Ask a Pastor Column

Q: Who chose and compiled the books of the Bible? 

A: The simplest way to explain how we got the Bible is to say that the 66 books that make up the Protestant Bible were inspired by God and then recognized by believers; first by Jewish believers in Old Testament times and finally by the early church. Books of the Old Testament were verified by the miraculous works God did through the writers, by supernatural predictions which came to pass, and by conformity to books previously accepted (i.e. the Psalms match the teachings found in Genesis-Deuteronomy).

        The task of confirming the inspired books of the New Testament fell to church leaders during the 2nd century A.D. To do this the early church had to comb through many contemporary Christian writings; sifting them for evidence of inspiration. The evidence they looked for included: Apostolic origin (was it written by an Apostle or a known friend of an Apostle?), widespread acceptance (most books of the New Testament were already known, accepted, and in use by the church in the 2nd century), historical accuracy, agreement with the rule of faith and finally the ability to edify (was the Holy Spirit using this book to change lives?). (credit for this list given to E.E. Cairn’s “Christianity through the Centuries”). The early church was able to use this criteria to detect several false writings (such as the so-called “Gospel of Thomas”) and eventually finalize the list of books that would be considered “the Canon of Scripture.”

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