Canon of Scripture

The canon of Scripture is the authoritative collection of books recognized by the church as constituting the written Word of God. The word canon (Greek kanon, "rule" or "straight rod") was applied to Scripture in the 4th century A.D. to describe the recognized list of books that serve as the normative rule of Christian faith and practice. The OT canon was essentially fixed within Judaism before the NT period — Jesus and the apostles cite books from the Law, Prophets, and Writings as authoritative Scripture, without debating their canonical status.

The NT canon developed through the 1st–4th centuries. The criteria for canonical recognition included: apostolic authorship or authorization, catholicity (recognition across the church), and doctrinal consistency with the rule of faith. The Council of Carthage (A.D. 397) formally listed the 27 books of the NT as canonical. Protestants follow a 66-book canon (39 OT + 27 NT), while Roman Catholics include 7 additional deuterocanonical books in the OT. The canon is not a human creation but the church's recognition and ratification of what God had already inspired (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:21).