Some gleanings from Catalyst

Alfred North Whitehead saw philosophy as a series of footnotes to Plato. In a similar way we can see Scripture as a series of footnotes to Genesis 3:15. (SF)

Be a Baranabas not a Sabanarab! (SF)

For the only duty of the philosopher is to 'open' the truth. And I do not care much how it should be opened, whether you should use a wooden key or a golden key. It is far better to open it with a wooden key than to shut it with a golden key. (Augustine)

When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude. (G K Chesterton)

A heart of thankfulness is an entry point . We're to enter God's gates with thanksgiving. (Sam Crabtree)

I. Resolved, that I will endeavor hereafter, by God's help, to remember more deeply and solemnly than I have ever yet done, that I am not my own, but Christ's servant; and of course, bound to seek, not my own things, but the things which are Jesus Christ's.

II. Resolved, that I will endeavor, by the grace of God, to set such an example before the candidates for the ministry committed to my care, as shall convince them, that, though I esteem theological knowledge and all its auxiliary branches of science very highly, I esteem genuine and deep piety as a still more vital and important qualification.

III. Resolved, that I will endeavor, by the grace of God, so to conduct myself toward my colleague in the seminary [Archibald Alexander], as never to give to give the least reasonable ground of offence. It shall be my aim, by divine help, ever to treat him with the most scrupulous respect and delicacy, and never to wound his feelings, if I know how to avoid it.

IV. And whereas, during my residence in New York, a very painful part of my trouble arose from disagreement and collision with a colleague, I desire to set a double guard on myself in regard to this point. Resolved, therefore, that, by the grace of God, while I will carefully avoid giving offence to my colleague, I will, in no case, take offence at his treatment of me. I have come hither resolving, that whatever may be the sacrifice of my personal feelings - whatever may be the consequnce - I will not take offence, unless I am called upon to relinquish truth or duty. I not only will never, the Lord helping me, indulge a jealous, envious, or suspicious temper toward him; but I will, in no case, allow myself to be wounded by any slight, or appearance of disrespect. I will give up all my own claims, rather than let the cause of Christ suffer by animosity or contest. What am I, that I should prefer my own honor or exaltation to the cause of my blessed Master? (1813 Resolutions of Samuel Miller - see more here)

The only singular immediate act of the person of the Son on the human nature was the assumption of it into subsistence with himself. (John Owen)

The Sabbath is an ascent to the summit (Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel)

... the horror of Sunday used to cast its prescient gloom as far back in the week as Friday ... (John Ruskin  on his evangelical childhood)

The eschatological is an older strand in revelation than the soteric. (Geerhardus Vos)

But one day, as I was passing in the field, and that too with some dashes on my conscience, fearing lest yet all was not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, Thy righteousness is in heaven; and methought withal, I saw, with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God's right hand; there, I say, as my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was adoing, mGod could not say of me, He wants my righteousness, for that was just before him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. (Bunyan in Grace Abounding)

O death, we defy thee! A stronger than thou

hath entered thy palace; we fear thee not now!

Oh, sing hallelujah, oh, sing hallelujah,

oh, sing hallelujah! Be joyful and sing,

death cannot affright us - Christ Jesus is King! (William Plunket)

Therefore I say, we get no other thing in the Sacrament than we get in the Word. Content yourself with this. But if this is so, the Sacrament is not superfluous.

Would you understand then, what new thing you get, what other things you get? I will tell you. Even if you get the same thing which you get in the Word, yet you get that same thing better. What is this “better”? You get a better grip of the same thing in the Sacrament than you got by the hearing of the Word. That same thing which you possess by the hearing of the Word, you now possess more fully. God has more room in your soul, through your receiving of the Sacrament, than he could otherwise have by your hearing of the Word only. What then, you ask, is the new thing we get? We get Christ better than we did before. We get the thing which we had more fully, that is, with a surer apprehension than we had before. We get a better grip of Christ now, for by the Sacrament my faith is nourished, the bounds of my soul are enlarged, and so where I had but a little grip of Christ before, as it were, between my finger and my thumb, now I get him in my whole hand, and indeed the more my faith grows, the better grip I get of Christ Jesus. Thus the Sacrament is very necessary, if only for the reason that we get Christ better, and get a firmer grasp of him by the Sacrament than we could have before.

