Biblical Canon

Links updated May 2010

General Canon

•  LOCAL  The Canon of Scripture. Collection of resources on the development of the Old and New Testament canons, with several charts.
• The Canon of the Old and New Testaments Ascertained, by Archibald Alexander (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1851). Complete book online at ccel.org.
• The Canon of the Old and New Testament Ascertained, by Archibald Alexander. (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1851). Complete book online at Google Books.
• How Many Books Are in the Bible? By Erwin W. Lutzer. This is chapter 8 from Lutzer’s book, The Doctrines That Divide.
• Haldane on the Canon — The Books of the Old and New Testaments Canonical and Inspired; with Remarks on the Apocrypha, by Robert Haldane, esq., of Scotland. First American Edition, with an Appendix (Boston: The American Doctrinal Tract Society, 1840). Also here and here.
• The Canon of Scripture. By Samuel Waldron, pastor of Grand Rapids Reformed Baptist Church. This is one section of Waldron’s comprehensive study on The Doctrine of the Word.
• The Council of Jamnia and the Canon of the Old Testament. By Robert C. Newman, of Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, Pennsylvania. Disputes the historical reality of the alleged council held at Jamnia about AD 90 which is supposed to have canonized the Hebrew Old Testament. Concludes that there “existed a consensus on the content of the Old Testament in the first century AD which was already ancient at that time.” Also here.
• The Development of the Canon of the New Testament. By Glenn Davis. This is an excellent web site. It has introductory essays, a very helpful tabular conspectus of early canon lists, full quotations of the lists, and much more.
• Canon of the New Testament. By George J. Reid. Article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia (1908)
• Canon of the Old Testament. By George J. Reid. Article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia (1908)
• The Formation of the New Testament Canon. By Stephen Voorwinde. From Vox Reformata 60 (1995)
• Evangelicals and the Canon of the New Testament. By M. James Sawyer.
• The Emergence of the New Testament Canon. By Daniel F. Lieuwen, at the Orthodox Christian Information Center. Also here.
• How Do We Know Which Books Belong in The Bible? By Bob Reed, at the University of Oklahoma.
• The Witness of History for Scripture. By Franz Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, Vol. I (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950), pp. 330-38. This extract from Pieper, a notable Lutheran theologian, focuses on the Lutheran distinction between Homologoumena (undisputed books) and Antilegomena (disputed books: James, Hebrews, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, Revelation) in the New Testament.
• The Canon of Scripture. By Dr. Curt Daniel, pastor of the Faith Bible Church in Springfield, Illinois.
• The Content and Extent of the Old Testament Canon. By D. Wayne Stiles.
• The Concept and Importance of Canonicity. By Greg Bahnsen. An excellent article. Also online here.
• The Canon of Scripture. By Don Stewart. A simple and basic essay drawn from his book, What Everyone Needs To Know About The Bible, in the FAQ section of the Blue Letter Bible.
• The Origins of the New Testament. By Robert C. Jones (PCUSA Elder in Acworth, Georgia).
• The Apostles and the Written Word. By Leland M. Haines (Mennonite layman). A good overview of the development of the NT canon. This is chapter 2 of Haines’ book, The Authority of Scripture (Goshen, Indiana: Biblical Viewpoints Publications, 2000).
• The Old Testament of the Early Church Revisited. By Albert C. Sundberg, Jr. (1997). From the department of Classics at Monmouth College, Illinois. Also here.
• The Establishment of the Canon of Scripture. By Gerald A. Geiger. Surveys the history of both Old Testament and New Testament canon. Also includes a quick look at the Apocrypha.
• How the Canonicity of the Bible was Established. By Prof. Wilbert R. Gawrisch, Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary.
• Canon and Covenant: Why the Bible Is the Bible. By Dr. Richard C. Leonard. An interesting article that argues that the concept of canonicity has its origin in the establishment and renewal of covenants in ancient times. Based on Leonard’s 1972 Boston University Ph.D. dissertation, The Origin of Canonicity in the Old Testament.
