize that a book of the
Bible is not deemed canonicalbecause it measured up to some
outside standard or rule set bythe church.
Rather, a book of the Bible isdeemed canonical because it is
(03:03):
in itself the standard and rulefor the church.
The church did not decree thebooks of the Bible to be
canonical.
Rather, the church received thebooks of the Bible as canonical
, all right.
So how and when was the canonof the Bible put together?
(03:23):
How and when was the canon ofthe Bible put together?
Let me recap and say that youknow, we have to remember that
it was God who decided whatbooks belonged in the canon, and
the books of the Bible was andis considered scripture from the
moment God inspired the authorsto write it.
(03:44):
It was a matter.
God gave humans insight to knowwhich books they were.
So also another quote fromurban legends of christian
history.
It says no church council ifinfluential pope, ecclesiastical
body or even powerful emperor,emperor selected the books of
(04:05):
the Bible, either the OldTestament or the New, and there
is no record of church followersor councils sorting through
dozens of books to select thebooks of the Bible.
Criteria such as antiquity,apostasy, apostolicity and
(04:25):
orthodoxy were sometimes used tosettle doubts or disputes about
the status of a small handfulof books or to explain why
certain books had always beenreceived as canonical and why
others had not, but they werenever used to test to determine
the canon from scratch.
So it's important to rememberthat the books of the Bible that
(04:50):
we have now, like they said, nopope or church council had a
whole meeting about okay, thesebooks are going to be in the
Bible.
What they did was they used astandard by which you know there
were some disputes or doubts bycertain about certain books
(05:12):
that they used to recognize thebooks of the bible that we have
now.
So to continue, they say it'simportant to look and this is
from a quote that I got from thebook how we got the bible.
It says there is a differencebetween the candidacy of a book
(05:35):
and the authority of that book.
A book's candidacy depends onits authority.
When paul, for, for example,writes to the Corinthians, his
letter is to be acknowledged aspossessing divine authority.
This letter had authority fromthe moment he wrote it, yet it
could not be referred to ascanonical until it was received
(06:00):
in a list of accepted writingsform sometime later.
At a later time it was acceptedas canonical because of its
inert authority.
The book first has divineauthority based on its
inspiration, and then attainscandidacy due to its general
(06:20):
acceptance as a divine product.
No church, canceled by itsdecrees, can make the book of
the Bible authoritative.
The books of the Bible possesstheir own authority and indeed
had its authority long beforethere are any councils of the
church.
So the process of determiningthe canon was conducted by
(06:46):
Jewish rabbis and scholars andand then the early church.
So they recognized the books ofthe Bible that were already
authoritative.
All right, so let's look at theOld Testament.
(07:09):
Because rabbis and Hebrewscholars recognized God's
messages and accepted theirwritings as as inspired by God,
and by AD 250 there was nearlyuniversal agreement on the canon
of the Hebrew scriptures, whichis the Old Testament.
(07:30):
So another reference from howwe, from the book, how we Got
the bible.
It says good evidence exists inthe new testament which shows
that by the time, by the time ofjesus, the canon of the old
covenant covenant had been fixed.
It can't be questioned thatjesus and his apostles, time
after time, quoted from adistinctive body of
(07:53):
authoritative writings.
They designated them asscripture, the scriptures, the
holy scriptures, the sacredwritings and so forth.
They often introduced theirquotations with it is written,
that is, it stands firmlywritten and is undisputably true
.
Jesus himself gave us someclear indications about the
(08:16):
extent of the Old Testamentcanon when applying the
scriptures and their fulfillmentto himself.
He speaks of the law of Mosesand the prophets and the Psalms.
This threefold division isundoubtedly equivalent to the
three divisions of the Hebrewscriptures the law, the prophets
(08:36):
and the writing.
So to continue from how we gotthe Bible, they say, we should
keep in mind that the Jewishorder of the Old Testament
differs from ours, thatChronicles is placed at the end
of the Hebrew Bible hours, thatchronicles is placed at the end
(08:58):
of the hebrew bible.