(Robert Bruce in The Mystery of the Lord’s Supper)

10 Things and more about the Incarnation by Augustine

“The Word of the Father, by whom all time was created, was made flesh and was born in time for us. He, without whose divine permission no day completes its course, wished to have one day [set aside] for His human birth. In the bosom of His Father, He existed before all the cycles of ages; born of an earthly Mother, He entered upon the course of the years on this day. The Maker of man became Man that He, Ruler of the stars, might be nourished at the breast;

1. that He, the Bread, might be hungry;
2. that He, the Fountain, might thirst; (that He, the Light, might sleep;)
3. that He, the Way, might be wearied by the journey;
4. that He, the Truth, might be accused by false witnesses;
5. that He, the Judge of the living and the dead, might be brought to trial by a mortal judge; (that He, Justice, might be condemned by the unjust;)
6. that He, the Teacher, might be scourged with whips; (that He, the Vine, might be crowned with thorns;)
7. that He, the Foundation, might be suspended upon a cross;
8. that Strength might be weakened;
9. that He who makes well might be wounded;
10. that Life might die.

To endure these and similar indignities for us, to free us, unworthy creatures, He who existed as the Son of God before all ages, without a beginning, deigned to become the Son of Man in these recent years. He did this although He who submitted to such great evils for our sake had done no evil, and although we, who were the recipients of so much good at His hands, had done nothing to merit these benefits. Begotten by the Father, He was not made by the Father; He was made Man in the Mother whom He Himself had made, so that He might exist here for a while, sprung from her who could never and nowhere have existed except through His power.”

– Augustine (354-430), For the Feast of the Nativity, Sermon 191

Latest Five Minutes in Church History

Useful five minutes on the current crisis and a past event from Steve Nicholls (in fact this is a series beginning with the fall of Rome and moving on to plague in Luther's time. The link is just to the site not any specific podcast).

That controversial St Augustine quote

A quote from St Augustine has apparently been labelled hate speech by Facebook. The offending line appears to be "men are hopeless". The quote is part of Augustine's exposition of Psalm 51. On the psalm he writes

I acknowledge my transgression, says David. If I admit my fault, then you will pardon it. Let us never assume that if we live good lives we will be without sin; our lives should be praised only when we continue to beg for pardon.
But men are hopeless creatures, and the less they concentrate on their own sins, the more interested they become in the sins of others. They seek to criticise, not to correct. Unable to excuse themselves, they are ready to accuse others.
This was not the way that David showed us how to pray and make amends to God, when he said: I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me. David did not concentrate on others’ sins; he turned his thoughts on himself. He did not merely stroke the surface, but he plunged inside and went deep down within himself. So he did not spare himself, and therefore was not impudent in asking to be spared.
Do you want God to be appeased? Learn what you are to do that God may be pleased with you. Consider the psalm again: If you wanted sacrifice, I would indeed have given it; in burnt offerings you will take no delight. Are you then to be without sacrifice? Are you to offer nothing? Will you please God without an offering?
Consider what you read in the same psalm: If you wanted sacrifice, I would indeed have given it; in burnt offerings you will take no delight. But continue to listen, and say with David: A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; God does not despise a contrite and humble heart.
Cast aside your former offerings, for now you have found out what you are to offer. In the days of your fathers you would have made offerings of cattle – these were the sacrifices. If you wanted sacrifice, I would indeed have given it. These then, Lord, you do not want, and yet you do want sacrifice.
You will take no delight in burnt offerings, David says. If you will not take delight in burnt offerings, will you remain without sacrifice? Not at all. A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; God does not despise a contrite and humble heart.
You now have the offering you are to make. No need to examine the herd, no need to outfit ships and travel to the most remote provinces in search of incense. Search within your heart for what is pleasing to God. Your heart must be crushed. Are you afraid that it might perish so? You have the reply: Create a clean heart in me, O God. For a clean heart to be created, the unclean one must be crushed.
We should be displeased with ourselves when we commit sin, for sin is displeasing to God. Sinful though we are, let us at least be like God in this, that we are displeased at what displeases him. In some measure then you will be in harmony with God’s will, because you find displeasing in yourself what is abhorrent to your Creator.

