Theological Grounding Episode 6: The Unquantifiability of Manuscript Transmission and Collation (Video)

The process by which the words of the Canon were collated cannot be classified, categorized, or easily referenced because, as we have seen, all external criteria for canonicity fails, which also includes the effects of divine providence are only seen after the fact. The product, or Canon, does not divulge how the words were identified as canonical other than that they were immediately inspired and show the evidence of that inspiration as surely as does the presence of light. The question of the truth of Matt. 5:18, for example, then deals with the inspired character of a product brought about by a historically unquantifiable process. Unquantifiable means unspecifiable or unidentifiable. That is, the historical collating process of the canon is not bound to a system based on a text type, a neutral text, an older, shorter, harder to read text, a text from which another text would derive its origin, is not based on majority readings, is not part of a genealogical system by any name, is not part of any system.