6 Things About the Biblical Canon You Probably Did Not Know!

How was the Bible put together?

The funny thing about the Bible is that the Bible does not tell you which books should be in the Bible?

Why do some Bibles have an “Apocrypha” but some Bibles do not?

Why does your Bible have 1 and 2 Corinthians, but not 3 Corinthians (yes, there is such a thing)?

Who decided to include the Gospel of Matthew but not the Gospel of Thomas?

Why does the Bible have Revelation (which was disputed in value) but not 1 Clement or the Didache (which were much loved and celebrated)?

In sum, how was our Bible put together?

Well, it’s quite a backstory, and there are six things you need to know!

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First, Jewish people do not call the Old Testament the “Old Testament.” For them, it’s either the Hebrew Bible or the Tanak (Torah, Prophets, Writings). The risen Jesus appears to have accepted this division of the OT into three categories: “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Lk 24:44).

Second, The Apocrypha, from the Greek apokryphos for “hidden,” refers to a number of books written by Jewish authors that were widely read by Jews and Christians, but were regarded as of questionable authorship or having dubious origins. This is why Jews omitted them from their canon and why Christians eventually assigned them secondary status. Protestants call these books “Apocrypha” and ordinarily place them between the Old and New Testaments. The reading of the Apocrypha was encouraged by Protestant denominations, not because the Apocrypha should be used in preaching or in the establishment of Christian doctrine, but because “they were received to be read for the advancement and furtherance of the knowledge of history and for the instruction” (Geneva Bible) and “for instruction in life and manners” (Anglican 39 Articles). In contrast, Catholics recognize them as “deutero-canonical,” a second canonical collection, not merely useful, but as God-given and authoritative. The Greek Orthodox Church recognizes the Old Testament and Apocrypha, but doesn’t divide them up into those two categories, and they simply consider them to be anagignoskomena, meaning “books to be read.”

Third, the New Testament was not invented by any single council let alone by Constantine. The church did not hunt for books that were “inspired” by using an inspiration-o-meter! What mattered to most Christians were writings that were connected to Jesus and the Apostles.

Fourth, the New Testament canon was not a top-down imposition by a sherry of bishops, but a common consensus that emerged based on the writings which the churches of east and west considered authentic, authoritative, orthodox, and worthy of use in worship. Some books were regarded with suspicion, but got in anyway, like 2 Peter and Revelation. Other books came close, like the Shepherd of Hermas and Apocalypse of Peter, but could not be identified with an apostle or were slightly dubious in some regard.

Fifth, some of our earliest complete manuscripts of the New Testament also include other Christian writings. For example, Codex Sinaiticus (fourth century) includes also the Epistle of Barnabas and parts of the Shepherd of Hermas as a kind of appendix. Codex Alexandrinus (fifth century) includes 1-2 Clement and the Psalms of Solomon! So the edges of the canon were “fuzzy” for some compilers of manuscripts.

Sixth, there are many “canons” in the global church. The Syriac church took a long time to accept the Catholic Letters, indeed, it was not until the fifth century that it was finally and formally adopted. The Ethiopian church has an expansive canon that includes writings such as 1 Enoch and other things besides. There are differences in the text and naming of books in the Apocrypha between the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches too. So the Christian tradition has canons plural rather than a single canon. That said, the Hebrew Bible and Greek New Testament are the widely agreed core which everyone agrees on.

Further Reading

Benjamin Laird, Creating the Canon: Composition, Controversy, and the Authority of the New Testament.

Hans von Campenhausen, The Formation of the Christian Bible.

Charles L. Quarles and L. Scott Kellum, 40 Questions About the Text and Canon of the New Testament.

Michael J. Kruger, Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books