—Disclaimer—awaiting editing.
CANON OF SCRIPTURE
The canon of scripture is a process that occurred in the 4th century AD were we recognized the Holy Bible which we have in the Christendom doctrine as the final authoritative Word of God. This consists of 66 total books; 27 in the New Testament and 39 in the Old Testament. The actual process of the Old Testament canonization is unknown, but undeniably had to do with the life and relationship between God and His people as a worshiping nation. The New Testament Scripture was canonized according to their “apostolicity,” or in other words, the validity of the writings according their character in line with the rest of Scripture and the teachings of Jesus Christ. This apostolicity was the means in which the early church was lead into Christian living. The canon of Scripture was not an event, rather a several hundred year advance.
Beginning with ‘local canons’, it finally emerged into the canon which exists in Christendom today. In and through all this parade of Scriptures, it is the Holy Spirit whom we as Evangelical Christians believe was the active force in the finale of the production and preservation of God’s Word.
NEW TESTAMENT CANNON
Just as the Old Testament, the New Testament is a canonical process, rather than an event, reflecting that of the Old Testament. Not all writings of the apostles were canonized. They were accepted by their apostolicity, which were considered authoritative to Christians. The actual collaborating date of all these works of literature is unknown, but we can track it to around the 4th century.
The Pauline letters to the churches were rare blessings in a time of no canonized New Testament. Paper was expensive. They were extremely valuable in the eyes of the early church, so they would share these writings. Writers such as Clement of Rome clearly saw the value and necessity of Paul’s writings. This was proven by some of his own writings, such as when he referred to Paul by saying, “Take up the epistle of the blessed Paul the Apostle. What did He first write to you at the beginning of his preaching? With true inspiration hi charged you…” (1 Clement 47:1-3).
Christian documents would be accumulating upon the approaching of the 3rd century. At this time, there had already been a collection of Paul and Luke’s writings. The Gnostics, by this time, were filling libraries with apocryphal writings. Much of these cannot be accepted by the Church as Biblical. The canon of the non-Christian assortment is called the Muratorian. We have found, within mid-20th century, a collection of Paul’s letters which are in the familiar order of what we have in our canon today. These manuscripts are dated around 200 AD. This is evidence in the collection of Christian documents from the end of the 2nd century and the beginning of the 3rd.
During the second century, we had a growing collaboration of writings that would soon become part of the cannoned Bible we now have today, however, not all writings were accepted. These rejected were among the Gnostics and apocryphal. We will begin with the fourth century where the majority of the writings were collaborated for the cannoning of Scripture.
In the 4th century we had several books that were considered “canonical”. We find that they were in these categories: 1) Accepted, 2) disputed, 3) rejected, and 4) heretical. I will list these for you in order previously stated. The accepted are most of the New Testament books; Disputed are James, Jude, 2 Peter, and 2 & 3 John. The Rejected contained the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, otherwise known as Revelation. Interestingly enough, Many placed this book in category #1: Accepted.
The two oldest and best manuscripts we have today for the New Testament are the Codex Vaticanus and the Codex Sinaiticus. The Vaticanus contains books from Matthew to Hebrews, with some missing portions, while the Sinaiticus contains the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), the Paulines (Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon), Hebrews, Acts, General Epistles (James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1,2 &3 John, Jude), Revelation, and the books of Barnabas and Hermas. These last two books suggest a broader, or larger cannon in some areas. Codex Alexandrinus in the 5th century includes 1 & 2 Clements.
In AD 367, we find our 1st cannon of New Testament Scripture of our 27 familiar books. This is within Athanasius of Alexandrias festal letter (#96), however, the order here is different that what we have now. It was not until 380 that we find the New Testament in the familiar order (this order taken from the Latin Vulgate) from the writings of Amphilocius of Iconium. This, then, would reveal to us that the familiar order of twenty-seven New Testament books we have today, weren’t formed until late 4th century.
The book order/arrangement of the New Testament was adopted from the Latin Vulgate, but note that there is no “correct” order thereof. Also, the chapter divisions weren’t introduced until the 13th century, and the verse formation wasn’t initiated until 1551 by Robert Stephanus. This means that the readers of the Scripture before these times had no reference of scripture verse or chapters as we do now.
OLD TESTAMENT CANON
The name “Old Testament” is not found in Jewish writings, but was adopted by Christians who recognized the covenant God made with Abraham and the patriarchs, which in turn was repeated in Christ Jesus to His apostles. “Old Testament” in Jewish literature is called the “Tanak.” This name comes from the words, Torah (Law), Naviim (Prophets), and Kethubim (Writings), known as “The Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms”. As Christians, we acknowledge the New Testament, or Covenant, from Jesus Christ as a continuation of the earlier covenant made with the patriarchs and spoken by the prophets, therefore called the former covenant (Heb.8:7-13; 9:1, 15-22). We call this the Old Testament. Now, the names “New” and “Old Testament” doesn’t necessarily reflect the separation of books, but rather the idea is placed on the actual covenants that were made between God and man, though we call them Old Testament and New Testament.
Although the word ‘canon’ is not a biblical word, it is used to define the process that took place through the life of the people, found it’s way into the sacred ark of the covenant and placed in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle. This proves their authority, authenticity, and reverence. Among these, the Prophets (Naviim) and the Writings (Kethubim) were secondary in observance to the Law (Torah). These books were separate before they were combined into one book as we know them. In the Torah was Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, also known as the Pentateuch (implementation of five books). The Naviim consisted of Joshua, Judges, Samuel (1, 2), Kings (1, 2), Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel; and the minor prophets (the last 12 books of the Old Testament) were a book in themselves. The Kethubim included: three poetry (Psalms, Proverbs, Job), five of rolls (Song, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther), and three narrative/historical (Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, 1-2 Chronicles). Any division or combination of these books in their original observance is apart from ancient Hebrew tradition.
There was no specific order in which these books were numbered. However, modern Protestant Bibles mirror the order of the Latin Vulgate and the content of the Hebrew, thus giving us what we have today known as the Old Testament.
See also: Doctrine of Scripture