Authority and Canon

As we continue our examination of biblical authority, we will today discuss the canon — the list of books that make up the Bible. Questions regarding biblical authority and the canon are inseparable. How do we know we have the right books in our Bible? Maybe we have left out an inspired book or have included an uninspired one? Roman Catholicism includes extra books in the Old Testament (the apocrypha) that Protestants do not. Which list is correct?

Roman Catholicism maintains that we know we have the right canon because the church infallibly determines what is Scripture.

However, this places the church in authority over the Bible, for if the church determines what is canon, then the church has final authority.

To say that the church determines the canon grossly oversimplifies the process by which we received our Bible. For one, the Old Testament canon was received as complete in Jesus’ day. In today’s passage, Jesus refers to the traditional Jewish division of the Old Testament: the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (“Psalms” being a first-century designation for the section now called the “Writings”). The canon referred to here, scholars note, is identical to the Protestant Old Testament canon and did not include the apocrypha.

With regard to the New Testament, early church councils did discuss which books were to be received into the canon. However, as the canon was formed, the church did not speak of being the body that confers authority upon it. Rather, it was said that the church “receives” certain books as Scripture. Just as we receive Christ without conferring authority on Him, so too does the church receive Scripture as authoritative without conferring authority upon it.

Moreover, there was never any debate about the vast majority of the New Testament books. Only a few books were ever questioned, largely because only isolated pockets of believers had access to them during the earliest days of the church. However, once it became clear that the disputed books were associated with an apostle and taught apostolic doctrine, the debate over them ceased, and the church universal recognized that they too were inspired by God.