According To Paul's Determining Of Canonicity?

In all cultures, the determining of canonicity is considered incredibly important. In the

Western canon, which is the group of literature, art, and music that scholars consider the most influential on Western culture, ranges from Homer to Shakespeare. Biblical canonicity, however, is in a realm all to itself. In II Timothy 3, Paul uses the term “Holy Scriptures,” which is a very meaningful description. Essentially, if the entire writings in the Western canon, every religious text, and everything that had been written in human history were to be set in a pile with the

Bible, the Bible is to be separated from all of them. Because of this, the process of canonizing the Scriptures is a very detailed one. Basically, the canonization of the Bible

The first level of canonicity is in its accuracy as a narrative history. Naturally, the extent of the Old Testament, or the Tanakh in Jewish Tradition, grew in size the more time passed. For example, in the days of the prophets, the people of Israel did not regard the words of the prophets as highly as they did the pentateuch. The reason being that they did not regard the words of the prophets as being scripture. But, as more time went by, the Judaic people recognized the authority of the words of the prophets and added them into their Bible. Because several of the books in the Old Testament line up with the recorded history of Israel, as recorded by the Jewish historian Josephus, it is seen as a reliable source.

In II Timothy 3, the same passage mentioned earlier, the Bible claims that all Scripture is

God-breathed. The biggest piece of evidence for this scripture applying to the Old Testament is the fact that not only did the apostles and writers of the New Testament rely on the validity of the

Old Testament, but, as recorded in the Gospels, Jesus himself built on and quoted the Old

Testament. There was an obvious mutual agreement with both Jesus and his disciples, and

One argument for the reliability of the New Testament is that the majority of the it was written by the disciples, the people who knew Jesus the best. Due to their personal relationship with Jesus, their authority was assumed as authors, but they were also historical characters that are found in other sources.

In John 14, Jesus tells His disciples that, “the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the

Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that

I have said to you.” Jesus later promised that they would not speak on their own authority, but on the authority of God, with the full revelation of truth from the Holy Spirit. This is evident in the writings of the New Testament that God had revealed to them truths that still spark reaction in their modern day readers. Even the five books written by unknown or non-disciples are obvious to both the readers of the day and every Christian who has picked up a Bible sense that those books are God-inspired.

Ultimately, the canonicity of the scripture depend on our belief that God is a faithful God that would never leave us with an incomplete or inadequate word. Even more than that, in