Lecture 7: Inspiration and the Formation of the Bible: Part 1

Question 1

Scripture and Canon: Scripture

Answer 1

writings which are understood to convey the self-revelation of God and are regarded as having binding religious authority for Christian belief and practice

Question 2

Scripture and Canon: Canon

Answer 2

a closed collection of scriptures, from which nothing can be added or subtracted
- to discover how and when the Christian Bible was formed, we need to ask when and how the 27 new testament writings came to be included within a closed collection of 66 books

Question 3

New Testament Canon Formation

Answer 3

• Most of all of the New Testament writings had been written by about 100 CE
• Irenaeus is the first to treat most of the New Testament books as scripture on par with the Old Testament, between 180-200
• Athanasius creates the first fixed list of scriptures matching our New Testament ini 367
• Athanasius’ list becomes binding (for the West) at a council in either 382 or 393
• In the East this occurred around the end of the 7th century
• Martin Luther feels comfortable removing books from the NT in the 16th century
• Both the Catholic and Orthodox churches felt the need to affirm their scriptural canons at church councils in the 16th century

Question 4

The process from ‘apostolic writing’ to ‘scriptural writing’ to ‘part of a closed canon of scripture…

Answer 4

doesnt actually involve a change in level of authority
- early Christians did not have a ‘Bible’ in the same way that modern Christians do
- This is because early Christians did not share our need for a closed canon of scripture

Question 5

Criteria of Canonicity

Answer 5

• the standard evangelical understanding of this process is that inspiration was the primary consideration for determining scriptural status
• New Testament formation scholars describe 3 criteria that the early church used to determine canonicity: apostolic authorship, orthodoxy, and widespread use

Question 6

The Chicago Statement of Biblical Inerrancy

Answer 6

“Holy Scripture, being God’s own Word, written by men prepared and superintended by His Spirit, is of infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it touches”
“The Holy Spirit, Scriptures divine Author…”
“The canon was created in principle by divine inspiration. The Church’s part was to discern the canon which God had created, not to devise one of its own”

Question 7

The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647)

Answer 7

• This confession states that all of the books in the biblical canon: “are given by inspiration of God, to be the rule of faith and life. The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the Canon of the Scripture; and therefore are of no authority in the Church of God.

Question 8

Apostolic Authorship

Answer 8

• Apostolic authorship is considered to be the primary test for determining scriptural and canonical status
• Apostolic authorship equals authoritative status
• Ancient conceptions of authorship differed from modern conceptions

Question 9

Orthodoxy

Answer 9

• This criterion tests whether a writing conforms to ‘correct belief’ as understood by the early church
• orthodoxy functioned as a negative church
• writings that claimed apostolic authorship but exhibited unorthodox teachings were rejected as not genuine apostolic works

Question 10

Widespread Use

Answer 10

• this criterion tests whether a book had been used and valued by a large percentage of the church, over a large geographic area, and for a long time
• could be a positive or negative test (a book that was only used in a few churches, and had only been used recently, could not be apostolic. whereas a book with questions regarding its authorship, but which had been used by almost all of the church for a long time, was considered much more likely to have apostolic origin
• but this test was not enough to secure canonical status on its own