Is it possible that more books could be added to the Bible?

Two New Testament writers were especially used for this. To Paul it was given to fulfil (or, complete) the word of God, by the revelation of the mystery, the last great line of truth revealed in the Word (Col. 1:25-26). And to John's prophetic ministry in the Revelation nothing was to be added (Rev. 22:18). All the great lines of truth had been revealed, when the special revelation given to Paul was made known (Eph. 3:3); and things to come were all set forth, for Christian times at least, when the son of Zebedee put on record the revelations vouchsafed to him in Patmos. We look, then, for no more. Professed additions to revealed truth are not the fruit of the Holy Spirit's teaching now. Additions to the Christian faith, not found in the Word, are not of Divine origin.

These words involve two grand facts with regard to the word of God. It is not to be added to, for the simplest of all reasons, because there is nothing lacking. It is not to be diminished, because there is nothing superfluous. Everything we want is there; and nothing that is there can be done without. "Add thou not to his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." To suppose that ought can be added to God's word is, upon the very face of it, to deny that it is God's word; and, on the other hand, if we admit that it is the word of God, then it follows of necessity — blessed necessity, that we could not afford to do without a single sentence of it. There would be a blank in the volume which no human hand could fill up, if a single clause were dropped from its place in the canon. We have all we want; and hence, we must not add. We want it all; and, must not diminish.

How deeply important is all this, in this day of human tampering with the word of God! How blessed to know that we have in our possession a book so divinely perfect that not a sentence, not a clause, not a word can be added to it. We speak not, of course, of translations or versions, but of the scriptures as originally given of God — His own perfect revelation. To this not a touch can be given. As well might a human finger have dared to touch the creation of God, on the morning when all the sons of God sang together, as to add a jot or a tittle to the inspired word of God. And, on the other hand, to take away a jot or a tittle from it, is to say that the Holy Ghost has penned what was unnecessary. Thus the holy volume is divinely guarded at both ends. It is securely fenced round about so that no rude hand should touch its sacred contents.

Is there any one of the books we could spare without leaving a deep chasm? Not one. Is there anything we need to be added? Nothing. There is no place to put it. Its symmetry is perfect. It cannot be added to; it must not be tken from. It is of God. Let us receive it with thankful confidence, and bow to its authority.

Take one book, then, away from either the Old Testament or the New, the significance is gone, the voice has died out; it is not any more as now a living voice that appeals to us. Add another book to either, the same result is found. Does not this, then, as plainly as simply declare to us that we have the full inspired canon (as to the number of books at least,) just as God designed it for us?

Before this blessed little book is concluded, we find a remarkable parenthesis. The awful sins of adding to and taking from God's Word are plainly insisted upon. These we know are not uncommon errors. The Lord especially refers to the book of Revelation, but the Old Testament sounds a somewhat similar warning. "Every word of God is pure. … Add thou not to His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar" (Prov. 30:5-6.) "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it." "What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it." (Deut. 4:2, 12:32.) The Lord has been always jealous for the maintenance of His own truth. Saul lost the kingdom because he obeyed not the word of the Lord. (1 Sam. 15:28.) We know, too, what judgments came upon Jehoiakim king of Judah for cutting and burning the word of the Lord written on the roll of the prophet Jeremiah. (Jer. 36:29-30.) The canon of Scripture is complete. To add to it must be deeply offensive to God. It must be the fruit of a proud and unbelieving heart. The warning is addressed to every man that even heareth the prophecy of this book; and in executing the sentence, God will be no respecter of persons. "If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book." (Ver. 18.)

The Lord, then, confronts the Pharisees with, "God commanded, saying, honour thy father and mother; and he that curseth father or mother, let him die the death." Honour to parents was valued by God; and disrespect was deadly in His sight — "But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, and honour not his father or his mother …" The Jews had brought in a cheat (to quiet their consciences) by which they might free themselves from the obligation to meet filial duties. They had only to pronounce the word, "It is a gift" (Corban), and a parent might be forgotten! Doubtless, it was one of their authorized traditions, and for the priest's profit, but in God's sight a direct breach of His command. "Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition." And this is what tradition usually does, whether in Romanism or elsewhere. To add to Scripture is ruinous: it does not matter by whom it may be done, or for whatever holy motives men may allege; God is jealous about it, and will not have His word enlarged or amended. Revelation is complete, and our simple business is to be obedient to the word of God.

The one-sidedness of man always leads him to set grace and judgment in antagonism, whereas the many-sidedness of God's word gives to each its proper place. After the tender words of invitation just uttered, it is solemnly instructive to see the rampart with which God shelters this book of sevenfold judgments from any intrusion of man's reasoning and unbelief. "For I testify unto every man that hears the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book [or from the tree] of life, and out of the holy city [and from the things], which are written in this book." (vv. 18, 19.)

