How the Canon Was Formed

One of the biggest questions people have about the Bible is: "Who decided which books were in and which were out?" There is a fair amount of conspiracy-theory energy around this topic, so it is worth setting the record straight.

Contrary to what some people believe (and what certain novels have claimed), the biblical canon was not decided by one dramatic vote at a secret meeting. It was a gradual process that happened over centuries, and it was more about recognizing what was already accepted than deciding from scratch.

The early church used several tests to evaluate whether a writing was Scripture:

1. Apostolic Authority — Was it written by an apostle or someone in their inner circle? Matthew, John, Paul, and Peter wrote directly. Mark was Peter's close associate. Luke traveled with Paul.

2. Consistency — Did it align with the teachings already accepted as true? If a text contradicted the known apostolic teaching, it was excluded.

3. Universal Acceptance — Was it widely used across churches? Not just in one city or region, but across the Mediterranean world.

4. Orthodoxy — Did it teach sound doctrine? Texts promoting ideas the apostles clearly rejected were excluded.

• ~50-100 AD: NT books are written and circulated among churches
• ~130 AD: Early church fathers are already quoting NT books as Scripture
• ~200 AD: The Muratorian Fragment lists most of the NT books we have today
• 367 AD: Athanasius of Alexandria writes an Easter letter listing all 27 NT books — the first known list matching our current NT exactly
• 393 & 397 AD: Councils of Hippo and Carthage formally affirm the 27-book NT canon

By the time the councils weighed in, they were not making a new decision. They were affirming what churches had been using for over 200 years.

You may have heard of the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Philip, or other texts sometimes called "lost gospels." Here is the reality:

They were not "lost" — they were rejected. And for good reasons:

• Most were written 100-200 years after the apostles (too late to be eyewitness accounts)
• Many contain Gnostic teachings that directly contradict the core NT message
• They were not widely used by early churches
• Early church fathers explicitly identified them as forgeries

The Gospel of Thomas, for example, was likely written around 140-180 AD (compared to the canonical Gospels from 50-90 AD) and includes sayings like "every woman who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven." That is not exactly consistent with the rest of Scripture.

This is worth repeating. The councils at Hippo and Carthage did not sit around a table with a stack of books and vote on which ones they preferred. They looked at what churches across the world had been using for centuries and said: "Yes, these are the ones."

The canon was not imposed from the top down. It was recognized from the bottom up.

The 27 books of the NT cover everything the early church needed:

• Gospels (4): The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus from four perspectives
• Acts (1): The birth and spread of the early church
• Paul's Letters (13): Theology, church practice, and pastoral guidance
• General Letters (8): Additional apostolic teaching
• Revelation (1): Prophetic vision of the end and God's ultimate victory

Each book fills a specific role. Nothing essential is missing.

Knowing how the canon was formed provides confidence that the Bible you are reading is not some random collection assembled by powerful people with an agenda. It is a library of documents that were tested, debated, and ultimately recognized as authoritative by thousands of communities across centuries.

The process was messy and human — but the result is a collection that has held up for 2,000 years. That is significant.