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There is no doubt that not a single NT author thought of writing a work that would eventually be included in the canon. Paul couldn't even begin to think of such a thing, since he did not reckon with the church's continuing beyond his own generation. And in the second and third generations of NT authors, their only concern was so to rewrite the old proclamations that they could reach human beings in the new situation.

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There was nothing arbitrary about this supposition, for what was expressed by this decision was that the church still wanted to hold fast to its beginning – -- and that means to Jesus. Even if the proclamation was later to go further; and even if it was thereby to assume different forms, the one thing to be avoided was that the tradition that emerged would depart from its beginning. If we say to someone under our pastoral care today, "What Jesus requires of you is this or that," what we say may well sound different from what would have been said a generation ago. But under no circumstances may such counsel simply set forth our own ideas as Jesus' requirement, but we must have assurance that the later counsel has support in what God said to human beings in and through Jesus. In order, then, not to be at the mercy of every possible tradition, it became necessary in time to collect the apostolic tradition, since it had the greatest proximity to Jesus.

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