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'That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the
holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord
and Saviour' (2 Pet. 3:2).
As Paul had used the term 'old covenant' in 2 Corinthians 3:14, it was
quite natural that the writings of the apostles should be known as the 'new
covenant' (Eusebius H.E. VI. 25), or 'The Gospels and the Prophets' (Clement
of Alexandria, Ignatius, Justyn Martyr and others), just as Christ spoke of
'The Law and the Prophets'. Before the close of the second century,
translations of the New Testament began to be made, and this effectively
prevented any alteration, addition, or subtraction, for such a fraud would
immediately become known and exposed, unless, indeed, we are credulous enough
to believe that both friend and foe of different nations, languages, and
opinions, should all, without exception, and by some tremendous miracle have
agreed to countenance such a fraud.
The third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica says:
'This argument is so strong, that if we deny the authenticity of the
New Testament, we may with a thousand times greater propriety reject
all the other writings in the world'.
Look at the following facts that traverse any legitimate objections to
the canonicity of the books of the New Testament:
(1)
It cannot be shown that any one doubted the authenticity of any
book of the New Testament in the period when such books appeared.
(2)
No account is on record that would lead one to reject any such
book as spurious.
(3)
No great length of time elapsed after the death of
the writers before the New Testament was widely known.
(4)
The books of the New Testament are actually mentioned by writers
living at the same time as the apostles.
(5)
No facts are recorded which actually happened after the death of
the writers, apart, of course, from prophecy.
Let us now bring forward a few eminent witnesses to the canon of the
New Testament.
Irenaeus, born a.d. 120, calls the books of the New Testament. kanona
tes aletheias, 'the rule of the truth'. Tertullian said of Marcion, the
Gnostic, that he appeared to make use of a complete document. Clement of
Alexandria, speaking of those who quoted from the Apocrypha, exclaims against
those who followed any authority besides 'the true evangelical canon'.
Origen was zealous in maintaining the ecclesiastical canon, recognizing
'four Gospels only, which alone are received without controversy in the
universal church spread over the whole earth'. He has given us the list of
the canonical Scriptures, 'that is the Scriptures contained in the New
Testament'. Athanasius speaks of three sorts of books:
(1)
The canonical, those recognized at the present time.
(2)
The ecclesiastical, which were allowed to be read in the
assemblies.
(3)
The apocryphal, which had no place in the canon at all.