Scripture & Tradition
The Canon of Scripture
The list of books belonging to the Bible was not self-evident but was discerned and authoritatively settled by the Church over centuries.
Catholic teaching
Scripture nowhere provides a table of contents for itself; the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, recognized which books are inspired and closed the canon at councils such as Rome (382), Hippo (393), and Carthage (397). The Catholic Old Testament includes the deuterocanonical books found in the ancient Greek Septuagint used by the apostles.
Biblical foundation
Jesus and the apostles routinely quote the Septuagint, which included the deuterocanonical books, and the New Testament nowhere lists which books are Scripture, leaving that discernment to the Church that Paul calls 'pillar and bulwark of truth.'
Scripture references
Historical evidence
The Council of Rome under Pope Damasus in 382 and the regional Councils of Hippo and Carthage produced lists matching the Catholic 73-book canon, which Pope Innocent I confirmed in 405; Martin Luther removed the deuterocanonical books in the sixteenth century.
The Church Fathers
“He will follow the authority of the greater number of catholic churches, among which are those which merited to have apostolic seats.”