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Clement of Rome wrote to the church in Corinth around AD 90.  This is perhaps the same Clement, companion of Paul, mentioned in Philippians 4:3.  Many hold him to be the first bishop / pope in Rome, aka St. Clement I.   Clement quotes from the letter to the Hebrews.  Origin suggested that Clement was in fact the writer (as transcriber or amanuensis) of Hebrews.  Perhaps this letter began as a "word of exhortation" given by Paul at the synagogue (Heb 13:22; cf Acts 13:15) which then became a circular letter for the churches.  Other possible authors of Hebrews include Luke, Barnabas, or Apollos.  The theology is Pauline, but the transcriber is obviously second-generation (Heb. 2:3-4). At any rate, this early church leader in Rome, is already quoting Hebrews in his letter in AD 90:    CHAPTER 36  ALL BLESSINGS ARE GIVEN TO US THROUGH CHRIST This is the way, beloved, in which we find our Savior, even Jesus Christ,  the High Prie...

In giving verbal revelation about himself, to whom can God appeal for authentication?  Reason, evidence, church councils?  He uses these as confirming witnesses, but not as the grounds for the authority of his Word, nor as the basis of our acceptance of his Word.   "For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself , saying, 'Surely I will bless you and multiply you.'  And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.  For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.  So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath , so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us."  ( Hebrews 6:13-1...

The structure of the history of redemption forms a narrative chiasm.  This chiasm is further evidence of the completion of the Biblical canon.  Taken from Michael Kruger's Canon Revisited : The seven days of creation are the archetypal foundation for all of Scripture, governing mankind’s own seven-day workweek, and demonstrating the sense of completeness and wholeness to God’s creative activity. The number seven is also foundational to the book of Revelation. Not only is the book itself divided into seven sections, but there are seven churches, seven angels, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls, seven plagues, and so on.  Thus, in effect, the first and last books of the canon form an inclusio of sevens, functioning as appropriate bookends to the overall sevenfold canonical structure—with Revelation as an appropriate “sabbath.”  The connections between Genesis and Revelation, and thus the existence of this macro inclusio , could be developed even furthe...

"The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV) In my opinion Canon Revisited by Michael Kruger is a landmark work on the New Testament canon.  It's not a book-by-book analysis, but a treatise on canonical method.  Kruger masterfully defines and defends the self-authenticating model, in contrast with the community-determined and the historically-determined models. Here's a highlight, from "The Divine Qualities of the Canon", on why we should be careful not to link the NT canon to current critical assessments of the New Testament... It is here, then, that we come to the crux of the matter. Should Christians abandon their commitment to the canon’s authority because biblical critics, who view scriptural interpretation as merely a human enterprise, claim to have discovered theological incongruities? No...