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Brief Discussion of Canonicity
The word “canon” is used to describe the texts specifically inspired by God. The term comes from the Greek word “kanwn”. Literally it means a straight rod or bar; a measuring rule as a ruler used by masons and carpenters; or a rule or standard for testing straightness.
Historically, the word was first used for doctrines, excepted by the church, as rules of the faith. The term was later applied to the decisions of the church councils. Over time the word “canon” began to be used for the sacred texts that were set apart and honored for holding God’s Holy Word.[1] “Greek Christians by the fourth century A.D. had given the word a quasi-technical religious meaning, applying it to the Bible, especially to the Jewish books.”[2]
… It is important to note that religious councils at no time had any power to cause books to be inspired, rather they simply recognized that which God had inspired at the exact moment the books were written.
Jews and conservative Christians alike have recognized the thirty‑nine books of the Old Testament as inspired. Evangelical Protestants have recognized the twenty‑seven books of the New Testament as inspired. Roman Catholics have a total of eighty books because they recognize the Apocrypha as semi canonical.[3]
Criteria must be met to validate that the words written on the page are indeed the Words of God and persevered to be in His canon. Ryrie summarized the issues below:
1. Self-authentication. It is essential to remember that the Bible is self-authenticating since its books were breathed out by God (2 Tim. 3:16). In other words, the books were canonical the moment they were written. It was not necessary to wait until various councils could examine the books to determine if they were acceptable or not. Their canonicity was inherent within them, since they came from God. People and councils only recognized and acknowledged what is true because of the intrinsic inspiration of the books as they were written. No Bible book became canonical by action of some church council.
2. Decisions of men. Nevertheless, men and councils did have to consider which books should be recognized as part of the canon, for there were some candidates that were not inspired. Some decisions and choices had to be made, and God guided groups of people to make correct choices (not without guidelines) and to collect the various writings into the canons of the Old and New Testaments.
3. Debates over canonicity. In the process of deciding and collecting, it would not be unexpected that some disputes would arise about some of the books. And such was the case. However, these debates in no way weaken the authenticity of the truly canonical books, nor do they give status to those which were not inspired by God.
4. Completion of canon. Since A.D. 397 the Christian church has considered the canon of the Bible to be complete; if it is complete, then it must be closed. Therefore, we cannot expect any more books to be discovered or written that would open the canon again and add to its sixty-six books. Even if a letter of Paul were discovered, it would not be canonical. After all, Paul must have written many letters during his lifetime in addition to the ones that are in the New Testament; yet the church did not include them in the canon. Not everything an apostle wrote was inspired, for it was not the writer who was inspired but his writings, and not necessarily all of them.
The more recent books of the cults which are placed alongside the Bible are not inspired and have no claim to be part of the canon of Scripture. Certainly so-called prophetic utterances or visions that some claim to be from God today cannot be inspired and considered as part of God’s revelation or as having any kind of authority like that of the canonical books. [4]