Though the old testament jesusknew was a collection of
writings reaching from genesis,chronicles and all other books
in between.
It was a collection thatembraced the same books that are
in our old testament today.
They go on to list the divisionsof the Hebrew Bible.
So it says the Hebrew canoncontains three divisions the law
(09:21):
, the prophets, the writings.
So the law consisted of thebooks of Moses.
The prophets were divided intothe former prophets and the
latter prophets, thesecontaining four books.
So they put the former prophetscontain Joshua, Judges, samuel
and Kings, and first and secondKings were considered one book.
(09:42):
Then you have the latterprophets, which consisted of
Isaiah, jeremiah, ezekiel andthe 12, what we call 12 minor
prophets.
So in the Hebrew canon the 12minor prophets were placed
together and referred as thebook of 12.
They also go on to say thatchristians usually listed joshua
(10:02):
, judges, samuel and kings amongthe historical, historical
books of the old testament.
The jews thought of theirhistory as prophetic history, so
so they classified these booksunder the prophets, and then
they had the third division.
(10:23):
The writings included the restof the books of the Old
Testament into three poeticalbooks Psalms, proverbs, job, and
then the five roles thatcontain Song of Songs, ruth,
lamentations, ecclesiastes,esther, and then the three
(10:49):
historical books, daniel, ezra,nehemiah and Chronicles.
Daniel, ezra, nehemiah andChronicles.
A quick count shows that thebooks of the Hebrew canon total
24.
So this includes all of the 39books that we have in our Old
Testament today.
(11:12):
Josephus, the prominent Jewishhistorian of the first century
of the Christian era.
He speaks of only 22 books intheir sacred scriptures, and
perhaps this is because therewere 22 letters in the Hebrew
alphabet.
This number is achieved bycombining Ruth and Judges, and
then Lamentations and Jeremiah.
So the Hebrew scriptures thatwe have today, which is the 39
(11:35):
books.
The order of the ancient Hebrewcanon is preserved, beginning
with Genesis and then endingwith 2 Chronicles.
The confirmation of the numberof books accepted by Josephus
comes from early Christianwriters, such as Arden, jerome,
(11:59):
in the 3rd century AD Ardencounts 22 books of the Old
Testament.
And then, by the end of the 4thcentury, jerome staunchly
maintains the number of thebooks of the Hebrew Old
Testament must not be no morethan 22.
And he can't admit any otherbooks because they were not in
(12:21):
the Hebrew canon.
So the Council of Gemna, aboutAD 19, the rabbis have fixedly
fixed the limits of the Hebrewcanon.
To fix the limits of the Hebrewcanon, included were the 39
(12:42):
books of the present HebrewBible and then divided into the
law, prophets and then thewritings.
The rabbis, when they say fix,is that they recognized the
books according to what theyknew from history.
All right now moving on to the,the new testament.
(13:05):
So during the first centuriesof the christian church, the
process of recognizing the newtestament begins from the book.
How we got the bible, it says,is evidence then, and not long
after the close of the apostateage, the new testament writings
(13:26):
were being read generally amongchurches.
Regarding the New Testament wehave a much clearer picture
because the first centuryapostles and prophets were
teaching and writing from theirGod-given authority as the
foundations of the church.
Their official writings carriedabsolute authority among their
(13:49):
recipients.
Writings such as Matthew,romans or 1 Thessalonians were
written, sent to churches andreceived by them as apostolic
and prophetic.
These recipients would haveimmediately treated these
writings as authoritative, thatis, as canonical, canonical in
(14:21):
scripture.
We see that paul consideredluke's writings to be
authoritative as the oldtestament.
And then you have writings ofpeter recognizing that paul's
writings as scripture.
We can see that in second peter3, 15 through 16, and then some
of the books of the newtestament were circulated among
(14:42):
various churches, likecolossians, and you can, you can
see the reference for that incolossians 4, 16 and in first
thessalonians 5, 27.
All right, so you see howscripture gives us a path, of
how it recognizes that scriptureis being authoritative.
