500
Describe the four standards that were used to determine if a book was divinely inspired and therefore included in the Bible. (essay 1)
These four standards helped the Church determine which books God worked on with the human the authors in a special way. First, the book had to have Apostolic Origin, meaning it was based on the teachings of the Apostles. Second, it had to be universally accepted and used by all the major early Christian communities. Third, these early Christian communities had to use the book in their major liturgical celebrations, like Mass. Fourth, it could not teach things that contradicted other books in the Bible.