Did The Authors of the New Testament Even Know They Were Writing Scripture?
- Who created the official list of New Testament books and Why?
- Can we add to them? Why do Christians say these books are “infallible”?
- And did the writers of the New Testament have any idea that they were writing “infallible Scripture” when they wrote them?
Part of the Teaching Series at Substance Church called, “Theology for the Rest of Us” – August 2026 by Peter Haas.
Over the years, I’ve wondered: How can fallen human beings ever be allowed to participate in the writing of Scripture? Consider the Apostle Peter who fell back into requiring circumcision and was thus confronted by Paul (see Galatians 2:11). It’s clear that humans like Peter could still make mistakes. So, how can we trust Peter’s letters, or any of the New Testament books for that matter?
Even more, why can’t people add books to the Bible? Who says that we must limit our inspirational books to those presented to us as the New Testament? And I realize that these types of questions can be uncomfortable to ask. Yet, I’ve always told people: Don’t run from your doubts. Take them to the Lord and have him give you a foundation of reliable faith.
For example, let’s say I write a good book on spirituality? Everyone likes it! I mean, it’s REALLY GOOD! I mean, what if 1st & 2nd Peter needs a 3rd Peter, ya know? And I think it’s an important question because a lot of people have tried! Both Muhammad and Joseph Smith (Latter-day Saints) claimed that an angel appeared and gave them more.
But here’s why scholars would say “No.” For starters, the Bible says that anyone modifying the Gospel message is under a curse (Galatians 1:8). And when it comes to adding to Scripture, as Christians, we believe that to write INFALLIBLE books, it requires Apostolic Authority (a.k.a., Apostolicity).
So allow me to point out a bunch of seemingly unimportant details that will suddenly reveal the bigger strategy of God when it comes to the Scriptures. But to accomplish this, it’s critical to understand the difference between the disciples who followed Christ, and the Apostles who followed Christ. For years, I just thought that the word “Apostle” was just a fancy way to refer to the Twelve disciples. But it was far more than just a title. It was a role that was critical in regards to Christ’s plan.
For example, when we read Acts 1, there are a few details that seem unimportant at first glance, yet are critical for understanding these critical doctrines. Acts 1:1 begins…
“In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.” (emphasis mine) Acts. 1:1-2
Notice the specific group mentioned here: The apostles. And Luke adds, “he had chosen.” This group was distinct from all of Christ’s other disciples. And we must acknowledge this distinction, lest we miss their purpose. And Luke continues in verse 3:
“After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.” Acts 1:3 (emphasis mine).
Once again, notice the specific group he gave these proofs towards: “to them,” meaning, his apostles. And skip down to verse 8.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
Now we often quote this verse in ways that are similar to the Great Commission. We often interpret this command to include all of us. We will all be Christ’s witnesses. And this is a fair takeaway. Yet, in the context, it’s also safe to argue that this was a specific statement to Christ’s eleven remaining Apostles. This is why, right after Christ ascends, Luke begins telling the account of how the Apostles quickly began the process of replacing Judas. And why? Peter explains:
“For one of these [disciples—who’ve witnessed Christ’s ministry] must become a witness with us of his resurrection.” Acts 1:22 And Peter suggests that they pick someone who has “been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us”(Acts 1:22).
And after nominating Joseph and Matthias, verse 24 tells us:
“Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen 25 to take over this apostolic ministry” (emphasis mine).
Now, the reason I’m pointing out these subtle details is because, it’s critical we understand that what the Apostles imagined their council of 12 to represent: They were the “witnesses to Christ’s resurrection” (Acts 1:8, 22). And when Judas opted out of this critical ministry, it was urgent to them to appoint someone else who could “be a witness.”
At the risk of appearing obsessed with boring details, I also want you to note that, they only appointed one: Matthias. But why? This obviously implies that the number twelve was important to them. I mean, they could have simply added both Matthias and Joseph and said: “More is better than less.” Yet, they didn’t. They clearly felt that 12 witnesses was the correct way to proceed with the Lord’s plan.
We know this number was critical because, all throughout Christ’s ministry, he re-enacted the stories of the twelve tribes of Genesis and Exodus.[1] Indeed, I read the Gospels a few dozen times before I saw it. But, much of Christ’s ministry was a re-enactment of Joseph, Moses, and Joshua but with perfection. And there were similar parallels between the twelve tribes and twelve Apostles. And once again, the Apostles passed their test, and laid down their lives in service to God.
