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Claim ID: BIB-IS08

Claim: Books of the Bible Carefully Authenticated by Church Councils

Summary: The 66 books of the Bible were carefully recognized as inspired by God and authorized by God's people for use in Jewish and Christian communities. A strict set of criteria was used to qualify each book as inspired.

Description: The Canon is a collection of books recognized by the Church as authoritative. The 66 books of the Bible were recognized as authoritative, not made authoritative. This is an important distinction. Canonicity is determined by God and discovered by man.

The word canon means ruler or measuring rod. It is derived from a word that means cane or reed (Greek, kanon; Hebrew, qaneh). In the ancient world, cane was used as a measuring stick. When applied to the books of the Bible, it means that they measure up to the standard of being divinely inspired. The canon becomes the yardstick for measuring spiritual truth from all other sources. It is our standard for measuring truth.

The process by which the canon of the Bible was recognized is based on the following considerations [REF-GEI03].

• Recognized as Inspired by God: The books of the Bible were recognized for its inspiration, not selected. For example, when John the Baptist saw Jesus at his baptism, he declared, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29). John the Baptist did not make Jesus the Lamb of God, he merely acknowledged and recognized and bore witness to that fact. John just pointed out who he was. In the same way, no church or council "made" the canon or gave the books of the Bible their authority. They just acknowledged and gave witness to the authority the books intrinsically contained. They received it as God’s Holy Word, they did not create it. It is more accurate to speak of discovering the canon rather than determining the canon.
• Recognized by a Spokesperson of God: Prophets and apostles recognized the voice of God. They were divinely prompted by God to communicate God's message to his people. Moreover, they were divinely guided by God's Spirit to not only speak God's message but also write his message. This guidance involved illumination and choice of words to accurately convey what God wanted his people to hear/read for all time.
• Recognized by the People of God: The inspired books of the prophets and apostles were collected and preserved by the Jewish scribes and the Apostolic Fathers of the church. They were copied with great care and reverence. They were read in gatherings, and quickly became the focus of theological understanding within Jewish and Christian communities.

The Old Testament canon consisting of the 39 books of the Law and the Prophets was settled and acknowledged over time. As the books were handed down from the prophets, they were accepted by the Jewish rabbis and community at large. The Jewish nation accepted the Old Testament canon as closed after the prophet Malachi. God was not speaking through any prophet from BC 400 until the time of Christ.

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. All 27 books of the New Testament canon were fully settled and acknowledged by the Council of Carthage in 397 AD.

Resources:

• From God to Us (REF-GEI03)

• The Canon of Scripture (REF-FFB02)