Canon

Canon comes from the greek word 'kanon' meaning ruler.

The canon of scripture is a list of books which the church uses for public worship and acknowlegde as inspired scripture.

A canon was need as cy had grown out of judaism, they needed to perserve the story and teaching of Jesus as apostles and eyewitnesses were dying out, the church wanted apostolic tradition and church doctrine and to combat heresey.

Gnostics followed false gospels e.g. Gospel Of Thomas. Marcionism created their own canon. Montanists were following fresh revelations of the prophecy.

Wand states the Churches only defence against Montanists was to 'close the canon of scripture'.

Closing the canon was part of a three fold defence against heresys: Creeds, canon and apostolic succession.

1st Century: No OT canon but the early christians followed the hebrew scriptures written in the Septuagint. There existed a strong body of oral tradition which was seen as having equal authority to the OT. Pauls Letters were the 1st book of the NT to be written despite displaying a more developed stage than the synoptic gospels. They provided advice and teaching to new converts and churches and were read on Sundays. By the end of the 1st century all of Paul's letters had come together and were written down.

By the end of the 1st century the gospels were written as the expected Parousia hadn't occured. By mid 2nd century the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) were accepted. It took longer for John to be accepted as it was recognised by Gnostics and Montanists as authorative. However, many still prefered the use of oral tradition including Papius, a contemporary of Justin Martyr. By the beginning of the 2nd century, Luke's second volume of history, Acts, had great respected within the church. Still as this stage, there was no definitie decision on what books would be in the canon.

Criteria for the canon was laid out, if it was written by an apostle, at the time of the apostles and followed apostlic tradition it would be accepted. Irenaeus recognised a need for an authorative canon and distinguished between 'writings or truth' and 'spurious writings'. Justin Martyr made references to the NT, 'it stands written' which displays the authority it was given within the Church.

In the 2nd century, Marcion helped the speed up the development of the canon by creating his own. It contained a gospel, a purified version of Luke and the apostle, which included a purified version of 10 of Paul's letters. This was an incentive for the Church to create their own canon. The Catholic Church responded to Marcion by saying they accepted the OT as authoritive and its revelance to the new books, there are 4 gosples, Paul had written 13 letters and the importance of Luke's second work, Acts.

The Muratorian Canon was a canon list dated 200AD and indicates the books accepted as scripture in the Church at Rome. It included the 4 gospels, 13 of Paul's letters, Acts, 1&2 John, Jude and Revelations. By the close of the 2nd century there was a general acceptance of all NT books except 3 John, Hebrews, James and 1&2 Peter. The Muratorian Canon was first published by Ludovico Muratori in 1740 and it is believed Hippolytus is the author.

By the 3rd Centuy a consensus reached throughout concerning the main contents of the canon. At the beginning of the 4th Century, Eusebius recorded the only books still being debated were James, 2 Peter, 2&3 John and Jude. In the 4th Century we find our list of 27 NT books listed by Athanasius in Alexandria in 367AD and permitted other books for private reading e.g. Hermas. Once it was generally accepted it was made subject of decree by ecclasiatical council, the N.A Synod of Hippo in 393 whose findings were confirmed by the Synod of Carthage in 397AD.

The main criteria for books included were apostolic authorship or a disciple of an apostles e.g. Mark and conformity to orthodox teachings. Books like Hermas and the Didache were excluded as they weren't apostolic.

Chadwick: 'Sometimes modern writers wonder at the disagreements.The truly astonishing thing that so great a measure of agreement was reached so quickly'.