I. INTRODUCTION

How do you determine which books in the Bible are inspired and which are not? Throughout the centuries, believers have been confronted with this question. It is the question of the canon, that is, what books are  inspired by God and worthy to be called « the word of God? »

A. Definitions

The greek word ????? (kanon) comes from  ‘cane’ : a straight branch or piece of wood that gives a standard for length or straightness. It was used in a number of occasions:

• cane to measure, a rule
• a carpenter’s line, the string used to measure
• the measure of a distance jumped, as in the Olympic games

Metaphorically, the canon is a rule or standard that determines judgments and actions in life. « The word canon  signifies the rule which serves to measure, then, by extension: that which is measured » (Pache, Inspiration et Autorité de la Bible, my translation). Athanasius was the first church father to use the word « canon » in this sense. He said that The Shepherd of Hermas did not belong to the canon. 

The canon of the Scriptures is the genuine standard of books accepted as inspired by God and authoritative for Christians.   

The issue of the canon is very important especially as we look at the lasts word of the Bible found in the book of Revelation. 

« 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 of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” (Revelation 22:18–19 ESV)

 B. The Divine Origin of the Books of the Bible

Divine inspiration determines canonicity: the canonicity or authority of the Scriptures comes from inspiration and not from the decision of men. A distinction must be made between the determination of the canon and the recognition of the canon. The books of the Bible were fully authoritative the moment they were written. However, the actual recognition of the canon by the church came by degrees.

Pache rightly recognizes that men in of themselves are not able to make this judgement.

« Are men capable of discerning inspiration in such a way that they recognize with certainty if one or many religious books have a place in the canon? By themselves, certainly not. » (Pache, 145, my translation).

“But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. . . .14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:9–10, 14 ESV)

There are three miracles operated by the Holy Spirit for the preservation of the Bible:

« Inspiration of the sacred authors, illumination of the yielded individual, in order to understand the inspired test, the discernment to the believing community, in order that they might recognize the books that are divine in origin and conserve them in the canon. (Pache, 145).

A distinction must be made regarding the human element in determining the canon. The church has no authority to bring the Word of God into existence. It can only recognize what God has already accomplished.

« It is the inspiration of a book that renders it authoritative, not human acceptance or recognition of the book. If God has spoken, what He says is divine in itself, regardless of human response to it. It does not ‘become divine’ through human agreement with it. Accordingly, the canon is not the product of the Christian church. The church has no authority to control, create, or define the Word of God (Bahnsen). »

II. The Formation of the Canon

The Bible did not fall from heaven. The formation of the collection of the books in our Bible came in distinct stages.

Jesus did not tell his disciples to write down his teachings. Neither Jesus nor the apostles ever gave a list of inspired books. Even the words « Old Testament » and « New Testament » were not words given by the apostles. Tertullian first used these terms in 170 AD. (Canon of The New Testament, by W. Hartono). But Jesus did promise his disciples that they would be able to remember what he said through the teaching of the Holy Spirit. 

John 14:26 « But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. » (ESV)

John 16:13 « When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” (ESV)

« James: probably the first book written before 49 AD. Revelation: certainly the last book, written around 95 AD. During most of this time the early church had the Old Testament as their only Bible. Peter preached Christ  on the foundation of the Old Testament (Acts 2,3,10) ; Stephen gave a survey of the history of the jews throughout the Old Testament (ch. 7); Philip preached Christ to the Ethiopian eunuch from Isaiah 53 (ch. 8); and every place where Paul went, as seen in the book of Acts, the Old Testament was the foundation of his preaching » (Thiessen, 4-5).

 A. Original Inspiration 

Again we must emphasize that God inspired the original scriptures, the autographs. The church does not have the power to inspire a book. The church can only recognize what God has already inspired. She does not  have an authority over the Scriptures, the church has the Scriptures as her authority.

 B. Old Testament

1. The OT was written over a period of almost 1000 years. The priests watched over the Scriptures in the tabernacle and afterwards in the temple.

Deut. 31:24   When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book to the very end, 25 Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, 26 “Take this Book of the Law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against you.

1Sam. 10:25   Then Samuel told the people the rights and duties of the kingship, and he wrote them in a book and laid it up before the LORD. Then Samuel sent all the people away, each one to his home.

2Kings 22:8   And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.

Prov. 25:1   These also are proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied.

