Canon of the New Testament
From SkepticWiki
Contents |
[edit] Definition
The Canon of the New Testament is the collection of books which have been included in the New Testament as being genuine and inspired.
[edit] History
We are not entirely convinced by claims that the early Christian writers Ss Ignatius and Polycarp knew the Gospels and Epistles. It is true that they echo some phrases found in the New Testament: but no-one denies that they were familiar with Christian ideas. The question of whether they had read the Gospels as such is more obscure. There is nothing in them like a sustained quotation from the New Testament, just similarities in language. There are, of course, no quotation marks around the "quotations" in the original text, such punctuation not having been invented, although they have helpfully been added in some English translations. They give no indication that they are quoting: no attributions to the gospellers, to Paul, or to Jesus. There is no attempt to use any such supposed quotation as a proof text. There are references to sayings attributed in the gospels to Jesus, such as Ignatius's advice to Polycarp to be wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove, but there is never any reference to the specific, detailed events in the gospels. To summarize: Ignatius and Polycarp certainly knew Christianity; they may not have known the New Testament as such.
The case is very different with St Justin Martyr, writing at about 150 AD. Here he clearly states that his source of information is "the memoirs of the apostles" (i.e. the Gospels); he refers clearly to the narrative action of the gospels, rather than just to sayings of Jesus; he uses the gospels as proof-texts. As examples:
- "...when a star rose in heaven at the time of his [Jesus'] birth, as is recorded in the Memoirs of his apostles, the Magi from Arabia, recognizing the sign by this, came and worshipped him." (Dialogue - compare Matthew 2:1)
- "Christ also said 'Unless you are born again you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven'." (Apology - compare John 3:3)
- "...in the Memoirs which, as I have said, were drawn up by the apostles and their followers, [it is recorded] that sweat fell like drops of blood while he was praying, and saying, 'If it be possible, let this cup pass'." (Dialogue - compare Luke 22:43)
- "I have already shown that he was the only-begotten of the Father of the universe, having been begotten by him in a peculiar manner as his Logos and Power, and having afterward become man through the virgin, as we have learned from the Memoirs." (Dialogue - compare John 1:1)
He also gives a clear and approving description of the Revelation of St John. The Epistles, however, are not referred to, nor the Book of Acts.
The earliest known attempt to give a canon as such is the Muratorian Canon, thought to date from about 200 AD. The beginning of the canon is missing, but as the remaining portion starts with "the third gospel book, that according to Luke", it is fairly easy to guess how it started.
The Muratorian Canon includes the Apocalypse of Peter, with a note that some people consider it doubtful; and for some reason also the Wisdom of Solomon, which is Old Testament Apocrypha and doesn't belong in a canon of the New Testament at all. The canon omits the Epistle to the Hebrews, James, I and II Peter, and III John. Later writers such as Eusebius and Origen continued to have doubts about the Epistles excluded from the Muratorian Canon.
The first person to have had a completely orthodox view of what should go in the canon of the New Testament may have been St Athanasius (?293 - 373).
By the time, then, that the church needed to make an official decision about the canon of the New Testament, at the end of the fourth century, so that St Jerome could translate it from Greek into Latin (the Vulgate) there was already quite a good consensus as to what was canonical, and what should be omitted as New Testament Apocrypha: there was no dispute analogous to that over the Apocrypha of the Old Testament.
[edit] Links
- The Development of the Canon of the New Testament
- Straight Dope Mailbag article on the compilation of the Testaments
