Video Transcript: Which Books Belong in the Bible?

Which Books Belong in the Bible?
By David Feddes

Which books belong in the Bible? Most of us have a Bible which is very thick and has many  books in it. But how did those books get there, and how do we know that those books belong and not others? How do we know that there are not some books in the Bible that really don’t belong there? Well, to understand those kinds of questions, it’s helpful to understand how the Bible was formed in the first place and why certain books got into the Bible. So let’s begin with the Old Testament.

Which OT books are Scripture?

Which Old Testament books are God-breathed Scripture? Why did Christians accept certain books and not others? Christians recognized that all thirty-nine books of the Hebrew Bible are God-breathed Scripture. At the time of Jesus, His followers recognized that the Hebrew Bible was given by God. The Hebrew Bible, by the way, never included the Apocrypha, which are some writings that were written after the prophet Malachi and before New Testament times. These were books that were held in high esteem, but they were never part of the Hebrew Bible.

The Apocryphal books were included in the Septuagint, which was a Greek translation of the Old Testament. Some of those books were included in some additions of the Greek translation of the Old Testament but were never part of the Hebrew Bible so far as we know. Early Christians encouraged reading the Apocrypha. They said those books were profitable and very valuable, but they did not recognize those books as God-breathed Scripture. The Roman Catholic Church later on did accept the Apocryphal books as Scripture. Protestant churches did not, and it would seem the earliest Christians did not either, because they recognized the Hebrew Bible as finalized by Jewish people in the first century. Their council recognized those 39 books which we today call the Old Testament.

Jesus confirmed OT books

Jesus confirmed the Old Testament books. This is a very important reason for recognizing those thirty-nine books as the Old Testament. “The Scriptures," said Jesus, "bear witness about me” (John 5:39). He also said, “Scripture cannot be broken. ” (John 10:35). Some people speak of an Old Testament God that they don’t like very much, and then of Jesus and the New Testament that they like. But Jesus loved the Old Testament Scriptures and said they witnessed about Him and that they could not be broken. So if you have a tendency to downplay the value of the Hebrew Scriptures, get over it. Jesus had a high opinion of them. He had a high opinion of them because they pointed to Him, and because He revealed them in the first place through His Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “Everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” (Luke 24:44-45). Now, when Jesus spoke of "the Law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms," he was  referring to what the Jews considered the three main divisions of the Hebrew Bible. 

The Law of Moses was the first five books written by Moses. The prophets included the former prophets, which are sometimes called the historical books of the Old Testament. Those books were considered by Jewish writers as the former prophets because they were the prophets’ angle on historical events. The latter prophets were what we today simply call "the prophets": Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel and so on. Psalms was the division which was sometimes called the Kethubim, meaning "the writings." Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Songs of Songs are the wisdom writings and the praise portions of the Scriptures. So when Jesus spoke of "everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms,” he was speaking about what every Jew of his time would have understood to be the three main divisions of the 39 books of the Old Testament. Then he opened his disciples’ mind to understand those Scriptures as they applied it to him. 

Jesus promised NT books through Spirit-guided apostles

After Jesus’ resurrection, he wasn’t yet finished teaching his disciples. Keep in mind that the disciples were a little clueless about Jesus’ upcoming death and resurrection while Jesus was with them and teaching them. They didn’t understand Jesus in light of his sacrifice on the cross and his triumph over death because those things hadn’t happened yet. They couldn’t grasp what Jesus was talking about when he referred to those events ahead of time. However, after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples for a period of forty days and kept speaking to them about the kingdom of God in light of the reality of his resurrection and the full dawning of his eternal power and his victory over death. A vital part of that was helping them understand the Scriptures that had already been given, the Hebrew Scriptures, and then to prepare these eyewitnesses of his to produce a fresh set of Scriptures which were the final testimony to the reality of Jesus.

Jesus promised that New Testament books would be given through Spirit-guided apostles. Jesus, on the night before his death, said, “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:25-26) Jesus also said, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:12-13). Jesus had selected these men to be especially close to him, to communicate with them during that three year period of his ministry, and then also during those forty days after His resurrection. They had been  eyewitnesses of what Jesus had said and done, and soon he would send the Holy Spirit to reveal the rest of the truth that they couldn’t yet absorb while he was with them.

Which New Testament books are Scripture?

As the early church and the first Christians were choosing and recognizing the New Covenant Scriptures that God had given, they asked three main questions. 

