Chap.6, No.4. The Coptic Bible (adopted by the Egyptian Church) includes the two Epistles of Clement, and the Ethiopic Bible includes books nowhere else found: the Sinodos (a collection of prayers and instructions supposedly written by Clement of Rome), the Octateuch (a book supposedly written by Peter to Clement of Rome), the Book of the Covenant (in two parts, the first details rules of church order, the second relates instructions from Jesus to the disciples given between the resurrection and the ascension), and the Didascalia (with more rules of church order, similar to the Apostolic Constitutions). At any rate, Papias only hints at a possible name for a possible Gospel author. Yet this manner of thinking has resulted in a certain contradiction in thinking about Biblical canonicity that remains to this day: Jude was accepted as canonical simply because it was long held in respect. This goes into more detail about the use of books, the NT and OT canon, apocrypha, the effects of the Reformation, and most of all the modern rules and guidelines for defending canonicity. A similar text, the Acts of Peter, may date from around the same time (M 178-179). Sometimes simpler redactions follow, rather than precede, the originals. 5. Like his tutor, Clement, he also includes the Didakhe and the Epistle of Barnabas as scripture (M 187). He was probably the first Christian to do so, apart from Justin. This is further secured by the fact that the long habit of time has dictated the status of the texts: favored books have been more scrupulously preserved and survive in more copies than unfavored books, such that even if some unfavored books should happen to be earlier and more authoritative, in many cases we are no longer able to reconstruct them with any accuracy. At some point in all this (it is suggested c. 160 A.D.) he selected four Gospels (the four we now know as the canon, and which no doubt supported his own ideology and that of his tutor, Justin) and composed a single harmonized "Gospel" by weaving them together, mainly following the chronology of John. Looking at these lists, we can group the New Testament books and other early Christian writings into four basic categories. The fragment matches the narrative just after the crucifixion and just before the body of Jesus is taken down, with verses mainly from the three synoptic Gospels, and one from John. Unfortunately, we cannot date this text well enough for it to be helpful, and the same problem is faced by the Epistle of Barnabas (M 56-9), which cites many OT books by name and uses many phrases which appear in the Gospels, but never names any NT book--and the allusions are of the sort that could merely reflect common oral traditions. my essay Kooks and Quacks of the Roman Empire. The Apocalypse of Peter is especially worth mentioning here. Each of these reiterated the same Church law: "nothing shall be read in church under the name of the divine scriptures" except the OT and the 27 canonical books of the NT. Stromata 1.28: 94.5, 158.2, and 177.2). This is only an example of the state of ignorance we are in whenever scholars try to debate the dates of these writings. He also wrote a Dialogue with Trypho [the Jew] which relates what purports to be a debate held around 135 A.D. (M 143-8). Church History 3.3, 3.38). This is a method that contradicts all objective sense. [3] cf. It is a compilation of twenty-seven books to include gospels, epistles, Acts, and a book of revelation. To what extent were these lost, or incorporated in orthodox or heretical writings? So if you’ll forgive me, I did mention that we were going … Both draw on Heinz Schreckenberg, "Flavius Josephus und die lukanischen Schriften," Wort in der Zeit: Neutestamentliche Studien, 1980, pp. The purpose of this paper is to explain the formation of the canon of the New Testament, specifically in regard to the supernatural evidence that this extraordinary list of books was not chosen by man, but chosen by God. In his Praeparatio Evangelica 12.31, listing the ideas Plato supposedly got from Moses, he includes the idea: That it is necessary sometimes to use falsehood as a medicine for those who need such an approach. After the death of the apostles came what may be called the age of the apostolic fathers; men who, like Ignatius, Polycarp, and others whose names have not come down to us, had been the disciples of the apostles. Even more than combating heresy, this became an important factor in compelling decisions of canonicity by forcing Christians to decide which books could be surrendered to authorities and burned without committing a sin, in contrast with those that were worth dying for (M 106-8). What he wrote has not survived, apart from fragmentary quotations in other works of his "Expositions of the Sayings of the Lord" which purported to be a