THE FORMATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT | 1517
other churches concerning the documents they used . In the case of a writing that was accepted by all compared to a writing that some did not accept , preference was given to the writing accepted by all . When dealing with those documents not accepted by all , one was to accept those with the greater representation among the churches ( with greater weight given to the more important churches ). Augustine also references the improbable possibility where the majority of the churches use one document while the most important churches employ another document ; if this should happen , Augustine ’ s counsel is to accept both .
Augustine reveals an important reality in the life of the early church : For a document to be received , it had to be accepted and valued as Scripture by a local church . Through gradual and more widespread recognition , that same document gained an even higher stature in the church catholic . But although the passage displays an explicit consideration of Canon issues , the variety of canonical lists in the fourth and fifth centuries shows that even then the issue was not settled for all churches .
Some have offered another criterion of canonicity : inspiration . Some claim this as the predominant criterion . Thus , R . Laird Harris states , “ The test of canonicity is inspiration . The early church put into its Canon , and we receive , those books which were regarded as inspired , and no others .” 16 Harris argues that the Chris tian documents that came to form the New Testament were the only documents that the early church viewed as inspired .
From one perspective , it is accurate to say that inspiration was a criterion for canonicity ; all documents considered orthodox by the early church were , by implication , believed to be inspired . But from another perspective , it is inaccurate to say that inspiration functioned as a criterion of canonicity if we mean that inspiration was believed to belong only to the documents that later became part of the New Testament . This does not mean that the fathers did not regard these New Testament documents as unique — their elevation to canonical status clearly indicates otherwise . It does mean , however , that it was not inspiration that determined their uniqueness above all other Scriptures .
If the argument of writers like Harris is correct and everything in the Canon was considered inspired and everything outside it uninspired , one would expect this to be indicated somewhere by the leaders of the early church . But on the rare occasion when a father did declare a writing not to be inspired , he was not saying that it was not a canonical document , but rather that the document was heretical , that it lay outside the community of faith where the Spirit was at work . In other words , canonical versus noncanonical is not synonymous with inspired versus uninspired .
The assertion that the early church ’ s criteria for the New Testament Canon included inspiration has one further problem — the church fathers ’ references to noncanonical books as inspired . 17 For example , Gregory of Nyssa ( ca . AD 330 – 395 ) references his brother Basil ’ s commentary on creation as “ an inspired [ theopneustos ] exposition . . . [ admired ] no less than the words composed by Moses himself .” 18 In addition , the second-century bishop Abercius Marcellus of Hierapolis composed an inscription that was placed over his future tomb . The Life of Abercius , which was written about this bishop in the fourth century , contains a text of this inscription and describes it as an “ inspired inscription .” 19 A further example is seen in a letter issued by the Council of Ephesus ( AD 431 ) describing its condemnation of Nestorius as “ their inspired decision .” 20
16 R . Laird Harris , Inspiration and Canonicity of the Bible : An Historical and Exegetical Study ( Grand Rapids : Zondervan , 1969 ), 200 . 17 Craig D . Allert , A High View of Scripture ?: The Authority of the Bible and the Formation of the New Testament Canon ( Grand Rapids : Baker Academic , 2007 ), 60 – 65 , 185 – 88 . 18 Gregory of Nyssa , Apologia in Hexaemeron ; quoted in Craig D . Allert , A High View of Scripture ? ( Grand Rapids : Baker Academic , 2007 ), 65 . 19 Life of Abercius , 76 ; quoted in Craig D . Allert , A High View of Scripture ?: The Authority of the Bible and the Formation of the New Testament Canon ( Grand Rapids : Baker Academic , 2007 ), 65 . 20 Edward Schwartz , ed ., Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum ( Berlin : Walter de Gruyter , 1923 ), 1.1.2:70 ; quoted in Craig D . Allert , A High View of Scripture ?: The Authority of the Bible and the Formation of the New Testament Canon ( Grand Rapids : Baker Academic , 2007 ), 65 .