How We Got the Bible

What Is the Biblical Canon?

The canon is the list of books the church recognizes as Scripture: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New, 66 in all in most Protestant Bibles. A common myth is that these books were voted into existence at a late council. The better picture is recognition, not invention: over the first centuries the church came to acknowledge the books it already treated as authoritative, using consistent criteria.

Recognized, not invented

Historians of the canon generally agree that the church did not create Scripture by decree. Long before any formal list, the four Gospels and Paul’s letters were already being read, copied, and quoted as authoritative across churches. Formal lists came later to confirm and clarify what was widely received, not to manufacture it. Athanasius’ Easter letter of 367 AD lists exactly the 27 New Testament books we have now, and the North African councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397) affirmed the same list.

The criteria the church used

For the New Testament, the main tests were roughly these: apostolicity (written by an apostle or a close associate), orthodoxy (agreement with the faith already handed down, the ‘rule of faith’), catholicity (widespread and continuous use across the churches, not one region or sect), and antiquity (early enough to belong to the apostolic age). The Old Testament books were received from Israel; Jesus and the apostles clearly treated the Hebrew Scriptures as the word of God.

What Christians hold

Christians hold that these books are not merely ancient and useful but inspired, and that the church, in recognizing them, was discerning a divine gift rather than granting the books their authority. On the exact boundaries there was some genuine discussion in the early centuries, over a few books like Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, and Revelation, and Christians differ over the Apocrypha (see below). Those debates are part of the honest history, and they concern the edges of the canon, not its Gospel core.

Frequently asked questions

Were the books of the Bible voted on at a council?

Not in the sense the myth suggests. The Council of Nicaea (325) did not decide the canon at all. Councils like Hippo (393) and Carthage (397) affirmed a list of books that were already widely received; they confirmed the canon rather than inventing it.

What criteria decided which books belong in the Bible?

For the New Testament the church looked for apostolic origin, agreement with the faith handed down, widespread and continuous use across the churches, and early date. Books meeting these were recognized as Scripture.

Why do Catholic and Protestant Bibles have a different number of books?

They agree entirely on the 27 New Testament books and the core Old Testament. They differ over the deuterocanonical books (the Apocrypha), which Catholic and Orthodox Bibles include and Protestant Bibles set apart. See the page on the lost gospels and Apocrypha.