(15:06):
So then you have early churchleaders such as Clement of Rome
to mention at least eight NewTestament books.
In AD 95.
You got Polycarp, who was adisciple of John the Apostle.
He acknowledged 15 of the books.
(15:27):
Ignitus of Antioch acknowledgedabout seven books and then
later Irenaeus mentioned 21books, hippotas recognized 22
and then the New Testament booksreceived the most controversy
were Hebrews James, 2 Peter, 2John and then 3rd John In the
(15:54):
book Urban Legends of ChristianHistory they say that by the end
of the 2nd century, just 100years after the close of the
apostolic period, the discipleof Polycarp, ignorance of Loins,
wrote a series of books againstthe heresies, threatened the
(16:16):
church of his day and throughoutthese books he quoted from or
alluded to all of the writingsof the New Testament, with the
exceptions of, like I say, james, jude, 3rd John, philemon and
perhaps 2nd Peter and Hebrews.
So you got Ignatius, polycarpand Eramus are just a few of the
(16:41):
many 2nd century writers whoevidenced that the New Testament
books were authoritative amongthe church.
And then, in the 3rd century,when I was reading in the book
how we Got the Bible, it saysArjun added his witness to the
(17:01):
New Testament books.
Arjun, you know, only knowsfour gospels and listed them in
order Matthew, mark, luke andJohn in his comment, and he
commented about each of them.
And he commented about each ofthem, otherwise he undoubtedly
(17:25):
accepts Acts, and then the 13letters of Paul, 1, peter, 1,
john, jude, and then Revelationsand then other books such as
Hebrews, james 2, peter 2 and 3and John.
It says that Origen washesitant.
It says that origin washesitant but because he was a
prolific writer, his views aboutrecognizing various books
changed, and you know it'simportant to keep in mind that
his new testament of the thirdcentury looks very much like the
(17:50):
new testament that we had today.
All right, then, when we getdown to the fourth century, all
of these matters are pretty well, you know, brought to a
conclusion.
The testimony on the canon byisobus was, who was a great
church historian is important,but you know, it doesn't bring
(18:12):
us further along.
Itzibeth distinguishes threecategories of books those that
are universally acknowledged,those that were disputed and
then those that were rejected.
The books acknowledged by allwere the four Gospels, acts, 14,
letters of Paul, 1 John, 1Peter and then Revelation, john,
(18:33):
1 Peter and then Revelation.
And then the disputed bookswere James, jude, 2 Peter and
then 2 and 3 John, but thesewere recognized by the majority.
And then, by the time you getdown to AD In 367, you have
Athanasius of Alexandria, whopublished a list of 27 books of
(18:59):
the New Testament that wereaccepted in his time, and these
are the same 27 books that arerecognized today.
So there are more discussions onthe canon.
That would continue.
Discussions on the canon thatwould continue, but by this time
the general consensus had beenreached and the bible had grown
in relative proportion to hisdivine revelation, gradually,
(19:23):
and his books likewise weregradually assumed the role which
they were innatelyauthoritative, demanded.
And then that's how we get downto first the bible showing or
telling us that scripture,recognizing scripture within
scripture.
Then we have church fathers whoare just confirming the books
(19:47):
that were generally recognizedby people as authoritative
because they knew the apostlesand they knew that their
writings were divinely inspired.
So then there are a number ofcouncils that recognize books of
(20:07):
the Old Testament, such as inAD 363, the council of Laodicea
stated that only the OldTestament, along with one book
of the Apocrypha and then 26books of the New Testament
everything but Revelation werecanonical and to be read in
churches of Hippo.
(20:31):
In AD 393, the Council ofCarthage in 397, also affirmed
the same 27 books asauthoritative.
So these councils followedcertain principles, determined
whether a book was inspired bythe Holy Spirit, and then just
(20:52):
remember, remember, thesecouncils aren't picking these
books, they are just recognizingthem as authoritative.
So here's the principles tohelp them recognize it as
authoritative.
So one was the author andapostle are a close connection
with apostle was the book.
(21:13):
Two, was the book beingaccepted by the body of Christ
at large.
