Process of Canonization of the New Testament
Thursday, December 22, 2022
6:14 AM
Canonization is the process of establishing the collection of definitive writings to be considered scripture.  The people who wrote the histories, songs, prophetic writings, Gospels, letters, and apocalyptic visions that now make up what Christians refer to as "the Bible" probably did not know that they were writing "the Bible" at the time they were writing.  Each of the "books" of the Bible existed and circulated long before they were gathered into scripture.  For Protestants, the canon contains two parts--the First Testament (also called the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible) and the New Testament.  Each Testament went through a process of canonization.  
Leading up to canonization, the books that made their way into canon were copied and circulated.  We have hints of the collecting process even within the scripture itself.  In the First Testament, a creed-like statement appears in Exodus 34:6-7, "The Lord passed before him, and proclaimed, 'The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.'” Parts of this creed-like statement appear throughout the First Testament (e.g., Numbers 14:17-19; Nehemiah 9:16-17; Jonah 4:2).  Later texts (texts written later in the history of Israel) referring to earlier texts in this way suggests some sort of canonization process.     
In 180 BC, Jeshua, son of Sirach, wrote a book of wisdom we call Sirach or Ecclesiasticus. It is found in a collection of books known as the Apocrypha which is described in the next paragraph.  Sirach’s grandson translated the book in 132 BC and  wrote, “Many great teachings have been given to us through the Law and the Prophets and the others that followed them.”  This may be the earliest reference to this three-part division of scripture.  In the New Testament, when Jesus spoke of the “law and the prophets,” for example in Matthew 22:34-40, he was probably also referring to a common understanding of the way the scriptures were organized within his Jewish context.
In the New Testament, Paul may have understood that a single letter might circulate among many congregations (Galatians 1:2; Colossians 4:16).  And 1 Peter 3:15 also suggests that before the canonization of the New Testament, Paul's writings were being considered as "scripture."  These references suggest that Paul's letters were being collected and circulated before the end of the First Century.
The desire to have a canon emerged slowly through the 3rd and 4th Century AD.  The earliest list we have that includes all of the books found in our New Testament today is found in an Easter letter of Athanasius, a church leader in Alexandria, Egypt, dated 367 AD.  Other lists followed which put the books in the current order.  The New Testament is organized by type of literature (much like the Old Testament).  The first four books are “Gospels” or narrative accounts of the life of Jesus.  There’s then one account of the history of the disciples after the ascension of Jesus.  Following this there are several letters by Paul and several letters by various other people.  These other letters are sometimes referred to as general letters or catholic letters.  The word catholic means universal–literally “of or according to the whole.”  Unlike Paul’s letters which have very specific audiences, the general letters seem to be written to more general audiences.   The last book of the Bible is called “Revelation.”  NOTE:  A bit of a Bible geek’s pet peeve but the name of the final book is Revelation (singular) not Revelations (plural).  It’s the Revelation to St. John.   