Most of my posts lately seem trite or computer-oriented. Work has been keeping me busy and what study I have been doing is on topics that I have written enough on already. There are plenty of spare thoughts but those are not formulated enough to write about.

I was asked by a Muslim today how we can claim the Bible is divinely inspired when Catholics have more books in their Bible than Protestants have in theirs. It is a good question and many people do not know how the books of their Bible came to be collected together. Here is a good, concise explanation from Charles Hodge (Systematic Theology, Volume I, Introduction, Chapter VI, “The Canon”):

<p class="normal" id="iii.vi.i-p7">Before entering on the consideration  of these points, it is necessary  to answer the question, What books are entitled to a place in the canon,  or rule  of faith and practice? Romanists answer this question by saying, that  all those  which the Church has decided to be divine in their origin, and none  others, are  to be thus received. Protestants answer it by saying, so far as the Old  Testament  is concerned, that those books, and those only, which Christ and his  Apostles recognized  as the written Word of God, are entitled to be regarded as canonical.  This recognition  was afforded in a twofold manner: First, many of the books of the Old  Testament  are quoted as the Word of God, as being given by the Spirit; or the  Spirit is said  to have uttered what is therein recorded. Secondly, Christ and his  Apostles refer  to the sacred writings of the Jews  the volume which they regarded as  divine   as being what it claimed to be, the Word of God. When we refer to the  Bible as of  divine authority, we refer to it as a volume and recognize all  the writings which it contains as given by the inspiration of the  Spirit. In like  manner when Christ or his Apostles quote the Scriptures, or the law  and the prophets,  and speak of the volume then so called, they give their sanction to the  divine authority  of all the books which that volume contained. All, therefore, that is  necessary  to determine for Christians the canon of the Old Testament, is to  ascertain what  books were included in the Scriptures recognized by the Jews of that  period. This  is a point about which there is no reasonable doubt. The Jewish canon of  the Old  Testament included all the books and no others, which Protestants now  recognize  as constituting the Old Testament Scriptures. On this ground Protestants  reject  the so-called apocryphal books. They were not written in Hebrew and were  not included  in the canon of the Jews. They were, therefore, not recognized by Christ  as the  Word of God. This reason is of itself sufficient. It is however  confirmed by considerations  drawn from the character of the books themselves. They abound in errors,  and in  statements contrary to those found in the undoubtedly canonical books.<p class="normal" id="iii.vi.i-p8">The principle on which the canon of  the New Testament is determined  is equally simple. Those books, and those only which can be proved to  have been  written by the Apostles, or to have received their sanction, are to be  recognized  as of divine authority. The reason of this rule is obvious. The Apostles  were the  duly authenticated messengers of Christ, of whom He said, He that  heareth you,  heareth me.

You can certainly delve deeper, but the rules that have guided what books are in the Bible are simple and easy to understand.