Independent Baptist Connection
The Canon of Scripture
Do you still believe the words of Matthew 24:35?
"Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."
If you believe that, then what about the lost books of the Bible? That short question addresses the issue about what writings are inspired and which ones aren’t.
Since God continues preserving His word, did He lose part of it? Before we dismiss all the “lost books”, let’s consider the fact that books are mentioned in the Bible that aren’t part of the canon of scripture.
For instance, Paul quoted poets in Acts 17:28.
“For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.”
However, just quoting a source doesn’t by itself qualify that source as being inspired by God. Preachers often quote historical records, genealogies, royal archives, court records, personal accounts of conflicts, newspaper articles or even songs of the past as illustrations in their sermons. This action doesn’t license those sources as inspired by God. They merely provide a point of contact for us, making it easier to understand the words of God.
We also know that not every event in the life of Christ is contained in the Bible. All the books in the world couldn’t contain the complete record, but God preserved for us the most important parts of His Son’s life in the record of Scripture. How did He do that? Our Lord, through the Holy Spirit, directed the apostles to write it down. Did they say more than they wrote? It seems God inspired them in a special way to write down only a part of what they said. Did the apostles ever write anything else, other than what is in the Bible? Of course they did. In other words, not every word either spoken or written by Holy men of old was inspired as the Word of God. The Lord had no intention of preserving every word spoken or written by these men as part of the writ of scripture.
Understanding what we just wrote, there are books mentioned in the Bible that apparently no longer exist. God didn’t preserve them. Either they weren’t God’s words or He never intended to preserve them as part of the Bible. That doesn’t mean they were useless; they didn’t carry God’s stamp of approval of Holy Spirit inspiration.
There are approximately 26 books referred to in the Bible that aren’t part of the canon of scripture. No doubt, some of these books may be there but under a different name. This is a brief list that scholars have compiled and it doesn't go into much detail about the opinions of the scholars. Though listed here, not all of them are a part of God’s Word for reasons we just mentioned. They are noted below:
The Book of the Wars of the Lord.(Num. 21:14-15)
The Book of Jasher. (Josh. 10:13, 2 Sam. 1:18)
The Book of the Acts of Solomon. (I Kings 11:41)
The Chronicles of Nathan the Prophet. (I Chron. 29:29, 2 Chron. 9:29)
The Chronicles of Gad the Seer. (I Chron. 29:29)
The Records of Iddo the Seer. (2 Chron. 12:15)
The Annals of Jehu the Son of Hanani. (2 Chron. 20:34)
The Book of Records. (Ezra 4:15)
The Book of the Chronicles-of the Kings of Media and Persia. (Esther 2:23, 6:1, 10:2)
The Prophecy of Ahijah the Silonite. (2 Chron. 9:29)
The Visions of Iddo the Seer. (2 Chron. 9:29)
The Chronicles of Samuel the Seer. (I Chron. 29:29)
The Records of Shemaiah the Prophet. (2 Chron. 12:15)
The Records of the Hozai. (2 Chron. 33:19) ("Hozai" means "seers", prophets)
The Writings of David, King of Israel. (2 Chron. 35:4)
The Writing of Solomon. (2 Chron. 35:4)
The Proverbs, Songs and Biology of Solomon. (I Kings 4:32-33)
Jeremiah's Scroll. (Jer. 36) Jeremiah 36 quotes from it, but the rest was thrown in the fire.
Paul's Other Corinthian Epistles. (I Cor. 5:9, 11)
Letters from the Corinthians to Paul. (I Cor. 7:1)
The Epistle of the Laodiceans. (Col. 4:16) Some scholars think this was Philemon or Hebrews.
Pseudo-Pauline Epistles. (2 Thess. 2:2)
Other Written Gospels. (Luke 1:1-4)
The Tradition of the Elders. (Matt. 15:2, 3, 6)
The Books and the Parchments. (2 Tim. 4:13)
No, The Chronicles of Narnia aren’t included in this list. Did you know there are even more books never mentioned in the Bible that millions of people believe are still part of God’s word to mankind?
