In general a book, no matter how influential it may come to be, is written by a single individual or a group of individuals working together over a brief period of time -- generally no more than a few years. The Bible which has become the greatest of all books, was written by a wide variety of authors over a period of more than 1,200 years. It was not written as a single work, but in fact is a collection of sacred books, including volumes of law, history, poetry, wisdom, and prophecy.

        The writing of the last Scriptures did not end the history of the Bible as we know it. Once the Scriptures were written, someone had to determine whether or not they were divinely inspired and thus qualified to be considered as sacred Scripture.

        The final New Testament canon, as we know it, was not firmly established until late in the fourth century. This was long after Christ lived upon this earth in human form. To begin with, scriptural truths were passed on by word of mouth. Later they were written down on scrolls. Still later they were copied into books of parchment, papyrus, and finally on paper. Today Scriptures, including the canonized Bible, can be sent electronically on the internet to any place in the world almost instantly.

        Through the ages different religious peoples have considered various numbers of Scriptural writings as being authoritative. For example:

        No one knows how the books of the Hebrew Bible were chosen, but it is fairly certain that the choice of the books was determined by decisions of men. According to the Jewish historian, Josephus, their canon at one time contained only 22 books. It later contained 24 books even though the original canon supposedly could not be changed. Christians, in general, recognize the Hebrew Bible, basically as the Old Testament. They again, however, made changes to the Hebrew Bible canon splitting and renaming a number of the original books. Again there is no indication that this was originated at God's direction. It was again the decisions of men. The canonization of the Hebrew Bible probably took place over a long period of time. Some form of the Hebrew Scriptures was accepted as authoritative at the time of Christ as He frequently referred to passages contained in them. The final canonization of the Hebrew Scriptures was probably complete before the end of the first century A.D.

        It was in the second century before the church decided it should have a Christian canon. It took much longer to decide which Scriptures should be included in that canon. Paul primarily used the Hebrew Scriptures to make his assertions concerning the new faith in Christ. There is no record anywhere that Christ wrote anything down or commanded His followers to write anything down. He commanded the Apostles to go out to teach, preach, heal, and baptize, but gave no commands to write.

        The Gospel was primarily communicated orally. But as time passed and the hearers became further removed from the original oral sources, the church saw the need to write things down in the interest of permanence. The first known instance in which apostolic writings were accorded scriptural stature occurred in the second century when  a gnostic teacher, Basilides, referred to them as "proof-texts" for his arguments. About this same time the church began using the Apostolic writings along with the Hebrew Scriptures when trying to settle internal disputes.

        Because the four Gospels came from different communities (and each told the story of Jesus in a slightly different way), attempts were made to combine them into one set of Scripture. This attempt was completed by Tatian, a Syrian teacher, in about 170 A.D. and was considered to be authoritative Scripture in the church until the fifth century. Since there was no objection to changing the manuscripts by blending these together along with some oral tradition it demonstrates the absence of the sanctity concerning these documents which were later included in the Protestant canon.

        Numerous disputes occurred concerning which Scriptures should be considered authoritative and which should be canonized. Finally toward the end of the second century the church defined what the guidelines should be in order to be included in the canon for the official Scriptures. Notice again that this was a decision of men, not of God. They included the following:

        Today if one tells a main stream Christian that they believe that God may have other Scriptures which He has given but are not included in the canonized Scriptures, they typically quote the following:

        We have long understood that the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament and the twenty-seven books of the New Testament make up God's complete revelation to man. The Bible does mention other ancient books, however. Joshua 10:13 says,

        Among the other books mentioned are the acts of Solomon (1 Kgs. 14:11), the books of Nathan the prophet and Gad the seer (1 Chron. 29:29), and the books of Shemaiah the prophet and Iddo the seer (2 Chron. 12:15). Even more interestingly, Paul mentions a previous epistle: "I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators" (1 Cor. 5:9). Was the epistle telling them not to company with fornicators the original 1 Corinthians? Paul also wrote to the Christians of Colossae, "And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea" (Col. 4: 16). What is the "epistle from Laodicea?"

        Peter warned that some of Paul's writings are hard to understand, and thus were sometimes twisted by false teachers, as "also the other scriptures" (2 Pet. 3:16). Thus he considered Paul's writings to be scripture [inspired writings]. The books accepted in the canon claim inspiration for themselves, and the early Christians verified that ...inspiration by examining their content. These books also received virtual universal acceptance in the early church. Many other ancient books were also considered but rejected from the canon. We rely on the wisdom of the Jews of the first century (not God) to help in deciding which books belonged in the Old Testament canon, and the judgments of numerous early Christians help us in seeing what was accepted and rejected among the writings of the New Testament era.

        Among the books circulated by the early Christians, but rejected from the canon were the fourteen books of the Apocrypha. Philo of Alexandria ordered these books to be translated with the Septuagint, the first Greek language translation of the Old Testament, but the Jews never considered them to be Scripture. Most of the books mentioned above, have been lost with the exception of the book of Jasher which has recently been discovered and is also available to a reader who is willing to look for it.

        The only way to know true Scripture and to interpret it is in the same way it was received and written, by revelation or inspiration from God through the Holy Spirit.

        In the book of Amos it tells us that God will not do anything unless He first reveals His plan to His prophets.

        In the book of Jude verses 14 and 15 there is a direct quote from the book of 1 Enoch 1:9. The book of 1 Enoch is a non-canonized book of Scripture which God has made available to those who look for it.

        Obviously not all writings which may claim to be scripture are really true scripture. How do we differentiate between the true Scriptures and the impostors? The book of 1 John gives us some clues for testing the writings.

        In the studies covered in this web site all of God's Scriptures will be considered and occasionally referenced. The author lovingly requests that you read, study, and ponder these dissertations, then prayerfully seek the guidance from the Holy Spirit in determining your own conclusions concerning them.