How did the Bible become the Bible? Have you ever wondered about this?
Many years ago, I taught an upper elementary Sunday school class., and this was one of my lessons.
The Bible was written over a 1500 years’ time by 40 different men. They had many different jobs. A shepherd wrote prophecy. An accountant wrote a historical book. A prophet wrote history. A prince wrote books of law. Everyone had their own part to play.
After the Old Testament, God was silent for 400 years. Many things were happening, but no more books of the Bible were written during this time. Between these times men created their own rules and writings.
Then John the Baptist came ,and God started to move in amazing ways again. Jesus came, preached, died, and rose again.
The Holy Spirit inspired men to write again. A few years after Jesus died, some of his disciples wrote down what Jesus had taught them.
There are a lot of arguments for which gospel was written first. Most people believe Mark was written first because it is the shortest. It was written to Gentiles, people who are not Jewish. Mark was not one of the 12 disciples, he was a student of Peter.
Matthew was probably written next and was written for the Jews. It talks a lot about how Jesus fulfills prophecy.
Luke is written for Romans. He spent many years researching and interviewing witnesses before writing the book. He was not one of Jesus’ 12 disciples.
John was written last, by the last surviving disciple. He wanted to show that Jesus really lived and was a real person. All of the gospels were written to show Jesus was real.
Acts is the only book of history in the New Testament. Luke wrote it as a sequel to his gospel to tell how the church started.
Most of the rest of the New Testament is letters written to churches or people. Paul wrote Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. All of these were written to churches or people Paul had trained.
We don’t know who wrote Hebrews.
James, Jesus’ brother, wrote the book of James. Peter wrote 1 and 2 Peter. The disciple John wrote 1, 2, and 3 John. Jude, another of Jesus’ brothers wrote Jude.
The last book of the Bible is Revelation. It is a book of prophecy all of which has not happened. Yet.
But this does not answer how the books of the Bible were chosen after they were written. There were hundreds of books written in the hundred years after Jesus died. How did they choose which books were included?
The church leaders got together and came up with criteria for deciding what books should be in the New Testament:
- The author either knew Jesus or trained by someone who was. Matthew, Peter, James, John, Jude, and Paul all knew Jesus or had an encounter with him. Mark was trained by Peter, and might have followed Jesus. Luke interviewed and traveled with Paul and several of the disciples.
- What did the book say? Did it agree with the rest of the Bible and what Jesus taught? There were many books that claimed to be written by disciples but disagreed with what Jesus taught.
- Approval by the early church, did the early church agree with it?
It took many years for everyone to agree what books should be in the Bible. Many years of prayer and looking for God’s will. By 200 AD most of the books were agreed on, the Gospels, Acts, Paul’s letters, and 1 John.
But what about Hebrews? Who wrote it? Does James disagree with Paul on works? What do we do with Revelation? Finally in 397 AD at the Council of Hippo, everyone agreed on the 27 books now in the New Testament. And that is how we got the Bible.
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