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How Do We Know That the Bible is the Bible? (Part 3)
This is the final installment of our series about the formation of the Bible. I hope this in-depth look at this rather complex issue has been enlightening and edifying. We will return to the regular eDevotion format next week.
The Apostles: Writing with Divine Authority
On the basis of historical fact and the New Testament record, we can be sure that we are using the same Old Testament Scriptures that Jesus himself used and recognized as the authoritative Word of God. The question of which books make up the New Testament, although slightly more complex, also rests ultimately on the authority of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
While he was on earth, Jesus called and appointed twelve men to be his apostles. He gave them authority to speak for him, and promised them, “He who listens to you listens to me” (Luke 10:16). Before his ascension, he assured them that they would have divine help in proclaiming the Gospel: “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26).
Jesus also promised the Twelve, “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you” (John 16:13-14).
It was Jesus’ plan that his apostles, guided by the Holy Spirit, would speak in his name after his ascension. The apostles “preached the Gospel by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven” (1 Peter 1:12). The Bible, like the Church, is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20).
The authority of the New Testament writings, then, comes directly from the Lord Jesus to the apostles. Writing under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, those apostles (and other men who worked closely with the apostles) wrote the books that became our New Testament. Because it was written under the careful oversight of the Apostles, who had the promise of Jesus and the help of the Holy Spirit, we are confident of the authority of the New Testament.
The apostles were active not only in writing, but also in collecting and preserving the inspired Scriptures. Peter, for example, knew and referred to the collection of epistles by his fellow apostle Paul (2 Peter 3:15,16). This was important activity, not only to insure that those writings were preserved for later generations, but also to make sure that no forged writings were passed off as apostolic.
The New Testament: Universally recognized
But how do we know which books were written by apostles, or with apostolic authority? There are two ways. The first is by the “internal evidence” of books themselves ― what do these books claim for themselves? Who do they say wrote them? Do they agree with the consistent teaching of the rest of Scripture? Do they show themselves to be inspired, authoritative, and self-authenticating? The question of “internal evidence” was dealt with in the first part of this study.
The second way we can be sure of which books were inspired by God and written with apostolic authority is by the so-called “external evidence” that these books bring with them through the pages of history.
There is evidence that by the first quarter of the second century (125 A.D.) that the four Gospels and Paul’s Epistles had been gathered into a collection of apostolic writings that was widely available (and therefore widely written about) throughout Christendom. The early “Apostolic Fathers” ― men who were disciples of apostles, or disciples of disciples of apostles ― quoted from and considered these works to be authoritative. These men lived in a time period very close to that of the Apostles. They worked closely with the Apostles, and were in a position to know what was and was not apostolic. We value these very early witnesses to the New Testament.
As the Church continued to spread, so did the copies of the books of the Bible. By the last quarter of the second century (175 A.D.), we see that almost all of the books of the New Testament had found their way to almost every part of the Christian world. Irenaeus, who was a bishop in what is now France, quoted from all of the New Testament except for Philemon, 2 Peter, and 2 John. Other early church writers did the same, quoting from and referring to the books of the Bible in a way that shows they recognized their special divine authority.
It is important to notice that we don’t accept these books because Irenaeus or Justin or Polycarp or someone else accepted them ― we accept them for the same reason that those writers accepted them: because those men recognized the apostolic authority of the books of the Bible.
Because of the painstaking process by which books were hand-copied, and the difficulty of travel and communication in the ancient world, it is easy to see why different congregations in different parts of the world had slightly different sets of books at different times. Just because a congregation, or group of congregations, did not use a certain book does not mean they rejected that book. It usually meant that that church had not yet received a copy of that particular book, or had not been able to study it sufficiently. When we consider the historical facts surrounding the New Testament (hand-copying, slow travel, poor communications, widespread persecution, etc.) we give thanks to God and marvel at how quickly and widely the New Testament writings were spread.
The Antilegomena: “Spoken against”
As we look at the “assembling” of the books of the Bible, is important to consider that for the vast majority of the New Testament writings, there was never any debate at all. From the beginning and throughout history, there has been remarkable consensus about which books belong in the Bible and which do not.
We now turn to the books that make up the tiny minority: the seven books that were not immediately recognized for what they were, whose acceptance as part of God’s special revelation was not immediate and universal. Those seven books were: Hebrews, 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, James, Jude, and Revelation
The basic reason that these books were “spoken against” is that some people doubted their apostolic authorship. Those who doubted seemed to have the evidence on their side ― the way that many of the universally accepted books gained such widespread “fame” is that they were quoted widely ― and the silence of ancient church writers concerning these books was taken as evidence that they were not apostolic.
However, just because a writer does not quote from a book does not mean he rejects it. We would not expect a shorter letter like 2 Peter or Jude to be quoted as often as a major work like Romans. And, as we have already discussed, a writer’s silence might just be evidence that he doesn’t have a copy of that particular book yet. On top of that, Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians and might have been slow to be spread to Gentile believers. 3 John is a personal letter. Revelation was written so late (~95 A.D.) that it, too, would have been slow to spread throughout the Christian world.
