The Canon of Scripture - Hermeneutics: Week 4 - 5/28/25

Tabernacle Baptist Church
4 hours ago
2 min read

My notes for Wednesday night, May 28th. Remember, these are my personal study notes and not a manuscript of the sermon. They are provided as an outline each week for our Tabernacle Church family. Our study over the next few months will be a study on Hermeneutics: Becoming Students and Teachers of the Word. Our goal is to develop tools to help us read, study, apply, and share the Bible more effectively. You can find Sermon Notes, Family Devotional Guides, Prayer List, and other resources at our Church Website.

Hermeneutics – HERMENEUEIN from Luke 24:27 to explain or interpret. The term simply describes the practice and discipline of interpreting the Bible.

The Canon of Scripture

What do we mean by the term canon? Canon (from the Greek kanōn) means a standard by which something is measured. The Greek term was commonly used of a carpenter’s rule and was possibly borrowed from a Hebrew term (qaneh), referring to a reed used for a standard of measurement. Thus, we refer to Scripture as canonical, meaning that it serves as a rule, a measure, or a standard for God’s people. We must not think the church determined or defined the books in the church’s canon. In reality the church did not create the canon but received the canon God created for his people. The books that constitute the canon formed a rule or measure by which all other books were measured for the church. The church did not decide which books belonged in the canon but only affirmed those books God had inspired[1]

The biblical canon is the collection of scriptural books that God has given his corporate people, which are distinguished by their divine qualities, reception by the collective body, and their apostolic connection, either by authorship or association. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-biblical-canon/)

Scripture

2 Peter 3:16; 1 Timothy 5:18 (Luke 10:7)

Things to Consider:

The early church was growing and expanding.

Letters were being written to encourage and strengthen the early church/people
Men were recognized as men that had the authority to write and be heard. (The 12 and close associates, Paul)
As years progressed… which writings were considered sacred and authoritative?
The early church fathers decided what was to be taken serious as the Word of God.