Canonical equivocations

Catholic and Protestant apologists often reach an impasse on debates over the canon due to equivocations. Does the church precede the canon or the canon precede the church? Did the church give us the canon? 

As a result, they are talking in circles or talking past each other. To break the stalement and clarify the issues, some distinctions and definitions are in order.

Scripture

Although the Bible is scripture, scripture is not synonymous with the Bible inasmuch as scripture may just be a part of the Bible. Isaiah is scripture, but it's not the Bible. 

The Bible

The total collection of scriptures.

A Bible

The OT is a Bible, but not the Bible. The Bible is the OT and NT. 

The canon

i. This can refer to the OT canon, the NT canon, or the entire canon.

ii) Depending on the stage of sacred history, the canon may be open or closed, complete or incomplete.

iii) On one definition, the canon is complete or closed in fact when all the scriptures are written. Put another way, at that juncture the Bible actually exists in toto. That's an intrinsic definition. 

iv) That's different from the reception or distribution of Scripture, which may be uneven. 

v) Scripture entails canon because scripture implies a contrast between scripture and nonscripture. So the concept of ccripture implicitly contains a canonical principle or goal: boundaries in principle and/or practice. Depending on the stage of sacred history, the canon may not have reached its limit. During the period of public revelation, there's an open canon. That true both in OT times and NT times. 

vi) Catholic apologists deny that 1C Christians had "The Bible". They say the Church gave us "The Bible". They say sola scriptura is inconsistent with an open or incomplete canon. They say most early Christians lacked access to "the Bible"–because NT books weren't all written or distribution was uneven.

But these are equivocations. Sola scriptura can operate with a smaller canon because the governing principle remains scripture. The church can be governed by a core canon–an incomplete canon because the point of contrast isn't between some scripture and all scripture but between scripture and non-scripture. Put another way, between revelation and nonrevelation. Divine revelation is the final standard, no matter how much or little is available. Nothing else can be higher or equal to divine revelation in Christian theology and ethics.