How We Got The Bible…
#Canonization
Okay Maple Grove, welcome to week three in our series understanding the Bible. And man, it is been a fun ride so far.
NOW – in week one of this series, we talked about…
HOW – if a non-contingent, uncaused by anything else, self-sufficient, self-reliant, all-powerful, intelligent, always existing, unique, good & moral God who loves us were to write a book – that it would be the most amazing book ever written…
IN OTHER WORDS – if God spoke we would have no doubt that those words were from Him!
AND B/S – I stand before you today and without any doubt whatsoever in my mind declare to that the bible is that book, that the Bible is from God…
AND THEREFORE - you can trust what it says…
UNDERSTAND – the bible is…
• Unique… in circulation, composition, translation, influence, survival, continuing universal appeal (in a class of it’s own),
• Accurate… historically, in it’s text
• Supernatural (it knows some stuff that only God could know… like future events and pre-scientific knowledge)
• Transforming (it radically changes the lives of people).
And last week we talked about how the Bible has one overriding theme purpose and storyline… ‘the coming of Christ.’
I mean, from Genesis to Revelation that is with the Bible is about.
• The message of the O.T. (all of the books, of law – history, prophecy and poetry) – is that Jesus is coming.
• The message of the Gospels – Jesus is here.
• The message of the N.T. – Jesus is coming again.
NOW – if we really think about it… This dominate storyline of the Word of God should not surprise us, after all John says in the opening of his gospel “In the beginning was the word the word was with God and the Word was God.”
NOW – this morning we’re going to begin
A two-week conversation about how we got the Bible.
AND - this week we will talk about the process of canonization. AND - hopefully (no matter what you know or don’t know about that topic) it will mean more to you when we’re done today.
NEXT WEEK… we will jump out of this series for Father’s Day as we have a conversation about dad’s I am calling… “I Am Who You Say I Am.”
AND – on June 24th as we continue the conversation about how we got the Bible, we are going to talk about the transmission of the text.
AND - in that conversation I will attempt to answer the question of what went on, what things happen…. between the time that God breathed and Paul and Peter and Luke and Matthew etc., put their pen to paper… to where we are today 2000 years later holding a Bible in our hands.
Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, 21 or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God. – 1 Peter 1:20,21
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. – 2 Timothy 3:16,17
God breathed - theopneustos
Now before we jump into our conversation about canonization, I think it’s important for me to remind you of what my two primary goals are for the series.
And I will start with goal #2…
Goal #2 – Motivate, encourage, challenge and inspire people to read the Bible like never before… because it really is from God and because in this series they will be given tools to equip them to understand and apply the Bible better.
Goal #1 – To take a look at the overwhelming evidence that demonstrates (contrary to the onslaughts of modern culture) that The Bible is not just another book or mere ink on paper, but that it really is from God, the Maker of heaven and earth.
AGAIN – today’s conversation is about canonization…
It’s about how we got our bible.
NOW - when I open up my Bible, I find that it contains 66 books.
39 books in the Old Testament and
27 books in the New Testament…
QUESTION – how do we know if the books in there are the correct ones?
I MEAN…
ARE - there some books in there that should not be?
AND - have some books been left out that should be in there?
LIKE – are there some books that for nefarious (not good, and with evil intent) been ‘lost’ ‘forgotten’ or ‘banned’ from the Bible.
NOW – here is how I want to attack this conversation about canonization…
BY – unpacking several statements…
• Why this conversation is important
• What canon and canonization is
• Why we can be confident in the O.T. Canon
• Why we can be confident in the N.T. Canon
QUESTION - are you ready?
Has the caffeine started to take effect?
OKAY – let’s do this… statement #1…
Why this is an important conversation…
To give us confidence in the book that we have based our life on and a placed our hope in
I MEAN – seriously if you and I are going to base our lives and place our hope in the words that are in this book…
THEN - we should want to be confident that we have they very words that God-breathed….
And that we do not have anything in our Bibles that God would not want in there, things that are not from Him, words that He did not speak, words that are not God breathed - theopneustos
QUESTION – how confident are you, that this book contains what God spoke?
And if you are confident, why? I mean, what fuels that confidence.