When the Jews were dispersed in the Babylonian captivity, they made copies of the Scriptures. Before the time of Christ, the copies of the OT existed in Babylon, Egypt, Palestine and throughout the Roman Empire. (The Bible Corrupt or Authentic ; www.spotlights.org/Bible2.htm)

By the time Christ, the OT was already recognized as Scripture. Jesus discussed with the religious leaders the interpretation of the Scriptures, but never concerning the books comprised in the Scriptures.

« You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. ” (John 5:39–40 ESV)

Jesus never said anything about the OT being falsified or corrupt.

2. The OT was commonly divided in 3 parts:

a. The Torah

b. The Prophets (Nabiim) Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah and the 12 minor prophets

c. The Writings ( Kethubim) : Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles

 3. Jesus recognized this division :

“Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:44–48 ESV)

Note that Jesus referred to the Writings with the title « the Psalms » that were the first and longest portion of the Writings. In a sweeping statement, Jesus also recognized the entire volume of the Scriptures by noting Abel in the first section of the Torah and Zechariah in the last section of the Writings.

“so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.” (Luke 11:50–51 ESV)  See also 2Chr. 24:20-22.

4. The OT was translated in Greek  about 150 to 250 years before Christ. The title given was the Septuagint or LXX (from the word for 70), because it was believed that 72 men, 6 from each of the 12 tribes, completed this translation in 70 days. Copies of the Septuagint contain the OT Scriptures and various books of the Apocrypha.

 5. The NT cites all of the OT except 7 books:  Obadiah, Nahum, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah.

 6. The books of the Apocrypha are not cited in the NT. They were accepted as canonical only a later time by the Council of Trent in 1545.

C. The New Testament: an eventual recognition

1. After a gospel or an epistle was written, it stayed for a certain time the precious possession of an individual or of the church that received it. In certain cases, the originals passed from church to church, for example Colossians and possibly Ephesians. (Thiessen, 6).

1Th. 5:27   I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.

Col. 4:16 And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.

Gal. 1:2 and all the brothers who are with me,  To the churches of Galatia:

Rev. 1:11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

2.  False teachers infiltrated the christian churches not only teaching and writing false doctrine but also using the names of the apostles to advance their doctrine.

2Th. 2:2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.

Gal. 6:11   See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.

Philem. 19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self.

2Th. 3:17   I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine; it is the way I write.

Col. 4:18   I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.

3.  « At a very early date it appears that the four Gospels were united in one collection. They must have been brought together very soon after the writing of the Gospel according to John. This fourfold collection was known originally as ‘The Gospel‘ in the singular, not ‘The Gospels’ in the plural; there was only one Gospel, narrated in four records, distinguished as ‘according to Matthew,’ ‘according to Mark,’ and so on. About AD 115 Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, refers to ‘The Gospel’ as an authoritative writing, and as he knew more than one of the four ‘Gospels’ it may well be that by ‘The Gospel’ he means the fourfold collection which went by that name. » (Bruce, 26).

4. Because of false prophets and doctrines, the churches responded with clarifications concerning the true scriptures.   The first list of the books of the NT was addressed to Rome around 140 AD by a heretic named Marcion. He made a distinction between the Creator God of the OT and the Father God revealed by Christ in the NT. He rejected not only the OT, but also parts of the NT that he felt were contaminated by Judaism. The canon of Marcion was a great motivation to the church de preserve the collection of inspired books. Marcion’s canon had two parts;  (1) a purged edition of the gospel of Luke and (2) Paul’s epistles minus the pastoral epistles. 

5. The second known collection of books was called the Muratori Fragment (170, end of 2nd century). It was published for the first time in Italy in 1740 by a cardinal named L.A. Muratori.  It mentions the 4 gospels, 9 letters of Paul to churches and 4 of his letters to individuals (Philemon, Titus, Timothy), Jude, two epistles of John, the Revelation of John and of Peter. It mentions that the Shepherd of Hermas was worthy to be read, but was not a part of the prophetic or apostolic Scriptures. Concerning the Revelation of Peter, he mentions that « some of us will not allow to be read in church. »  It lacked only 5 books in our NT. 