1. Does it come from eyewitness apostle?
2. Is it recognized and used in all churches?
3. Is its content fully consistent with other books that are undoubtedly God’s Word?

First, is it written by an eyewitness himself or at least by somebody who was listening to an eyewitness as he wrote? Second, is it recognized and used in all the churches and all the congregations of the Christians or at least very, very widely? That’s what the word catholic means: that it’s believed all over and by all the congregations of God’s people. So, if a book was recognized by all and the Holy Spirit impressed all with its divine authority, that was good evidence. The third question was, is the content of this particular book fully consistent with other books that are undoubtedly God’s Word?

A few books weren’t recognized quite as quickly as others, and those were tested by the books that were recognized earlier. The four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), Acts, and Paul’s letters were regarded right away as revelation of Jesus. They were read during public worship and were quoted by Christian authors as far back as we can find any records. Those books were accepted and recognized from the very time that they were first written. 

However, there were a few other books that were used as Scripture very widely by most congregations but not by all churches at first. Eventually, these came to be recognized by all: Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Revelation. Sometimes, people wondered if these really were from the apostles, and they tested them by how they fit with the other books that all Christians accepted without question.  Eventually these came to be recognized. Nobody ever doubted that they were great books, but there were a few Christians who weren’t using them as Scriptures right away. (Remember, people didn’t just hand out New Testaments or hand out Bibles in those days. There would be a scroll called Gospel according to John, or a scroll called James. There were different scrolls and Scriptures that people were reading and perhaps circulating from one church to another. How widely it was used was one indication of whether it was going to be included in the greater body of Scripture when it was compiled.)

A few books were used as Scripture by some Christians, but not by most. Eventually, these books were seen as helpful but not as God-breathed: the Shepherd of Hermas, Epistle of Barnabas (probably not really written by Barnabas but written by someone else under Barnabas's name), and 1 and 2 Clement (an early leader in the church of Rome who never claimed to be an apostle and never claimed that his books were on par with Scripture). These are wonderful writings and some early Christians, though not very many, thought they might qualify as Scripture. The Didache, [which means "The Teaching", is another such book. It contains some wonderful teachings about the Two Roads, the road of life and the road of death. Another document is the Gospel of the Hebrews. There is tremendous value in these writings, but they don’t have the same quality as the books that eventually made it into the New Testament. They were valued, much as we value many good books outside the Bible today, but they were not widely recognized as apostolic or inspired, and they were not included in the New Testament.

Early books not in Scripture

Other early books were not included as Scripture because nobody ever saw them as strong candidates. There were several different kinds:

• Sound teaching: Epistle of Diognetus
• Pious concoctions: infancy gospels
• Poisonous counterfeits: Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Gospel of Judas
• Heretical editors: cut-and-paste selections of biblical material, omitting what editor disliked and adding his own heresies: Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of the Lord

Some were outstanding books contained sound teaching, but they were never included in Scripture because they were written after the time of the apostles. One of my favorites is the Epistle of Diognetus, in which he’s explaining to somebody what it is to be a Christian. The phrase “in the world but not of the world” traces back to the Epistle of Diognetus. The author shows how Christians are like the world in some ways (eating the same foods, living in the same towns, wearing similar clothes) but very different in other ways (Christians would not sleep around with various partners but would remain faithful to one wife; they would be willing to give their lives out of love for others, and so forth). This is a tremendous, beautiful letter, but it never claimed to be from an apostle and was never included in the Bible.

Then there were pious concoctions. For instance, there were some infancy gospels. In the Bible accounts, there are gaps between the time when Jesus was a baby and when he was adult. Some people decided to fill those gaps. There's a story of young Jesus making clay birds. When boys come to smash them, Jesus claps his hands and the birds fly away. There's a bully picking on Jesus, so he curses that bully, and the bull drops dead. Nobody read those stories and said, “That belongs in the God-breathed Scriptures! That sounds like Jesus to us!” Those who knew the real Jesus knew that these stories were made up.

Other books were poisonous counterfeits, such as the Gospel of Mary Magdalene and the Gospel of Judas. The former was not written by Mary Magdalene; it was produced long after she died. The Gospel of Judas was written 150 years after Judas betrayed Jesus and killed himself, and it portrays Judas as the hero, the only disciple who really understood Jesus. These books and others like them were produced by Gnostic sects. They tried to take some elements of Christianity and merge them with the Greek mystery religions, which included hatred of the body and rejecting the physical world. These writings were recognized by the early Christians as utter nonsense.

