It’s a question that can be difficult to answer because the answer is so very contrary to popular imagination: where did the Bible come from? How did Christians determine these 66 books are inspired Scripture and the books not included in the Bible are not inspired Scripture? In his book “The DaVinci Code” Dan Brown cited a popular trope that has been disproved time and again but he made it even more popular: the emperor Constantine called the Council of Nicea and the council decided which books to include in the Bible. The only part of this that is true is the emperor did, in fact, call the council. Okay, they also met—but that’s the only part that is accurate. The council did not meet to discuss the “canon” of Scripture. The canon, or list of books recognized as holy, inspired Scripture, already existed when the Council of Nicea met in the year 325. There was no decision made by the council concerning the canon of Scripture.
How, then, did we come to have these particular 66 books? In this article I’m going to focus on the New Testament, but it applies to all 66 books. In short, the books included in the Bible were each received as holy Scripture by the original recipients! The process of “canonization”, or determining which books were inspired Scripture, was the process of other Christians accepting those books as Scripture. For example, when Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians, the church in Ephesus received his letter as inspired Scripture. It would have taken time for the church in, say, Rome to recognize the church in Ephesus had received it as Scripture.
The apostle Peter wrote something extraordinary in his second letter.
And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
2 Peter 3:15-16 ESV
Here Peter recognizes two things: first, Paul wrote multiple letters, and second, these letters were received as holy Scripture! During Peter’s lifetime, and therefore during Paul’s own lifetime, Paul’s letters were received along with “the other Scriptures”. At the beginning of this third chapter Peter refers to his own letters.
This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles…
2 Peter 3:1-2 ESV
Notice here he places his own writings, along with those of other apostles, on the level of the holy prophets’ writings. In other words, Peter understands his own letters to be authoritative Scripture. We see from this that the earliest Christians understood the concept of a canon of Scripture. There are writings that come from God through his apostles and prophets and these writings are inspired and authoritative.
In his letter to Timothy Paul cites Scripture:
For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”
1 Timothy 5:18 ESV
Here Paul quotes Deuteronomy 25:4. The law of Moses commanded that an ox must not be muzzled. The law of Moses doesn’t say, “The laborer deserves his wages.” This isn’t found in any of the prophets. It’s not in the Psalms or in Samuel or Kings or Chronicles. It’s not even in Proverbs. Paul directly says he’s quoting Scripture, though. Where is this quote found? This is from Luke 10:7! Paul cites the Gospel of Luke as Scripture.
In the second century the idea of a list of books that are Scripture was widely understood. Irenaeus indicated there were four Gospels. In his First Apology, Justin Martyr wrote this about how Christians worshiped:
And on the day called Sunday all who live in cities or in the country gather together in one place, and the memoirs of the Apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits.
Justin Martyr, First Apology 67
Reading from a fixed list of books was understood to be part of Christian worship. In the year 1740 a fragment of a document was found and published. It is called the Muratorian Fragment. It is dated to the second century. This fragment lists 22 of the 27 books of the New Testament as holy Scripture. It is quite interesting that the fragment was found in Italy. It acknowledges four Gospels and names Luke and John. Given the overwhelming evidence from other writers, it is clear the missing names (it is a fragment, after all!) are Matthew and Mark. It includes the book of Acts, thirteen letters written by Paul, Jude, and at least two of John’s letters, and Revelation. It does not mention 1-2 Peter and James, but this is understandable. The fragment was found in the West and these letters were written to churches in the East; the author may not yet have encountered these writings. Remember, each book of the Bible was received as Scripture by its original recipients; it took some time for others to recognize its status. By the fourth century the 66 books we recognize as Scripture were recognized by the whole church.
The fragment specifically denies some documents such as the Epistle to the Laodiceans and to the Alexandrians. These were recognized as forgeries and therefore could not be Scripture. The fragment acknowledged the Shepherd of Hermas as a useful document to read but it was not an inspired work of Scripture.
The New Testament comprises the earliest Christian writings. The First Epistle of Clement was probably written in the year 96 and Revelation was written not long before. The point is significant: the oldest writings we have that were written by Christians are in the New Testament. Being written early is not what determined whether a book was included, but being written late means a book was not Scripture. Even skeptics such as Bart Ehrman acknowledge the non-canonical works that are not included in Scripture were written in the second century or later. What determined a writing’s canonicity was whether it had been originally received as holy Scripture. Only writings written in the first century were received in this manner.
To summarize, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, the author of Hebrews, James, Peter, and Jude all understood they were writing holy Scripture. Their original recipients understood they were receiving holy Scripture. The process of determining whether to include a work in the canon of the Bible was not the process of deciding which books people liked, but determining whether they had, in fact, been received as holy Scripture. There was no council that determined this. The witness of the Holy Spirit in his church across the world affirmed the books of the Old Testament and the books of the New Testament as holy Scripture.
We should recognize the gift that Scripture is. The center of our faith is, of course, Jesus himself. We are Christ-ians, not Bibl-ians. The Bible is not the center of our faith but the Scriptures reveal the one who is the center of our faith. The Bible is the only infallible source of faith and practice. The Bible is not the only source of faith and practice, but is the only infallible source of faith and practice. As Protestants we recognize the importance of church history but we also recognize the superior authority the Scriptures have over history and church councils and such. Council can err; Scripture is without error in all that it affirms or denies.
God has given us an incredible gift. In the pages of Scripture we discover what God is like, for the Scriptures reveal him. Ultimately the Scriptures reveal what God is like because the Scriptures are the written record of the revelation of Christ. Beginning with creation and the Son of God offering sacrifices to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve, continuing with God’s promise to bless all nations on earth through Abraham’s seed, the birth and life and death and resurrection of the Seed promised to Abraham, the growth and expansion of the church all across the world, and culminating with his return to remake the world and free it from sin and death, the Scriptures God has given us reveal Jesus to us.