• Luther and the “New Testament Apocrypha.” By Allen P. Wikgren. An article from A Tribute To Arthur Vööbus: Studies In Early Christian Literature, ed. R. H. Fischer (1977). Describes in detail the treatment of disputed New Testament books in the Reformation era.
• On Whose Authority? Examining A Popular Roman Catholic Argument About Scripture. By Tim Enloe. A penetrating examination of the Roman Catholic claim that our acceptance of the biblical canon must ultimately depend upon the authority of the Church.
• The Canonicity of Second Peter. By Benjamin Warfield, Southern Presbyterian Review 33/1 (January 1881). A detailed scholarly history of the epistle’s canonical status that responds to arguments against its authenticity.
• The Authenticity of 2 Peter. By Michael J. Kruger, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 42/4 (1999).
• History, Theology and the Biblical Canon: an Introduction to Basic Issues. By Dr. Eckhard Schnabel, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. An article published in Themelios 20/2 (1995) that looks at some theological and critical issues from a conservative perspective, while interacting with recent liberal scholarship.
• Wordsworth on the canon — On the Canon of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and on the Apocrypha; Eleven Discourses Preached before the University of Cambridge, being the Hulsean Lectures for the year 1847, by Christopher Wordsworth, D.D., canon of Westminster (London: Francis & John Rivington, 1848).
• A General Survey of the History of the Canon of the New Testament by B.F. Westcott. Seventh Edition. (London: MacMillan and Co., 1896). Also online are the first, fourth, and fifth editions.
• Kirchhofer’s Quellensammlung — Johannes Kirchhofer, Quellensammlung zur Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons bis auf Hieronymus (Zürich: Meyer and Zeller, 1844).
• Preuschen’s ‘Analecta’ — Analecta: Kürzere texte zur Geschichte der Alten Kirche und des Kanons, zusammengestellt von Erwin Preuschen (Leipzig: Mohr, 1893).
• Canon Muratorianus: The Earliest Catalogue of the Books of the New Testament, by Samuel P. Tregelles (Oxford, 1867).
• The Bible in the Church: A Popular Account of the Collection and Reception of the Holy Scriptures in the Christian Churches, by B. F. Westcott (London: MacMillan and Co., 1896).
• W. H. Green on the Canon of the Old Testament — William Henry Green, General Introduction to the Old Testament: The Canon (London: John Murray, 1899).
• Sanday on Inspiration and Canon — Inspiration: Eight Lectures on the Early History and Origin of the Doctrine of Biblical Inspiration; Being the Bampton Lectures for 1893, by William Sanday. Second edition (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1894).
• Souter on the Canon — The Text and Canon of the New Testament, by Alexander Souter (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913).
• Milligan on the Canon — The New Testament Documents: Their Origin and Early History, by George Milligan (London: Macmillan and Co., 1913).
• Samuel P. Tregelles on the Canon — A Lecture on the Historic Evidence of the Authorship and Transmission of the Books of the New Testament, delivered before the Plymouth Young Men’s Christian Association, October 14, 1851, by S. P. Tregelles (London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1852).
• The Cheltenham List of the Canonical Books of the New Testament and of the Writings of Cyprian, by W. Sanday, in Studia Biblica et Ecclesiastica, III (Oxford, 1891), pp. 217-325.
• Zur Geschichte des Kanons by Karl August Credner (Halle, 1847).
• Grundriss der Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons by Theodor Zahn (Leipzig, 1904).
• Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons by Theodor Zahn (Erlangen, 1888, 1889, 1890), in three volumes: vol. 1.1; vol. 1.2; vol. 2.
• The New Testament Documents: Their Origin and Early History by George Milligan (London, 1913).
• Das muratorische Fragment über die Bücher des neuen Testaments by Gottfried Kühn (Zurich, 1892).
• Canon and Text of the New Testament by Caspar René Gregory (Edinburgh, 1907).
• Critical History and Defence of the Old Testament Canon by Moses Stuart (New York, 1845).
• The Canon of the Old Testament; an Essay on the Gradual Growth and Formation of the Hebrew Canon of Scripture, by Herbert E. Ryle (London, 1892).