10 Doctors of the church

1. Doctor of Grace (Augustine of Hippo)
2. Doctor Angelicus or the angelic doctor (Aquinas)

3. Doctor Subtilis (Duns Scotus)
4. Doctor Invincibilis (William of Ockham)
5. Doctor Mellifluus (Bernard of Clairvaux)
6. Doctor Profundis (Thomas Bradwardine)
7. The heavenly doctor (Richard Sibbes)
8. Doctor Voluminous (John Gill)
9. Doctor Squintum (Whitefield)
10, The Doctor (Lloyd-Jones)

Waterstones humour

Spotted at my local Waterstones. B B Warfield wrote that the Reformation was the triumph of Augustine's doctrine of th grace (Whichch Protestants love him for) over his doctrine of the church (which Romanists love him for). [The book on Augustine is by Robin Lane Fox].

10 Ancient Testimonies to Limited Atonement

These ten ancient testimonies are given in an appendix at the end of John Owen's The death of death in the death of Christ

I. The confession of the holy Church of Smyrna, a little after the commendation given it by the Holy Ghost, Rev. ii. 9, upon the martyrdom of Polycarpus:

“Neither can we ever forsake Christ, him who suffered for the salvation of the world of them that are saved, nor worship any other.” [It is an extract from a letter of the church of Smyrna to the churches of Pontus, giving an account of the martyrdom of Polycarp.]

II. The witness of holy Ignatius, as he was carrying to Rome from Antioch, to be cast to beasts for the testimony of Jesus:

“This is the way leading to the Father, this the rock, the fold, the key; he is the shepherd, the sacrifice; the door of knowledge, by which entered Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and the whole company of prophets, and the pillars of the world, the apostles, and the spouse of Christ; for whom, instead of a dowry, he poured out his own blood, that he might redeem her.” [AD 107]

Surely Jesus Christ gives not a dowry for any but his own spouse.

III. Clemens, “whose name is in the book of life,” Phil. iv. 3, with the whole church at Rome in his days, in the epistle to the church of Corinth

“For the love which he had unto us, he gave his blood for us, according to his purpose, and his flesh for our flesh, and his life for our lives.”

Where you have assigned, 1. The cause of Christ’s death, — his love to us; 2. The object of it, — us, or believers; 3. The manner how he redeemed us, even by commutation. This triple testimony is taken from the very prime of undoubted antiquity.

IV. Cyprian, to Cæcilius, a holy, learned, and famous martyr, AD 250:

“He bare all us, who bare our sins;”

That is, he sustained their persons on the cross for whom he died.

The same to Demetrian

“This grace hath Christ communicated, subduing death in the trophy of his cross, redeeming believers with the price of his blood.”

The same, or some other ancient and pious writer of the cardinal works of Christ. The same author also, in express terms, mentions the sufficiency of the ransom paid by Christ, arising from the dignity of his person “Of so great dignity was the oblation of our Redeemer, that it alone was sufficient to take away the sins of the world.”

V. Cyril of Jerusalem, [AD 350]

“Wonder not if the whole world be redeemed; for he was not a mere man, but the only-begotten Son of God that died. If, then, through the eating of the tree” (forbidden) “they were cast out of paradise, certainly now by the tree” (or cross) “of Jesus shall not believers more easily enter into paradise?” So also doth another of them make it manifest in what sense they use the word all..

VI. Athanasius, of the incarnation of the Word of God [AD. 350]:

“He is the life of all, and as a sheep he delivered his body a price for the souls of all, that they might be saved.” All in both places can be none but the elect; as,

VII. Ambrose or rather, Prosper,  [AD 370]

 “The people of God hath its own fulness. In the elect and foreknown, distinguished from the generality of all, there is accounted a certain special universality; so that the whole world seems to be delivered from the whole world, and all men to be taken out of all men.”

In which place he proceedeth at large to declare the reasons why, in this business, “all” and “the world” are so often used for “some of all sorts.”

