The New Testament Canon (Part 1)

This week we return to a series of posts on the development of the canon of Scripture. We have already considered the Old Testament, including why we do not accept the Apocrypha as Scripture. Now we will turn our attention to the development of the New Testament canon.

The first thing to note is that for a true Christian the question of the New Testament canon is distinct from the question of the Old Testament. This is due to the simple fact that since Jesus accepted the authority of the Old Testament, no true believer is free to not do the same. Because Jesus recognized that the Old Testament writings were inspired, authoritative, and unique, so must all Christians.

However, the writings of the New Testament were done after Jesus had died, risen, and ascended. So how do know that there will even be a New Testament? And how do we determine which writings to include? This will be the focus of this series of articles.

The first thing to note in this regard is that Jesus Himself chose and commissioned the apostles. We read of this in the Gospel accounts. For example, in Matthew 10:2-4 we read “These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; ³ Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ⁴ Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.” Note that Jesus Himself selected the particular men, and commissioned them as apostles – ones sent out as your representative. This group was noted in all of the Gospels as being a unique group among Jesus’ followers.

Furthermore, following His resurrection, Jesus commissioned these apostles to carry out a worldwide mission to call people to Jesus. For example, we read this in Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Thus, after Jesus has risen He continues His ministry through the apostles. This is also why the apostles said it was necessary to choose a replacement for Judas to carry on the mission of witnessing to Jesus and His resurrection (see Acts 1:15-22).

We also know that Paul was commissioned by Jesus as an apostle, especially to the Gentiles. Jesus told this to Ananias while Paul was still blind and had not even been baptized: “But the Lord said to Ananias, ‘Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.’” (Acts 9:15). This commission was also given to Paul directly (see Acts 22:10-21). Thus Paul was added to the other apostles and given specific authority as a witness to Jesus, the resurrection, and the Gospel.

All of this is important because the apostles were not merely chosen by the early church and given human authority; rather, they were chosen and commissioned by Jesus Himself directly, and given divine authority to take forth the Gospel and lead God’s New Covenant people.

We read about the fulfillment of this call in the book of Acts. However, the teaching of the apostles was not limited to their physical person; they began to write as well. Next time we will look at how they were conscious that their words – both verbal and written – were given Divine authority.

In Christ,

Bret