Faithfullyliven:the podcast
Do you want to learn how to study the Bible? Do you wish you could understand the Bible better? Do you want to know how you can remain faithful to historic Christianity in our contemporary society? Let's take a journey to explore and learn how to be a faithful follower of Christ. Faithfullyliven, the podcast is here to uplift your soul and encourage you to live a life honoring to God
Faithfullyliven:the podcast
Understanding the Formation of the Bible's Canon
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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Welcome to Faithfully Living, the Podcast where we learn how to live for Christ in our daily lives.
Speaker 1:I am Dwan, your host, and I would like to invite you on a journey with me to explore and learn how to be a faithful follower of Christ. Hey everyone, welcome to Faithfully Living, the Podcast, where we strive to encourage you to live for Christ faithfully. We're offering guidance on studying the Bible, how to understand the Bible better and how to remain faithful to historic Christianity in a contemporary society. In today's episode, we will be exploring the canon of Scripture. So here are some scriptures for you. 2 Timothy tells us all scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. 2 Peter 1 20-21 says Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in scripture ever came from the prophet's own understanding or from human initiative. No, no, these prophets were moved by the holy spirit and they spake, and they spoke from god. So these so there have been, you know, some stories that have fultoned around about how the books of the bible came to be, and it has been said that you know people from the early church, or the Pope or the Emperor, or church council selected the books that we have in the Bible. So we are going to explore how we got the Bible we have today, and we should keep it at the top of mind that the Bible is a God inspired Bible. God used humans to produce what we have now.
Speaker 1:All right, first let's define terms, as always. So let's define canon. The term canon comes from a Greek word meaning standard or rule. It says canonical books of the Bible are those regarded by Christians as the standard or rule of the faith, of the faith Define a written authority in all matters of faith and practices. And that was a definition from Urban Legends of Christian History, and they kind of continue in that book as a quote. That also says it is important to emphasize that a book of the Bible is not deemed canonical because it measured up to some outside standard or rule set by the church. Rather, a book of the Bible is deemed canonical because it is in itself the standard and rule for the church.
Speaker 1:The church did not decree the books of the Bible to be canonical. Rather, the church received the books of the Bible as canonical, all right. So how and when was the canon of the Bible put together? How and when was the canon of the Bible put together? Let me recap and say that you know, we have to remember that it was God who decided what books belonged in the canon, and the books of the Bible was and is considered scripture from the moment God inspired the authors to write it. It was a matter. God gave humans insight to know which books they were. So also another quote from urban legends of christian history.
Speaker 1:It says no church council if influential pope, ecclesiastical body or even powerful emperor, emperor selected the books of the Bible, either the Old Testament or the New, and there is no record of church followers or councils sorting through dozens of books to select the books of the Bible. Criteria such as antiquity, apostasy, apostolicity and orthodoxy were sometimes used to settle doubts or disputes about the status of a small handful of books or to explain why certain books had always been received as canonical and why others had not, but they were never used to test to determine the canon from scratch. So it's important to remember that the books of the Bible that we have now, like they said, no pope or church council had a whole meeting about okay, these books are going to be in the Bible. What they did was they used a standard by which you know there were some disputes or doubts by certain about certain books that they used to recognize the books of the bible that we have now. So to continue, they say it's important to look and this is from a quote that I got from the book how we got the bible.
Speaker 1:It says there is a difference between the candidacy of a book and the authority of that book. A book's candidacy depends on its authority. When paul, for, for example, writes to the Corinthians, his letter is to be acknowledged as possessing divine authority. This letter had authority from the moment he wrote it, yet it could not be referred to as canonical until it was received in a list of accepted writings form sometime later. At a later time it was accepted as canonical because of its inert authority. The book first has divine authority based on its inspiration, and then attains candidacy due to its general acceptance as a divine product.
Speaker 1:No church, canceled by its decrees, can make the book of the Bible authoritative. The books of the Bible possess their own authority and indeed had its authority long before there are any councils of the church. So the process of determining the canon was conducted by Jewish rabbis and scholars and and then the early church. So they recognized the books of the Bible that were already authoritative. All right, so let's look at the Old Testament. Because rabbis and Hebrew scholars recognized God's messages and accepted their writings as as inspired by God, and by AD 250 there was nearly universal agreement on the canon of the Hebrew scriptures, which is the Old Testament. So another reference from how we, from the book, how we Got the bible. It says good evidence exists in the new testament which shows that by the time, by the time of jesus, the canon of the old covenant covenant had been fixed.
Speaker 1:It can't be questioned that jesus and his apostles, time after time, quoted from a distinctive body of authoritative writings. They designated them as scripture, the scriptures, the holy scriptures, the sacred writings and so forth. They often introduced their quotations with it is written, that is, it stands firmly written and is undisputably true. Jesus himself gave us some clear indications about the extent of the Old Testament canon when applying the scriptures and their fulfillment to himself. He speaks of the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms. This threefold division is undoubtedly equivalent to the three divisions of the Hebrew scriptures the law, the prophets and the writing. So to continue from how we got the Bible, they say, we should keep in mind that the Jewish order of the Old Testament differs from ours, that Chronicles is placed at the end of the Hebrew Bible hours, that chronicles is placed at the end of the hebrew bible. Though the old testament jesus knew was a collection of writings reaching from genesis, chronicles and all other books in between. It was a collection that embraced the same books that are in our old testament today.
