Three factors, however, combined to give these books an authoritative position. In the Church services _reading_ was a part of worship. What should be read? A letter of an apostle, a selection of Jesus' sayings, a memoir of His life, an account of the earliest days of the Church. Certain books became favorites because they were most helpful in creating and stimulating Christian faith and life; and they won their own position of respect and authority.
Some books by reason of their _authorship_--Paul or Peter, for instance--or because they contained the life and teaching of Jesus, naturally held a place of reverence. This eventually led to the ascription to well-known names of books that were found helpful which had in fact been written by others. For example, the _Epistle to the Hebrews_ was ultimately credited to Paul, and the _Second Epistle of Peter_ to the Apostle Peter.
And, again, _controversies_ arose in which it was all important to agree what were the sources to which appeal should be made. The first collection of Christian writings, of which we know, consisting of ten letters of Paul and an abridged version of the _Gospel according to Luke_, was put forth by Marcion in the Second Century to defend his interpretation of Christianity--an interpretation which the majority of Christians did not accept. It was inevitable that a fuller collection of writings should be made to refute those whose faith appeared incomplete or incorrect.
In the last quarter of the Second Century we find established the conception of the Bible as consisting of two parts--the Old and the New Covenant. This meant that the Christian writings so acknowledged would be given at least the same authority as was then accorded to the Jewish Bible. Early in the Fourth Century the historian, Eusebius, tells us how the New Testament stood in his day. He divides the books into three classes--those acknowledged, those disputed, and those rejected. In the second division he places the epistles of _James_ and _Jude_, the _Second Epistle of Peter_ and the _Second_ and _Third_ of _John_; in the first all our other books, but he says of the _Revelation of John_, that some think that it should be put in the third division; in the third he names a number of books which are of interest to us as showing what some churches regarded as worthy of a place in the New Testament, and used as they did our familiar gospels and epistles. By the end of that century, under the influence of Athanasius and the Church in Rome, the New Testament as it now stands became almost everywhere recognized.