Canonicity deals with the concern of which writings are truly inspired words of God—and thus should be considered Scripture—and which are not. Enns explains,
The word canon is used to describe the inspired books. The word comes from the Greek kanon and probably also from the Hebrew qaneh, signifying a “measuring rod.” The terms canon and canonical thus came to signify standards by which books were measured to determine whether or not they were inspired.[1]
Canonicity, then, may be defined as “the church’s recognition and acceptance of the books of Scripture as God’s inspired Word.”[2] The term recognition is highly significant in this discussion. For we must avoid at all costs the idea that the church determined the contents of Scripture. As Enns clarifies, “Religious councils at no time had any power to cause books to be inspired; rather, they simply recognized that which God had inspired at the exact moment the books were written.”[3] How, then, did the people of God through history come to recognize the Scriptures as God’s inspired word?
Old Testament
This process began in OT times. It is clear that Israel, at the time of its writing, accepted Moses’ words as from God (Ex 24:3–4; Josh 1:7–8; 8:31). Joshua’s contemporaries also accepted the words which he spoke and wrote as from the Lord (Josh 24:26–28). God appointed prophets with extremely stringent qualifications for approval (Dt 13:1–5; 18:20–22). If they failed to meet the authentication test, they were to be stoned. However, if he was true prophet, the Lord would authenticate his words, often through miracles and accurate foretelling. The faithful of each generation accepted the words of the true prophets (e.g. Jer 36:11–19) while the wicked rejected them (e.g. Jer 36:20–26). Similarly, the people of God in Jeremiah’s time——and subsequently, Jeremiah himself who wrote the account—also recognized Micah’s words as true prophecy from God (Jer 26:18; cf. Mic 3:12). Daniel recognized Jeremiah’s prophecy as being from the Lord as well as being part of a larger collection called “the books” (Dan 9:2; Jer 25:11–12). Thus, the process of canonization did not occur hundreds or thousands of years after the fact. Rather, as God’s appointed and authenticated men wrote Scripture, their writings were recognized as canonical by their faithful contemporaries. By the time of Jesus, these writings had been collected and organized under three headings: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings (or sometimes, the Psalms), which consist of the thirty-nine books of our OT.[4] Jesus himself affirmed this collection as Scripture and authoritative (Lk 24:27, 44).
New Testament
As the NT books were written, they were immediately accepted as the word of God and read in congregations. Enns helpfully explains,
The process of the recognition and collection took place in the first centuries of the Christian church. Very early, the New Testament books were being recognized. Paul, for example, recognized Luke’s writing on a par with the Old Testament (1 Tim. 5:18 quotes Deut. 25:4 and Luke 10:7 and refers to both texts as “the Scripture says”). Peter also recognized Paul’s writings as Scripture (2 Peter 3:15–16). Letters were being read in the churches and even circulated among the church (cf. Col. 4:16; 1 Thess. 5:27).[5]
Thus, the canon was assumed early on and progressively grew larger as the apostles and their associates continued writing. The writings of the NT came to be known as the “Apostles” while those of the OT were known as the “Prophets” such that “by the year 200 several church fathers and bishops were referring to a collection of inspired, authoritative writings known as ‘the Prophets and Apostles’ and treating this amorphous mass as a criterion and norm of truth for Christian belief and practice.”[6]
Although there was early recognition and acceptance of these writings by the churches, no one had made an explicit list of which books were canonical. The canon, at this point, was merely assumed. However, once attacks on these generally accepted writings occurred —such as that by Marcion (died c. AD 160)[7]—the church felt the pressure and need to delineate which writings were in fact inspired and canonical, so as to guard against error. The first significant attempt in this vein was the Muratorian Canon produced by the church in Rome around AD 170.[8] For the next 200 years, the Christian church continued to discuss and debate the contents of the canon, producing various lists of canonical works which varied slightly. By the end of the fourth century, the church had mostly ironed out the issue. In AD 367, Athanasius penned his now famous Festal Letter, listing the canonical books of the OT and NT corresponding to the canon as we recognize it today.[9] In councils held at Hippo and Carthage, the church “affirmed Athanasius’s list as final and authoritative.”[10] Next, we’ll see that the Scriptures have been divinely preserved all the way down to today.
[1] Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology, 170. Emphasis original.
[2] John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, eds., Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 120.
[3] Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology, 170. Emphasis original
[4] Ibid., 170–71.
[5] Ibid., 175.
[6] Roger E. Olson, The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition & Reform (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 132.
[7] Ibid., 133, states, “Marcion was perhaps the very first Christian to attempt to define a Christian canon of inspired Scriptures, and he wanted to limit it to only those writings by apostles that he considered free of any taint of Judaism. Marion’s Bible contained two parts: an edited version of Luke’s Gospel and ten of Paul’s epistles. Even the ‘Apostle’ [i.e., Paul] was edited by Marcion so that all ‘Judaizing elements’ were stripped from the ten epistles.”
[8] Ibid.
[9] Everett Ferguson, Church History: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context, Second edition. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013), 117.
[10] Olson, The Story of Christian Theology, 135.
A Boy and His Bible 