Speaker 1:They go on to list the divisions of the Hebrew Bible. So it says the Hebrew canon contains three divisions the law, the prophets, the writings. So the law consisted of the books of Moses. The prophets were divided into the former prophets and the latter prophets, these containing four books. So they put the former prophets contain Joshua, Judges, samuel and Kings, and first and second Kings were considered one book. Then you have the latter prophets, which consisted of Isaiah, jeremiah, ezekiel and the 12, what we call 12 minor prophets. So in the Hebrew canon the 12 minor prophets were placed together and referred as the book of 12. They also go on to say that christians usually listed joshua, judges, samuel and kings among the historical, historical books of the old testament.
Speaker 1:The jews thought of their history as prophetic history, so so they classified these books under the prophets, and then they had the third division. The writings included the rest of the books of the Old Testament into three poetical books Psalms, proverbs, job, and then the five roles that contain Song of Songs, ruth, lamentations, ecclesiastes, esther, and then the three historical books, daniel, ezra, nehemiah and Chronicles. Daniel, ezra, nehemiah and Chronicles. A quick count shows that the books of the Hebrew canon total 24. So this includes all of the 39 books that we have in our Old Testament today.
Speaker 1:Josephus, the prominent Jewish historian of the first century of the Christian era. He speaks of only 22 books in their sacred scriptures, and perhaps this is because there were 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. This number is achieved by combining Ruth and Judges, and then Lamentations and Jeremiah. So the Hebrew scriptures that we have today, which is the 39 books. The order of the ancient Hebrew canon is preserved, beginning with Genesis and then ending with 2 Chronicles. The confirmation of the number of books accepted by Josephus comes from early Christian writers, such as Arden, jerome, in the 3rd century AD Arden counts 22 books of the Old Testament. And then, by the end of the 4th century, jerome staunchly maintains the number of the books of the Hebrew Old Testament must not be no more than 22. And he can't admit any other books because they were not in the Hebrew canon. So the Council of Gemna, about AD 19, the rabbis have fixedly fixed the limits of the Hebrew canon. To fix the limits of the Hebrew canon, included were the 39 books of the present Hebrew Bible and then divided into the law, prophets and then the writings. The rabbis, when they say fix, is that they recognized the books according to what they knew from history.
Speaker 1:All right now moving on to the, the new testament. So during the first centuries of the christian church, the process of recognizing the new testament begins from the book. How we got the bible, it says, is evidence then, and not long after the close of the apostate age, the new testament writings were being read generally among churches. Regarding the New Testament we have a much clearer picture because the first century apostles and prophets were teaching and writing from their God-given authority as the foundations of the church. Their official writings carried absolute authority among their recipients. Writings such as Matthew, romans or 1 Thessalonians were written, sent to churches and received by them as apostolic and prophetic. These recipients would have immediately treated these writings as authoritative, that is, as canonical, canonical in scripture. We see that paul considered luke's writings to be authoritative as the old testament. And then you have writings of peter recognizing that paul's writings as scripture. We can see that in second peter 3, 15 through 16, and then some of the books of the new testament were circulated among various churches, like colossians, and you can, you can see the reference for that in colossians 4, 16 and in first thessalonians 5, 27. All right, so you see how scripture gives us a path, of how it recognizes that scripture is being authoritative.
Speaker 1:So then you have early church leaders such as Clement of Rome to mention at least eight New Testament books. In AD 95. You got Polycarp, who was a disciple of John the Apostle. He acknowledged 15 of the books. Ignitus of Antioch acknowledged about seven books and then later Irenaeus mentioned 21 books, hippotas recognized 22 and then the New Testament books received the most controversy were Hebrews James, 2 Peter, 2 John and then 3rd John In the book Urban Legends of Christian History they say that by the end of the 2nd century, just 100 years after the close of the apostolic period, the disciple of Polycarp, ignorance of Loins, wrote a series of books against the heresies, threatened the church of his day and throughout these books he quoted from or alluded to all of the writings of the New Testament, with the exceptions of, like I say, james, jude, 3rd John, philemon and perhaps 2nd Peter and Hebrews.
Speaker 1:So you got Ignatius, polycarp and Eramus are just a few of the many 2nd century writers who evidenced that the New Testament books were authoritative among the church. And then, in the 3rd century, when I was reading in the book how we Got the Bible, it says Arjun added his witness to the New Testament books. Arjun, you know, only knows four gospels and listed them in order Matthew, mark, luke and John in his comment, and he commented about each of them. And he commented about each of them, otherwise he undoubtedly accepts Acts, and then the 13 letters of Paul, 1, peter, 1, john, jude, and then Revelations and then other books such as Hebrews, james 2, peter 2 and 3 and John. It says that Origen was hesitant. It says that origin was hesitant but because he was a prolific writer, his views about recognizing various books changed, and you know it's important to keep in mind that his new testament of the third century looks very much like the new testament that we had today. All right, then, when we get down to the fourth century, all of these matters are pretty well, you know, brought to a conclusion.
