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The Bible is a
collection of 66 books believed to have been written by more than 40
divinely-inspired authors.
It’s thousands of
years old, and Christians still place their trust in it today.
So, where did the
Bible come from? How did we end up with these 66 books?
In his online systematic theology course, Dr. Wayne
Grudem explores the origins of the biblical canon to answer questions like
these. The following post is adapted from his course.
The formation of the Bible began with the 10 Commandments
The earliest
collection of written words from God was the Ten Commandments. The Ten
Commandments form the beginning of the biblical canon.
God himself wrote
on two tablets of stone the words which he commanded his people:
“And he gave to Moses, when he had made an end of speaking with
him upon Mount Sinai, the two tables of the testimony, tables of stone, written
with the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18).
Again, we read, “And the tables were the work of God,
and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables” (Exodus 32:16, see
also Deuteronomy 4:13 and 10:4).
The tablets were
deposited in the ark of the covenant (Deuteronomy 10:5) and constituted
the terms of the covenant between God and his people.
Moses wrote the Law
This collection of
absolutely authoritative words from God grew in size throughout the time of
Israel’s history.
Moses himself wrote
additional words to be deposited beside the ark of the covenant (Deuteronomy
31:24–26):
After Moses finished writing in a book the words of this law
from beginning to end, he gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark
of the covenant of the Lord: “Take this Book of the Law and place it beside
the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. There it will remain as a witness
against you.”
The immediate
reference is apparently to the book of Deuteronomy, but other references to
writing by Moses indicate that the first four books of the Old Testament were
written by him as well (see Exodus 17:14, 24:4, 34:27, Numbers 33:2, Deuteronomy
31:22).
Joshua adds to the Word
After the death of
Moses, Joshua also added to the collection of written words of God: “Joshua
wrote these words in the book of the law of God” (Joshua 24:26).
This is especially surprising in light of the command not to add
to or take away from the words which God gave the people through Moses: “You
shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it . . .” (Deuteronomy 4:2,
see also 12:32).
Prophets add to the canon
Later, others in
Israel, usually those who fulfilled the office of prophet, wrote additional
words from God:
Samuel
“Samuel told the people the rights and duties of the
kingship; and he wrote them in a book and laid it up before the Lord” (1 Samuel 10:25).
“The acts of King David, from first to last, are written in
the Chronicles of Samuel the seer, and in the Chronicles of Nathan the prophet,
and in the Chronicles of Gad the seer” (1 Chronicles 29:29).
Jehu
“Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, from first to last,
are written in the chronicles of Jehu the son of Hanani, which are recorded in
the Book of the Kings of Israel” (2 Chronicles 20:34, see also 1 Kings
16:7 where Jehu the son of Hanani is called a prophet).
Isaiah
“Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, from first to last,
Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz wrote” (2 Chronicles 26:22).
“Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his good deeds,
behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz,
in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel” (2 Chronicles
32:32).
Jeremiah
“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Write in a book all
the words that I have spoken to you” (Jeremiah 30:2).
The Old Testament was finished in 435 B.C.
If we date Haggai
to 520 B.C., Zechariah to 520–518 B.C. (with perhaps more material added after
480 B.C.), and Malachi around 435 B.C., we have an idea of the approximate
dates of the last Old Testament prophets.
Roughly coinciding
with this period are the last books of Old Testament history — Ezra, Nehemiah,
and Esther.
Ezra went to
Jerusalem in 458 B.C., and Nehemiah was in Jerusalem from 445–433 B.C.
Esther was written
sometime after the death of Xerxes-I (Ahasuerus) in 465 B.C., probably during
the reign of Artaxerxes I (464–423 B.C.).
After approximately
435 B.C. there were no additions to the Old Testament canon.
The subsequent
history of the Jewish people was recorded in other writings, such as the books
of the Maccabees, but these writings were not thought worthy to be included
with the collections of God’s words from earlier years.
The “400 Years of Silence”
When we turn to
Jewish literature outside the Old Testament, we see that the belief that
divinely authoritative words from God had ceased is clearly attested in several
different strands of extrabiblical Jewish literature.
Learn more
about what happened between the Old and New Testaments.
In 1 Maccabees (about 100 B.C.) the author writes of the defiled
altar, “So they tore down the altar and stored the stones in a convenient
place on the temple hill until there should come a prophet to tell what to do
with them” (1 Maccabees. 4:45–46).
They knew of no one
who could speak with the authority of God as the Old Testament prophets had
done.
The author also spoke of a great distress “such as had not
been since the time that prophets ceased to appear among them” (1 Maccabees 9:27,
see also 14:41).
