The question of how we know what books belong in the Bible is an important one. How we answer this question is just as important. While some may focus extensively on historical research and data to solve the canon problem—examining what books the church fathers accepted, how early a consensus was reached, how long it took for some books to gain full acceptance, and so on—I agree with John Frame when he argues that historical research, while valuable in some respects, cannot finally establish the canon.
My purpose is not to enter into this complicated history [of canon development] and to determine inductively whether a canon somehow emerges from it and what books constitute that canon. Indeed, I am inclined to think that that kind of study is unfruitful. Studies of the historical process by which the church came to identify the canon certainly do reveal interesting facts, and believers can see the hand of God throughout the process. But inductive study alone is unlikely to show us with certainty which books God has given to rule the church.
John Frame, The Doctrine of the Word of God, 134.
In other words, the issue of canon is a theological issue before it is a historical issue, and historical research can only help if we begin from a valid theological starting point. As I’ve argued elsewhere, we need to first see the canon as God’s concern before it is our concern. God has a vested interest in making sure his people can easily locate and identify his words so that we can believe God’s promises and obey his commands. If God’s words are difficult to locate and identify with certainty, faith and obedience are greatly hindered.
God has a vested interest in making sure his people can easily locate and identify his words so that we can believe God’s promises and obey his commands.
Following that basic argument, I want to briefly examine in this article the concept of canon in Scripture in order to demonstrate that many of the biblical commands require the existence of an easily identifiable canon with fixed parameters.
First, let’s define the word “canon.” This term originally meant “standard” or “rule,” but it eventually came to refer to the collection of books that Christians accepted as inspired Scripture. When we ask, “Which books belong in the canon,” we are simply asking, “Which books belong in the Bible,” or “Which books are God’s divinely inspired Word?”
Second, let’s consider specific texts that speak directly to the issue of canon. Two are found in the book of Deuteronomy.
You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.
Deuteronomy 4:2
Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.
Deuteronomy 12:32
Notice in both of these passages that the instructions to not add or take away from the “word that I command you” assumes that (1) Israel could locate all that God had commanded them; and (2) this set of commands had an identifiable, fixed content. In order for the command against modifying God’s words to carry any weight or logical force, Israel would need to be able to locate God’s Word and recognize that there was specific content—a set collection of words—to which other words (potentially) could be added or from which words (potentially) could be taken away.
Moreover, the people of Israel would not be able to obey words they could not locate and contrast with other words. If God didn’t provide his people an easily identifiable canon, he would be working at cross-purposes with his aim to form a people for his own glory, for his people would not be able to know what he required of them, and spiritual anarchy would prevail. “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine” (Exod 19:5, emphasis added). Notice that obedience to God’s voice was a necessary requirement for Israel becoming God’s treasured possession. If Israel could not locate God’s voice, they would not be able to obey and God’s aim to create a people for his own possession would be thwarted at the outset.
Two other texts in Scripture speak in ways nearly identical to Deuteronomy 4:12 and 12:32. Consider the following:
Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.
Proverbs 30:5-6
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
Revelation 22:18-19
The command against modifying God’s Word in both of these passages assumes that one can locate a fixed collection of words (called “his words” in Proverbs 30:6 and “the words of the prophecy of this book” in Revelation 22:18) and know whether they are adding to or taking away from them. These passages assume that a canon could be identified and located. While it’s true that John’s warning in Revelation pertains specifically to the book of Revelation, the warning itself requires that a person could locate and identify the “words of the prophecy of this book.”
There are other texts throughout the Old and New Testament that speak to the issue of canon even though they do not register a warning directly against adding to or taking away from God’s Word. In Deuteronomy 18, for example, Moses describes God’s plan to provide Israel a prophet like Moses to lead them.
I will raise up for them a prophet like you among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I commanded him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.
Deuteronomy 18:18
Here we see that God ensures that the prophet will “speak to them all that I commanded him.” The question that people often ask is, “How do I know that some books have not been left out of the Bible?” Deuteronomy 18:18 speaks directly to this question. In the case of this prophet that God would establish in Israel (a reference to the prophets immediately following Moses and ultimately the final prophet, Jesus Christ) God promised that all the words he delivered to the prophet would be spoken by the prophet. God would place his words in the prophet’s mouth, and the prophet wouldn’t miss anything. No words of God would be lost. God has always been concerned with the preservation of his words and making sure that nothing he intends to communicate to his people gets lost.
What about possible additions to God’s Word? Paul addresses the issue of potential additions in his letter to the Galatians. The churches in the Galatian region had been infiltrated by professing Jewish believers who argued that the gospel was incomplete without circumcision. Yes, faith in Jesus was necessary, they argued, but it wasn’t sufficient to justify sinners. These Christians in Galatia also needed to follow the Old Testament law, and, specifically, the law concerning circumcision.
Paul would have none of this adding to the gospel. Indeed, so committed was Paul to a fixed canon that he called down a divine curse upon anyone who would add to it.
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
Galatians 1:6-9
According to the apostle, “the gospel” was the message he had previously preached to the Galatians. Any addition to this gospel was considered “another gospel” that the Galatians must reject. We must note that Paul’s exhortation here requires a fixed and identifiable set of words called “the gospel.” Without this fixed set of words, it would not be possible to discern between “the gospel” and any additions to it. Paul’s warning about a message that is “contrary to the one you received,” means nothing if one cannot identify with certainty a previously-received message. We see in Paul’s response to the false teaching in Galatia that preserving the life-giving gospel hinges upon a fixed and identifiable set of divine words.
Conclusion
A fixed canon is essential for a sound faith, consistent obedience, and our ability to discern between God’s words and that which are not God’s words. Without a canon, we wouldn’t really know what to believe. For these reasons, therefore, we can have an unshakable confidence that God will provide his people with a readily accessible canon whose parameters are easily recognizable. If we begin with the biblical foundations and theological entailments outlined in this article, the issue becomes far less complicated than some have made it, despite some of the historical complexities that surround the development of the Old and New Testament canons. Jesus and the apostles affirmed the Old Covenant canon (Matt 7:12; Luke 24:27, 44: Rom 3:21), and Jesus commissioned his apostles to write the New Covenant canon (John 14:26, 16:13-14). This unified canon consists of thirty-nine Old Testament books and twenty-seven New Testament books that take us from first creation (Gen 1:1) to the new creation (Rev 21:1ff). The canon is fixed, closed, and easily identifiable. Let us take up and read!
