THE LATER WRITINGS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT ATTEST THE EXISTENCE OF A CANON ALREADY BEGUN.

264, In the same manner as Clement cited, in 68, either our Lord’s discourses, as reported in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, or Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians, or the words of several other epistles of this apostle, and the Epistle of Peter; so Paul himself, in his first Epistle to Timothy, (v. 18,) appears to cite, but without naming it, and after the manner of the fathers, the Gospel of St Luke, when he repeats this sentence, which is only found in that evangelist, (x. 7,) “the workman is worthy of his hire.”

Thus, also, the same apostle appears to us to have clearly pointed to the earlier writings of the New Testament by the name of “prophetic scriptures,” (τγραφῶν προφητικῶν,) (that is to say, according to his style, inspired scriptures,) when he spoke in his Epistle to the Romans (xvi. 25, 26) of the writings by which “the mystery of Jesus Christ was then (νῦν) made known to all nations.” In fact, one-tenth, at least, of the books of the canon were already in existence, — two Gospels, two Epistles to the Thessalonians, two to the Corinthians, the Epistle to the Galatians, probably, also, the Epistle to Titus, besides the first to Timothy, and the first of Peter; and it was probably while thinking of these scriptures, already spread through all the churches, that Paul, on the point of visiting Jerusalem for the last time, wrote to the Romans, that “the gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, the mystery which was kept secret since the world began, was now made manifest, and by the prophetic scriptures, according to the commandment of the everlasting God; and that t was made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.”

It has been attempted to dispute the meaning of the words “prophetic scriptures,” as if we must recognise in them a reference to the Old Testament only. But, not to say that this would be giving a very frigid and improbable sense to the phrase, Paul here declares that it was by these scriptures that the mystery of Jesus Christ was now (νῦν) made known to all nations; and he has elsewhere often stated that the apostles were prophets, and their writings (consequently) prophetic writings. We think, then, the sense we have given to the words is the most natural and most conformable to the style of the apostle.

265. Moreover, no one will dispute the meaning of Peter’s words in his epistle, much later than that of Paul to the Romans, which he wrote after Jesus Christ had “shewed him” that the time of his departure was at hand, (2 Pet. i. 14.) He there recommends all the epistles of Paul, (iii. 15,) and declares that the “unlearned and unstable wrest them, as they do also THE OTHER SCRIPTURES, to their own destruction.”

We see, then, already, about the year 64, or at the latest about the year 68, thirty or thirty-four years only after our Lord’s crucifixion, all the epistles of Paul placed by an apostle in the rank of the other scriptures, (τὰς λοιπὰς 'γραφὰς!)

This phrase, THE SCRIPTURES, occurs fifty times in the New Testament, and fifty times it is applied exclusively to the books of the two Testaments. Thus, then, the canon was already proclaimed by an apostle, and solemnly recommended to believers of the first century; we see it mentioned as a book already occupying the same place as the Old Testament.

And we wish it to be noted, that the argument does not here depend on the inspiration of this epistle of Peter; if we only take it up as one of the witnesses left to us of the first century, its testimony assures us at once of the existence of a canon among: the Christians of those ancient times, and of the assimilation made by them of the inspired scriptures of the prophets of the New Testament to the inspired scriptures of the prophets of the Old.

266. But this is not all. This Second Epistle of Peter is itself directly and verbally cited in another epistle still later, that of the apostle Jude.

Read attentively the seventeenth verse — “But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ”? And what did they say, these apostles of Jesus Christ? “How that they told you,” continues Jude, “that there should be mockers (ἐμπαῖκται) at the last time, (ἐσχατῳ,) . who should walk (πορευόμενοι,) after their own ungodly lusts, (κατὰ τὰς ἑαυτῶν ἐπιθυμίας τῶν ἀσεβειῶν.)” And where do we find one of the apostles of our Lord uttering these words? We find them only in the Second Epistle of Peter; but we find them there to the very letter. There are the same expressions, “according to their own lusts,” (κατὰ τὰς ἐπιθυμίας αὐτῶν, 2 Pet. iii. 3,) “walking,” (πορευόμενοι,) and, above all, the remarkable term, scoffers, or mockers, (ἐμπαῖκται,) which is not to be met with in any other part of the New Testament.

“Knowing this first,” said Peter, “that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,” (iii. 3.)

But this Epistle of Jude was declared to be inspired from the second century — in the East, by Clement of Alexandria; in the West, by Tertullian, the most ancient of the Latin fathers; in the third century, by Origen, and by the majority of the ancient fathers mentioned by Eusebius. And it will be recollected that we have found it equally in each of the eleven catalogues of the New Testament transmitted to us by the fourth century, (Propp., 56, 57.):

Thus, then, the epistle of the apostle Jude, already acknowledged in the second century, cites the Second Epistle of Peter as a scripture, of which the Church ought reverently to recall the words, (“remember,”) and as a scripture of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we have just seen that, in its turn, this Second Epistle of Peter, before the year 64, named all the epistles of Paul as occupying the same ranks as the other scriptures, (τὰς, λοιπὰς γραφὰς.)

267. We believe that we have now said enough to establish fully, by the light of history, the incomparable authenticity of the twenty books which form the first canon of the New Testament, and about which the churches never felt the least hesitation. We pass on to the seven others, and begin with the second-first canon.