Talk to average Joe Christian about the history of the Bible, and you’ll hear at least two myths:
As soon as John put the period after “Amen” (Revelation 22:24), the angels gathered up the scrolls and delivered them to a monastery somewhere to be bound and distributed.
Or, it took three centuries for men to agree on what belonged between its covers.
I thought neither one, but while studying early Church history, I stumbled over the word canon and found out that what I thought I knew was wrong.
I thought along the lines of Wikipedia:
A biblical canon is a set of texts (also called “books”) which a particular Jewish or Christian religious community regards as part of the Bible. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_canon)
Or Collins Dictionary:
…the books of the Bible officially accepted by a church or religious body as divinely inspired … (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/canon)
But I found out that a canon isn’t something that’s already been decided, but something that’s used to decide.
The English word canon comes from the Greek kanōn, a straight rod, like that used by architects as a measuring stick and for making straight lines.
So a canon isn’t a group of books, but rather the ruler used to determine if a book measures up to a standard.
And the standard? Read on.
Canon or canonicity
The word canonicity — a word I’ll use much in this essay — doesn’t mean a book’s inclusion in Scripture, but its adequacy to be included in Scripture.
And a phrase I’ll use — “the closing of the Canon” — is a misnomer, but I’ll use it anyway. The canon (small c) — the standard — is still valid. But when measured by the canon, no new writings can qualify as Scripture, hence, the phrase “the closing of the Canon” (large C) is used.
So, using this language, the myths mentioned earlier express these two extremes:
The early Church had a sixty-six-book collection of writings considered canonical (meeting the standard) when the last living apostle laid down his pen.
Or, the Canon (the complete record of the written Word of God) was up for grabs until the mid-300s AD.
The truth is more complex than that.
The Old Testament texts
A Christian Bible’s Old Testament — the Hebrew Bible — is a collection of prophetic writings that interpret Israel’s history in light of God’s purpose for mankind. It’s called by its people the TaNaKh, an anagram for its three parts: the Torah, the Nevi’im, and the Ketuvim.
The recording of the Torah (Genesis-Deuteronomy) is attributed to Moses, though someone else must have added the account of his death.
The Torah includes the history of Israel until their entrance into the Promised Land, with the Law and instructions God gave to govern them there.
After the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, their judges, kings, and prophets were responsible for maintaining an accurate history of the nation and keeping account of all God-given prophecies.
The Nevi’im include these histories — the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings — and the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and “the Twelve.”
The Twelve are called “the Minor Prophets” in the Christian Old Testament, but there is nothing minor about them. They are simply short prophecies — short and powerful.
The remaining books were called the Ketuvim — the Writings — and are a God-inspired collection of wisdom, poetry, and narrative given to help the Israelites make wise decisions, worship God rightly, remember their history, and look forward to the arrival of the long-awaited Messiah.
The Closing of the Hebrew Canon
Malachi was the last recognized prophet to the nation of Israel. After he spoke these words in 450 BC, the voice of the prophets went silent:
“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” (Malachi 4:5–6, NIV)
Does that sound familiar? It sounds like something Jesus said about John the Baptist, the first prophet to appear in the New Testament:
“And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.” (Matthew 11:4, NIV)
Though there was a 450-year gap between prophets, the prophecy was seamless.
Around 150 BC, rabbinical writings began stating that the voice of God had ceased to speak directly.
No more divinely inspired words meant that no new writings met the canon. The Canon of the Hebrew Bible was closed with much of its prophecy unfulfilled.
The Canonicity of the Hebrew Bible
The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings were always accepted by the Jews — and Jesus — as God’s authoritative and inspired Word.
There was no contesting among righteous Jews what belonged in their Bible and what did not. A holy fear set the Scriptures apart.
The rabbinic writings, discussions, and debates that continue to this day never question the authority of Scripture, only the interpretations of men.
But how should Christians receive the Hebrew Scriptures?
As believers in the perfect Son of God and sinless Son of man, we accept the testimony of Jesus as our most reliable witness.
Jesus quoted from the Hebrew Bible twenty times, and seventeen times He referred to events recorded there. There is no evidence that He found fault with the canonicity of any Old Testament book.
In Matthew 23:35, He cited one of the first narratives in the recognized Scripture, and one of the last, effectively endorsing the Hebrew Canon.
New Testament Canonicity
During the first century AD, much was written about the life of Jesus. Not all things were recorded or passed on correctly — either purposefully or, more likely, through human error.
Teachers and their writings — some true, some false, and some just uninformed—were also circulating among the churches after the death of John, the last living of the Twelve.
Without a recognized apostle left to validate what was recorded, leaders among the churches had to discern what met the standards of divinely inspired Scripture and what did not.
This was their canon:
Was the author an eyewitness of the life of Jesus? Were they one of the original twelve apostles, or have a close connection with an apostle?
The Gospels easily met these standards.
With writings beyond the Gospels, other standards had to be considered:
Did it preserve the teaching of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection?
Did it concur with other, already agreed-upon Scripture without departure from the core teachings of Jesus and the apostles?
Was the writing accepted by the body of Christ at large? Was its use widespread, continuously copied, and circulated among the churches?
Paul’s letters easily met these standards and were passed on as canonical as early as AD 90.
A few of the letters proved more challenging. The books surrounded by the most controversy were Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, and 2 John and 3 John.
In 200 AD the twenty-seven books that make up our New Testament today were published as one canonical work.
The New Testament Canon
Several councils convened between 90 AD and 397 AD to review what had been gathered and presented as Scripture. It seems there was little dissent then about what was canonical, but much written now about when the real closing of the Canon occurred.
You can find a comprehensive timeline of that process here: https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/how-we-got-our-bible-timeline.
However, I’m done.
In summary
Accepting a book into the Canon did not make a book authoritative but did recognize the book as God-inspired and therefore authoritative.
A council of men did not decide if a book was Scripture. The writings of Scripture were canonical the moment they were written.
To preserve the written Word of God, God guided the early church councils in their review of what was written.
Those God appointed understood the distinction between establishing the canon and recognizing the Canon.
They were simply stewards of what God had granted.
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