How Did the Early Church Recognize the Canonicity of a Book?
Author: Bill Pratt
There is a misconception, popularized by books like The Da
Vinci Code, that the way the books of the Bible were chosen consisted of
politically infused church councils voting on the books they liked, and voting
out the books they didn’t like.
However, a careful reading of church history totally
disproves this misconception.
As noted in a previous post, the church understood its role
as recognizing what books God, himself, had inspired. This job of
recognition was something the early church took very seriously, but how did
they go about doing it? What were the criteria they used?
We know that propheticity was a necessary condition for
canonicity, but sometimes church fathers who were trying to assess propheticity
of a book were removed by decades, or even centuries, from the original
composition of the books. So what did they do?
Norman Geisler and William Nix, in their book A
General Introduction to the Bible, describe the criteria that
were actually employed by the early church in this process.
Was the book written by a prophet of God? This
was the most fundamental criteria. Once this was established, the book’s
inspiration was recognized.
Was the writer confirmed by acts of God? If
there were doubts about the author’s being a true prophet of God, miracles
served as divine confirmation.
Did the message tell the truth about God?
According to Geisler and Nix, “Any teaching about God contrary to what
His people already knew to be true was to be rejected. Furthermore, any
predictions made about the world which failed to come true indicated that a
prophet’s words should be rejected.”
Does it come with the power of God? Geisler and
Nix explain, “Another test for canonicity was the edifying effect of a book.
Does it have the power of God? The Fathers believed
the Word of God is “living and active” (Heb. 4:12),
and consequently ought to have a transforming force for edification (2 Tim. 3:17)
and evangelization (1 Peter 1:23).”
Was it accepted by the people of God? Geisler
and Nix point out that ”the initial acceptance of a book by the people to
whom it was addressed is crucial. Paul said of the Thessalonians, “We also
constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God’s message,
you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of
God” (1
Thess. 2:13). For whatever subsequent debate there may have been about a
book’s place in the canon, the people in the best position to know its
prophetic credentials were those who knew the prophet who wrote it. Hence,
despite all later debate about the canonicity of some books, the definitive
evidence is that which attests to its original acceptance by the contemporary
believers.”
Geisler and Nix summarize:
The most important distinction to be made at this point is
between the determination and the discovery of canonicity. God is solely
responsible for the first, and man is responsible merely for the last. That a
book is canonical is due to divine inspiration. How that is known to be true is
the process of human recognition. How men discovered what God had determined
was by looking for the “earmarks of inspiration.”
It was asked whether the book (1) was written by a man of
God, (2) who was confirmed by an act of God, (3) told the truth about God, man,
and so on, (4) came with the power of God, and (5) was accepted by the people
of God. If a book clearly had the first earmark, the remainder were often
assumed. Of course the contemporaries of the prophet (apostle) knew his
credentials and accepted his book immediately. But later church Fathers sorted
out the profusion of religious literature, discovered, and gave official
recognition to the books that, by virtue of their divine inspiration, had been
determined by God as canonical and originally recognized by the contemporary
believing community to which they were presented.
