Answers about canon

Should the Gospel of Thomas be included in the Bible?

No. The Gospel of Thomas is not an accurate, genuine, inspired, trustworthy, or reliable record about the Lord Jesus. There are several pieces of evidence that demonstrate this: 1. Although the Gospel of Thomas uses themes and characters, etc., found in the Biblical texts, it also shares elements – themes, motifs, expressions and concerns – [...]

Topics: , ,

If an early Christian author quoted from a non-canonical book, does that mean they regarded it as scripture?

Not necessarily. Christian authors throughout history quote from lots of different sources to help them deliver the message they intend. Every quote an author make isn’t necessarily preceded by the comment that what follows is or isn’t considered part of Scripture. It is taken for granted that the reader also knows what is and what [...]

Topics: ,

How did the NT canon become established? Did the church decide what books it should include?

We’ll deal with both of these questions in turn: How did the NT canon become established? As each new part of the New Testament (NT) scriptures was written it would have become accepted by the Christian community because it was written by people they knew were authoritative.1 In this way the traditional canon of NT [...]

Topics: , , , ,

How was the Bible put together and by whom?

The first five books of the Old Testament are attributed to Moses, who would have gathered together records by Adam, Noah, Shem and Abraham which had been passed on by word of mouth, or possibly in some more permanent form.  He added the account of the history of Israel and the laws that God commanded [...]

Topics: , ,

What is the Apocrypha?

The Apocrypha is a collection of old writings, written before the New Testament, that are not part of the Bible (the canon of Scripture), although some of them claim to be part of the Old Testament, and some denominations (e.g. the Roman Catholic Church) count some of them as part of the canon. There are [...]

Topics: ,

Are both the OT and the NT inspired?

In the second letter that Paul wrote to Timothy he says: All Scripture is breathed out by God… (2Tim.3:16) It is obvious to see that this refers to the Old Testament (OT; 2Tim.3:15-16), which was considered to be God’s word before the New Testament (NT) was written, but does it refer to the NT as [...]

Topics: ,

Is there a fixed order for the books of the Bible?

The partition shown in my Bible Readers Handbook page 2 is fairly standard amongst Christians. However, other divisions have been used.

Topics: , , ,