Next this conversation is an important one to have because
The Bible today is being attacked on so many different fronts
Now I do not have time to go into detail about this, but here are some of the main attackers against the canon of the bible in recent years…
• The Da Vinci Code (I mean in 2006 this book created a Tsunami of panic in the church. I mean, it was crazy and it was real. But seriously how is it possible that a fictional book could do that… because God’s people were not prepared.
• The Jesus Seminar (which is trying to reinvent Jesus to make Him more palatable)… Have you heard of ‘build a bear’ – well this is like ‘build your Jesus’ – just stuff in there the stuff you like.
• Unbelieving critical scholarship whose favorite resting and launching place is our colleges and universities. And believe me when I tell you they are just waiting for your kids and mine to get there.
• Islam – is doing a lot of attacking of the Bible today as both and offensive and defensive weapon.
• Secularism - I mean, like how silly and primitive to think that there is a God out there that would say this is right and this is wrong. After all, all intelligent people know that truth is diverse and not absolute… except the that Christians are absolutely wrong.
QUESTION – why are these people so adamantly attacking the reliability of the Bible?
BECAUSE – they know that Scripture is the very foundation, core and heart of the Christian faith.
AND IF – you can damage, and put cracks the foundation (saying that the bible we have is not reliable and is not from God)… all we are left with is another ‘human’ religion.
YOU SEE – once the Scriptures go, once it’s authority is no longer valid… eventually the entire thing falls apart.
OR – if it does survive what remains no longer resembles what God’s word says His church and people should be.
Check out this quote from James White…
Serious believers who desire to engage the culture directly and powerfully must not only master the content of the Bible, but must do what some preceding generations did not need to do, that is, we must know far more about the transmission, preservation, canonization and transmission, of the Bible than ever before. And due to modern technology and the Internet attacks upon he faith can spread very quickly and with relative ease today.
Therefore we need to be familiar with the arguments that are being thrown out there, in an effort to undermine and attack not only the Bible but our faith.
And yes, though this is secondary to us knowing and understanding the Bible itself nevertheless it is vital for us to know this stuff. – James White
And a 3rd reason why this is an important conversation for us to have is because…
There are often serious consequences if we are unable to answer the skeptics
On June 6th I made the following post on my Facebook page…
Understand when the skeptics know more than believers do about topics like 'canonization' and 'transmission of the text,’ it is difficult for us to argue with them.
And the best case scenario is that the skeptic wins the argument. The worst case scenario is – that we doubt and then lose our faith and the skeptic never finds his.
And I have seen that happen. I have seen people doubt and lose their faith because they could not answer the skeptic.
Now sometimes it is drastic and obvious and other times it is much subtle… But yet it still affects their views and authority of Scripture in their lives…
And listen once you doubt or refuse to believe some of Scripture it becomes very difficult to believe, Scripture at all.
Why is canonization an important conversation to have…
• To give us confidence in the book that we have based our life on and a placed our hope in
• The Bible today is being attacked on so many different fronts
• There are often serious consequences if we are unable to answer the skeptics
I want to read a quote by Michael Kruger and then we will move on to the second statement to unpack…
“Dealing with canon and scriptural issues is a shepherding issue. You’re going to have people in your congregation, in fact you have them right now, even if you don’t realize it who are confused and worried and have anxiousness over whether or not these books they think are God’s word really are God’s word.” – Michael Kruger
What Canon And Canonization Is…
NOW - the word canon is derived from the Greek word ‘kano’ which means a ruler or measuring stick.
In other words it is a standard by which we measure something else.
In early Christian usage the word canon came to mean the books that God inspired and therefore they are ‘the rule’ by which we measure truth, life, faith and everything else.
And today many people view canon as simply the list of books that are in the bible.
“If the canon is nothing more than a table of contents, then it is a purely human thing, known by men and hence subject to all the endless debates and arguments history presents as having already taken place in almost every generation. But what if canon is more than that?” – James White (Scripture Alone)
QUESTION…
When did the Canon start to exist?
Like, when did it first begin existing?
NOW UNDERSTAND - the historical critical scholars (those who do not believe in God)
Which I contend is a pretty significant bias - in being someone who is talking about which books should be in a book from God.
UNDERSTAND – the modern-critic who constantly strive to undermine the reliability of the bible, usually say that it was not until the fourth century that the Canon first began to exist.
