This issue outlines how the official canon of Scripture came to be. "The word canon means rule or measure. The canon of Scripture is the measure of what it regarded as revealed by God as distinct from what is not. The Church teaches that God chose to communicate to some inspired individuals. We call this revelation. The canon serves as a way to preserve that revelation and to transmit it faithfully from one generation to the next," writes McNamer. She outlines the creation and codification of the Hebrew Scriptures from the time of King David to the first century C.E. She explores the various writings of first-and second-century Christianity and explains how the 27 books that we now have in the New Testament canon emerged.