When the gospels were written in the mid- and late-First Century, Christians didn’t instantly consider them “Scripture.” That took a while. But long before the Biblical canon was fixed in the Fourth Century, a consensus started to develop. Gospels were copied and circulated, and eventually read/used in worship in much the same way that Jews used the OT– ultimately being deemed by Christians as on a par with the OT, i.e., “Scripture” (or graphē, to use the Greek term).
The Didache, part of which is a manual for Christian worship, quotes expressions and principles found in Matthew, but doesn’t name the source and doesn’t directly call them graphē. The same is true of the Epistle of Barnabas.
1 Tim. 5:18 tells us “For the scripture (graphē) says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves to be paid.’” Because “the laborer deserves to be paid” also appears in Luke 10:7, some say Paul was calling Luke’s gospel graphē. But that can’t be right.
The earliest clear instance I can find of anything in one of the four canonical gospels being called “scripture” is in the mid-Second century sermon Second Clement. 2 Clement 2:4 characterizes Jesus’s words in Matt. 9:13 (“I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners”) as “graphē”. Does anybody know of any earlier reference?
The Didache, part of which is a manual for Christian worship, quotes expressions and principles found in Matthew, but doesn’t name the source and doesn’t directly call them graphē. The same is true of the Epistle of Barnabas.
1 Tim. 5:18 tells us “For the scripture (graphē) says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves to be paid.’” Because “the laborer deserves to be paid” also appears in Luke 10:7, some say Paul was calling Luke’s gospel graphē. But that can’t be right.
The earliest clear instance I can find of anything in one of the four canonical gospels being called “scripture” is in the mid-Second century sermon Second Clement. 2 Clement 2:4 characterizes Jesus’s words in Matt. 9:13 (“I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners”) as “graphē”. Does anybody know of any earlier reference?