THE FOUNDATION OF ORTHODOXY AND THE CANON
RESEARCH PAPER
The Foundation of Orthodoxy and the Canon
The history of the canon of the New Testament through my readings is very fascinating and also crucial to our understanding of the Word of God and the Church. Over 200 years a number of these books were disputed by the Church before even being included in the Bible today. There were many books that were considered, but only 27 actually became the canon of the New Testament. This list was not completed or given until A.D. 367 by Athanasius, who was the Bishop of Egypt.
The first four centuries there were many disagreements over the books that would be the New Testament. The first person to try to do this was Marcion, he thought that the church should reject any Jewish heritage and get rid of the Old Testament all entirely. His canon conceived of just one Gospel and he edited it, and the rest of Pauline epistles, which were 10 letters, and that was all he felt should be in the New Testament Canon. Some believe that this was the reason why a New Testament Canon should be considered, because of the canon that Marcion came up with. In time, all the Gospels were included in the canon but four of them, three of which were the Gospel of Hebrews, Gospel of Peter and Gospel according to Egyptians.
. Asia Minor Christians only used the Gospel of John, not of Matthew, Mark or Luke, and the Western Church debated on whether to even use the Gospel of John because of the Gnostics made use of it as well in their “secret gospels”.
Who decided to add the current books as the canon of the New Testament? During the passing of time the Church did discern which books were Apostolic and which ones were not. It was a very long drawn out struggle taking place over several centuries before the Church decided which books were to be her own. The process went through several councils and meeting, The Counsels weren’t there to legislate Scripture but to set forth the truth and practices of the Church of God. They sought for a common mind; reflect the faith, practice and tradition of the local Churches. Two of the councils were:
1. The Council of Laodicea – they met in Asia Minor in A.D. 363. This council stated that only the Books of the Old Testament & New Testament Canons should be used, with the exception of John. Their decisions were accepted widely in the Eastern Church.
2. The Third Council of Carthage – this group met in North Africa around A.D. 397, this council was attended by Augustine. The present day 27 books of the New Testament were accepted in this council. They held to the fact that these books should be read in the Church as divine scripture. They were accepted widely in the West as authoritative.
Biblical scholars had given four criteria to determine if a book was to be included as the canon:
- Written by Apostles or disciples of the Apostles.
- Considered to be inspired of God.
- Accepted by the Church.
- Conform to the tradition and rule of faith by the Church.
During that time there was no separation between the Bible and Church as there is today. They believed that the body without the Word is without a message and that without the body there would be no foundation.
The Establishing of the Canon
The basis of including the book in Scripture was quite apparent within this process of declaring our Christian New Testament Canon, and it required that each book be prophetic, authoritative, authentic and life changing, this was widely recognized as the Word of God and also very reliable. The books that were declared inspired must fit two categories:
1. Eye witnesses accounts of the Messiah
2. Letters would have to be written by key witnesses of various believers (Epistles)
In the fourth century effort was made to establish the collection of inspired books of the Bible into the Canon as we know today as the New Testament, there were earlier attempts to come up with the Canon prior to the fourth century. The Moratoria Canon kept 1 John, 1 & 2 Peter, James and Hebrews out of the Canon, while the Syriac Version kept out Revelation in the third century. The East and West Churches established the Canon in the fourth century maintaining connection to the apostles or their disciples under them for the collection of writings. Athanasius established the 27 books of the New Testament for the East Church. Jerome established 39 books of the Old Testament along with the 27 books we have today. he had also translated these books to Latin. The Synods of Carthage did confirm the 27 books of the New Testament in 397 and 41.8
Athanasius
One of the forefathers of the canon was Athanasius, he was one of the champions of the Catholic belief, he was known as the “Father of Orthodoxy”. Five months after the death of the “Primate of Alexandria”, he was chosen to succeed him, and he had been elected despite his youth, and was welcomed by all. Athanasius’s list of the New Testament was actually the first listing of the 27 books and was adopted by the counsels in the 390’s. (Development of the NT Over time), and is our New Testament. Athanasius’s father studied philosophy and theology but never became a priest, but Athanasius studied humanities and philosophy. He also devoted his time to natural sciences, classical languages, he then studied theology. In 1628 he became an ordained priest and became the chair of ethics and mathematics at the University of Wurzburg, and also instructions in Syrian and the Hebrew languages. He was an extremely learned man, for six years he taught in the Rome College, physics, mathematics and Oriental languages. Once released of his teaching he devoted himself to scientific research to explore volcanos. He published for the Knights of Malta, “Specula Melitensis Encyclica sive syntagma novum instrumentorum physico-mathematicorum". He also wrote the "Mundus Subterraneus", in two volumes in 1678 in Amsterdam, and he had many other accomplishments to add to his name.
All through his life, after all the learned accomplishments that he had, stayed true to humility and childlike piety. He wanted to go to China and spread his faith, but he was never able to do so, so he constructed a sanctuary in honor of the Mother of God (Mary) where still there are many that make the trip today. They say his heart was buried in the sanctuary, and in the twentieth century a huge statue of Christ was constructed.
Marcion
Marcion was a different story he believed that the Old Testament God was different than the New Testament God. The Old Testament God was wrath and hatred, and the New Testament God was love and mercy. He tried to set aside the Old Testament claiming that the good God was the exalted one, and the just god was the god of flesh. This view turned into dualism, which was, God of spirit and the God of matter. Maricon had no interest in the distinction between the good God and Christ, which according to Paul’s epistles which could not be denied. To him Christ was just a manifestation of the good God.
He believed that Christ was not born nor was he subjected to any kind of human development at all. It appears that he believed as the Greeks did, in spirit and matter, but yet is doctrine was very remarkable in the sense that he did believe and put quite a bit of high value on the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. According to Maricon, God could only be conceived as good and full of grace. No other Christian community in the second century was so strict in the renouncing of the world as the Marcionites the sternest rules, being food and drink.
Marcion was one of the first to probably conceive the realization of placing Christendom on a firm foundation of theory of what is Christian should be, but did not base it on theological doctrine. To him, only what Christ had given was the only real value, with this conviction of value he founded a Church.
Bibliographies
The Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325 ANTE-NICENE FATHERS VOLUME 3. Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian I. Apologetic; II. Anti-Marcion; III. Ethical Edited
By Allan Menzies, D.D. T&T CLARK EDINBURGH WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN
Christian Classics Ethereal Library/History of Dogma Volume 1 by Harnack, Adolf
Catholic Encyclopedia/Athanasius Kircher/May 2, 1601-November 28, 1680
www.newadvent.org/fathers/3814.htm
http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/bible/bernstein_who_gave_nt.htm