who chose the books for the bible? i saw a show where they have found?

Question

books by Mary and others. Why were these not included in the bible. My husband says there are no other books. how can i prove to him there are? Most books of the bible were written several hundred years after the death of Jesus. Where did they get their reference?

Answer 1

Question: "How and when was the canon of the Bible put together?"
Answer: The term "canon" is used to describe the books that are divinely inspired and therefore belong in the Bible. The difficult aspect of determining the Biblical canon is that the Bible does not give us a list of the books that belong in the Bible. Determining the canon was a process, first by Jewish rabbis and scholars, and then later by early Christians. Ultimately, it was God who decided what books belonged in the Biblical canon. A book of Scripture belonged in the canon from the moment God inspired its writing. It was simply a matter of God convincing His human followers which books should be included in the Bible.
Compared to the New Testament, there was very little controversy over the canon of the Old Testament. Hebrew believers recognized God’s messengers, and accepted their writings as inspired of God. There was undeniably some debate in regards to the Old Testament canon. However, by 250 A.D. there was nearly universal agreement on the canon of Hebrew Scripture. The only issue that remained was the Apocrypha…with some debate and discussion continuing today. The vast majority of Hebrew scholars considered the Apocrypha to be good historical and religious documents, but not on the same level as the Hebrew Scriptures.
For the New Testament, the process of the recognition and collection began in the first centuries of the Christian church. Very early on, some of the New Testament books were being recognized. Paul considered Luke’s writings to be as authoritative as the Old Testament (1 Timothy 5:18; see also Deuteronomy 25:4 and Luke 10:7). Peter recognized Paul’s writings as Scripture (2 Peter 3:15-16). Some of the books of the New Testament were being circulated among the churches (Colossians 4:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:27). Clement of Rome mentioned at least eight New Testament books (A.D. 95). Ignatius of Antioch acknowledged about seven books (A.D. 115). Polycarp, a disciple of John the Apostle, acknowledged 15 books (A.D. 108). Later, Irenaeus mentioned 21 books (A.D. 185). Hippolytus recognized 22 books (A.D. 170-235). The New Testament books receiving the most controversy were Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 John, and 3 John. The first “canon” was the Muratorian Canon, which was compiled in (A.D. 170). The Muratorian Canon included all of the New Testament books except Hebrews, James, and 3 John. In A.D. 363, the Council of Laodicea stated that only the Old Testament (along with the Apocrypha) and the 27 books of the New Testament were to be read in the churches. The Council of Hippo (A.D. 393) and the Council of Carthage (A.D. 397) also affirmed the same 27 books as authoritative.
The councils followed something similar to the following principles to determine whether a New Testament book was truly inspired by the Holy Spirit: 1) Was the author an apostle or have a close connection with an apostle? 2) Is the book being accepted by the Body of Christ at large? 3) Did the book contain consistency of doctrine and orthodox teaching? 4) Did the book bear evidence of high moral and spiritual values that would reflect a work of the Holy Spirit? Again, it is crucial to remember that the church did not determine the canon. No early church council decided on the canon. It was God, and God alone, who determined which books belonged in the Bible. It was simply a matter of God convincing His followers of what He had already decided upon. The human process of collecting the books of the Bible was flawed, but God, in His sovereignty, despite our ignorance and stubbornness, brought the early church to the recognition of the books He had inspired.

Answer 2

The books to be included in the bible were chosen by various councils over the last 2,000 years, at least in the New Testament. The Old Testament, the Tenakh, was established before Jesus was born.

There are many reasons why certain books are not included. For example, the Book of Mary is a more recent discovery and an unreliable one. We have no way of knowing if some nutcase thought she was Mary 300 years after Mary even lived and wrote it. In the case of books like that they are compared to the current books for similarities. Differences don't mean that they aren't real, but no similarities can.

Other books, such as the 1 & 2 Macabees are included in the Catholic Bible (as well as some Orthodox denominations) in a section between the Testaments called the Apocypha. Technically the word apocrypha means anything that falls outside the canon (or estalbished Testaments), but the official Apocropha only includes a handful of them.

Answer 3

Began with the First Council of Nicaea. However, it isn't really that simple because these writings were in circulation and recognized long before this. It was only when new writings began to creep in that the decision was made to pin down what really had authority.

So to simplify, the books of the New Testament were chosen based on if they were actually writings of the Apostles. Others were rejected for lack of authority. Actually the NT books are arranged in order of authority not chronological. There was a very strict criteria for inclusion and Revelation (a disputed book) almost didn’t make it and some still feel it shouldn’t have been included. For example the Greek Orthodox Church does not include the book. And Martin Luther only included it as an appendix to his translation.

Strangely most of the books of the NT are really just letters which is what gave them validity. They were not written to become religious texts while most of the rejected books were attempting to be religious in nature.

OT books were handed down using a very strict system controlled by scribes that would burn an entire page if even a single punctuation error was found. The dedication to these manuscripts was extremely strict and thus the dead sea scrolls matched what we already had.

Here is some useful information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_canon

Answer 4

There's a book called 'The Gnostic Gospels' that can be found in just about any bookstore. There were a lot of texts around and there were two types of Christians forming. Gnostic and 'literal' (I think they were what the original Catholics were-today's Catholics are probably too liberal for them :-) ) Anyway, Constantine decided to promote the Christian religion b/c it believed in one God (which, coincidentally, fit in with his desire to be the ONLY ruler of the Roman Empire-there were always four before then) so he created the Council of Nicaea so that a group of bishops could decide what texts were to be included as the Bible/New Testament (he needed them not to be split since that would weaken the religion). They also had to decide if Jesus was a son of God or God inside a human body. I think the texts were written after but not by 300-400 hrs...A shorter time but that book probably has more info.

Answer 5

There was the Torah or what we call the old testament. There were the books wrote by Jesus' disciples and their followers. Then there were almost 300 others wrote by gnostics and others who wanted to start their own religions. Constatine in 325ad started a state religions and chose books that were accepted as "true" texts. Most of the 300 books wrote by others were discounted. Several books were not included that probably should have like Josephus.

Many books that Constatine did not include were copied and used to make the Koran 300 years later.

Answer 6

The Biblical cannon was actually chosen at several councils after the council of Nicea, but that's a good enough place to start your research because all the councils where held in about the same way.

A bunch of Bishops and various church leaders got together under the direction of Emperor Constantine, had their debates, and voted. Many doctrines, and choice of what scriptures would be included or excluded came about this exact way during this era of Christianity.

Answer 7

particularly each lifestyle does no longer have a savior nor a e book that asserts that's the single real direction. That seems to be particularly unique to the YHWH-based faiths. my own faith equipment says that there is not any single direction for all, we do not have or want a "savior" provided that we are able to all take duty for our strikes the two good and undesirable as there is not any forgiveness or unique sin theory. We even have not got a "devil", so saving us from that is out besides. particular, there are a number of faith paths, yet you will locate that even those human beings who're very non secular, fundie like even, in our non-YHWH paths won't quote from any of writings to those exterior our faith direction. We do such issues in basic terms as a reminder to those who're on the comparable direction of the behavioral rules and advice we've been given via our deities and we are completely conscious they are lifestyle particular and not usual. you will think of you would be attentive to that, Elin, being a Norse woman and all. ;-p

Answer 8

I hope this can help.
The First Council of Nicaea, held in Nicea in Bithynia (in present-day Turkey), convoked by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325, was the first ecumenical[1] conference of bishops of the Christian Church
The purpose of the council was to resolve disagreements in the Church of Alexandria over the nature of Jesus in relationship to the Father; in particular, whether Jesus was of the same substance as God the Father or merely of similar substance

Answer 9

God and biblical scholars
Billy Graham says they were written no more than 75 yrs after Jesus!

Answer 10

It all a bunch of b. s. There are only one sourse of delicous heavenly knowledge and that is the Tanach. Any thing else is B.S.