Isaiah 45:21 Tell ye, and bring
them near; yea, let them take counsel together:
who hath declared this from ancient time? who
hath told it from that time? have not I the
LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just
God and a Saviour; there is none beside
me.
Canon of
scripture:
As for the canon, the LORD
determined the canon, because it is his word.
Whatever is not the word of God, is
only the word of man, and the world goes after the words
of man.
Unto whom were the scriptures
committed.
Romans 3:1 ¶ What advantage
then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of
circumcision?
2 Much every way:
chiefly, because that unto them were committed the
oracles of God.
The catholic church has taught for
centuries that Luke was a Gentile.
However, there are good arguments
to show that he was a Jew (although that is not part of
this discussion on the canon).
To the Jews were committed the
scriptures.
They also learned which books were
scripture, and which books were not.
They learned what was the canon of
the old testament, sometimes the hard way.
They learned the hard way about the
prophets, which they rejected.
Though, were shown to be true, when
those things came upon Israel and Judah.
They learned that the 39 books of
the old testament are scripture.
Although, they have some of those
books a a single book, like Samuel, rather than as two.
They also have them in a different
order.
The Jews did not conclude that
Macabees, Jasher, or Enoch, as books of the canon of the
scriptures.
The Jews, long ago, knew what was
the canon of the old testament.
Then, also, the new testament
helps with showing what is the old testament canon.
Jesus himself said:
Luke 16:16 The law and the
prophets were until John: since that time the
kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth
into it.
Luke 20:42 And David
himself saith in the book of Psalms, The LORD said
unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
Luke 24:44 And he said unto
them, These are the words which I spake unto
you, while I was yet with you, that all things must
be fulfilled, which were written in the law of
Moses, and in the prophets, and in
the psalms, concerning me.
The law, the prophets,
and the psalms, are the main divisions of the old
testament.
Most every old testament book was
quoted in the new testament.
And some like Deuteronomy and
Isaiah, were quoted from many places, by the LORD Jesus,
himself.
31 old testament books were
either directly quoted or referenced in the new
testament.
The 8 other books that were not
directly quoted or referenced are:
Ezra, Nehemiah,
Esther, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon,
Obadiah, Nahum, Zephaniah
However, these books
were already known, by the Jews, to be in the canon of
the scriptures, at the time of the new testament.
As for the new
testament, it has always been clear that Matthew,
Mark, Luke, John, and Acts are in the canon.
The very early church,
also, clearly accepted the epistle of James, and the
two epistles of Peter as canon.
Peter, then, established
Paul's epistles to be in the canon:
II Peter 3:15 And account that
the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation;
even as our beloved brother Paul also according to
the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
16 As also in all his
epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which
are some things hard to be understood, which they
that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they
do also the other scriptures, unto their own
destruction.
Thirteen of those epistles were
clearly written by Paul.
The fourteenth, Hebrews, has been
debated as to the author, but
its canonicity was always clear.
The canonicity of Hebrews is self
evident, when comparing it to the old testament and
other new testament books.
John's first two epistles were
early believed by the church to be in the canon.
Within three hundred years of the
death of of Peter and Paul, the full canon was known and
believed by the majority of the churches.
The oldest written list of the
canonical books was from 367, written by Athanasius, and
he even therein used the term canonized.
Athanasius is the one who had
earlier defended scriptural doctrine against the heretic
Arius at the council of Nicea.
Rome didn't "come up" with the
canon, nor did Rome "force" the canon.
It was the local churches,
themselves, that collectively came to realize what was
the canon.
And that canon is the same canon
that the LORD himself established from the beginning,
and it will always be so:
Psalm 119:89 ¶ For ever, O
LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.
Thank
you,
Gino