“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27)
Introduction
In this post I will complete my comments on the New Testament Canon by answering two questions:
(1) Why are the 27 books in our New Testament Canon the right books?
(2) Why was there a need for a New Testament Canon?
The Right Books
As the early Christians were quickly collecting the New Testament books into a canon, how did they know that the books were inspired? Well, the books in the canon were the right books because they had the following characteristics that affirmed them as inspired.
(1) Apostolic Authority
All the books had the authority of an apostle behind them, though not necessarily direct composition by an apostle. They were written by an apostle, or someone with a close connection to the teaching of an apostle. Like the prophets In the Old Testament, the apostles were God’s chosen agents to speak for Him (see Mark 3:14-15), so inspired books had apostolic authority behind them:
| Book | Apostolic Authority |
|---|---|
| Gospel of Matthew | The Apostle Matthew |
| Gospel of Mark | The Apostle Peter whose teachings were recorded by his disciple Mark |
| Gospel of Luke / Acts | The Apostle Paul, whose close associate Luke wrote the books. Luke undoubtedly also had contact with some of the other Apostles in the course of his research to write Luke and Acts. |
| Gospel of John / 1 John / 2 John / 3 John / Revelation | The Apostle John |
| Romans to Philemon | The Apostle Paul |
| Hebrews | The anonymous book of Hebrews was accepted because Christians had good reason to think the author was the Apostle Paul or the unknown author received his information directly from an apostle (see Hebrews 2:3-4, 13:23). |
| James | James, a brother of Jesus who was regarded as an apostle (see Galatians 1:19). |
| 1 Peter / 2 Peter | The Apostle Peter |
| Jude | Jude, a brother of Jesus who was regarded as an apostle. |
So, all the New Testament books collected into the canon had the authority of an apostle behind them.
(2) Antiquity
The New Testament books were affirmed as inspired because the books all came from the age of the apostles – the first century. A number of writings that were highly respected were not included in the New Testament such as the Epistle of Barnabas and another called the Shepherd of Hermas. Christians enjoyed reading these books but it was recognized that they were not from the time of the apostles, and so could not be part of the canon.
(3) Orthodoxy
The New Testament books contained orthodox teaching. They agreed with each other about the person and work of Christ and agreed with the teachings of the Old Testament.
(4) Divine Qualities
This may not make sense to us in the 21st century, but the early Christians believed that if a book was from God then it should contain evidence of its divine origin by exhibiting God’s qualities. Just as we can see some of God’s attributes in His created world around us (General Revelation, Romans 1:20), we can also expect to see His attributes in the scriptures (Special Revelation). Of course, these qualities can only be seen by the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit by those who are believers.
But early Christians would say that they recognized the voice of their Lord in the Scriptures. As Jesus himself declared:
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27 ESV).
So, God’s inspired books would have beauty and excellency (Psalm 119:103); would have power and efficacy that transforms the reader (Hebrews 4:12–13); and would have unity and harmony (Titus 1:2).
(5) Widespread Acceptance by Churches
The New Testament contains the books that gained widespread acceptance among the churches as being inspired scripture, because the Spirit of God was at work in the Church (John 10:27).
Although a few books were temporarily doubted by a minority of churches, no book whose authenticity was doubted by a large number of churches was ever later accepted into the New Testament. 1 The consensus of God’s people is a reliable guide to which books are from Him.
Why the Canon was Needed
Finally, let’s briefly look at the second question: Why was there a need for a New Testament canon?
Christians started with a sacred book, what we call the Old Testament today. It was their Bible. But they also had the teachings of Jesus passed on by the apostles, and direct revelation from God through Christian prophets (see Acts 11:27, Acts 13:1, and Acts 21:10 for example). So, if they had these things, why was the New Testament needed?
(1) To preserve the teachings of Jesus and the apostles.
Jesus taught by word of mouth but never wrote a book. What he said was treasured and repeated but oral tradition could not preserve His words. They had to be committed to writing in order not to be corrupted and lost over time.
What Jesus said and did were written down in accounts called Gospels because they were the good news from Him and about Him. [The original Greek word behind our English word Gospel means “good news”.]
The Apostles wrote Epistles (i.e., letters) to various churches and individuals to teach and admonish them.
The Gospels and Epistles were collected into a canon to preserve the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles.
(2) To counter heretical teaching.
