New Testament.The last of the five criteria is early church usage. A specific book use among the early church is most likely what ultimately led to its inclusion or omission from the New Testament canon. This does not account for the inclusion of certain books in the New Testament canon (Philemon, 2 Peter, Jude, 2 and 3 John, and possibly others) and the omission of others ( 1 Clement, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Didache, and possibly Barnabas). According to Lee M. McDonald, Usage is probably the primary key to understanding the preservation and canonization of the books that make up our current New Testament. If a document was not relevant or useful, or if it did not meet the growing needs of the early church for worship and instructional purposes, it probably did not have a chance of being included in the New Testament canon. The issues of apostolicity, orthodoxy, antiquity, inspiration, and church usage are the five main points discussed for the inclusion of a text in the New Testament canon. There are still some questions that remain today about the Biblical canons recognition of some documents as divinely authoritative. Despite this, we have reason to believe that all that is included in our New Testament is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting,and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).Suggested Topic From ReadingUpon completion of the outside reading I have done of the subject of the formation of the canon of inspired Biblical writings, I have summarized more in depth on the formation of the New Testament canon as opposed to the Old Testament. The reason that I focused on the canonization of the New Testament is because it is the primary source that we have containing the words, actions, and life of Jesus Christ. The purpose of the Hebrew Scriptures is to make God known to man, and its theme points to a coming Messiah. That is the Old Testaments main job, to point to one who would come ...