These include, but aren’t limited to:
The Book of Mormon
The Pearl of Great Price
Doctrines and Covenants
Science and Health, With A Key to the Scriptures
The writings of Sun Myung Moon
The writings of Ellen G. White
Papal Encyclicals and Ex Cathedra Pronouncements
The Decrees of the Church Councils
The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses
Pentecostal prophecies
Mein Kampf
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Perhaps the largest area of controversy lies with the Apocrypha.
Why some people accept the Apocrypha
The largest group that accepts the Apocrypha as canon is the Roman Catholic Church. This religion accepts these documents as scripture for the following reasons, among others:
The Apocrypha is found in the Greek Septuagint, the Bible of the early Church. However, we’ve already discussed how the Apocrypha was introduced into the Bible. It wasn’t because it was already a part of God’s Word.
There existed universal consent among the early Church Fathers on the canonicity of the Apocrypha and this consent equaled revelation, thus making it part of Scripture. At first impression this sounds convincing, unless the conditions mentioned aren’t accurate. This is the case. The early church Fathers didn’t accept the Apocrypha as inspired.
This may be the greatest reason of them all. Catholic tradition has always accepted the Apocrypha. Since God promised that the Catholic Church would never depart from the truth and that it alone would be the guardian and promoter of truth, this proves the Apocrypha is God’s inspired word. The Bible warns us about following the vain traditions of men and God never made a promise of this kind to the Catholic church. Therefore, this logic means nothing.
Jesus and the Apostles followed the Jews in accepting the Apocrypha. This issue has already been discussed. The notion that Jesus followed the Apocrypha is another of the many attempts made by those who want to change God’s Word to agree with their own theologies. Neither Jesus nor orthodox Jews accepted the Apocrypha.
There are other reasons the church of Rome accepts the Apocrypha not mentioned here.
What process did the early church use to decide which books belonged in the Bible and which ones were left out? Not many lessons cover this important topic.
Canon or not?
The word “canon” itself came from two words that mean “rod, stick, measure”. When a person speaks of canon, he addresses Scripture as the measuring rod of all truth. God, as we’ve already noted, has preserved His Word as the “ruler” of all truth.
According to God’s own testimony, not one of God’s words can pass away and every word remains with us today. But how did this happen? Are some books accepted and others rejected because the church headquarters says to treat them this way or is it because God Himself had a hand in it?
Certain tests were applied to help determine what really came from God and what didn’t, what God’s Spirit preserved as the most important things for all men of all ages to live by.
Bible students learn that Jesus never wrote any books of the Bible Himself, yet Jesus referred to all the Bible as His Word. This is probably due to the fact that our Lord wrote these words indirectly through the first members of the first church, the apostles.
Charles Hodge describes it well in the words below:
"The principle on which the canon of the New Testament is determined is equally simple. Those books, and those only which can be proved to have been written by the apostles, or to have received their sanction, are to be recognized as of divine authority. The reason of this rule is obvious. The apostles were the duly authenticated messengers of Christ, of whom He said, 'He that heareth you heareth Me.'(Luke 10:16)"
That seems to be a test of divine authority. Was it written by an apostle? The early churches knew who wrote these books and that helped authenticate them as part of the Received Text. These churches also knew the apostles were human agents authorized by God. Contrary to what some religions think today, apostles no longer exist. At least, no one has met the qualifications of an apostle for about two thousand years. Since there aren’t any apostles, the canon of scripture was finished when the last apostle passed from the scene. The warning to not add to or take away from God’s Word, as found in Revelation, remains true.
No canon of Scripture (as we know it) was needed during the life of the apostles. Their absence, however, highlighted the need to accurately copy their writings and preserve them from corruption.
Other events after the death of the apostles also raised concerns about what writings were inspired or sacred. Emperor Diocletian issued in A.D. 302 an edict that all the sacred books should be destroyed by fire. Questions arose about what was inspired and what wasn’t.
Another test involved the inner guidance of the Holy Spirit. One of the functions of God’s Spirit is that of guiding His children to the truth. John Calvin put it this way:
"We know these books to be canonical, and the sure rule of our faith, not so much by the common accord and consent of the Church as by the testimony and inward illumination of the Holy Spirit, which enables us to distinguish them from other ecclesiastical books."
No new books that meet the above qualifications have been found since the books we have already accepted as the Bible. There aren’t any lost books of the Bible. Nothing is lacking. If it is, God didn’t really preserve His Word!
What books did the early churches use and accept as coming from God? They used the ones we find ourselves familiar with today. We have what the early churches used on an every day basis.
It’s a matter of historical record that the Old Testament canon of scripture already existed in the time of Christ. This issue is discussed in earlier articles. The story of God’s preservation of the Old Testament is mentioned in the Bible itself and well worth examination. Our focus in this article is on the New Testament.
The books of the New Testament weren’t written as diaries by the apostles as they walked the roads of life with Jesus during His earthly ministry. It wasn’t until after the ascension of the Lord back to heaven that any of the books in the New Testament were actually written. This doesn’t mean the apostles were silent about the gospel. They spoke as often as they could and in as many places as they could speak.
The apostles found themselves busy delivering personal testimonies of the facts of Gospel history to the churches in existence at that time. At first, they delivered the gospel orally. Perhaps this is one of the reasons they faced such persecution. The religious and political powers of that time believed if they could stop the messenger, they could stop the message. Take the time to read this for yourself in Mark 16:15, Acts 1:21-22, and 1 Corinthians 15:1-10.
The apostles realized that someday they might die. What would happen to the words God gave them if they died before the Lord came back? They saw the need of an authoritative record for the world after their passing. God laid it on their hearts to write things down. See it for yourself in Luke 1:1-4. This is how the written gospels came into existence.
Yes, there are a few missing pieces surrounding the events of this time. Part of that is due to the fact that some writings were confiscated and burned by religious persecutions of the early churches. In some cases, churches were asked to surrender their writings but they refused to do so. It cost them their lives and property. The price they paid was used by God as part of His plan to preserve the Word of God for us today. There were many false writings, false gospels and corrupted manuscripts. Men who feared and loved God made the ultimate sacrifice and prayed fervently for God’s direction in efforts to preserve the truth. Can you see God’s hand of preservation in putting together and keeping for us everything He wants us to know?
"Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."
If you believe that, then what about the lost books of the Bible? That short question addresses the issue about what writings are inspired and which ones aren’t.
Since God continues preserving His word, did He lose part of it? Before we dismiss all the “lost books”, let’s consider the fact that books are mentioned in the Bible that aren’t part of the canon of scripture.
For instance, Paul quoted poets in Acts 17:28.
“For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.”
However, just quoting a source doesn’t by itself qualify that source as being inspired by God. Preachers often quote historical records, genealogies, royal archives, court records, personal accounts of conflicts, newspaper articles or even songs of the past as illustrations in their sermons. This action doesn’t license those sources as inspired by God. They merely provide a point of contact for us, making it easier to understand the words of God.
We also know that not every event in the life of Christ is contained in the Bible. All the books in the world couldn’t contain the complete record, but God preserved for us the most important parts of His Son’s life in the record of Scripture. How did He do that? Our Lord, through the Holy Spirit, directed the apostles to write it down. Did they say more than they wrote? It seems God inspired them in a special way to write down only a part of what they said. Did the apostles ever write anything else, other than what is in the Bible? Of course they did. In other words, not every word either spoken or written by Holy men of old was inspired as the Word of God. The Lord had no intention of preserving every word spoken or written by these men as part of the writ of scripture.
Understanding what we just wrote, there are books mentioned in the Bible that apparently no longer exist. God didn’t preserve them. Either they weren’t God’s words or He never intended to preserve them as part of the Bible. That doesn’t mean they were useless; they didn’t carry God’s stamp of approval of Holy Spirit inspiration.
