Did Jews Know Their Bible Without an Infallible Church? (Romans 3:2)

October 21, 2026

A popular Protestant argument asks a sharp question: how did a faithful Jew fifty years before Christ know that Isaiah and 2 Chronicles were Scripture? He had no pope and no infallible council, yet God held him accountable to the Scriptures. So, the argument concludes, God's people can know His Word without an infallible Church, and the Catholic claim that we need the Church to know the canon collapses. Look closely at Israel, though, and the argument points the other way.

Short answer: The argument assumes that every Jew before Christ shared one fixed, closed list of sacred books. He did not: Sadducees, Pharisees, the Qumran community and Greek-speaking Jews did not all hold the same collection. What Israel did have was a living, God-appointed authority: priests, judges and the "chair of Moses," which Jesus told the crowds to heed. St. Paul says the Jews "were entrusted with the utterances of God" (Romans 3:2): a community guarded the Scriptures. Christ then promised His Church more than Israel ever had, the Spirit to "guide you to all truth." That Church, which discerned the 27 books of the New Testament, is the Catholic Church.

Key verses on Scripture and the community that guards it

"Much, in every respect. [For] in the first place, they were entrusted with the utterances of God." (Romans 3:2)
"The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example." (Matthew 23:2–3)
"For a priest's lips preserve knowledge, and instruction is to be sought from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts." (Malachi 2:7)
"He replied, 'How can I, unless someone instructs me?'" (Acts 8:31)
"Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures." (Luke 24:27)
"the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth." (1 Timothy 3:15)

What Protestants Believe

The classic Reformed statement is the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646): the authority of Scripture "dependeth not upon the testimony of any man, or church" (1.4). Yet the Confession honors the Church's witness: "We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the church to an high and reverent esteem of the Holy Scripture." But full assurance "is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts" (1.5). And "The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration," are excluded (1.3).

The argument from the Old Testament Jew builds on this. At its strongest:

The Jews knew their Scriptures. They were entrusted with God's "oracles," as many translations render Romans 3:2.
God held them accountable to those Scriptures. Jesus told the Sadducees, "You are misled because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God," and asked, "have you not read what was said to you by God" (Matthew 22:29, 31). He spoke of "everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms" (Luke 24:44).
Yet there was no infallible magisterium. The Jewish leaders even rejected the Messiah. Still, the Scriptures were known.
So the Church is not needed to know the canon. If God's people knew His Word then without an infallible Church, they can now.
And the extra books? St. Jerome did not accept the deuterocanonical books as canonical, and Jesus never quotes them.

The concern behind this is good: God's Word is God's Word because God spoke it, not because a committee voted. The Catholic Church agrees. The question is how we know, with certainty, which books are Scripture, and who settles it when believers disagree.

What Catholics Actually Teach

The Church does not make a book inspired; God alone is the author of Scripture. The Church discerns and bears witness: "It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books" (CCC 120). "The Church accepts and venerates as inspired the 46 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New" (CCC 138). The Catechism makes St. Augustine's words its own: "But I would not believe in the Gospel, had not the authority of the Catholic Church already moved me" (CCC 119).

What Catholics do not teach:

That no one can read Isaiah or recognize it as holy without a dogmatic decree. People can know true things, including true things about Scripture, with ordinary, fallible knowledge.
That Israel before Christ had an infallible magisterium. It did not. The Old Covenant was a preparation, and Christ promised His Church more.
That the Church stands above the Word of God. She serves it and guards it, as Israel did before her.

The real question: when believers disagree about which books belong in the Bible, is there an authority that can settle it with certainty? Sola scriptura cannot answer from Scripture, which contains no inspired table of contents.

It all points to Christ. The canon is the written witness to Jesus: "Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of God's plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since his Passover" (CCC 112). Israel guarded the Scriptures until He came; the risen Christ "opened their minds to understand the scriptures" (Luke 24:45); and the Church He founded hands on both Testaments as His Word. Her authority over the canon is not her own. It is Christ's promise of the Spirit, working through her.