Josephus (born c. A.D. 37/38) explained, “From Artaxerxes to
our own times a complete history has been written, but has not been deemed
worthy of equal credit with the earlier records, because of the failure of the
exact succession of the prophets” (Against Apion 1.41).
This statement by
the greatest Jewish historian of the first century A.D. shows that he knew of
the writings now considered part of the “Apocrypha,” but that he (and many of
his contemporaries) considered these other writings “not . . . worthy of
equal credit” with what we now know as the Old Testament Scriptures.
In Josephus’s
viewpoint, there were no more “words of God” added to Scripture after
about 435 B.C.
Rabbinic literature
reflects a similar conviction in its repeated statement that the Holy Spirit
(in the Spirit’s function of inspiring prophecy) departed from Israel.
“After the latter prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi had
died, the Holy Spirit departed from Israel, but they still availed themselves
of the bath qôl’” (Babylonian Talmud, Yomah 9b, repeated in Sota 48b,
Sanhedrin 11a, and Midrash Rabbah on Song of Songs, 8.9.3).
The Qumran
community (the Jewish sect that left behind the Dead Sea Scrolls) also awaited
a prophet whose words would have authority to supersede any existing
regulations (see 1 QS 9.11), and other similar statements are found elsewhere in
ancient Jewish literature (see 2 Baruch 85.3 and Prayer of Azariah 15).
Thus, writings
subsequent to about 435 B.C. were not accepted by the Jewish people generally
as having equal authority with the rest of Scripture.
What about the apocryphal books?
The Apocrypha was
never accepted by the Jews as Scripture, but the early church was divided on
whether those books should be part of Scripture or not.
The earliest
Christian evidence is decidedly against viewing the Apocrypha as Scripture, but
the use of the Apocrypha gradually increased in parts of the church until the
time of the Reformation.
The fact that these
books were included by Jerome in his Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible
(completed in A.D. 404) gave support to their inclusion, even though Jerome
himself said they were not “books of the canon” but merely “books of the
church” that were helpful and useful for believers.
The wide use of the
Latin Vulgate in subsequent centuries guaranteed their continued accessibility,
but many people rejected or were suspicious of these books for three reasons:
1. They had no Hebrew
original behind them.
2. Their exclusion
from the Jewish canon.
3. The lack of their
citation in the New Testament.
The New Testament authors didn’t consider them Scripture
In the New
Testament, we have no record of any dispute between Jesus and the Jews over the
extent of the canon.
Apparently, there
was full agreement between Jesus, his disciples, and the Jewish leaders or
Jewish people, on the other hand, that additions to the Old Testament canon had
ceased after the time of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Haggai, Zechariah, and
Malachi.
According to one
count, Jesus and the New Testament authors quote various parts of the Old
Testament Scriptures as divinely authoritative over 295 times (Revelation
and the Bible), but not once do they cite any statement from the
books of the Apocrypha or any other writings as having divine authority.
The absence
of any reference to other literature as divinely
authoritative, and the frequent reference to hundreds of places in the Old
Testament as divinely authoritative, seems to confirm that the New Testament
authors agreed on the established Old Testament canon.
Many early church fathers did not consider them canonical
The earliest
Christian list of Old Testament books that exists today is by Melito, bishop of
Sardis, writing about A.D. 170:
“When I came to the east and reached the place where these
things were preached and done, and learnt accurately the books of the Old
Testament, I set down the facts and sent them to you. These are their names:
five books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Joshua
the son of Nun, Judges, Ruth, four books of Kingdoms, two books of Chronicles,
the Psalms of David, the Proverbs of Solomon and his Wisdom, Ecclesiastes, the
Song of Songs, Job, the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Twelve in a single book,
Daniel, Ezekiel, Ezra.”
Melito names none
of the books of the Apocrypha, but he includes all of our present Old Testament
books except Esther.
Eusebius also
quotes Origen as affirming most of the books of our present Old Testament canon
(including Esther), but no book of the Apocrypha is affirmed as canonical, and
the books of Maccabees are explicitly said to be “outside of these [canonical
books]” (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 6.15.2.)
Similarly, in A.D.
367, when the great church leader Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, wrote his
Paschal Letter, he listed all the books of our present New Testament canon and
all the books of our present Old Testament canon except Esther.
He also mentioned
some books of the Apocrypha such as the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of
Sirach, Judith, and Tobit, and said these are “not indeed included in the
Canon, but appointed by the Fathers to be read by those who newly join us, and
who wish for instruction in the word of godliness” (Letter 39).
Other early church
leaders did call several of these books Scripture.
Can canonical works contain errors?
There are doctrinal
and historical inconsistencies with a number of the Apocryphal books. E. J.
