How Did Our Bible Develop?

The Bible was written by 44 authors over a period of 1600 years. It is remarkable - the harmony of the 66 books of the Bible: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New. Why is the Bible so harmonious and consistent in its contents throughout? Because the same mind wrote every book: God.
How did we get our Bible?

The original Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible (the Masoretic Text), contained 24 books instead of 39. The 10 Minor Prophets were combined in one book. Our books of Kings, Chronicles and Samuel were considered one book as well. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah were also considered one book. The form of the Hebrew Bible accepted by Jews in Jesus' day was known as the Septuagint, after the 70 scholars who translated it from Hebrew to Greek in Alexandria, Egypt. The Hebrew Bible was divided into three major sections: the Torah (also known today as the Pentateuch - the first five books of the Bible), the Prophets, and the Writings. These sections were canonized in approximately 400 B.C, 200 B.C, and 100 A.D., respectively.  

“Canon” comes from a Greek word meaning “rod” or “reed”.  It came to mean those books that satisfied early standards for divine revelation and authority: 1) apostolic authorship, 2) universal church acceptance, and 3) divine inspiration.  That Old Testament canon was widely considered settled in the late first century A.D. is confirmed in writings by Josephus, the renowned Jewish historian.

By the end of the first century A.D. the Four Gospels, Acts, and the Epistles of Paul and Revelation were widely accepted as canon.  By the late second century, Clement of Alexandria (180-211) considered all of our current New Testament books except for Philemon, James, 2 Peter and 1 and 2 John canon.  At this point, with the exception of the Gospels, canon was still considered open (i.e. open to the deletion of current and/or inclusion of additional books).  Origen (185-250) was the first person recorded to have referred to the New Testament as the “New Testament”. 

After going through numerous iterations over the next 200 years, with various books included and deleted by Justin Martyr, Tertullian and Eusebius, to name a few, the New Testament, precisely as we know it today, was set forth by Athanasius of Alexandria. This canon was confirmed by the Councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397).  Although controversy over the inclusion or deletion of various books continues to this day, there are no efforts of any significance to delete or add new books to the Bible.