How Were Biblical Books Recognized by the Earliest Churches?
Retrospective Criteria for Recognition vs. "criteria for canonicity"
Why were some written texts about Jesus and Christianity accepted as authoritative and others not? How did typical communities in the early church era navigate this question?
Some see this as a hopelessly misguided question. Others argue that the reception of these early writings was either completely arbitrary or motivated by purely political scenarios.
However, there were in fact several distinct factors that the earliest churches used as they considered whether or not a specific writing was to be understood as a legitimate part of the collection of Scripture. These factors are sometimes called the “criteria for canonicity.”
The self-understanding of the believing community, though, was that they were recognizing rather than establishing the limits of the collection. Accordingly, a better descriptor for these factors might be retrospective criteria for recognition.
To illustrate the broad idea of an initial status and a gradual recognition of something, we can think of an event at the Olympic Games. An athlete crosses the finish line in the 100-meter dash, and she becomes the winner of that race. Everyone who saw this event knows that she is the winner. At some point, though, the race is certified by Olympic officials in the record books, and then later on there is a ceremony where the athlete runner steps onto the podium and receives the gold medal.
In the subsequent medal ceremonies, there are no surprises because everyone who was involved in this event knows who will be stepping onto those podiums long before they actually do.
This example illustrates the scenario in which a biblical book can be inspired Scripture from the time that it is written, even though it might take a length of time before this book is formally recognized for what it has always been.
As the churches reflected on the biblical writings, there were several key characteristics that influenced the reception of these books in various communities. These retrospective criteria for recognition were not clear-cut “tests” for biblical books; rather, these were ways of thinking about the books that were in use among the churches. So, what characterized an authentic NT writing?
When readers in the early churches were considering the various writings they were encountering, two prevailing questions were central: Does this writing represent true teaching?” and “Is this writing widely received?”
Prevailing Question #1:
Does This Writing Represent True Teaching?
The prevailing criteria for recognition during the early reception of the NT writings was continuity with the Hebrew Bible (OT) and the teaching of Jesus and the apostles. This factor is sometimes understood as a writing’s orthodoxy and apostolicity.
Orthodoxy refers to the question of truth. Is what is written here true? The criteria for what was true in a NT writing was whether it accorded with the Hebrew Scriptures and whether it accorded with the teachings of Jesus and his apostles.
This concern for truth in relation to the already established authority of the OT Scriptures is a familiar emphasis in the NT. For instance, Paul tells the Corinthians, “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3–4).
The theme of true words develops in a special way in John’s Gospel. Jesus speaks truth because he speaks words from the Father. As he says, “I have given them your word” (John 17:14). He then prays, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (17:17). In John 19, John’s eye-witness testimony is affirmed as the narrator states, “He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you may also believe” (19:35).
Echoing this statement, John notes that his Gospel narrative was written “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (20:31). Finally, the last words of the Gospel assert that “this is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true” (21:24).
In this sequence, Jesus’s words are truth, the gospel message preached by the apostles is truth, and the Gospel narrative written by this apostle is true.1
Accordingly, the feature of apostolicity was perhaps the central criteria for inclusion in the growing group of NT writings. Apostolic here can refer to whether a writing was actually written by an apostle himself or also whether the author was a close associate of the apostles. More broadly, and perhaps more centrally, “apostolicity” referred to a writing that represented the teaching of the apostles and was from the time of the apostles.
Other writings, such as apocryphal gospels, pseudonymous letters, or general Christian literature from later periods were rejected because they were not written in the apostolic age. This factor is sometimes characterized as a writing’s antiquity (i.e., age relative to the era of the apostles).
For example, in the Muratorian Fragment, the author affirms the readability of the The Shepherd of Hermas (an influential early Christian writing) but rejects its authoritative status. The author writes, “But Hermas wrote The Shepherd very recently, in our times, in the city of Rome, while bishop Pius, his brother, was occupying the chair of the church of the city of Rome. And therefore it ought indeed to be read; but it cannot be read publicly to the people in church either among the Prophets, whose number is complete, or among the Apostles, for it is after their time.”2
Here the author is concerned about when the book was written, its connection to the prophets and apostles, and its widespread usage in the churches (“but it cannot be read publicly to the people in the church”). Most of the time, there were more than one factor considered in this evaluation.
