Chapter 8: How the New Testament Canon Was Recognized

Misunderstandings to clear away

Popular books and films sometimes say that the Bible’s contents were decided by a council, or by Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, to suppress rival gospels. The historical record does not support this. The Council of Nicaea dealt with the Arian controversy about the deity of Christ, set the date for Easter, and adopted canons on church order; it did not issue a list of the books of the New Testament (Schaff 1910). The books of the New Testament were being treated as authoritative long before Constantine, and the church’s later councils confirmed what the churches already used (Metzger 1987; Bruce 1988).

The early centuries: use and recognition

The earliest church fathers, writing in the late first and early second centuries (Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp), quote from or allude to most of the New Testament books. By about AD 180, Irenaeus treats the fourfold Gospel as settled. He argued that there could be neither more nor fewer than four Gospels, just as there are four winds and four quarters of the earth (Irenaeus, Haer. 3.11.8). The Syrian Christian Tatian had already woven the four into a single story, the Diatessaron, around AD 170, which shows that these four were already the ones in use.

The pressures that led to lists

Several things pushed the church to say clearly which writings it received.

Marcion (c. AD 140), a shipowner from Pontus, rejected the Old Testament and produced a shortened canon consisting of an edited Gospel of Luke and ten letters of Paul. The church saw that it needed to say what the true list was (Irenaeus, Haer. 1.27.2).

Gnostic writings such as the Gospel of Thomas and Gospel of Truth, written in the second century and later, claimed secret revelations of Jesus. They differed widely in teaching from the apostolic message and were not accepted by the churches, which asked of any book: was it written by an apostle or under his authority, and does it agree with the faith handed down?

Persecution. Under Diocletian (AD 303–305), Christians were ordered to hand over their sacred books. This made it a serious question which books were worth dying for.

The tests

The church did not apply a single mechanical test. The record shows these main questions at work (Metzger 1987; Bruce 1988).

Apostolicity. Was the book written by an apostle or by someone in the apostle’s circle? (Luke, Mark, Hebrews, and Jude were accepted on the ground that they carried the apostles’ authority.)

Orthodoxy. Was its teaching consistent with the faith handed down from the apostles, the “rule of faith”?

Catholicity. Was it widely received and read in the churches?

Inspiration. Did it show the marks of the Spirit’s work: power to convert, to convict, and to build up God’s people? “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27).

The key witnesses

The Muratorian Fragment (late second century; some scholars propose the fourth century), found by Ludovico Muratori in the Ambrosian Library in Milan and published in 1740. This Latin list of the books received at Rome names the four Gospels, Acts, thirteen letters of Paul, Jude, two letters of John, and Revelation. It does not mention Hebrews, James, or 1 and 2 Peter, though the text is damaged. It also includes the Wisdom of Solomon and says the Shepherd of Hermas may be read privately but not in public worship because it was written recently.

Origen (c. AD 230) distinguished books accepted without dispute from those that were disputed (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.25).

Eusebius (c. AD 325) divided the books into three groups: recognised (the four Gospels, Acts, Paul’s letters, 1 John, 1 Peter, and probably Revelation), disputed but known to most (James, Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John), and spurious or rejected (such as the Acts of Paul, the Shepherd, the Apocalypse of Peter, and the Gospel of Peter) (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.25).

Cyril of Jerusalem (c. AD 350) gave a list of the New Testament, without Revelation, in his catechetical lectures (Cyril, Catech. 4.36).

Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, in his thirty-ninth Festal Letter of AD 367, gave the first surviving list naming exactly the twenty-seven books of our New Testament. He called them “the fountains of salvation” and added, “Let no man add to these, neither let him take ought from these” (Athanasius, Festal Letter 39).

The Synod of Hippo (AD 393) and the Third Council of Carthage (AD 397), attended by Augustine, approved the same list of twenty-seven books, and Augustine wrote of it in his On Christian Doctrine (Augustine, Doctr. chr. 2.8.12). Jerome, in his Latin Vulgate (c. AD 405), included the same twenty-seven books.

The question of the “disputed books” (Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, Revelation) took longer in some regions. Hebrews was questioned in the West because its author was unknown; Revelation was questioned in parts of the East because of its prophetic imagery. In each case, the churches eventually accepted the books because of their apostolic content and their widespread acceptance.

Books that were read but not received

Some early Christian writings were respected and read but not counted as Scripture: the Didache (a church manual), 1 Clement, the Epistle of Barnabas, and the Shepherd of Hermas. Codex Sinaiticus, a fourth-century Bible, includes Barnabas and Hermas after the New Testament books, showing that these were valued but still stood in a different category. The so-called Gnostic gospels were written, in most cases, a century or more after the apostles, and the churches never accepted them (Bruce 1988).

Recognised, not created

The church’s own fathers were clear that they were recognising something, not conferring it. Athanasius himself described the books on his list as those that had been handed down and accredited as divine. The canon is not an authority standing over Scripture. The Scriptures bore their own authority, as the sheep recognise the voice of the Shepherd.

Summary. The New Testament canon grew through use in the churches, was tested against heresy and persecution, and was confirmed by the church across East and West by the late fourth century. No book was imposed by an emperor, and no authentic apostolic writing is missing.