Three, did the book containconsistency of doctrine and
orthodox teaching?
And then, number four the bookbear evidence of high moral and
spiritual values that wouldreflect the work of the Holy
Spirit.
(21:33):
So, like I say one thing, tokeep in mind that we should see
these councils they didn't havethe final say as to what book
were in the New Testament youhave to remember that God, in
his sovereignty, gave people inthese councils insight to
recognize which books God hadinspired as his word, to
(21:53):
recognize which books God hadinspired as his word.
All right, so let's wrap up andkind of summarize.
And I was reading this bookcalled God Breathe by Joss
McDowell and he kind ofsummarized.
It summarized the canon ofscripture rather well.
(22:15):
So I'm just going to read somequotes from his book God Breathe
.
He says the church of thefourth century recognized the
authority of the apostles'writings because they sensed
they were from God and that thesupernatural power of God's
spirit enveloped each word.
It was as if God had breathedeach word personally to them.
(22:37):
But they also relied on theinsights and counsel of the
church leaders who had livedduring the time of the disciples
, these church fathers, as theycame to be called, including
authoritative figures such asClement of Rome, ignatius and
Polycarp.
These men had known theapostles and wrote extensively
(23:00):
confirming the authenticity andauthority of the apostles'
writing.
This reinforced to the earlychurch that what the apostles
had written was truly from God.
And then it also goes on to sayremember even the apostle Peter
, who wrote his second letterprior to AD 64, confirmed that
(23:26):
the letters of Paul to thechurches belong in the category
of scripture.
He indicated this in 2 Peter, 3, 15-16.
Though there was no official NewTestament during these early
years of the church, by the timethe last apostle John died,
around AD 100, there wasconsistent recognition among
(23:51):
Christ followers that the 27books we now know as the new
testament were true and in aninspired word of god.
So you, so there are beliefthat the church council decided,
church councils decided whatbooks are in our bible today.
(24:12):
But we should know that nowthat no person, organization or
group determined which lettersor writings of the apostles were
to be granted the status ofscripture.
Rather, individuals, and mostnotably the early church
throughout the known worldrecognized or discovered which
(24:34):
books were God-breathed fromtheir very inception.
In other words, no group gave aparticular writing their
authority of being scripture.
The writing themselves, throughthe power of the Holy Spirit,
made it clear that God haddivinely appointed them as
scripture.
And then it goes on.
At the end he says remember,councils didn't authorize which
(24:55):
writings were God-breathed works.
Rather, they recognized thatthese writings were authorized
by God himself.
All right, so I hope this topicon the canon of scripture was
insightful, as I did.
(25:16):
You know, it's important tounderstand the history of our
faith and then dispel some ofthe myth that surrounds.
It allowed people throughouthistory to recognize his
(25:36):
writings, that he allowed theapostles and the prophets to
write, to recognize that thesewere his writings.
And I think it's important thatwe should keep that in the back
of our minds, our mindsrealizing that it humans did not
(25:59):
select, each did not go in theback room and select which books
of which books should be in ourbible today.
It it was a god thing.
So that's one thing we have toremember.
All right until next time.
Remember god is always good andhe's always safe.
Thank you for listening to thepodcast.
Do me a favor by following thepodcast and leaving a review to
help spread the word.
(26:20):
I look forward to hearing fromyou.
Welcome to Faithfully Living, the Podcast where we
learn how to live for Christ inour daily lives.
I am Dwan, your host, and Iwould like to invite you on a
journey with me to explore andlearn how to be a faithful
follower of Christ.
Hey everyone, welcome toFaithfully Living, the Podcast,
(00:26):
where we strive to encourage youto live for Christ faithfully.
We're offering guidance onstudying the Bible, how to
understand the Bible better andhow to remain faithful to
historic Christianity in acontemporary society.
In today's episode, we will beexploring the canon of Scripture
.
So here are some scriptures foryou.
(00:47):
2 Timothy tells us allscripture is inspired by God and
is useful to teach us what istrue and to make us realize what
is wrong in our lives.
