The New Testament Canon
Lecture 15

The History of the New Testament Canon 
•	can be divided into three periods
•	1. The Period of Initial _______________ and Use of the New Testament Books (ca 90-180)
•	2. The Period of the ___________________ of a New Testament Canon (ca 180-22)
•	3. The Period of ________________ of the New Testament Canon (ca 220-400)

1. The Period of ____________________ Collections and Use
•	One of the first discernable steps in the long process of canonization is the collection of _____________
•	This appears to have happened even before all the NT books were written
•	Probably the first reference to at least a partial collection is ____________________
•	This passage also ascribes scriptural authority to the letters
Further Evidence of a collection prior to the 2nd century
•	is that the Christian writers of the late first and early second centuries seem to be acquainted with most of the letters.
•	The uniform textual traditions of the letters also points to a collection have been made at an early date.
The Four Gospels
•	are harder to determine when they were collected
•	they seem to have circulated ___________________ at first
•	They do not display a uniform textual tradition, nor
•	do any of the early Christian writers reveal a knowledge of _______________ of them.
______________________ (ca 130)
•	described the composition of Matthew and Mark, but was silent about Luke and John
_____________________________ (ca 155) 
•	unquestionably know written Gospels, which 
•	he referred to by than mane and by the term “Memoirs of the Apostles” in his Apology 1:66
•	He did not indicate their names or number and therefore cannot be cited as evidence of the existence of a definite collection.
__________________________ (by 170)
•	composed a document called the Diatersseron by interweaving the 4 gospels into a single account of the life of Christ.
The Crucial Question
•	is whether the heretical __________________ (ca 145) 
•	who accepted only Luke’s Gospel, reduced a fourfold gospel to a single gospel or whether the fourfold gospel was formed in reaction to Marcion’s single Gospel.
•	Some see that this process was spurred forward by Marcion’s work and therefore dates the gathering of the Gospels around 150-160.
Marcion
•	was apparently the first to produce a __________________ of the NT books
•	He completely rejected the OT and accepted only expurgated versions of ______ and ____ of Paul’s letters  
•	This certainly motivated the collection of books into the canon in response to his work.
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The Attestation that did exist
•	every book can be attested as existing during this period (ca 90-180) with the possible exceptions of ______, _________, 2 __________, __ and ___ _________, and ____________.
•	Quotations are comparatively few and inexact
•	During the first half of the period there is little evidence that scripture was being used as having authority equal to the OT
Post Marcion
•	orthodox Christians were unwilling to follow Marcion in rejecting the OT, they did begin to attribute scriptural authority to apostolic writings.
•	___________________ (ca 150) cites a Gospel text as scripture (2:4) and places of the apostolic writings on the same level as the OT (14:2)
_________________
•	indicates that the Gospels were read and commented on in public worship in the same way as was the OT (Apology, 1:67)
By __________
•	most of the NT books were known and being used, 
•	separate collections of the _____________ and ____________________ had been made
•	scriptural authority was beginning to be attributed to these books, and the concept of a canon was emerging.
2. Period of the Emergence of a NT Canon (ca 180-220)
•	at the very beginning of this period a clear concept of a NT canon appears within the context of orthodox Christianity.
•	This is seen in the ______________________ Canon
•	a list of books used as scripture by the church at Rome about 180
•	It is fragmentary, but the original contained at least the following:
The Contents of the ____________________ Canon
•	the four gospels
•	___________
•	_______ Pauline Letters
•	at least two and perhaps three letters of John,
•	___________ and
•	Revelation
The Muratorian Canon and Principles of Canonicity
•	1. ________________
•	2. _________________
•	The Letters to the Laodiceans was rejected because they forged in the name of Paul in order to support the heresy of Marcion.
•	3. ____________________
•	The Shepherd of Hermas might be read privately but not in public worship because of its recent origin.