Therefore, in Revelation 21:14, the new Jerusalem has 12 gates, with the names of the 12 tribes. And the city wall has 12 foundations, with the names of the “12 Apostles of the Lamb” (Rev. 21:14). Thus, we gather an additional clue regarding the function of this Apostolic team: a wall is designed to keep out the wrong people and let in the right people.
Are you grasping the metaphor yet as it pertains to writing Scripture? Their books are “the foundation” to the wall that sorts out “truth versus lies,” righteous from the unrighteous. And to make this metaphor even more clear, in Revelation 22:2 we see the “tree of life” producing 12 kinds of fruit and 12 crops —which is intended to remind us of the tree in Psalm 1. It teaches that anyone who “delights in the Scriptures” is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season. The Apostles are “the knowledge of God” connected to the life of Jesus and his Spirit (streams of water).
And if all of this sounds overly poetic or philosophical, allow me to pull all of these mysteries into one clear picture!
In John 13, Jesus begins the Last Supper. He announces that one of the twelve in the room with him will betray him. (We know there were only twelve in the room because Matthew 26:20 tells us so). And after Judas leaves to betray Christ, the remaining eleven were clearly uncomfortable about Christ’s soon departure. And thus, he reassures their ability to walk in the truth by telling them about the Advocate (Paraclete), the “Spirit of truth.” (vs.17). And then he adds an incredible promise:
“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you” (John 14:26).
Similar to Acts 1:8, we often imagine ourselves as the recipients of this promise—and in a distant way, this is true.[2] But proper interpretation requires that we acknowledge the immediate context and audience where Christ originally spoke these promises. I.e., The purpose of this Apostolic team was to be an infallible witness to Christ’s resurrection. (Infallible means, supremely trustworthy). Christ knew that every last one of them would be martyred. And only one (John) would survive the attempt on his life so as to be the last remaining witness to testify through the “Revelation.” Thus, as John puts it in Revelation 1:1
“The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:1-2).
Once again, the Bible affirms the Apostolic ministry of the twelve: to be God’s witnesses who behold the truth. Jesus told them many times that they would be flogged, hated, and even killed because of this witness and testimony (Mt.10:16-22, 28; 24:9). And immediately after giving his Apostles the promise of infallibility (John 14), he also gaves them the promise of suffering and death (John 16:1-9).
(And on a side note: It’s interesting how we love to include ourselves with the Apostles when it comes to John 14, but when it comes to John 16, those promises “were probably just for the Apostles!”)
Yet, God had a purpose for the suffering of his Apostles: As any trial lawyer could tell you, when a witness gives a “reluctant testimony”—a witness to the truth who suffers for their honesty—this testimony always carries more weight with the jury, as they testify against their own self-interest. Quite simply, the Apostles knew the high cost of being on that special team. And thus, Christ gave them promises “so that you [my Apostles] will not fall away” (John 16).
This promise didn’t mean, they would instantly be thoughtful, patient, and blissfully righteous in every word and deed. “13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth” John 16:13. The expression “He will guide you,” implies that the Holy Spirit will bring them on a journey towards nailing the truth. They won’t have instant clarity and perfection on all issues of theology. But, insofar as it pertains to their Apostolic ministry of bearing witness, they will inevitably end up at “the truth.”
Thus, to sum it up: the doctrines of infallibility and inerrancy were birthed out of Christ’s promise to the Apostles that they would have perfect recall of his teachings (by the power of the Holy Spirit). It’s why the Apostles were so obsessed with replacing Judas with an eyewitness of Christ who was clearly chosen by God.
And remember: Jesus didn’t make this promise to all of us, but specifically to his Apostles—which is why, non-Apostles cannot write infallible Scripture. And the only reason why we accept “non-Apostles” (like Mark or Luke) to write scripture is because, they did so on behalf of an Apostle (Mark was essentially Peter’s Gospel); and Luke was endorsed by Paul—whom many argue was the correct Twelfth Apostle. And even if Paul wasn’t the true “twelfth Apostle,” his letters were called “Scripture” by Peter (see 2 Peter 3:15-16) thereby receiving an Apostolic stamp of approval either way.
