The same three key tests of canonicity that applied to the Old Testament also
11. Jeremiah 19. Lamentations 12. Ezekiel 20. Ecclesiastes 13. The Twelve (minor prophets) 21. Esther
C. Historical Books 22. Daniel 23. Ezra-Nehemiah 24. Chronicles (1&2)
The same three key tests of canonicity that applied to the Old Testament also applied to the New Testament. In the case of Mark and Luke/Acts, the authors were considered to be, in effect, the penmen for Peter and Paul respectively. James and Jude were written by Christ's half brothers. While Hebrews is the only New Testament book whose authorship is unknown for certain, its content is so in line with both the Old Testament and New Testament, that the early church concluded it must have been written by an apostolic associate. The 27 books of the New Testament have been universally accepted since c. A.D. 350– 400 as inspired by God.
Preservation
How can one be sure that the revealed and inspired, written word of God, which was recognized as canonical by the early church, has been handed down to this day without any loss of material? Furthermore, since one of the devil's prime concerns is to undermine the Bible, have the Scriptures survived this destructive onslaught? In the beginning, he denied God's word to Eve (Gen. 3:4). Satan later attempted to distort the Scripture in his wilderness encounter with Christ (Matt. 4:6–7). Through King Jehoiakim, he even attempted to literally destroy the word (Jer. 36:23). The battle for the Bible rages, but Scripture has and will continue to outlast its enemies.
God anticipated man's and Satan's malice towards the Scripture with divine promises to preserve his word. The very continued existence of Scripture is guaranteed in Isa. 40:8, "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever" (cf. 1 Pet. 1:25). This even means that no inspired Scripture has been lost in the past and still awaits rediscovery.
The actual content of Scripture will be perpetuated, both in heaven (Ps. 119:89) and on earth (Isa. 59:21). Thus the purposes of God, as published in the sacred writings, will never be thwarted, even in the least detail (cf. Matt. 5:18; 24:25;
Mark 13:31; Luke 16:17).
. . . so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:11
Transmission
Since the Bible has frequently been translated into multiple languages and distributed throughout the world, how can we be sure that error has not crept in, even if it was unintentional? As Christianity spread, it is certainly true that people desired to have the Bible in their own language which required translations from the original Hebrew and Aramaic languages of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New Testament. Not only did the work of translators provide an opportunity for error, but publication, which was done by hand copying until the printing press arrived c. A.D. 1450, also afforded continual possibilities of error.
Through the centuries, the practitioners of textual criticism, a precise science, have discovered, preserved, catalogued, evaluated, and published an amazing array of biblical manuscripts from both the Old and New Testaments. In fact, the number of existing biblical manuscripts dramatically outdistances the existing fragments of any other ancient literature. By comparing text with text, the textual critic can confidently determine what the original prophetic/apostolic, inspired writing contained.
Although existing copies of the main, ancient Hebrew text (Masoretic) date back only to the tenth century A.D., two other important lines of textual evidence bolster the confidence of textual critics that they have reclaimed the originals. First, the tenth century A.D. Hebrew Old Testament can be compared to the Greek translation called the Septuagint or LXX (written c. 200–150 B.C.; the oldest existing manuscripts date to c. A.D. 325). There is amazing consistency between the two, which speaks of the accuracy in copying the Hebrew text for centuries.
Second, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947–1956 (manuscripts that are dated c. 200–100 B.C.) proved to be monumentally important. After comparing the earlier Hebrew texts with the later ones, only a few slight variants were discovered, none of which changed the meaning of any passage. Although the Old Testament had been translated and copied for centuries, the latest version was essentially the same as the earlier ones.
The New Testament findings are even more decisive because a much larger amount of material is available for study; there are over 5,000 Greek New Testament manuscripts that range from the whole testament to scraps of papyri which contain as little as part of one verse. A few existing fragments date back to within 25–50 years of the original writing. New Testament textual scholars have generally concluded that 1) 99.99 percent of the original writings have been reclaimed, and 2) of the remaining one hundredth of one percent, there are no variants substantially affecting any Christian doctrine.
With this wealth of biblical manuscripts in the original languages and with the disciplined activity of textual critics to establish with almost perfect accuracy the content of the autographs, any errors which have been introduced and/or perpetuated by the thousands of translations over the centuries can be identified and corrected by comparing the translation or copy with the reassembled original. By this providential means, God has made good his promise to preserve the Scriptures. We can rest assured that there are translations available today which indeed are worthy of the title, The Word of God.
The history of a full, English translation Bible essentially began with John Wycliffe (c. A.D. 1330–1384), who made the first English translation of the whole Bible. Later, William Tyndale was associated with the first complete, printed New Testament in English, c. A.D. 1526. Myles Coverdale followed in
A.D. 1535, by delivering the first complete Bible printed in English. By A.D. 1611, the King James Version (KJV) had been completed. Since then, hundreds of translations have been made—some better, some worse. Today, the better English translations of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures include: 1) English Standard Version (ESV); 2) New American Standard Bible (NASB); and 3) New King James Version (NKJV).
Summing It Up
God intended his word to abide forever (preservation). Therefore his written,
propositional, self disclosure (revelation) was protected from error in its original writing (inspiration) and collected in 66 books of the Old and New Testaments (canonicity).
Through the centuries, tens of thousands of copies and thousands of translations have been made (transmission) which did introduce some error. Because there is an abundance of existing ancient Old Testament and New Testament manuscripts, however, the exacting science of textual criticism has been able to reclaim the content of the original writings (revelation and inspiration) to the extreme degree of 99.99 percent, with the remaining one hundredth of one percent having no effect on its content (preservation).
The sacred book which we read, study, obey, and preach deserves to unreservedly be called The Bible or "The Book without peer," since its author is God and it bears the qualities of total truth and complete trustworthiness, as also characterizes its divine source.
Is There More To Come?
How do we know that God will not amend our current Bible with a 67th inspired book? Or, in other words, "Is the canon forever closed?"
Scripture texts warn that no one should delete from or add to Scripture (Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Prov. 30:6). Realizing that additional canonical books actually came after these words of warning, we can only conclude that while no deletions whatsoever were permitted, in fact, authorized, inspired writings were permitted to be added in order to complete the canon protected by those passages.
The most compelling text on the closed canon is the Scripture to which nothing has been added for 1,900 years.
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