These that follow wrote after the rising of the Pelagian heresy, which gave occasion to more diligence of search and wariness of expression than had formerly been used by some.

IX. Augustine, [AD. 420]:

“By him the Mediator, the Lord declareth himself to make those whom he hath redeemed with his blood, of evil, good to eternity.”

“Christ will possess what he bought; he bought it with such a price that he might possess it.”

“He that bought us with such a price will have none perish whom he hath bought.”

“He often calleth the church itself by the name of the world; as in that, ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself;’ and that, ‘The Son of man came not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.’ And John in his epistle saith, ‘We have an Advocate, and he is the propitiation for [our sins, and not for ours only, but also for] the sins of the whole world.’ The whole world, therefore, is the church, and the world hateth the church. The world, then, hateth the world; that which is at enmity, the reconciled; the condemned, the saved; the polluted, the cleansed world. And that world which God in Christ reconcileth to himself, and which is saved by Christ, is chosen out of the opposite, condemned, defiled world.” Much more to this purpose might be easily cited out of Augustine, but his judgment in these things is known to all.

IX. Prosper [AD. 440]:

“He is not crucified with Christ who is not a member of the body of Christ. When, therefore, our Saviour is said to be crucified for the redemption of the whole world, because of his true assumption of the human nature, yet may he be said to be crucified only for them unto whom his death was profitable. Diverse from these is their lot who are reckoned amongst them of whom it is said, ‘The world knew him not.’ ”

“Doubtless the propriety of redemption is theirs from whom the prince of this world is cast out. The death of Christ is not to be so laid out for human-kind, that they also should belong unto his redemption who were not to be regenerated.”

“If there be none whom God would not have redeemed, why are not all saved?”

X. Council held at Valence [AD 855]

“The price of the death of Christ is given for them alone of whom the Lord himself said, ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish.’ ”

Free E-Book on Augustine available

A free e-book by Gerald Bray is available here.

The Confessions A biography

Our reading group at the John Owen Centre looked at Augustine's Confessions the other week and I bought this little book in the series Lives of great religious books. First, let me say what a nice book it is to handle - a properly bound hardback with clear print. I think Mr Wills is a Roman Catholic but he seeks to be objective and so this does not intrude too much. What you get is a helpful analysis of the contents of this Christian classic, along with some idea of the history of the scholarship with regard to it and something on its origins and subsequent reception. I found this an enjoyable and stimulating work. The fresh analysis of the famous conversion was interesting. It is perhaps how surprising how evangelicals rightly or wrongly are able to see it in a light that appears to be obscure to other observers.

10 Good Bishops or Archbishops

1. Ambrose of Milan 339-397

2. Augustine of Hippo 354-430

3. Anselm of Canterbury 1033-1109

4. Hugh Latimer of Worcester 1487-1555

5. Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury 1489-1556

6. John Hooper of Gloucester and Worcester c 1495-1555

7. James Ussher of Armagh 1581-1656

8. Daniel Wilson of Calcutta 1778-1858

9. J C Ryle of Liverpool 1816-1900

10. Marcus Loane of Sydney 1911-2009

(Other possibles: Nicholas Ridley of London 1500-1555, Edward Reynolds of Norwich 1599-1676, Reginald Heber of Calcutta 1783-1826 and Handley Moule of Durham 1841-1920)

Dr Calhoun Church History Lectures

I have now listened to all 35 lectures from Dr David Calhoun on ancient and medieval church history given I the nineties at Covenant Theological Seminary. Each lecture is around 45 minutes in length and is a helpful introduction or refresher course in the main points of the history of the period from a Christian point of view. Church history is the subject rather than theology as such but there is some helpful stuff here all delivered in a warm and helpful way and well worth checking out. They are available on itunes u.

Things seen (Augustine)

I was sat drinking coffee in a coffee shop and I came to the famous part of the Confessions where Augustine is converted (I mean the Tolle Lege bit). Anyway after reading it once again and being moved by it I looked up and I noticed on the other side of the street there was one of these fellows who walks around with a stick and something written on it (probably Jesus) as a way of witnessing. As he walked along with his friend a woman shouted something at him - probably not complimentary. She and her friend appeared to be people with a drink problems. After stopping briefly he walked on with his friend and she and her friend headed the other way so that we six soon briefly formed a triangle - me and Augustine in the coffee shop, the professing Christian and his friend at one angle and the two alcoholics at the other. Augustine was once as lost as the drunks and so was I but God saved him (and me) as he saved the man witnessing and his friend I hope.

