The Development of the New Testament Canon of Scripture

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LIBERTY UNIVERSITY THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT CANON OF SCRIPTURE SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL REQUIREMENT FOR CHHI520 LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA June 30, 2012 Table of Contents Introduction---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 What is the Canon? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 The Apocrypha ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3 Does the Apocrypha Belong in the Canon? ------------------------------------------ 4 Why the Canon was Necessary------------------------------------------------------------------ 5 Marcion Heresy--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 The Church Response to Marcion------------------------------------------------------ 6 Significance of the Canon ----------------------------------------------------------------7 Criteria for the Canon----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8 Reliability of the Canon-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10 Conclusion ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 Bibliography --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14 Introduction The first Christians had to rely on the preaching and teaching of the apostles and others because they did not have the New Testament canon and only had access to what it is now known in the Bible as the Old Testament. In order to understand how the twenty seven books of the New Testament were formed, the historical question has to be explored and answered as to how these books came to be recognized as authoritative and distinctive from the other forms of writings. Even though there is dispute over

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