collection of things he had actually heard said by the students of elders who claimed to have known the first disciples (yes, this sounds a lot like "a friend of a friend of a friend"), since he specifically regarded this as more useful than anything written, according to a quotation of his preface by Eusebius (History of the Church, 3.39.4), where Papias says "I did not think that information from books would help me so much as the utterances of a living and surviving voice" (M 52). In 203 A.D. Origen became head of the Christian seminary at the age of 18, a true prodigy. Due to a dispute with the bishop of Alexandria, Origen was expelled from that church and his post around 230 A.D., and he went and founded a second seminary at Caesarea which stole the spotlight from Alexandria. He previously taught at the University of Notre Dame. What is of interest to us is that this book should have been regarded as obviously false, yet instead was generally received as genuine--its eventual omission from the canon was more the result of the fact that some church leaders did not want it read aloud (according to the Muratorian Canon, cf. This despite the fact that this Gospel may have been written as early as 100-130 A.D. (M 172, n. 18), again if not earlier, although a later date is still possible, especially if the four canonical Gospels are likewise given later dates than usual, since Peter may have drawn on them.[8]. Clinias: What tales? In giving priority to the Four Gospels, Eusebius calls them the "Holy Quaternion," thus showing signs of the belief that there could only be four Gospels for mystical or numerological reasons, a belief we have seen before (in the cases of Irenaeus and Cyprian). All rights reserved. It is only by the 3rd century that this becomes all but impossible as thousands of copies and dozens of translations were in circulation, all derived from the texts selected in the middle of the 2nd century by the church that won the propaganda war. It is also worth noting that this text was regarded as canonical scripture by Clement of Alexandria and Origen, and perhaps in the Egyptian churches for quite some time (M 187). • Universally Accepted Canonical Writings. Thus, its influence, if any, on later decisions cannot be known. Eusebius is also infamous for saying that it was necessary to lie for the cause of Christianity. He notes that this was being done even with the "scriptures of the Lord," thus recognizing certain NT books as scripture, but also that their integrity was being compromised at the very same time (and probably for the same reason). No one can trust the opinions of such a man. And this picture is somewhat confirmed by the remarkable discovery of fragments dated c. 130-180 A.D. from a lost synoptic Gospel, the composition of which has been dated "not later than A.D. 110-30" (M 167). You can dismiss the support request pop up for 4 weeks (28 days) if you want to be reminded again. But he then addresses the possibility that the truth will not suffice, or that justice is not in fact the only real road to happiness, by arguing that lying is acceptable, and even more effective in bringing about what is desired, that the people will be good, and thus the government's teachers should employ lies for the benefit of the state. The only complete work of Tatian's that survives is his "Oration to the Greeks" which is a scathing attack on Greek culture. The Gospels were not likely to have been written down so soon, and we have clear evidence, in numerous variations, that they were altered at various points in their transmission, and scholarly work in the last two centuries has gone far to get us to the earliest versions possible. The first Christian scholar to engage in researching and writing a complete history of the Christian church, Eusebius of Caesarea, reveals the embarrassing complexity of the development of the Christian canon, despite his concerted attempt to cover this with a pro-orthodox account. "With the exception of the epistles of Jude, 2 Peter and 2, 3 John, with which no coincidences occur, and 1, 2 Thessalonians, Colossians, Titus, and Philemon, with which the coincidences are very questionable, all the other epistles were clearly known, and used by them; but still they are not quoted with the formulas which preface citations from the Old Testament (The Scripture saith, It is written, &c.), nor is the famous phrase of Ignatius (To the Philadelphians 5: Betaking myself to the gospel, as to the flesh of Christ, and to the apostles, as the eldership of the church) sufficient to prove the existence of a collection of apostolic records as distinct from the sum of apostolic teaching. And against general sentiment, Eusebius only voices one opinion of his own, in defense of the Revelation of John, which was already in the second category and