Modern March | a Christian blog

Posted: 30 Sep 2010 08:00 AM PDT

They typical Christian understanding of the Bible is that it is a “closed canon.” This means that the collection of Scripture that we have is in its final form, and that no books can be added or removed. The word “canon,” for our purposes, means a standard collection of authoritative writings. We consider the Christian canon, which consists of 66 books (39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament), to be closed. When a canon is considered closed, that means that there is no new revelation being given. An open canon assumes the ongoing process of revelation.

Typical Defense of a Closed Canon

When asked by others about the Bible as a closed canon, many Christians will go to one of two verses. The first is found in the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 4:2 says:

“You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.”

The second verse is in Revelation 22:18-19:

“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”

Problems with this Defense

Case closed, right? Not quite. A careful look at the context of these verses show that we can’t jump from them to a closed canon. Let’s look at Deuteronomy first.

Deuteronomy 4:1-2 says

“And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.”

The commands that Moses warns that we cannot add or subtract to are the very commands he is now giving them. At the most, we can stretch this command to the first five books of the Old Testament (Genesis – Deuteronomy). They were the commands given to Israel prior to the conquest of Canaan. Moses’ intent could not possibly have been to cover the rest of the Old Testament, let alone the New.

What about Revelation? It’s even clearer, as John states twice that he is referring to “this [specific] prophecy” and the “words of the book of this prophecy [Revelation].” The reason is clear from the very first verse: “The things Jesus has revealed…to his servant John” (author’s translation). The prophecy of Revelation has a divine source, and so we should not add or take away from what Jesus has directly revealed.

When read in their immediate context, it is obvious that both commands refer to specific commands and prophecies. So are we at a loss for a Biblical argument for a closed canon?

Biblical Principle and Canonical Interpretation

Well, the question itself is anachronistic. “Canon” is a word that came to its present meaning sometime after the books of our canon had been written. Christians should not be threatened by this. What we do have is the idea behind “canon” in the thought of Biblical authors and believers that certain writings are authoritative and inspired. Sure, these thoughts are messier than some want to admit, but it is there.

The reason it’s there is because of a principle we find throughout Scripture, and have seen already in Revelation: When God reveals authoritatively, he reveals exactly what he wants known and we should not add or subtract from his revelation.^[1] Thus this principle, found throughout Scripture, forms our understanding of what would become “canon.” The canon is the collection of God’s revelation, and so (like we find explicitly in Deuteronomy 4:2 and Revelation 22:18-19), we should not add or subtract to what God has revealed, particularly after he is not giving any more revelation.

There is another way of understanding Deuteronomy 4:2 and Revelation 22:18-19, however. This other way is called “canonical understanding.” Of course, just in seeing the name, it presupposes the canon and sounds circular. It escapes being circular because, as we have just seen, the seeds of canonical understanding lay within the principles of scripture. So what is canonical interpretation? As I’m using it, canonical interpretation looks at the largest horizon of hermeneutics, the canon of Scripture as a final product or order to help inform our interpretation and application.

As we saw earlier, to correctly interpret Deuteronomy 4:2 and Revelation 22:18-19, we must do so in their immediate context. When we look at the context of the canon, however, another application develops (not contradictory to our interpretation of these texts, but complimentary). With the final canon in view, we can see something very interesting—the placement of these texts. Deuteronomy is located at the beginning of the canon, in what’s called the Pentateuch (first five books of the bible). It is widely accepted that these five books are also dually considered as one book (“of Moses” or “of the Law,” much like the Bible is one book and sixty-six books). Revelation is the last book of the canon (and also considered widely as the last book of the canon to be written).

When we see this, we see that this command to not add or take away serves to “book-end” the entire canon. Much like when we consider a text or an entire book to contain “book-ends,” we can consider that section/book to be a complete unit that is held together thematically.

And isn’t that what the Bible is? A unified work with various themes. Perhaps one of those themes is that the canon is revelation from God. It’s sure book-ended that way.

1. The issue of inspiration is much larger than the scope of this post. If anything I have said, or will say in the rest of the post sounds like I’m affirming full mechanical dictation of Scripture then it is only because of my attempt at simplicity. Return to Post

Filed under: Scripture Lessons, Theology