THE SCRIPTURE CANON by Prof. C. C. Lewis

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 26, 1895

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 38.

THE SCRIPTURE CANON.

By Prof. C. C. Lewis

BY PROF. C. C. LEWIS.

Many people read their Bible without considering whence it came or how it assumed its present form. But others are bound to think, and their thoughts run somewhat as follows:—

This book, called the Bible, was not received by me directly from the Supreme Being; I bought my copy at the book store. Its title-page says it was “printed at the University Press, London, by Henry Froude,” but when, it does not reveal. After the title-page is an address by “the translators of the Bible” to “James, king of Great Britain, France, and Ireland,” etc. King James ruled from 1567 to 1625, and the translators finished their work A.D. 1611. What I have then is not the original, but a translation.

Turning another leaf, I learn that this book is not a continuous treatise written by one author, but a series of 66 books, 39 of which are grouped under the general title of “The Old Testament,” and the remaining 27 books, under the title “The New Testament.” Moreover, these 66 books seem to have been written by nearly as many authors, at times varying from about 1,500 years before Christ to nearly 100 years after Christ, or during a period covering roughly 1,600 years, and ending 1,700 years ago.

Who got these books together?

When were they brought together?

How was the work accomplished?

These are pertinent questions; they deserve a straightforward answer. There must be no equivocation, no ambiguity, no suppression of facts, no assumptions. And here it may be observed that no man living, no man who has lived during the past 1,500 years or more, can answer these questions from his own knowledge. Appeal must be made to the records of the past, to history.

The discussion, then, has to do with what is called the “Canon of Scripture.” “Canon” is a Greek word, meaning literally “a straight rod.” It is used figuratively of a testing rule in art, logic, grammar, or ethics. “In the early days of Christianity the term was used generally to denote a standard of opinion and practice.” It was first directly applied to the Holy Scriptures toward the close of the fourth century A.D.

The question of the canon necessarily involves the question of inspiration; for to decide what books belong to the canon is to determine first what books are inspired.

The canon, then, is the complete list of books of divine authority, and is the authoritative standard of religion and morals. Books divinely inspired are canonical; books not inspired are uncanonical; books of doubtful inspiration are called apocryphal. The object of this article is not to decide what books are canonical, but to ascertain when, how, and by whom the present canon was determined.

There are only traces of the mode of preserving the sacred writings before the captivity. Moses ordered the “Book of the Law” to be placed “in the side of the ark.” But Ezra is universally regarded as the man who laid the foundation of the Old Testament canon, about the middle of the fifth century B.C. He is described as “a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given,” who “had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.” (See Ezra 7:6, 10.) Ezra went up to Jerusalem from Babylon after the exile, taking with him the law, which had fallen into disuse. Ezra 7:14. His object was to lead the people to return to the practice of the laws and the forms of worship enjoined by the writings of Moses. His entire success is recorded in Nehemiah, chapters 8 to 10. The people entered into a solemn covenant to keep the law of Moses, which Ezra had brought home with him. That was the establishment of the Pentateuch as the canonical and authoritative book of the Jews, and so it has remained to the present time. Whatever discussion may have taken place with reference to the admission of subsequent books, there never has been any question about this portion.

“After the first collection was made,” says the Encyclopedia Britannica, “attention was directed to other national documents. Of these the prophetic books were the most conspicuous, because many of their predictions had been fulfilled. Exhortations and warnings, which had often fallen upon listless ears, had been verified by experience. Hence these historical books of the nation, which described the divine guidance of the people, as well as the kings under whom the earliest prophets lived, were first adopted.” This second canon originated with Nehemiah, of whom it is said in Maccabees 2:13 that “when founding a library, he collected the acts of the Kings and the prophets and the [writings] of David, and the letters of Kings concerning sacred offerings.” This canon was partly guarded in its formation, and was not completed till the close of the fourth century B.C.

The third collection was made during the space of 150 years. It embraced some of the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Canticles, and Chronicles. The first collection was called “The Law;” the second, “The

Prophets;” and the third, on account of its miscellaneous character, “The Writings.”

Not till near the close of the first century A.D. do we have definite testimony concerning the canon. Josephus says:—

For we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us, but only twenty-two books, which contain the records of all the past times, which are justly believed to be divine. And of them five belong to Moses. . . . But as to the time from the death of Moses till the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, the prophets who were after Moses wrote down what was done in their times in thirteen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God and precepts for the conduct of human life. It is true our history has been written since Artaxerxes very particularly, but has not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there has not been an exact succession of prophets since that time; and how firmly we have given credit to these 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, to take anything from them, or to make any change in them; but it has become natural to all Jews, immediately and from their very birth, to esteem these books to contain divine doctrines, and to persist in them, and, if occasion be, willingly to die for them.—Josephus, contra Apion, 1:8.