Some books included snippets from the real Bible books, but they were cut-and-paste. Heretical editors would produce books by taking what was known to be biblical material, but then they would omit whatever they didn’t like, and they would add things that would change the whole meaning. An example would be the Gospel of Thomas. It’s not written by Thomas himself. It’s written in Thomas’ name by heretical Gnostics who lived more than a century after Thomas. Similarly, the Gospel of the Lord takes many elements of the biblical gospels, omits some things, and adds others. These books indicate how some heretical sects were handling Scriptures after the time of the apostles, but these heretical books certainly aren’t contenders to belong in our Bible today. They were never contenders to belong in the Bible long ago either. 

That's a sample of books that weren’t included in the New Testament. Some were sound teaching and were known to be from godly men, but those men were not apostles or eyewitnesses. Some were known to be pious concoctions but fictional. Still others others were known to be poison and heresy.

Eyewitnesses

A very, very important standard for any book included in the New Testament was the eyewitness factor.

Matthew was one of Jesus’ chosen twelve apostles. Matthew’s gospel gives eyewitness accounts of what Matthew heard Jesus saying and saw Jesus doing. 

Mark was a very early follower of Jesus though not one of the twelve apostles. Mark had his own memories of Jesus, plus he was very close to Peter and based the Gospel of Mark on firsthand accounts from Peter about the life of Jesus. 

Luke was not one of the twelve, but he was a close companion of the apostle Paul. Luke was a doctor and an excellent writer and researcher. He made it a point to find as many eyewitnesses as he could, to get their recollections, and then to write it all down. Luke introduces his gospel by saying, “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word” (Luke 1:1-2). We have good reason to believe, for instance, that Luke consulted with Mary herself, the mother of our Lord, because the Gospel of Luke includes things only Mary could have known. Luke traveled with Paul to Jerusalem. He had opportunity to meet with the other apostles who were in Jerusalem, to interview them and verify many things with a variety of eyewitnesses. Luke then set down an orderly account of the life of Jesus during His time here on Earth. Luke also wrote the Acts of the Apostles, having witnessed much of it firsthand as a companion of the apostle Paul.

John was Jesus’ closest human friend here on earth. Near the end of John’s gospel, it says, “This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true” (John 21:24).

What a treasure it is that God has given us eyewitness accounts of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ! The apostle Peter emphasized, “We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2 Peter 1:16). The apostle John put it this way, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched, this we proclaim concerning the word of life” (1 John 1:1). John had literally leaned on Jesus’ shoulder, had touched Jesus, and had heard Jesus’ words. Who better to share the truth of Jesus? What a gift!

Testimony from the Holy Spirit through eyewitnesses

It wasn’t just the gift of hearing from these human eyewitnesses. Jesus promised that His Spirit would guide them in exactly how to understand and communicate these things. Mark 3:14 says, "Jesus appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out" (Mark 3:14)  These men were to be with Jesus in a special way. He had other followers, other disciples, but the apostles were to be the authoritative eye witnesses to Him. 

Jesus told those apostles, “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who goes out from the Father, He will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning” (John 15:26-27). From the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, these men had been with him, and the Spirit of truth would testify through them and make the truth of Jesus known in a clear, infallible, authoritative way. Jesus had good friends who had been with Him for all those years as eyewitnesses, and he gave his Holy Spirit to guide them. 

A Final Eyewitness

Then Jesus decided, “I want one final eyewitness. And you know who it’s going to be? It’s going to be my worst enemy on planet Earth. The guy who has decided he’s going to hunt down Christians and kill them. If that guy’s mind can be changed, anybody’s mind can be changed. If that guy can be forgiven, people will know that anybody can be forgiven. If that guy says I’m for real, people are going to have to believe I’m for real."

Saul of Tarsus was on the road to Damascus, continuing his campaign to wipe out Christians. Jesus appeared to him in blinding light and said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you" (Acts 26:15-16). As Paul put it in one of his letters, “Last of all, as to one untimely born, Jesus appeared also to me” (1 Corinthians 15:8). 

Paul was a literal eyewitness to the reality of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was very emphatic that his message came directly from the voice and the mouth of Jesus himself: "The gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ… I did not immediately consult with anyone; nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia" (Galatians 1:11-12,16-17). Paul did not get his message just by listening to other Christians. The voice of Jesus communicated directly with Saul and taught him the things that he would later teach and proclaim to others.