6. From the beginning of the 2nd century, the following books were universally recognized without difficulty: the 4 gospels, the book of Acts, the 13 epistles of Paul, 1 Peter, 1 John. Certain factions of the church took longer to accept certain smaller books: 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, James and Jude and the Revelation. Hebrews was also a problem because it was not signed. But eventually it was unanimously accepted, even if the author was not identified precisely. Certain books were accepted as canonical which are no longer accepted today. 

a. It should be noted that some greek manuscripts, the Codex Sinaiticus included the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas which was a roman work composed at around 110 AD.

b. Also the  Codex Alexandria included 1 et 2 Clement

7. The only books which were not yet recognized up to the middle of the 3rd century were those that are included at the end of our New Testament. Origen (185-254) mentions that the 4 gospels, Acts, Paul’s 13 epistles, 1 Peter, 1 John and Revelation were universally recognized; however, Hebrews, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, James and Jude and the Epistle to Barnabas, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Didache and the Gospel of Hebrews were contested by some (Bruce, 29).

8. Eusebius (265-34) mentions all the books generally recognized in our NT except James, Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John which were contested by some but accepted by the majority.

9. In 367, Athanasius in his 39th pastoral letter, clearly establishes that only the 27 books of the NT are canonical. He was followed shortly thereafter by Jerome and Augustine in the West. For those in the East, the process was a little longer. Finally in 508, the remaining books,  2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude and Revelation, were accepted into the Syriac Bible along side of the other books.

 D. The Place of Human Authority in the Canon.

The canon of the Scripture of the Old and New Testament was not fixed by the means of an authority. Gaussen mentions that 18 councils over 3 centuries recognized heretics: 86 in 4th century and 80 in the 5th century. Concerning these councils, he notes:

« It is a remarkable and manifestly providential fact that for this one point, one cannot find anywhere in the documents of their history, any public outcry, any collective action of bishops, any decision of councils, any decree of emperors; in one word, no human act of authority to intervene or to impose on the flock an acceptation of any sacred code or to force any individual conscience to receive the canon of the 27 books comprising our NT. » (Gaussen, 108-109)

1. The early church used 5 principles for the determination of the books of the Canon of the NT:  

a. Was the authority involved in the book apostolic? Was the book written by an apostle or, if not, was the author in relationship to an apostle so that his book attained the level of an apostolic book? Was the book written in the first century?

b. Prophetic : was the book written by a man of God?

c. Authentic, Orthodox : does it present the truth, are the  contents in conformity with revelation that has already been given?

d. Dynamic content : does the book have a spiritual character to the point where it was on the same level as the canonical books?

e. Receptivity, Universality : Was the book universally received by the church?

2. The categories of the books:  

a. Homologoumena : books acclaimed universally as canonical (20 of 27)

b. Antilegomena : books that were not universally claimed as canonical during the time of the early church (7 of 27 books: Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, Revelation). There were not called non-canonical, but their rank was more like « semi-canonical ».

(1)  Hebrews: It was anonymous. In the East, where it was considered to be written by Paul, it was well received. However, in the West, it was slowly received because they believed in apostolic writers instead of apostolic authority. In the 4th century, through the influence of Jerome and Augustine, the West finally received it as canonical.

(2)  James: difficulties with the author and the content. There was a supposed conflict with justification by faith. Even Luther during the reformation had problems with it, calling it a « right strawy epistle. » But, when they understood the complementary aspects with the epistles of Paul, it was recognized as canonical.

(3) 2 Peter – authenticity was the major reason because of the differences with  2 Peter.

(4) 2 and 3 John – authenticity, content, circulation and the author identifying himself as an elder

(5) Jude – authenticity; the reference to the book of Enoch, a pseudepigraphal book. However, the citation is not an approval of the whole book. The Apostle Paul also cited pagan poetry: Acts 17.28 ; 1 Cor 15.33 ; Tit 1.12.

(6) Revelation : authenticity, questioned later during the discussions the kingdom of God. Most of the questions did not deal with inspiration but with interpretation and association with certain doctrinal disputes.

c. Pseudepigrapha :  « books attributed to false authors » These books were written between 200 BC and 200 AD. They have never been accepted as canonical by orthodox christians. They are often bizarre, heretical, and inauthentic. Their value is historical, in that through them the heretical doctrines of the gnostics and ascetics can be studied. They also shed light on the exaggerated interest of the early church in these doctrines (Geisler, 199). There are over 300 books in this category. Here are few of the more important ones:

(1) Gospel of Thomas (1st century, a collection of the  the sayings of Jesus, some of which are found in the gospels but which often alter certain aspects; others which are not found. For example: Jesus said, « Lucky is the lion that the human will eat, so that the lion becomes human. And foul is the human that the lion will eat, and the lion still will become human. » (Gospel of Thomas 7).

