FREE ESSAY ON THE PRINCIPLES OF NEW TESTAMENT CANON

THE PRINCIPLES OF NEW TESTAMENT CANON

The Principles of New Testament Canon
The process of determining New Testament canon is the study of how the twenty-seven books
that are currently part of the New Testament came to be. From the many early Christian
writings, only twenty-seven were placed into ecclesiastical canon. The process of
researching New Testament canon is the study of how the select list of twenty-seven was
formulated. The canonized books of the New Testament are considered sacred scripture, and
have been determined to be canon throughout a very controversial history. 
The word canon comes from the Greek word "kanon," which means "reed," a tool for
measurement or alignment. In the craftsmanship field, a reed was known to be a standard,
or a ruler in which to judge other things by. Finally, the word came to be recognized as
a formal list, or table. Throughout the first three centuries of the Christian era, the
term "kanon" was designated to set aside ethical and doctrinal content of the Christian
faith. The first use of canon as applied to Christian writings occurred in 350 A.D. when
Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, in his decrees of the Council of Nicea, used the term
canon to refer to authentic New Testament works. In the decree the bishop describes the
document known as The "Shepherd of Hermas," as not part of New Testament canon. In 367,
in the bishop's famous Easter Letter, he gives a list of authoritative early Christian
writings, and refers to them being "canonical." At about the same time in history, the
Council of Laodicea refers to two different lists of New Testament writings, both ones
that are "canonical" and those that are "uncanonical." Canon is referred to today as
being the closed set of Christian writings that formulate the New Testament. The word
"kanon" first appeared in early Christian writings when Paul wrote to Galatia. "Peace and
mercy be upon all who walk by this kanon..." (Gal. 6.16). Paul is suggesting that people,
who live by the canon, or law, will have peace and mercy come upon them. Paul established
canon as a measuring stick, which to live by.
Christianity did not begin as a religion based upon scripture, as the Jewish religion.
Christianity was based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The knowledge that was
passed down about the life of Jesus was done orally. From the beginning of Christianity,
people had been quoting Old Testament scripture that supported the Christian message.
Nowhere in early Christianity was the idea that the new religion would be based upon a
series of books. At some point people realized that the oral traditions must be put down
on paper, so not to lose them. Christians feared the use of scriptural patterns because
they wanted to separate themselves from the scriptural religion of Judaism. Early
Christian leaders did not think about forming a canon, because the Old Testament canon
had not even been definitely set.
The New Testament canon process was spread out over many years and was fiercely debated
throughout the process. Because the early church left behind no evidence to why they
decided on certain books instead of others, the only way to determine why certain books
were included is to piece together what little fragmentary evidence is still left. Also,
much of the theory must be left up to speculation. Basically three types of evidence
exist in determining the canonization process. One of the ways of investigating the
origin of New Testament canon is to examine the early Christian writings from the third
through the fifth centuries. In counting the number and frequency of citations of early
Christian writings, one can determine how much emphasis was placed on the very first
Christian writings, and the reasons why the works made it into canon. The second way to
determine why a certain work is in canon is to compile the discussions and ecclesiastical
councils about documents that have been either accepted or rejected as New Testament
canon. The arguments that were made for certain documents could lead to a possible
understanding about why they were included in New Testament canon. Also the arguments
against a certain document could help explain why the work was left out. The compilation
of this kind of evidence is from the fourth and fifth centuries, so it is not necessarily
the oldest or most accurate reason for canonization. The third way to determine why a
work has been canonized is to look at the oldest copies of the manuscript available.
Sometimes the works contained some form of prologue that gives an overview of the early
church and lends a possible explanation to why the work was included in the New
Testament. 
The many works that make up the bible were brought into canon at different times, in
different ways. The Gospels, the uniquely Christian writings based on the life of Jesus
Christ, were brought into New Testament canon, all at one time. The four Gospels were
individually shaped together outside of the Canonization process, and then adapted
afterwards. There were a few Gospels however, that did not make it into canon. The Gospel
of Thomas and the Gospel of Peter both did not make it into canon. Other gospel-like
documents have been found that also did not make it into New Testament canon. The
Dialogue of the Savior and the Apocryphon of John, found among the Nag Hammadi codices in
1945, were also left out. Also, the Unknown Gospel, which was found in 1935, is also not
a part of canon. Why were some Gospels included in canon, while others were not? The
reason that scholars have determined has been that those later works, the ones written in
the third or fourth century, did not have any unique value and did not establish any
special authority, that made in worthy of being in canon. Paul's letters, which make up a
large portion of the New Testament, were heavily debated, in whether to include them
because they were directed at a specific group of people and not Christianity as a whole.
The early history of Paul's letters is very obscure. The process that surrounded Paul's
letters is a result of the "snowball theory"(Gamble 36). This theory explains why Paul's
letters were so popular and widely known. Each individual letter was directed to a person
or to a community, and the news of his letter writing traveled quickly across the land.
Paul in turn became very popular, and his works became widely read. Eventually, his many
works circulated until they were all joined together. When it came time to determine the
canon, Paul's letters were included because of his authority in the early church. These
two woks, which make up the bulk of the New Testament, are a combination of works that
were put together before they were decided upon being let into canon. 
