The Formation Of The Biblical Canon Essay — страница 3

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to you.? This verse alludes to a coming time when Christ will send his Holy Spirit to reveal all truth to the Apostles. The apostles were closer to Jesus than anyone so historically, they would have known more about His life, teachings, and ministry. These things put the Apostle?s writings automatically above all other writings as being inspired by God. The second criteria for canonicity is orthodoxy which means ?straight thinking.? The truth or ?canon of faith? in New Testament literature is what many claim to be the unifying and distinguishing elements. This was one of the issues that was harder to figure out among the early church. Upon examination of the New Testament text, it becomes apparent that there is not one unified view of theology present throughout the entire Bible.

Lee McDonald says in his book, titled The Formation of the Biblical Canon, that ?the very presence of creedal formulations after the formation of a Christian biblical canon has manifestly demonstrated that ?orthodoxy? itself was based upon a ?canon within the canon.? ? This ?canon within the canon? kept the scriptures orthodox in the sense that the all focus on the same thing, Jesus Christ. The third factor in developing a specific text of scripture was that of antiquity. Antiquity seems to have been an important criterion for canonicity for some of the churches along with apostolicity and a ?rule of faith.? But the question may be asked, ?Why were the Didache, 1 Clement, Shepherd of Hermas, Barnabas, and the Epistles of Ignatius and Polycarp excluded from the canon when books

like 2 Peter, probably the Pastorals, and possibly other literature was written after these deuterocanonical writings?? Helmut Koester claims that many of the wrings not included in the canon of the New Testament such as the Unknown Gospel, Dialogue of the Savior, the Apocryphin of John, and the Gospel of Peter were, in fact, used as sources for some of the canonical Gospels. Antiquity should by no means be the sole determiner in deciding the books of divine inspiration, but a book needs to be written during antiquity to be considered a reliable document for inclusion in the canon. The next issue that was examined in a prospective document to be included in the Biblical canon was that of divine inspiration. According to Lee M. McDonald, ?All of the ancient church fathers believed

their canon of scriptures was inspired. But inspiration in the NT writings was not generally the basis for commending those works to the people.? One of the exceptions to this rule is the Apocalyptic book of Revelation that was most likely written by John, the apostle closest to Jesus. Revelation?s claims of prophetic inspiration for itself are what immediately insured its authenticity. There are numerous other examples of documents claiming inspiration for themselves but this did not assure their inclusion in the canon of the Bible. This only goes to show that inspiration in and of itself was not a criterion in which a book would be given automatic status as Scripture. The canon of faith (consistency of the teachings about the message of Jesus Christ) seemed to be more of a

factor for inclusion in the canon of the New Testament. The last of the five criteria is early church usage. A specific book use among the early church is most likely what ultimately led to its inclusion or omission from the New Testament canon. This does not account for the inclusion of certain books in the New Testament canon (Philemon, 2 Peter, Jude, 2 and 3 John, and possibly others) and the omission of others ( 1 Clement, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Didache, and possibly Barnabas). According to Lee M. McDonald, ?Usage is probably the primary key to understanding the preservation and canonization of the books that make up our current New Testament.? If a document was not relevant or useful, or if it did not meet the growing needs of the early church for worship and

instructional purposes, it probably did not have a chance of being included in the New Testament canon. The issues of apostolicity, orthodoxy, antiquity, inspiration, and church usage are the five main points discussed for the inclusion of a text in the New Testament canon. There are still some questions that remain today about the Biblical canon?s recognition of some documents as divinely authoritative. Despite this, we have reason to believe that all that is included in our New Testament is ?God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting,and training in righteousness? (2 Timothy 3:16). Suggested Topic From Reading Upon completion of the outside reading I have done of the subject of the formation of the canon of inspired Biblical writings, I have summarized more