The Biblical Case

1. Romans 3:2: Scripture was entrusted to a community

St. Paul asks, "What advantage is there then in being a Jew?" and answers: "Much, in every respect. [For] in the first place, they were entrusted with the utterances of God" (Romans 3:1–2). "Entrusted" is a word about custody: God placed His Word in the keeping of a people, with priests, scribes, synagogues and liturgy. St. Paul does not say each Jew discovered the canon by private study. Romans 3:2 describes a guardian community, the pattern now fulfilled in the Church.

2. God gave Israel a living authority to settle disputes

The Law did not leave hard questions to each man's reading: "If there is a case for judgment which proves too baffling for you to decide ... you shall then go up to the place which the LORD, your God, will choose, to the levitical priests or to the judge who is in office at that time. They shall investigate the case and then announce to you the decision" (Deuteronomy 17:8–9). "Anyone who acts presumptuously and does not obey the priest ... or the judge, shall die" (17:12). The prophets assumed the same: "instruction is to be sought from his mouth" (Malachi 2:7).

A faithful Jew received Scripture the way Jesus did: He "went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah" (Luke 4:16–17). The Jew "knew" Isaiah because a worshiping community, with appointed teachers, handed it to him.

3. Jesus upheld the chair of Moses

"The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice" (Matthew 23:2–3). Jesus recognized a real teaching office while condemning the sins of those who held it.

The NABRE note says it is uncertain whether the chair is "simply a metaphor for Mosaic teaching authority," and that the command "cannot be taken as the evangelist's understanding of the proper standard of conduct for his church," since Jesus elsewhere corrects Pharisaic teaching. Agreed: that chair was not infallible. That is the point. Even in the preparatory covenant, God did not leave His people alone with a book.

4. God spoke through the high priest even when he was wrong

Caiaphas plotted Jesus' death, yet "He did not say this on his own, but since he was high priest for that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die ... and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God" (John 11:51–52). St. John ties the prophecy to the office: "since he was high priest." The leaders erred, yet their office still carried God's word.

5. Christ promised His Church more than Israel had

Knowing a book is holy is not the same as reading it rightly. The Ethiopian knew Isaiah was Scripture, but asked, "How can I, unless someone instructs me?" and St. Philip, "beginning with this scripture passage, he proclaimed Jesus to him" (Acts 8:31, 35). Israel's authority was real but not infallible. Christ promised His apostles something new: the Holy Spirit "will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you" (John 14:26); "he will guide you to all truth" (John 16:13). He built "my church" on St. Peter, promised "the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it," and gave him the keys (Matthew 16:18–19). St. Paul calls this Church "the pillar and foundation of truth" (1 Timothy 3:15), and the apostles in council wrote, "It is the decision of the holy Spirit and of us" (Acts 15:28).

The New Testament never says the Church will be no better off than Israel. The Old Covenant pattern, a guardian community with a teaching office, is not abolished; it is perfected by the promise of the Spirit.

6. The argument backfires on the New Testament

How does a Christian know that Hebrews, 2 Peter, Jude and Revelation are Scripture, and the Shepherd of Hermas is not? No verse lists the 27 books. The New Testament canon was discerned over centuries by the Church:

St. Athanasius, Festal Letter 39 (367): the earliest surviving list of exactly our 27 books, by one bishop, not a council (newadvent.org).
Council of Rome (382) under Pope St. Damasus I: the list traditionally attributed to this council survives in the later Decretum Gelasianum, whose main heading names it as a Council of Rome under Pope Damasus (tertullian.org). Some scholars question whether the list really dates to 382, and it was not a dogmatic definition.
Hippo (393) and Carthage (397): regional councils that "drew up identical lists from which no sacred books are excluded" (Catholic Encyclopedia).
Florence (1442): the ecumenical council's decree of union with the Copts (the Decretum pro Jacobitis) gave "a complete list of the books received by the Church as inspired," the same books Trent later defined (Catholic Encyclopedia).
Trent (1546): defined the canon dogmatically, anathematizing anyone who does not receive "the said books entire with all their parts, as they have been used to be read in the Catholic Church" (Session 4).

