Recently I was on “A Bible Answer,” a Bible question-and-answer program broadcast regionally in the Mid-South and on the Gospel Broadcasting Network. One of the questions I was assigned to answer was twofold. “How were the books of the Bible selected and compiled, and how were the decisions made as to what would be distributed as the Word of God?”

These are a few of the questions we deal with when we look at the Canon of Scripture. “What books belong in the Bible?” “How do we know?” “Who decided, and when did they decide?” “Can we know that we have the right ones?” When we are talking about the “canon,” we are talking about a transliteration of the Greek word, which means “a rule or a standard.” So, we are asking, “Is there a divine standard to which the 66 books in the Bible have met? After all, many claim other books should have been included. Some doubt the validity of the ones that were.

How did we get those 66 books? There is a Biblical principle that guided people in the days of old and should guide us today. In Exodus 24:4-7, it says, “And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. … Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” Why would the people accept what Moses wrote as the words of the Lord? It is because of the principle mentioned above. Moses was recognized as a prophet of God because of the many things he had done, which could only be done through the power of God. When one who was accepted as a prophet wrote, what he wrote was immediately acknowledged as the word of God. This principle is repeated throughout the Old Testament.

• Josh 24:26
  • “And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. …”
• I Sam 10:25
  • “Then Samuel … wrote them in a book and laid it up before the LORD.”

Joshua and Samuel proved to be prophets of God by the deeds God did through them. When they wrote, their writings were immediately accepted as the word of God. Daniel 9:2 is especially insightful along these lines. “(I)n the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.” Daniel (who was a contemporary of Ezekiel and Jeremiah) immediately accepted what Jeremiah wrote as the word of God. During Old Testament times, every time a man identified as a prophet wrote, his writings were accepted immediately as the word of God. No councils and no voting was necessary.

Then, we have the intertestamental period in which there are no prophets. Nevertheless, we do have writings from that time. I Maccabees 4:46 says they were waiting for a prophet. In 9:27, it says there was great tribulation like there was in the times that prophets had appeared to them. In 14:41, it says they appoint Simon as their leader until a faithful prophet should arise.

Josephus said their history had been written but was not worthy of equal credit because of a lack of an “exact succession of the prophets.” He also wrote about accredited books. When you examine them, you find they are the same 39 Old Testament books we have today.

The same principle used to accept books of the Old Testament is the same used for the New Testament writings. Note Matthew 16:19; 18:18; John 14:26; 16:13; Acts 2:42; 2 Pet. 3:2; I John 4:6; II Thes 2:15; and Col. 4:16.

For example, in I Timothy 5:18, Paul says, “For the scripture saith,…” and then quotes Luke 10:7. Luke was written about ten to fifteen years before I Timothy. Yet, it was automatically accepted as “scripture.” In II Peter 3, he is writing about the epistles of Paul. Peter lists those in with “the other scriptures.” Both Paul and Luke were affirmed as prophets of God. So, their writings were accepted as scripture.

Despite the evidence, there are still those who try to plant disbelief by discrediting scripture. Yet, when we dig deeper, we find that God’s people have always known what was and was not His word. When we recognize that, we realize it must be believed and obeyed!

Corey Sawyers