The Holy Spirit guided the apostles to put the Word into a written form. This was an expected and natural development; otherwise the redemption and revelation brought by Jesus Christ could have been lost. Luke was aware of this and searched out, as mentioned earlier, "things which are most surely believed" that were "delivered . . . unto us [Luke and his contemporaries] which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word" and wrote these in his gospel (Luke 1:1-4). The apostles were selective in writing about Christ; they had no intentions of writing a complete history of His life. We see this fact in Matthew not writing about an important event in redemptive history, the ascension, even though he was an eyewitness. Or that Mark did not mention Christ's birth. Or that only John writes about the raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11), an event that played such an important part in Christ's death. Or that Luke wrote a whole special section (9:51-18:14) not mentioned in the others Gospels. Thus we see they through the Holy Spirit choose not to write a complete life of Christ. The reason for this is obvious. As John wrote that Jesus did "many other signs . . . which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God" (John 20:34). Latter he stated that "there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written" (21:25).
Today we believe a canon of inspired writings is a necessity, but this was not so in the early days of the church. There was a strong oral and apostolic tradition within the early church. As mentioned earlier, the apostles and their associates were the human source of the "word of God" (Acts 4:29-31; 6:2-7; 11:1; 12:24; 13:46; et al.). Many of the early Christians remembered the apostles and their associates' teachings, teachings that were deeply imbedded in their minds. At first unity and lack of controversy within the church meant brethren did not have to constantly turn to a written Word to settle issues. By the middle of the first century, some uninformed individuals caused confusion about the relation of the Mosaic Law and Old Covenant to the Gospel and New Covenant. This issue was addressed by the apostles (Acts, Romans, Galatians, Hebrews, et al.). The apostles' effort largely corrected this problem, and the church was generally unified in doctrine. Also, writing and books were nothing like they are now. Today we generally think that for any idea to be authoritative, it must have come from a book, but this was not so in the early church.
As time passed, several factors made it desirable to have authoritative Christian writings and a canon of them. Some of these factors are, first, the outreach of the church brought in many new disciples. As the apostles opened work in more distant areas, one way they kept in contact with churches was through letters. The new Christians had to be nurtured; so the four Gospels, the history of the church, and letters of encouragement and correction were written. At first these writings were sent out individuality, but much later these books were brought together and sent to the outlying churches as a group. In some cases these books had to be translated into the disciples' native languages. Both the collection and translation factors required identity of which books were authoritative and belonged to the New Testament canon.
Second, the early church expected Jesus Christ to return soon, and this undoubtedly delayed the apostles' writing. But as time progressed and He did not return, the need arose to have a written record of Jesus' life and teaching and the history of redemption.
Third, persecution resulted in the Christian writings being searched out and destroyed. So the brethren needed to know which writings were inspired so they could be protected at all cost.
Fourth, it was inevitable that the apostles would die, and with time the authority of the their oral teachings would be questioned and subject to being treated as legends and myths. Because of these very real dangers, which would surely result in doctrine disunity, the need for an authoritative written Word increased.
Fifth, gradually, false teachers arose. They were present early in the life of the church, well before the end of the first century. Paul wrote that there were "empty talkers and deceivers, especially the circumcision party" (Titus 1:10 RSV). Paul asked Timothy to "charge some that they teach no other doctrine, neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions [promote speculations] rather than godly edifying" (I Timothy 1:3-4). These false teachings, mainly concerning the relation of the law given by Moses and the grace and truth brought by Jesus Christ, led to the writing of many of the New Testament books.
Sixth, John wrote that "as ye have heard that antichrist shall come. . . . They went out from us" (I John 2:18, 19). After the apostolic times, God knew these antichrists would question the authority of certain of the writings that did not agree with their ideas, leading to the need to clarify which books were inspired.
The preceding factors no doubt contributed to the apostles' writing the Gospels and Epistles, and the early Christians and church's bringing them together in a canon. But there is another factor. The work of the Holy Spirit was the chief cause of bringing God's Word into a written record. It was His activity working in the ordinary circumstances of the apostles' lives that resulted in the written Word being preserved for all subsequent generations.
The written Word quickly received a place of high significance; those who received it gave it special status because they knew it was the message they heard from the apostles. We have evidence that the written Word was very early placed on the same level as the Old Testament Scriptures. Paul's letters were read in church gatherings with the same authority as Old Testament Scriptures (Col. 4:16; I Thess. 5:27). Peter was aware of Paul's letters to the churches and classed his letter with the Scriptures (II Peter 3:15). John presupposed that his Book of the Revelation would be read as other Scriptures (Rev. 1:3).
It is clear from the above that the written Word had great significance, and as time passed it received priority over the oral form of transmission. Actually, the written Word was a fixation of the oral form and carried the same message from God. The apostles and their associates' writings were brought together by the Christian brotherhood into the New Testament Scriptures.
From chapter 2 of Authority of Scripture, © copyright 2000 by Leland M. Haines, Northville, MI.
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