Augustine's Confessions

I was at the John Owen Centre today for the 42nd (apparently) meeting of the Theological Study Group, which is a book reading group. Our book for today was an old one (we try and alternate with newer ones). Under the competent chairmanship of Jeremy Walker eight of us discussed Augustine's Confessions. Most of were working from Roman Catholic Garry Wills' relatively recent translation. There was general agreement among the eight of us that this was worth reading although some of it was hard to grasp. Augustine was a n enthusiast, almost maniacal at times. We liked the evangelical Augustine but recognised that there were other elements there that we would not be happy with. It is good when a real classic proves to be as good as people say. There was a variety opinion on the value of the exegesis and the spiritual stimulus it might prove to be. Next time it is Bruce A Ware's The man Christ Jesus.

EMA 2013 Day 3

A combination of events today meant that I only caught the session with Garry Williams. So I missed both main Mark Dever sessions somehow and only caught his seminar, which I now see is all pretty much written out here. The irony is that it was Dever's presence that helped me decide to come. That and the opportunity to meet people. I particularly enjoyed spending an hour with my friend Paul Pease from Hook. What a good bloke.

So, Garry Williams. He was given the history slot and looked at Augustine's City of God by briefly surveying Augustine's life and background then giving us an anatomy of the cities of God and earth and three applications. Garry is not as hip as Mike Reeves (no dead white guys here, rather references to amateur dramatics and secondary authors) but he is able to read big books and succinctly synthesise and summarise them and that is quite a skill. Simply to hear someone in this context say that we need theologians not pragmatists is a breath of fresh air. It would be interesting to know what members of the state church (half the people there were Anglicans) thought of his contention that the state is not neutral.

The anatomy

1. Only unfallen angels and saved people are in the City of God. All others are outside of it.

2. Both cities manifest themselves in different ways down the years of history.

3. Satan is behind the earthly city.

4. Both cities are driven by love - love for God or love for self.

5. You can, therefore, rightly understand the earthly city as being dominated by disordered love. He added that Augustine believed that all created things are innately good. Satan creates nothing he only destroys. By nature it is as if man is hanging upside down.

6. The earthly city is divided against itself. Self-idolisation means everyone wants to be God and so the lust for dominion means peace is impossible.

7. The earthly city ends in eternal death.

The application

1. There is no neutral ground and so we must expect conflict.

2. Don't pin your hopes on this world.

3. Where is the earthly city? Out there but we are not without sin and the need for grace and repentance is constant.

*

So a good conference on the whole. The venue just about works. I'd hate to think what they are paying for it (they charged us £82 more than you will pay for next week at the Met Tab). It is all set for next year too and you can book now. I've already forgotten the memorable title they've chosen. (I can't see many people paying £6 for the lunches next year if they are not improved). Dominated by non-Anglicans and in a neutral venue, the claim that this is not an Anglican conference looked stronger than ever this year. As with all conferences, the best thing about it is the chance to meet old friends and new which I very much enjoyed.

Banner 2013 05

On Wednesday evening Mike Reeves spoke to us on the church father Augustine. Clearly in his element, Mike took us to the Confessions and got us under the skin of this great and influential man by describing his life.
Among the highlights were his drawing attention to Augustine's great humanity, for example his ability to describe sin.
One example is his reference to childhood sins "When I did not get my way, either because I was not understood or lest it be harmful to me, I used to be indignant with my seniors for their disobedience, and with free people who were not slaves to my interests; and I would revenge myself upon them by weeping."
He talks of a young friend Alypius who abhorred everything to do with the gladiatorial games, but was dragged along one day by some friends. He shut his eyes, but 'when a gladiator fell, there was a great roar from the whole mass of spectators and, overcome with curiosity, he opened his eyes'. He was, Augustine adds, transfixed. 'He saw blood, and gulped back savagery. Far from turning away, he fixed his eyes on it' and 'without knowing what was happening, he drank in madness, he was delighted with the wicked conflict, drunk with the lust of blood.' And from then on, he was hooked.
He also makes a point about creeping addictions by referring to his mother Monica's eventual alcoholism.
Other good quotes from Augustine
Love for God is the enjoyment of God for his own sake, and the enjoyment of other things for God's sake.
Too late came I to love you, O Beauty both so ancient and so new! Too late came I to love you - and behold you were with me all the time . . .
We also had references to Augustine's opposition to Donatism and Pelagianism (including his mistaken focus on Romans 5:5 that set up the Roman trajectory in his teaching that is undoubtedly there in his writings).