Old Testament Apocrypha

Texts Online

• The King James Version of the Apocrypha is online at the Internet Sacred Text Archive.
• The Revised Version (1894) of the Apocrypha — The Apocrypha, Translated out of the Greek and Latin Tongues, Being the Version Set Forth A.D. 1611, Compared with the Most Ancient Authorities and Revised A.D. 1894 (Oxford, 1896). Also here.
• Roman Catholic versions have the apocryphal books mixed in with the canonical Hebrew books: the Douay-Rheims version translates them from the Vulgate, and the New American Bible translates them from the Septuagint.

Books and Articles on the Apocrypha

• The Apocryphal books of the Old & New Testament, by H.T. Andrews (1908).
• Commentary on the Apocrypha, from the “Speaker’s Commentary,” edited by Henry Wace (1888): vol. 1 and vol. 2 (also here).
• An Introduction to the Books of the Apocrypha. By W. O. E. Oesterley (1935). Complete book online.
• The Apocrypha, Bridge of the Testaments. By Robert C. Dentan, professor of Old Testament at Berkeley Divinity School (1954). A 50-page survey of the Apocrypha by an Anglican scholar. Emphasizes the value of these books for understanding the religious background of the New Testament. Provided online by the Orthodox Anglican Communion.
• Introduction to the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books. By Bruce M. Metzger, from the New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books (1991). Disregard the first two paragraphs on this page. Metzger’s Introduction begins below the second heading. Also here.
• Preface and Introduction to Goodspeed’s Apocrypha, from his volume The Apocrypha: An American Translation (1959).
• The Apocrypha and Christianity. By Robert C. Jones (PCUSA Elder in Acworth, Georgia). Also here.
• Are the Apocrypha Books Part of the Bible? By Tony Warren.
• How Many Books Are In The Old Testament? How Can One Know For Sure? (Popes and Councils Proved To Be In Error). By Michael Scheifler. Detailed discussion of the canon, from a sharply Protestant point of view.
• The Canon: Why the Roman Catholic Arguments for the Canon are Spurious. By William Webster. Also here. Webster is a former Roman Catholic who is now a Protestant apologist. See also his refutation of Sippo’s response to this article (also here).
• The Apocrypha is not Scripture. “A Compilation of Testimony Against Roman Catholic Teaching Concerning the Authority of these non-canonical books,” by C. Matthew McMahon, at A Puritan’s Mind.
• Summaries of the Deuterocanonical Books of the Old Testament. A good overview by Tom Osterfield, librarian at Nashotah House (Conservative Episcopalian).
• The Origin and Authority of the Biblical Canon in the Anglican Church. By Henry H. Howorth. A long article from the Journal Of Theological Studies, 1906. Gives a history of the treatment of the Apocrypha in early English Bible versions. Howorth (apparently an Anglo-Catholic) bemoans the fact that the Apocrypha came to be treated as uncanonical, but his article gives much interesting information, with lengthy quotations from original sources.

Miscellaneous Non-Canonical Literature
(Pseudepigrapha, ‘New Testament Apocrypha,’ etc.)

• Pseudepigrapha: An account of certain apocryphal sacred writings of the Jews and early Christians. By William J. Deane. A good introductory book on the subject, published in 1891.
• Early Christian Writings. By Peter Kirby. A comprehensive collection of documents from the first two centuries with translations and commentary. Includes the New Testament, ‘New Testament Apocrypha,’ Gnostics, and Church Fathers.
• The Non-Canonical Homepage. Includes the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, and other books which were never accepted as canonical by the church.
• Gnostic Society Library. A good site for exploring heretical gnostic literature of the first two centuries of the church, with an emphasis on the manuscripts discovered at Nag Hammadi.
• Gnosticism and the Gnostic Jesus and The Gnostic Gospels: Are They Authentic? By Douglas Groothuis, at the Christian Research Institute. also here and here.
• Apocryphal Gospels, Acts, and Revelations, translated by Alexander Walker. Vol. 16 of the Ante-Nicene Christian Library series edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Edinburgh 1870). The same translation is also presented in vol. 8 of the American edition edited by Schaff, and in The New Testament Apocryphal Writings edited by James Orr (London: Dent, 1903).
• The Online Critical Pseudepigrapha. A new project sponsored by King’s University College (Canada), with the aim of providing critical texts for the extant ancient versions and original language edition of pseudepigraphical writings.

