How do we know the books of the Bible we have are the right ones? Maybe you’ve heard this question or even asked it yourself. After all, there are the “Lost Books of the Bible” or similar volumes published? There have even been TV shows dedicated to the books which were not included in the Bible, the New Testament in particular. I’ll focus on those of the New Testament for this post.
Some of these “lost” books are completely bogus. Remember many if not all of the heresies we see today began back in the first three centuries of the Christian Church. During that time a lot of books were written by false teachers to support those heresies.
There are others which have claimed to be part of the Bible throughout history. So, you might ask, “How did we end up with the books we have today?” Here’s how:
The early church used some wise tests and quality control to examine the books up for inclusion into the canon (set of inspired books) of Scripture:
- Did they have apostolic authority (were they written and/or supervised by apostles?)? Two of the gospels were written by apostles: Matthew and John. Two were written by traveling companions of apostles: Mark, who traveled with Peter, and Luke who was Paul’s traveling companion.
Peter and John gave apostolic authority to their epistles. Lastly, we have James and Jude who were half-brothers of Jesus Himself. Acts was written by Luke, and Revelation was written by John. So, we have apostolic authority throughout the New Testament.
This test in particular eliminated some of the very earliest writings that were being considered. The Shepherd of Hermas, for instance was considered for inclusion in the Bible but had no apostolic authority.
- Was the book in question accepted by the first and second century church as God’s Word. There may have been writings by the apostles which were not Scripture. For instance, some scholars believe there was a third epistle by Paul to the Corinthian church which is not included in the Bible because it was not accepted as Scripture by the church even though it had apostolic authority.
- Any book being considered needed to relate exactly the teachings of Jesus and the apostles. The books in today’s Bibles were used by the early church for teaching.
There are partial lists of acceptable books supplied by a number of writers beginning in the second century with Irenaeus. In his Easter letter of 367, though, Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria, included a complete list of the very books we have in our New Testament today.
You might ask why it took so long to decide which books to include. The church saw the task as more of a discovery than a decision, and a very few books were yet to be agreed upon. James and Revelation were two of the last to be included in the official Church Canon.
Don’t get the idea that the very early church was not united behind the vast majority of the books we have today. The gospels, Acts, Paul’s epistles, and others were accepted at the time of their writing or shortly after. Peter points to Paul’s epistles as Scripture in his second epistle (2 Peter 3:15-16). Paul was still alive at the time.
Could there be more books coming? Probably not. The book of Jude says the faith has been delivered once and for all to the saints (Jude 3). Revelation tells us not to add or subtract from “this book” which many believe to be referring to the canon itself. Because of this, we believe the canon of Scripture is closed.
Rest assured, the Bible you hold in your hand today has been stringently examined and tested to make sure all the books are divinely inspired and all the divinely inspired books are in the Bible.
As usual, an expanded version of this blog with the Scriptures cited can be found in the menu under Apologetics.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 