In defence of the authority of the Canon of Scripture

A call to give a defence

All Christians are called to be ready to give a defence of the Gospel, and by inference the Canon of Scripture, usually called the Bible or Scriptures;

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defence to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear (1 Peter 3:15)

Paul also had the same attitude

The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defence of the gospel. (Philippians 1:16-17)

The Canon

1. Kanon is Greek for rod, rule or standard, where our word cane comes from. It is a measure, with beginning and end, marked off. This word better contextualises the Scriptures being more encompassing, and furthermore “canon” also has the connotation of authority.
2. The Canon has two testaments: - from the Greek testamentum, meaning a kind of settlement or agreement, between a superior and inferior – i.e. in this case between God and man; one based on the old covenant (Heb. 8:13) and one on the new (Matt. 26:28; Heb. 12:24) .
3. The Canon as viewed by Scripture as a complete entity.
4. The Canon is closed – nothing more needs to be added to it and nothing needs to be taken away. It is made up of 66 books, 27 in the new and 39 in the old. Note that the Hebrew Old Testament has only 24 books because many of the books in our Bible have been split into two, e.g. Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra & Nehemiah, and the 12 Minor Prophets and not in one book
5. The Canon speaks for itself – no external reference is needed, noting that for understanding, the Holy Spirit is required.

Defending the Canon: Is the Bible the WOrd of GOd?

6. In defence of the Canon we are asking ourselves whether we can believe that the Bible we have today is the same as what the authors penned, and hence is a trustworthy book. In the end the question is whether we have an authentic representation of God’s Word and whether we can believe the Canon is the Word of God.
7. The question of whether a book is the Word of God can only be answered by the Bible itself. In this discussion we cannot over-estimate the power of the Holy Spirit. At every point in the history of the Bible the Holy Spirit has had his hand on its production and preservation, including the most difficult task of translating concepts, words and grammar from one language to another.
8. The defence of the Canon can be made with evidence from both inside and outside the canon. It is clear to even the unlearned scholar that the physical evidence is over whelming in favour of the Bible, as being the authentic divinely inspired word of God.

The Canon is Unique

9. Even a cursory glance at the history of the Bible declares its uniqueness.

• Written over 1300-1500 years
• Written by 40 authors
• Written in 3 languages on 3 continents
• Written in different times – war, peace, drought etc
• Written in different places – brook, palace, prison, in exile etc
• Written in different modes – joy, sorrow, confusion etc
• Written in different styles – poetry, song, law, prophecy, narrative etc
• Unique in circulation – covering the entire plant, nations and languages
• Unique in translation – 2200 languages
• Unique in survival – “time, persecution, criticism, “chopped, knifed, sifted, scrutinised, vilified” (Bernard Ramm[2])
• Unique in teaching – prophecy, history and character, i.e. sin, of man
• Unique in influence in literature and civilisation.
• Unique in power on the sinful soul (sharper than the two edged sword).

Canon cannot be added to

10. Many have tried to add to the 66 books of the Canon. The collection called the Apocrypha such as “The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians” or the “Maccabees I & II” etc. are not canonical but were included in the early versions of the King James Version. The Vatican has accepted many, but there are few thoughtful Christian scholars who consider these as authentic divine revelations of God. (This aspect is not covered in the lecture due to time). The failure of these, along with other texts, to be considered canonical is consistent with the Canon and is the basic tenet of its authenticity.

Authenticity of the manuscripts

11. It is evident that if we had an original copy of each manuscript we would be half way to proving the authenticity of the Scripture. What we actually have is a large number of manuscripts (MSS) which are copies written near to the time of the original. For the New Testament many are only within tens of years or for the entire testament within 250 years of the original. For the New Testament there is over whelming MSS evidence that shows what we read today is what the original authors wrote.
12. Compared with our most venerated secular books such as those of Plato, the New Testament has more MSS closer to the original than most secular books, yet these secular texts are assumed to be the truthful representations of the original. For instance 1300 years elapsed between Plato and the oldest known MSS. Furthermore there are only 7 copies (extant), and yet no one questions there authenticity.

Internal evidence

13. We are assured of the evidence internally – the writers of the New Testament were eye witnesses to the events and wrote about them Luke 1:1-3, 2 Peter 1:16, 1 John 1:3, Acts 2:22. Each author makes a point to differentiate their accounts based on their individual witness; this aligns with the rules of judicial evidence – eye witness evidence always takes precedence over circumstantial evidence or hearsay.
14. The Old Testament repeats itself in some places – some written many hundreds of years later, from a different view point (Samuel verses Chronicles, the latter being the last book written in the Old Testament).

Prophecies attest to the authenticity

15. The prophecies recorded in the Canon attest to its authenticity, as it does God himself when Jesus Christ quotes the Old Testament prophecies as fact, as do many other writers of the New Testament.
16. The birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which occurred as recorded in the Old Testament’s prophecies, also attested to by secular writings, is the greatest of the fulfilled prophecies.

External Evidence

17. External evidence arises from people quoting the New Testament – either from the text itself, or from the text as orally spoken – i.e. Polycarp actually heard John speak. Secular writings including Jewish writing support the authenticity of the 27 books of the New Testament by quoting the original authors.
18. Alignment of the written eye witness accounts, in particular the detailed historic details provided by Luke, fully align with secular historical writings.
19. The Old Testament has less in the way of documentary evidence but that method of the transcribing and transliteration (especially with names) was much more robust than probably the New Testament. The Jews had an equivalent to a checksum method (each letter in Hebrew represents a number) and the checking process was vigilant.
20. Other internal evidence comes from matching the historical narrative with what the secular writers hold to be true. If names of the kings were just made up and inserted into some fictional account of the history the probability that the order of their apparence would match the historical order is very small indeed.
21. There are various MSS available of the Old Testament, the most recent being the Dead Sea Scrolls, of which the entire book of Isaiah, apart from a few small damaged pieces. This particular book matches most modern versions with only very minor differences.
22. The Old Testament was given its present form by the Maroretics (AD 500-950) who took particular care in its form. Jesus quotes from the Septuagint (which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) even though most accept that parts are not well translated (which is not unexpected given the vast difference between Greek and Hebrew). Jesus authenticates the use of a translated version – the Septuagint – by quoting from it.
23. There are other writings of the Jews which quote and dissect the Old Testament; these all point to the authenticity of the Bible. For instance the Mishnah (AD200) is a digest of the oral laws of Moses in intricate detail. The Midrash (100 BC – AD 300) is a textual interpretation of the Law. Each quotes the first five books and the Prophets and hence can be cross reference with our modern translations.

Archaeological Evidence

24. Archaeological evidence is also a strong indicator of the authenticity of the stories in the Scripture.

Conclusion

25. We must, due the over whelming evidence, support the hypothesis that the Canon of Scripture is true and authentic and therefore, is the Word of God.