The Story of the Rabbis

Toward the end of the first century, the last New Testament book as we know it today was written by the Apostle John as he was living in exile on the island of Patmos. But that didn’t mean that the 27 books were ready to go to the printer. Not exactly. First, there was no printer at that time, and secondly, it took another two hundred years for the New Testament church to decide what was the New Testament. You think that it’s tough for folks to agree on things today? It was even worse then! An interesting fact is that no church council ever met and rendered an authoritative decree saying, “These books are in, and those are not!” Universal acceptance of these 27 books was a gradual thing as the Holy Spirit began to bear witness in the lives of godly men and women (mostly men, however, because the women weren’t invited to church councils) that certain books bore biblical authority.