Reading Time: 19 minutesWhy not John? John is not “excluded” as if someone tossed it out or prevented it from being a member. It simply is not “synoptic” (i.e. defined as: “same events ‘seen’ at the same time”) like with the other three. What we do know and we’ll get into in the Read more…
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in a similar sequence and in similar or sometimes identical wording. They stand in contrast to John, whose content is largely distinct. The term synoptic means “seeing all Read more…
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe 4th to 5th century these lists become increasingly prominent for what is authoritative and inspired rather than just counting what books the church fathers quoted from. Here we will go through the closing process of the canon where oral confirmation becomes written confirmation, something that’s increasingly more important the Read more…
Reading Time: 17 minutesSo what are the earliest canonical lists that we know of? Or what inferences can we discover from individuals who quoted large collections of books? What we’ll explore here in this section is what books people affirmed as scripture. Amongst this are the church fathers, the ones who followed on Read more…
Reading Time: 3 minutesIn the previous article we talked about internal scriptural affirmation of New Testament books and we in 2 Peter 15 a mention of people trying to twist Paul’s words. Now if you do not have people watching over the text to preserve and protect it (Like the New Testament does, Read more…
Reading Time: 3 minutesThere is internal evidence for the canon within the scriptures themselves of a canon. I am not referring to like I have previously of them mentioning “take a scroll” or “I have a scribe”. I am referring to texts either quoting or referring to material as scripture and these are Read more…
Reading Time: 8 minutesList of Authoritative books Catholics would say the Canon is an authoritative list of books Protestants would say it’s a list of authoritative books now, it’s where you put the word authoritative that is key. Is the Canon an authoritative list of books or a list of authoritative books? Well Read more…
Reading Time: 12 minutesContents Jesus authority Jesus entrusted apostles Defense of apostle authority Defense of apostle authority (church fathers) Clement of Rome Ignatius of Antioch Polycarp Jesus affirms the current status of the Old Testament Jesus is the bridge between the Old and the New Testament. If there was to be a conclusion Read more…
Reading Time: 4 minutesCeasing of prophecy Between the Old and the New Testament, the sharp eyed ones of you will have noticed a rather extensive period of time between the book of the prophet Malachi and the Gospel according to Matthew. This is important for several reasons that we will address here with Read more…
Reading Time: 10 minutesBefore I get into the depths of the Canon, I want to briefly examine what the Bible is as a whole, what is it? William Mounce, a translator for the NIV translation describes it as: “The bible’s the revelation of the character and the will of God, it tells us Read more…