It corrects us when we arewrong and teaches us to do what
is right.
God uses it to prepare andequip his people to do every
(01:10):
good work.
2 Peter 1 20-21 says Above all,you must realize that no
prophecy in scripture ever camefrom the prophet's own
understanding or from humaninitiative.
No, no, these prophets weremoved by the holy spirit and
they spake, and they spoke fromgod.
So these so there have been,you know, some stories that have
(01:35):
fultoned around about how thebooks of the bible came to be,
and it has been said that youknow people from the early
church, or the Pope or theEmperor, or church council
selected the books that we havein the Bible.
So we are going to explore howwe got the Bible we have today,
(01:58):
and we should keep it at the topof mind that the Bible is a God
inspired Bible.
God used humans to produce whatwe have now.
All right, first let's defineterms, as always.
So let's define canon.
The term canon comes from aGreek word meaning standard or
(02:21):
rule.
It says canonical books of theBible are those regarded by
Christians as the standard orrule of the faith, of the faith
Define a written authority inall matters of faith and
practices.
And that was a definition fromUrban Legends of Christian
(02:42):
History, and they kind ofcontinue in that book as a quote
.
That also says it is importantto emphasize that a book of the
Bible is not deemed canonicalbecause it measured up to some
outside standard or rule set bythe church.
Rather, a book of the Bible isdeemed canonical because it is
(03:03):
in itself the standard and rulefor the church.
The church did not decree thebooks of the Bible to be
canonical.
Rather, the church received thebooks of the Bible as canonical
, all right.
So how and when was the canonof the Bible put together?
(03:23):
How and when was the canon ofthe Bible put together?
Let me recap and say that youknow, we have to remember that
it was God who decided whatbooks belonged in the canon, and
the books of the Bible was andis considered scripture from the
moment God inspired the authorsto write it.
(03:44):
It was a matter.
God gave humans insight to knowwhich books they were.
So also another quote fromurban legends of christian
history.
It says no church council ifinfluential pope, ecclesiastical
body or even powerful emperor,emperor selected the books of
(04:05):
the Bible, either the OldTestament or the New, and there
is no record of church followersor councils sorting through
dozens of books to select thebooks of the Bible.
Criteria such as antiquity,apostasy, apostolicity and
(04:25):
orthodoxy were sometimes used tosettle doubts or disputes about
the status of a small handfulof books or to explain why
certain books had always beenreceived as canonical and why
others had not, but they werenever used to test to determine
the canon from scratch.
So it's important to rememberthat the books of the Bible that
(04:50):
we have now, like they said, nopope or church council had a
whole meeting about okay, thesebooks are going to be in the
Bible.
What they did was they used astandard by which you know there
were some disputes or doubts bycertain about certain books
(05:12):
that they used to recognize thebooks of the bible that we have
now.
So to continue, they say it'simportant to look and this is
from a quote that I got from thebook how we got the bible.
It says there is a differencebetween the candidacy of a book
(05:35):
and the authority of that book.
A book's candidacy depends onits authority.
When paul, for, for example,writes to the Corinthians, his
letter is to be acknowledged aspossessing divine authority.
This letter had authority fromthe moment he wrote it, yet it
could not be referred to ascanonical until it was received
(06:00):
in a list of accepted writingsform sometime later.
At a later time it was acceptedas canonical because of its
inert authority.
The book first has divineauthority based on its
inspiration, and then attainscandidacy due to its general
(06:20):
acceptance as a divine product.
No church, canceled by itsdecrees, can make the book of
the Bible authoritative.
The books of the Bible possesstheir own authority and indeed
had its authority long beforethere are any councils of the
church.
So the process of determiningthe canon was conducted by
(06:46):
Jewish rabbis and scholars andand then the early church.
So they recognized the books ofthe Bible that were already
authoritative.
All right, so let's look at theOld Testament.
(07:09):
Because rabbis and Hebrewscholars recognized God's
messages and accepted theirwritings as as inspired by God,
and by AD 250 there was nearlyuniversal agreement on the canon
of the Hebrew scriptures, whichis the Old Testament.