Josephus’ list agrees with our present Old Testament canon in matter, though not in the number of books, several books separated at present having been joined by the Jews, evidently to make their number agree with the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet—twenty-two.

Although Josephus declares that no one had dared to change this canon for ages, there are, nevertheless, records of controversy concerning the admission of certain portions, as Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Esther, and Proverbs, which books were once excluded, but were restored about 32 B.C. The controversy revived in 65 A.D., and was finally settled at the Jewish council of Jamnia, about A.D. 90, the result restoring the books and confirming the tradition which had been so long current.

This Old Testament collection constituted the Scriptures constantly quoted by Christ and his apostles during their ministry, and thus became the canon of Scripture to the first Christians. They relied on it as their chief religious book. They regarded it as of divine origin and authority. The New Testament writings came into gradual use by the side of the older Jewish documents. Naturally the letters of the apostles to the local churches, with their more general accounts of the life of Christ, were copied and circulated among the believers, so that when Marcion came from Pontus to Rome (144 A.D.), he brought with him a Scripture collection consisting of ten Pauline epistles. A collection of Paul’s writings is implied in 2 Peter 3:16.

The earliest trace of canonical authority’s being transferred from the Old Testament to Christian writings occurs about 119 A.D., in a passage from Barnabas, where a quotation, apparently from Matt. 20:16, is introduced by, “It is written.”

Toward the close of the second century A.D. a canon, consisting of two parts, had been established and generally accepted. The first part was complete, containing the four Gospels alone. The second part was still forming; it contained the Acts, thirteen letters of Paul, one of John, one of Peter, and the Revelation. How and where this canon originated is uncertain. It may have grown up about the same time in Asia Minor, Alexandria, and Western Africa; for Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian recognize its existence and speak of its two parts. Origen’s testimony, about 250 A.D., is regarded as of great value. He recognizes the foregoing list as generally admitted to be of apostolic origin, and classes Hebrews, James, Jude, 2 Peter, and 2 and 3 John as books concerning which opinion wavered.

A century later the historian Eusebius was commissioned by the Emperor Constantine to make out a complete list of the sacred Christian writings. He inquired diligently into the prevailing opinions of the Christian churches and writers, also concerning the views held by others before him and by those living in his own time. The result was about the same as that reached by Origen, though the tradition concerning certain books was still wavering, and he was unable to fix it.

From this time onward the combined canon was subjected to the criticism and decrees of various councils of the Catholic Church; but the results did not affect materially the list of books which constitutes our present Bible, and the limits of this article make it impossible to go into the details of a discussion which has continued at intervals almost to the present time.

Moreover, we are not greatly concerned about the controversies of the Roman Catholic Church over the canon, for the canon was virtually fixed before that church existed. In the language of Dr. Davidson, in the “Encyclopedia Britannica,” “the preservation of the early Christian writings was owing, in the first instance, to the congregations to whom they were sent and the neighboring ones with whom such congregations had friendly connection. The care of them devolved on the most influential teachers. The canon had been made before the first general council of the Catholic Church by a few leading fathers towards the end of the second century in different countries.” The three leading names of these fathers have already been mentioned. They reflected the general sentiment of the Christians of those countries where they lived. “A certain consciousness manifested itself throughout the east and west in the matter of the canon. Tolerable unanimity ensued. The result was a remarkable one, and calls for our gratitude. Though the development was pervaded by no critical or definite principle, it ended in a canon which has maintained its validity for centuries.”

If it be asked what definite principles guided the early Christians in the formation of the canon, it would be difficult to give an exact answer. My own conviction is that they were guided by their confidence in the character of the men who wrote the Scriptures, by their belief that God wrought through those men while they lived, and by their inherent perception that God was speaking to their hearts through the books which those men had written. Thus canonical authority does not depend on the church or its councils; it lies in the Scriptures themselves. It is inherent in those books which contain a revelation or declaration of the divine will.

If to this view it be objected that the scribes and Pharisees and councils of the Jewish church, together with their counterparts in the more modern church, constitute a safer guide than to leave the recognition of inspiration to the intuition of the common people, I reply in the eloquent language of another:—

“The judgment which theological prejudice might pass on the several books of the record of revelation was controlled by the practical experience of those who found in the Scriptures food for their own daily life; and so, in God’s providence, a result was attained which rested on sounder principles than those of the schools. Throughout the history of the church, it has always been found that the silent experience of the pious people of God has been truer, and has led the church in a safer path, than the public decrees of those who claim to be authoritative leaders of theological thought.”

College View, Neb.