History of the Canon

The Light Shines in the Darkness...

On his webpage, William Webster has given a detailed history of the canon of Scripture throughout the centuries, and I do not believe that I could do a better job.

For the full history of the canon: www.christiantruth.com/apocryphaintroduction.html

(This includes rebuttals of many of the arguments used by Roman apologists.)

For the rebuttal of all the arguments of Roman apologists:

www.christiantruth.com/canon.html

A rebuttal to a response to the above article is found here:

www.christiantruth.com/sippocanon.html

So, instead, I will only list the numerous names of those who denied the canonicity of most (if not all) of the apocrypha (i.e. they denied the Roman Catholic canon) throughout the centuries:

Jews Prior to Jamnia

The Talmud

Philo of Alexandria

Jesus ben Sirah

The Essenes

Josephus

Church Fathers

Melito of Sardis

Julius Africanus

Origen

Hilary of Poitiers

Cyril of Jerusalem

Athanasius

Epiphanius

Gregory Nazianzus

Amphilochius

Basil the Great

Rufinus

Jerome

Anastasius of Antioch

Primasius

Nicolas of Lyra

Pope Gregory the Great

John of Damascus

Medieval Writers

Glossa Ordinaria

Cardinal Cajetan

The Venerable Bede

Agobard of Lyons

Alcuin

Walafrid Strabo

Haymo of Halberstadt

Ambrose of Autpert

Radulphus Flavicencius

Hugh of St. Victor

Richard of St. Victor

John of Salisbury

Peter Cellensis

Rupert of Deutz

Honorius of Autun

Peter Comestor

Peter Mauritius

Adam Scotus

Hugh of St. Cher

Philip of Harvengt

Nicholas of Lyra

William of Ockham

Antoninus

Alonso Tostado

Dionysius the Carthusian

Thomas Walden

Jean Driedo

John Ferus

Jacobus Faber Stapulensis

Bible Translations and/or Translators (Medieval)

Biblia Complutensia by Cardinal Ximenes, Archbishop of Toledo (Sanctioned by Pope

Leo X)

Sanctes Pagnini (Received commendatory letters from Popes Adrian VI and Clement

VII)

Johannes Petreius

A few notes on the repercussions of this list need to be made:

1. The Jews did not accept the Apocryphal books, and the meeting of Jews at Jamnia was not when this happened because it had always been that way.

2. The canon given at Hippo and Carthage was not seen as representative of the Church as a whole and was never seen as an infallible list. Likewise, it was never believed that the 7^th Ecumenical (II Nicea), Lyons I, or Lyons II ever established the canon for the Church. According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, the first time that the Old Testament Canon was established in the Roman Catholic Church was at the Council of Trent (16 Century).

3. If Roman Catholic apologists want to say that Pope Innocent I’s approval of the canon given by the Council of Carthage was authoritative, then they have to acknowledge Pope Leo X’s approval of Ximenes’ Biblia Complutensia (which does not include the Apocrypha as canonical) as likewise authoritative.

4. Luther did not remove books from the canon because they were never in the canon to begin with. He was merely following the lead of a large list of some of the finest Biblical and historical scholars in the Western Church.

5. Thus, the claims of Roman apologists concerning the canon are mythological at best.

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Also, some helpful audio on this topic can be found at:

http://www.straitgate.com/webster/

http://www.straitgate.com/aom/dl/03.htm (March 13)

Some helpful online reading can be found here:

[The web articles mentioned at the beginning.]

www.ntrmin.org/images/questions/canondetermine.htm