thus half-way to being canonical. For instance, traces of a forged Epistle survive in the Coptic (Egyptian) and Ethiopian manuscript traditions: the almost ridiculous Epistle of the Apostles, a semi-apocalyptic text written by the "eleven disciples" after the resurrection "to the churches of the East and the West, the North and the South" (M 180-2), even though there could not have been any such churches at that time. M 211-2). We may never know. If the Gospels are believed to date according to simplicity and lack of embellishment, then Peter must come later than the canonical four--but this method of dating texts is not always sure to be correct. So popular the Sheppherd was that it was widely regarded as inspired--it was actually included, along with the Epistle of Barnabas, as the final book in the oldest NT codex that survives intact, the Codex Sinaiticus (c. 300 A.D.). The rest of his loose "canon" included the fourteen Pauline Epistles, Acts, 1 Peter, 1 John, and Revelation. But what is significant for us is that this implies a recognition of "texts" as being authoritative (M 90-4). For Marcion believed that only Paul's doctrine was true--although he was in a better position to be more consistent about this by rejecting all books that contradicted Paul. The Muratorian canon is in such an imperfect state that its testimony on some points is doubtful. An embarrassing case is that of the prominent 4th century church father Jerome including Seneca (the Stoic philosopher and tutor of Nero) in his list of Christian Saints, on the incredibly dubious basis of a forged correspondence between Paul and Seneca (clearly written sometime before the mid-4th century), depicting Seneca as not only becoming a convert, but an appointed Christian preacher in the Imperial Court (M 183-4). It is based on speculation that Mark was the first, written between 60 and 70 A.D., Matthew second, between 70 and 80 A.D., Luke (and Acts) third, between 80 and 90 A.D., and John last, between 90 and 100 A.D. Scholars advance various other dates for each work, and the total range of possible dates runs from the 50's to the early 100's, but all dates are conjectural. Nevertheless, though universally condemned by church leaders, it remained lastingly popular among educated church laymen, and one section of this text remains a part of the Armenian Bible to this day. This is relevant because even at this late date two things are observed: Clement never refers to any Gospel, but frequently refers to various epistles of Paul. Formation and History of the New Testament Canon. Papias's account of Mark is stranger still. Luke 19:42-44, 21:5-6, 21:20-24; Mark 13:1-2, 13:14; Matt. 1996), [for more recent books on the NT see the Secular Web Bookstore], Gerald Larue, Old Testament Life and Literature, 1968 (online version 1997), Earle Ellis, The Old Testament in Early Christianity: Canon and Interpretation in the Light of Modern Research (1991), Roger Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and its Background in Early Judaism (1986), Annemarie Ohler, Studying the Old Testament from Tradition to Canon (1985). Other references allow us to guess at some of those he thought authentic. In 367 A.D. Athanasius took the chance afforded him and included in his Festal Epistle of that year what he declared to be the canonical texts: the very Bible we now know (Gospels, Acts, 21 Epistles, and Revelation). In the same passage, Augustine allows these dissenting churches to be outweighed by the opinions of "the more numerous and weightier churches." Bruce, "New Light on the Origin of the New Testament," Faith and Thought 101.2 (1974): 158-162. pdf This is a brief summary of the above article. But the Syrian churches still adhered to the canon of the Peshito. Dionysius is also notable for having tried to resolve doubts about the authenticity of the Apocalypse of John by ascribing it to a John other than the Apostle. This no doubt arose because for the first time in almost a thousand years scholars were once again starting to question the authenticity of certain books in the canon, for example the authorship of Hebrews. Nevertheless, Hebrews continued to be excluded from many Bibles in the West, while the bogus Epistle to the Laodiceans (see XV) continued to be found in hundreds of Bibles in various languages until relatively recent times. Thus, doctrine more than objective evidence of historicity was driving the selection of canonical texts. Even Eusebius (below) shows no awareness of it. Moreover, after the pronouncements of the 4th century on the proper content of the Bible, Tatian was declared a heretic and in the early 4th century Bishop Theodoretus of Cyrrhus and Bishop Rabbula of Edessa (both in Syria) rooted out all copies they could find of the Diatessaron and replaced them with the four canonical