The Best Books on How the Bible Was Formed
The internet’s answer to this question is mostly wrong. The Council of Nicaea did not do it, and neither did Constantine. For a fast version, read our canon log, which writes out the whole history as a commit log. For the slow version, read these.
These are plain store links. We earn nothing from them. How this works.
Most readable
The Canon of Scripture
F. F. Bruce
F. F. Bruce walks through both testaments in plain prose. An evangelical scholar writing carefully, and fair to the evidence.
The standard reference
The Canon of the New Testament
Bruce M. Metzger
Bruce Metzger's book is the one specialists cite, and it collects the actual ancient lists in an appendix.
See the books yourself
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha
Michael D. Coogan, ed.
A study Bible with the Apocrypha included. Reading 2 Esdras in the same binding as Romans changes how you think about this.
One lost book a week
What it says, why it was cut, and which edition is worth your money. Plus the full reading list today.