Speaker 1:The testimony on the canon by isobus was, who was a great church historian is important, but you know, it doesn't bring us further along. Itzibeth distinguishes three categories of books those that are universally acknowledged, those that were disputed and then those that were rejected. The books acknowledged by all were the four Gospels, acts, 14, letters of Paul, 1 John, 1 Peter and then Revelation, john, 1 Peter and then Revelation. And then the disputed books were James, jude, 2 Peter and then 2 and 3 John, but these were recognized by the majority. And then, by the time you get down to AD In 367, you have Athanasius of Alexandria, who published a list of 27 books of the New Testament that were accepted in his time, and these are the same 27 books that are recognized today.
Speaker 1:So there are more discussions on the canon. That would continue. Discussions on the canon that would continue, but by this time the general consensus had been reached and the bible had grown in relative proportion to his divine revelation, gradually, and his books likewise were gradually assumed the role which they were innately authoritative, demanded. And then that's how we get down to first the bible showing or telling us that scripture, recognizing scripture within scripture. Then we have church fathers who are just confirming the books that were generally recognized by people as authoritative because they knew the apostles and they knew that their writings were divinely inspired. So then there are a number of councils that recognize books of the Old Testament, such as in AD 363, the council of Laodicea stated that only the Old Testament, along with one book of the Apocrypha and then 26 books of the New Testament everything but Revelation were canonical and to be read in churches of Hippo. In AD 393, the Council of Carthage in 397, also affirmed the same 27 books as authoritative.
Speaker 1:So these councils followed certain principles, determined whether a book was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and then just remember, remember, these councils aren't picking these books, they are just recognizing them as authoritative. So here's the principles to help them recognize it as authoritative. So one was the author and apostle are a close connection with apostle was the book. Two, was the book being accepted by the body of Christ at large. Three, did the book contain consistency of doctrine and orthodox teaching? And then, number four the book bear evidence of high moral and spiritual values that would reflect the work of the Holy Spirit. So, like I say one thing, to keep in mind that we should see these councils they didn't have the final say as to what book were in the New Testament you have to remember that God, in his sovereignty, gave people in these councils insight to recognize which books God had inspired as his word, to recognize which books God had inspired as his word. All right, so let's wrap up and kind of summarize.
Speaker 1:And I was reading this book called God Breathe by Joss McDowell and he kind of summarized. It summarized the canon of scripture rather well. So I'm just going to read some quotes from his book God Breathe. He says the church of the fourth century recognized the authority of the apostles' writings because they sensed they were from God and that the supernatural power of God's spirit enveloped each word. It was as if God had breathed each word personally to them. But they also relied on the insights and counsel of the church leaders who had lived during the time of the disciples, these church fathers, as they came to be called, including authoritative figures such as Clement of Rome, ignatius and Polycarp. These men had known the apostles and wrote extensively confirming the authenticity and authority of the apostles' writing. This reinforced to the early church that what the apostles had written was truly from God. And then it also goes on to say remember even the apostle Peter, who wrote his second letter prior to AD 64, confirmed that the letters of Paul to the churches belong in the category of scripture. He indicated this in 2 Peter, 3, 15-16.
Speaker 1:Though there was no official New Testament during these early years of the church, by the time the last apostle John died, around AD 100, there was consistent recognition among Christ followers that the 27 books we now know as the new testament were true and in an inspired word of god. So you, so there are belief that the church council decided, church councils decided what books are in our bible today. But we should know that now that no person, organization or group determined which letters or writings of the apostles were to be granted the status of scripture. Rather, individuals, and most notably the early church throughout the known world recognized or discovered which books were God-breathed from their very inception. In other words, no group gave a particular writing their authority of being scripture. The writing themselves, through the power of the Holy Spirit, made it clear that God had divinely appointed them as scripture. And then it goes on. At the end he says remember, councils didn't authorize which writings were God-breathed works. Rather, they recognized that these writings were authorized by God himself.
Speaker 1:All right, so I hope this topic on the canon of scripture was insightful, as I did. You know, it's important to understand the history of our faith and then dispel some of the myth that surrounds. It allowed people throughout history to recognize his writings, that he allowed the apostles and the prophets to write, to recognize that these were his writings. And I think it's important that we should keep that in the back of our minds, our minds realizing that it humans did not select, each did not go in the back room and select which books of which books should be in our bible today. It it was a god thing. So that's one thing we have to remember. All right until next time. Remember god is always good and he's always safe. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Do me a favor by following the podcast and leaving a review to help spread the word. I look forward to hearing from you.
