The Bible in its entirety has 66 books. 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament. The entire collection of these books are also known as “The Canon of Scripture.” The word canon came from the root word reed. [The English word cane, Hebrew word ganeh, and Greek word kanon.] The reed was used as a measuring rod, and came to mean “standard.”

The test or process by which books were accepted as canonical:

1. Is it authoritative – Does this book come with a divine “Thus says the Lord.”

2. Is it prophetic- Was it written by a man of God.

3. Is it authentic- the early church fathers had the policy, “If in doubt, throw it out.” The message cannot contradict God. 2 Corinthians 1:17-18.

4. Is it dynamic- “If the message of a book did not effect its stated goal, if it did not have the power to change a life, the God was apparently behind its message.” – Norman Geisler

5. Is it accepted and used- Was it accepted by the people of God. 1 Thessalonians 2:13.

Why was there a necessity to form a canon and decide what was the true inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God?

1. The Rise of Heretics- as early as the mid 2^nd century, the heretic known as Marcion developed his own canon and spread it around.

2. Missions – “Christianity had spread rapidly to other countries, and there was the need to translate the Bible into those other languages. As early as the first half of the second century the Bible was translated into Syriac and Old Latin. But because the missionaries could not translate a Bible that did not exist, attention was drawn to the question of which books really belonged to the authoritative Christian canon.”-Norman Geisler

3. Persecution- The edict of Diocletian (A.D. 303) called for the destruction of the sacred books of the Christians. Who would die for a book that was perhaps religious, but not sacred? Christians needed to know which books were truly sacred. [Josh McDowell The New Evidence that Demands A Verdict, p.23]

Jesus agreed with and taught the Old Testament. There is no indication in Scripture that He disagreed with the formation of the Old Testament.

Luke 24:44- Jesus told His disciples in the upper room, “That all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the Law of Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms concerning Me.”

Luke 11:51- “From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah.” Jesus confirms His witness to the extent of the Old Testament. Abel was the first martyr in Scripture (Genesis) and Zechariah was the last in the Hebrew order of the Old Testament (2 Chronicles 24:21). Jesus basically said from Genesis to Chronicles, which according to our order, is from Genesis to Malachi.

Other New Testament Sources

2 Timothy 3:15-16

Colossians 4:16

Why not include the Apocrypha (means “hidden or concealed”) or other books?

In the fourth century Jerome was the first to call these writings “Apocrypha”. The Apocrypha consists of the books that were added to the Old Testament by the Roman Catholic Church but the Protestants say are not canonical.

Historical Testimony of Their Exclusion [New Evidence That Demands A Verdict, p.40]

1. Philo, Alexandrian Jewish philosopher (20 BC- AD 40). Quoted the OT prolifically and even recognized the threefold division, but he never quoted from the Apocrypha as inspired.

2. Josephus (AD 30- 100), Jewish historian, explicitly excludes the Apocrypha, numbering the books of the OT as 22. Neither does he quote these books as Scripture.

3. Jesus and the NT writers never once quote the Apocrypha although there are hundreds of quotes and references to almost all of the canonical books of the OT.

4. The Jewish scholars of Jamnia (AD 90) did not recognize the Apocrypha.

5. No canon or council of the Christian church for the first four centuries recognized the Apocrypha as inspired.

6. Many of the great fathers of the early church spoke out against the Apocrypha, for example, Origen, Cyril of Jerusalem, and Athanasius.

7. Jerome (340-420), the great scholar and translator of the Vulgate, rejected the Apocrypha as part of the canon. He disputed across the Mediterranean with Augustine on this point. He at first refused even to translate the Apocryphal books into Latin, but later he made a hurried translation of a few of them. After his death, and literally over his dead body, the Apocryphal books were brought into his Latin Vulgate directly from the Old Latin Version.

8. Many Roman Catholic scholars through the Reformation period rejected the Apocrypha.

9. Luther and the Reformers rejected the canonicity of the Apocrypha.