Canonical Preservation
...canonical books...cannot be lost. If they are lost, then they were never canonical books to begin with. So, even if we were to discover Paul’s lost letter in the desert sands today, we would not place it into the canon as the twenty-eighth book. Instead, we would simply recognize that God had not preserved this book to be a permanent foundation for the church. Putting such a letter into the canon now would not change that fact; it could not make a book foundational that clearly never was.1
Notes
- 1
If a canonical book, as we have defined it, cannot be “lost,” then one might wonder about Old Testament texts, like 2 Kings 22:8, that seem to speak of canonical books being lost and then found again under the reign of King Josiah. Moreover, one might wonder if this text would give warrant to the reception of a lost epistle of Paul, were it discovered. Two considerations: (1) A close reading of this text indicates that the Book of the Law was not so much lost but ignored. It had been a part of the life of Israel for generations but had sat unused and unread in the temple (22:8) while Israel was pursuing idols and false gods. (2) Another important distinction is that the Book of the Law was not being discovered for the first time by God’s collective covenant community (as would be the case if a lost letter of Paul were discovered). The “Book of the Law” (likely Deuteronomy) had been recognized and received much earlier by the covenant people when God originally gave the Pentateuch as foundational books for Israel.
If a canonical book, as we have defined it, cannot be “lost,” then one might wonder about Old Testament texts, like 2 Kings 22:8, that seem to speak of canonical books being lost and then found again under the reign of King Josiah. Moreover, one might wonder if this text would give warrant to the reception of a lost epistle of Paul, were it discovered. Two considerations: (1) A close reading of this text indicates that the Book of the Law was not so much lost but ignored. It had been a part of the life of Israel for generations but had sat unused and unread in the temple (22:8) while Israel was pursuing idols and false gods. (2) Another important distinction is that the Book of the Law was not being discovered for the first time by God’s collective covenant community (as would be the case if a lost letter of Paul were discovered). The “Book of the Law” (likely Deuteronomy) had been recognized and received much earlier by the covenant people when God originally gave the Pentateuch as foundational books for Israel.
CloseMichael Kruger, Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 134