CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

 

In his book, Lost Christianities, Professor Bart Erhman, listed forty-four other books that contended for inclusion into the New Testament. His volume leaves us with many questions, among them is the question, what criteria were used to determine the inclusion of the twenty-seven books we call the New Testament?

The process of collecting the writings for inclusion into the New Testament was called canonization. The term canon implies that the books identified were authoritative for faith and life. The recognition of the canon of the New Testament is one of the most important developments in the thought and practice of the early church.

I hasten to add that canonization did not make the books credible. Rather, the books were canonized because they were credible. After demonstrating credibility for more than 300 years, canonizers affirmed their inclusion into a single volume, called the New Testament. Even before Church Councils ratified the final list for inclusion late in the fourth century, the process of ratification began years earlier. Here were the criteria used to determine the inclusion of the twenty-seven books into the New Testament.    

APOSTOLIC AUTHORSHIP

Apostles were men sent or commissioned by Jesus himself. These men would have been credible eyewitnesses, authorized to write what they knew. In one of his letters, John said, “…which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched, this we proclaim…” (1 John 1:1). Although he did not know Jesus as the disciples did, Paul was commissioned as an apostle. Based on his pre-conversion behavior, Paul considered himself to be “the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle…” (1 Corinthians 15:9). Other writers like Luke and Mark were not commissioned apostles, but were closely associated with apostles and were heavily involved in the ministries of some of the apostles.

DATE OF THE WRITINGS

Because of the need for apostolic authorship, each book chosen had to be written within the first century. All the apostles died within the first century. With the exception of John, who was exiled, the other apostles were all martyred for their beliefs. Establishing early dates aided in eliminating the writings listed in Professor Erhman’s Lost Christianities.

CONTENT OF WRITINGS

The writings had to be consistent with what the apostles’ actually taught. In one of his letters, Paul said, “… when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God …” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Of Paul’s writings, Peter said, “His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16). Peter would agree that Paul’s reference to the Hebrew Scriptures as “… God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…”, should also apply to the writings of the New Testament. There was a life transforming power inherent in the writings. Long before the New Testament was canonized, believers displayed a distinct regard for the apostolic writings, compared to religious writings from other sources.

RECOGNITION BY CHURCHES

The more than 300 years that spanned the writing of the books from the canonization, gave ample time for churches to demonstrate their acceptance. Frequent quotations or citations from the books can be verified. In referring to the frequent citations of the New Testament decades before canonicity, Professor Bruce Metzer said: “Indeed, so extensive are these citations that if all other sources for our knowledge of the text of the New Testament were destroyed, they would be sufficient alone for the reconstruction of practically the entire New Testament.”

Under the reign of Emperor Diocletian (284-305), when Christians were persecuted for their sacred writings, many preserved the apostolic writings and surrendered other writings to the authorities for destruction. I vaguely recall reading that Christians stood when apostolic letters were read. This mark of reverence was not extended to other letters. Some historians have deduced that if the churches at Ephesus, Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome and Carthage, accepted a book as authoritative, then chances were strong that serious consideration was given for inclusion.

I would agree that not all the writings that the apostles wrote became Scripture. For example, Paul wrote four letters to the Corinthians, two of which are lost and thus not in the canon (“… I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with…” [1 Corinthians 5:9] and “… even if I caused you sorrow by my letter… I see that my letter hurt you…” [2 Corinthians 7:8]). In addition, not everything that happened with Jesus was recorded. In his Gospel, John said, “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book…” (John 20:30).

However, these omissions do not undermine the credibility of the New Testament. The writers wrote with purpose and their goal was sufficiently achieved with what was written. John’s summary is fitting, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah…” (John 20:31).

In my next blog, I will attempt to discuss the omission of the Apocryphal books from the canon.