HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE PART TWO

PART THREE: Canonicity - the Standard
The word "canonicity" is from the Greek word "kanon" meaning "a reed used for measuring, A STANDARD". The dictionary defines "canon" as "an authoritaritive list." "Inspiration" refers to how the Bible got it's AUTHORITY. "Canonicity" refers to how the Bible got it's ACCEPTANCE. Canonicity is concerned with recognizing the God-inspired, authoritative books of the Bible, of which there are now and finally 66 in number.

The Canonicity of the Old Testament
The authority of the Old Testament books was determined by whether or not a book was written by a PROPHET. A succession of prophets in Israel began with Moses, who was the great prototype prophet and who, wrote the first five books of the Bible. The chain of prophets ended with Malachi. The Talmud, the ancient non-Bible book of Jewish law and tradition, states, "After the latter prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, the Holy Spirit departed from Israel." This view is also supported by other ancient Jewish sources, like the books of Maccabees and Josephus.

However, even though the Holy Spirit stopped speaking through Jewish prophets for a while, the Jews are still the people of God and God continues to maintain His covenant with them. When the time came for Jesus to visit Israel arrives, God is still speaking to Jewish shepherds as the Messiah's coming is announced, a Jewish virgin is selected to be His mother. All of the events of Jesus life occurred in Israel, His life, death, burial and resurrection and ascension. And the writings of Paul and the other apostles was always based on the premise,

(Rom 1:16 KJV)
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:
for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;
to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Christian scholar R. Laird Hams writes, "What was prophetic was regarded as the Word of God. What was not prophetic was not regarded as the Word of God. The canon grew as the prophets succeeded one another in their ministry; it was finished, as Josephus says, when the Holy Spirit ceased speaking through the prophets in Israel. Moses, the great precursor of the prophetic line, specified tests to be applied in determining the reality of prophecy... when all these tests were applied and the prophet was acknowledged to be true, his words and writings were received by the faithful as from God."

The Canonicity of the New Testament
The canon of the New Testament was determined by whether or not the book was written by an original APOSTLE. Harris writes, 'The test of the Early Church was not arbitrary nor was it arrived at long after, by intuition or the general leading of the Spirit. It is actually witnessed to within the apostolic period ... The early Church was conscious that the apostles held their position by virtue of the double relationship of Christ's commission and the Holy Spirit's enduement. No other men could claim this twofold ministry, and none did. This authority extended to the ministry of the apostles to such an extent that all their words were regarded and the writings preserved.

Another Christian scholar, Pache, writes, 'The fact is that, right from the start, the writings incontestably apostolic were considered as being themselves the Scriptures, and then were added to the already existing sacred books (of the Old Testament) .... The church was providentially kept from accepting any illegitimate books throughout the whole two and a half centuries while the canon was coming into being. They examined freely and unhurriedly the books presented to them. At times, certain ones hesitated for a while before coming to complete agreement, but never did the believers as a whole make a definite choice which they later had to repent of.... One can therefore see an astonishing fact emerge: the church definitely and firmly accepted as divine some books unfavorable to its own inclinations, and everywhere it rejected as merely human others which would favor its inclinations the most.

What about the Apocrypha, those "extra" books in Catholic Bibles? (1) All were written after prophecy was recognized to have departed from Israel, that is, after Malachi (2) Not once are they quoted by Christ or the other NT writers. (3) Jesus did not receive them as God's word. (4) With the exception of Augustine, no leader of the early church accepted them. (5) There is no 'thus saith the Lord' in any or them. (6) Even the Roman Catholic church did not accept them as God's word until after Martin Luther in the 1500's, and they did so more or less as a reaction to the new Protestant movement which was 'protesting',"Sola Scriptura! ie. Only the Bible! Only the Bible!" The Catholic church had some doctrines that could not be proven without using these extra books. (7) They are interesting, informative, and even inspirational, but they are not 'God-breathed.'


(2 Sam 23:1-3 KJV)
Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said,
and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said,
{2} The spirit of the LORD spake by me, and his word was in my tongue.
{3} The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me,
He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.

(Mar 12:36 KJV)
For David himself said by the Holy Ghost,
The LORD said to my Lord,
Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.

(Act 1:16 KJV)
Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled,
which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas,
which was guide to them that took Jesus.

(Heb 3:7-11 KJV)
Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith,
To day if ye will hear his voice, (8) Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation,
in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
(9) When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
(10) Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said,
They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
(11) So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.

(Heb 4:9-16 KJV)
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
(10) For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
(11) Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest,
lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
(12) For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow,
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
(13) Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight:
but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
(14) Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens,
Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
(15) For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities;
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
(16) Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy,
and find grace to help in time of need.

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