When the
early Christians spoke of Scripture, they were referring to the texts of the
Jewish canon, the Old Testament. These were the writings that Jesus said he
came "not to abolish." [Matthew 5:17] Jesus believed the statements
made in the Scripture, endorsed its teachings, obeyed its commands, and even
lived and died to fulfill the pattern of redemption it laid down. Early
Christians were heirs of his attitude. They revered the Scripture even as they
observed what Jesus had taught with authority. Christians embraced the Jewish
canon from the beginning. But what characterized early church history was a
growing consciousness among the Christian community of the canonicity of the
sacred New Testament writings. By the end of the first century, when much of
the Gospels had been written in their final form and apostolic letters were
being collected, copied, circulated, and read aloud in churches, a new,
unofficial canon had begun to take shape.
The
Origin of the Text
Before
the Gospels were recorded in textual form, their message was proclaimed by word
of mouth. It wasn't until almost twenty years after the ascension of Christ
that the first books were written, and about sixty-five years had elapsed
before the last book was completed. Before the New Testament was written,
Christians accepted the Old Testament as their only authoritative text.
What kept drawing them back to the old writings was the message they held of
Christ. Even the Gentile converts, drawn by the Christian message, were able to
accept the Jewish Scripture. However, this later made the work of Judaizers
much easier. When salvation was mixed with works, as in Jewish customs, the
Gospel of Grace was jeopardized. Paul found that it was necessary to write
letters— his Epistles—to the Galatians and Romans to explain and defend the
teaching of the Gospel. More letters were likewise written to meet specific needs.
The other Epistles explained the facts in the life of Christ and taught the new
believers how to apply their faith to their own lives. About the same time and
later on, the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John were written to meet the
need for authentic accounts on the life of Christ. The Book of Acts was written
to meet the need for an authentic history of the Apostolic period, and the
Apocalypse was written to set forth God's revelation of the consummation of all
things.
After a Gospel or an Epistle had been written, it would remain with the
original recipient for some time as a treasured possession. In some cases, the
document would be passed along to other churches or individuals, but it would
always return to the original recipient. Undoubtedly, copies were made of the
original documents, so that the textual content was, by and by, more freely
circulated and copied. Thus gradually, churches all over began to have a more
or less complete collection of the inspired writings.
The
Formation of the Canon
From the
first century and even into the second, churches did not have a need for a New
Testament canon. The only authoritative texts received by the early Christians
were the Old Testament Scriptures. Therefore, several things had to have
occurred that very materially promoted the formation of the New Testament
canon. One promoting factor is known as the Marcion Heresy. Marcion of Sinope
was a bishop who began to form his own biblical canon in about A.D. 140.
However, he was denounced by the Church Fathers as a heretic. Marcion
completely rejected the Jewish Scriptures, believing that the deity of the Old
Testament was evil and inferior to the God proclaimed in the Christian gospel.
In his canon, he accepted the gospel of Luke, to the exclusion of the other
three gospels, and also included ten of Paul's writings. However, Marcion badly
mutilated even the books that he did receive, taking out any references to the
Old Testament. His misguided beliefs were actually threatening to create a schism
within the Church. It therefore became necessary to collect all the writings
that were recognized as inspired and preserve them in their integrity. The
second promoting factor in the formation of the New Testament canon was the
recognition of multiple spurious works as canonical or semi-canonical. Among
them were the First Epistle of Clement, the Didache,
the Epistle of Barnabas, and the Shepherd of Hermas.
Their recognition by church leaders lent greater incentive to the settling of
the limits of the canon. A little later, the Roman emperor, Diocletian,
announced in 303 an edict of persecution against the Christians. Amid the
persecution, all the sacred books were to be burned. This threatening
proclamation motivated the early believers to prioritize which books were to be
guarded against destruction. These things, the Marcion Heresy, recognition by
church leaders of spurious works as canonical, and the edict of Diocletian in
303 were three primary factors that led to the collecting and publishing of the
books that were to make up the New Testament canon.
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