Every Protestant with a 27-book New Testament holds a list the Church discerned. "The Jew knew" proves nothing for the New Testament (see Who Decided Which Books Are in the Bible?).

Objections Answered

(a) "A faithful Jew fifty years before Christ simply knew which books were Scripture."

At its strongest: Jesus speaks of "the law of Moses and ... the prophets and psalms" (Luke 24:44) as a known body. Josephus says the Jews have "only twenty two books: which contain the records of all the past times: which are justly believed to be divine," and that "no one has been so bold, as either to add any thing to them; to take any thing from them; or to make any change in them" (Against Apion 1.8, Whiston trans.). So the canon was settled.

Answer: Concede what is true: the Law of Moses was universally received, and the Prophets widely received, well before Christ. But "the Jew knew" assumes one Jew with one list. There was not.

The Sadducees. Josephus says they held "that we are to esteem those observances to be obligatory which are in the written word; but are not to observe what are derived from the tradition of our fore-fathers" (Antiquities 13.10.6). Early Christian writers reported more: the Refutation of All Heresies (c. 225, traditionally attributed to St. Hippolytus of Rome) says, "They do not, however, devote attention to prophets, but neither do they to any other sages, except to the law of Moses only" (9.24). Scholars debate these reports, but they show disagreement.
Qumran. "Several fragments of the original Hebrew edition of Jubilees were found in the Qumrān library," and the community cited it in its Damascus Document (Britannica). Parts of 1 Enoch were found there too, though "No fragments of the longest portion of the work (chapters 37–71), however, were found among the Qumrān writings" (Britannica), and Jude 14–15 quotes it: the NABRE note says, "Cited from the apocryphal Book of Enoch 1:9" (Jude 14).
Greek-speaking Jews. The Septuagint was "the vehicle which conveyed these additional Scriptures into the Catholic Church," though Alexandrian Jews may have given them "a lower degree of sanctity and authority than the longer accepted books" (Catholic Encyclopedia).
Josephus himself wrote in the 90s AD and does not name his 22 books. He is one witness, not proof of what every Jew held in 50 BC.

When were the "Writings," the Hebrew Bible's third division, closed? There is no scholarly consensus. Even the 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia judged that "the preponderance of evidence favours a late period as that in which the Hagiographa were closed." The old theory that a formal "Council of Jamnia" (c. AD 90) closed the canon, though still repeated in some reference works, is widely doubted by scholars today. The Jew of 50 BC received the Law and the Prophets from Israel's worship and teachers, while the edges were still debated.

(b) "Jesus said 'Have you not read?' He held people to Scripture, not to an infallible authority."

At its strongest: "You are misled because you do not know the scriptures" (Matthew 22:29). Jesus appealed to the text, not to a council. That is sola scriptura in action.

Answer: Jesus held people to Scripture, and so does the Catholic Church. But Jesus is not a private reader appealing to the text against all authority; He is the authority: "he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures" (Luke 24:27). And the same Jesus who said "have you not read" said of those on the chair of Moses, "do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you" (Matthew 23:3). He held Scripture and a teaching office together. His debates were never about the table of contents.

(c) "Israel's leaders rejected Christ, yet the Scriptures were still known. So no infallible Church is needed."

At its strongest: If God preserved Scripture through fallible, even faithless leaders, He can do so through fallible Protestant churches today.

Answer: First, this concedes the Catholic premise: God preserved Scripture through a community and its leaders, not around them. Second, Israel's leaders were never promised infallibility; the apostles were promised the Spirit who "will guide you to all truth" (John 16:13) and a Church the gates of the netherworld would not overcome. The argument treats the New Covenant as no better than the Old. Third, fallible guardianship left Jews disagreeing about the canon's edges, and the Church and the rabbis later parted ways on several books. That argues for the gift Christ gave (see Is Sola Scriptura in the Bible?).

(d) "St. Jerome rejected the deuterocanonical books, and Jesus never quotes them."