What is meant by adding to and taking from this book? It does not mean only the open infidelity which refuses it as God's word. No doubt it would include this, but it includes much more. The professing Church has practically set aside this book, not through mere misunderstanding, which is not here referred to, but because its character and hopes took a worldly instead of a heavenly type. It refused to believe itself under judgment, and thus took from this portion of God's word. It assumed its own universal dominion and triumph over evil, and its own continuance to the end of time, and thus added to this portion of God's word. No doubt many of God's children, who reverence His word, have been misled by this false traditional belief, and have in all simplicity and honesty adopted a system of interpretation founded upon it. We need not say that the judgments here denounced against those who tamper with God's word have no application to such. But to Christendom as a whole the guilt is chargeable, and on Christendom as a whole the penalty will fall. Babylon, which, instead of repenting and clothing herself in sackcloth, like Nineveh of old, has "said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow," will have added unto her "the plagues that are written in this book."

Here we come to a passage which is most contested, of course, and which we are told we have to read as, "Every scripture inspired of God," as if it distinguished such from other scriptures side by:side with them, and therefore we had to distinguish in like manner. At once the human mind is set in supremacy over the Scripture, and we become judges of it instead of its judging us. But the apostle has been already pointing out the sacred Scriptures of which he is speaking when he says "All Scripture." Nothing is Scripture in the sense he uses the word except that which is in the sacred Scriptures, and nothing that is in them is without that inspiration of God which makes it "profitable for doctrine, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." The apostle Peter afterwards speaks of Paul having written to the Hebrews "according to the wisdom given to him," and puts the epistle that he had written among "the other Scriptures" — plainly as having the same character which is claimed for "all Scripture" here. The word, of course, may mean merely "writing," but "The Writings," for us, are those distinguished from all other writings. It is impossible to confound them, for a soul that has the secret of God, though Rome has added, as we know, certain apocryphal books — yet who, with his eyes open, could accept one of them as upon an equal footing with those that have always been counted as Scripture? Who could add one book to the number of those that we possess? or who could mend one of them so as to justify his emendation to the Christian conscience?

But a word more on this. It is not denied that the scriptures are the word of God. The Council of Trent has added seven books to the canon, never publicly received into it before, and against the express testimony of Jerome, the author of the Vulgate translation, which they receive as authentic. But leaving these contested ones for the moment (for in the New Testament there are none such), they own that the scriptures are the word of God. They own that Peter wrote his epistles as an inspired apostle; Paul his, John his, and so of the other books of the New Testament (and the same holds good as to all the Old Testament, to the Jews). Now, save the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, all the books of the New Testament are addressed to all the faithful; in one epistle, that to the Philippians, the bishops and deacons being added. That is, to express myself in modern language, the New Testament was addressed not to the clergy but by the clergy, the highest and wisest of them assuredly, to all the faithful in general, or in particular places. Now, if the faithful in general were incompetent to use them, how came the apostle to write them to them? The apostles thought what they wrote was suited to the mass of the faithful; you think it is not; which is right? And mark what a monstrous position you put yourselves in — the apostles wrote (to say nothing of the guidance of the Holy Ghost yet) in the way they thought best suited to the mass of the faithful, writing to all of them; and even in one case particularly insisting that care should be taken that it was read to all. You think you can do it better than they. What monstrous presumption! Did they do it badly, in a wrong manner, so that you can do it better? If really looked into, it is blasphemy; for it is the Spirit of God who addressed all this, save the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, to all the common mass of the faithful.

The importance of these revelations could not have been more jealously protected. In Rev. 1 it is said, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy"; and now in conclusion the Lord Himself testifies to every one that heareth the book read, that the most fearful judgments shall fall upon the man that shall add, and so corrupt by adding, to what has been communicated; and, in like manner, if any man shall take away from it, he shall suffer the penalty of exclusion both from the tree of life and from the holy city. (Compare Deut. 4:2, Deut. 12:32.) The word of God is perfect, and to attempt to amend it, whether by addition or diminution, is not only to betray the folly of the human mind, but also to expose the one who attempts to do so to the just judgment of God. Rationalism in its many forms, is thus at once, and for ever, condemned. And, while fully admitting that these warning words apply to the book of Revelation, it is yet not a little significant that they occur at the close of the canon of inspiration. As God placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life, so He who is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, sets His flaming two-edged sword, which also turns every way, to guard against any assault upon the perfection of His sure and holy word.