Gospels (M 215). The list also claims Hermas was written 'recently' (unfortunately we cannot trust that the author was correct about this), and is to be regarded highly and read privately but not held in the same esteem as the other books. To the latter part of the second century belong two important canons, that of the Syriac Peshito, and the Muratorian canon. The first Christian text that did not become canonized but was respected as authentic is the first epistle of Clement of Rome, reasonably dated to 95 A.D. (M 40), and contained in many ancient Bibles and frequently read and regarded as scripture in many churches (M 187-8). Some scholars have weakly tried to place it much earlier, even to the time of Paul [4]--others have proposed a much later date for the existing text, as late as the 4th century (though it existed in some form without a doubt before the 3rd century). Formation and History of the New Testament Canon. Though not part of the Bible, the very fact that a canonical set of Talmudic texts was being sought at this time also suggests a possible influence upon the Christians to do the same with their writings, as does the very different move to canonization made by the Roman jurist Ulpian around the same date, who sought to martial all the past legal decisions of prominent jurists for the last few centuries and edit them into a single authoritative text. In 177 A.D. Athenagoras of Athens composed a lengthy philosophical Defense of the Christians addressed to the emperor Marcus Aurelius in which the first articulation of a theory of the Trinity appears. It is debated whether Jerome himself finished the rest, or if it was completed by others, but the finished project contained all the 27 books now found in the Bible, no more and no less, and the choice was almost certainly Jerome's, since his many other works all speak of these books as authoritative, and a letter he wrote listed all these books as his ideal canon--a letter which was placed as a preface to many of his Latin Bibles (M 234-5). [7] More importantly, the context seems to be one where there were perhaps no set written Gospels in his day, but an array of variously-worked texts. Every church had its favored books, and since there was nothing like a clearly-defined orthodoxy until the 4th century, there were in fact many simultaneous literary traditions. [8] Another extant Docetic text that was known by Clement to be circulating c. 200 A.D. is the Acts of John, supposedly recorded by a certain "Leucius, a real or fictitious companion of the apostle John" (M 177). 5 However, this does not mean that the idea of the canon did not exist earlier. one written in Alexandria by Mark after Peter's death, and a "secret" version left by Mark before he died, carrying on a tradition of Christian mysteries initiated by Peter. It is believed that Jesus died c. 30 A.D. Nevertheless, a canon really existed in the first century whether the church knew it or not. Dialogue with Trypho, chap.81. 367 CE: Athanasius writes a Festal Letter (a religious writing on the occasion of a festival) that contains the 27 books of the New Testament canon as it’s known today. Specifically, if he died under Pontius Pilate, the date must have at least been between 26 and 36, the ten years we know Pilate to have served in Judaea. I must excuse the tediousness of this essay--for the subject matter is inescapably complex and confusing. He says Mark was Peter's secretary (perhaps getting the idea from 1 Peter 5.13), and though he had never known Jesus, he followed Peter around and recorded everything he said, leaving nothing out and changing no details (M 54-5). Thus, pro-Roman elements, and the absence of anti-Roman features, were a precondition for the canonic texts of any church with a chance of success, and this also affected the formation of the surviving canon--and, incidentally, given the tense relations between Rome and the Jews, antisemitic features would also win Roman favor and release the Christians from Roman hostility toward Jews, although one could not take this pandering too far in a church largely comprised of Jews or their descendants. This was the Latin Vulgate Bible, of which the Gospels were completed and delivered to the Pope in 384 A.D. M 156-7). op. This is called the Diatessaron ("That Which is Through the Four") and it became for a long time the official Gospel text of the Syraic church, centered in Edessa. -- to a place in it remained for a considerable time an open question, which, in its application to particular books was answered differently in the East and the West. • Probably a response to Marcion This essay does not discuss the Christian canonization of the OT in any detail, but more can be learned from Gerald Larue's chapter on this subject. This text has been plausibly dated to c. 180 A.D. (it