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The decisions about which writings were to be included in our Bibles were made by leaders of the early church. We still have some records of the debates that took place among those early Christian leaders. These records show that the whole process of deciding which writings were to be included was messy and very, very human. None of those early church leaders claimed to have received divine guidance as to which writings should be included. There is certainly no record of any of those leaders claiming that God, or an angel, told them which writings to include. These decisions were made by human beings.
The church leaders who decided which writings to include were not basing their decisions on whether a writing was inspired but on whether they thought it was good teaching. Some of these early church leaders referred to certain writings as “inspired”. However they did not make their decisions based on which writings they thought were inspired, but on which writings they thought were suitable for reading in church services. At the time there were a lot of writings around that were simply bad teaching. Some of them were even forgeries, claiming to have been written by one of the apostles but actually written by someone else trying to promote their own ideas. Not surprisingly, there were disagreements over which writings were good teaching. There was disagreement, for example, over whether Hebrews, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Revelation should be included.
The debates about which writings were to be included went on for hundreds of years. The first lists of accepted writings, that we might recognize as similar to the contents of our modern Bibles, did not appear until more than 200 years after Jesus’ time on earth. Debates about which writings should be included continued for hundreds more years and further changes were made. Today, there are many different Christian churches using different Bibles containing different writings. The Reformation in the 1500s resulted in the Protestant churches acknowledging the 66 books of the Protestant Bible we know today. This raises an interesting point. The Christian Bible commonly in use in Europe until the 1500s included a number of books which, together, we now call the Apocrypha. The Protestant leaders decided that these books should not be included in the new Bible. In other words, they decided that the early church leaders had made a mistake in including these writings. If we accept that those human leaders made one mistake, how can we be certain that they, or their successors, did not make other mistakes? Come to that, how can we be sure the Protestant leaders didn’t make a mistake in removing the Apocrypha?
Human beings decided which books would be included in the Bibles we read today. Fallible human beings just like you and me.
May our loving, heavenly Father bless us, strengthen us, keep us safe, and lead us into his understanding of the truth.
Jesus is Lord.
Peter O
Related articles.
What did Jesus Teach about the Bible?
“What is the evidence that our Bible is inspired by God?”
“Does God speak to us through our Bibles today?”
“Do I need a knowledge of the Bible if I want to know God?”
“Are our Bibles ‘The Word of God’?”
“Are there contradictions in our Bibles?”
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Thank you for your writings. Its logical and mostly based on facts.
It’s funny that many Christians think the Bible said all the verses in the Bible were inspired by God but they ignored the fact that the Bible was created and organized by human hands!
These explanations have really put to rest to years of frustration that I have had trying to figure this out for my self. The research here is clear as air. Thank you!
I’m very glad to be of service. Thanks for the encouragement.
Peter O