IS THE "NEW TESTAMENT" SCRIPTURE?



By MattithYah Coover
www.RealMessiah.Name

© 2007 by Real Messiah Press.
All Rights Reserved.



    Christianity, generally speaking, is of the opinion that there are five classifications (or punctuations) of Scripture: 1) the Law, 2) the Prophets, 3) the Psalms, 4) the Gospels, and 5) the writings of the Apostles. Furthermore, they believe that if a particular piece of religious literature does not fall into one of these five predefined categories, then it is NOT to be considered either inspired or authoritative.

    The Hebraic understanding, in contrast, is that Scripture is one continuous flow of inspiration, starting with Moses and continuing right up to the present day. Thus we have 1) Moses; 2) Joshua; 3) the Judges; 4) the Prophets; 5) the Maccabees; 6) Yahshua; 7) the Apostles, and then 'Someone Else,' in each and every generation. As such, the Tanakh and "inter-testament writings" are loosely grouped into three categories as follows:

  1. First level inspiration--Torah (Direct instructions as transmitted by Yahweh through Moses),
  2. Second level inspiration--the Nebi'im or Prophets -- (revelation through the Set-Apart Spirit)
  3. Third level inspiration (the Kethubim--Historical and insightful writings)

    These three levels (or qualifications for a document to be considered "inspired") are reaffirmed then by the apostle, Paul (or Shaul), in:

2 Timothy 3:16. All Scripture (literally, "writings"1) inspired of Elohim are profitable for instruction (Torah), for reproof and setting straight (prophecy), and for instruction in righteousness (insightful writings).

Likewise, the "New Testament" (although Scripturally speaking, there is no division) contains:

  1. First level inspiration (Torah) in the Words of Yahshua
  2. Second level inspiration from the Spirit (such as prophecy in the book of Revelation, and instructions for certain situations in the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of Paul).
  3. Third level inspiration (words and opinions of men, as Paul makes clear differentiation in 1 Corinthians 7:1-17).

    Although it is true that the Apostolic writers nowhere self-profess their own writings to be "Scripture", at the same time, neither did the writers of the Tanakh. Also true is that the apostles repeatedly refer to the Tanakh as "the Scriptures", but likewise the Tanakh refers to "the Scripture" (singularly) as the Torah (see Daniel 10:21), as do the inter-testament Scriptures or Apocrypha (see Sirach 24:23).

    Is it possible for all three levels of inspiration to be equally declared on the same level as the Torah and direct words of Yahshua? Hardly, but at the same time, neither can the lesser levels be excluded from the volume of Scripture or said to be "non-inspired writings".

Isaiah 8:20a. According to the Torah (of Moses) and the Testimony (of Yahshua): if they speak not according to this wise....

2 Peter 3:15b. As also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you, according to the wisdom given him, [16] as in all his letters, speaking concerning these matters, in which some things are hard to understand, which those who are untaught and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do also THE OTHER SCRIPTURES. [17] You then, beloved ones, being forewarned, watch lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being let away with the delusion of the lawless (Torahless or Scriptureless).

Ezekiel 13:9. My hand shall be against the prophets who see falsehood and who divine lies. They shall not be in the council of My people, nor be written among the Scriptures2 of the house of Israel, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Master Yahweh.

    For a writing to be included in the canon of Scripture it MUST BE ERROR-FREE, and the ultimate test of authenticity is if it withstands the test of time. The is the reason that the Talmud and Kabbalah, for example, although they are historical spiritual documents, CANNOT be considered "Scripture", whereas the Tanakh and Apostolic, as well as certain Inter-testament or "Apocryphal" writings, insofar as they fulfill the requirements of Isaiah 8:20 and 2 Timothy 3:16 can.


1.  GRAPHE (Strongs, Greek #1125); a written document or edict

2.  KATHAB; (Strongs, Hebrew #3791); a written document or edict (compare Daniel 10:21)