Canon Nt Books

    I. Definition of Canonicity

        Book             Guthrie          Harrison        Thiessen            Hiebert

            To locate the study of critical introduction to the Old Testament within the total picture of apologetics, we give here an abstract of the flow of apologetics. Instead of beginning with objective Christian evidences, as traditionally done, we include a prior step so that evangelism and apologetics become much the same kind of thing. Coming to conviction begins in the present with (1) our sense of need to be loved, to feel innocent and meaningful, and to have something to depend on. (2) The answer in Christianity comes as a cluster of historical events surrounding the person of Jesus the Messiah, especially his resurrection and the meaning of his life, death, and resurrection for human need in any age. (3) When we begin to carry out the principles of living that Christ taught and to receive in experience Christ’s love, the purposefulness of life, the freedom from guilt, and the confidence of living under One we can trust, we confirm subjectively that the truth is also the truth for us. Living in the new condition helps us identify more clearly the real needs among, and plus, perceived needs. This stage helps us understand the message itself more clearly, and so on. The process forms an ongoing dynamic of reciprocal causations between the three “poles.”

A.D.          34 (perhaps 37)       Accession of Aretas               Paul’s   conversion   had   to   follow   this                                      date (Gal. 1:17-18; 2 Cor. 11:32).

                 36                         Pontius Pilate deposed            Does   the   absence   of   a   procurator   in                                     Palestine  account  for  the  possibility  of                                                                                           executing      Stephen     and     of     Paul’s                                     putting   others   to  death?   (Acts  7:1-8:3;                                                                                          9:1-2; 26:9-11)

            Some scholars suppose the apostles did not consider their work as something for the subsequent ages of the church. They were writing for the then and there. They had supposed that Christ would return within the lifetime of some first-generation Christians. Writing for posterity did not enter their minds. If their literary activity took place under these conditions, collecting their writings to establish a permanent canon would not have been a concerted effort either. Only when it became evident that Christ would not immediately return did the early Christians begin to locate and assemble apostolic writings.

                  In keeping with the structure of apologetics, the following sketch deals with the principles for determining whether a writing belongs in the Judaeo-Christian canon.

Critical introduction addresses several issues related to the study of documents. In this setting, “introduction” does not mean getting acquainted with a book’s contents for the first time. “Critical” introduction does not “criticize” the book as if to degrade it. Critical introduction evaluates the nature of a book and matters surrounding its origin.