The New Testament canon has four criteria that were used in determining canon. The first
of the criteria is apostolicity. According to popular Christian thinking, the
apostolicity of the New Testament writings means that the writings are actually written
by the apostles. This idea is a misconception in terms of how the concept relates to its
canonization. The idea of apostolicity does not refer only to the works that apostles
wrote themselves. Apostolicity actually refers to the works that an apostle may have come
into contact with at some point. Simply because an apostle came into contact with a
certain work, does not ensure it of being guaranteed as a canonical work. Such works as
The Teachings of the Twelve Apostles, Barnabas, and the Gospel of Peter, which
inexplicably claim apostles as their authors, were not added in canon. Catholicity was
another way of determining the reasons why certain works were included. The term
catholicity meant that the work must be relevant to the church as a whole and was
intended to be by the author. This is understood to mean that works that were addressed
to a small group of people, instead of the entire church, were questionable additions to
the New Testament canon. Oddly enough, Paul's letters are all addressed to certain groups
of people or individuals, and not the church in general. Most of the New Testament
writings were addressed to a specific group, which made many of the writings fall short
in the catholicity criteria. The next form of the criteria is orthodoxy. The orthodoxy is
whether or not the content of the documents are in accordance with the precedence set
forth by prior church documents. The final criterion of the New Testament canon was
whether the works were part of traditional usage. This criterion determines whether the
work that was being proposed for entry into New Testament canon was currently in use as a
part of the church in its teachings. This criterion could only be used after the third or
fourth centuries, after the church had a long enough time to establish a definite
custom.
Three factors during the second century weighed heavily on the formation of canon.
Marcionism, Gnosticism and Montanism all shaped the formation of canon. Marcion was one
of the most influential characters in second century Christianity. He was the son of a
wealthy ship owner from Sinope, a city in northern Asia Minor. He came to Rome in 140
A.D. and became a teacher and follower of the Roman church. Marcion taught that
Christianity was a totally new and different religion from anything prior (Farmer and
Farkasfalvy 134). He said that Christianity was on a higher level than any previous
religion. Marcion therefore created his own form of canon that included Gospel literature
and apostolic letters. Because Marcion's work was one of the first known formations of
New Testament canon, scholars believe that he laid the groundwork for others to formulate
new canons. Gnostic literature, while being in existence for approximately the same
length of time, was rejected by people who supported the apostolic and catholic
teachings. Gnosticism is relevant to the discussion because, in order to know why things
are included, the scholar must know why certain ideas have been left out. Montanism also
provoked the formation of New Testament canon. The movement began in Asia Minor, during
the middle of the second century. A man named Montanus claimed he and his associates were
sent by God to offer new and final revelations to the church. This situation was common.
People made claims that God sent them, and the church had a hard time in discrediting
them as result of not having a closed set of Christian writings. Canon was a result of
the church attempting to end all of the new additions to Christian writings. New
Testament canon spurred from the church wanting to end the many inconsistencies that were
prevalent in the early church. From this period the church decided to only accept into
canon, works that had specific apostolic authority.
The canon of the New Testament was proposed by many different figures throughout the
process of canonization. A closing of New Testament canon took place at The Council of
Chalcedon in 451 A.D. The canon that was adopted at Chalcedon was not agreed upon until
the time of Constantine (Dunbar 317). The New Testament canon lists that were presented
at Chalcedon can be traced back as far as Athanasius (296-373). The Chalcedonian churches
have primarily accepted the list of Athanasius. The list of Amphilochus, bishop of
Iconium, who died in 394, wrote a list that matched Athanasius, and was identical except
for a slight discrepancy in the order that the books were in. Eusebius, who died in 340
A.D., also had a list for the formation of New Testament canon. Eusebius also had the
same books in his version of the list. The discrepancy between Eusebius's list and the
two others was the order that the books were put into. 
In the late third and early fourth century the Alexandrian school introduced another
version of New Testament canon. The canon of Clement was similar to those of the
Chalcedon churches, but differed in both order and content. Clement traveled extensively,
and eventually settled down in Egypt. His travels included Greece, Italy and Palestine.
This can be deduced because he knew of the scriptures that were used by churches in those
areas. He included the Gospel of the Hebrews, the Gospel of the Egyptians, and the Gospel
of Mattathias, instead of just the four gospels that appear in the Chalcedonian churches.
Clement also included fourteen letters from Paul. The fourteenth letter being to Clement.
In total, the canon of Clement included thirty-six books. Origen, who lived from 185-254
A.D., also traveled widely, visiting Greece, Arabia and Rome, and compiled another list
out of the Alexandrian style. Origen included the twenty-two undisputed works, the same
number of undisputed books as Clement. Origen apparently changed his list multiple times
before he was set on a certain one. When Origen was in Alexandria, he accepted the
Didache, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Epistle of Barnabas as canon. After traveling to
Caesarea, he changed his list when he found out the books were not accepted there. Origen
also began to question whether the Preaching of Peter belonged in canon, a work that
Clement had been fond of. Origen was very strong in excluding certain books, such as the
Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mattathias, the Gospel of the Twelve, the Gospel of the
Egyptians, and the Acts of Paul. Hippolytus, who died in 235 A.D., also formulated a list
of canonical works based on his travel findings. The Hippolytus canon differs because the
Pauline works are different. He did not include Hebrews as an accepted "undisputed" work.
Besides the difference over Hebrews, Origen's list is very similar to Hippolytus's list.
Hippolytus also includes twenty-two books in his canon version.
The process of the canonization of the Christian bible was disputed throughout the
beginnings of the Christian religion. Canonization is a compilation of many different
lists proposed by numerous different scholars. Canon was necessary to ensure that the
church was united by common teachings. At the Council of Trent on April 8, 1546, the
church closed its final copy of New Testament canon, which includes the present day
twenty-seven works.