Luke or Clement?

This past month I have fallen in love with the Bible, yet again. I’ve always been a big fan, but I am absolutely praising the Lord for the way He’s opened my eyes and heart to see and receive it in a new way. The funny thing is that this newfound awe has been the fruit of learning more about the human side of its origins, in addition to the divine. I’ve been reminded of the way God never usurps our human will, but chooses to work through our sometimes complicated human processes to perfect His will in our individual lives, as well as in the Church.

Most of us don’t know much about how we got the Bible, only that it is the inspired word of God. But how were the books that make it up selected? How do we know that the gospel of Luke was inspired and that 1 and 2 Clement weren’t? What do you think? Well, I’m not sure that we do know. And I’m ok with that. Don’t get me wrong- I definitely believe in the inspiration of Luke, but I think it’s quite possible that a lot of what's in 1 and 2 Clement were inspired, too, and just didn’t make it into the Bible. And that doesn’t shake my faith in the least. Here’s why.

Before the birth of Jesus, there probably wasn’t a fixed Jewish Bible. There are a handful of scholars that think differently, but most believe that what we now call the Old Testament wasn’t set in stone until at least 100 years after Jesus, probably even 300! One of my textbooks observed that the people of Israel related to God primarily through people (priests, prophets, and kings) and institutions (the tabernacle, temple, and sacrifices) more than through written Scripture. This makes a lot of sense when we consider how rare copies of the text actually were. And you may remember reading in 2 Kings 22 what a big deal it was for Josiah to discover the ancient law while they were repairing the temple in the 8th century BC. The reason it was such an incredible discovery was because the written Scriptures hadn’t been a regular part of the Israelites’ lives, so the nation had essentially forgotten they existed! The Bible says that when Josiah heard the words of the Lord, he tore his clothes! He had had no idea what the law had even said, up until that point. And then we read a similar story in Nehemiah 8, about when Ezra read the Scriptures to the people, quite possibly for the first time in their entire lives! Based on these stories, it looks like the Scriptures weren’t as central to ancient Judaism as what we might think. In the same way, the early Church didn’t rally itself around the Scriptures so much as the apostles’ teaching and work of the Holy Spirit. Again, they had all of the Scriptures, but they didn’t become “people of the book” until the fourth century AD.

And they actually had many more sacred writings than the ones which eventually made their way into the Bible. We know this through different archeological discoveries, like the Dead Sea Scrolls, where non-canonical passages were included in the very same books right along with what we now identify as Scripture! They were written in the same handwriting and everything- there was nothing to distinguish the canonical from the non-canonical. Furthermore, many of the apostles and church fathers also sited these non-canonical books as Scripture. This tells us that for the first several centuries after Jesus, the Jewish and Christian canons were much more loosely defined than what they are today.

Even though they hadn’t been solidified into their final form as the Bible, these Scriptures and writings functioned authoritatively (after being found by Josiah and Ezra, of course) because they had “worked” for the community for such a long time. In my mind, I think it was a bit like how young parents in evangelical circles reference Dare to Discipline by Dr. James Dobson. We, ourselves, were raised by Dr. Dobson’s principles, and are now raising our own children in much the same way. We believe Dobson writes with wisdom that he received from God. In this way, we might say that his book was inspired. So let’s imagine that in 2503 somebody decides to make a “parenting bible.” If we continue quoting Dr. Dobson from now until then, sections of Dare to Discipline may be deemed worthy to include in this bible. It functioned authoritatively between 1977 and 2502 because people recognized its wisdom, as the Scriptures did prior to second century AD. But once our imaginary parenting bible is officially formed, Dobson’s status will be elevated even farther and permanently secured for future generations. Similarly, the books of the Bible weren’t ultimately exalted because some council vested with authority conducted a thorough investigation and determined them worthy. They gained their importance first by functioning as such in the community, and then by being identified as authoritative Scripture. Granted, several books (like the books of Moses and those written by the prophets) claimed to be the actual words of God. But there were also books that claimed to be the words of God which weren’t ultimately included. So whether they claimed to come from God’s mouth or not, the books that eventually made their way into the Bible were the ones that were the most highly and widely esteemed over a long period of time.

We use the word canon to refer to the collection of individual books that comprise the Bible. It comes from a word that meant “measuring rod” or “measuring stick.” Among the Greeks, it came to refer to a standard by which other things were judged. There was a literary canon that included Homer, Hesiod, Aristophanes, Sophacles, Plato, and Aristotle. There was also a canon for grammarians based on Vergil, Cicero, and Sallust. There were also canons for art, poetry, philosophy, and public speaking. Students’ education was always based on these classic canons. Most scholars believe that it was between the fourth and fifth centuries that both Judaism and Christianity officially formed and closed their canons of sacred Scripture- our Old and New Testaments- by which all teachers, ideas, and philosophies could then be permanently evaluated. It was their way of saying, “This is good stuff. Our communities have been using these books as authoritative guides and standards for hundreds of years. As leaders we officially acknowledge their role in our lives and give them our permanent seal of approval. Whatever else may come will be judged against how well it aligns with these books and letters.”

So back to my question about 1 and 2 Clement, the gospel of Luke, and any other ancient book that archaeologists may dig up in the coming years. Our Church fathers have identified Luke as being a standard. They told us that they had 100% confidence in its inspiration and trustworthiness. 1 and 2 Clement? Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t know. But I’m absolutely confident in the inspiration of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And I’m also confident that God has been guiding the entire process of canonization and that He almost always chooses to work through natural human processes. So I look forward to reading 1 and 2 Clement in order to better understand what was being circulated in the early church. But I will not “take the bait” that I have been deceived and thereby fear that I have been missing out on something that is critical to my faith.

And back to the love factor and my own story- I have always respected everything in the Bible because it was in the Bible. What blows my mind, though, is that the very reason it made it into the Bible was because it was so highly esteemed! Let me say it differently- The Scriptures didn’t hold value because they were canonized. They were canonized because they held value. So all of Paul’s teachings that I just don’t understand were at some point in history thought to be extremely life-giving and nourishing to the soul! In the same way that I often read A.W. Tozer and think, “Holy cow, this man has deep understanding that had to have come from the Holy Spirit,” so also people used to think the same thing about 1 Timothy 2:15! My challenge, then, is to discover the treasure that Jesus’ followers obviously recognized. And my assumption is now that it is, indeed, a treasure!