Can I Trust the Bible? Ep.1 The Right Books

The Christians in the first three centuries after Jesus’ death came to a quick agreement regarding what books did or didn’t have a direct connection with Jesus. First-century Judaism connected its understanding of scripture with God’s promises of deliverance and redemption. We see within the New Testament that, at that time, they were “looking for the Messiah” (John 1:41), waiting for “the redemption of Jerusalem,” and the “restoration of the Kingdom” (Luke 2:25, 38). In other words, the Jews within Jesus’ day did not view scripture as being complete. Rather, the story of Hebrew scripture (the Old Testament) was read within their day as a story in search of a conclusion. This set the stage for the writing of the New Testament books being that conclusion. Jesus established the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31), and the natural question for the Jews of his day would have been “Here is the fulfillment of the promises of deliverance and redemption, so, where are the books?”

The Gospels and the Epistles of Paul positioned themselves at the nucleus of the New Testament scriptures. Christians did not pick or vote on which writings had the authority to grant them scriptural/canonical status but recognized the authority these documents already possessed. There was a conscious recognition that, when Jesus breathed on his disciples (John 20:22) and they received the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ authority was given to the Apostles. Therefore, only the books associated with having a direct relationship with this immediate Jesus group could even begin to be considered as holding scriptural status. The 27 books we call the New Testament are those books that were recognized as possessing this unique and inspired position.

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