How and when was the New Testament recognized?

How can a Christian be certain what books should appear in the New Testament?
When Paul mentioned Scripture to Timothy (“All Scripture is inspired . . .” [2 Timothy 3:16 RSV]), he referred to the Old Testament, but even within the pages of the New Testament, we have indications that Christians had begun to regard the Gospels and Paul’s epistles as somehow special. Peter wrote that Paul’s epistles are sometimes “hard to understand.” Nevertheless, Paul’s wisdom was God given, and Peter chided the “ignorant and unstable” who distort Paul’s words as they distort other Scriptures (2 Peter 3:16 RSV). Obviously Peter had begun to realize that Christians had some edifying writings other than the Old Testament works.

The Jews had established that some books—what we call the Old Testament—were clearly inspired by God, while others were not. As they faced heresies Christians also began to feel the need to distinguish between those truly inspired writings and the questionable ones.

Two major criteria used by the church to identify the canon (canon is the Greek word for “standard”) were apostolic origin and the use of the writing in the churches.

When it considered apostolic origin, the church included Paul among the apostles. Although Paul had not walked with Christ, he had met Him on the road to Damascus, and his widespread missionary activity—testified to by the Book of Acts—made him the very model of an apostle.

Each Gospel had to be attached to an apostle. Thus Mark’s Gospel, which was associated with Peter, and Luke’s, which was associated with Paul, took a place in the canon. After the death of the apostles, Christians valued the books’ witness, even if they did not bear an apostle’s name.

Concerning the use of the writing in churches, the guideline seemed to be, “If many churches use this and it continues to edify them, it must be inspired.” Though that standard shows a rather pragmatic approach, logic lay behind it. Something inspired by God will no doubt inspire many worshipers. A writing that was not inspired would eventually fall out of use.

Unhappily, these standards alone could not settle the books of the canon. Many blatantly heretical writings carried the name of an apostle. In addition, some churches used writings others did not care to use.

By the end of the second century, the four Gospels, Acts, and Paul’s epistles were highly valued almost everywhere. Though no “official” list existed, churches had a growing tendency to turn to these as having spiritual authority. Influential bishops such as Ignatius, Clement of Rome, and Polycarp had helped these writings achieve wide acceptance. Yet much dispute remained over Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and Revelation.

Heresy has a way of making orthodox Christians clarify their position. As far as we know, the first attempt at a canon was made by the heretic Marcion, who included only ten of Paul’s thirteen epistles and a heavily edited Gospel of Luke. Later heretical groups would cherish their own special “secret books,” usually ones that had an apostle’s name attached to them.

One early orthodox list, compiled around the year 200, was the Muratorian Canon of the church of Rome. It included most of our present-day New Testament, but added the Revelation of Peter and the Wisdom of Solomon. Later listings would omit one book and leave in another, but they remained quite similar. Works such as the Shepherd of Hermas, the Didache, and the Letter of Barnabas were highly regarded, though many felt reluctant to view them as inspired Scripture.

In 367 the influential, highly orthodox bishop of Alexandria, Athanasius, wrote his widely circulated Easter Letter. In it he named the twenty-seven books we now include in our New Testament. Hoping to guard his flock from error, Athanasius stated that no other books could be regarded as Christian Scripture, though he allowed that some, like the Didache, might be useful for private devotions.

Athanasius’s list did not settle the matter. The Council of Carthage in 397 confirmed his list, but the Western churches were slow to settle on a canon. Wrangling continued over the questionable books, though eventually all accepted Revelation.

In the end Athanasius’s list received general acceptance, and churches throughout the world since have not seriously deviated from his wisdom.


Curtis, A., Lang, J. S., Petersen, R., & Curtis, J. S. L. A. K. (1998). 100 most important events in christian history, the. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker.