Why the List of Books Matters
Open your Bible to its table of contents and you will find sixty-six books: thirty-nine in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New. Most believers never ask how that list came to be. Yet few questions about your Bible matter more, because everything you believe rests on what is in it, and on nothing that is not.
Think about what is at stake. If a church council created the list, then the council stands above the Bible and could change it. If books are missing, you can never be sure God has told you all you need. If books were wrongly added, you might build your life on words God never spoke. The doctrine of the canon answers each of these fears from Scripture itself.
From a Greek word for a straight rod used as a measuring rule. The canon of Scripture is the complete collection of books God inspired, which together are the rule of faith and practice. By the fourth century Christian writers were using the word for the list of the Bible's books.
We confess that the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God is found in the sixty-six books from Genesis to Revelation. This study shows why. The Old Testament is the Bible Jesus received and affirmed. The New Testament is the writing of His apostles, which carried His authority from the day it was written. God's people did not choose these books. They recognized them.
God determined the canon when He inspired the books. His people discovered what He had done. The canon was recognized, not created. See also Has the Bible Been Changed?, which answers the critic on the manuscripts and the canon.
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For Deeper Study
- The Canon of ScriptureAmazon F. F. BruceA careful, readable history of how the Old and New Testament books were received.
- Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament BooksAmazon Michael J. KrugerArgues that the canon is self-authenticating: God's books bear the marks of their Author. Fuller and more demanding.
- Who Chose the Gospels? Probing the Great Gospel ConspiracyAmazon Charles E. HillAnswers the claim that the four Gospels were picked late from many equal rivals.
- The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament ChurchAmazon Roger T. BeckwithA detailed scholarly case that the Old Testament of Jesus and the apostles was the Hebrew Bible, without the Apocrypha.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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The Reliability of Scripture: Textual Integrity
God has preserved His Word, and the manuscript evidence gives every reason to trust that the Bible we hold is what was originally written.
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