In other words they promote the theory, the belief …
THAT - for the first 300 years there really was no bible.
THEREFORE - Christians really had no idea or commonly held belief of what was and what was not Scripture. YOU SEE – modern-day critics like to say that early Christianity was wildly diverse in both thought and theology. AND THEY – teach that there was no distinct view of Christianity during the first three centuries of the church. INSTEAD THEY – contend that there were countless views of Jesus and of God and of salvation.
In other words there was no real Christianity but many Christianities…
AND SO – what you have (in their view) is all of these different views fighting for preeminence…
AND THEREFORE - today we are only reading the books in the Bible from the group who eventually won that battle.
YOU SEE - modern-day critics contend that if another group would have won the battle, then we would be reading their books today, AND - we wouldn’t even know the difference.
AND LISTEN – there is little doubt that the culture we find ourselves living in… One that loves diversity and is repulsed by absolute truths – would with great it was enthusiasm embrace this kind of thinking.
YOU KNOW LIKE – since there’s no real truth, no real Jesus, no real scripture… I can just pick out whatever version I like best.
That fits with my chosen lifestyle and personal beliefs.
BUT LISTEN, LISTEN - this comes down to the question of what the canon really is in the first place.
YOU SEE IF - we assume that the Canon is nothing more than just a list, then the canon started to exist when someone wrote that list down. BUT WHAT IF - the Canon actually is God’s inspired word…
God breathed - theopneustos
UNDERSTAND – if that is true then the Canon began to exist WHEN - the very first book was inspired and written down…
LIKE WHEN - Moses wrote down “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…”
And first we had one book, then two books, then three books etc. etc… as God breathed and men wrote. OKAY - let me give an example of what I’m trying to say. NOW - I write A lot for Microsoft word documents.
(used to write word perfect documents, but that was a long time ago)…
SO - there is a canon of documents that Steve Malone has written, versus the rest of the world’s documents that I did not write. And listen, I know what those documents are even if no one else does… because I wrote them. Question, when did my Canon start to exist?
The moment I wrote my very first word document.
And as I write more documents my canon gets bigger and bigger and bigger.
So when did the cannon of the Bible start to exist?
Answer, we God wrote the very first book.
UNDERSTAND….
IF GOD - inspired any book out there…
THEN - there is a canon out there, whether we have a list or not.
YOU SEE - the Canon is first and foremost a theological issue not an historical issue.
AND LISTEN – I think whenever we try to defend the reliability of our Bible only from or starting from an historical perspective about lists… we are going about it all wrong.
LISTEN
Here’s the deal… this is REALLY important
IF GOD - intends to reveal himself to people for a purpose, and
IF GOD - is active in this world, and
IF IT IS – His purpose and desire that the scripture function as ‘the rule of faith’ and,
IF – it is His purpose to build the church on His revealed word
THEN – it only makes sense that God would exert and utilize just as much divine power to make sure that the church has the Scripture and knows what is and what is not Scripture, as He did when He inspired it in the first place.
IN FACT – it is crazy to think that He would do otherwise.
“Okay, here are my words about life, about me, about how to live and about how to find salvation… Man, I sure hope you find them.”
UNDERSTAND – we need to see canon from both a theological and a historical perspective.
But the starting point needs to be theological.
That God spoke, That God inspired men to write what He had breathed out… and that he wants us to know and have that revelation.
BOTTOM LINE – Canon, the Word from God theopneustos - it is not a statement of the church.
I mean – we do not get to tell God what to write.
Or tell Him what he did or did not write.
UNDERSTAND – men (or the church) do not create canon, but only seeks to recognize it.
“A book is not the word of God because it’s accepted by the people of God. Rather, it was accepted by the people of God because it is the word of God. That is, God gives the book it’s divine authority, not the people of God. They merely recognize the divine authority which God gives to it.” – Norman Geisler
OKAY – with all of that being said, I think is the best way to view canon, to see it in 2 ways…
• First there is Canon Inspired (which came into existence and was created the very moment God-breathed and men wrote)
• And then there is Canon Recognized (which is the canon recognized by God’s people, led by God’s Spirit over time)
AND LISTEN – disputes about Canon Recognized do not in any way destroy the existence of Canon Inspired,
Anymore then disputes over doctrinal issues mean that there are no ultimate truths about doctrinal issues.
