Q: I have 2 questions regarding the creation of the Bible: The first is did the writers of the letters in the New Testament consider their works to be "scripture" when they said that all scripture was the word of God, that it was inspiried? The second question was how have the choices made when defining the Cannon played into this? Is there a good book you could point me too on that subject?

A: You are asking good questions about how the Bible was put together. First of all, it is clear that the writers of the New Testament books did consider their own letters and the letters of their peers to be inspired by God. Although the claim in 2 Tim. 3:16 that "all Scripture is inspired by God" does immediately refer to the books of the Old Testament, it may also refer to the New Testament books that already existed during that time. When we look at the letters of the New Testament we can see that men like Paul, Peter and John all make clear claims that their letters were indeed God's words given through them (See 1 Cor. 14:37; 1 Tim. 5:18; 1 Thess. 2:13; 2 Pet. 1:20-21; 2 Pet. 3:15-16; 1 John 1:1; 1 John 4:6). In regards to your second question about who determines what books are included in the Bible and on what grounds, there is a rather simple explanation. Based on some basic criteria the church fathers were able to determine which books were inspired by God and therefore included in the canon of Scripture and which ones weren't and thus left out. The first criterion is whether the book was written by a recognized prophet/apostle or by an associate of a prophet/apostle. The second criterion was whether the book tells the truth and harmonizes with the rest of recognized Scripture. And the third criterion is whether the message itself evidences the supernatural power of God. The books that match this criteria were considered for inclusion while the books that fell short were excluded. This is the reason why the Apocrypha has been excluded from the canon. Because the Apocrypha tells fables and is full of errors and contradictions it consequently was rejected by the early church fathers and subsequent councils. Now, there is alot more to consider on this subject, so for further study I recommend reading "The Origin of the Bible" edited by Philip Comfort. This resource is a comprehensive collection of articles written by biblical specialists, and I have found it to be very helpful in my own research.

Other Questions...