At its strongest: St. Jerome, translator of the Vulgate and a Doctor of the Church, followed the Hebrew canon. And the Gospels never record Jesus quoting Tobit, Wisdom or the Maccabees.

Answer: We cover St. Jerome in Why Do Catholic Bibles Have 7 More Books? In brief: his view did not prevail; the councils of his day (Hippo, Carthage, and the list traditionally attributed to Rome) received these books. One Father's opinion is not the Church's judgment. As for quotation: the New Testament never clearly quotes Esther, Ecclesiastes or the Song of Songs either. Meanwhile Hebrews 11:35 ("Some were tortured and would not accept deliverance, in order to obtain a better resurrection") is cross-referenced in the NABRE to "2 Mc 6:18–7:42" (Hebrews 11:35), and Jesus kept "the feast of the Dedication" (John 10:22), which the NABRE note says celebrated "the Maccabees' rededication of the altar and reconsecration of the temple in 164 B.C.," citing 1 Maccabees 4:36–59. "Quoted by Jesus" was never anyone's test of canonicity.

(e) "Catholics use fallible judgment to choose the Church, so they have the same problem."

At its strongest: A Catholic must decide, fallibly, that the Church is infallible. The uncertainty just moves back a step.

Answer: Concede what is true: everyone comes to faith through ordinary, fallible reasoning, and Catholics do not claim one needs a decree to read Isaiah. But fallibly recognizing a guide Christ established is different from fallibly assembling revelation book by book on your own; the Ethiopian did the first when he invited St. Philip into his chariot (Acts 8:31). Christ gave us a Church we can find (see Is the Church Invisible?), not a list of books dropped from heaven without a witness. The question is whether, when disputes arise about God's Word, Christ provided an authority to settle them. Scripture says yes (Matthew 18:17; Acts 15:28; 1 Timothy 3:15). That authority is the Catholic Church.

The Early Church Agrees

St. Irenaeus of Lyons (Against Heresies 3.4.1, c. AD 180): "the apostles, like a rich man [depositing his money] in a bank, lodged in her hands most copiously all things pertaining to the truth." And: "For how should it be if the apostles themselves had not left us writings? Would it not be necessary, [in that case,] to follow the course of the tradition which they handed down to those to whom they did commit the Churches?" (newadvent.org). So "it is incumbent to obey the presbyters who are in the Church," who "together with the succession of the episcopate, have received the certain gift of truth" (4.26.2).
Origen (Letter to Africanus, c. AD 240): when a friend called the story of Susanna a forgery, Origen replied that it "is found in every Church of Christ in that Greek copy which the Greeks use, but is not in the Hebrew." Should Christians "reject as spurious the copies in use in our Churches ... and to coax the Jews, and persuade them to give us copies which shall be untampered with"? No: "You shall not remove the ancient landmarks which your fathers have set" (sections 2, 4–5). The Church's received Scriptures, not the synagogue's later list.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechetical Lecture 4.33–35, c. AD 350): "Learn also diligently, and from the Church, what are the books of the Old Testament, and what those of the New." "Far wiser and more pious than yourself were the Apostles, and the bishops of old time, the presidents of the Church who handed down these books" (newadvent.org). St. Cyril's own Old Testament list was a shorter one (with Baruch). But his principle is Catholic: learn the canon from the Church.
St. Athanasius of Alexandria (Festal Letter 39, AD 367) listed our 27 New Testament books: "These are fountains of salvation ... In these alone is proclaimed the doctrine of godliness. Let no man add to these" (newadvent.org). He set Wisdom, Sirach, Judith and Tobit (with Esther) among books to be read, not in his canon; the councils that followed received them. Either way, a bishop was teaching his flock which books are Scripture.
St. Augustine of Hippo (Against the Epistle of Manichaeus Called Fundamental 5, c. AD 397): "For my part, I should not believe the gospel except as moved by the authority of the Catholic Church" (newadvent.org), written in the same years that Hippo (393) and Carthage (397) received the full canon.

None of these Fathers says each believer can identify the canon for himself. All point to the Church, where the Scriptures are received, guarded and handed on.

