History question

[Binary]

So, I’m terrible with history. If you want to just throw some links at me, that’s fine. It’s my understanding that generally the church is reactive instead of proactive when it comes to heresy. Given this reactive disposition, would it be fair to say that the creation of the bible (in other words, deciding which books would make up the canon) was done as a response to heresy?

 

[Church_Militant]

To some degree. Gnosticism was one such case where there are apocryphal writings that are heretical.

Of course it was more involved than just that.

 

[DavidFilmer]

would it be fair to say that the creation of the bible (in other words, deciding which books would make up the canon) was done as a response to heresy?

Yes.

The Canon of the Bible was never formally promulgated as a doctrine of the Church until the Council of Trent in the 16th Century. It had never been necessary to define it prior to the 16th Century - there was not any serious doubt among the Christian Faithful. Then Martin Luther came along and tossed out a bunch of books, so it was necessary for the Church to teach the Canon in a definitive manner.

If Luther had never tossed out those books, the Canon of Scripture would still not be formally defined (but everybody would know what it was).