When Was The Canon Established?

[pelathais]

Originally Posted by *AQuietPlace*

The Scriptures that Timothy would have studied... was it the Old Testament as we know it? The Torah? Something different altogether?

The Torah includes just the first 5 books of the OT. This would have been the "canon" of the Sadducees. What the early Christians studied included all of the books of our OT plus some other writings such as the apocryphal Book of Enoch.

Originally Posted by *AQuietPlace*

So it wasn't until the New Testament canon was established that Paul's writings were considered 'scripture'?

No. What I was saying was that Paul himself wasn't appealing to his own writings nor even the writings of any of the other NT writers in 1 Timothy 3:16. He was only referring to the "Scriptures" Timothy had known from a child.

This doesn't discount the inspiration of the NT itself. It's just what Paul was talking to Timothy about - the Scriptures Timothy had known from his childhood.

Peter would later refer to Paul's writings as "Scripture."