The New Testament: How Do We Know for Sure?

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By Richard B. Gaffin on October 13, 2009 ,

The New Testament

How Do We Know for Sure?

Richard B. Gaffin, Jr.

Why does the church accept the 27 books of the New Testament as canon? How do we know there is not some document that may some day be discovered and deserve to be included? Alternatively, how do we know that something has not slipped in that does not really belong?

These questions take on a pressing, even dis­tressing, character when posed in light of the actual development of the Canon in the early church. It was a slow process covering roughly 300 years before the Canon accepted in the church was the same as our 27-book canon. Athanasius’s so-called Easter Letter of 367 is apparently the first official, ecclesiastical deci­sion to that effect. And there were significant differences at earlier stages even among ortho­dox figures. Why, for instance, did the Shepherd of Hermas, despite initial support, eventually go by the board, while 2 Peter, at first subject to much uncertainty, ultimately found a secure place in the Canon?. . .

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Richard B. Gaffin

Theologian

Richard B. Gaffin Jr., Theologian, Ordained Presbyterian minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and was the Charles Krahe Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1999 to 2008. His forty-five years of teaching at Westminster have impacted some 3,000 students. Gaffin, Jr. received a B.A. from Calvin College (1958), a B.D. (1961), Th.M. (1962), and Th.D. (1969) from Westminster Theological Seminary, and undertook graduate studies at University of Göttingen (1962-1963). Gaffin Jr. has authored numerous works which include Resurrection and Redemption: A study in Paul's Soteriology and God's Word in Servant-Form: Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck and the Doctrine of Scripture and has contributed to or edited several volumes.

 

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