Why Catholics Believe: 21 Questions Answered by Scripture and the Early Church

Who decided which books belong in your Bible?

A popular answer places the decision at the Council of Nicaea, where bishops supposedly selected the books by vote. It is a tidy story. But there is a serious problem: no surviving record establishes that this vote took place.

And the actual history is far more interesting.

I want us to begin not with a fourth-century council, but with something that was already happening much earlier. Christians were reading apostolic writings, passing them between churches, and receiving them as authoritative. The question of the canon was not simply, Which books should we invent as Scripture? It was, Which writings has the Church received as the inspired witness of the apostolic faith?

Irenaeus gives us a witness before Nicaea

Around the end of the second century, Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons in Roman Gaul, argued for the authority of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Read Against Heresies III.11.8 carefully. He even develops theological symbolism around the number four. We do not have to treat that symbolism as a modern demonstration that four was the only possible number of Gospels. The important historical point is simpler: Irenaeus names and defends these four Gospels more than a century before Nicaea.

Notice what this does to the popular story. The Church was not waiting until AD 325 to hear of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

But that is only our first piece of evidence.

Athanasius gives us a list — and a complication

In AD 367, Athanasius of Alexandria wrote his thirty-ninth Festal Letter. Here we find the earliest surviving Christian list containing precisely the twenty-seven books of the New Testament recognized today. Historian David Brakke also draws attention to the letter's significance for how fourth-century Christians distinguished canonical books from others used for instruction.

Now look beyond the familiar twenty-seven. Athanasius's treatment of the Old Testament is not simply identical to the table of contents of a present-day Catholic Bible. He distinguishes books that he regards as canonical from other writings he recommends for reading and instruction. His list also groups some writings differently from modern editions.

I think this is one of the most revealing details in the whole discussion. A document can be exceptionally important evidence without resolving every historical question in the form we would prefer.

The regional councils of Hippo and Carthage later contributed to the Church's articulation of the biblical canon; centuries later, the Council of Trent formally defined the Catholic list amid a different controversy. These events belong to a history of discernment and authoritative reception. They are not episodes in which bishops manufactured divine inspiration.

What about disagreement?

Some readers may object that differences among ancient lists undermine the Church's claim. It is a serious historical question, and we should not pretend every early Christian author used exactly the same list. But diversity in the process of identifying the boundaries of Scripture is not, by itself, evidence that Christians created the apostolic writings or their inspiration centuries after the fact.

Here is the distinction I want you to keep: writing an inspired book and recognizing an inspired book are not the same act. Catholic faith holds that God inspired the sacred books; the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, came to recognize and receive them. The Catechism identifies the canon in paragraph 120.

So the most remarkable conclusion is not that one dramatic council gave us the Bible. It is that a real Christian community preserved, read, debated, and handed on these writings across generations.

Before we leave this question, open Athanasius's letter. Look at his New Testament list, then his treatment of the Old Testament and the other books he commends for reading. You will see why a careful account of the Church's history is more persuasive than a convenient legend. And you may begin to appreciate your Bible not merely as a finished volume, but as a gift entrusted to the Church through a long history of faithful transmission.

Source links and further verification

• Irenaeus, Against Heresies III.11.8: ¹
• Athanasius, Festal Letter 39: ²
• CCC 120: ³