The Foundation of Orthodoxy and the Canon

THE HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT CANON
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The History of the New Testament Canon
The Canon refers to a compilation of the 27 books that make up the New Testament. The history of the canon, therefore, refers to the process through which the 27 books were brought together and gained recognition as Devine inspirations and the Word of God. In various sections of the New Testament, Jesus Christ taught the Christian using the scriptures. For Example, the gospels of Matthew and Luke’s narration of Jesus’ temptation show him quoting Deuteronomy. When he is tempted with food, he responds with “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4, and Luke 4:4)’ which is an attestation of the Old Testament scriptures of Deuteronomy 8:3 that says “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” The Authority of the Old Testament and its viability to Christian teachings was therefore never a problem for the early Christians. These scriptures were constantly used in churches. In addition to these scriptures, the definitiveness of the authority of Jesus was not a question for these early Christians. This led to the onset of New Testament writings.
For the early Christians, ‘The End’ was imagined to be a very near event.

Missionary work was, therefore, something that purely concerned their immediate lives and those of immediate relatives. The apostles tasked themselves with the role of explaining the figure of Christ to people to the people close to them. Writing of the canonical books was therefore intended to cater for the needs of the apostles and those close to them. They did not envision it as the onset of establishing a new testament. All the canonical books were written before 100AD. They were therefore written by individuals who had encountered Christ all those who had encountered him through first-hand witnesses. When these books were written, they were kept under the custody of various communities and churches as treasures. For example, epistles that were written by Paul to various churches became treasures of those respective churches. Due to the authority and the respectability of various apostles who wrote these books, they were taken as the Words of Jesus Christ and were read in the churches together with the Old Testament scriptures.
With the progression of time, the nature of texts became more ambiguous. People coming from other religions had a varied understanding of Jesus Christ and Christianity. Additionally, with the increase in the length of time, more details about Christ and his ministry were getting distorted. A lot of texts were, therefore, showed significant variation with the real events of Christ’s mission work. To prevent further distortion, it became necessary to sift through the available texts and determine which ones would be used by the church for future references. The process of creating the canon can be divided into three faces. Between 0AD to 170AD, the canonical books gained appreciation throughout Christianity as the words of Christ. Between 170AD and 220 AD, the books witnesses extensive recognition as holy and true among the Christian communities. For the third and the fourth centuries, there was the acceptance and compilation of the canons in both Eastern and Western Christian communities.
First of all, the recognition of the canons began though individual attempts to share the books. Each community was eager to share the wealth of information that it had received from certain writers. In 110AD, Polycarp wrote a letter to the Philippians. In this letter, he acknowledges that he has received the book they sent him. In addition, he has also received an epistle from Ignatius. He, therefore, pledges to send to the Philippians what he has received from Ignatius. Additionally, he will personally or through another person send the epistle from the Philippians to Syria. Ignatius perceives that the wealth of this sharing will help the Christian increase in suffering the persecutions and increase their faith. This shows the regard and esteem that was given to the scriptures. This is how the canons gained appreciation throughout the Christian communities. The letters that Ignatius writes to the church of Asia Minor around 115AD and those frequently written by Clement of Rome around 95Ad show the vastness of which most of the canonical books had been shared extensively among the Christian communities.
Among the individuals who were vital in this process of sharing and consequent appreciation, recognition and consolidation include Marcion. Since Marcion was a sailor and a merchant, he came across many of the books that were written at the beginning of Christianity. He was the son of the Bishop of the Asia Minor Church and therefore influential within the church circle. Upon reading the epistles of Paul, Marcion proposed that the church abandons the Hebrew Old Testament Bible. According to Marcion, the Jewish Bible was only concerned with the God of the covenant. This was a God of the Israelites and therefore had no place in Christian faith. Marcion proposed a rule for Christians that would be guided by the Gospel of Luke and the epistles of Paul. However, Marcion did not present the epistles and the gospel of Luke as they were written. He attempted to manipulate them to fit his ideology of a division between the Jewish God and the Christian God. According to him, the creation God of the Jews was evil and Christ had come to reveal another God. The Christian authorities considered this suggestion too radical and misguided. In response to it, it began the process of defending its reliance on the Old Testament and Christianity’s relationship with the Jewish religion. It also began the process of responding to the evident need for a common canon among the Christians.
To respond to the need for a common canon, the bishops of the church began to organize debates on the question. These debates would be used to try and identify which among the available books could be established as divine. One of the results of these debates is the Muratorian Fragment. This is a scroll that contains a list of books that were already agreed upon to be Devine. The Muratorian Fragment mostly consisted of the Epistles of Paul. Although considered to be the first list to be compiled, the Muratorian Fragment is actually dated later than the Eusebius List. By 185 AD, the works of Irenaeus indicate that the church had recognized 22 books as canonical. Irenaeus is considered as an author whose motivation to write was driven by the biblical writings. It is therefore not surprising that he originated with the earliest most authentic list of books to be used for the New Testament. Origen of Alexandria produced an almost similar list at the beginning of the third century. By 325AD, Eusebius of Caesarea published a book on the History of the Church. In this book, Eusebius expounds on the discussions that were there within the early church on the validity and authenticity of the canons. He published a list of 20 New Testament books that became recognized in as canonical books.
As the list of the Canons began to emerge, the question of the Gospel continued to thrive. Marcion had already suggested the use of a single Gospel in the book of Luke. This was favorable for the church since it would avoid any discrepancies and contradictions. Furthermore, Tatian of Syria had combined all the four gospels to produce one harmonious version in 165AD. However, the Bishops rejected the idea of the unified Bible. Once again, Irenaeus was very instrumental in the decision to retain the four gospels. According to him, as the word had four corners and the winds blew toward three sides, so should the New Testament canon be made up of four gospels. These would be four testimonies of one truth of Jesus Christ. In the year 367AD, Athanasius published an Easter letter in which all the books that are in the modern New Testament appeared. [] Five of these books that were added to the Irenaeus list are those that Eusebius had considered rejected. It is speculated that the five were included to create some unity between the Church and the State in Constantinople when Emperor Constantine asked for 50 bibles to be used within the churches in the state.

Bibliography
Andrews, Edward D. Christian Theology. Cambridge, Ohio: Christian Publishing House, 2016.
FitzGerald, Thomas E. The Ecumenical Movement. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Conn., 2004.
Gugliotto, Lee J. Handbook For Bible Study. Review and Herald Pub Assoc: Maryland, 2000.
Gutierrez, Ben. The Essence Of The New Testament. B&H Publishing Group, 2016.
Irvin, Dale T, and Scott W Sunquist. History Of The World Christian Movement. 3rd ed. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2012.
The NIV Zondervan Study Bible, Ebook. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2015.