CANON
We believe the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments,
to be the inspired Word of God, without error in the original writings,
the complete revelation of His will for the salvation of men,
and the Divine and final authority for all Christian faith and life.
At our church the Bible is the final authority on questions of the Christian faith and the Christian life. We define the Bible as “both Old and New Testaments”, meaning the Hebrew books accepted by Judaism and the Greek books that come to us from the apostolic circle of the first century.
These books are called “the canon” (only one ‘n’ (two n’s is the big mobile gun used during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars). Canon is the Greek word that means “rule” or “standard”. We call it “the canon” because these books are the rule or standard for our Christian beliefs – the final authority.
Why do we use only these sixty-six books?
With regard to the Old Testament, we take as authoritative the 39 books the Jews (and Jesus) treated as authoritative. The Jews divided their Scriptures into three sections (the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings) and Jesus accepted the authority of those three sections when He said:
These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the (1) Law of Moses and (2) the Prophets and (3) the Psalms
must be fulfilled. (Luke 24.44)
With regard to the New Testament, we believe the early Christians knew which books were written by the apostolic circle and which weren’t. They were closer to the sources, knew who to trust and who not to trust, and preserved the 27 books that were treated as authoritative for Christians in the ancient world.
That’s why the Old and New Testaments are ‘canon’ (authoritative standards) for us.
There are other ancient writings, Jewish and Christian, which we do not consider “canon” – i.e. authoritative. First are several Jewish books written in Greek (rather than Hebrew) called the Apocrypha. We respect these books (as did the Jews) but with the Jews we Protestants do not treat them as authoritative for our faith. (The Catholics and the Orthodox see the Apocrypha as having authority, but a lesser authority than the canon –a complicated discussion from church history that we’ll bypass.)
There are also books called the Pseudepigrapha (Greek for “false writings”). Some are Jewish and some are Christian; all are written in Greek. The thing that makes them ‘false’ is that they are not written by the people whose names are on them. For example, there are several Books of Enoch that were not written by the biblical Enoch. There are also gospels claiming to be by Thomas (and few others) which were not written by him. People in the ancient world wrote under famous names hoping that their own ideas would be more readily accepted if people thought they were written by Enoch or Thomas. But there was a winnowing process in history that sorted these books out, and the Jews and early Christians knew which writings were genuine and which weren’t, and they passed on their respective canons to us.
Some today propagate conspiracy theories claiming these “lost books” were the true Christianity and our canon is actually a lie forced on the church by the political strong-arming of the Roman Church (or some secret cult within it). But it doesn’t take too much reading in the early Christian fathers to see that our canon was recognized from the earliest days of the Christian faith, well before the power of the Roman Church arose.
So that is the canon we accept, the 66 authoritative books of the Bible that we use today as the final authority for our beliefs and Christian practice.
to be the inspired Word of God, without error in the original writings,
the complete revelation of His will for the salvation of men,
and the Divine and final authority for all Christian faith and life.
At our church the Bible is the final authority on questions of the Christian faith and the Christian life. We define the Bible as “both Old and New Testaments”, meaning the Hebrew books accepted by Judaism and the Greek books that come to us from the apostolic circle of the first century.
These books are called “the canon” (only one ‘n’ (two n’s is the big mobile gun used during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars). Canon is the Greek word that means “rule” or “standard”. We call it “the canon” because these books are the rule or standard for our Christian beliefs – the final authority.
Why do we use only these sixty-six books?
With regard to the Old Testament, we take as authoritative the 39 books the Jews (and Jesus) treated as authoritative. The Jews divided their Scriptures into three sections (the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings) and Jesus accepted the authority of those three sections when He said:
These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the (1) Law of Moses and (2) the Prophets and (3) the Psalms
must be fulfilled. (Luke 24.44)
With regard to the New Testament, we believe the early Christians knew which books were written by the apostolic circle and which weren’t. They were closer to the sources, knew who to trust and who not to trust, and preserved the 27 books that were treated as authoritative for Christians in the ancient world.
That’s why the Old and New Testaments are ‘canon’ (authoritative standards) for us.
There are other ancient writings, Jewish and Christian, which we do not consider “canon” – i.e. authoritative. First are several Jewish books written in Greek (rather than Hebrew) called the Apocrypha. We respect these books (as did the Jews) but with the Jews we Protestants do not treat them as authoritative for our faith. (The Catholics and the Orthodox see the Apocrypha as having authority, but a lesser authority than the canon –a complicated discussion from church history that we’ll bypass.)
There are also books called the Pseudepigrapha (Greek for “false writings”). Some are Jewish and some are Christian; all are written in Greek. The thing that makes them ‘false’ is that they are not written by the people whose names are on them. For example, there are several Books of Enoch that were not written by the biblical Enoch. There are also gospels claiming to be by Thomas (and few others) which were not written by him. People in the ancient world wrote under famous names hoping that their own ideas would be more readily accepted if people thought they were written by Enoch or Thomas. But there was a winnowing process in history that sorted these books out, and the Jews and early Christians knew which writings were genuine and which weren’t, and they passed on their respective canons to us.
Some today propagate conspiracy theories claiming these “lost books” were the true Christianity and our canon is actually a lie forced on the church by the political strong-arming of the Roman Church (or some secret cult within it). But it doesn’t take too much reading in the early Christian fathers to see that our canon was recognized from the earliest days of the Christian faith, well before the power of the Roman Church arose.
So that is the canon we accept, the 66 authoritative books of the Bible that we use today as the final authority for our beliefs and Christian practice.