(07:30):
So another reference from howwe, from the book, how we Got
the bible.
It says good evidence exists inthe new testament which shows
that by the time, by the time ofjesus, the canon of the old
covenant covenant had been fixed.
It can't be questioned thatjesus and his apostles, time
after time, quoted from adistinctive body of
(07:53):
authoritative writings.
They designated them asscripture, the scriptures, the
holy scriptures, the sacredwritings and so forth.
They often introduced theirquotations with it is written,
that is, it stands firmlywritten and is undisputably true
.
Jesus himself gave us someclear indications about the
(08:16):
extent of the Old Testamentcanon when applying the
scriptures and their fulfillmentto himself.
He speaks of the law of Mosesand the prophets and the Psalms.
This threefold division isundoubtedly equivalent to the
three divisions of the Hebrewscriptures the law, the prophets
(08:36):
and the writing.
So to continue from how we gotthe Bible, they say, we should
keep in mind that the Jewishorder of the Old Testament
differs from ours, thatChronicles is placed at the end
of the Hebrew Bible hours, thatchronicles is placed at the end
(08:58):
of the hebrew bible.
Though the old testament jesusknew was a collection of
writings reaching from genesis,chronicles and all other books
in between.
It was a collection thatembraced the same books that are
in our old testament today.
They go on to list the divisionsof the Hebrew Bible.
So it says the Hebrew canoncontains three divisions the law
(09:21):
, the prophets, the writings.
So the law consisted of thebooks of Moses.
The prophets were divided intothe former prophets and the
latter prophets, thesecontaining four books.
So they put the former prophetscontain Joshua, Judges, samuel
and Kings, and first and secondKings were considered one book.
(09:42):
Then you have the latterprophets, which consisted of
Isaiah, jeremiah, ezekiel andthe 12, what we call 12 minor
prophets.
So in the Hebrew canon the 12minor prophets were placed
together and referred as thebook of 12.
They also go on to say thatchristians usually listed joshua
(10:02):
, judges, samuel and kings amongthe historical, historical
books of the old testament.
The jews thought of theirhistory as prophetic history, so
so they classified these booksunder the prophets, and then
they had the third division.
(10:23):
The writings included the restof the books of the Old
Testament into three poeticalbooks Psalms, proverbs, job, and
then the five roles thatcontain Song of Songs, ruth,
lamentations, ecclesiastes,esther, and then the three
(10:49):
historical books, daniel, ezra,nehemiah and Chronicles.
Daniel, ezra, nehemiah andChronicles.
A quick count shows that thebooks of the Hebrew canon total
24.
So this includes all of the 39books that we have in our Old
Testament today.
(11:12):
Josephus, the prominent Jewishhistorian of the first century
of the Christian era.
He speaks of only 22 books intheir sacred scriptures, and
perhaps this is because therewere 22 letters in the Hebrew
alphabet.
This number is achieved bycombining Ruth and Judges, and
then Lamentations and Jeremiah.
So the Hebrew scriptures thatwe have today, which is the 39
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books.
The order of the ancient Hebrewcanon is preserved, beginning
with Genesis and then endingwith 2 Chronicles.
The confirmation of the numberof books accepted by Josephus
comes from early Christianwriters, such as Arden, jerome,
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in the 3rd century AD Ardencounts 22 books of the Old
Testament.
And then, by the end of the 4thcentury, jerome staunchly
maintains the number of thebooks of the Hebrew Old
Testament must not be no morethan 22.
And he can't admit any otherbooks because they were not in
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the Hebrew canon.
So the Council of Gemna, aboutAD 19, the rabbis have fixedly
fixed the limits of the Hebrewcanon.
To fix the limits of the Hebrewcanon, included were the 39
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books of the present HebrewBible and then divided into the
law, prophets and then thewritings.
The rabbis, when they say fix,is that they recognized the
books according to what theyknew from history.
All right now moving on to the,the new testament.
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So during the first centuriesof the christian church, the
process of recognizing the newtestament begins from the book.
