by Fred Zaspel

The books of our Old Attestation became recognized as "canon" in the aforementioned way that the Old Testament itself was formed — gradually, equally holy men of onetime spoke and wrote, existence moved of the Holy Spirit. In various ways and at various times throughout the one-time covenant times God spoke to his people through the prophets, and as they delivered God'southward word to the people, whether in oral or written form, it was recognized as of divine origin and, hence, "catechism" authority. Gradually these canonical books were collected and gathered together and became known among the Jews as The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings, or, briefer, The Law and the Prophets, or in briefest shorthand, The Constabulary. This that we now telephone call The Former Testament was the "Bible" of Christ (cf. Luke 24:44). We have it on Christ'southward authority that these books of the Old Testament are to be considered canonical, fully administrative. It is no surprise, therefore, to find that the Old Covenant Scriptures continued in apply every bit the Bible of the early on church (cf. Acts 13:15).

It would be a mistake, however, to assume that the Bible of the early church consisted simply of these books. Beginning immediately in the apostolic age these new spokesmen for our Lord began to enjoin on the church boosted writings which were to be held — and which were held by the apostles themselves — in equal regard. Gradually and i by one writings came from the apostles' pens and were imposed on the church building and received by the church every bit canon (eastward.g., 1Cor. 14:37; 1Thes. 2:13; 4:1-ii; 2Thes. 2:15; iii:6, xiv; 1Tim. half-dozen:3; Rev. 1:11; 2:1, etc.). The apostles themselves also as the churches to whom they wrote recognized their word equally on par with that older revelation (1Tim. 5:eighteen; 2Pet. iii:16), and as this new revelation came to them it was revered equally from Christ.

Nor was this apostolic authority self-fabricated. Christ had deputed them to this task exactly, and this was to exist the function they would serve in the history of the church. The Lord Jesus Christ had come from heaven as God'south climactic self-revelation (Heb.1:1-2), and he appointed these men as his personal legates, directing them to be his spokesmen. He had brought the revelation of God to them, and they, in turn, were to have this revelation to the world (John 17:six-8, 14, 18, xx). In order to equip them to fulfill this role successfully Christ sent them "another helper," his replacement, the Holy Spirit of God who would teach them "all things" and "bring to their remembrance" all that Jesus himself had taught them (John xiv:24-26). The Spirit of Christ was promised to speak for Christ and guide the apostles into "all truth" and reveal to them "things to come" (John sixteen:12-13). They would exist the final repositories of God's full and final revelation in Christ and thus became, in a sense, the "foundation" of the church building (Eph. 2:20). Their written "witness" (John 21:24) to Christ was, in fact, Christ's continued revelation to his church.

Significantly, these statements of our Lord not only indicate to the apostles and their role in the creation of the New Testament canon, merely they constitute description of the New Testament itself given ahead of time. The Spirit will "remind" the apostles of what Jesus had done and said; this the apostles gave us in the Gospels. He will "pb them into all truth" and prove them the fuller significance of what Jesus had said and done; this is what is proclaimed in the Acts and expounded in the Epistles. And he volition "testify them things to come"; nosotros take this in the prophecies of the Epistles and in the volume of Revelation. God's word to us climaxed in his Son, and this word was reduced to writing in the pages of our New Testament.

So the New Testament canon grew in a mode similar to that of the Old Testament, and as the revelation came it was recognized and accustomed as such by the church and laid abreast the older canon equally equally authoritative. The books of the Old and New Testaments alike were to be read in the assemblies (cf. 1Thes. five:27; Col. 4:xvi; Rev. 1:iii).

The apostles themselves having placed their writings on par with the Onetime Testament (1Tim. v:18; 2Pet. 3:16), the early church immediately followed accommodate. Polycarp in AD 115, for case, linked Psalms and Ephesians as as "Scripture." Clement likewise linked Isaiah and Matthew as "Scripture," and so on.

Of form, in the mean solar day before moveable blazon, mass reproduction copies were slow in coming, and private churches were wearisome in receiving the New Testament canon in full. As in the days earlier Christ, the New Attestation church recognized a canon in progress. Simply as State of israel's earlier catechism grew over the centuries, and so the church building's canon grew over the grade of the 2nd one-half of the first century, A.D. New book after new book was received from the churchly company and welcomed as the rule of organized religion, laid beside the older revelation and together designated, The Law and the Prophets with the Gospels and the Apostles, or more briefly, The Law and the Gospel. The newer additions to the catechism, The Gospels and the Apostles, or more briefly, The Gospel, was not viewed by the early church as different from the older canon but as additions to it. Of grade the "canon" that was recognized by each assembly varied from locality to locality, as the copies were hand-made and then hand-delivered to successive churches. And as the various churches gradually became acquainted with new apostolic writings their canon gradually became complete. But from the time of Irenaeus (c. 175), the disciple of Polycarp, the church at big had the complete canon as we now possess it ourselves.

The benchmark for recognition of this growing canon was, only, apostolicity — churchly endorsement. These men were the spokesmen for the Lord, and it was theirs to impose the new rule upon the church. Apostolicity does not necessarily imply apostolic authorship only apostolic endorsement — "imposition by the apostles," as Warfield puts it. Thus Paul cites Luke as "scripture," Hebrews is recognized as "Pauline" at to the lowest degree in some sense, and then on.

What is important to recognize in all this is that both the Old and New Testaments, coming to us before and subsequently Christ respectively, are alike given to u.s.a. from Christ. He gives his divine imprimatur on both — one after the fact and ane before. It is therefore on his authority that the church recognizes its nowadays Biblical canon.

Fred Zaspel holds a Ph.D. in historical theology from the Free University of Amsterdam. He is currently a pastor at the Reformed Baptist Church building of Franconia, PA. He is besides an Adjunct Professor of Systematic Theology at Calvary Baptist Seminary in Lansdale, PA. He is besides the author of The Standing Relevance of Divine Law (1991); The Theology of Fulfillment (1994); Jews, Gentiles, & the Goal of Redemptive History (1996); New Covenant Theology with Tom Wells (New Covenant Media); The Theology of B.B. Warfield: A Systematic Summary (Crossway, 2010). Fred is married to Kimberly and they have two children, Gina and Jim.