R U tracking with me?
Why we can be confident in the O.T. Canon…
Fulfilled prophecy
We talked about this in week one of this series…
How only God is able to predict future events.
We talked about…
• Ezekiel’s incredible precise predictions about the destruction of Tyre
• We talked about the countless predictions about Jesus (the coming Messiah) that were made hundreds of years before Jesus put on flesh and invaded this planet.
• And listen there are so many other prophecies in the OT that were fulfilled…
LIKE…
Isaiah predicting the rise of Persian empire and it’s leader Cyrus by name – hundreds of years before he was born.
Daniel predicted in great detail the rise and fall of empires… (Babylon, Persians, Greeks, Rome)… again hundreds of years before it all came to pass
They were received as Scripture as they were written
UNDERSTAND – it was not as modern-critics profess that a group of bearded guys, wearing colorful robes in some meeting that said “hey… what these guys wrote were Scripture…”
That is not what happened.
There was never (despite the lies) such a meeting.
INSTEAD – what we see is that when the prophets of God wrote they knew that they were writing Scripture… that they were writing down what God spoke… theopneustos and the people received it as such.
After Moses finished writing in a book the words of this law from beginning to end, he gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD: “Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God. There it will remain as a witness against you. – Deuteronomy 31:26-28
And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the LORD. “See!” he said to all the people. “This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the LORD has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.” - Joshua 24:26,27
Samuel explained to the people the rights and duties of kingship. He wrote them down on a scroll and deposited it before the LORD. Then Samuel dismissed the people to go to their own homes. – 1 Samuel 10:25
In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. – Daniel 9:2
Now that’s pretty cool…
Daniel is saying, ‘hey, you know that stuff Jeremiah wrote… it was legit. It was Scripture – it was from God
In King Josiah’s day the Law of Moses was preserved in the Temple (2 Kings 23:24)
Ezra possessed copies of the Law of Moses and the Prophets (Nehemiah 9)
And when it came to accepting what was written as being from God, God gave them 2 main tests…
The prophetic test
“But you may wonder, ‘How will we know whether or not a prophecy is from the LORD?’ If the prophet speaks in the LORD’s name but his prediction does not happen or come true, you will know that the LORD did not give that message. That prophet has spoken without my authority and need not be feared.
– Deuteronomy 18:21,22
And with this prophetic test there was…
Short-term fulfillment for the people back then… like Elijah saying it is going to stop raining for 3 years..
And there was long term fulfillment for us “How did Micah know 500 years before Jesus was born where that birth would take place.
The consistency test
If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.
– Deuteronomy 13:1-3
In other words if a future word from a prophet disagrees with the words from an earlier prophet it is wrong.
You cannot change or altar God’s truth.
AND LISTEN - according to Judaism, the canon was completed by about 400 BC… In fact the first century Jewish historian Josephus said, “From Artaxerxes (4th century) until our time everything has been recorded…”
And let me say one more thing that should give us confidence in the O.T. canon…
Jesus affirms it
UNDERSTAND – Jesus makes quotations from all over the Old Testament, and interestingly Jesus never quotes from any other writing (some ‘lost’ or ‘banned’ book of the bible) calling it Scripture.
INSTEAD – everything He quotes (It is written, God says)… We find in what we call our Old Testament.
AND – checkout what Jesus does in Matthew 23…
Where He kind of book ends the OT Scripture.
And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. – Matthew 23:35
BOTTOM LINE – both Jesus and the apostles quote from the OT over 300 times, affirming it validity….
AND – here is something else you can put in your ‘I have confidence in the OT Canon file.’
WHEN - you read the Gospels you find Jesus fighting, debating and disagreeing often with the Scribes and Pharisees quite often, right? I MEAN – they rarely agree on anything, not even on the definition of ‘who is my neighbor.’
BUT – do you know what they never debated or disagreed on…
ON - what was Scripture.
