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NASB | 2 Peter 1:21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 2 Peter 1:21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. |
Subject: The New Testament Canon |
Bible Note: Canon Formation................................ There has been much discussion lately about the Canon of Scripture. I thought that I would post this quote from F. F. Bruce, which makes some important points about the New Testament Canon. ********************************************** One thing must be emphatically stated. The New Testament books did not become authoritative for the Church because they were formally included in a canonical list; on the contrary, the Church included them in her canon because she already regarded them as divinely inspired, recognising their innate worth and general apostolic authority, direct or indirect. The first ecclesiastical councils to classify the canonical books were both held in North Africa -- at Hippo Regius in 393 and at Carthage in 397 -- but what these councils did was not to impose something new upon the Christian communities but to codify what was already the general practice of those communities. There are many theological questions arising out of the history of the canon which we cannot go into here; but for a practical demonstration that the Church made the right choice one need only compare the books of our New Testament with the various early documents collected by M. R. James in his Apocryphal New Testament (1924), or even with the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, to realise the superiority of our New Testament books to these others. Source: http://www.bible-researcher.com/bruce1.html ************************************************ It is important to note that there was more agreement on the content of the Canon than not. Time and distance made it difficult for every church to have every book of the New Testament at exactly the same time. So, some churches did not have every book presently contained in the Canon at the same time. But, for the most part, there was nearly universal agreement on the books included within the canon, which was basically complete by 410 A.D. Over the next 1100 years, there were minor debates and discussions, but the Canon adopted at Trent was the same as accept in 410 A.D. The Canon was a natural development. Just as prophets were judged in the Old Testament as to their validity, so to the Church had to judge between the many true and false works being produced during the first couple of hundred years of the Church's existence. Not every 'writting' was inspired. This becomes obvious when we compare the books of the Canon to some of the non-canonical writtings. For instance, compare the Gospel of Matthew to the Gospel of Thomas. There is no comparison. Or, compare the Gospel of Luke to the Gospel of James. There were reasons why these other books were not accepted as canonical. 1) They were not written by Apostles or their close associates. 2) They were doctrinally in error. 3) They were factually in error. 4) They were not accepted by the local churches as being authoritative. 5) They were of a visibly inferior quality. There are probably other reasons, but these come to the top of my head. The important point is that the Canon was simply the formalization of what was pretty much already recognized by the Church - that these books, and these books alone, were inspired by God and authoritative in faith and practice. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
Down View Branch | ID# 48438 | ||
Questions and/or Subjects for 2 Pet 1:21 | Author | ||
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Morant61 | ||
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justme | ||
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Morant61 | ||
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TEALEAD | ||
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pande40569 | ||
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misskitty | ||
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davidup2u | ||
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BWH | ||
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DocTrinsograce |