How we got the bible, it says,is evidence then, and not long
after the close of the apostateage, the new testament writings
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were being read generally amongchurches.
Regarding the New Testament wehave a much clearer picture
because the first centuryapostles and prophets were
teaching and writing from theirGod-given authority as the
foundations of the church.
Their official writings carriedabsolute authority among their
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recipients.
Writings such as Matthew,romans or 1 Thessalonians were
written, sent to churches andreceived by them as apostolic
and prophetic.
These recipients would haveimmediately treated these
writings as authoritative, thatis, as canonical, canonical in
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scripture.
We see that paul consideredluke's writings to be
authoritative as the oldtestament.
And then you have writings ofpeter recognizing that paul's
writings as scripture.
We can see that in second peter3, 15 through 16, and then some
of the books of the newtestament were circulated among
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various churches, likecolossians, and you can, you can
see the reference for that incolossians 4, 16 and in first
thessalonians 5, 27.
All right, so you see howscripture gives us a path, of
how it recognizes that scriptureis being authoritative.
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So then you have early churchleaders such as Clement of Rome
to mention at least eight NewTestament books.
In AD 95.
You got Polycarp, who was adisciple of John the Apostle.
He acknowledged 15 of the books.
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Ignitus of Antioch acknowledgedabout seven books and then
later Irenaeus mentioned 21books, hippotas recognized 22
and then the New Testament booksreceived the most controversy
were Hebrews James, 2 Peter, 2John and then 3rd John In the
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book Urban Legends of ChristianHistory they say that by the end
of the 2nd century, just 100years after the close of the
apostolic period, the discipleof Polycarp, ignorance of Loins,
wrote a series of books againstthe heresies, threatened the
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church of his day and throughoutthese books he quoted from or
alluded to all of the writingsof the New Testament, with the
exceptions of, like I say, james, jude, 3rd John, philemon and
perhaps 2nd Peter and Hebrews.
So you got Ignatius, polycarpand Eramus are just a few of the
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many 2nd century writers whoevidenced that the New Testament
books were authoritative amongthe church.
And then, in the 3rd century,when I was reading in the book
how we Got the Bible, it saysArjun added his witness to the
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New Testament books.
Arjun, you know, only knowsfour gospels and listed them in
order Matthew, mark, luke andJohn in his comment, and he
commented about each of them.
And he commented about each ofthem, otherwise he undoubtedly
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accepts Acts, and then the 13letters of Paul, 1, peter, 1,
john, jude, and then Revelationsand then other books such as
Hebrews, james 2, peter 2 and 3and John.
It says that Origen washesitant.
It says that origin washesitant but because he was a
prolific writer, his views aboutrecognizing various books
changed, and you know it'simportant to keep in mind that
his new testament of the thirdcentury looks very much like the
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new testament that we had today.
All right, then, when we getdown to the fourth century, all
of these matters are pretty well, you know, brought to a
conclusion.
The testimony on the canon byisobus was, who was a great
church historian is important,but you know, it doesn't bring
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us further along.
Itzibeth distinguishes threecategories of books those that
are universally acknowledged,those that were disputed and
then those that were rejected.
The books acknowledged by allwere the four Gospels, acts, 14,
letters of Paul, 1 John, 1Peter and then Revelation, john,
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1 Peter and then Revelation.
And then the disputed bookswere James, jude, 2 Peter and
then 2 and 3 John, but thesewere recognized by the majority.
And then, by the time you getdown to AD In 367, you have
Athanasius of Alexandria, whopublished a list of 27 books of
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the New Testament that wereaccepted in his time, and these
are the same 27 books that arerecognized today.
So there are more discussions onthe canon.
That would continue.
Discussions on the canon thatwould continue, but by this time
the general consensus had beenreached and the bible had grown
in relative proportion to hisdivine revelation, gradually,
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and his books likewise weregradually assumed the role which
they were innatelyauthoritative, demanded.
And then that's how we get downto first the bible showing or
telling us that scripture,recognizing scripture within
scripture.
