Can any christians provide some insight regarding the people who selected the books of the bible?

We know that it was men who decided what would and would not be included in the bible. There is the claim that it is somehow "divinely inspired," yet when I look into the people who were supposedly inspired, none of them were what I would call ethical.

As an example Irenaeus made inflammatory statements about gnostics that were obviously bald-faced lies. What about that suggest divine inspiration? Isn't it more likely that books that might support gnosticism were rejected because he hated gnostics?

User2015-06-09T09:12:51Z

Well...Irenaeus died about 200 years before the Biblical books were selected for inclusion in the Bible, so I don't see him as an overwhelming influence in the selection of Biblical books. Whether or not he was led by the Holy Spirit, he was certainly not the person responsible for that particular decision.

A summary of the history of the Western Biblical canon, which might point you in the right direction regarding the people who *actually* chose which documents to include in the Bible.
http://www.bible-reviews.com/charts_timeline_wbc.html

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cuja12015-06-09T08:50:26Z

If you look at King David, he had some rather non-divine inspired moments. He cheated on his wife and had his mistress's husband killed. Something is divinely inspired when God is working through the person. That doesn't mean that the person always allows God to work through them.

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