Running head: SUMMARY OF THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE 1

Summary of the Canon of Scripture

Caywama T. Edwards

Theology 1 (BT121)

Lyndon Mottley

West Indies School of Theology

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Summary of the Canon of Scripture

To begin his discussion on the canonicity of Scripture, Grudem (1994) asks the pertinent question:

“What belongs in the Bible and what does not belong?”. He elucidates that this question refers to the canon of

Scripture, which he defined as “the list of all the books that belong in the Bible” (p. 34). Hence, he asserts that

in order to trust and obey God completely, the reader must be certain that that which he or she is reading is

indeed the very words of God. Thus, he justifies why the compilation of the Old and New Testament canons can

be trusted.

Historically, the earliest documentation of the Old Testament Canon began with the Ten

Commandments that were written by God Himself, outlining the covenant between Him and His people.

Following this, other ancient prophets such as Moses and Joshua added to the collection until the cessation of

this process in approximately 435 B.C. Despite the presence of the Apocrypha – “the collection of books

included in the canon by the Roman Catholic Church but excluded from the canon by Protestantism”, other

ancient Jewish literature, Jesus Himself, the Jewish leaders, and the apostles confirmed that what was included

in the Old Testament canon was final. The early church disregarded Apocrypha as well, and Grudem (1994)

suggest four reasons for this: 1) they do not claim for themselves the same kind of authority as the Old

Testament writings; (2) they were not regarded as God’s words by the Jewish people from whom they

originated; (3) they were not considered to be Scripture by Jesus or the New Testament authors; and (4) they

contain teachings inconsistent with the rest of the Bible. Hence, he concludes that “Christians today should have

no worry that anything needed has been left out or that anything that is not God’s words has been included” (p.

40) because despite their historical and linguistic value, the Apocrypha is not divinely inspired.

The documentation of the New Testament canon is based primarily on the apostles’ writings. Grudem

(1994, p. 40) argues that “it should be remembered that the writing of Scripture primarily occurs in connection

with God’s great acts in redemptive history”; therefore, the apostles were tasked with accurately transmitting

and preserving the Messiah’s teachings and ministry for future generations. Thus, the apostles’ writings were
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equated to those of the Old Testament prophets and were accepted as part of the canon of Scripture by the early

church. Some books in the New Testament canon do not bear apostolic authorship; however, the early church

“used a combination of factors, including apostolic endorsement, consistency with the rest of Scripture, and the

perception of a writing as “God-breathed” on the part of an overwhelming majority of believers, to decide that a

writing was in fact God’s words (through a human author) and therefore worthy of inclusion in the canon”

(Grudem, 1994, p. 44). Hence, to answer the question of whether or not more writings should be expected to be

added to the canon, the author argues that the redemptive historical perspective in Hebrews 1:1-2, and the

solemnity of the warning in Revelation 22:18-19 proposes that the canon is finished work and no other writings

will be added to it.

Consequently, to satisfactorily answer the opening question in the chapter, Grudem offers two reasons

why we can be confident that the right books have been included in the canon of Scripture that we now have.

Firstly, he states that our Heavenly Father is faithful, and would not allow His people to blindly put their trust in

something that is not sanctioned by Himself. Hence, Grudem states that “we find our confidence repeatedly

confirmed both by historical investigation and by the work of the Holy Spirit in enabling us to hear God’s voice

in a unique way as we read from every one of the sixty-six books in our present canon of Scripture” (1994, pp.

48-49). Secondly, the early church’s job was not to confer divine or apostolic authority upon human literature,

but to confirm that the writings were indeed of godly inspiration. Hence, Grudem stresses that “in all known

literature, there are no other candidates that even come close to Scripture when consideration is given both to

their doctrinal consistency with the rest of Scripture and to the type of authority they claim for themselves (as

well as the way those claims of authority have been received by other believers)” (1994, p. 49). As a result, he

concludes the chapter by noting that “the canon of Scripture today is exactly what God wanted it to be, and it

will stay that way until Christ returns” (p. 49); therefore, it can be trusted.
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References

Grudem, W. (1994). Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.