Westminster Conference 2012 04

We made a good start to the second day at the Westminster Conference with a very good paper by David Gregson on Blaise Pascal. Most of us were fairly ignorant of Pascal beforehand so it was good to fill in the gaps in our knowledge. Pascal lived 1623-1662 and so was only 39 when he died. David Gregson summed him up as a genius whose life God touched. He made significant strides forward in mathematics, science and other areas and in his twenties met Jansenists who while remaining within Romanism had an Augustinian view of grace. He was converted firstly intellectually (in 1646) and then to new birth (in 1654). It was good to have the view that his conversion stunted his scientific interests refuted. We also had a summary of the famous Pensees, including reference to something we have touched on in this blog before ie Cleopatra's nose. See here. The memorial describing his conversion that he sewed into his coat and that was discovered after his death can be found here. A useful discussion on conversion and what we need to know followed.

Reading the Bible A

Augustine of Hippo says in his City of God

"Scripture, which proves the truth of its historical statements by the accomplishment of its prophecies, gives no false information". The rest of the paragraohis embarrassingly unhelpful but he got this right.

He is also supposed to have said

"If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself."

Augustine: Prayer before preaching

(Saw this quoted in an essay by Bishop Wallace Benn)

It is from On Christian Doctrine, Vol 4, Chapter 15, Section 32

And so our Christian orator, while he says what is just, and holy and good (and he ought never to say anything else), does all he can to be heard with intelligence, with pleasure and with obedience; and he need and so far as he succeeds, he will succeed more by piety in prayer than by gifts of oratory; and so he ought to pray for himself and for those he is about to address, before he attempts to speak. And when the hour is come that he must speak, he ought, before he opens his mouth, to lift up his thirsty soul to God, to drink in what he is about to pour forth and to be himself filled with what he is about to distribute. For, as in regard to every matter of faith and love there are many things that may be said, and many ways of saying them, who knows what it is expedient at a given moment for us to say, or to be heard saying, except God who knows the hearts of all? And who can make us say what we ought and in the way we ought except Him in whose hand both we and our speeches are? Accordingly, he who is anxious both to know and to teach should learn all that is to be taught, and acquire such a faculty of speech as is suitable for a divine. But when the hour for speech arrives, let him reflect upon that saying of our Lord's as better suited to the wants of a pious mind "Take no thought how or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." The Holy Spirit, then, speaks thus in those who for Christ's sake are delivered to the persecutors; why not also in those who deliver Christ's message to those who are willing to learn?

Ancient riot

Churches are notorious for harbouring people who don’t like the way things are going and who want to voice their opinion about it. They don’t like the music or the carpet or how the money is spent or they think communion should be more often, or whatever. In F F Bruce's 1998 book The canon of Scripture he describes how Augustine of Hippo (354-430) wrote to Jerome (346-420) in 403 and encouraged him to learn Hebrew and to make a new translation of the Bible into Latin. There was a general concern among the bishops of the time at the multiplicity of other versions circulating. Jerome's translation, of course, became known as the Vulgate. Bruce tells how "a riot broke out in one North-African church when the bishop, reading Jonah 4:6, called the plant which shaded Jonah from the sun an "ivy" (Latin: hedera), in accordance with Jerome's new translation, and not a "gourd" (cucurbita), the term to which they were accustomed. The bishop was forced to change the rendering so as not to lose his congregation."

(Source: F.F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Grand Rapids: IVP Academic, 1998), 94)