The Canon: How'd We Get the 66 Books of the Bible?
It's about to get canonical up in hurrrrr. If you've ever wondered how the 66 books of the Bible were chosen… if you're scratching your head about why the Apocrypha isn't embraced by Protestants… if you're asking what an Apocrypha even is and if that could explain the rash on your shoulder...you're in the right place. Also, probably get that rash looked at. Just sayin.
In last week’s episode, we talked about how God used humans to write out His words. He used people from various cultures, continents, stages of life, jobs, and over the course of about 1,500 years! But how can we know that we have the right books in our Bible?
Today, we’re looking at how we got the biblical canon. This is the collection of 66 books that make up the Old and New Testaments.
Let’s break this down…
There are two testaments (also called covenants) in our Bibles: The Old and New Testaments. 39 books in the Old and 27 books in the New, making 66 total.
OLD TESTAMENT
The Old Testament books were originally part of the Hebrew Bible (The Tanakh). These were divided into the books of the law (Torah), prophets (Nevi’im), and writings (Ketuv’im). The Hebrew Bible had 24 books because it combined many of our books into one (for instance the 12 minor prophet books were combined into one called “The Twelve”). But all of the books of our protestant Bible are in the original Hebrew Bible!
Why isn’t the Apocrypha included in our protestant Bibles?
There are about 400 years between the last book of the Old Testament and the first book of the New Testament. We call these the years of silence when there weren’t any prophecies. The Apocrypha is a set of 15 books written within those 400 years and wasn’t part of the original Hebrew Bible. Though these works can be helpful as historical documents, even the writers of the Apocrypha admit they were written at a time when God had not sent a prophet to speak.
1 Macc 4:45b-46 says, "So they tore down the altar and stored the stone in a convenient place on the temple hill until there should come a prophet to tell what to do with them"
They were waiting for another authoritative prophet to come.
Jesus never quoted from the Apocrypha. Jesus affirmed the Hebrew Bible by quoting every single Old Testament book except Esther.
Luke 11:49–51 says, “Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.”
“From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah” …Abel was killed by his brother Cain in Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament. Zechariah was the prophet who was a martyr in 2 Chronicles 24:21. In the Hebrew Bible, Genesis is the first book and 2 Chronicles is the last book! Jesus canonized the same books of the Old Testament as we use in our protestant Bible today!
NEW TESTAMENT
The canon of the New Testament came about very organically, not from a formal committee. We have the New Testament because of the arrival of Jesus. His arrival assumes that God had more to reveal to His people. God sent his Son who spoke “words of eternal life” (John 6:68). Jesus taught with authority.
Jesus then appointed apostles to share his teachings and to spread the Gospel. In John 14, He promised to give the Holy Spirit to the apostles to help them remember all that he had taught them so that they may pass it on.
The requirement for a writing to be counted as canon is called apostolicity. Apostolicity means a work that was written by an apostle or by an apostolic associate within the apostolic period. For example, Matthew and John were apostles of Jesus. Luke was associated with Paul and Mark with Peter. Paul wasn’t one of the original apostles but was visited by Jesus and made an apostle (Acts 9).
In many ways, the New Testament books were assumed to be part of the scriptures. They were being taught in churches even from the earliest centuries of the Church.
In contrast, books like the “Gospel of Thomas” were written generations later and therefore shouldn’t be considered part of the canon.
Here’s the point: You should have total confidence that your Bible is fully from God and complete.
Application questions:
How did today’s episode challenge your thinking about the canonicity of the Bible?
Are there influences in your life that cause you to doubt the validity of the scriptures? Is there someone that you should lovingly confront or something you spend less time watching or listening to?
Want to ask us a question? Email question@clearlypodcast.com.
Our Recommendations:
📖 Reading:
A Peculiar Glory by John Piper
The Biblical Canon by Michael J. Kruger
👨👩👧👦 Teaching for children: Real Bad Guys by Jimmy Needham
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