The Big Questions About the Bibleናሙና

Why Were Many Ancient Christian Writings Left Out of the Bible?

I’ve often found people who ask why some Christian writings were left out of the Bible have some conspiracy theory in mind. Typically, in these conspiracy theories, the piece’s villain is the Roman Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicaea around three centuries after Jesus. He is said to have decided which book should go into the Bible.

The problem with this theory is that neither Constantine nor the Council of Nicaea ever had anything to do with deciding which book should be in the Bible. It’s simply not true.

The Bible’s books had already been decided long before then by the next generation after Jesus. The core list of the New Testament had already been agreed on by accepted tradition, and that was long before Emperor Constantine.

Those first Christians applied some quite reasonable criteria for why they included some books in the New Testament and why they rejected them. They wanted to make sure the books were written by people who had known Jesus and whose writings were based on eyewitnesses. They wanted to make sure the books were recognized and respected across the Christian churches, and they didn’t contradict the already authoritative texts.

Many writings were going around in early Christianity, but the problem with many of them was that their authorship was either dubious or considered to be outright fakes. They were often written by people who wanted to push their personal views about Jesus and his teachings. They wanted to hijack the Christian faith. These writings tended to have been written later, usually much later, than the books accepted as part of the New Testament. That was a bit of a giveaway.

It wasn’t hard for the early Christians to know which were the authentic books of the Bible and which weren’t because the authentic ones had been accepted. They originated from the apostles and agreed to the essential teachings of Christianity. The fake ones didn’t.

Later, when church leader gatherings produced official lists of New Testament books, they rubber-stamped what churches worldwide had already recognized and used as inspired scriptures, which means you can have confidence that what’s in the New Testament is intended to be there. The New Testament is God-inspired writings, which tells us about Jesus and his message.

– Eliezer Gonzalez