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Synopsis Purioris Theologiae, het gereformeerd dogmatisch leerboek uit midden 17e eeuw, gaat uitgebreid in op deze kwestie. Hier zijn een paar fragmenten (uit mijn eigen Engelse vertaling; het origineel is in het Latijn, ik dacht dat men daar minder tevreden mee zou zijn
) :
The first kind of evidence we seek from those marks and criterions, by which reliability and truth of any historical account usually is and can be determined. For if it is established that the holy account is true and certain, it will be necessarily established by the same effort that it is divine and God-breathed; for it provides in all its parts a most ample testimony of its own divinity.
Arrianus states that there are certain criterions of truth in human history:
* that they who write it are persons worth to be trusted;
* that they themselves were involved in the actions which they put in writing;
* that they have not been forced, nor been offered money, to write something else than happened.
To this, Josephus adds that all authors must agree in their description of the same matters.
(...)
The same holy writers were also ear- and eyewitnesses of the things they put in writing; and they did so conscious of the fact that many thousands other men saw and heard the same. They did not seek any worldly glory or riches through their works; on the contrary, they did not expect for themselves anything but persecutions, crosses and deaths in the world. For no army stood ready for them, except to fight against them, and many of them willingly sealed the truth that they presented with their own blood. Finally, they all agreed: in different places, times and circumstances, they taught the same in every respect, and left the same teachings for those after them.
Therefore, either no human writing should be regarded as true, or the holy account must be acknowledged by all as true and certain, and therefore also as divine.
(...)
The collection and compilation [of the Holy Books] itself is also divinely made, partly directly, partly indirectly.
* directly: those books which, when they were first written for the whole Church, were also delivered to them and commended as such by the divine writers (Rom. 3,2). In the Old Testament, these are books like the books of Moses, which he himself had been placed in the sanctuary, next to the ark, at a divine command (Deut. 31,2). In the New Testament these are the Gospels which, as covering the same subject do not have an individual introduction (except for that of Luke). And these books contain the foundation of saving truth.
* indirectly: those which by the authors themselves were first written to particular peoples, churches – even the most outstanding and central of them – or to their leaders, and sometimes also for a special occasion , so that they had a particular first use. And not by accident or fate, but by the special providence of God (which takes care of the needs of the churches) they have been conserved. When they were communicated to others – because that was commanded, or by custom of godliness and holy fellowship, and a divine drive – they were accepted by them, yes by all, as divine. And that not by some free choice of the Church, but by necessary acceptance. And these books contain an explication of the saving truth mentioned before.
This communication and acceptance took place at a time when it was possible to make and have a certain judgment about the books, apart from their own characteristics discussed before; sometimes, in an ordinary way or by ordinary means:
* through the testimony of the divine author himself ;
* through the writing or signature in his own handwriting , which was recognized by the believers of that time. By this criterion, Paul wanted the fake letters to be distinguished from his genuine letters ;
* through trustworthy witnesses in this matter, are mentioned in the introduction or the greetings ;
other times in an extraordinary manner, through the judgment of prophets (when the gift of prophecy was still powerful in the Church . And this judgment was only due to the first Church; the later Church has to acknowledge it, to commend to the later generations the divine deposit that was entrusted to them, and to pass it on .
Thus it happened that sometimes some people doubted and contradicted certain books which, after the judgment of prophets and apostles had ceased, were communicated to the later Church together with the other books. For sure, as perhaps useful and ecclesiastic but not holy and divine have been regarded all books written and published
* after the last prophets Zechariah and Malachi; from this time on, the Jewish Synagogue had a succession of Sages ;
* after the death of the apostles and apostolic men, when together with the extraordinary gifts prophecy stopped or at least was interrupted; from this time on, the Church began to have the Fathers.
