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Questions / The Bible

Who decided which books are in the Bible?

Church teaching

Answered on video by Catholic Answers

Video: Who Compiled the Bible—and When? | Catholic Answers, Catholic Answers, published Nov 11, 2025. Checked 10 October 2026. Loads from YouTube (privacy-enhanced mode) only when you press play. Watch on YouTube

In short: The Church did, guided by the Tradition handed down from the apostles. That’s how the list, the canon, got settled. CCC 120

The answer, in writing

Church teaching

The Catechism says it was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings belong in the list of sacred books. CCC 120

That complete list is called the canon: 46 books of the Old Testament and 27 of the New. CCC 120 CCC 138

Our words

No one voted on it in a single meeting. The Church recognized, over centuries of reading them at worship, which books carried the apostles’ faith, and later councils confirmed the list.

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Sources on this page

How we know · 2 Catechism paragraphs
  1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 120, 138 (official text on vatican.va).

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