Why were certain writings like The Shepherd of Hermas and The Didache excluded from the New Testament despite being popular in early Christian communities? We have to differentiate what the Bible is, versus what those documents are. The key is what is instructive and what is authoritative?
The Bible is the “Authoritative” Word of God. Meaning that it’s documents reveal inspiration by the Holy Spirit for the authoritative guidance and edification of believers.
The Didache and other early documents, such as the early versions of the Apostle’s Creed are instructive. They have value in that they show us what the early church read, shared, believed and accepted as true doctrines of the church. However, they are not Authoritative.
The scriptures that made it into the New Testament are, like the writings of the Old Testament prophets, actually authoritative, because they reveal inspiration by the Holy Spirit.
The instructive writings have value, but only the Bible is authoritatively the Word of God.
Here is summary of the requirements for how the Christian “Canon of Scripture” was concluded at the beginning:
1) Was the book written by a known and accepted prophet of God?
2) Was the writer authenticated by miracles to confirm his message?
3) Does the book tell the truth about God, with no falsehood or contradiction?
4) Does the book evince a divine capacity to transform lives?
5) Was the book accepted as God’s Word by the people to whom it was first delivered?
The 27 Books of the New Testament were added to the existing canon books of the Old Testament Bible to form what we call the Holy Bible, because they passed these 5 tests. Those books which failed these tests were rejected. Most of the books that failed these tests failed them all. A few are still argued over because some believe they pass some of the test, although they are rejected by the majority because the do not pass all. Those decisions were made long ago by those who had been discipled by the Apostles, and by men who knew men who were discipled by the Apostles personally. They took all of the early writings and gathered them together for this purpose in the early second century.
One additional point that we hold (to the list) which seems to have become necessary to consider in more modern times of scholarship is the cross-validation test. Does the doctrine(s) and points of that book align and agree with the rest of scripture, or not? The “debated” books or documents do not. And what we find is that there is agreement across the whole of the 66 books of the Bible. Introducing other books, we only find contradiction. The sixty six books of the Bible are, quite miraculously, all in agreement – despite being written by 40 authors spanning more than 1500 years, on three continents. They all conclude to one point: God sent a redeemer who paid the price of sin for mankind to be saved. He has a very simple requirement: you must turn to Him, believe Him, and accept His redemption to be saved. No. We cannot change the Bible. There is a curse given, by God, upon all who would add to it or take away from it. This is established three times plainly, and many ways is implied in the Bible itself. All arguments otherwise are from people who are clearly not led by Christ.
What we do assert is that studying all of the books of the New Testament will be life changing for anyone who takes Jesus seriously.
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