How did the Bible come about? Really?

Ok, ok, you'll probably say "God" and that's the end of it. I'm not here to challenge that. I'm here to tell you how it happened through history. It shouldn't be a problem, really, since one of the main tenets of Christianity is that God reveals himself to man through history. So there's nothing to fear from a little history. I'll dispense with citations for brevity-- if you don't believe me you can confirm everything on Wikipedia or, better yet, actual historical sources and the writings of the Early Church Fathers. If something ticks your curiosity or if you're lost in a term, just google it. 

The Christian Bible, unlike Islam's Koran or Taoism's Tao Te Ching, did not come along in a singular moment in history. Tradition states that the Koran was dictated to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel, while the Tao Te Ching was written by the wise Laozi. Not so the Bible. The individual books of the Bible (which essentially means a collection of books) were written over the span of a few thousand years by scores of authors. These books, among other books with glowing pedigrees and spiritual value, were eventually selected to be part of the Bible. But how did that happen? It would be great if God just sent us a few stone tablets ala-10 Commandments (which aren't really Commandments if you ask the Jews, but that's another matter) saying, "The books of the Bible are etc. etc." But, no, it didn't happen that way.

As is often the case with Christianity, let's begin with the Jews. The Jewish Bible-- properly known as the Tanach-- is basically a collection of scriptures that can be read in synagogues. The Tanach is composed of the Torah or "teaching" (Genesis-Deuteronomy), Neviim or "prophets" (Joshua-Malachi), and the Ketuvim or "writings" (Psalms-Chronicles). The canon (i.e., list) of books in the Jewish Bible was determined during the Great Assembly (or Knesset; yes, the same name for the Israeli parliament) of scribes and sages some time during the 400s BC-- the Talmud (a collection of rabbinic literature) doesn't really give a precise date.

But the story of the Jewish Bible doesn't end there. At around the same time the Tanach was being finalised, Judaism was expanding and experiencing a split in language use. As Judaism spread from the Levant (today's Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria) to what is today's Greece, Turkey, and Northern Africa, its adherents adopted the lingua franca of the time, which was Greek (there are also the Ethiopian Jews who supposedly rescued the Ark of the Covenant when Solomon's Temple was razed, but that's another story). The Talmud records that Ptolemy II, Egypt's king during the 300s BC, had the Jewish scriptures translated into Greek to make them more accessible to Greek Jews. He gathered 72 elders and put them in 72 separate chambers to translate the scriptures independently-- this was done so their translations could be cross-checked to ensure accuracy, Lo and behold, all 72 elders translated the scriptures identically, proof, says tradition, that God himself guided the translations. And thus the Septuagint (from the Greek word for 70) became the Bible for the Greek Jews. However, the Septuagint also contained books not included in the original Tanach defined by the Great Assembly about 100 years before. Among other books, it also included books by Tobit and Judith, and on the exploits of the Maccabaeus brothers (thanks to whom Jews now celebrate Hanukkah).

Fast-forward a few hundred years when this small but growing sect of Jews in the Levant started believing that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Christ. This religion, Christianity, which was new and quite revolutionary at the time, got more traction among Greek Jews and non-Jews (i.e., Gentiles) than among the more traditional Hebrew Jews in the Levant. So Christianity spread quickly out of the Levant and into present day Greece, Italy, Turkey, North Africa, and even farther away into France, Spain, and India. However, despite being open to Gentiles, the early Christians retained their Jewish practices of reading scriptures and partaking in ritual meals, this time in churches rather than synagogues. Early Christians, less than 500 years away from Jesus himself, also wrote extensively about their religion and the teachings of Jesus Christ, and their writings eventually made their way to churches.

The problem was, there was no agreed list of books that will be read in church. For the Old Testament it was quite easy: since most of them, ex-Jews or Gentiles, spoke Greek they just used the Septuagint. But the Christian books were more dicey. At the time many books were floating around and read in church. There are the familiar four Gospels, as well as the Pauline epistles, the Acts of the Apostles, and the epistles of Peter and James, among others. But also in the church-reading playlist were less familiar books such as the Teachings of the Twelve Apostles (Didache), Gospel of Thomas, Paul's Epistle to the Laodiceans, Apocalypse of Paul, Shepherd of Hermas, the Passions of various martyrs, etc. And some books we know today-- such as Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews and the Apocalypse of John-- were not widely accepted in the early church. So in 397 AD, Christian bishops (from the Greek "episkopos" meaning leader) gathered in Carthage to discuss what books can be read in church; most readers would be familiar with one attendee, Augustine of Hippo. This is what they decided could be read in church:

"It was also determined that besides the Canonical Scriptures nothing be read in the Church under the title of divine Scriptures. The Canonical Scriptures are these: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua the son of Nun, Judges, Ruth, four books of Kings, two books of Chronicles, Job, the Psalter, five books of Solomon [i.e., Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom of Solomon, and Ecclesiasticus], the books of the twelve prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezechiel, Daniel, Tobit, Judith, Esther, two books of Esdras [i.e., Ezra and Nehemiah], two books of the Maccabees. Of the New Testament: four books of the Gospels, one book of the Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles of the Apostle Paul, one epistle of the same to the Hebrews, two Epistles of the Apostle Peter, three of John, one of James, one of Jude, one book of the Apocalypse of John."

Although the canon of the New Testament has been discussed and thrown around previously, the Council of Carthage in 397 was when the Christian Bible, particularly the New Testament, was made official (more or less) and didn't change since (more or less). Note that the proceedings of the Council of Carthage-- the only surviving account of which is the one by Dionysius Exiguus written 100 years after the fact-- did not mention why some books were included, while others were excluded, from the canon of the New Testament. It just lists them as fit to read in church, and that's that. They might have had good reasons to include the kaleidoscopic Apocalypse of John while excluding the instructive Didache, but we'll never know them now.

After the Council of Carthage, a more official and formal pronouncement on the books in the Bible (with requisite seals and stamps) would not happen until more than 1,000 years later, when the Catholic Council of Trent (1545-1563) and the Orthodox Synod of Jerusalem (1672) defined their respective Bibles in response to the Reformation. Martin Luther famously wanted to get rid of seven New Testament books-- Hebrews, James, Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and the Apocalypse (i.e., Luther's antilegomena)-- and the additional books in the Septuagint not found in the Tanach because he disputed their authenticity. Eventually most Protestants would accept Luther's argument on keeping only the Tanach books-- they would call the additional books in the Septuagint the Apocrypha, while Catholics and Orthodox Christians would call them the Deuterocanonicals-- but rejected his dispute with the seven New Testament books, accepting the Council of Carthage's canon of 27 books.

And that's how the Christian Bible came about. Not so much a giant book coming down from heaven on a chariot of clouds, but more a series of decisions by committees composed of old men. Committees composed of old men inspired by God, perhaps.