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Evidence ID: BIB-EV03
Evidence: 27 New Testament Books Pass Tests of Canonicity
Summary: The primary tests for canonicity of the New Testament books were apostolic origin, doctrinal soundness and wide acceptance by the church. In many cases, the original autographs were handed down from the apostles to their apprentices in the faith, the early Apostolic fathers. Twenty of the 27 books of the New Testament were accepted by the Apostolic Fathers as early as the first half of the second century. The remaining 7 books were later accepted into the canon at the beginning of the fourth century.
Description: In the first few centuries, there were many false books and writings claiming to have divine authority and wanting to be considered scripture. These writings of suspicious authorship are referenced to as the pseudepigrapha. There was not much debate about the canon in the first hundred years after Jesus’ resurrection.
It was when a heretic named Marcion came along in the second century (140 AD) and rejected the Hebrew Bible, rejected the God of the Old Testament and propagated the teaching that there was only one God, the God of the New Testament. He rejected anything Jewish, rejected any New Testament book that spoke about the Old Testament and anything Jewish. He saw the god of the Old Testament as mean and angry, a demi-god, a lower being than the true god. He was denounced as a heretic.
Marcion and other heretical teachings forced the church fathers to carefully review their collection of authoritative writings. They needed to come up with some basic criteria to test these writings to see if they measured up to being divinely inspired by God.
There were three main tests for New Testament canonicity [REF-GEI01] [REF-WLC03]:
Luke was not an apostle but traveled extensively with Paul and interviewed eyewitnesses to Jesus’ ministry. His writings had an indirect "apostolic authority" because of his connection with Paul and his careful research of other apostolic teaching known elsewhere.
Mark also was not an apostle, but tradition says that he was Peter’s scribe. Mark’s work has "apostolic authority" because of that connection with Peter.
Paul had a dramatic conversion where he met the resurrected Jesus and became one of the most prolific New Testament writers. Because of his missionary journeys, the Gospel was spread to much of the known world because of his preaching and teaching. The other apostles accepted his conversion experience as authentic.
Irenaeus refers to the apprenticeship of Mark and Luke under Peter and Paul, respectively.
Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome, and laying the foundations of the Church. After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, did also hand down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter. Luke also, the companion of Paul, recorded in a book the Gospel preached by him. Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon His breast, did himself publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia. Irenaeus of Lyons; Against Heresies, Book III [REF-IRE01]
So, to be included in the New Testament canon, a book had to be written by an apostle or a person close to an apostle (an amanuensis, a traveling companion, someone who sat under an apostle’s teaching).
Any book with factual or doctrinal errors could not be inspired by God. God cannot lie, and His Word is true [BIB-IS14]. A book was not automatically considered inspired if it agreed with other apostolic teaching, but if it contradicted the Old Testament, it was rejected.
In their book, From God to Us, Geisler and Nix state:
"Much of the Apocrypha was rejected because of the principle of authenticity. Their historical anomalies and theological heresies made it impossible to accept them as from God despite their authoritative format. They could not be from God and contain error at the same time." [REF-GEI03]
- Did the original people and leaders that the writings were given to recognize them as authoritative writings based on first century apostolic teaching?
- Did many leaders accept the writings, not just a few leaders?
- Were the writings widely used in many different regions of the church, not just one city?
- Did churches keep using them over a long period of time, or was its popularity short-lived?
The original books of the New Testament (autographs) were likely handed down from the apostles to their apprentices in the faith, the early church fathers. This unbroken chain of custody from apostles to Apostolic Fathers guaranteed the authenticity and authority of the autographs. For example, Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, was a student of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna who in turn was a student of the Apostle John.
Early church leaders quote extensively from the New Testament. This shows their recognition of its divine origin. If all the manuscripts from the first three centuries were destroyed, it would be possible to reconstruct virtually the entire New Testament just from their quotations of it. One scholar, Sir David Dalrymple, believed that by his count, only eleven verses of the New Testament were missing from their writings! God determined which books were authoritative, but the people of God used these tests to discover which books were inspired and which were not.
Twenty of the 27 books of the New Testament were accepted by the Apostolic Fathers as early as the first half of the second century.
The 7 books that were not originally accepted (not disputed) included Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude and Revelation. These books were later accepted into the canon at the beginning of the fourth century after their authenticity and authority were settled by the Apostolic Fathers [REF-GEI03].
These early canons were lists of books or collections of books that were used. Included are the Muratorian Canon (170 AD), the Old Syriac Canon (200 AD), the Old Latin Canon (200 AD) and the Athanasius Easter Letter (367 AD).
All 27 books of the New Testament canon were fully settled and acknowledged by the Council of Carthage in 397 AD.
The Latin Vulgate (400 AD) was the first Bible that had all 66 books in one collection. The Latin Vulgate was the entire Bible translated into Vulgar Latin from Hebrew and Greek by the historian Jerome. Jerome was commissioned by Pope Damascus I in 382 AD.
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