Conclusion

"How did the Jew know?" sounds like a knockout blow until we look at Israel. There was no single closed list before Christ; there was a people "entrusted with the utterances of God," with priests, judges and the chair of Moses, and a canon whose edges were still debated. God never left His people alone with a book. Then Christ opened the Scriptures and promised the Spirit of truth, and the Church He founded discerned the New Testament you hold. The question is not whether you can know Scripture without the Church. It is why you would want to, when Christ gave you one.

Come home. The same Church that gave you the 27 books of the New Testament still guards the whole of God's Word, and that Church is the Catholic Church. Christ did not found many churches. He founded one, on St. Peter and the apostles (Matthew 16:18), and that Church is the Catholic Church. "It is through Christ's Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained" (CCC 816). If you are a baptized Christian, you already share "a certain, although imperfect, communion" with her (CCC 838). Every truth you already hold is a call to the rest of the way. Christ is calling you into the Catholic Church.

Your next step: Come to Mass this Sunday at your local Catholic church. You can find one near you at MassTimes.org. Everyone is welcome; if you're not yet Catholic, pray with us but don't receive Communion yet. When you're ready to become Catholic, call the parish office and ask about OCIA, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. They will walk you through every step. Read our guide: How Do I Become Catholic? Not ready yet? Get our free pocket guide below and keep learning.

FAQ

Did the Jews have an infallible magisterium before Christ? No, and the Catholic Church does not claim they did. Israel had a real, God-given authority (Deuteronomy 17:8–12; Matthew 23:2–3), but not the promise of infallibility, which belongs to the Church of the New Covenant (John 16:13; Matthew 16:18–19). See also How Did Christians Know the Truth Before the New Testament?

Can Protestants be saved? The Church does not judge any individual soul, and she rejoices in what Protestants truly have: baptized Protestants are "incorporated into Christ" (CCC 818) and in "a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church" (CCC 838). But there is no salvation apart from the Church: "all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body," so "they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it" (CCC 846). The Church's hope for those outside her visible bounds rests on ignorance that is no fault of their own: such seekers "may achieve eternal salvation" (CCC 847). That is a "may," not a promise, and ignorance that can be overcome is not invincible. Membership alone saves no one either (CCC 837). So the Church's word to Protestants is not "stay where you are," but an invitation into full communion.

Sources

Scripture (NABRE, bible.usccb.org): Deuteronomy 17:8–12; Malachi 2:7; Matthew 16:18–19; Matthew 22:29–32; Matthew 23:2–3 and note; Luke 4:16–17; Luke 24:27, 44–45; John 10:22 and note; John 11:51–52; John 14:26; John 16:13; Acts 8:30–35; Acts 15:28; Romans 3:1–2; 1 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 11:35 and note; Jude 14–15 and note.

Catechism of the Catholic Church (vatican.va): 112, 119; 120; 138; 816, 818, 837, 838, 846, 847.

Councils: Decretum Gelasianum (list traditionally attributed to the Council of Rome, 382), von Dobschütz trans.; Council of Trent, Session 4, Decree Concerning the Canonical Scriptures (April 8, 1546).

Church Fathers (newadvent.org): Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.4.1; 4.26.2; Refutation of All Heresies 9.24 (attributed to Hippolytus); Origen, Letter to Africanus 2, 4–5; Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 4.33–35; Athanasius, Festal Letter 39; Augustine, Against the Epistle of Manichaeus Called Fundamental 5.

Jewish sources (Whiston trans., penelope.uchicago.edu): Josephus, Against Apion 1.8; Antiquities 13.10.6.

Reference: Catholic Encyclopedia, "Canon of the Old Testament"; "Canon of the New Testament"; Britannica, "Book of Jubilees"; Britannica, "First Book of Enoch".

Protestant source: Westminster Confession of Faith, ch. 1.3–5 (Orthodox Presbyterian Church text).

Free pocket guide

Get Ready to Answer

Our free pocket guide: key Bible verses and Catechism references by topic, on one page for your phone.