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Questions tagged [canon]

A biblical canon is a list of books considered to be authoritative as scripture by a particular religious community.

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What did Wayne Grudem mean by claiming that the canon was not "officially" decided until the Council of Trent?

In Systematic Theology chapter 3 "The Canon of Scripture", Wayne Grudem says It was not until 1546, at the Council of Trent, that the Roman Catholic Church officially declared the Apocrypha ...
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Why was Esther included in the canon?

The book of Esther is included in both the Jewish canon and Christian canons of all denominations. However, it seems to have enjoyed a questionable status for much longer than any other of the now-...
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Do Protestants believe that acceptance of their canon is an essential matter of faith?

Do any Protestant Christian movements/denominations believe that acceptance of the 39 book 'Old Testament/27 book 'New Testament', and only those 66 books as scripture is an essential doctrine of ...
Avi Avraham's user avatar
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Which books in the Catholic Old Testament, precede the canonisation of the Hebrew Bible?

Which books in the Catholic Old Testament, precede the canonisation of the Hebrew Bible? I understand for example that the Books of Macabees isn't part of the Hebrew Bible Canon, but from what I heard,...
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Can the Bible be the word of God, when there are multiple versions of it?

I recently found out on quora that the Catholic Bible has 73 books; the Orthodox Bible contains 76 or 77 books; the Protestant 66; and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo (Amharic) has 81 books. With ...
James Stuart's user avatar
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How do Latter-day Saints determine which manuscripts should be considered Scripture? [duplicate]

The New Testament makes several references to "Scripture" or "the word of God", but without specifying a concrete canon: Passage (ESV) Content Acts 17:11 Now these Jews were more ...
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3 votes
4 answers
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Why does non-canonical books quoted in the bible not invalidate the books that quote them?

The Book of Enoch is famous for being quoted quite a few times in the New Testament. This wikipedia page lists dozens of books that bible quotes that aren't canon. I've seen arguments for why these ...
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How can we infallibly know that the Catholic Church is infallible?

This argument from redeemed zoomer's twitter account. What is the catholic response to it? How can you infallibly know whether the true church is the Catholic Church or the Orthodox Church? If you ...
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Early Christians understood "Scripture" to be the Old Testament alone?

Trent Horn's quote Modern scholars even doubt that they consider the New Testament a divinely inspired authority at all, much less a part of the only infallible rule of faith. Here’s some of those ...
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How difficult was it for the Roman controlled church of the fourth century on to suppress the alternative gospels e.g. the gospel of the Ebionites? [closed]

My research of the study of Christianity shows the Christian canon first formalized at the Council of Rome. This is pretty much 2 years after Christianity was made the official religion of the Roman ...
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Sacriledge of Altar

Should the Altar in a Catholic Church be reconsecrated after a jr high boy, under the direction of his teacher and sanctioned by the priest, lay on top of the Altar while practicing The Stations of ...
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Are there any churches which still honor the distinction between homolegoumena and antilegomena?

In the ancient church there were two categories in the New Testament canon, the ὁμολεγούμενα (ho-mo-leh-GOO-meh-na; homolegoumena) which designated the books that were fully accepted, and the ...
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Unification of Biblical Canons Feasible and Beneficial?

There are various versions of the Bible, each with its own set of books considered canonical. For instance, the Catholic Bible includes books that are not present in the Evangelical Bible. ...
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Protestant view on the canon [closed]

I am currently researching the Protestant view of the biblical canon and have encountered a variety of perspectives on the infallibility of the canon. For instance, the renowned Reformed theologian R....
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Did any of the Early Church Fathers use the Orthodox canon?

The Orthodox Church believed and affirm that there was not a set canon during the church, thus is why they have an unmodified canon. But the Orthodox church has a much more larger canon than both the ...
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1 answer
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Do Catholic anathemas apply to people who lived before it was codified?

For example: Do the anathema issued by the Council of Trent regarding the canon of the scripture applies to the Church Fathers who believed in different canons in the early church before the Council ...
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What does the Book of Enoch's apocryphal status imply for the Epistle of Jude that cites it? [closed]

Ok the book is apocryphal. What is the Catholic view of the Book of Enoch? But apparently a canonical book, the Epistle of Jude, refers to an apocryphal book. So what, if anything, does this mean for ...
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Cajetan's view on the canon

Did the famous Papal Legate, Cardinal Cajetan reject the catholic view of deuterocanonical books? “Here we close our commentaries on the historical books of the Old Testament. For the rest (that is, ...
Wenura's user avatar
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How do Nontrinitarians justify accepting the canon of Scripture but rejecting the Trinity?

