www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Scripture and Patristic Writings Question about the New Testament Canon

I have been under the impression that the first enumeration of the books of the New Testament Canon was made by St. Athanasius at his Paschal sermon in the late 4th century.

I was also under the impression that a council of 400 bishops determined the canon unanimously at some point.

I have just been told that the Council of Nicea--the Fisrt Ecumenical Council--determined this in 325.

What is the correct timeline?

Bob

Your memory is correct. The first complete list as we know the canon now is Athanasius Festal letter in 367. There are discussions and lists prior to this but they are all incomplete in some respect.

There is no listing of the canon at Nicea.

A pretty good outline can be had in the on-line catholic encyclopedia article.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03274a.htm

Steve Puluka
MA, Theology Duquesne University
Cantor Holy Ghost Church
Carpatho-Rusyn tradition
Mckees Rocks, PA
http://puluka.com

Steve:

Thanks so much. I thought I was losing my mind when I heard this other account--though I've been accused of already having lost it.

Bob

There are however older canons of Scripture the oldest and most famous is the Murationian (sorry if the spelling is incorrect.)
Canon and then the Council of Hippo in 306 AD.
Stephanos I

Sorry for not being clearer. There are older lists of books in the NT canon. What we have with Athanasius is the first COMPLETE list as we know the canon today with the full 27 books.

Older lists are missing some of the 27 books and in a few cases include books not on our final list.

The Catholic Encyclopedia article above does a pretty good job of organizing most of the known lists.

Steve Puluka
MA, Theology Duquesne University
Cantor Holy Ghost Church
Carpatho-Rusyn tradition
Mckees Rocks, PA
http://puluka.com

What Steve posted is what I was looking for--the first time the canonical list we have today was enumerated.

What was the council and what date did it take palce wherein the bishops passed on all the extant books and finally decided which ones would be canonical and which ones left out?

Bob

Those who want a complete explanation of the development, compilation and codification of the canon of the New Testament should get The New Testament: Its Background, Growth and Content (3rd Edition, Revised and Enlarged), by Bruce M. Metzger, (Abingdon Press, 2003). The late Dr. Metzger was the world's acknowledged expert on this subject. The book is an excellent general introduction, thorough yet accessible.

I've had problems finding any council that approved the canon that had any authority. For the Roman Catholics, the Council of Trent did that, but as far as I can tell, no other.

The Synod of Hippo in 393 gets mentioned a lot. They did approve a canon, but they had no real authority. St. Augustine makes it clear the canon wasn't set in his day, and he became bishop of Hippo in 395 or 396. So he didn't think the Synod of Hippo resolved anything.

In On Christian Doctrine II:8:12 where St. Augustine talks about books that are accepted by some churches and not accepted by others and the importance that should be assigned to each one.

I'm beginning to think there never was such a council! The Catholic Encyclopedia's article on the New Testament canon suggests as much (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03274a.htm).

Shammah:

Christ is in our midst!! He is and always will be!!

Welcome to the forum.


May I ask how you make a statement like this? That particular council has been credited with having a group of bishops unanimously agree on the canon that we have today for the first time in Christian history. And they examined other extant books available and decided that they were not to be considered canonical.

The Council of Trent merely reaffirmed what had already gone before in the face of Luther's attempt to exclude some of the Cathjlic Epistles that seemed to contradict his theoly and views.

As far as the East is concerned, the man the West calls St. Augustine is referred to as Blessed Augustine and he doesn't occupy a very important place in Eastern theology. In fact, hsi views are seen as an impediment to the reconciliation of East and West. Actually, St. Athanasius in his Paschal sermon wherein he enumerated the books considered to be the canon today would have had far more authority--by reason of the importance of his see and his own status as a teacher of the Faith--than St. Augustine. Again, we are looking at this from an Eastern stand point, not from that of the West, in this forum.



From an Eastern point of view, councils derive their authority from the fact that the Holy Spirit speaks through either the unanimous voice of the assembled bishops or from the lone dissenter. That's why councils are so important in an Eastern understanding of what constitutes Tradition.

On what basis do you think councils derive their authority?

Bob

Shammah is right: the Canon of the New Testament was never formally codified in any ecumenically binding synod, and the Canon never formally closed, either. The process was more organic and charismatic than some people might like, but that's how it happened: gradually, a consensus formed around this set of books, to the exclusion of all others. As Metzger points out, the New Testament has the books that it does because nobody could find a way of keeping them out. They met the winnowing test of fidelity to the Church's rule of prayer (i.e., the liturgy) and credible Apostolic origin. Books that claimed apostolic origin but were inconsistent with the rule of prayer, as well as those consistent with the rule of prayer, but lacking apostolic origin, were left by the wayside.

The fundamental meaning of the Canon was a set of books read liturgically in church. The Canon therefore evolved along with the Church's liturgy and lectionary: quotations from Scripture began to ornament the liturgy, while the readings expanded eventually to cover all the books we now have.

This may be helpful in this discussion: http://pages.prodigy.net/frjohnwhiteford/canonicallists.htm