The New Testament did not fall from the sky complete and bound. It was the early Church—bishops, councils, and communities guided by apostolic tradition—that discerned, debated, and ultimately canonized the books we now call Scripture. This process wasn't driven by individual interpretation, but by a consensus of the unified Church, centuries after Christ's resurrection.
So the question is:
- Who gave them the authority to determine which texts were divinely inspired?
- Why trust their discernment on the canon, but reject their teachings on things like the Eucharist, apostolic succession, or the veneration of saints?
To accept the canon of Scripture is to implicitly trust the Church that gave it to you. But if that Church was fallible or "corrupted" by tradition, how can you trust the canon itself?
If the early Church was reliable enough to determine the boundaries of divine revelation, perhaps it is also worth considering their broader doctrinal framework.
Is it consistent to trust their table of contents, but not their theology?
Hello LanaPodesta,
Great thread and questions!
Regarding the table of contents in acceptance of the canon of Scripture, wouldn't we have to go back to the OT and see what Jesus says about the table contents of the Hebrew Scriptures that lead up the Greek NT Scriptures?
When someone speaks of "the canon of Scripture" , we really should consider the OT and NT as one text, right?
Jesus established the table of contents of the OT in the following verses and confirmed what God had ordered and given to the Hebrew people and to the nations.
Luke 24:44-45
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in
the law of Moses, and in
the prophets, and in
the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures
Even today the Hebrew canon is ordered by this table of contents which was established by Jesus as the law, the prophets and the psalms(the writings).
Psalms is the first in the writings section of the Hebrew canon by figure of synedoche, which is when a part is put for the whole like the way Jesus said in Luke 24:44 referring to all the books in the Hebrew scriptures "concerning me", the books were not just the law of Moses, the prophets or the psalms only but his reference to psalms by synedoche included Proverbs, Job, Chronicles, etc...all other writings in the writings section of the Hebrew canon.
The church you refer to when asking "who gave them the authority to determine which texts were divinely inspired" could not possibly be the church you refer to because the church you refer too has accepted what was done in Alexandria, Egypt in establishing the Septuagint as we know it now and they have accepted the addition of many uninspired texts that were not in the Hebrew canon then or now and even changed the order of the texts too!
The Septuagint first began with the law of Moses(first five books of our OT) and maintained the order of the books/scrolls, then many years later they continued working on the Septuagint and proceeded to change the order God had established and even added more books/scrolls which led to the Vulgate and has continued today into our English versions.
A church who would not embrace and continue what God had already ordered in the Hebrew Scriptures could not possibly be responsible for the formation and preservation of the Greek NT Scriptures in formation of the whole of Scripture as One Text when they don't even get the OT books and order correct!
God established the Hebrew canon as the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms (the writings).
Man changed the Hebrew canon to the Law, History, Poetry/Wisdom and Prophecy.
Why would we trust what Man did in bringing disorder to what God had already established?
Blessings,
Love Fountain