• The Book of Mormon. By Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. At the same site is Smith’s Doctrine and Covenants and the The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible.

Lists and Indexes of Allusions

• Deuterocanonical References in the New Testament. By James Akin. A list of possible allusions to Apocryphal books in the New Testament.
• NT Allusions to Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. By Kevin P. Edgecomb of Berkeley, California. Gives the full text (in English) of the supposed allusions and quotations of the apocrypha and pseudepigrapha cited in the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament.

The “Jesus Seminar”

• Five Gospels But No Gospel: Jesus and the Seminar. By N.T. Wright. A critique of the Jesus Seminar’s annotated edition of the New Testament.
• Review of the Jesus Seminar’s The Five Gospels by Rich Elliott of Simon Greenleaf University.
• The Jesus Seminar and the Gospel of Thomas: Courting the Media at the Cost of Truth. By James R. White, in the Christian Research Journal (Winter 1998). Also in PDF format here.
• The Seventy-Four “Scholars”: Who Does the Jesus Seminar Really Speak For? By Craig L. Blomberg, in the Christian Research Journal (Fall 1994, pages 32-38). Also here.
• The Gospel According to the Jesus Seminar. By Birger A. Pearson. An expanded version of the article which appeared in Religion 25 (October, 1995), pp. 317-38.
• The Corrected Jesus. By Richard B. Hays, in First Things 43 (May 1994): 43-48. Also here.
• Jesus Seminar Should Go Back to School. By James Akin, at the Nazareth Resource Library (Roman Catholic apologetics).
• The Jesus Seminar. A critical analysis by James F. Williams.
• The Jesus Seminar Under Fire. By Gregory Koukl, at Stand to Reason.
• Evangelical Responses to the Jesus Seminar. By Robert L. Thomas, Professor of New Testament at The Master’s Seminary. An article from The Master’s Seminary Journal 7/1 (Spring 1996) 75-105. “The evangelical community has reacted strongly against the pronouncements of the Jesus Seminar because of that group’s rejection of many historical aspects of the gospels … Yet most of these responses come from those who utilize the same methodology in gospel study as do the Jesus Seminar personnel.”
• Home page of the Jesus Seminar.

Books on the Biblical Canon

• The Canon of Scripture. By F.F. Bruce. The best introduction.
• The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance, by Bruce Metzger. More detailed than Bruce’s survey, but very readable.
• Introduction to the Apocrypha, by Bruce Metzger. By far the best introduction to the Apocrypha.
• Introducing the Apocrypha: Message, Context, and Significance, by David DeSilva (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002). More detailed than Metzger’s introduction.
• Roger T. Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and Its Background in Early Judaism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985). 536 pages. ISBN: 0802836178. The best comprehensive treatment of the Old Testament canon. Out of print.

“Since for unbelieving men religion seems to stand by opinion alone, they, in order not to believe anything foolishly or lightly, both wish and demand rational proof that Moses and the prophets spoke divinely. But I reply: the testimony of the Spirit is more excellent than all reason. For as God alone is a fit witness of himself in his Word, so also the Word will not find acceptance in men’s hearts before it is sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit. The same Spirit, therefore, who has spoken through the mouths of the prophets must penetrate into our hearts to persuade us that they faithfully proclaimed what had been divinely commanded ... Some good folk are annoyed that a clear proof is not ready at hand when the impious, unpunished, murmur against God’s Word. As if the Spirit were not called both ‘seal’ and ‘guarantee’ for confirming the faith of the godly; because until he illumines their minds, they ever waver among many doubts.” —John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 1.7.5. (trans. F.L. Battles).