Whatever the reason for their slow acceptance, the antilegomena were eventually accepted into the canon of the New Testament alongside the other 20 books that were never disputed. When we consider this issue, it is important to remember that these books are not “less inspired” or “less authoritative” in any way. The doubts or objections that have been raised about these seven books do not reflect poorly on the books themselves; rather, the doubts expose a lack of understanding or information on the part of the doubter. Even Luther, who held serious doubts about James and Revelation, was operating under a faulty set of principles regarding the interpretation and/or origin of those books, and his doubt does not in any way lessen the authority of the Holy Spirit and the words of Scripture.
One final word: The issue of the antilegomena should not cause us to doubt, but to rejoice. The leaders of the early church took very seriously their responsibility as guardians of God’s Word, and the slow and careful investigation that surrounded these lesser-known books helps us to see how highly they held the Bible. Their attitude seems to have been “when in doubt, throw it out.” Pastor Gary Baumler writes, “A non-canonical book had about as much chance of making the Scriptures as any of us would have of making the Detroit Lions football team.” While we might quibble with his opinion about what makes an exemplary NFL team, we certainly share his sentiments about the reliability of the New Testament.
Spurious New Testament Writings: Not “measuring up”
Besides the compiling of the apostolically-authored, divinely-inspired books into the New Testament, the parallel issue that needs to be considered is “why did some books become part of the canon, while others did not?” It has been observed that it is easier to say why a great many books were excluded from the New Testament canon than it is to explain the process by which the 27 were included.
I have been using the word “canon” throughout this paper to describe the collection of books that came to be known as the Bible. The word “canon” is a Greek word that means “ruler; measuring stick.” The fact of the matter is that, out of the dozens of books floating around the earliest days of the Christian era, only 27 “measured up” as inspired, authoritative, apostolic Scriptures. The rest simply did not.
There are as many reasons that these books didn’t “make it” into the New Testament as there are books to consider. Some, like The Epistle of Clement, were written quite early and were quite normal, but were immediately recognized as not having the same authority as Scripture. Some, like The Shepherd of Hermas and The Epistle of Barnabus, were written very early and even gained acceptance in small pockets of the Church, but were never acknowledged by Christendom as a whole. Others, like The Epistle to the Laodiceans, were written so late that they were obvious forgeries. Some, like the Protevangelium of James, were written from an obvious agenda, in an attempt to validate a specific teaching or tradition. Some, like the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, are frankly just silly. (An interesting list of spurious New Testament writings can be found here.)
Whatever the spurious writing, it is important to remember that there is one simple reason that it was not included in the canon: it didn’t belong. The books that were excluded did not have apostolic authorship, apostolic approval, or inspired content. They did not convince Christians of their authority and power. They aren’t in the Bible because they don’t belong in the Bible.
This issue of the rejection of spurious writings raises one more question. Is it possible that a writing that belongs in the New Testament was left out, either by mistake or by intentional malice? From a human point of view, it certainly seems like a possibility. From a human point of view, it’s not hard to imagine a Pauline epistle that never made it to its destination due to a shipwreck, or a writing of another Apostle which was lost before copies could be made. (Some see Colossians 4:16 as evidence of just such a letter.) From a human point of view, it’s even possible to imagine a jealous theologian consigning to the flames a genuine apostolic writing that doesn’t agree with his faulty version of the Gospel.
But by faith, we Christians have to deny that possibility. Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Church, has promised to teach us “everything” (John 14:26). The Lord preserved the Jewish nation, the promised line of the Savior, time and time again through humanly impossible circumstances. And we can confidently say that the Lord has blessed the process by which the Bible has come to us, so that nothing is added or subtracted (Deuteronomy 4:2; Revelation 22:18-19).
Conclusion: The Bible is the Bible
We have spent the last three eDevotions seeing how the Church has come to recognize that the 66 books of the Bible are the inspired and authoritative Word of God. We have looked at internal evidence for the inspiration of Scripture and considered that God’s promises, received in faith, are a surer testimony than our own human reason. The books that God inspired are authoritative and self-authenticating, and belong in the Bible because they are part of the Bible.
We have seen Jesus place his stamp of approval on the 39 books of the Old Testament, declaring them to be the sure, prophetic word given by inspiration to testify about himself, the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the World.
We have heard the ancient Church’s nearly unanimous testimony to the divine authority of the 27 books that make up the canon of the New Testament. Guided at all times by the Holy Spirit, those early Christians spent the first hundred years after the deaths of the Apostles collecting and spreading God’s inspired, written Word - and protecting it from would-be usurpers - so that by the end of the second century, the Bible, almost exactly as we know it today, was known and accepted throughout the Christian world.
May God increase our faith and trust in him as we listen to him speak to us daily through that great gift, the Bible. May we not doubt, but firmly believe, that the Scriptures are God’s Word, bringing us faith and life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Bibliography & Suggestions for Further Reading
(Items marked with an asterisk [*] are articles, available to read online from the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary essay file. Other items are books, available from NPH or CPH, or the church library.)
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