How the Biblical Canon Was Chosen

The canon of the Bible was not chosen overnight.

Decisions about which books were "in" and which books were "out" in relation to today's Bible usually were not made by a single group of people at a single point of history.

Stages of Canonization

Canonization (selection of which books were put in the Bible) was a process that went through several stages and took many centuries. These stages were not separate but sometimes overlapped:

Biblical Scroll clip art

Composition (manuscripts were written either as a recording of oral stories and teachings or as original documents)
Community (manuscripts were read, circulated, and revised within the religious communities)
Criteria (certain manuscripts became accepted as authoritative scripture within the religious communities-- different groups accepted different scriptures)
Collection (scriptures were gathered together in single scrolls, codices, and later in books-- the physical manner of collecting scriptures also had an influence on canonical decisions)
Canon (a defined group of scriptures in a single collection became accepted by a certain religious community as The Bible-- different groups chose different canons)

picture of book cover
Read an excerpt from The Bible: The Book that Bridges the Millennia to understand further the process of selection of books for the biblical canon.

Biblical Reflections

Choosing the canon that makes up the Bible was not an easy thing. Accounts in Scripture hint at the early church problems, debates, and different interpretations:

James 4:1
1 Timothy 6:3-4
2 Peter 2
2 John 2
Jude 4
Jude 8

What are some of the interpretations of Scripture that people still debate today?
What influences or affects a persons interpretation of Scripture?
What issues would have affected the debates, interpretations, and choosing of the canon?

Take the Highway

Journey Through Time

Whose Canon? Which Bible?: An examination of some of the different biblical canons. Who do you think has the smallest canon? the largest?

Choose a Byway

1. View our online timelines to get an idea of Bible's development and the people and events which helped to bring the canon into being.

2. Ancient biblical manuscripts were written on different materials, such as papyrus and parchment. These materials took different forms such as pages, scrolls, and codices. Around the second century, scrolls were replaced by codices. (Parchment scrolls are still used in Jewish synagogues, however.) A codex was a hand-written book with leaves. Later the codex was replaced by the printed book.

Papyrus
Papyrus (made from an Egyptian plant) was the material on which most of the earliest biblical manuscripts were written. Papyrus scrolls could be as long as 35 feet.

Papyrology Home Page by John D. Muccigrosso. All you ever wanted to know about papyrus and lots of links (some of which no longer work).
From the Duke University Papyrus Archive
Writing in Egypt under Greek and Roman Rule by Peter van Minnen (This article has pictures of papyrus manuscripts)
Dating the Oldest New Testament Manuscripts by Peter van Minnen
Picture of Prayer in Greek on Papyrus This prayer uses the Septugint (LXX) version of Psalms 26 and 41 (click on the smaller image to see a bigger version of it)
Picture of Matthew 1:1 in Coptic on Papyrus (click on the smaller image to see a bigger version of it)

Parchment
Papyrus later gave way to the more durable and expensive parchment (made from leather) as the material of choice for writing down scripture.

Picture of Parchment Scroll Forty-one biblical psalms on one of the Dead Sea Scrolls (click on the smaller image to see a bigger version of it)
Torah Scrolls Information about the parchment Torah Scrolls used in contemporary Jewish worship from the Judaism 101 web site.

Whose Canon? Which Bible?

This study is a resource from:
The Women's Division
General Board of Global Ministries
The United Methodist Church
E-mail: umw@gbgm-umc.org.
Web: http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/

Disclaimer: Some links jump to outside sites for further information on the Bible, interpretations, the canon, translations, manuscripts, resources, and other perspectives. Links do not constitute an endorsement by the Women's Division of the information on other web sites. External web sites offer us diverse perspectives; afford us an opportunity to compare them to United Methodist positions; and, encourage us to critically analyze the issues raised by The Bible: the Book that Bridges the Millennia web pages.