Why were only 66 books chosen for the Bible out of over 400?

Answer 1

There is a canon or rule by which the books are measured to see if they meet the qualifications for the Bible. Some did, some didn't.

Answer 2

For a multitude of reasons the others weren't chosen. The occasion and main purpose for the church to even decide which NT books were canonical (authoritative) had to do with having a mutually agreed standard against cultic teachings, such as the Lucians (who only believed in the Book of Luke and the Pauline Epistles) and the Montanists (who believed that written revelation was still occurring).

Here are just some of the other reasons: 1) many recorded history incorrectly, especially about Jesus' life 2) many were written with gnostic (a heresy) elements, or some other philosophical bent, 3) many contained or were even complete fabrications, such as false claims to authorship, 4) and many just weren't considered edifying enough by most authority figures for instructional use. It was at the Council of Chalcedon in the 4th century that the early church father Athanasius announced the total to be 73. All of the 27 books of the New Testament that we have today, plus the 46 that were already included and were thought to be canonical in the Septaguint (the Greek OT).

The church did not use the Hebrew massoretic OT text (consisting of the 39 books of The Law, The Prophets and the Historical Books) at that time. It was the Septuagint of the OT that most church leaders read and recited at that time, since most of the church by then was Greek speaking and gentile; not Jewish. The rabbinical Hebrew OT Text was not a typical nor popular source with the ancient fathers, since the church and Judaism were quite separate culturally as religions and by language by then. However, it was the Aramaic and Hebrew OT books, that the intertestamental rabbinical schools only accepted as authoritative; not the intertestamental apocrypha, the apocalyptic nor the pseudopigraphic writings. 7 of these intertestamental books were included in the Septuagint, because of their popularity, especially among the diaspora Jews (Greek speaking), from the 4th century BC through the second century AD. The Greek speaking Jews who became Christians, as well as the gentile converts, continued to use the Septuagint. Although many of the intertestamental books, not just these 7, were considered worthy for edification and instruction in some manner, starting with the intertestamental rabbinical schools, up through the present day, they were never accepted as being canonical among the Jews. The church of the 4th century was either not aware of the difference, or just placed their allegiance in the Greek OT at their disposal although knowing the difference, given the cultural distance and animosity between the church and the Judaism by that time. The Septuagint was their OT text for at least 2 centuries by that time, and not the Massoretic, that consisted of only the 39 OT books that we know to have been accepted as canonical then. So, when church historians throughout the ages kept unveiling this significant difference (some were tortured and killed for not renouncing their understanding of this difference and/or keeping silent about it), as well as translating the Bible into the readers common language (rather than only in Latin), 66 books became the corrected standard for today, in the overwhelming majority of the many translations of the Bible.

It is the denominations that consider the ancient traditions of the church to be authoritative, such as Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, that have Bibles with these other 7 books in their OT canon. It is the denominations (many Bible reading sects before the Reformation, and all protestants afterwards) that consider only the Bible to be authoritative in nature that put their confidence in what was accepted by the NT people of God (the church) as canonical for the New Testament, and the OT people of God (the Jews) as canonical for the Old Testament.

Answer 3

Well,in the early Christian era there were all these opinoins and different views of Christ on earth and his teachings. Some of these people went off in one direction and some in amother. The basic majority came together and formed a Church. See, the basic task of the Apostiles was to preach Christ's message. As the Church evolved there were still these people out there with a diffrent opinion. And they were preaching a different message. By that time, the Church had really grown and the people with a somewhat different point of view had these small groups of followers but nothing like the Church had (and I use the word Church loosely). There were all these writings floating around and people didn't know what to believe. They went to one group of people and they believed this & this & this according to this writing. Then they went to another and it was a different set of writings and beliefs according to someone else. Then you've got the others who had no belief what so ever and just wanted to eliminate all belief. So the main believers had hierarchy who had this meeting to sort this all out. It was called a council. They all investigated these writings. Anything which did not follow the message (as they saw it at that time) was banned. So, that's how we came up with the Books of the NT today. This is not to say that some of the other writings are wrong. They just didn't agree with Christian teaching. I've been to the Nag Hammad Library and there is some good stuff in all these old writings. Some stuff is completely "off the wall". Go to it yourself and research.
As far as the OT. First of all I'm not Jewish and don't really know that much about it. I can only give my thoughts, maybe a Jewish person will come on and give you more info. Jesus was a Jew, he lived and preached to Jews and all of his followers were Jews. The followers brought the Torah (OT) with them to the new religion. The traditoins, the belief's ect. Infact Jesus preached that he did not come to distroy but fullfil the Jewish religion.
So that is my quick, basic answer to the books of the Bible. Didn't mean to go bonkers. Ha! Hope some Jewish person comes on and clears me up on the OT.
My spell check isn't working so please forgive errors.

Answer 4

From 400 AD to 1600 AD and even later, the Bible had 73 Books, not 66.

It wasn't until Martin Luther used the Pentateuch instead of the Septuagint that the Bible had 66 books.

As for those claiming Divine Inspiration... why was it that not a single one of the votes was unanimous? Kinda calls the claim into question.

Answer 5

Before the Vatican revised the Bible, they had a vote on whether they wanted to believe that Jesus was divine or just a prophet. It was very close, but they decided to have Jesus be God too. They then removed all of the books in the Bible that stated otherwise, including books of the Old Testament that said that the Messiah would be a man sent by God, keeping the ones claiming that he was God himself. They didn't want any contradiction to what they were going to teach, even if it was completely bogus.

Answer 6

Because there were never any more than 66 books written for inclusion into the Bible. "Over 400", whew.....where do you find this garbage? No part of the Bible has been left out. The Catholic church did add the Apocryphal books (pseudo-canon, or deutero-canonical) to their Bible in the 1600's.

Answer 7

Because they were not Consistent with Biblical Prophecy, some Books like the book of Barnabas, and Bel & The Dragon were Not considered Authentic. Some Books mention Jesus making Clay birds as a Kid and bringing them to Life..surprise surprise, the Quran has that supposed " event" in its Pages..

Answer 8

The 66 were the only ones inspired of God perhaps

Answer 9

Actually, there were 73 books chosen after much study, prayer and debate among a group of very learned and devout Christians.

Seven were removed later by people who wanted to create their own brands of Christianity. Those books were removed with far less influence than they was originally applied in getting them in.

Answer 10

As in all fictional books !! The Christians need some thing to back up on when found out ?That way they can print the other chapters at their leisure,much the same as the Star wars Trilogy,as that is all the Bible is (FICTION) !!