CANON
85
CANON
on the contrary, are in all respects fiiYorable to this snppositioiL We want to see that they are in har- mony with each other ; that the statements they con- tain are credible ; that the doctrines they teach are not (boUsh, immoral, or self-contradictory ; tliat thehr au- thors really assumed to be under the divine direction m what they wrote, and afforded competent prooft of this to those around them ; and that all the drcnm- stanoes of the case, such as the style of the writers, the allasions made by tliem to places and events, etc., are hi keeping with the conclusion to which the ex- ternal evidence has already led. In this way we ad- vance to a complete moral proof of the divine author- ity and canonical claims of the sacred writings. See
ET1DS5CES.
(L) The external evidence of the several books, in tmn, relates to three principal points : (a.) Their ffm- umemm; in other words, Uie fact that we have the actual works which have heretofore been known by these names, without essential defect, corruption, or mteipolation. Tl^s is the province of criticism (q. v.) to bImw, as has been done by an irrefragable diain of docmnentary testimony. (6.) Their cuOhenticUy (q. v.), or that they are the production of the respective au- thors asserted or believed, which is a question wholly of histcdcal investigation, aided by grammatical com- parison ; and this haa been shown respecting the most of them in as podUve a manner as in the case of any other equally ancient writings, (c.) Their itupiralkn (q. T.) ; the most essential point of the three is this re- l^km, an element which, although confessedly ob- scure and difficult to a4}n8t in every respect with their human features, especially in the absence of any sim- ilar experience in modem times, is yet capable of two- fold proof: 1st, Arom statements and implication of revelation contained in the books themselves, showing that they are a divine communication ; and, 2dly, fh>m the concurrent voice of the ancient as well as modem V)dy of believers. This last argument ia undoubtedly the chief one, of an external character, that must be relied upon in defence of the authority of the Holy Scriptures, and it may well be claimed as a sufficient latisfection to all rightiy constituted minds, [1] that these books, both singly and aa a whole, were so gen- erally and early recognised as of divine authority by thoie who had the beat opportunity to judge of their elauns, by reason of pro±lmity in time and place to tbev OTi^ and intimacy with their authors, while, at the same time, they exhibited their caution and free- dom from prejudice by rejecting maniy other more pre- tentious ones as unworthy their acceptance ; and [2] that the universal Church, with few and unimportant exceptions, has ever since not only cordially acqui- esced, but firmly retained, in tlie face of almost every GonceiTable effort that the ingenuity or force of those of an opposite opinion could bring to bear upon the question, the same traditionaiy persuasion ; nor [8] has any really nnanawerable difficulty yet been alleged in the way (^ such a belief.
(2.) With the external evidence ftimished above in &vDr of the sacred Canon, the internal Ailly accords. In the Old Testament all is in keeping with the as- sumption that its books were written by Jews, sustain- ing the character, sorrounded by the circumstances, and Ihrmg at the time ascribed to their authors ; or, if uj ^iparent discrepancies have been found in any of them, they are of auch a kind as farther inqtdry has Berved to explain and reconcile. The literary pecul- Itfities of the New Testament, its language, its idioms, its style, its allusiona, all are accordant with the hy- pothnis that ita authors were exactiy what they pro- fess to have been — Jews converted to Christianity, and liring at the commencement of the Christian era. Of both Testaments the theological and ethical sys- tems are in harmony, while all that they contain tends to one grand result — the manifestation of the power and perfection of Deity, and the restoration of
man to the image, service, and love of his Creator. The conclusion from the whole fiicts of the case can be none other than that the Bible is entitled to that im- plicit and undivided reverence which it demands as the only divinely appointed Camm of religious truth and duty.
VI. LUerature.-'Var the later period of the history of the K.-T. Canon, from the close of the second cen- tury, the great work of Lardner (CredUnS^ qfthe Gc^ pel ffittory, in his Worh, i-vi, ed. Kippis, 1788; also 1888, 10 vols. 8vo) furnishes copious materials. For the earlier period liis criticism is necessarily imperfect, and requbes to be combined with ihe results of later inquiries. Kirchhofer's collection of the original pas- sages which bear on tlie history of the Canon {Qud' lauammltmff^ etc, Zurich, 1844) is useftil and fairly complete, but fk^uentiy inaccurate. The writings of F. C. Baur and his followers often contain very valua- ble hints as to the characteristics of tlie several books in relation to later teaching, however perverse their conclusions may be. In opposition to them Thiersch has vindicated, perlu^ps with an excess of zeal, but yet, in the main, ri^tiy, the position of the apostolic writ- ings in relation to the first age (FemfcA zur Henld- bmg, etc, Erlangen, 1845 ; and Erwiedenmff, etc., £r- lang. 1846). The section of Beuss on the subject (Die Getch, d, heU. Sckriften N. 7., 2d ed. Braunschw. 1858 ; also in French, Hittoire du Ccaum^ Strasbourg, 1868, 8vo), and the article of Landerer (Herzog's En^ Hop, 8. v.), contain valuable summaries of the evidence. Other references and a fuller discussion of the chief points are given by Westcott in The Bitkny of the Ckmon oftheN.T. (Cambr. 1855). In addition to the works named throughout this article, the following may also be consulted : Cosln, SchdUutuxd ffistaiy of ike Canon (4to, London, 1657, 1672, 1683; also Worht^ iii; iv, 410); Du Pin, History of the Canon and Writ- era of the Bookt of ihe Old and New Tett, (2 vols, folio, London, 1699, 1700) ; Ens, Bibliotheca Sacra, she Dia- tribe de Ubrorvm Nov, Test. Canone (12mo, Amstel. 1710); SUiT^ii, Comment, Hid, Crit,dsLibb, Nov, Test, Canone (8vo, Fr. ad Xl, 1755) ; Schmid, Hist, Antiq, et Vtndicaiio Canonis V, et N, Test, (8vo, Lips. 1776) ; Jones, New andJhU Method of settling the Canonical Authority of the New Test, (8 vols. Oxf. 1827); Alex- ander, C%mofi qfthe Old and New Test, ascertained (12mo, Princeton, 1826; Lend. 1828, 1881); Stuart, Old-Test. Ccmon (12mo, Andover, 1845 ; Edinb. and Lend. 1849) ; Wordsworth, HvUean Lectures (8vo, London, 1848) ; Graussen, Le Canon des Saintes kritures an douhlepaint devuedela science et de lafoi (Lausanne, 1860, 2 vols. ; EngL translation. The Canon of Scripture, etc [Lon- don, 1862, 8vo]) ; BibUotheca Sacra, xi, 278; Gredner, Gesch, d, neutest. Kanon (edit Yolkmar, Berlin, 1860) ; Hilgenfeld, Kan, der N, T, (Halle, 1868); Hoftaiann, Die heiUge Schrift, N, T., etc (NOrdlingen, 1862, pt. i). See BiBLB.