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Abstract

There are many factors that contribute to the questioning of the Bible’s reliability and authority. One of these is ignorance of how the modern Biblical canon was formed. Dan Brown, in his best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code, took inspiration from an erroneous position that the Bible was pieced together by politically motivated members of the Council of Nicaea at the order of Constantine where some books were banned, and others accepted. Holding this view, or others like it erodes the very foundation of the Christian’s faith, and calls into question the relevance of Scripture to modern everyday life as well as its historic reliability and authority as it pertains to one’s relationship and position with God.

Therefore, it is necessary to examine what canonicity is, how (if at all) it differs from Scripture, and how the Old and New Testament books came to be accepted. It will be shown through a brief look at internal evidence as well as documents from the Apostolic Fathers and summaries of the councils that actually discussed canonicity (along with various tests they used to recognize canonicity and authority) that the documents which compose the modern Bible were viewed and accepted as Scripture in their contemporary context, and that the terms “scripture” and “canon” (as pertains to this discussion) are practically synonymous. An understanding of this process should bring great confidence in the authority and reliability of Scripture which is compiled in the modern canon of the Bible.

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