Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-9-2024

Department

Engineering

Keywords

Bible, Catholic Church, history, authorship

Abstract

What collection of books make up the Bible? Roman Catholics say that there are 73. Protestants say that there are 66. Who is correct, and who decides? After all, the Bible was not written instantaneously as a complete package. There is a history to its formation as a collection of books. A variety of authors wrote these biblical books across multiple time periods. “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets” (Hebrews 1:1). Is the Bible just a man-made collection of books put together based on the personal preferences of superstitious people? After all, some books allegedly only made it into the Bible by a few votes! How do we know that the bishops who voted on these books got it right? These are important questions that we will address in this article.