Young notes:
“There are no marks in these books which would attest a divine
origin. . . both Judith and Tobit contain historical, chronological, and
geographical errors. The books justify falsehood and deception and make
salvation to depend upon works of merit. . . Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom of
Solomon inculcate a morality based upon expediency. Wisdom teaches the creation
of the world out of preexistent matter (11:17). Ecclesiasticus
teaches that the giving of alms makes atonement for sin (3:30). In Baruch it is
said that God hears the prayers of the dead (3:4), and in I Maccabees there are
historical and geographical errors” (Revelation and the Bible).
The Roman Catholic Church declared the Apocrypha as canon
In 1546, at the
Council of Trent, the Roman Catholic Church officially declared the Apocrypha
to be part of the canon (with the exception of 1 and 2 Esdras and the Prayer of
Manasseh).
The Council of
Trent was the response of the Roman Catholic Church to the teachings of Martin
Luther and the rapidly spreading Protestant Reformation, and the books of the
Apocrypha contain support for the Catholic teaching of prayers for the dead and
justification by faith plus works, not by faith alone.
How do we decide what counts as Scripture?
By affirming the
Apocrypha as canonical, Roman Catholics would hold that the church has the
authority to constitute a literary work as “Scripture.”
A police
investigator can recognize counterfeit money as counterfeit and can recognize
genuine money as genuine, but he cannot make counterfeit money to be genuine,
nor can any declaration by any number of police make counterfeit money to be
something it is not.
Only the official
treasury of a nation can make money that is real money; similarly, only God can
make words to be his very words and worthy of inclusion in Scripture.
The Apocrypha shouldn’t be considered Scripture
We must conclude
that they are merely human words, not God-breathed words like the words of
Scripture:
1. They do not claim
for themselves the same kind of authority as the Old Testament writings.
2. They were not
regarded as God’s words by the Jewish people from whom they originated.
3. They were not
considered to be Scripture by Jesus or the New Testament authors.
4. They contain
teachings inconsistent with the rest of the Bible.
The Apocryphal
books have value for historical and linguistic research, and they contain a
number of helpful stories about the courage and faith of many Jews during the
period after the Old Testament ends, but they have never been part of the Old
Testament canon, and they should not be thought of as part of the Bible.
Therefore, they
have no binding authority for the thought or life of Christians today.
The New Testament began with the apostles
In John 14:26,
Jesus promised his disciples that they would be empowered by the Holy Spirit to
remember his words and teachings:
“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send
in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all
that I have said to you.”
Jesus also promised further revelation from the Holy Spirit when
he told his disciples, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you
into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he
hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He
will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:13–14).
In these verses the
disciples are promised amazing gifts to enable them to write Scripture: the
Holy Spirit would teach them “all things,” would cause them to remember “all”
that Jesus had said, and would guide them into “all the truth.”
The apostles claimed to have divine authority
The apostles
claimed to have an authority equal to the Old Testament prophets — an authority
to speak and write words that came directly from God.
Peter encourages his readers to remember “the commandment of
the Lord and Savior through your apostles” (2 Peter 3:2).
And to lie to the
apostles (Acts 5:2) was equivalent to lying to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3) and lying to God (Acts 5:4).
Paul especially
claimed to speak the words of God.
He claimed not only
that the Holy Spirit revealed to him “what no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man conceived” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
But also, that when he declared this revelation, he spoke it “in
words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting
Spiritual things in Spiritual words” (1 Corinthians 2:13, author’s
translation).
Similarly, Paul tells the Corinthians, “If anyone thinks that
he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that what I am writing to
you is a command of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 14:37).
The word translated “what” in this verse is a plural
relative pronoun in Greek (ha) and more literally could be
translated “the things that I am writing to you.”
Thus, Paul claims
that his directives to the church at Corinth are not merely his own but a
command of the Lord.
Later, in defending his apostolic office, Paul says that he will
give the Corinthians “proof that Christ is speaking in me” (2 Corinthians
13:3).
He makes similar
claims elsewhere (for example, Romans 2:16, Galatians 1:8–9, 1 Thessalonians
2:13, 4:8, 15, 5:27, 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 14).
Peter affirms Paul’s writings as Scripture
In 2 Peter 3:16, Peter shows not only an awareness of the
existence of written epistles from Paul, but also a clear willingness to
classify “all of his [Paul’s] epistles” with “the other scriptures.”
Peter says, “So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you
according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his
letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant
and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures”
(2 Peter 3:15–16).
The word translated
“scriptures” here is graphē, a word that occurs
fifty-one times in the New Testament and that refers to the Old Testament
Scriptures in every one of those occurrences.
Thus, the word
Scripture was a technical term for the New Testament authors, and it was used
only of those writings that were thought to be God’s words and therefore part
of the canon of Scripture.
