Did the Apostles Know They Were Writing Scripture?

Did the Apostles know they were writing Scripture?
By Clark Bates
Posted February 26, 2016

      For the modern day Christian, when we speak of “Scripture” it's generally quite clear that we're referring to both the Old and New Testaments that make up the Holy Bible. However, in the days of Christ and the apostles, “Scripture” meant only the Hebrew Bible, or what we call the Old Testament. So the question is often posed as to whether or not the writers of the New Testament were aware that they were in the act of writing new “Scripture” at the time they were writing and ministering? This is a valid question and one that touches on the heart of how we came by the New Testament at all.

      To begin with, it would be helpful to address the means by which the 26 books of our New Testament came to be accepted as the word of God alongside the Hebrew Bible. A common misconception, furthered by internet rumor and popular film and television, is that the fourth century church compiled all the extant writings regarding Jesus and carefully edited out those that did not point to His deity or to the overall agenda of the church. This is, of course, a fallacious argument, rejected by all serious historians and scholars, but how did the New Testament come to be formed?

      According to Geisler and Nix, a fivefold criterion of selection can be discerned from the writings of the earliest church following the apostles:

1. Was the book written by a prophet or spokesman of God?
2. Was the writer confirmed by acts of God?
3. Did the message tell the truth about God, not contradicting established Scripture?
4. Does the book have the transforming power of God?
5. Was it accepted by the people of God?¹

      To boil this criteria down to a singular phrase, the key factor in New Testament canonicity was it's authorship by an apostle. So determined was the early church in this regard, that we read from St. Ignatius (A.D. 50-115) that, in spite of his authority in the church as an apostolic successor, “[he did] not wish to command you as Peter and Paul; they were apostles.”² We also read of Justin Martyr (A.D. 100-165) recording the regular Sunday meeting of the early church to engage in the reading of, “the writings of memoirs of the apostles or the prophets. . .” clearly linking the works of the apostles with that of the Old Testament prophets.³ As early as the beginning of the second century, the writings of the apostles were considered equivalent to the writings of the Hebrew Bible; 200 years before any church council was convened on the matter.

      So, it's clear that the post-apostolic church saw their writings as Scripture, but what of the apostles themselves? Is there any indication that they believed themselves to be writing a new canon? When we examine the writings of the apostle Paul a certain narrative presents itself: the apostle habitually distinguishes in his writings that which is from the Lord and that which is from his own mind. In 1 Corinthians 7:6 Paul writes, concerning marriage, that he desires all believers to be single, as he is, but opens with the phrase, “Now as a concession, not a command, I say. . .”⁴ When this thought is concluding at verse 12 of the same chapter, the apostle also writes, “To the rest I say (I, not the Lord). . .” clearly indicating that what surrounds this advice comes from his own wisdom and not as a direct message from God. Further into the same letter, at 1 Corinthians 14:37, he writes, “If anyone thinks that he is a prophet , or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are the command of the Lord.” Once again, indicating the things he is writing, at this point, are the words of God.

      In 1 Thessalonians 2:13 Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica that he is thankful that, “when [they] received the word of God, which [they] heard from us, [they] accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God.” This passage led Calvin to agree, “Hence we learn from this passage what credit ought to be given to the gospel — such as does not depend on the authority of men, but, resting on the sure and ascertained truth of God. . .”⁵ The apostle Peter found agreement with Paul in his second epistle, for in 2 Peter 3:15b -16 he writes, “. . .just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. . .which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” In the Greek, the word chosen by Peter is graphe' or “writings”. When used in the plural form within the New Testament and Septuagint translation of the Old Testament it refers to the prophetic writings of the messengers of God. Its use within the pages of holy writ consistently speak of the Scriptures, Old and New, indicating that Peter's position was that the writings of Paul were authoritatively alongside the Law and Prophets.

 

      Lastly, one can find no clearer position on an apostle's own feelings toward his writing than that of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. In Revelation 1:1-3 we read, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. . . . Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy. . .” The apostle John knew that what he was writing was the very words of God, commended to His church to be obeyed until His return. Did the New Testament writers believe they were writing Scripture? I feel that N.T. Wright has said it best,

“It used to be said that the NT writers 'didn't think they were writing Scripture.' That is hard to sustain historically today. The fact that their writings were, in various senses 'occasional'. . . is not to the point. At precisely those points of urgent need (when, for instance, writing Galatians or 2 Corinthians) Paul is mostly conscious that he is writing as one authorized by the apostolic call he had received from Jesus Christ, and in the power of the Spirit, to bring life and order to the church by his words.”⁶

1Norman Geisler and William Nix, General Introduction to the Bible, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1986), 223-231.

2Ignatius, “Ignatius' Epistle to Trallians,” Anti-Nicene Christian Library: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers, Ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Vol. 1 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1867), 3.3.

3Justin Martyr, “Apology,” Anti-Nicene Fathers, Ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 1.67.

4All Scriptural citations come from the English Standard Version of the Bible.

5http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom42.vi.iv.iv.html

6N.T. Wright, The Last Words: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture, (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 2005), 51.