MEANING OF THE WORD "CANON"
The word canon comes from the root word "reed" (English word "cane"; Hebrew form ganeh and Greek Kanon). The "reed" was used as a measuring rod and eventually meant "standard".
Origen used the word "canon to denote what we call the 'rule of faith', the standard by which we are to measure and evaluate..." Later it meant a "list" or "index".
The word "canon" applied to Scripture means "an officially accepted list of books."
One thing to keep in mind is that the church did not create the canon or books included in what we call Scripture. Instead, the church recognized the books that were inspired from their inception. They were inspired by GOD when written.
TESTS OF A BOOK FOR INCLUSION IN THE CANON
We don't know exactly what criteria the early church used to choose the canonical books. There were possible five guiding principles used to determine whether or not a New Testament book is canonical or Scripture. Geisler and Nix record these five principles:
Peter acknowledged Paul's work as Scripture parallel to Old Testament Scripture (II Peter 3:16).
Old Testament Canon
FACTORS DETERMINING NEED OF OLD TESTAMENT CANON
The Jewish sacrificial system was ended by the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD. Even though the Old Testament canon was settled in the Jewish mind long before 70 AD, there was a need for something more definitive. The Jews were scattered and they needed to determine which books were the authoritative Word of GOD because of the many extra-scriptural writings and the decentralization. The Jews became a people of one Book and it was this Book that kept them together.
Christianity started to blossom and many writings of the Christians were beginning to be circulated. The Jews needed to expose them vividly and exclude them from their writings and use in the synagogues.
One needs to be careful that he separates the Hebrew canon of Scripture from the assortment of religious literature.
THE HEBREW CANON
The following is the breakdown of the Jewish Old Testament canon (taken from my seminary notes but can be found in many books such as the modern editions of the Jewish Old Testament. Check The Holy Scriptures, according to the Massoretic Text and Biblia Hebraica, Rudolph Kittel, Paul Kahle [eds.]).
The Law
(Torah)
Although the Christian church has the same Old Testament canon, the number of books differs because we divide Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, etc. into two books each; the Jews also consider the Minor Prophets as one book.
The order of books also differs. The Protestant Old Testament follows a topical order instead of an official order.
CHRIST'S WITNESS TO THE OLD TESTAMENT CANON
Luke 24:44. In the upper room Jesus told the disciples "that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms concerning me." With these words "He indicated the three sections into which the Hebrew Bible was divided - the Law, the Prophets, and the 'Writings' (here called 'the Psalms' probably because the Book of Psalms is the first and longest book in this third section)."
John 10:31-36; Luke 24:44. Jesus disagreed with the oral traditions of the Pharisees (Mark 7, Matthew 15), not with their concept of the Hebrew canon. "There is no evidence whatever of any dispute between Him and the Jews as to the canonicity of any Old Testament book."
Luke 11:51 (also Matthew 23:35): "...from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah." Jesus here confirms His witness to the extent of the Old Testament canon. Abel, as everyone knows, was the first martyr (Genesis 4:6). Zechariah is the last martyr to be named (in the Hebrew Old Testament order. See listing above), having been stoned while prophesying to the people "in the court of the house of the LORD" (II Chronicles 24:21). Genesis was the first book in the Hebrew canon and Chronicles the last book. Jesus basically said "from Genesis to Chronicles," or, according to our order, "from Genesis to Malachi."
EXTRA-BIBLICAL WRITERS' TESTIMONIES
The earliest record of a three-fold division of the Old Testament is in the prologue of the book Ecclesiasticus (ca. 130 BC). The prologue, written by the author's grandson, says: "The Law, and the Prophets and the other books of the fathers." There existed three definite divisions of Scripture.
