The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1
III. Progressive Stages in the Acceptance
1. VIEW OF CHURCH FORMALLY CRYSTALLIZED
During the latter part of the third century and the larger portion of the fourth, a voluminous theological literature was produced, replete with discussion of the canon. But for a century or so such books as the Epistle of Clement, the Didache (or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles), the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Epistle of Barnabas had struggled for inclusion in the canon, in certain localities, and the disputes concerning them had been heated. PFF1 928.1
The fourth century marks a complete separation of the New Testament from the New Testament Apocrypha. Diocletian’s persecution hastened the recognition of the Christian Scriptures, because it was aimed at destroying all Christian writings. 24 Consequently, the true Scriptures were distinguished from all others and endeared by this very persecution which was aimed at their common destruction. PFF1 928.2
Eusebius catalogues as “accepted writings” the acknowledged books, adding to them the other books of our canon, with this exception—he could not come to a conclusion regarding the authorship of Revelation. He seeks to quiet the dispute over Second Peter, Second John, Third John, James, and Jude. He divides Christian writings into three classes: “universally acknowledged,” “disputed,” and “spurious.” 25 Cyril of Jerusalem, his younger contemporary, lists essentially the same, except for the omission of Revelation. 26 PFF1 928.3
The fifty-ninth canon of the Council of Laodicea (formerly variously dated in such years as 336, 363, or 364, but actually of unknown date—some time between 343 and 381) forbids the reading of any but canonical books in church. 27 The sixtieth canon, which lists the books approximately as we have them, with the exception of Revelation, is of disputed genuineness. 28 PFF1 928.4
In Alexandria, Athanasius’ Easter letter of 367 lists our twenty-seven books as the complete and exclusive New Testament, and a synod at Rome (382) and the Third Council of Carthage (397) accepted the same list. Thus Rome, Carthage, and Alexandria became uniform in official usage, and in the West the canon assumed permanently the form and content which we now have. 29 PFF1 928.5
“Aside from the canonical Scriptures nothing is to be read in church under the name of Divine Scriptures,” is the pronouncement of the Third Council of Carthage in 397. 30 The influence of Athanasius’ Easter letter was widespread in the East, but there was difference of opinion and no ecumenical council recognition of the full canon until the Trullan Council of 692. 31 The determination of the New Testament, let it be emphasized, is not the work of the councils. Its content and position were well defined before the councils took it up. The church councils gave no new authority to the Scriptures—no sacredness or inspiration which they did not already possess—but only recognition, their existence during earlier centuries being an acknowledged fact. PFF1 929.1
2. FOURTH TO SIXTH CENTURIES
Jerome and Augustine were de ciding factors in the West, and the circulation of the Vulgate ended all discussion as to the canon. The Latin New Testament became the standard, but it was not generally circulated in other languages until the advent of printing. The fifty copies ordered by Constantine influenced the East to recognize the disputed Epistles, if they contained the books accepted by Eusebius, but their precise content is not known. Official recognition in the East waited until finally the Quinisextine Council (Second Trullan) of 692 recognized the Western canon, and the Third Council of Carthage was confirmed. Thus the question of ecclesiastical practice was settled, and mature judgment of the church at large accepted the twenty-seven books, including the Revelation. PFF1 929.2
3. THE MIDDLE AGES
We have seen that the fourth-century councils declared canonical what was already accepted. They did no more than recognize what existed. But their actions placed the canon on the basis of the council authority of the Catholic Church, in the subsequent centuries, and the original basis was crowded into the background. In the Middle Ages the Sacred Canon was subordinated to church authority. The Greek New Testament text was held inferior to Latin until the sixteenth century brought a revival of interest in the text. PFF1 929.3
4. THE REFORMATION PERIOD
The Renaissance, followed by the Reformation, revived the old questions on the canon. The dogmatic Catholic contention was challenged by Luther and others. Luther made the Word itself the sole authority, and New Testament books authoritative to the degree in which, according to his opinion, they taught Christ and salvation. Luther placed Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation on a slightly lower level—canonical, but subordinate. Therefore he put them at the end of his Bible—as they still appear in most German Bibles. Erasmus questioned the authorship, though not the authority, of Hebrews and James; he mentioned doubts concerning Second Peter and Jude; and seemed to assign Second and Third John and Revelation to “John the Presbyter,” rather than John the apostle. Calvin questioned the Pauline authorship, although not the apostolic origin, of Hebrews, and had doubts of Second Peter. But these learned controversies left the canon untouched in Protestantism as a whole. PFF1 929.4
The printing of the New Testament tended to fix the form and content, and it awakened interest in new translations. In early English translations, Luther’s view on the last four books of the New Testament was echoed somewhat by Tyndale (1525), Coverdale (1535), John Rogers (Matthew’s Bible, 1537), and Taverner (1539). The Council of Trent (1546) declared Peter, John, James, Jude, and Revelation apostolic, but it also declared the tradition of the church to be equal to, and by implication superior to, the Scripture. The successive English Bibles—the Great Bible (1539) and the Geneva Bible (1560)—and the Thirty-nine Articles (1563-71) established the full New Testament canon for the English Bible, and thus it appears in the Authorized Version of 1611, the classic King James Bible. PFF1 930.1