Who Decided Which Books of the Bible Made the Final Cut?

In truth, there was no single church authority or council that convened to rubber stamp the biblical canon (official list of books in the Bible) — not at Nicea or anywhere else in antiquity, explains Jason Combs, an assistant professor at Brigham Young University, specializing in ancient Christianity.

"Dan Brown did us all a disservice," Combs says. "We don't have evidence that any group of Christians got together and said, 'Let's hash this out once and for all.'" (The Council of Nicea was convened to resolve a religious matter unrelated to the books of the Bible.)

What evidence scholars do have — in the form of theological treatises, letters and church histories that have survived for millennia — points to a much longer process of canonization. From the first through the fourth centuries and beyond, different church leaders and theologians made arguments about which books belonged in the canon, often casting their opponents as heretics.

Various people wrote the books that make up the Bible over a period of more than 1,000 years, between 1200 B.C.E. and the first century C.E. The Bible contains a variety of literary genres, including poetry, history, songs, stories, letters and prophetic writings. These were originally written on scrolls of parchment, as opposed to being encapsulated in "books" as we think of them today. (Remember, the printing press wasn't invented until 1440.)

Over time, the books that were deemed authentic and authoritative by the communities who used them were included in the canon, and the rest were discarded. Although the bulk of that editing work ended in the late 300s, the debate over which books were theologically legit continued until at least the 16th century when church reformer Martin Luther published his German translation of the Bible.

Luther had issues with the book of James, which emphasized the role of "works" alongside faith, so he stuck James and Hebrews in the back of the Bible alongside Jude and Revelation, which he also thought were questionable. Combs says that in Luther's original Bible, those four books don't even appear in the table of contents.

Eusebius was a Christian historian writing in the early 300s who provided one of the early lists of which books were considered legit and which were borderline bogus.

Eusebius broke his list down into different categories: recognized, disputed, spurious and heretical. Among the "recognized" were the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), Acts and Paul's epistles. Under "disputed," Eusebius included James and Jude — the same books Luther didn't like — plus a few others that are now considered canon, like 2 Peter, 2 John and 3 John.

Eusebius take on the "spurious" and "heretical" categories gives us a glimpse into just how many other texts were in circulation in the second and third century C.E. Have you ever heard of the Apocalypse of Peter, the Epistle of Barnabas or the Gospel of Thomas? Combs says that there were hundreds of texts similar to those found in the New Testament and Old Testament that didn't make it into the canon.

Why did some books make the cut and not others? Combs cites three criteria that early church leaders used.

"That last reason is so interesting, of course, because 'current Christian teaching' changed over hundreds of years," Combs says.

While it's not true to say that a single church council ruled on which books to include in the canon, it's fair to say that over those first few centuries of theological debate, the winners got to decide which books would stay and which had to go.

The Old Testament is the first part of the Bible, starting with the creation of humankind and delving into the influence of God's judgment, major prophets, minor prophets, the history of ancient Israel, the Promised Land and God's relationship with people. This includes Genesis, Judges, Psalms and Wisdom books — and King David, Moses and Abraham are a few of the key figures.

The Jewish faith focuses on the Old Testament, with the Torah compiling Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The New Testament is the second part of the Bible, which follows the life of Jesus Christ, and features the Holy Spirit, Mary, Joseph and Matthew. It includes Matthew, Mark, Acts and Revelation.

It's important to mention that not all Christian denominations consider the same books to be canon. Most Protestant Bibles have 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. The Roman Catholic Bible has 73 books, including the seven known as the Apocrypha. And the Ethiopian Orthodox Church includes 81 total books in its Bible, including pseudepigrapha like 1 Enoch and Jubilees.

The word "apocrypha" comes from the Greek for "hidden" or "secret." It's a little confusing because the word "apocrypha" is used in a couple of different ways when talking about books outside of the standard biblical canon.

First, there's the category of "New Testament Apocrypha," which includes a long list of noncanonical texts written mostly in the second century C.E. and beyond that pertain to Jesus Christ and his apostles. As Combs says, there are hundreds of these texts and we don't have written specimens for all of them.

Then there's a subset of Old Testament books that are included in the Roman Catholic Bible. These seven books, including Tobit, Judith and 1 & 2 Maccabees, are published between the Old and New Testaments in the Catholic Bible and called "the Apocrypha" or sometimes the "Deuterocanon," which means "second canon."

And then there's a third category called "pseudepigrapha" from the Greek for "false author." This list includes more than 50 texts written between 200 B.C.E. and 200 C.E. by both Jewish and Christian writers expanding on stories and characters from the Old Testament. Notable Old Testament pseudepigrapha include 1 Enoch, Jubilees and the Treatise of Shem.

Many of the New Testament texts familiar to Christians today were being used authoritatively already in the second century, but different congregations preferred some texts over others and included some texts that don't appear in the New Testament. Here are a few:

The Gospel of Peter

Only a fragment of this text was recovered in 1886 in Egypt, but it includes the only narrative account of the resurrected Jesus leaving his tomb. According to Peter's version, two giant angels descended to the tomb and escorted the resurrected Jesus, who was also suddenly gigantic. But the oddest note was that the three figures were followed by a floating cross that could talk.

"And they heard a voice from the heavens, saying, 'Thou hast preached to them that sleep.' And a response was heard from the cross, 'Yea.'"

The Gospel of Mary

Combs says that some apocryphal texts reflected theological and doctrinal debates going on within the early church, such as the role of women. In the Gospel of Mary (discovered in the late 19th century), Mary Magdalene is not only referred to as one of Jesus's disciples but perhaps his favorite one.

In this text, after Jesus' resurrection, he relays esoteric teachings to Mary, who then tells the other disciples. Peter asks why they should listen to a woman, to which another disciple Levi [Matthew] responds:

"If the Savior made her worthy, who are you then, for your part, to cast her aside? Surely the Savior knows her full well. That is why he has loved her more than us."

1 Enoch

Purportedly written by the ancient prophet Enoch before the time of Noah, this text was well-known to early Christians like third-century theologian Tertullian and quoted as authoritative scripture.

The text is famous for its description of the "Watchers," fallen angels mentioned briefly in the Old Testament book of Genesis. These angels lusted after human women and came down to Earth to be with them, creating giant offspring. In 1 Enoch, these angels also introduce evil into the world in the form of weapons, magic and sexy makeup.