The Canon of the Scriptures and the Apostolic Church

Frontice Piece from the London Edition of the 1611 Authorized King James Version of the Bible in English

Edited by Bp. Joseph Boyd (Ancient Church of the West) 

The Ancient Church is the reason why we have the Bible today. The Bible was compiled, preserved and interpreted by the Church. Therefore, Scripture is an expression of the Holy Spirit within the Church, and must only be interpreted within the bounds of doctrinal and apostolic orthodoxy, dependent upon the catholic opinion of what has been believed everywhere, always and by all. 

51-125 AD - The New Testament books were written by the Holy Apostles and their Disciples. 

140 AD - Marcion, a Rome merchant, taught that there were two Gods: Yahweh, the cruel God of the Old Testament, and “Abba,” the kind father of the New Testament. Marcion eliminated the Old Testament as inspired Scriptures, and, since he was anti-Semitic, kept in the New Testament only 10 letters of Paul and 2/3 of Luke's gospel (he deleted all references to Jesus' Jewishness within the Gospel). Marcion's "New Testament", the first to be compiled, forced the mainstream Church to decide on a core canon, which was decided to be the four Gospels and Letters of St. Paul. 

200 AD - The periphery of the Canon was not yet determined. According to one list, compiled at Rome c. AD 200 (the Muratorian Canon), the NT consists of the 4 gospels; Acts; 13 letters of Paul (Hebrews is not included); 3 of the 7 General Epistles (1-2 John and Jude); and also the Apocalypse of St. Peter. Each "city-church" (region) has its own Canon, which is a list of books approved for reading at the Liturgy. 

367 AD - The earliest extant list of the books of the NT, in exactly the number and order in which we presently have them, is written by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, in his Festal letter # 39 of 367 A.D. 

382 AD - Council of Rome, whereby Bishop Damasus started the process of defining a universal canon for all city-churches. Listed the New Testament books in their present number and order. 

393 AD - The Council of Hippo, which began the argument about the proper Canon of Scripture of both Old and New Testaments. A Canon was proposed by Bishop St. Athanasius. 

397 AD - The Council of Carthage, which refined the Canon for the Western Church, sending it back to Innocent of Rome for ratification. In the East, the canonical process was never ratified, due to the fact that Roman authority on universal issues was not accepted. 

405 AD - From 390 to 405, St. Jerome translated anew from the Hebrew all the books in the Hebrew Bible, including a further version of the Psalms, and translated the Apocryphal books from the Greek Septuagint and the Aramaic Peshitta. He alone established the principle that the Deuterocanonical books were to be used for “example of life and instruction in manners, but not to establish any doctrine," which was not how the Ancient Church approached the establishment of doctrine. St. Jerome’s Latin version of the Bible, known as the “Vulgate” (“Vulgar” or “Common” language version), became the standard Scripture for Western Christianity and was proclaimed inspired by the Roman Church at the Council of Trent. 

787 AD - The Ecumenical Council of Nicaea II, which adopted the canons of Carthage. At this point, both the Latin West and the Greek/Byzantine East had the same Canon of Scripture for the NT, while maintaining their differences on the OT. The non-Greek, Miaphysite Copts, Armenians, West Syriac Church, and the Church of the East in Persia and India, still has the ancient apostolic books, including the Apocryphal and Apocalyptic Gospels that were written for 200 years after Christ’s Ascension. But these churches came together in some agreement on the core canon, in 1442 A.D., at the Council of Florence, while maintaining their own books. 

1442 AD - At the Council of Florence, the Eastern and Western Churches recognized the 27 books of the New Testament as authoritative. This council confirmed the Western Canon of the Bible which Bishop Damasus I had published a thousand years earlier. So, by 1439, all apostolic branches of the Church recognized the same Canon. This was 100 years before the Reformation. 

Bl. John Cosin, Engraving from “A Scholastical History of the Canons of Holy Scripture”, AD 1657

1536 AD - In his translation of the Bible from Greek into German, Luther disparaged 4 New Testament books (Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation) and placed them under suspicion by saying they were less than canonical, based on his dislike for their theological teachings. It is ironic that a Reformer claiming “Sola Scriptura” believed that he, personally, had the right to discriminate against Scriptures he did not agree with or like! 

1546 AD - At the Council of Trent, the Roman Church reaffirmed once again the full list of 27 books. The council also confirmed the inclusion of the Deuterocanonical books which had been a part of the Bible canon since the early Church and was confirmed at the councils of 393 AD, 373, 787 and 1442 AD. 

1571 AD - The Church of England standardized the Canon of Scriptures in English with the promulgation of the 39 Articles, Article 6, by the English Parliament in 1571, agreeing with the Council of Trent. The English Church maintained the Deuterocanonical Books and translated them into English, including them in the daily and weekly lectionaries published for use in all Anglican Churches. 

1611 AD - The English Canon of Scripture was formalized in the English language by the publication of the Authorized 1611 King James Version of the Bible. This translation unfortunately hardened Jerome's exclusion of the Deuterocanonical Books from doctrinal consideration by separating these books into their own section as a separate Apocrypha, thus, fully realizing his principle of interpretation, without dismissing or abrogating the Apocrypha and the Septuagint officially. 

Now, most of the English-speaking world accepts the Canon of Scripture as defined by this process within the Western Churches, and this order and number of books within the Bible is believed to be directly inspired of God, inerrant, and life-giving. We see the enormous fruits of this process through Christ’s Gospel of Salvation, which is constantly at work, calling all men to love and serve their Creator, and the purity of life that God’s Word inspires in personal life. Through the massive number of Bible translations sponsored and completed by English-speaking missionaries, this Canon of Scripture has been inherited by the vast majority of Christians around the world, and stands as a testament of the Holy Spirit’s continued activity and presence within God’s One, Holy, Apostolic and Catholic (Universal) Church, of which our church is a part. Unfortunately, much is left to do in interpreting, publishing and expositing the Septuagint and the Peshitta Bible traditions in the West, so that Western Christianity can fully appreciate the Canon of Scripture as it developed in the Christian East and have better perspective on Biblical interpretation in the Early Church.