(2) Gospel of Peter (2nd Century, written by gnostics giving an embellished account of the crucifixion and resurrection, most notably the saying on the cross, « My power, my power, why have you forsaken me. »)

(3) Gospel of Nicodemus (notice the long section on the descent of Jesus into hell), Gospel of Joseph, the carpenter; the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary (which begins with the phrase: « The blessed and glorious ever-virgin Mary. » Notice also this quotation: « Hail, Mary! O virgin highly favoured by the Lord, virgin full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou above all women, blessed above all men that have been hitherto born. And the virgin, who was already well acquainted with angelic faces, and was not unused to the light from heaven, was neither terrified by the vision of the angel, nor astonished at the greatness of the light » (Chapter 9)

(4) The Acts of Peter;  ; Acts de John, Acts of Andrew, Acts of Thomas.

(5) Lost Epistle to the Corinthians, the Epistle of Paul to the Laodocians

(6) Revelation of Peter, Revelation of Paul, Revelation of Thomas

d. Apocrypha : « hidden » ; books outside of the canon of the OT written from about 100 to 300 years before Christ.   They were acclaimed as canonical by part of the church, but afterwards they were rejected: Clement of Rome, The Shepherd of Hermas, The Epistle of Barnabas ; The Didache . They have a historical and theological value.

(1) Do the apocryphal books have a place in the canon?

1 and 2 Maccabees; 1,2 Esdras (3 Esdras); Ecclesiasticus; Tobit; Suzanne; Wisdom of Solomon; Judith; Bel and the Dragon (or : Sapience) ; additions to Esther; Daniel and Susanna (additions to Daniel) ; Baruch; Letter of Jeremiah; Sirach

(a)  The Jews never recognized the books of the Apocrypha 

• They were not written by prophets
• They did not even pretend to be the word of God

(b) Errors : While there are some interesting historical accounts, especially in 1 Maccabees, and also some good moral teaching (Wisdom of Solomon), the content of the books contain absurd legends, platitudes, historical errors, geographic confusions, chronological aberrations and doctrinal heresies, even recommending immoral acts (Judith 9.10,13). See Bahnsen for the following summary

• 2 Maccabees 12.45-46 — prayer for the dead
• Tobit 12.9 — salvation by works of alms giving
• Tobit 1:3-5; 14.11 — says he was living when Jeroboam made his revolt (931 BC) and when Assyria conquered Israel (722 BC) despite the fact that he lived only 158 years.
• Judith 1.1,7 — identifies Nebuchadnezzar as the king of the Assyrians
• Tobit 6:6,7 — approves of the use of superstitious practice of using a liver of a fish to conjure demons
• Wisdom of Solomon 7.17 — creation of the world from preexistent matter.

(c) The New Testament does not cite any book of the Apocrypha. There are over 250 citation of OT in the NT, most from the Septuagint. It seems they were not included in the early version of the Septuagint, but were gradually included later. Neither Josephus nor Philo cite them.

(d) Their acceptance into the canon by the Roman Catholic church was very late at the council of Trent in 1546. This was the first proclamation of the Roman Catholic church concerning the Apocryphal books and was necessary to help provide evidence to the reformers who were looking for scriptural proof for their doctrines.

(e) The book of 1 Maccabees does not even accept that it is inspired of God. 

Such books do not claim for themselves ultimate divine authority. Consider the boldness of Paul’s writing (« if anyone thinks he is spiritual, let him acknowledge that what I write is the commandment of the Lord » — I Cor. 14:37-38; if anyone « preaches any other gospel that what we preached to you, let him be accursed » – Gal. 1:8). Then contrast the insecure tone of the author of II Maccabees: « if it is poorly done and mediocre, that was the best I could do » (15:38). Moreover, when the author relates that Judas confidently encouraged his troops, that boldness came « from the law and the prophets » (15:9), as though this were already a recognized and authoritative body of literature to him and his readers. (This is also reflected in the prologue to Ecclesiasticus.) I Maccabees 9:27 recognizes the time in the past when « prophets ceased to appear among » the Jews. (Bahnsen, Canoncity).

(2) What is the place of the traditions of the Church? The Catholic church makes reference from time to time to NT passages about traditions. They use  John 14.26; Matt 16.17; Gal 1.11-12; 2Tim 1.13; 1Tim 6.20-21; 2Th 2.15; 3.6. Is this referring to the traditions of the Catholic church handed down popes? No, this is the apostolic tradition, « the deposit,  » the « sound words » given by the apostles who were inspired by God (Bahnsen).

