L L I ST

F IC I A :
E O F O O K S
TH I C A L B
B IB L I TY
OF N O N I C
CA
Shaping Minds
▪ The word canon came from the Greek word kanon, which means rod
or ruler.
▪ Therefore, the Canon of the Scriptures is the authoritative list of
books that are acknowledged as "divinely inspired" by the Church,
and are set as the standard for Christian teaching, preaching and
edification.
▪ The Canon of Bible refers to the complete list of books inspired by
God, and it contains the rule of faith and morals.
Shaping Minds
▪ Uninspired books
▪ The gospel of Judas
▪ Gospel according to Thomas
and to name a few are noncanonical books.
▪ Not all names are during different eras are can be found in the Bible. To be
included among the personages in the Bible is not a personal choice. It is a
divine predilection whose reason is only known by God.
Shaping Minds
▪ Similarly not all books are inspired just as not all authors had
been chosen by God to write His thoughts and messages.
Only a few books and authors are officially listed in the
Canon of the Bible.
▪ One of things that distinguishes Catholics from the
Protestants is the issue on the canonicity of the Scripture.
Shaping Minds
▪ The Roman Catholic Canon based on the Septuagint or
Greek has 73 books divided this way:
▪ Old Testament: 46 books
▪ New Testament: 27 books.

▪ The Protestant Canon based on the Palestinian Canon h 66

books divided this way:
▪ Old Testament: 39
▪ New Testament: 27
▪ The reason for this is that our Protestant brethren do not
consider the seven books which we call deuterocanonical or
books that were included at a later time after resolving some
disputes on their being inspired by God.
▪ These seven books considered by Protestants as apocryphal
or not inspired are Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch,
1 Maccabees, and 2 Maccabees.The earliest complete list of
the inspired books was promulgated
▪ The earliest complete list of the inspired books was
promulgated in the provincial Council of Hippo (393)
and in the Third and Fourth Councils of Carthage (397
and 419).
▪ The first infallible pronouncement on the Canon of the
Bible was solemnly declared in the Council of Trent
(1546), and later affirmed by the First Vatican Council
(1870).
▪ It was not easy for the Church to deliberate on the
Canon of Scriptures, but through the guidance of the
Holy Spirit, the early Church leaders and the
Councils were able to discern the inspired books and
arrive at a consensus of a definite number of books in
the Bible.
 My most valuable Persons or Things
1. cellphone 2. pet 3. Rubber shoes 4. Academic 5. 6. house/home
grades father/motherp
arents

7. clothes 8. 9. computer 10. God 11. Best friend 12. siblings

boyfriend/girlfr
iend

13. ambition 14. Favorite 15. television 16. internet 17. prayer 18. shopping
food

19. education 20. travel

1. What are the factors did you consider in choosing
the one you care about most?
2. What difficulties did you encounter in choosing the
one you care about?
▪ Making a choice is not always easy. The reason,
perhaps, is that we are not sure if we have made the
right decision. Our heart sometimes contradicts what
our mind says and this creates a dilemma. We find it
difficult to make choices because we are also afraid
to fail. However, at the end of the day, we must
decide and make a stand.
▪ The New Testament Canon of Roman Catholics and
Protestants are the same. Both have 27 books. The New
Testament books speak about Jesus, the incarnate Son
of God. The life of Jesus narrated in the Gospels
fulfilled all the prophecies made in the Old Testament.
The New Testament, then, is the continuation and
fulfillment of the Old, and the Old Testament
foreshadowed the New. The Old Testament and the
New Testament are complementary.
Criteria for determining the Canon
1. Inspiration by the Holy Spirit
2. Apostolic Origin
3. Use in liturgy or service of the Church under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit.
▪ The church has to protect the Canon of the Bible to retain the
immutable value of the Word of God contained in both Old and
New testaments, to keep the divinely revealed truths intact and
pure, and to defend us against the errors of the past, such as:
• Dualism – claimed that the old testament is not inspired
• Protestantism – rejected some books as not divinely-inspired; and
• Modernism – taught that God is not the Author of the Bible.
▪ There was no canon of scripture in the early Church; there was no
Bible. The Bible is the book of the Church; she is not the Church of the
Bible. It was the Church – her leadership and the faithful people-guided
by the authority of the Spirit of Truth which discovered the books
inspired by God in their writing. The Church did not create the canon;
she discerned the canon. Fixed canons of the Old and New Testaments,
hence the Bible, were not known much before the end of the 2nd and
early 3rd century
(Flanagan & Schihl, 2004).
▪ The Catechism of the Catholic Church recalls that "it was by the
apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to
be included in the list of the sacred books. This complete list is
called the canon of Scripture. It includes 46 books for the Old
Testament or 45 if Jeremiah and Lamentations are counted as one
and 27 books for the New Testament" (CCC 120).