Then we have church fathers whoare just confirming the books
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that were generally recognizedby people as authoritative
because they knew the apostlesand they knew that their
writings were divinely inspired.
So then there are a number ofcouncils that recognize books of
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the Old Testament, such as inAD 363, the council of Laodicea
stated that only the OldTestament, along with one book
of the Apocrypha and then 26books of the New Testament
everything but Revelation werecanonical and to be read in
churches of Hippo.
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In AD 393, the Council ofCarthage in 397, also affirmed
the same 27 books asauthoritative.
So these councils followedcertain principles, determined
whether a book was inspired bythe Holy Spirit, and then just
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remember, remember, thesecouncils aren't picking these
books, they are just recognizingthem as authoritative.
So here's the principles tohelp them recognize it as
authoritative.
So one was the author andapostle are a close connection
with apostle was the book.
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Two, was the book beingaccepted by the body of Christ
at large.
Three, did the book containconsistency of doctrine and
orthodox teaching?
And then, number four the bookbear evidence of high moral and
spiritual values that wouldreflect the work of the Holy
Spirit.
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So, like I say one thing, tokeep in mind that we should see
these councils they didn't havethe final say as to what book
were in the New Testament youhave to remember that God, in
his sovereignty, gave people inthese councils insight to
recognize which books God hadinspired as his word, to
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recognize which books God hadinspired as his word.
All right, so let's wrap up andkind of summarize.
And I was reading this bookcalled God Breathe by Joss
McDowell and he kind ofsummarized.
It summarized the canon ofscripture rather well.
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So I'm just going to read somequotes from his book God Breathe
.
He says the church of thefourth century recognized the
authority of the apostles'writings because they sensed
they were from God and that thesupernatural power of God's
spirit enveloped each word.
It was as if God had breathedeach word personally to them.
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But they also relied on theinsights and counsel of the
church leaders who had livedduring the time of the disciples
, these church fathers, as theycame to be called, including
authoritative figures such asClement of Rome, ignatius and
Polycarp.
These men had known theapostles and wrote extensively
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confirming the authenticity andauthority of the apostles'
writing.
This reinforced to the earlychurch that what the apostles
had written was truly from God.
And then it also goes on to sayremember even the apostle Peter
, who wrote his second letterprior to AD 64, confirmed that
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the letters of Paul to thechurches belong in the category
of scripture.
He indicated this in 2 Peter, 3, 15-16.
Though there was no official NewTestament during these early
years of the church, by the timethe last apostle John died,
around AD 100, there wasconsistent recognition among
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Christ followers that the 27books we now know as the new
testament were true and in aninspired word of god.
So you, so there are beliefthat the church council decided,
church councils decided whatbooks are in our bible today.
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But we should know that nowthat no person, organization or
group determined which lettersor writings of the apostles were
to be granted the status ofscripture.
Rather, individuals, and mostnotably the early church
throughout the known worldrecognized or discovered which
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books were God-breathed fromtheir very inception.
In other words, no group gave aparticular writing their
authority of being scripture.
The writing themselves, throughthe power of the Holy Spirit,
made it clear that God haddivinely appointed them as
scripture.
And then it goes on.
At the end he says remember,councils didn't authorize which
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writings were God-breathed works.
Rather, they recognized thatthese writings were authorized
by God himself.
All right, so I hope this topicon the canon of scripture was
insightful, as I did.
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You know, it's important tounderstand the history of our
faith and then dispel some ofthe myth that surrounds.
It allowed people throughouthistory to recognize his
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writings, that he allowed theapostles and the prophets to
write, to recognize that thesewere his writings.
And I think it's important thatwe should keep that in the back
of our minds, our mindsrealizing that it humans did not
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select, each did not go in theback room and select which books
of which books should be in ourbible today.
It it was a god thing.
So that's one thing we have toremember.
All right until next time.
Remember god is always good andhe's always safe.
Thank you for listening to thepodcast.
Do me a favor by following thepodcast and leaving a review to
help spread the word.
(26:20):
I look forward to hearing fromyou.
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