The testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Old Testament Scriptures as a whole, and

to their various parts, is the supreme witness that the church has or needs. Without

diminishing that supreme authority, it may be helpful if we enquire into the evidences we

possess of the canonicity of the Old and New Testaments.

The word "canon", from the Greek word kanon, in its primary sense means a "reed",

thence a "cane", a "cannon", and the "canon". Each derived word is related to the idea

of something straight; hence "canon" comes to mean "rule", and is so translated in

Gal. 4: 16 and Phil. 3: 16. When we speak of canon of scripture we therefore mean

those sacred books which are genuine, authentic and authoritative. It may be as well to

see clearly the distinction, between these three related terms.

Genuine.--A book is genuine if it was actually written by the person whose name it

bears, or, if anonymous, if it contains evidence that it was written at the time when it

purports to have been written, either expressly or by undersigned evidence of its contents.

Authentic.--A book is authentic if the matters of fact with which it deals actually

Authoritative.--In the case of the Scriptures, by their very nature, if they are both

genuine and authentic, they necessarily become authoritative.

Now a book may be genuine but not authentic as, for instance, Gulliver's Travels by

Dean Swift. There is no doubt as to its genuineness, but no one believes that the events

described by Dean Swift ever occurred. A book may be authentic without being genuine,

that is, it may contain actual facts, but be written by a person pretending to be another,

and in another age. If, however, it is established that Moses wrote the books of the law,

and if it be established further that the things recorded actually took place, then the very

nature of the books, once so proved, makes them of supreme authority. Matters of fact

such as these depend for their proof upon external and internal evidences, the external

evidence being the testimony of witnesses; the internal, the evidence of language, style,

reflected colour, etc.

At the time of Christ the canon of the O.T. was fixed, and we remember how He

endorsed its threefold composition when He spoke of "The Law, the Prophets and the

Psalms" (Luke 24: 44). There is a consistent testimony to this canon of the O.T.

extending from the days of Christ to the days of the Prophets. Let us call some of the