March 15, 2002, Vol.2, No.6.
Two new articles every two weeks.
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THIS ISSUE: "How
Do We Know We Have the Bible? (part 1)"
and "How Do We Know We
Have the Bible? (part 2)"
How Do We Know
We Have the Bible?
(part 1) - Canon
by Keith Sharp
 "It
is a matter altogether of uncertainty to us whether such of the
writings as now appear under the name of the Old and New Testaments
are in the same state in which those collectors say they found
them, or whether they added, altered, abridged, or dressed them
up.... they decided by vote which of the books out of the collection
they had made should be the word of God, and which should not."
(Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, 18)
Unbelievers have always denied the authority of the Bible.
Besides rejecting the fact the apostles and prophets were inspired
of God, they also deny that we have any way of knowing how the
Bible should read.
There are two separate questions we must answer to be sure
we do indeed have the Bible. First, we must know the canon of
Scripture. "Canon," from the Greek word "kanon,"
meaning "rule" (cf. Galatians 6:16), refers to the
list of books which are authoritative, in other words, are inspired
of God. The problem of canonicity is to determine which books
actually belong in the Bible.
The other problem area is textual criticism. The word "criticism"
does not mean a denial of Scripture. It means the attempt to
determine the proper text of the books of the Bible. It is the
study that tries to determine what the original manuscripts (the
actual inspired documents that came from the apostles and prophets,
known as "autographs") really said.
So we have one overall inquiry to solve: Do we really have
the inspired Scriptures in our present Bibles? But this greater
question is answered by solving two smaller but very important
matters. What is the canon of Scripture? In other words, what
books really belong in the Bible? And, what is the text of the
Scriptures? Can we know that the words in our present Bibles
represent the words the apostles and prophets actually wrote?
CANON
Let's study canonicity first. This study naturally divides
itself into two categories: Old Testament canon and New Testament
canon.
Old Testament
We will first study the Old Testament canon. How do we know
that the thirty-nine books in our Old Testament really belong
there and are the only books that belong there?
If we accept that Jesus is the Son of God, then whatever He
says about any subject settles the matter. Although Jesus rejected
most of the traditions of the Jews (Matthew 15:5-9), He accepted
as the "commandment of God" the Scriptures the Jews
recognized as comprising the Old Testament (Matthew 15:1-4).
The Master broke the Scriptures in the Jewish Bible into three
sections: "the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms"
(Luke 24:44), the very threefold division of the Old Testament
the Jews recognized, which included the same thirty-nine books
we have in our Old Testaments.
Catholic Bibles today include several books not found in our
Bibles. They are called the "Apocryphal" books. "Apocryphal"
means "of doubtful authorship and authority." These
books were never accepted as a part of the canon of Scripture
by the Jews, none of them claim to be inspired of God, and they
were even rejected by the great scholar Jerome, whose Latin translation
of the Bible, the Vulgate, is the basis for Catholic versions
of the Bible.
There is no reasonable basis for doubting that we have the
inspired Scriptures and all the inspired Scriptures that preceded
the New Testament in our Old Testament.
New Testament
What about the New Testament? Jesus promised to send the Holy
Spirit to His apostles to "guide" them "into all
truth." (John 16:13-15) They did receive the Holy Spirit
(Acts 2:1-4), and had "the treasure" of the inspired
word of God "in earthen vessels." (2 Corinthians 4:7)
In other words, the inspired Word was in inspired men.
But the apostles and prophets of the New Testament wrote this
inspired message in books for the disciples to read (Ephesians
3:1-7). What the apostles and prophets wrote "is in truth,
the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe."
(1 Thessalonians 2:13) The apostle Peter promised that "the
word of God," "the gospel," is "incorruptible"
and "lives and abides forever." (1 Peter 1:22-25)
Thus, even while the apostles were yet alive, their books
were being circulated and saved (cf. Colossians 4:16) and were
recognized as "Scripture" (2 Peter 3:14-16), that is,
God's Word in written form.
By the end of the second century a list of inspired books,
in other words a New Testament canon, had been drawn up by Irenaeus,
who was a student of Polycarp, who was a student of the apostle
John. The Muratorian fragment, from about the same date, likewise
lists the New Testament canon. Origen in the third century and
Eusebius and Athanasius in the fourth century provide lists of
those books which were accepted as inspired of God.
Often people say the church gave us the Bible. This is not
true. The Old Testament was complete four hundred years before
the church was established. The New Testament was given to us
by the apostles and prophets. The church simply recognized the
New Testament in the same way a child recognizes its mother (cf.
Galatians 4:21-31).
The twenty-seven books which comprise our New Testament stand
with the thirty-nine Old Testament books to complete the canon
of Scripture. Whereas the inspired Word of God was once in inspired
men, it is now in an inspired book, the Bible.
Conclusion
Do we have the actual books that belong in the Bible and all
those books? Without a doubt!
(Part 2 of this article)
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