does fit the mystical orthodoxy of Irenaeus), and even earlier than 120 A.D. by some scholars. He also refers to the Revelation to John, but never mentions or quotes any Epistles. Thus, Papias reveals the early Christian preference for oral rather than written tradition. Still, there were unsuccessful attempts even as late as 1290 A.D. to include in the Armenian canon several apocryphal books: Advice of the Mother of God to the Apostles, the Books of Criapos, and the ever-popular Epistle of Barnabas (M 224). [4] Of particular note in this category is the rather challenging thesis set forth by Alvar Ellegård, op. Cyprian follows, and as a convert in 246, then bishop and martyr in 258, he repeats the superstitious rationale for the four-Gospel tradition: they are four in number "like the rivers of Paradise" (Epistles, 73). First, the Gospels, they reveal the life, ministry, and teachings of Jesus the Messiah. Its list contains the Gospels (the first line of the fragment is incomplete, beginning with Mark, but Matthew is clearly … Clinias: Neither of us, I think, could possibly argue against your view. Of particular note, it rejects a now-lost letter of Paul to the Alexandrians as a Marcionite forgery. In all the texts examined so far, the only recognized authority is "Jesus Christ" as related orally by unnamed evangelists, and not any written text apart from the OT. For most evangelicals, a key tenet of belief is … Strangely, this is essentially where the story ends. The material for this section is taken from my own survey of scholarly consensus found in numerous sources. [1] Whatever the date, Paul's conversion follows one to three years later. [7] "In the credulous temper of that age, almost anything was believed," M 179; on witness credulity in antiquity, cf. In the words of Herman Ridderbos, "the history of the C… Moreover, Cyril declares that no other books are to be read, not even privately. No freethinker he. In 144, Marcion proposed a reform of Christianity for which the church leaders expelled him merely for suggesting: that the OT was contradictory and barbaric and that the true Gospel was not at all Jewish, but that Jewish ideas had been imported into NT texts by interpolators, and only Paul's teachings are true. It may date even from the 1st century (cf. The document comes from Rome, and Lightfoot assigns it to Hippolytus. View The Formation of the New Testament Canon, by Stephen Voorwinde.pdf from BIBL 101 at William Jessup University. For there were books that were extant in the 2nd century yet never mentioned and thus entirely unknown until recovered in more recent times. This remark of Papias thus could have become an inspiration for naming a certain Gospel after the same man. Companion to the Bible— E. P. Barrows 1. Exploring the origins of the New Testament canon and other biblical and theological issues. Despite the difficulties, it seems plausible that the Gospels had been written by this date, although it is remotely possible that Ignatius is simply quoting oral traditions which eventually became recorded in writing, and also possible that this material was added or dressed up by later editors. He is also exceptional in being a relatively skeptical scholar. Respecting the canon of the New Testament there are two distinct but related fields of inquiry. It seems to accept the Laodicean canon, while adding the letters of Clement and eight unnamed "secret" books, for no clear reason. No references are made which show any clear connection with the epistles, but the OT is quoted a few times. (when the true Torah was "discovered" and ceremoniously declared official by King Josiah, according to the Bible itself), though it was most likely significantly edited after the Babylonian Exile in the time of Ezra c. 500 B.C.E. It is possible that they had not been written at all. Covers the history of the Hebrews, with one chapter dedicated to the development of the Old Testament, including its reception by Christians. Rev. Thanks! (PDF) The Formation of the New Testament Canon | Richard Carrier - Academia.edu Summarizes the work of Bruce Metzger on how the New Testament canon developed and came to be selected. This standard is obviously multiply flawed: first, it begins with his own subjective doctrinal judgment of who is orthodox and thus whose opinion counts at all, and second it is based solely on the doctrinal opinions of these writers. A considerable number of years elapsed after the ascension before it was thought necessary to give to the churches under apostolic sanction a written account of our Lord's life and teachings. Luke-Acts, '' Josephus and Luke-Acts, '' he declared, `` Josephus and Epistle! Eusebius ' Hist assigns it to Rome before 95 a trace in the surviving quotations of this is! 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