(3) The Gospel of Barnabas. Many muslims believe that this is the true gospel given by Christ to his disciples. While many confuse this with the Epistle of Barnabas, The Gospel of Barnabas is a falsified document that was found in the 1700’s.  It gives some alternative and contradictory stories to the gospels. It was certainly written around 1585. It has historical, geographic and doctrinal errors and could not have been written by Barnabas. It even contradicts the Coran calling Mohammed the Messiah and stating that Mary did not undergo pain in the birth of Christ. The translation often used by muslims was made by Canon Lonsdale and Laura Rigg in 1907. These translators state in their introduction that the real date of redaction is nearer the 16th century than in the first century. 

• No manuscript exists of the Gospel of Barnabas before the 16 century
• No muslim writer cites the work before the 15th century
• No early church father or early church teacher cites a verse from the Gospel of Barnabas
• For further study see the Gospel of Barnabas: Bad news for Muslims and Christians

III. The Testimony of the Scriptures :

Matt 5.18; Jn 14.26; 16.12-15; 17.20; Acts 1.16; Rom 16.25-26; 1Cor 2.13; 5.9; 14.37; Gal 1.8-9; Col 4.16; 1Th 2.13; 4.15; 5.27; 2Th 2.15; 3.6,14; 1Tim 4.13; 5.18 (Cf. Deut 25.4; Luke 10.7); 2Tim 3.16; Heb 1.1; 2Pe 1.20-21; 3.2,15-16.

« From a New Testament perspective, the term Scripture applies to the entire Old Testament; it is understood to be God’s inspired Word. Hence Jesus and the apostles appealed to the authoritative Scriptures, often with the introductory formula it is written (e.g., Matt. 4:4). Peter places the epistles of Paul on the same level as the Old Testament. He expresses not only his personal evaluation of Paul’s letters, but also the thinking of the Christian community of that day. » (Kistemaker, 346)

“But you, dear friends—recall the predictions foretold by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. For they said to you, “In the end time there will come scoffers, propelled by their own ungodly desires.”” (Jude 1:17–18 NET; Cf. 2 Peter 3.2-3)

“Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. . . .Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.” (Revelation 1:11, 19 ESV)

“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 of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” (Revelation 22:18–19 ESV)

One final note, it is not necessary to believe that all that an apostle wrote was inspired. They had a purpose for their time, but not for all of time.

VI. Is the New Testament Canon complete ?

Rev 22.18-19 ; Heb 1.1-2

VII. Conclusion :

The Canon is the fruit of divine inspiration and not the simple result of human decision.

VIII. Bibliography

Bahnsen, Greg. The Concept and Importance of Canonicity. http://www.reformed.org/bible/bahnsen_canon.html

Belleville, Linda L. Foundations for Biblical Interpretation. Chapter XVIII, Canon of the New Testament. 374-395.

Bruce, F.F. Les Documents du Nouveau Testament; Peut-on s’y fier ? Editions Farel. Chapitre III,  Le Canon du Nouveau Testament, 23-32.

Carson, D.A., Douglas Moo and Leon Morris. An Introduction to the New Testament. (Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1992); 487-500.

Geisler, N. Nix, W.E.; A General Introduction to the Bible (Chicago: Moody, 1968) 127-207.

Grudem, Wayne. Making Sense of the Bible. (Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 2011), 40-57.

Harrison, E.F. Introduction to the New Testament. (Grand Rapids : Eerdmans, 1971), 97-134.

Kistemaker, Simon J. , Exposition of the Epistles of Peter and the Epistle of Jude, Baker New Testament Commentary. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1987).

McDowell, Josh. Evidence that Demands a Verdict. (San Bernardino: Here’s Life Publishers, Inc.), Vol. I. Chapter 3. The Canon, 29-38.

Metzger, Bruce, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. EBC Commentary Introductory Articles.

Pache, René L’inspiration et l’autorité de la Bible, (Éditions Emmaüs, 1992), 144-167.

Tenny, Merrill C.  New Testament Survey. (Grand Rapids : Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1961), 401 ff.

Thiessen, Henry. Introduction to the New Testament. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1943), Chapter I, The Canon of the New Testament, 3-27.

Walls, Andrew F., The Canon of the New Testament (EBC Commentry) Introductory Article.