UNDERSTAND - they never said “Well Jesus, that Scripture is not in my bible…”
BOTTOM LINE…
• The OT canon started to exist when it began to be written
• Man’s discovery of canon happened over time
• The OT is believed by the Jews to be from God
• The OT is approved and affirmed by both Jesus and the apostles
• The OT is proven by fulfilled prophecy to be from God
Why we can be confident in the N.T. Canon…
AGAIN – as I said earlier the popular idea out there is that the some time in the 4th century a bunch of bearded guys in robes got together and they decided on what books are from God…
NOW - one of the common ideas is that this happened when Constantine converted to Christianity – and held what is know as the Council of Nicea…
And at the council ‘they claim’ that a bunch of men – decided what is Scripture.
But that is not how it happened…
UNDERSTAND - there were no votes taken… (okay 9-4 Ephesians is in)
AND LISTEN – our confidence in the N.T. canon begins not in the 4th century
BUT RATHER – in the first century…
YES – it begins with the words that Jesus spoke and with the words that this apostles wrote as men sent out by Him and for Him with the Gospel message.
AND LISTEN – one of the common views of modern-day critics is that these guys had no idea that what they were writing was Scripture – was from God… was theopneustos or that what they wrote had authority…
BUT AGAIN – that is simply not true, it’s a lie.
Kind of like the other lie that modern-critics promote that Jesus never claimed to be God, that all Jesus knew was that he was just a dude, a teacher, a rabbi…
BUT - later men in power (in the 4th century) put the label God on Jesus to give authority to their teachings and to cement their power...
That is a lie, that is not true.
Back when I was in Bible College I waited tables at a Perkins and one of my co-workers named Ralph was a philosophy major at UCF. Ralph was a great guy we would play tennis and go canoeing together. He knew I was a Christian… One day he said in the Bible Jesus never claimed to be God.
So a few days later, I had him read some stuff from my bible.
He was stunned –
“it can’t be true – but Ralph you just read it – I need to talk to my professor…”
OKAY – you be confident in the NT canon because…
The first century writers knew they were writing Scripture…
theopneustos
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. – Hebrews 1:1,2
Sounds like speaking for God to me…
For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. – John 12:49
AND LISTEN – Jesus speaking for God was predicted by Moses…
The LORD said to me: “What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.19 I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.
– Deuteronomy 18:17-19
OKAY… So, Jesus spoke for God…
AND - He sent out His apostles to speak for God…
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” - John 20:21
I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. – 2 Peter 3:2
Call; me silly, but that sounds like Scripture and authority to me.
You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles (New Testament) and prophets (Old Testament), with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
– Ephesians 2:19,20
We never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe. – 1 Thessalonians 2:13
He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
- 2 Peter 3:16
QUESTION – what is Peter calling Paul’s writing? Scripture
For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”
– 1 Timothy 5:18
AND LISTEN - Paul is quoting the words Jesus spoke as recorded in Luke 10:7 verbatim in the Greek…
SO – Paul is calling Luke Scripture.
And in 1 Corinthians…
If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. 38 If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. – 1 Corinthians 14:37,38
AND – these next 2 passages clearly demonstrate that this idea of Christianity being wildly diverse and that there being no single accepted view of Christianity until the 4th century is completely false.
3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. – Jude 3
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. – Galatians 1:8,9
NEXT – you can be confident in the NT canon because
The Apostolic and early church fathers quoted it and spoke of it as Scripture…
Long before this so called 4th century meeting of bearded guys in colorful robes…
95 AD Clement of Rome
The apostles received the Gospels for us and the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ was sent from God. Christ therefore is from God and the apostles from Christ.
And Clement quotes from Matthew, Luke, 1 Corinthians and Romans, Galatians and Hebrews and refers to them as Scripture.
110 AD Ignatius
He was on his way to be martyred and he wrote a bunch of letters and in these letters He called the Gospels Scripture and spoke much of Paul’s letters.
Polycarp 110 AD
He was a disciple of the apostle John and in a letter Polycarp wrote to Philippi…
He quotes Ephesians and calls it Scripture (and listen, it is not like he is trying to make a case for why it is Scripture He just assumes assumes that everyone knew it was)… He quotes Matthew, Luke, Acts, 1 John, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, 1 and 2 Timothy… and mentions Paul several times and acknowledges that Paul is an apostle and has authority in his writings in the church.
In fact Polycarp places the ‘apostles’ alongside ‘the prophets’ as being equal in authority, and being Scripture.
