So Who Decided?

How did people decide which books were from God?

on January 25, 2025

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16

God inspired the Bible but worked through human authors and copyists who wrote the original copies of Scripture and copied, translated, and preserved them throughout history. Sometimes, it can be challenging to unravel the political, sociological, and geographic considerations to see God’s guiding hand superimposed over the process.

For instance, there are 27 books in the New Testament. But there are references in Paul’s letters to other letters we don’t have in our New Testament today. There are also books like The Shepherd of Hermas that were very influential in the early church but ultimately were not considered Scripture. How did people decide that these 27 books, and only these 27, were God’s Word?

Immediately, at least some books were received as Scripture by their initial audiences. The Apostle Peter wrote, “There are some things in them [Paul’s letters] that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16). This is an important indication that the Apostle Peter considered the Apostle Paul’s letters to be Scripture on the same level as the Old Testament Scriptures. Paul’s letters were circulating together as a set by the end of the first century AD. Justin Martyr writing early in the second century AD spoke of the Gospels as being equal in authority to the Old Testament Scriptures. Early canon lists sought to separate Scripture from edifying non-biblical books and even heretical gnostic forgeries.

It is important to realize that even the best-educated people of that day were dealing with the limitations of not always having access to all 27 books. There were debates over the canon because the church was still very young and had only recently come out from the Roman persecution. Everyone involved in these debates was concerned that every book admitted have the following characteristics: 1) It was authored by an apostle or someone who knew the apostles, 2) it could not have any error or contradict any other Scripture, and 3) it had to be recognized by all Christians unanimously.

While God used people, ultimately, God himself decided what would be in the Bible.

The fact that at the end of this messy process, we have 27 documents that were written by the end of the first century completely preserved in their original language, with broad agreement across the entire church that was otherwise dealing with persecution, politics, and other conflicts, is almost a miracle in and of itself and shows that God has been faithful in preserving his Word.

While God used people, ultimately, God himself decided what would be in the Bible.

Adapted from Answers with Ken Ham radio program.

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