Now, if you’re a skeptic, you might be thinking: “Why should I care about any of this poetic sounding theology?” An honest church member once told me: “It’s all great that Jesus made this promise to them. But the real question is: ‘How can we trust that Christ actually did it?’”
And my response was simple: “How can you trust in Christ’s promise for salvation?”
After thinking a few seconds, he responded: “Well, I have faith because, Jesus promised he would die for our sins and rise on the Third Day, which is quite the accomplishment!” And I sarcastically responded: “Exactly! And that’s kinda difficult to do!” I.e., It demonstrates that Jesus operates with a different level of authority than, say, Oprah or Joe Rogan. And this same Jesus, who rose from the dead, (who gave us the promise of salvation), ALSO gave the promise of infallibility to the Apostles. I.e., this entire convo obviously comes down to “Do you believe in the fact of the resurrection?” If so, Christ can certainly fulfill his other promises to the Apostles as well.
This is why, any books that weren’t explicitly written by the Apostles (or explicitly endorsed by them) are not included in the New Testament Canon. They simply do not qualify for Christ’s promises in John 14-16—nor do they qualify as “The Foundation of the Wall” of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:14) which is capable of sorting out “the right from the wrong.”
Don’t Get Me Wrong: Joe and Oprah have done many amazing things. And beyond them, there have been many great Christian books that have great insights that are worth studying. But they don’t have Christ’s resume. And they aren’t writing Holy Scriptures (graphe). And this leads to another question.
Did the Apostles really knew they were writing Scripture? I mean, when Paul wrote letters to various churches, did he have any idea that he was writing “Holy Scripture”? And the short answer is YES.
The Apostle Peter was speaking about Paul’s letters and he writes:
“16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.” 2 Peter 3:16
For starters, it encourages me that, even in Peter’s day, Paul’s writings could be confusing! Even the Apostle Peter found Paul “hard to understand!” But Peter unmistakably refers to Paul’s letters as Scripture (graphe), a word that was exclusively reserved for sacred texts —at a time when death sentences were still given out for tossing around this word lightly. I.e., Paul’s letters were already called Scripture when he was still alive. This wasn’t an authority that was ascribed to these books decades later by adoring fans. This was Peter confirming the “Apostolicity” of Paul’s books. He was showing, in essence, that Paul’s books were a part of “the Wall” of God’s Kingdom (Rev. 21).
But you might object: “Didn’t Paul state that God gives other ‘apostles’ to the church? (Eph.4:11).” And indeed he does! But he wasn’t referring to “Capital A” Apostles—meaning, God isn’t adding to the Twelve. But rather, he was stating that God is still giving apostles to His church “in the generic sense of the word apostle.”[3] Thus, we often use a “Capital A” when referring to the Twelve Apostles rather than the generic five-fold leadership gift of apostle.
So, when it comes to the official list of our New Testament books (the Canon), how did the early church guarantee the Apostolicity of each book? Well, the answer to that question is quite a bit more time intensive than we can cover in this blog. The short answer is that, the Early Church Fathers (a.k.a., the Ante-Nicene Fathers—the disciples of the Apostles) wrote a lot about the things that the Apostles taught them. Indeed, it’s some of the best commentary we have the Scriptures as they give us a lot of keys to interpreting the Bible. For example, the Apostle John discipled Polycarp, who discipled Irenaeus. And Irenaeus basically wrote: “Every Christian knows there are only Four Gospels.”
Thus, when people claim that there were dozens of “Lost Gospels,” we can know with reliability that, shortly after the death of the last Apostle (John), Christians were well aware about which books carried true Apostolicity. Thus, at the Third council of Carthage, (among others), the early church leaders simply “officially verified” the Apostolicity of the 27 books. They didn’t create them. Rather, like a gemologist-jeweler can verify the authenticity of a diamond, the early church didn’t “create” a diamond. They didn’t “create” the New Testament. Rather, they simply verified the books that were clear.
