How did the Bible become canonized and why can we trust it?

Canonization of Scripture

The Bible is a collection of 66 smaller books with numerous authors, some of whom we don’t know

Canon — agreed-upon set of writings we call Scripture

Examples of inspiration (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Mark 12:36-37, Acts 1:16, Acts 28:25-26

“God-breathed”, not “motivated” or “dictated”

Good reasons to wonder…

Who wrote the creation account? (if God didn’t dictate it to Moses)

How is it God’s word if we clearly see the personalities of people like Paul?

How can we be sure we have the right books when Catholic Bibles have more?

OT canonization

By the time of Jesus, the OT had already been settled on. Josephus says there’s at least 22 OT books, all of which line up with our 39 (b/c some were grouped together).

Philo of Alexandria seems to say the same thing.

For all the debates Jesus had with Jewish leaders, the OT canon was never one of them, only how to interpret it.

Jews generally agreed that Scriptural inspiration had stopped around the 4th century BC, so no new books were added.

NT canonization

NT written between 48 to 125 AD (within 100 years of Jesus’ death, probably sooner)

As false teachers started writing fake letters pretending to be apostles, the church had to agree which letters circulating were not Scripture.

The first official list of our NT books is from the 4th century (Athanasius), but it was more likely agreed upon by the second century

They chose books that met three marks

1) authored by an apostle (or closely associated, e.g. Hebrews)

2) consistent with God’s message & divine nature

3) corporate acceptance

Early on, though, they recognized the apostles’ words as Scripture (2 Peter 3:16)

Trustworthiness of Scripture

OT trustworthiness

Jesus quoted the OT left and right and always interpreted it as historically true and theologically beneficial, even if we don’t know who exactly wrote what. He never had any doubts about it being God’s Word.

MT & LXX (plus Aramaic translation)

The apostles also frequently cited the OT, with citations from 35 of the 39 books (minus Ezra/Nehemiah, Esther, Ecclesiastes)

They also never cited the Catholic apocrypha.

NT trustworthiness

Jesus entrusted the apostles with great authority (Matthew 10:40, John 17:20, Acts 2:42, Ephesians 2:20, 1 Thessalonians 2:6), and the early church was in great agreement on their authority.

I trust the NT because I trust Jesus giving authority to the apostles and because I trust the Holy Spirit helping the church identify false letters (John 16:13).