Papias 125 AD
He was a friend of Polycarp and he heard John preach. And he knew the daughters of Philipp the evangelist.
Think about it – Papias received his information about the Gospels from one of Jesus’ disciples directly.
Papias talks about a number of New Testament writings but speaks most about the Gospels…
Even saying that John the Apostle told Him that Mark was Peter’s scribe and that he wrote down everything Peter said accurately.
Justin Martyr 150 AD
He quotes from Matthew, Mark and Luke and sees them as Scripture… and He quotes most of Paul’s works and 1 Peter and Revelation.
Tatian 160 AD
He was taught and mentored by Justin Martyr and he put together a harmony of the Gospel called the ‘Diatessaron’ (through the 4…
Muratorian Fragment 170 AD
This is the first canonical list…
Now, the fragment is mutilated at the beginning, but it seems to have mentioned Matthew and Mark indirectly, because it goes on the mentioned Luke as the third Gospel, then it mentions John.
The fragment also mentions, Acts, Epistles of Paul, Jude, 1 and 2 John, Revelation and Peter.
NOW - interestingly the Muratorian Fragment says that the shepherd of Hermes should not be included in this list, Because it was written our time.
In other words an apostle did not write it, so it is not Scripture.
Theophilis of Antioch 177 AD
Now, in his writings he was making the argument that the Christian writings have the same authority as the OT writings.
Concerning the righteousness which the law enjoined, confirmatory utterances are found both with the prophets and in the Gospels, because they all spoke inspired by one Spirit of God.
Irenaeus 180 AD
NOW - he is the first guy to come out and say that there are just 4 Gospels – because around this time some others were being written…
And in talking about the Gospels he says…
We have learned from none others the plan of our salvation, than from those through whom the Gospel has come down to us, which they did at one time proclaim in public, and, at a later period, by the will of God, handed down to us in the Scriptures, to be the ground and pillar of our faith.
Clement of Alexandria 198 AD
Clement was an intellectual giant and well read in both biblical and extra biblical literature.
He mentions and quotes from all 4 Gospels, the 13 letters of Paul, Acts, 1 Peter, 1 and 2 John, Jude and Revelation… and he sees them as Scripture.
“And again, there are neither any indications that Clement viewed the scriptural status of these books as an innovation, nor does he appear to have received his information from Irenaeus.
On the contrary, like Irenaeus, he viewed these books as having an ancient pedigree within the Christian church. These were the ones that were “handed down” to the church from the apostles themselves.” – Michael Kruger (The Question of Canon)
AGAIN – this ‘wild diversity’ of the first 300 years of the church and no solid agreement on what is Scripture until the 4th century in the meeting of powerful bearded men in colorful robes simply does not hold up to history.
AND THEN… around 320 AD we start to see some lists of what is Scripture…
Using the same criteria that had been used throughout the centuries…
1. Was the book written by an apostle or an associate of an apostle.
2. Was the book widely accepted by the church
3. Was the teaching in conformity to the standards of sound doctrine…
Some crazy stuff in those other writings… like in the Gospel of Thomas when Jesus is raised a talking cross comes out fo the tomb with Him…
And Jesus getting mad as a child and zapping a playmate to death.
AND – when any reasonable person put those so called ‘banned books of the bible’ up against the books in our bible the difference is so obvious.
320 AD Eusebius – lists 22 books
(did not include James, Jude, 2 Peter, and 2 and 3 John)
Note – not because no one recognized them, but because there was some doubt
330 AD - Cyril of Jerusalem – lists 26 books (all but Revelation, probably because some cults arose at the time and were using Revelation to lead people astray)
367 AD – Athanasius – lists our 27 books
390 AD – Gregory of Nazianzus - lists our 27 books
394 AD – Jerome - lists our 27 books
395 AD – Augustine - lists our 27 books
397 AD – Council of Carthage - lists our 27 books
How did we get our Bible…
God breathed it and men wrote down what He breathed (CANON INSPIRED) and what we see is that from the first century and into the second century men saw these writings as Scripture (CANON RECOGNIZED)
AGAIN – why is this conversation important?
To give us confidence in the book that we have based our hope on and placed our hope in.
YES – the book I hope in my hands is from God.
We can be confident
And with great confidence comes great responsibility to read it and live by it.
OKAY – breath….