Now, some people say about Paul the same sort of negative thing they say of the Old Testament. They say, “We like Jesus, but we don't like Paul. He twisted the Christian faith. He didn’t give us that cheery Jesus we’d like to believe in. So we like Jesus, but we don’t like Paul.” Here's the truth: if you don’t like Paul, you don’t like Jesus, because Paul heard firsthand from Jesus. Paul's words are the words of Jesus. It’s a mistake to have a red-letter Bible and to think that the words in red letters which came from the mouth of Jesus as the apostles recorded them are somehow more authoritative than the rest of the Bible. Jesus gave the rest of the Bible too. Jesus gave Paul His message.

 When we hear Paul, we need to understand that he is speaking the message of Jesus as it came to him directly from Jesus. We also need to understand that Paul knew more than he was telling us. Sometimes people think Paul made up some things, or he really didn’t know as much as he claimed to know. The truth is that Paul knew a lot more than he told. Paul tells us that he was "caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— and heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter" (2 Corinthians 12:3-4). Paul literally went to heaven and back. Whether it was only in his spirit or in his body, Paul went to heaven. There he was in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when Paul speaks, he’s not saying, “I’m kind of taking a stab at some things here. There’s a lot that I am clueless about.” Rather, there are things Paul knew that he couldn’t tell and wasn’t permitted to tell. Paul heard from Jesus. Paul saw Jesus. The letters of Paul are an overflow of that truth of Jesus applied to particular people in churches and applied to us still today.

Three years after his conversion, Paul met with Peter and James and talked with them. Fourteen years later, Paul met the Jerusalem apostles “to set before them… the gospel that I proclaim… [they] added nothing to me… when James and Peter and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me” (Galatians 2:1-9). Paul had received the gospel from Jesus independently of other people’s input, and yet when he sat down to compare notes with the other apostles who had walked with Jesus, they added nothing to his message. They found themselves to be in complete agreement as to the truth about Jesus and what the word of God was communicating.

Did Paul know that his letters had divine authority?

Sometimes I’m asked, “Did Paul know that he was writing the Word of God? Wasn’t he just a pastor writing these letters to churches and then later on, people thought they were the Word of God? Did Paul really know that his letters had divine authority?” Well, how do those letters start? Paul’s letters often begin with "Paul, an apostle by the will of God." He understood that God had chosen him as a apostle and had given him God’s authority as he spoke the Word. Paul begins one letter like this: “Paul, an apostle by the will of God and Timothy, our brother” (2 Corinthians 1:1). Notice how he phrases it. Paul liked Timothy, and Timothy carried the gospel message, but he was not an apostle. Paul is an apostle whose words have divine authority, and Timothy’s only authority is derived from being based on the Word of God that’s revealed through Paul and the other apostles. 

Paul said, “The things I’m writing to you are a command of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 14:37). Paul called for public reading of Old Testament Scripture, but he also called for public reading of his letters in the churches (Colossians 4:16). He knew that God was speaking through him and that God wanted these writings to be included in the Scriptures.

Paul’s letters were recognized with “other Scriptures”

The apostle Peter recognized Paul’s writings as Scripture. Peter wrote, "Our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them [Paul’s letters] that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures" (2 Peter 3:15-16). Paul’s letters, like other Scriptures, could be twisted, but it’s clear from Peter’s statement that he recognized Paul’s writings as Scriptures. 

Paul quoted from Luke’s gospel as Scripture

By the way, Paul evidently was quoting from Luke’s gospel when he wrote one of his letters. In 1 Timothy 5: 17-18, he says, “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. The Scriptures say, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” [Deut 25:4] and  ‘The laborer deserves his wages.”’ [Luke 10:7]. Paul's first quotation is from the Hebrew Scriptures, but the second statement is not anywhere in the Old Testament. It is in the New Testament Gospel of Luke. Paul is quoting the words of Jesus in Luke's gospel. 

From a very early time, then, the writings of Paul and the gospels were being recognized by the earliest Christians as the Word of God, on the same level as the Hebrew Scriptures that had already been given. Those New Testament Scriptures were in many respects even better because they brought the full light of the coming of Jesus Christ and gave the final account of who Jesus is.

God-breathed and profitable

As we understand how the various books came to be included in the Bible, let's again take to heart what Scripture says about itself. “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:14-17).

That's what all of the Bible books are for: to know Jesus and find salvation in Him; to be taught; to be rebuked, to be straightened out and put on a better path; to go through constant training and developing  in your ability to walk with the Lord and to teach others; to walk with the Lord until you are equipped for every good work and become like your Savior, Jesus Christ.