Posted: Jun 08, 2018 9:52 am
duvduv wrote:IF the NT existed in the 1st and 2nd century what was the official authority that established which texts were divinely inspired for inclusion and which were not?
How could a book allegedly written by Iraeneus or Justin or anyone else claim divine authority for the 4 gospels and the epistles etc. in the first or second century if no authority (i.e. Council of Hippo and Carthage) existed to established the canon of 4 gospels, etc.?
How on earth can anyone logically believe in all the claims of the NT existing in the first or even the second century when there was no authority to establish its canon for the allegedly existing religion?!!
From wikisource.org:
The idea of a complete and clear-cut canon of the New Testament existing from the beginning, that is from Apostolic times, has no foundation in history. The Canon of the New Testament, like that of the Old, is the result of a development, of a process at once stimulated by disputes with doubters, both within and without the Church, and retarded by certain obscurities and natural hesitations, and which did not reach its final term until the dogmatic definition of the Tridentine Council.
The dogmatic definition of the Tridentine Council (1545 -1563) of course only applies to the Catholic Church. Prior to that the Orthodox and the Protestant Churches had already arrived at different dogmatic definitions, which is why the Bibles of each regard different numbers of books in the Bible as canonical. Different authorities, different outcomes.
In short, what is canonical has never been established. It has been asserted and revised many times by more or less self-appointed authoritative bodies and therefore the first instance of such is no more authoritative as the latest. All instances are outcomes determined by whose power prevailed at the time rather than what was THE TRUTH™.
I suggest you address your questions about authoritative versions of the Bible to the various Christian denominations and watch the ensuing bunfight. Should be good for a laugh as long as people accused of heresy are not burnt at the stake.