Peace Webmaster and OneGod.
I hope you don't mind my adding to your discussion.
You both might find it helpful to hear this in relation to the way 2 Timothy 3:16 is written.
In the Greek, the word used for inspired is an adjective "theopnesustos) which means God inspired or God breathed, and it is written in a predicate form rather than an attributive form.
In Greek grammar, the verb that preceeds theopnestustos is "kai" and the a second adjective "aphelimos" (an adjective that is a difinite predicate adjective) follows it. This is the reason for the translation as seen inall English Translations, except the Revised version and American Standard Version of "All Scripture IS inspired" .
In 1 Timothy, Paul is helping the young Church leader learn the principles of church leadership. 2 Timothy is very much a testimony of Timothy's own faith as seen by Paul. In chapter 1 Paul talks of the faith he has received from his mother and grandmother. In Chapter 2 Paul encourages him to be a workman approved by God, even whilst he is a young man. In Chapter 3 Paul is telling Timothy that in the last days, there will come those who are clearly seen with a number of traits.. and most serious of those "having a form of godliness, but denying it's power."
In Chapter 3:10-16 the discussion follows as to how Timothy can not be tainted by the same accusations as those in verses 3-9. These are the ones who are false teachers and who worm their way into homes gaining control and leading people away from worship of God.
Paul then encourages Timothy to 1. See himself as the example, 2. Continue in the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures he (Timothy) has known since infancy.
so, in this context, Paul cannot be meaning anything else other than the Old Testament books... that is the Hebrew Canon. However, between verse 15 (which speaks of the Canon as Timothy knows it) and verse 16 the grammer used relates not only to the existing Scriptures, but to ALL Scripture.
Now, as Paul was writing his epistles, please don't for one minute think he necessarily thought of His writing as Canon. That the early Church thought of it as inspired writing, is found in 2 Peter 3:16 where Peter writes "Bear in mind, that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom the Lord gave Him. He writes in the same way in all his letters, speaking of these matters. His letters contains some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, AS THEY DO THE OTHER SCRIPTURES to their own destruction. "
So Paul often said in his writings that "this was his opinion" but the church certainly recognized him as an apostle. And, yes, there were many other letters in circulation during the second half of the first century, some even written by Paul, but they didn't make it to Canon. (the one you mentioned in 1 Cor 5:9 is one example).
You see, unlike the Qur'an, the Bible was not written down by one man, but by many men who the NT states were "carried along by the Holy Spirit as they wrote". God did not/ neither could He have given the entire bible, which spans thousands of years of history through one person. Neither, were the writers "specially holy men", but just ordinary men who God changed and prepared to be His servants. They are often eye witness accounts of the majesty of God; they are often written by men who are undergoing specific stressful situations to reveal Who God is as He reveals Himself to them through that situation (eg many of the true prophets like Jeremiah who was thrown down a cistern, and Hosea who was told by God to go marry an adulterous woman)
In the NT, many books were looked at to establish their place in Canon (just like many of the verses of the Qur'an were looked at when they were collected together by the Caliphs. Many were discarded because they were clearly not authentic). Just because one wrote a letter that was included, did not mean that everything he wrote was canon or holy scripture. Paul very clearly said in Acts 17:10 that the Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians for they recieved the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures (the Old Testament) every day to see if what Paul said was true."
I still have to do some thinking about this subject, but maybe this will add to the discussion?
Talk to you later
Carol