Heretics spurred the church to identify a canon. In order to fight heretical teaching you have to appeal to truth, and truth is found in Scripture. But in order to appeal to Scripture you need to identify which books are part of Scripture. So, early on the church was forced to clearly define which books were inspired Scripture that contained the truth in order to counter heresy.
(3) To define what is inspired truth for ministry and missions.
Christians needed an official list of sacred books so they knew what should be read in church, preached from, and studied. They also wanted to know which books should be translated for foreign missions.
(4) To know which books were worth dying for.
Christians also wanted to be certain which books were worth dying for. They considered it a denial of the faith to surrender New Testament scriptures for destruction when they were persecuted, but would gladly hand over other religious writings, hoping the Roman authorities wouldn’t know the difference.
Do Christians have this view of the Bible today? Would we die rather than turn over our Bibles to the government?
Conclusion
We can have great confidence that the books we have in the New Testament are the inspired books given to us by God because we not only know a lot about the historical processes behind the collection of the Canon, but because God has provided ways for us to recognize the books that are from Him.
Word Focus Lexicon
Lexical Form: ἀκούω
Transliteration: akouō
Gloss: hear, (by extension) listen, understand
Part of Speech: Verb
New Testament Frequency: 428
English Derivatives: acoustic
Strong’s Number: G191 (Link to Blue Letter Bible Lexicon)
ἀκούω / akouō is a common word in the New Testament that is similar in meaning and use to our English word “hear”.
It can denote “to hear the sound of something or someone,” in other words, a purely physical hearing. But it may also indicate hearing in the sense of “understanding” or in a fuller sense, “obedience.” [GED, s.v. ἀκούω.]
In John 10:17, when Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice”, He means that those who truly follow Him understand and obey or act upon what He says.
Notes
1 Ryrie, Charles Caldwell. A Survey of Bible Doctrine. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1972). Pages 43-44.
Bibliography
Beetham, Christopher A., Editor. The Concise New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis. Zondervan Academic, 2021.
Bruce, F.F. The Canon of Scripture. InterVarsity Press, 1988 by F.F. Bruce.
Carson, D. A. and Moo, Douglas J. An Introduction to the New Testament. Zondervan, 1992, 2005 by D. A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo.
Danker, Frederick William. The Concise Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. The University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Ehrman, Bart D. Misquoting Jesus. HarperOne, 2005 by Bart D. Ehrman.
Enns, Paul. The Moody Handbook of Theology. Moody Press, 1989.
Gilbrant, Thoralf, International Editor. The New Testament Greek-English Dictionary. The Complete Biblical Library, 1990.
Gundry, Robert H. A Survey of the New Testament. Zondervan Publishing House, 1970.
Guthrie, Donald. New Testament Introduction. Inter-Varsity Press, 1970 by The Tyndale Press.
Hall, Terry. How the Bible Became a Book. Victor Books, 1990 by SP Publications, Inc.
Hixson, Elijah and Gurry, Peter J., Editors. Myths and Mistakes in New Testament Textual Criticism. IVP Academic, 2019 by Elijah Hixson and Peter J. Gurry.
Jones, Timothy Paul. Misquoting Truth. IVP Books, 2007 by Timothy Paul Jones.
Kruger, Dr. Michael. The New Testament Canon, Video Lectures by Dr. Michael Kruger (https://www.ligonier.org/learn/series/new-testament-canon). Ligonier Ministries, https://learn.ligonier.org, 2025.
Kruger, Michael J. The Biblical Canon, An Essay by Michael J. Kruger (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-biblical-canon). The Gospel Coalition, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org, 2025.
Liddell, Henry George and Scott, Robert. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford University Press. 1940. With a Supplement, 1996.
Meade, John D. and Gurry, Peter J. Scribes & Scripture. Crossway, 2002 by John D. Meade and Peter J. Gurry.
Ryrie, Charles C. Basic Theology. Moody Publishers, 1986, 1999.
Ryrie, Charles Caldwell. A Survey of Bible Doctrine. Moody Press, 1972.
Tenney, Merrill C. New Testament Survey. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1953, 1961, 1985.
Thiessen, Henry Clarence. Introductory Lectures in Systematic Theology. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1949.
Vos, Howard F. Beginnings in the New Testament. Moody Press, 1973 by The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago.
Unless otherwise noted as below, English translations of Bible verses are by the author from the Greek text and are not quotations from any copyrighted Bible version or translation.
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016, 2025 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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