Most Nontrinitarian Christians accept the 66-book canon used by Protestants. However, the canon of Scripture was defined by the Church at around the same time that the Trinity was defined by the ...
Terjij Kassal's user avatar
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1 answer
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Questions about the specifics of choir dress of ICKSP canons

For some time now, I've been profoundly interested in the idiosyncracies of Catholic priest dress - particularly everyday (formal) and choir dress. Due to its uniqueness, in particular the dress of ...
spiffles's user avatar
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What is the Biblical Basis for the Closure of the Canon? [duplicate]

What is the Biblical Basis for a Closed Canon?
Faith Mendel's user avatar
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Did any Jews accept the Deuterocanon?

Obviously during Christ's time and maybe even before there existed different sects of Jews who held to different beliefs, but was there any sects of Jews who accepted the Deuterocanon was scripture or ...
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3 votes
2 answers
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Did different Jews have different canons?

During the time of Jesus Christ and even before the time of Christ there existed different sects of Jews (the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Hellenistic Jews) but did they different sect of Jews ...
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4 votes
1 answer
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Protestants on how the Biblical canon came?

What is the Protestant belief on how the canon of the Bible came? Do they believe that the Catholic church (through the Council of Rome in 382, the regional councils of Hippo in 393 and Carthage in ...
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Is the Orthodox canon right? [closed]

I am considering becoming an Orthodox Christian but what is really stagnating me from joining the Orthodox Church is their canon: Orthodox Christians have a much larger canon than both Protestants and ...
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5 votes
1 answer
123 views

When was the Old Testament Canon defined?

When was the Old Testament Canon defined? I wonder if it was defined in the days when Jesus was crucified
Dare to ask-I dnt mind punishm's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
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Is Judith 1:1 historically incorrect and does it mean that it is not scripture?

In Judith 1:1 Nebuchadnezzar is said to be the king of the Assyrians; we know this to be an historical error because he was the was the king of the Babylonians, does this mean that Judith should not ...
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2 votes
3 answers
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What's the criterion for the sequence of the Four Gospels?

I once read that the letters of Paul were placed in the New Testament ordered by size, starting from Romans and ending with Philemon. What was the criterion for ordering the gospels then, since the ...
Filipe Merker's user avatar
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3 answers
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History of the formation of the Biblical canon. Searching for accessible bibliographical references

I am interested in finding bibliographical references narrating the formation of the Biblical canon in the first 5 centuries of the Christian era that are: Academic books or articles written by ...
MathOverview's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
155 views

Do Protestant Trinitarians see a completeness of the canon of New Testament scripture in the number of books and authors?

There are 27 books in the Protestant, Trinitarian canon of scriptures of the New Testament writings. Which is three times three times three. There are 9 authors (Peter, James, Jude, Matthew, Paul, ...
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Why does the Orthodox Church have a larger canon than Catholics or Protestants?

There's obviously a despite between Roman Catholics and Protestantism on which constitutes the canon with Roman Catholics having the Deuterocanonical's as scripture (ie one and two Maccabees), but the ...
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3 votes
2 answers
198 views

Why did Jesus not clearly state the Old Testament canon, instead of letting others to take account for that?

I was wondering, why might Jesus not have stated the Old Testament canon in something like a list, and instead let others take account (define and compile) for that canon?
Dare to ask-I dnt mind punishm's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
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According to believers in the deity of Christ, is the historical evidence for this belief as strong as the historial evidence for the Biblical canon?

I ask this question as a follow-up to For Christians who are skeptical of the writings of the Apostolic & Ante-Nicene Fathers, what is their epistemological basis for trusting a canon?. I highly ...
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7 votes
4 answers
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For Christians who are skeptical of the writings of the Apostolic & Ante-Nicene Fathers, what is their epistemological basis for trusting a canon?

The process of formation of the Biblical canon(s) demonstrably required lots and lots of human intervention, judgement and discernment by the Early Church over the course of several centuries. ...
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6 votes
2 answers
313 views

What is the difference between Sola Scriptura and the belief in a closed canon?

