The Foundation of Orthodoxy and the Canon - Research Paper Example

?The Foundation of Orthodoxy and the Canon The Christians of the modern world have a very powerful treasure in their hands – the Bible. Everything has been laid out for them by their forefathers. All that is asked from them is to read the Bible, follow its teachings and live by the Words of God. However, in as much as the Bible easily guides the believers towards the path to righteousness, the Bible itself had to go through a very difficult path towards acceptance. The Bible as we know it today went through a very long, difficult and protracted birthing process. The best-selling book of all time is itself a compilation of books written by different authors. This paper shall outline how these books earned their place in the Bible. This paper shall discuss the key events and movements that were influential in the recognition of the canonical book. In addition, it shall look into the methodology used in determining these books as the inspired word of God. The canon of the Old Testament was apparently inherited from the Jewish faith. Jesus Christ himself recognized the authority of these books by making constant references to these books in his teachings to the apostles and to the very lucky people who had walked the earth with him and had listened to the voice of Jesus with their very own ears. The mere fact that Jesus Christ himself recognizes the authenticity and authority of the books in the Old Testament far exceeds any proof of its authority and divine inspiration. Moreover, majority of the contents of the Old Testament is also accepted as historical accounts of the ancient days. Hence, this paper shall focus on the canon of the New Testament. Although the New Testament is centered on Jesus Christ, not one book is attributed to him as the author. The books in the New Testament are accounts about the life and the teachings of Jesus Christ during his lifetime as well as the teachings of his disciples as they fulfill their duty of spreading the Word of God with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In the furtherance of this divine duty, the Apostles and other learned followers of the young Christian faith wrote their eye-witness accounts of the acts and teachings of Jesus Christ. These writings are then passed around as the disciples’ letters to different groups of people as the Christian faith slowly grew in number. “About the end of the first century we find two collections of Christian writings beginning to circulate as collections among the churches: the Fourfold Gospel and the body of Pauline Epistles. This was a step towards the acceptance of an authoritative collection, or Canon, of books of the New Covenant, as distinct from the authority which the individual Gospels and Epistles already had for those who first received them.”1 For years, the early Christianity blossomed on this collection of Gospels and Epistles. However, its authenticity and divine inspiration was challenged by the rise of the Gnostics, one of which was Marcion who declared that the entire Old Testament was nothing but a mere legend, that is, without divine authority and authenticity. As such, he published his own version of a Gospel wherein he removed all references to the Old Testament. In response, Apologists also came into existence to defend the faith and concomitantly its teachings and writings from those who want to destroy it. The Church Fathers, those who have been the students of the Apostles themselves, and who took over the reins of the young Christian faith when all of the Apostles passed away, also went into action in order to protect and preserve the faith. In response to Marcion’s heretic challenge, they declared that, “We do not believe that the New Testament books supersede the Old Testament; we place them alongside it as its proper sequel and fulfillment. We do not acknowledge one Gospel only, but four, and one of the four is the genuine edition of that Gospel which Marcion has mutilated. We do not acknowledge ten Pauline Epistles only, but thirteen: and in addition to these we also acknowledge the Epistles of other apostolic men. And as the link between the Gospels and the Epistles we acknowledge the Acts of the Apostles.’”2 In a strike of irony, the formation of the canon by orthodox standards owes its motivation to a heresy. The publication of Marcion’s own version of canon of sacred texts served as the catalyst for the Church Fathers to make an official list of canon of sacred texts. It is an express declaration of what constitutes as the true collection of divinely-inspired writings out of the materials already used by the early Christian but the authenticity and authority of which were only impliedly or silently accepted by the believers. Of course, there were a lot of other minor details in the Bible’s journey from a collection of different writings in different scrolls into the bound book that we have today, containing a comprehensive guide on how true Christians should live their lives for the glory of God. However, suffice it to say that after the Gnostics’ challenge, the Church Fathers were motivated and inspired to create the bible that includes the Old and the New Testaments. In the same way that Jesus Christ had to go through the painful process of becoming human to save humankind, so does the Bible. It has gone through a long and painful process over a long period of time such that we cannot truly identify with certainty the one true measure used in identifying which writings would make the cut. The scattered collection of written accounts about the life and teachings of Jesus, as well as the many Epistles which went back and forth from the church leaders to the congregations, were not placed against one measuring rod and their fate decided at one setting. Even without official declaration, some of the writings have already been more widely and frequently used over the others because of their implied authenticity and authority. However, it was only after the Gnosticism, particularly Marcion’s challenge that they came up with the list. “The Canon of Scripture, then, is the list of writings delivered to us as the divinely inspired record of God’s self-revelation to men—that self-revelation of which Jesus Christ our Lord is the centre. The writings are not authoritative because they are included in the list; they are in the list because their authority has been recognized.”3 Apparently, the authority of the writings is determined by their conformity to the orthodox standards and by their existence since the beginning of Christianity. It is accepted that most of the writings were not made by the Apostles themselves to whom the books were attributed. However, if they were written so close to the existence of these apostles, the general consensus is that the writings bear the true and faithful accounts of what the apostles have been teaching their followers. Moreover, because even without the written works the Christian doctrines have been taught and passed down by oral tradition, conformity to orthodox standards and practices were also very important. Tertullian could not have been more emphatic when he declared that, "It is clear that all doctrine which agrees with the apostolic churches - those moulds and original sources of the faith - must be considered true, as undoubtedly containing what those churches received from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, Christ from God. And all doctrine must be considered false which contradicts the truth of the churches and apostles of Christ and God."4 In conclusion, the study about the formation of the canon provides a glimpse into the dynamics in the development and growth of the Christian faith. It also gives a new and better appreciation about the early Christians who, despite the confusion and persecution of their times, never wavered in their faith. Bibliography: Bible.Org. How did we get our bible, who wrote it and who decided what order to put it in? Accessed on September 11, 2011. Available at http://bible.org/question/how-did-we-get-our-bible-who-wrote-it-and-who-decided-what-order-put-it Bruce, F.F. The Canon of the Scripture. Inter-Varsity (Autumn 1954): 19-22. Prepared for the Web in March 2008 by Robert I. Bradshaw. Accessed on September 11, 2011. Available at http://www.holyfear.net/pdf/bruce/canon_bruce.pdf Gonzalez, J. The Story of Christianity. Volume 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. HarperOne. Hill, J. Zondervan Handbook to the History of Christianity, (Oxford: Lion Publishing Plc, 2006) Mcfarland, K. The Foundation of Christian Orthodoxy and the Canon. Becker Bible Studies. 2004. Accessed on September 11, 2011. Available at http://www.guidedbiblestudies.com/library/Canon.html Read More