The Meaning Of Canon
Canon and The Early Church Fathers
The word Canon, however, was early used by the Christian Fathers to designate the inspired Scriptures.
Irenaeus, speaking of the Scriptures, calls them “the Canon of truth.”
Clement of Alexandria, referring to a quotation of the gospel according to the Egyptians, says, “But they follow anything, rather than the true canonical gospels.” Strom. Lib. iii. p. 453.
Eusebius says of Origen, “But in the first book of his commentaries on the gospel of Matthew, observing the ecclesiastical Canon, he declares that he knew of four gospels only.”
Athanasius, in his Festal Epistle, speaks of three sorts of books; the canonical?such as were allowed to 18be read?and such as were Apocryphal. By the first he evidently means such as we now call canonical.
The Council of Laodicea ordained, “that none but canonical books should be read in the church; that is, the books of the Old and New Testaments.”
Rufin, after enumerating the books of the Old and New Testaments, goes on to mention three classes of books. 1. Such as were included in the Canon. 2. Ecclesiastical, or such as were allowed to be read. 3. Apocryphal, such as were not permitted to be publicly read. Furthermore, Chrysostom says, “They fall into great absurdities, who will not follow the Canon of the divine Scripture, but trust to their own reasoning.”
The Sixty-Six Of The Protestant Bible
Determining the canon was a painful process, first by Jewish Rabbis and other scholars then later by early Christians. Ultimately, it was God who decided what books should be included in the Biblical canon. A book of Scripture belonged in the canon from the moment God inspired its writing. It was simply a matter of God convincing His human followers which books should be included in the Bible. In their book A General Introduction To The Bible, Norm Geisler and William Nix wrote three steps, the principle operative in the historical process of canonization: (1) inspiration by God; (2) recognition by men of God; and (3) collection and preservation of the books by the people of God.3 After the fourth century AD the Christian church collected sixty-six books that constituted its Scripture; twenty-seven in the NT and Thirty-nine in the OT. See the chart below.
|
The Protestant Canon |
|
Old Testament |
New Testament |
| Pentateuch-5 Books: | Historical Books – 5 books: |
| Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy | Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts |
| OT Historical Books: 12 Books | Pauline Epistles: 13 Books |
| Joshua, Ruth, 1& 2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings,1&2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. | Romans, 1&2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colosians, 1&2 Thessalonians, 1&2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon |
| Poetical Books: 5 Books | Non-Pauline Epistles: 9 Books |
| Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon | Hebrews, James, 1&2 Peter, 1,2,&3 John, Jude, Revelation |
| Prophetical Books | |
| Major Prophets–Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, DanielMinor Prophets–Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephania, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi |
Scholars today are in disagreement about the criteria for selecting the books in the Jewish canon of the Old Testament. The criteria of the selection of the New Testament on the other hand, revolved around their “apostolicity,” according to early church writers.4 In addition, the Roman Catholic Bible were added in 1546 such as the book of Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, The Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (Sirach), and Baruch. These books are known as the “apocryphal” book. Roman Catholicism maintains that the apocrypha was always inspired along with the Eastern Orthodox, Coptic and Armenian churches. The Protestant movement has not accepted the apocrypha. According to Bruce Metzger a biblical Scholar, the word apocrypha means:
“Etymologically the word means “things that are hidden,” but why it was chosen to describe certain books is not clear. Some have suggested that the books were “hidden” or withdrawn from common use because they were deemed to contain mysterious or esoteric lore, too profound to be communicated to any except the initiated (compare 2 Esd 14.45-46). Others have suggested that the term was employed by those who held that such books deserved to be “hidden” because they were spurious or heretical. Thus it appears that in antiquity the term had an honorable significance as well as a derogatory one, depending upon the point of view of those who made use of the word.” [Bruce M. Metzger, from the New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books (1991)].
More detailed study on the apocrypha in my up coming article “What is apocrypha?” because I believe this subject cannot be ignored by those who call themselves lovers of the Bible.
Recommended readings and Resources—————-
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The Canon of The Scripture, F.F. Bruce, InterVarsity Press
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How We Got The Bible, Neil R. Lightfoot, Baker Books
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A Ready Defense, Josh McDowell, Thomas Nelson Publisher
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The Origin of The Bible, F.F. Bruce, J.I Packer, Philip Comfort, Carl F.H. Henry (Authors), Tyndale Publisher, p.51
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How We Got The Bible, Neil R. Lightfoot (Third Edition), Baker Books, p. 152
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A General Introduction To The Bible, Norman Geisler and William E Nix, Moody Press, p.235
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The Portable Seminary, David Horton (General Editor), Bethany House, p. 42.
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