But I do know that the word "Bible" as we now use the term, Old Testament and New Testament, does not apear in the Bible. Neither does the Bible itself define what is IN the Bible. No book of the Bible proves, internally, that it is a Biblical book.
(And many books which are NOT in the Bible, make lofty claims to be Sacred Scripture, e.g. the Koran, the Book of Mormon, the Gospel of Thomas. These we rightly reject.)
The authority of the Bible itself -- its very identity as authentic Sacred Scripture, the list of its very books --- was established by the practice of the Church from the first centuries.
“The authority of the Bible itself — its very identity as authentic Sacred Scripture, the list of its very books -— was established by the practice of the Church from the first centuries.”
Well, it may have passed through the hands of the church, but it, an its authority, came from God, not from any men.