Setting the Canon: The Church Identifies Its Scripture

1
Setting the CanonThe Church Identifies Its
Scripture
2

• The decision of which books to include in the
  Bible was made through the discernment of the
  Churchs Apostolic tradition. The complete canon
  or list books includes the old testament with 46
  books and the new testament with 27 books. CCC 120

3
Stages of Gospel Development

• The Life and Teaching of Jesus
• Jesus lived in the beginning of the first century
• He preached a message of love, taught others
  about the Kingdom of God, and offered healing

4
Stages of Gospel Development

• The Oral Tradition
• This stage began as the apostles and disciples,
  who knew Jesus, shared Jesus message with others
• Many who had never seen or met Jesus came to
  believe in Him and share the good news
• Preaching was then carried out by a combination
  of eyewitnesses and non-eyewitnesses and was
  adapted to the needs of the different audiences

5
Stages of Gospel Development

• The written Gospels
• The four gospel writers combined both the oral
  stories with those that were already in written
  form.
• They chose stories that would be important to
  each authors particular audience while
  maintaining the authenticity of the events

6
Choosing the Canon

• Many gospels
• books of Acts
• infancy narratives
• and epistles
• were circulating during the first century

7
Criterion for Choice

• Early Church Fathers used 4 questions to decide
  which books were acceptable
• Was a particular work written by an eyewitness to
  events, by someone who actually knew Jesus, or by
  an apostle?
• Did the writing accurately reflect the teachings
  of Jesus as the apostles remembered them?

8
Criterion for Choice

• Had the piece of writing been consistently used
  in liturgical settings by Church communities for
  some time?
• Was there a general consensus that a particular
  writing was sacred and special?

9
Tradition

• It is important to realize that the Bible is not
  the only source available for the transmission of
  the beliefs, doctrines, and rituals of the
  Church. We also use living tradition of the
  Church.

10
Tradition

• Tradition is the deposit of faith as found in the
  preaching of the apostles, handed on through the
  apostolic succession in the Church.

11
Tradition

• Scripture and Tradition have the same source
  God. They are bound together so closely that they
  are in some way one thing moving toward the same
  goal, making present and fruitful in the Church
  the mystery of Christ. CCC 80

12
History

• By the beginning of the third century the New
  Testament was formed in the sense that the
  content of its main divisions was sharply defined
  and exclusively received.

13
History

• Secondary books were accepted in only certain
  cites
• The age of revelation expired with the last of
  the Apostles
• The circle of Sacred Scripture did not extend
  outside the Apostolic Era.

14
History

• There is a firmly rooted idea of two testaments
  with the same Sacred Spirit operating in both.
• The New Scripture has equal footing with that of
  the Prophets

15
The Period of Discussion

• The Period of Discussion of the Canon of the New
  Testament ran from 220-367 C.E.
• There were differences between the learned men
  from differing parts of the empire.
• Some of the letters, including The Epistle of St.
  John, Jude, Hebrews, and Second Peter were
  questioned

16
The Period of Fixation

• The Period of Fixation lasted from 367-405 C.E.
• St. Jerome, a priest, was summoned by Pope
  Damasus to assist at a synod in Rome in 382 C.E.
• Jerome was born in Rome but left to study in the
  East to learn Greek and Hebrew to be better able
  to study scripture

17

• This synod was devoted specifically to deciding
  the canon.
• The Damasan catalogue presents the complete and
  perfect canon and is still used in the Church
  today

18
The Period of Fixation

• The synod drew up a list of apocryphal as well as
  authentic scripture.
• Books rejected include the Shepherd of Hermes,
  the Didache, and The Apocalypse of Peter

19
Period of Fixation

• Though the Church in Rome had fixed their canon
  there was still question in other places. The
  synod of Hyppo (North Africa) fixes the canon in
  393 it took three synods in Carthage in 393,
  394 and 419, In Gaul doubt persisted until 405.

20
Period of Fixation

• At the close of the first decade of the fifth
  century the entire Western Church was in full
  possession of the Canon of the New Testament.
• In the East there were still some discussion on
  the Apocalypse of John, but for the Catholic
  Church as a whole the content of the New
  Testament was definitely fixed, and discussion
  closed.