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Three Great Writers of the Period
•	______________ of Lyons in Gaul (died ca 190)
•	He was adamant in the affirmation of the fourfold Gospel
•	(see Against Heresies III:11)
•	He quotes as Scripture all of the books of the NT except:
•	Philemon, James, 2 Peter, 3 John, and Jude
•	these might have been left out because of their brevity.
Two others
•	Irenaeus accepted ____________ as subcanonical and yet
•	the Shepherd of _______________ as canonical
___________________________ (died ca 215)
•	clearly distinguished between the four Gospels and  certain apocryphal gospels (Stromata III:93)
•	He cited the remainder of the NT books except James, 2 Peter, and 3 John
•	Eusebius stated that Clement wrote a commentary on all the General Letters (Hist VI:14) 
•	1 Clement, 
•	the Didache, The Letter of Barnabus, Hermas, the Apocalypse of peter and the Preaching of Peter
____________________________ (died ca 220)
•	the first of the Christian writers to employ Latin
•	He referred to or quoted from all the NT books except
•	James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John
•	He ascribed Hebrews to Barnabus and treated it as semi-canonical
______________________
•	was apparently the first to use the term “New Testament” in the sense of a collection of books in Against Praxeas XV 
The Importance of these 4 witnesses
•	cannot be overestimated
•	Their testimony represents most of the _______________ world of their day
•	They attest to the existence and use of all the NT books except:
•	James, 2 Peter, and perhaps 3 John
•	If Eusebius’ statement about Clement writing a commentary on the General  Epistles, even those are included
Without Question
•	the four Gospels and
•	the 13 Pauline Epistles were firmly established
•	Revelation was not questioned until later in the East
•	Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John and Jude were disputed
•	by the 3rd century AD the concept of a NT canon was awaiting final limits

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3. The Period of __________________ of the NT Canon (ca 220-400)
•	___________ (died 254) traveled widely resided first at Alexandria and later at Caesarea
•	He was the first to discuss the canonization of the NT
•	He classified the books as to accepted, disputed, and rejected.
•	He was also the first to acknowledge all of the books now accepted as canonical, plus
•	the Didache, Barnabus, and Hermas
•	He was aware that Hebrew, James, 2 Peter, 2 & 3 John, and Jude were disputed.
___________________ of _____________ (died 264)
•	denied the Apostle John wrote Revelation (Eusebius, Hist. VII:25)
•	this provoked a long dispute about its status since he did not deny its canonicity, but its authorship only
_________________ of ________________
•	complete his Ecclesiastical History about 325 He gives a comprehensive view of the canon in his time
•	He built off of Origen’s classifications and used the following terms:
•	Universally accepted: the four gospels, Acts, 14 Pauline Letters (including Hebrews), 1 John, 1 Peter and Revelation
•	Origens “disputed” category he divided into two categories:
•	accepted by the majority and spurious
•	those accepted by the majority: James, 2 Peter, 2 & 3 John, and Jude
•	in the spurious: Didache, Barnabus, and Hermas, the Gospel according to the Hebrews, The Acts of Paul, the Apocalypse of Peter, and perhaps Revelation
____________________’ third category
•	books universally rejected:           other apocryphal works.	His universally accepted and majority accepted results in our 27 books the problem of the NT canon was on the verge of being settled
______________ of Jerusalem (348) and _________________ of Nazianzus (died 390)
•	both attested to a canon of 26 books with only Revelation missing from the list and without any other books added 
•	The first canon list to correspond exactly to the 27 books now in the NT is that of Athanasius of Alexander in his Easter Letter of 367
The Councils and Others of Importance
•	The Council of ____________ (393)	The Council of ________________ (397)
•	_______________ (died 420) and_______________ (died 430) also set forth such a canon of 27 books.

Other Information
•	Revelation continued to be questioned for some time
•	the _______________ church never accepted the 27 book canon until in the 6th century (some only accept 22 books today) some Reformers questioned some of the same books, but for most of Christianity, the canon of the NT has been closed since the 4th century
Why can we have confidence in the NT?
•	Reason 1: the canon established in the ___________ century has not only survived, but has seldom been questioned for more than __________ centuries
Reason 2: 
•	the manner in which the 27 books were chosen -these were not chosen by mere church councils…but were selected primarily because of the ________________value that each had in the life of the church over a period of several centuries this evidence is so strong over 19 centuries that most Christians see divine leadership