Josephus, the Jewish historian, (end of the first century AD) writes:
"...and how firmly we have given credit to those books of our own nation is evident by what we do; for during so many ages as have already passed, no one has been so bold as either to add anything to them or take anything from them, or to make any change in them; but it becomes natural to all Jews, immediately and from their very birth, to esteem those books to contain divine doctrines, and to persist in them, and, if occasion be, willingly to die for them. For it is no new thing for our captives, many of them in number, and frequently in time, to be seen to endure racks and deaths of all kinds upon the theatres, that they may not be obliged to say one word against our laws, and the records that contain them..."
The Talmud
Tosefta Yadaim 3:5 says: "The Gospel and the books of the heretics do not make the hands unclean; the books of Ben Sira and whatever books have been written since his time are not canonical."
Seder Olam Rabba 30 writes: "Up to this point (the time of Alexander the Great) the prophets prophesied through the Holy Spirit; from this time onward incline thine ear and listen to the sayings of the wise."
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate "Sanhedrin" VII-VIII,24: "After the latter prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the Holy Spirit departed from Israel."
Melito, Bishop of Sardis, drew up the oldest list of the Old Testament canon that we can date (ca. 170 AD).
Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History IV.26) preserves his comments. Melito said he had obtained the reliable list while traveling in Syria. Melito's comments were in a letter to Anesimus, his friend: "Their names are these...five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, Deuteronomy. Jesus Naue, Judges, Ruth. Four books of Kingdoms, two of Chronicles, the Psalms of David, Solomon's Proverbs (also called Wisdom), Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Job. Of the Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Twelve in a single book, Daniel, Ezekiel, Ezra."
F. F. Bruce comments: "It is likely the Melito included Lamentations with Jeremiah, and Nehemiah with Ezra (though it is curious to find Ezra counted among the prophets). In that case, his list contains all the books of the Hebrew canon (arranged according to the Septuagint order), with the exception of Esther. may not have been included in the list he received from his informants in Syria."
The threefold divisions of the present Jewish text (with 11 books in the Writings) is from the Mishnah (Baba Bathra tractate, fifth century AD).
THE NEW TESTAMENT WITNESS TO THE OLD TESTAMENT AS SACRED SCRIPTURE
Matthew 21:42; 22:29; 26:54,56
Luke 24
John 5:39; 10:35
Acts 17:2,11; 18:28
Romans 1:2; 4:3; 9:17; 10:11; 11:2; 15:4; 16:26
I Corinthians 15:3,4
Galatians 3:8; 3:22; 4:30
I Timothy 5:18
II Timothy 3:16
II Peter 1:20,21; 3:16
"...As the Scripture said..." (John 7:38), without more specific identity there must have been a general understanding of the relationship of Scripture to various books.
THE COUNCIL OF JAMNIA
Many students remark: "Sure, I know about the canon. The leaders got together in a council and decided which books best helped them and then forced the followers to accept them." This is about as far away from the truth as one can get. (But for some people, distance is no problem in the space age.)
The comments of F. F. Bruce and H. H. Rowley are appropriate here:
F. F. Bruce: "The chief reason for asking if the 'Writings' section was complete in our LORD's time is that we have records of discussions that went on among the Rabbis after the Fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 about some of the books in this section. When the destruction of the city and temple was imminent, a great Rabbi belonging to the school of Hillel in the Pharisaic party - Yochanan ben Zakkai by name - obtained permission from the Romans to reconstitute the Sanhedrin on a purely spiritual basis at Jabneh or Jamnia, between Joppa and Azotus (Ashdod). Some of the discussions which went on at Jamnia were handed down by oral transmission and ultimately recorded in the Rabbinical writings. Among their debates they considered whether canonical recognition should be accorded to the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs and Esther. Objections had been raised against these books on various grounds; Esther, for example, did not contain the name of GOD, and Ecclesiastes was none too easy to square with contemporary orthodoxy. But the upshot of the Jamnia debates was the firm acknowledgment of all these books as Holy Scripture."
H. H. Rowley writes: "It is, indeed, doubtful how far it is correct to speak of the Council of Jamnia. We know of no formal or binding decisions that were made, and it is probably that the discussions were informal, though none the less helping to crystallize and to fix more firmly the Jewish tradition."
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