But in this verse,
Peter classifies Paul’s writings with the “other Scriptures” (meaning
the Old Testament Scriptures).
Paul’s writings are
therefore considered by Peter also to be worthy of the title “Scripture”
and thus worthy of inclusion in the canon.
Which books did the apostles write?
If we accept the
arguments for the traditional views of authorship of the New Testament
writings, then we have most of the New Testament in the canon because of direct
authorship by the apostles.
This would include
Matthew; John; Romans to Philemon (all of the Pauline epistles); James; 1 and 2
Peter; 1, 2, and 3 John; and Revelation.
This leaves five
New Testament books which were not written by apostles: Mark, Luke, Acts,
Hebrews, and Jude.
Books written by associates of the apostles
The details of the
historical process by which these books came to be counted as part of Scripture
by the early church are scarce, but Mark, Luke, and Acts were commonly
acknowledged very early, probably because of the close association of Mark with
the apostle Peter, and of Luke (the author of Luke-Acts) with the apostle Paul.
Paul even calls a
portion of Luke’s gospel “Scripture” in 1 Timothy 5:17-18:
“Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double
honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching; for the scripture
says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain,’ and, ‘The
laborer deserves his wages.’”
The first quotation from “Scripture” is found in
Deuteronomy 25:4, but the second quotation, “The laborer deserves his
wages,” is found nowhere in the Old Testament.
It does occur,
however, in Luke 10:7 (with exactly the same words in the Greek text).
So here we have
Paul apparently quoting a portion of Luke’s gospel and calling it “Scripture.”
We see evidence
that very early in the history of the church the writings of the New Testament
began to be accepted as part of the canon.
Similarly, Jude apparently was accepted by virtue of the author’s
connection with James (see Jude 1) and the fact that
he was the brother of Jesus.
What about Hebrews?
Many in the early
church believed Hebrews should be considered canonical because they assumed it
was written by Paul.
But from very early
times there were others who rejected Pauline authorship in favor of one or
another of several different suggestions.
Origen, who died about A.D. 254, mentions various theories of
authorship and concludes, “But who actually wrote the epistle, only God
knows.”
The intrinsic
qualities of the book itself must have finally convinced early readers (as they
continue to convince believers today) that whoever its human author may have
been, its ultimate author can only have been God himself.
The majestic glory
of Christ shines forth from the pages of Hebrews so brightly that no believer
who reads it seriously should ever want to question its place in the canon.
What makes a book of the Bible canonical?
For a book to
belong in the canon, it must have divine authorship.
If the words of the
book are God’s words (through human authors), and if the early church, under
the direction of the apostles, preserved the book as part of Scripture, then it
belongs in the canon.
But if the words of
the book are not God’s words, it does not belong in the canon.
Christ primarily
gave the apostles the ability to write words with absolute divine authority.
If a writing can be
shown to be by an apostle, then its divine authority is automatically
established.
Thus, the early
church automatically accepted as part of the canon the written teachings of the
apostles which the apostles wanted preserved as Scripture.
But the existence
of some New Testament writings that were not authored directly by apostles
shows that there were others in the early church to whom Christ also gave the
ability (through the Holy Spirit) to write words that were God’s own words and
also therefore part of the canon.
In these cases, the
early church had the task of recognizing which writings had the characteristic
of being God’s Word.
It shouldn’t
surprise us that the early church could recognize Hebrews and other writings
not written by apostles as God’s words.
Jesus said “My
sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27).
It’s not impossible
or unlikely, that the early church would be able to use a combination of
factors to decide that a writing was in fact God’s words (through a human
author) and therefore worthy of inclusion in the canon.
Those factors could include things like:
· Apostolic endorsement
· Consistency with the rest of Scripture
· An overwhelming acceptance of writing as “God-breathed”
by a majority of believers
The church could
use this process over a period of time — as writings were circulated to various
parts of the early church — and finally to come to a completely correct
decision, without excluding any writings that were in fact “God-breathed”
and without including any that were not.
The canon we have today was finalized in the fourth century A.D.
In A.D. 367 the
Thirty-ninth Paschal Letter of Athanasius contained an exact list of the
twenty-seven New Testament books we have today.
This was the list
of books accepted by the churches in the eastern part of the Mediterranean
world.
Thirty years later,
in A.D. 397, the Council of Carthage, representing the churches in the western
part of the Mediterranean world, agreed with the eastern churches on the same
list.
These are the
earliest final lists of our present-day canon.
At the end of the
last chapter in the final book in the biblical canon, John writes:
“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this
book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this
book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God
will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are
described in this book.” — Revelation 22:18-19
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