L. Gaussen, The Canon of the Holy Scriptures Examined in the Light of History, translated from the French and abridged by Edward N. Kirk (Boston: American Tract Society, 1862), iii-vii.
[Note: This translator’s preface lays out in simple terms the pre-critical, historic, orthodox methodology for academic Bible research by succinctly describing the quintessential sequence for such a study: 1. Scripture’s self-attestation, and the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and secondarily, 2. Historical research. Reversing this sequence has submitted the Word of God to fallen men, who by their natures rebel against the cause of Christ, the result of this enmity generating a spirit of unbelief in the Church. Please be mindful that this is written only 19 years before the pretending Greek text of 1881 that has spurred a rebellion of unbelief. Within one generation, a great divide split the Church. Some remained true to their historic, orthodox roots while others, forsaking orthodox exegesis and theology cast off faith in God instead placing their faith in rationalism. And this division remains until this day. Considering the history Gaussen lived through and this transformative moment for the Church, is it not fair to ask, “Who really is on the Lord’s side?”]
The question examined in this work is, “What books or documents have a right to be placed in the Sacred Scriptures?” In other words, “What constitutes our Bible?” It was intended by the learned author as a sequel to the “Theopneusty,” published more than twenty years since. In the original, the work consists of two volumes, octavo; but, for the purpose of bringing it within a more moderate price, and thus gaining for it a wider circulation among all classes of readers, we have preferred to make some abridgment of it and condense the two volumes into one.
The argument in support of the claims of our Scriptures is presented by the author in a twofold form, called by him, The Method of Science, and the Method of Faith. The former of these is the one most commonly employed in the works which discuss this subject, showing the authenticity of the several books of our Scriptures, and their right — and theirs only — to a place in the Sacred Canon. The other, which is addressed to those who already receive them as divine, appeals to God’s guardian care of his Word, since the formation of the Canon, and the power of his grace working through it upon the hearts of men, as his own recognition of its genuineness and confirmation of its claims upon our faith. We have judged it best, for the reasons above stated, to give in the present volume the former part only.
It should be remembered, however, that important as the historical evidence on this subject is, it is nevertheless not that upon which the vast majority of believers accept the sacred volume as the Word of God. The latter rests on what is termed the Internal Evidence, or the self-witnessing of the Scriptures. It is the response which they compel from the soul of the reader himself to their truths and precepts. They axe felt to be divine, — a vital force in him who receives them, “quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Our eloquent author, in the preface to his second volume, exhibits the value of this internal evidence with great force and beauty, showing that even science itself will fail of properly moving the heart, if there be not added to it this self-witnessing of the Word under the teachings of the Holy Spirit. Our space will permit us to cite but a few paragraphs.
“Our faith requires a support altogether more sure than that based on mere historical evidence. This is attested by the experience of pious men in every age and earnestly expressed in the most accredited of our confessions of faith. They say, “We know these books to be canonical, and the very sure rule of our faith, not so much by the common agreement of the Church, as by the testimony of the Holy Spirit.” (Conf. des Eglises Franc., Art. IV.)
In speaking thus, they did not pretend that this testimony to the Scriptures, given by the Holy Spirit in the heart of every Christian truly converted by them, would apply directly and equally to every book, chapter, and sentence in them. They meant merely, that for every Christian truly converted, the Bible is seen by the soul to be a miraculous book, a living and efficacious word, penetrating even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit, and revealing to man the very secrets of his own heart; softening, persuading, subduing him with incomparable power. Certainly, never book spake like this book! It hath told me all that ever I did. “Whence knowest thou me. Lord? Surely, thou art the Son of God, thou art the king of Israel! From that time the soul cannot be mistaken. For it, this book, in whole or in part, is certainly from above. The seals of God Almighty are upon it. Now this “witness of the Spirit,” of which our fathers spake, which has been more or less recognized by every Christian when he has read his Bible with a living heart, — this testimony can at first be heard by him nowhere but in a page of the Scriptures; and that page has sufficed to shed an incomparable glory over the whole book. And as to the divine authenticity of each of its parts, the Christian reader has legitimate reasons, for remaining convinced that the inspiration of those passages in which the Holy Spirit does speak to him, guarantees the remainder, and that he can, moreover, rest in this matter upon the common agreement of the churches and on the faithfulness of God; because a principle of his faith authorizes him to recognize, in this common agreement, a work of divine wisdom. He will then consider the whole book as inspired, long before each of its parts may have been able by itself to prove its divine origin to him. Is it not thus that the naturalist proceeds, when he examines with the solar microscope in a living fish, a spot of the size of a pin’s point, and there contemplates fourteen streams of blood flowing constantly night and day in two opposite directions, and accomplishing with astonishing beauty the double prodigy of circulation; is it not thus, we say, that it suffices him to have had this spectacle under his eyes, to conclude from it very legitimately that this powerful mystery of the blood and the life is equally accomplished in the whole body?
While the Scriptures thus address themselves to our faith by their self-evidencing power, we are no less assured of their divine character, as preserved by God’s unceasing care, uncorrupted and complete, from age to age. This, as we have already intimated, is forcibly presented in our author’s argument in the second form, a summary of which is thus given in his own glowing and eloquent language: — “Faith contemplates that continued and manifestly divine action which, for twenty-three centuries, has employed the almost ever-rebellious people of the Jews to preserve the Canon of the Old Testament free from all mixture. He who has kept it twenty-three hundred years, faith says, cannot fail to keep to the end, by Christian people, the Canon of the New Testament. He of whom it is said that, after his ascension to heaven, he was still with his disciples, aiding them and confirming their testimony by signs and wonders (Mark xvi. 20), is not dead! No, it is he who lives; — and has promised (Matt, xxviii. 20) to be with them to the end of the world; that is, not with their persons, but with their testimony, and especially their books. He has not failed to keep his promise, in defending his Church against the gates of hell. He will not permit these gates, then, to prevail against the sacred books, which gave it birth and preserve its life. Faith says to herself, How shall the elect he saved, if they do not believe? How shall they believe, if the truth be not preached? How shall the truth be preached, if the books which contain it are not given? How shall they be given, if they are not preserved? God, then, in promising that his Church shall never perish, promises, also, that his Word shall never fail. Heaven and earth shall sooner perish!
Such are the thoughts, and such the confidence of faith, concerning the Canon. The reader should be notified in advance, that several of the technical terms employed by the author are considered too serviceable to be relinquished, and they will need no other explanation than this:
Theopneusty means Inspiration.
Canonicity, the right to a place in the Bible.
Apostolicity, the fact that an apostle wrote the book.
Paulinity, the fact that Paul wrote it.
Anagnosis, the public reading of the Scriptures.
Homologomens, uncontested books.
Antilegomens, contested books.
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