The characteristics of “apostolicity” and “continuity with the Hebrew Bible” were essentially the anchors of this discussion. A two-fold question, then, dominated any deliberations: Is this writing apostolic (from the time and teaching of the apostles) and does it “accord” with the Hebrew Scriptures?
Guidance for this combination of characteristics is found in 2 Peter 3. As Peter states, “you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles” (2 Pet 3:2). Later readers took Peter’s words to heart and argued that truly “apostolic” writings should have a direct connection to the “holy prophets” and “the commandment of the Lord and Savior.” Identifying the presence of these two types of connections generally and quickly “ruled out” most possible rival writings.
The beginning and end of Paul’s letter to the Romans is a good example of how these elements (the prophetic witness of the OT, the teaching of Jesus, and the gospel preached by the apostles) mark the discernible heartbeat of NT writings.
Rom 1:1–6: “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.”
Rom 16:25–27: “Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.”
Prevailing Question #2:
Is This Writing Widely Recognized?
The second prevailing question early readers asked of possible Scriptural writings was, “Is this writing widely recognized as authoritative Scripture?”
A distinctive feature of the books that became canonical was their early and widespread authoritative usage in the churches. This feature is sometimes called catholicity. The writings of the NT were the “catholic” writings. Here, “catholic” does not refer to the later Roman Catholic Church but rather to the fact that these writings were utilized not by a single group but by many diverse groups in many diverse locations. They were in this sense “universal” (the ancient meaning of “catholic”). The canonical writings were not deemed authoritative Scripture necessarily in every church, but in churches “everywhere.”
Of course, there were a myriad of social, political, and theological factors that influenced each community as they considered these issues. However, these particular types of questions were asked with regularity and consistency.
What is more, there were also disagreements and differences of opinion about certain writings or about the importance of these various criteria. However, as some of the external evidence indicates, these debates took place within the context of an early church community that had a remarkably consistent shared emphasis on the types of concerns noted above.
Further, it is also helpful to remember the considerable resources the earliest churches had as they reflected upon the nature and extent of the NT canon. As we have discussed in previous chapters, the church was never without a canon. The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings were the texts from which they preached the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The fourfold Gospel grouping and a substantive collection of Paul’s letters were also circulated and received as authoritative writings virtually from their inception. As the churches sought to discern the nature and extent of the NT collection, they thus had an embarrassment of riches to draw upon.
Summary
During the era when the NT writings began to circulate broadly, there was a clear need to be able to discern which Christian literature was authoritative, which books could be read with profit, and which books should be rejected as misguided heresy or harmful false teaching.
Though this process was sometimes complex and specific to a given geographic context, there are several key resources and a series of distinct lines of analysis that the earliest churches drew upon as they read and treasured the Scriptures in the early days of the church.
Never without a canon, the readers and leaders of the believing community were guided by a rule of faith that was shaped by the OT Scriptures, the teachings of Jesus and the apostles, and the core of the burgeoning NT canon.3
Notes:
This type of sequence occurs in the Revelation as well. In Revelation 1, there is a clear emphasis on the writing and reading of this “revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:1–3). John is commanded, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches” (1:11) and “Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this” (1:19). Within the vision, voices from the heavenly altar say, “Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!” (16:7). In a subsequent scene, the angel tells John, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb . . . These are the true words of God” (19:9). Jesus himself is also characterized as one who “is called Faithful and True” (19:11). God’s voice at the end of the vision then booms, “Behold, I am making all things new . . . Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true” (21:5). Finally, the vision ends with this assertion: “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place” (22:6). After the vision has ended, John’s entire book of Revelation is characterized as “the words of the prophecy of this book” (22:10, 16, 18–19; cf. 1:1–3). In a striking way, then, the book of Revelation as a whole is directly associated with the true and trustworthy witness of the risen Lord himself!
Muratorian Fragment, lines 73–80, emphasis added.
For an account of canon formation written at the level of this post, see One Holy Book: How the Bible Came to Be and Why It Matters (Codex Books, 2021).