Definition Of Canonicity

DEFINITION OF CANONICITY
Canonicity is the process by which the books of the Bible were gathered and collected so that they came to be regarded as the standard and norm for Christians. This means that canonicity refers to the church's recognition of the authority of the inspired writings. Don't miss this! Canonicity does not make a book into the word of God. Rather, canonicity is the process of recognizing that a book is the word of God. The 66 books which make up our Bible are only a very small part of the many ancient documents that were written in ancient times and which have come down to us today. There are many other ancient books and possibly even books written by certain people whom we might find in the pages of the Bible.

How do we know that the books that we have are the Word of God? And how do we know that other books of antiquity are not also the Word of God? The answer is that only those books which were inspired by God — that is, which were God-breathed; only those books should be considered as canonical. This is the sole criteria for determining whether or not a book is to be considered a part of the Canon of Scriptures. However, that brings us to the next question: How do I know if a book is inspired by God?

How are we to determine if we have the right books in the Bible?

What about the Apocrypha? Are there certain books in our Bible which should not be there? Are we missing some books? Are there certain signs for which we can look that indicate that a book is inspired?

These are the questions that are posed in the issue of canonicity.