Does belief in Sola Scriptura entail belief in a closed canon? Does belief in a closed canon entail belief in Sola Scriptura? What is the difference between these two concepts? Is it possible to ...
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1 vote
2 answers
156 views

According to the Catholic Church, what marks a document as Scripture?

Not much to ask beyond the title, but the thing I'm trying to get at here is how the Church determines what is and isn't scripture. Does the church have markers they try to follow?
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How do Sola Scriptura defenders have a list of "scripture" since the list isn't mentioned in scripture?

Sola Scriptura can be broken into two parts: Sola - Alone Scriptura - The sacred Scriptures One aspect of Sola Scriptura is the idea that Scripture is the Sole Infallible AND Authoritative rule of ...
Luke Hill's user avatar
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Who was the first Christian to list the books of the Old Testament in the Lutheran bible?

Who was the first Christian (not necessarily Lutheran) to list the books of the Old Testament in the Lutheran bible, without additions or subtractions, and without later changing his mind? This source ...
qxn's user avatar
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1 answer
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How did Martin Luther addressed the problem on the Biblical canon?

Martin Luther produced a german translation of the Bible, known as Luther's Bible. The books and the order in which they appear forms a the canon of that translation, known as Luther's Canon. The ...
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What epistemology was used to determine the canon of scripture in the Councils?

There have been many councils over the history of the early church that have set the canon (73 books, at least in the EO and Catholic Churches). What checklist or metric was used to determine what was ...
Luke Hill's user avatar
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4 answers
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What evidence and authority make The Song of Solomon a work of spiritual inspiration and not an erotic poem?

Is it not true that the place of this book in the Jewish bible was not established until sometime in the early Christian era? If that is so, is it not presumptuous to deem it as being among the so-...
Las Gayle's user avatar
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0 answers
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How many books were decided at the Council of Rome 382, Council of Carthage 397 and the Synod of Hippo 393? Was it all 73 books of the Catholic canon?

How many books were decided at the Council of Rome 382, Council of Carthage 397 and the Synod of Hippo 393? Were exactly all 73 books of the Catholic Bible declared canon at these three councils? ...
Jesus is Lord's user avatar
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1 answer
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What is the history of the canon of the Bible in terms of 66 or 73 books (Catholic vs. Protestant)?

Here is an overview of my understanding. Questions are bolded. The Protestant canon is 66 books. The Catholic canon is 73 books. Both agree on the 27 books in the New Testament. The disagreement is ...
Jesus is Lord's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
465 views

How do Christians who see Scripture as self-evidently inspired explain that Catholics, Protestants and Mormons have different sacred scriptures?

There are Christians who believe that there is no need to argue intellectually / apologetically for the divine inspiration of Scripture, since Scripture proves itself, by virtue of being self-...
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1 vote
4 answers
413 views

How do those who cite 2 Tim 3:16 to prove the inspiration of Scripture know that 2 Tim 3:16 is itself inspired and what is meant by "All Scripture"?

I really like the approach of asking people Socratic questions as a means of gaining deeper insight into why they believe what they believe. For example, when I've asked people to explain to me how ...
user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
352 views

How do continuationists respond to the 'closed canon' argument against the continuation of special revelations and sign gifts?

In my experience chatting with cessationists, I've noticed that a very recurrent cessationist argument against the continuation of special revelations and sign gifts is what I would call the 'closed ...
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0 votes
0 answers
101 views

Are there any historical Churches that do not recognize the 66 books from the Protestant Bible?

There are differences in the Bible Canon between Protestants, Roman-Catholics and Eastern-Orthodox and Oriental-Orthodox. But is the Protestant Canon of 66 books the common denominator? Aka, are there ...
Dan's user avatar
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6 votes
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What are the strongest arguments for the divine inspiration of the Bible?

Simple question: How do Christians who believe that the Bible was supernaturally inspired by God justify their position? What are the strongest arguments for the belief that the Bible is the inspired ...
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1 vote
1 answer
304 views

Are there any Christians who reject the canonicity of the whole protestant Bible?

Are there any Christians who reject the canonicity of the standard protestant Bible? For example: Protestants reject the Books and additions which Catholics and Orthodox accept as canonical and which ...
Frank Peter Coleman's user avatar
21 votes
9 answers
4k views

Are there theological explanations for why God allowed ambiguity to exist in Scripture?

Doctrinal differences abound in Christianity. This is attested to by the numerous times the Church has suffered splits and given birth to different denominations, branches, and sub-branches. The ...
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