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Canon - General

Why These 66 Books?

  • Basic
  • Nathan Busenitz

How can we be sure that the sixty-six books in our Bible are the complete inspired Word of God? This article gets to the heart of why we can be sure: it shows that the Lord Jesus affirmed the Old Testament canon, and authorized his apostles to write the New Testament canon.

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Jesus Betrayed by Judas

  • Basic
  • Eric Moerdyk

This article calls us back to Judas and how he betrayed Christ, by giving a little reflection on the Gospel of Judas. The author then comes back to the real story as it points to Christ our Saviour and how we need him.

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The Ancient Text of the New Testament

  • Semi-Technical
  • Jakob van Bruggen

Jakob van Bruggen is a proponent of the Majority Text. In this document he challenges the arguments raised against the Majority Text and also discusses the way in which textual decisions are made in textual criticism. 

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God’s Final Word Direct revelation ended with the New Testament

  • Popular
  • Paul Cornford

From Hebrews 1:1-2 and 1 Corinthians 13:8-3, this article shows that God does not give extra revelation anymore. He speaks to his church through the Bible.

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Gospel Untruth The Gospel of Judas reveals the ancient world, not Christ

  • Popular
  • R. Albert Mohler Jr.

This article explains how the Gospel of Judas helps us understand the dynamics of Gnosticism.

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The Canon of the New Testament

  • Semi-Technical
  • Simon J. Kistemaker

What books are to be enclosed in the New Testament canon and therefore received as the Word of God? Kistemaker surveys the history of the reception of the canon during the apostolic era, the understanding of the authority of Scripture, and what the essence of the canon entails.

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The Canon of the New Testament

  • Popular
  • Roger R. Nicole

This essay considers the canon of the New Testament and reviews seven criteria of canonicity that have been at times invoked in the church.

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Every Christian’s Conspiracy

  • Basic
  • Marc Jagt

This article examines the claims that behind the Bible lies many a conspiracy. Such conspiracies are meant to undermine the canon of Scripture, from the claim about the role of Constantine to the Da Vinci Code.

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Should There Be Only Twenty-Seven New Testament Books?

  • Popular
  • Ryan Kampen

This article shows why pseudepigrapha were not regarded as part of the New Testament books.

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How Did We Get the Bible?

  • Basic
  • Eric Kampen

This article looks at the history of how the Bible came to us in its sixty-six books. This history helps us to understand why some books are excluded from the canon.

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Survey Studies in Reformed Theology (3): The Canon of Scripture

  • Popular
  • Bob Burridge

The canon of Scripture consists of the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament. This article discusses the authority of the Bible and the place of the apocryphal books. Scripture is the only means of God's special revelation.

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Are the New Testament Documents Reliable?

  • Popular
  • Al Baker

This article considers the reliability of the New Testament, in light of recent attacks on the infallibility of the Bible.

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Divine Origin and Unique Character of the Holy Sciptures

  • Technical
  • Gerrit H. Hospers

Understanding the Reformation ground for the canonicity of the Scriptures is helpful for understanding the divine origin and authority of Scripture. This article explains that ground and shows what implication this has for the functioning of the church.

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The Syriac Original of the Commentary of Ephraim: The Syrian upon the Concordant Gospel

  • Semi-Technical
  • J. Neville Birdsall

The "Concordant Gospel" is a document of immense importance for the history of the Gospel text and canon. This article considers the early Syriac knowledge of the Scriptures.

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The Order of the Books in the Hebrew Bible

  • Semi-Technical
  • Gregory Goswell

This article is concerned with the effect on the reader of the present arrangement of the biblical books. The focus is on the hermeneutical implications of the canonical order settled upon.

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Christian Prophecy and Canon in the Second Century: A Response to B.B. Warfield

  • Semi-Technical
  • Gary S. Shogren

B.B. Warfield dealt with New Testament prophecy and how that gift should be regarded in a post-apostolic era. He argued that there was a link between the completion of the canon and the eclipse of the prophetic charisma at the close of the first century.

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The Book of Psalms within the Canonical Process in Ancient Israel

  • Semi-Technical
  • Duane L. Christensen

This paper wants to trace the broad outline of the history of the book of Psalms in the canonical process in ancient Israel. The author argues that at least three stages in the canonical process can be identified.

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Canon, Narrative, and the Old Testament's Literal Sense

  • Semi-Technical
  • Christopher R. Seitz

This article is a response to John Goldingay's article in the same journal on the topic of canon and Old Testament theology. Seitz asks critical questions with regard to the form of the canon, the function of creeds and the rule of faith, and finally about referring to the danger of an appeal to narrativity, which can easily reduce the Old Testament to a past story.

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The Order of the Books of the New Testament

  • Semi-Technical
  • Gregory Goswell

How does the order of the New Testament books in the canon function hermeneutically, that is, influence the way the books are interpreted? This article assumes that the location of a biblical book influences a reader’s view of the book. Readers presume that documents that are grouped together are related in some way in meaning.

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The Order of the Books in the Greek Old Testament

  • Semi-Technical
  • Gregory Goswell

This article reflects on the hermeneutical significance of the order of the books in the Septuagint. Goswell studies the structure of the Old Testament in the Greek tradition. That allows him to make a comparison between the Hebrew and Greek orders of the Old Testament canon.

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The Pentateuchal Principle within the Canonical Process

  • Semi-Technical
  • Duane L. Christensen

What is the "Pentateuchal principle" that functioned in the formation of the canon? This article seeks to apply insights of Isaac Kikawada, who argued for a "five-part" or Pentateuchal structure in the design of the book of Genesis. It wants to explain the basic structural principle of the canonical process both in ancient Israel and early Christianity.

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Josephus and the Twenty-Two-Book Canon of Sacred Scripture

  • Semi-Technical
  • Duane L. Christensen

What is the relevance of Josephus for the Old Testament canon? This essay explores the unity in testimony between Josephus and the rabbinic Masoretic tradition.

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The Date of Papias: A Reassessment

  • Semi-Technical
  • Robert W. Yarbrough

Papias lived in Hierapolis in the middle of the second century. This article wants to reassess the dating of Papias' writings as it is primarily known through Eusebius. The significance of Papias lies in his testimony to the New Testament canon.

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The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Formation of the Canon

  • Semi-Technical
  • Francis I. Andersen

Andersen reflects on the call to restudy the question of the canon of Scripture, including the date of fixing the canon, in light of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

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Old Testament Theology and the Canon

  • Technical
  • John E. Goldingay

This article argues that Old Testament theology considers the insight that emerges from the form of the Old Testament canon, that it focuses on the canon of the Old Testament itself, not the history of Israel. According to Goldingay, Old Testament theology lets the canon itself be the canon.

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Gospel and Scripture: Rethinking Canonical Unity

  • Technical
  • Francis Watson

Is the canon merely an anthology of the religious literature of the day, making it no longer possible to speak of its unity? This article indicates two main ways in which the issue of biblical unity is typically presented: unity may be based in the process of divine inspiration which is believed to have brought about these writings, or it may be based in a theory of providential ordering.

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Two Testaments in Parallel: The Influence of the Old Testament on the Structuring of the New Testament Canon

  • Technical
  • Gregory Goswell

This article explores the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament, and whether there are structural connections between the two. Did the order of the the Old Testament books influence the ordering of the books of the New Testament canon? The article further considers what the possible implications are for the reading and interpretation of the Bible as one book.

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Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. John Piper
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