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Evidence before 200 AD about the canon
A conservative, bible believing perspective!
God's providence gave us the 27 book New Testament Canon, not the church.
God, not men decided the canon. This providence does not mean that church
leaders were inspired in their selecting the canon, only that God had his
eye on the scriptures the whole time and brought about His will to form the
Bible we see today!
Evidence before 200 AD about the canon
Go to: "Canon of the Bible" Home Page
Evidence before 200 AD about the canon
I. Scare and scattered historical record:
"Due to the scarcity of evidence, one cannot firmly conclude when
exactly and as a result of what development the early church came to
possess a twenty-seven-book collection called the New Testament and a
two-part collection that comprises our Bible of Old and New Testaments."
(Lee Martin McDonald, James A. Sanders, Editors: The Canon Debate; Peter
Balla, Evidence for an Early Christian Canon: Second and Third Century, p
372, 2002)
Although historians universally admit there is sketchy information
about the earliest years of the church, this does not mean the core of the
canon was not recognized as we see it today. We have random bits and pieces
of historical evidence of varying degree of reliability. For example, just
because our earliest complete copy of the Bible (codex) is about 325 AD,
this does not mean that a codex in 125 AD did not exist. All we can say is
that we have no direct archeological proof.
All we have from the apostolic fathers during this earliest time
would be a book about the "volume about the same size as the New Testament"
(The Canon of the New Testament, Bruce Manning Metzger, 1987, p 72)
II. Roman Catholics take note:
We remind Roman Catholics that not only is the earliest evidence of the
canon incomplete, but so is the record of the earliest bishops of Rome. In
other words, there is no agreement as to the actual order of "Pope" (as
Catholics refer to the historic elders of Rome) So the same evidence
Catholics point to, in order to prove the canon was not settled before 200
AD, also proves the order of the "popes of Rome" are disputed.
"The oldest links in the chain of Roman bishops are veiled in
impenetrable darkness. ... at that early day, the government of the
congregation composed of Jewish and Gentile Christian elements was not so
centralized as it afterwards became. Furthermore, the earliest fathers,
with a true sense of the distinction between the apostolic and episcopal
offices, do not reckon Peter among the bishops of Rome at all." (History of
the Christian Church, Philip Schaff, v2, ch 4)
"The actual order of the first three so-called bishops of Rome is a
greatly disputed matter. The oldest tradition is that given by Irenaeus
(Adv. Hoer. III. 3. 3) and followed here by Eusebius, according to which
the order was Linus, Anencletus, Clement. Hippolytus gives a different
order, in which he is followed by many Fathers" (Philip Schaff, Post-Nicene
Fathers, Series II, Vol. I, footnote 14)
See more documentation of the organization of the early church.
III. Illustration and case point:
Here is a typical historians quote: "Given what we see in Eusebius
in the early fourth century it is virtually impossible to imagine that the
church had settled upon a twenty-seven book collection, or even one that
approximated that, in the late second century. Moreover, whatever the
merits of David Trobisch's intriguing and important proposal that a
twenty-seven book edition of the New Testament was produced in the second
century, that notion seems hard to reconcile with what we have found in
Eusebius regarding the church's acceptance of apostolic writings in earlier
centuries." (Lee Martin McDonald, James A. Sanders, Editors: The Canon
Debate; Everett R. Kalin, The New Testament Canon of Eusebius, p 404, 2002)
Problem is that the record of Eusebius, is restricted to that small
part of the world where he had influence: Caesarea. He may not represent
Asia, Constantinople, Alexandria or Rome! For a complete picture of the
time, we need the views of key men in all these areas.
It is well documented that different areas of the world had
differing views on various New Testament books. This does not mean that
Canon was not set. But some parts of the world accepted Revelation and
others viewed it with suspicion.
It is clear that in some parts of the world, the entire 27 book
canon of scripture was likely fixed in its present state.
By Steve Rudd: Contact the author for comments, input or corrections.
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