There are approximately 26 books referred to in the Bible that aren’t part of the canon of scripture. No doubt, some of these books may be there but under a different name. This is a brief list that scholars have compiled and it doesn't go into much detail about the opinions of the scholars. Though listed here, not all of them are a part of God’s Word for reasons we just mentioned. They are noted below:
The Book of the Wars of the Lord.(Num. 21:14-15)
The Book of Jasher. (Josh. 10:13, 2 Sam. 1:18)
The Book of the Acts of Solomon. (I Kings 11:41)
The Chronicles of Nathan the Prophet. (I Chron. 29:29, 2 Chron. 9:29)
The Chronicles of Gad the Seer. (I Chron. 29:29)
The Records of Iddo the Seer. (2 Chron. 12:15)
The Annals of Jehu the Son of Hanani. (2 Chron. 20:34)
The Book of Records. (Ezra 4:15)
The Book of the Chronicles-of the Kings of Media and Persia. (Esther 2:23, 6:1, 10:2)
The Prophecy of Ahijah the Silonite. (2 Chron. 9:29)
The Visions of Iddo the Seer. (2 Chron. 9:29)
The Chronicles of Samuel the Seer. (I Chron. 29:29)
The Records of Shemaiah the Prophet. (2 Chron. 12:15)
The Records of the Hozai. (2 Chron. 33:19) ("Hozai" means "seers", prophets)
The Writings of David, King of Israel. (2 Chron. 35:4)
The Writing of Solomon. (2 Chron. 35:4)
The Proverbs, Songs and Biology of Solomon. (I Kings 4:32-33)
Jeremiah's Scroll. (Jer. 36) Jeremiah 36 quotes from it, but the rest was thrown in the fire.
Paul's Other Corinthian Epistles. (I Cor. 5:9, 11)
Letters from the Corinthians to Paul. (I Cor. 7:1)
The Epistle of the Laodiceans. (Col. 4:16) Some scholars think this was Philemon or Hebrews.
Pseudo-Pauline Epistles. (2 Thess. 2:2)
Other Written Gospels. (Luke 1:1-4)
The Tradition of the Elders. (Matt. 15:2, 3, 6)
The Books and the Parchments. (2 Tim. 4:13)
No, The Chronicles of Narnia aren’t included in this list. Did you know there are even more books never mentioned in the Bible that millions of people believe are still part of God’s word to mankind?
These include, but aren’t limited to:
The Book of Mormon
The Pearl of Great Price
Doctrines and Covenants
Science and Health, With A Key to the Scriptures
The writings of Sun Myung Moon
The writings of Ellen G. White
Papal Encyclicals and Ex Cathedra Pronouncements
The Decrees of the Church Councils
The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses
Pentecostal prophecies
Mein Kampf
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Perhaps the largest area of controversy lies with the Apocrypha.
Why some people accept the Apocrypha
The largest group that accepts the Apocrypha as canon is the Roman Catholic Church. This religion accepts these documents as scripture for the following reasons, among others:
The Apocrypha is found in the Greek Septuagint, the Bible of the early Church. However, we’ve already discussed how the Apocrypha was introduced into the Bible. It wasn’t because it was already a part of God’s Word.
There existed universal consent among the early Church Fathers on the canonicity of the Apocrypha and this consent equaled revelation, thus making it part of Scripture. At first impression this sounds convincing, unless the conditions mentioned aren’t accurate. This is the case. The early church Fathers didn’t accept the Apocrypha as inspired.
This may be the greatest reason of them all. Catholic tradition has always accepted the Apocrypha. Since God promised that the Catholic Church would never depart from the truth and that it alone would be the guardian and promoter of truth, this proves the Apocrypha is God’s inspired word. The Bible warns us about following the vain traditions of men and God never made a promise of this kind to the Catholic church. Therefore, this logic means nothing.
Jesus and the Apostles followed the Jews in accepting the Apocrypha. This issue has already been discussed. The notion that Jesus followed the Apocrypha is another of the many attempts made by those who want to change God’s Word to agree with their own theologies. Neither Jesus nor orthodox Jews accepted the Apocrypha.
There are other reasons the church of Rome accepts the Apocrypha not mentioned here.
What process did the early church use to decide which books belonged in the Bible and which ones were left out? Not many lessons cover this important topic.
Canon or not?
The word “canon” itself came from two words that mean “rod, stick, measure”. When a person speaks of canon, he addresses Scripture as the measuring rod of all truth. God, as we’ve already noted, has preserved His Word as the “ruler” of all truth.