And there are four facts to keep in mind which make this decision quite logical: (1). There weren’t a lot of books in the first place because a singular book of the Bible could cost 3 months wages (eg., up to $18,000). So, books were often purchased by groups. And groups of people naturally scrutinize large expenditures like this. (2). A Christian book could carry the death penalty. So, no one would risk death over a book that wasn’t even written by the Apostles. (3). Although there were devotional books from that era, which were falsely ascribed to Thomas and Barnabus, they weren’t hard to spot as they were filled with words and expressions that the early church could instantly identify. It’d be like watching a documentary about Iphones and blogging in the 1920’s. A modern person could easily identify that neither of these concepts existed before the year 1999. But as the Christian church was rapidly expanding to a Gentile world—with an ever-widening cultural gap— the early church thought it would be wise to officially acknowledge what the Early Church Fathers had already acknowledged: There are 27 books with clear Apostolicity. And this is “the wall” around God’s coming kingdom. Thus, (4). When these early councils officially authenticated this canon, it’s wasn’t all that long after the last Apostle went home to be with the Lord. Yet, it was long enough where, people might start becoming confused. Thus, they thought it wise to simply clarify the basics before churches around the world start getting confused.
Now, there’s a lot more we could say that would go well beyond the aim of this blog. However, if you’re interested, there are a lot of great books you can dive into for further reading. I listed a few of them below.
But the main idea is this: The New Testament isn’t just a collection of spiritual books. It’s the Word of God. It has the ability to change your body, mind, spirit and soul. And if we meditate on them day and night, they can change everything about our lives (Josh 1:8).
So Heavenly Father, help us to live by these Words. And help us to be filled with your Living Word, the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. In your Holy name we pray, Amen.
FOR FURTHER STUDY:
Beale, G. K. The Erosion of Inerrancy in Evangelicalism: Responding to New Challenges to Biblical Authority. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008.
Geisler, Norman L. Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics. Baker Reference Library. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999.
Grudem, Wayne, C. John Collins, and Thomas R. Schreiner, eds. Understanding Scripture: An Overview of the Bible’s Origin, Reliability, and Meaning. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012.
Grudem, Wayne, Leland Ryken, C. John Collins, Vern S. Poythress, and Bruce Winter. Translating Truth: The Case for Essentially Literal Bible Translation. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2005.
Kitchen, K. A. On the Reliability of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2003.
MacArthur, John, ed. The Inerrant Word: Biblical, Historical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspectives. Foreword by R. C. Sproul. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016.
McDowell, Josh, and Dave Sterrett. Is the Bible True . . . Really? A Dialogue on Skepticism, Evidence, and Truth. The Coffee House Chronicles. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2011.
McDonald, Lee Martin. The Biblical Canon: Its Origin, Transmission, and Authority. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007.
Porter, Stanley E. How We Got the New Testament: Text, Transmission, Translation. Acadia Studies in Bible and Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013.
Paul D. Wegner, A Student’s Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible / The Journey from Texts to Translations
ENDNOTES:
[1] Note that in Matthew 1-3, Jesus is forced to travel down to Egypt and returns through water (baptism=Red Sea) and goes into the wilderness (40 days to represent 40 years). And with his twelve (Apostles to represent the 12 tribes), he retraces the steps of Moses’ march to Sihon (at the Transfiguration) right before his triumphal entry into the Promised Land (matching Joshua’s conquest of Jericho going Westward). Thus, the Twelve Apostles were a New Testament fulfillment of the Twelve tribes—hence the numerology of twelve in the Book of Revelation 21: Twelve gates, angels, tribes, foundations, and apostles.
[2] Just like we are Christ’s witnesses (Acts 1:8), we are empowered by the Spirit of Truth (1 Cor. 2:12). I.e., The Scriptures show that, indeed, we are Christs witness and we have access to this same Advocate. But, before these were promises to us, they were promises to them: the twelve Apostles. And, we cannot take away the significance of who Christ spoke these promises towards.
[3] In ancient kingdoms, kings would often send ambassadors to shore up aspects of the kingdom like a regent. Thus, an apostle was a kingdom role: a “sent one” who came on behalf of a king to re-allocate resources, to appoint other leaders, to establish law. They caused the other delegated roles to function as the king required. And in a similar way, apostolic leaders in God’s church are people who have the unique ability to re-allocate resources in a way that causes prophets, pastors, evangelists, and teachers to function well. They are the opposable thumb that enable the other four to operate as the hand of the king.
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