According to God’s own testimony, not one of God’s words can pass away and every word remains with us today. But how did this happen? Are some books accepted and others rejected because the church headquarters says to treat them this way or is it because God Himself had a hand in it?
Certain tests were applied to help determine what really came from God and what didn’t, what God’s Spirit preserved as the most important things for all men of all ages to live by.
Bible students learn that Jesus never wrote any books of the Bible Himself, yet Jesus referred to all the Bible as His Word. This is probably due to the fact that our Lord wrote these words indirectly through the first members of the first church, the apostles.
Charles Hodge describes it well in the words below:
"The principle on which the canon of the New Testament is determined is equally simple. Those books, and those only which can be proved to have been written by the apostles, or to have received their sanction, are to be recognized as of divine authority. The reason of this rule is obvious. The apostles were the duly authenticated messengers of Christ, of whom He said, 'He that heareth you heareth Me.'(Luke 10:16)"
That seems to be a test of divine authority. Was it written by an apostle? The early churches knew who wrote these books and that helped authenticate them as part of the Received Text. These churches also knew the apostles were human agents authorized by God. Contrary to what some religions think today, apostles no longer exist. At least, no one has met the qualifications of an apostle for about two thousand years. Since there aren’t any apostles, the canon of scripture was finished when the last apostle passed from the scene. The warning to not add to or take away from God’s Word, as found in Revelation, remains true.
No canon of Scripture (as we know it) was needed during the life of the apostles. Their absence, however, highlighted the need to accurately copy their writings and preserve them from corruption.
Other events after the death of the apostles also raised concerns about what writings were inspired or sacred. Emperor Diocletian issued in A.D. 302 an edict that all the sacred books should be destroyed by fire. Questions arose about what was inspired and what wasn’t.
Another test involved the inner guidance of the Holy Spirit. One of the functions of God’s Spirit is that of guiding His children to the truth. John Calvin put it this way:
"We know these books to be canonical, and the sure rule of our faith, not so much by the common accord and consent of the Church as by the testimony and inward illumination of the Holy Spirit, which enables us to distinguish them from other ecclesiastical books."
No new books that meet the above qualifications have been found since the books we have already accepted as the Bible. There aren’t any lost books of the Bible. Nothing is lacking. If it is, God didn’t really preserve His Word!
What books did the early churches use and accept as coming from God? They used the ones we find ourselves familiar with today. We have what the early churches used on an every day basis.
It’s a matter of historical record that the Old Testament canon of scripture already existed in the time of Christ. This issue is discussed in earlier articles. The story of God’s preservation of the Old Testament is mentioned in the Bible itself and well worth examination. Our focus in this article is on the New Testament.
The books of the New Testament weren’t written as diaries by the apostles as they walked the roads of life with Jesus during His earthly ministry. It wasn’t until after the ascension of the Lord back to heaven that any of the books in the New Testament were actually written. This doesn’t mean the apostles were silent about the gospel. They spoke as often as they could and in as many places as they could speak.
The apostles found themselves busy delivering personal testimonies of the facts of Gospel history to the churches in existence at that time. At first, they delivered the gospel orally. Perhaps this is one of the reasons they faced such persecution. The religious and political powers of that time believed if they could stop the messenger, they could stop the message. Take the time to read this for yourself in Mark 16:15, Acts 1:21-22, and 1 Corinthians 15:1-10.
The apostles realized that someday they might die. What would happen to the words God gave them if they died before the Lord came back? They saw the need of an authoritative record for the world after their passing. God laid it on their hearts to write things down. See it for yourself in Luke 1:1-4. This is how the written gospels came into existence.
Yes, there are a few missing pieces surrounding the events of this time. Part of that is due to the fact that some writings were confiscated and burned by religious persecutions of the early churches. In some cases, churches were asked to surrender their writings but they refused to do so. It cost them their lives and property. The price they paid was used by God as part of His plan to preserve the Word of God for us today. There were many false writings, false gospels and corrupted manuscripts. Men who feared and loved God made the ultimate sacrifice and prayed fervently for God’s direction in efforts to preserve the truth. Can you see God’s hand of preservation in putting together and keeping for us everything He wants us to know?