History of the formation of the New Testament canon.

If we claim the Bible is the Word of God, a question we must answer is: where did it come from? This paper will focus on the different stages of the formation of the New Testament. We will see how 27 writings, written by various authors, in different parts of the Mediterranean region over a period of 50 years came together to form the New Testament. We will study the formation of the New Testament in four stages: the recognition of some early Christian writings as authoritative, which led to the collection of these writings, developing into the idea of having a New Testament canon, which was finalized to give us the New Testament we have today.1

The canon refers to “a group of books acknowledged (…) as the rule of faith and practice”2. The idea of a canon is found right through scripture. We see Bible characters dealing with the writings of the Old Testament as God's Word. In Luke 24:44, Jesus refers clearly to the three groups of scripture we have in the Old Testament: “the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms.” This was the canon operating for Christians in the 1st century.3 Jesus' first come had changed things, specially how to interpret the scriptures. A lot of value was given by Christians to his words. As they recognized Him as Lord, they placed on him as much authority as they did to Yahweh in the Old Testament. Consequently great value was placed on the writings of the apostles which were reliable sources to get Jesus' spoken words.4


We find importance given to the New Testament scriptures in the writings of the Apostles, and then of the Apostolic Father. The first hints, of the value of the New Testament are found in its own writings. We see clearly in 2 Peter 3:16, Peter, one of Jesus' closest disciples is referring to Paul's letters, placing them on the same level as the Old Testament scriptures. From Colossians 4:16, we learn that Paul's letters could be passed on to other churches, again showing us they had influence and were given value.5 The Apostolic Fathers were also quoting and referring to the texts we now hold as being inspired. Clement of Rome, writing to the Corinthian church in 95AD, was quoting from both the Old Testament and the New Testament scriptures, these quotes were introduced with 'remember the words of the Lord Jesus'.6 Some argue that he may have just been using the oral tradition rather than the gospels7, but his reference to Paul's letters are a lot clearer, as he urges the church to refer itself to the Apostle's letters, and points to Romans, Galatians, Philippians and Ephesians.8 Similarly, references or quotes from New Testament books are found in the letters Ignatius wrote on the way to his martyrdom in 1109, and then seen in Polycarp's writings who makes a clear reference to Ephesians 4:2610, while writing to the Philippians Church also around 110 A.D.11 More evidence is found in the many other early Christian sources, showing the value given to the text we have in our New Testament, early on.


After the recognition of the New Testament writings, the second step to the formation of the canon is the collection of its writings. The quote mentioned previously from 2 Peter, shows Peter was familiar with many of Paul's letters: “as he does in all his letters”, he views them as a whole, and could imply that they had been collected. The writings of Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, and the Gnostic Gospel of Truth, refer to many different passages from the gospels, or Paul's letters so we can also suspect that these writings were probably being collected.12 The collection of texts, was done by different people independently, did these collections differ? Did all agree upon which books were inspired?

Following the collection of 1st century litterature, they were given more and more authority, to match even the Old Testament scriptures, leading to the idea of a New Testament Canon. Marcion was the first to create a New Testament Canon. He had trouble accepting the God presented in the Old Testament, and believed the Christian message was being affected by Judaizers.13 He rejected the Old Testament altogether, and all the apostles apart from Paul, which led him to be excommunicated. This led him to create a new canon made out of the gospel of Luke, and ten of Paul's letters. Which then drove the church to examine the circulating Christian literature, to create its own canon. Marcion is not responsible for our New Testament but it seems he initiated the process. In reaction to Marcion unique gospel, the church put all four, after much debate. Marcion had only ten of Paul's letters, the church chose all 13.14 More books were added quite easily. With the recognition of Luke's gospel, the addition of the book of Acts came automatically. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, gave a lot of authority to John's Revelation, and to other general letters we find in our New Testament.15 On another front, the inspired texts were becoming more evident as they were being used by the apologists Anthenagoras and Theophilus of Antioch to defend the Christian faith against heretical views.


After the recognition of the New Testament writings as authoritative, their collection, and the sign of first canons, by the year 200, the core of the New Testament was evident. Disputes remained concerning the general Epistles to include, Hebrews and Revelation.16 In 1740 a librarian discovered the Muratorian Canon, which was named after him. This canon dates back to around 200 AD. Though it is not exactly what we have today, it gives a clear indication that writings were being examined for their authority, are sorted early on.17 Origen, later in the third century participated in the canonization process by sorting writings in three categories, depending on how authoritative they were. Then came Eusebius, who had is own view on which books were authoritative in the 4th century. It was only in 367 in a letter written by Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria that we find the 27 books that we have today.18 He was the first to use word “canon”.19 By the end of the 4th century the 27 books were accepted by the Latin church and by the Greeks, confirmed by the Synod of Hyppo Regious (396) and Carthage (397). At this time the Syrian church had 22 books in their canon. But 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude and Revelation slowly made their way to the canon by 508. These were kept by the reformers, and re-affirmed by the council of Trent (1545-63).20


Four steps are clear in the formation of the New Testament we have today. The first being the recognition of the New Testament writings by the early church, ending in their collection. These collections slowly became official, this process was finalized in the fourth century, when the New Testament we have today was recognized right through Christianity.



















1 A.B. Du Toit, Guide to the New Testament (Pretoria: N.G. Kerkboekhandel Transvaal, 1979), 185.


2 Walter A. Elwell, ed., Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2001), 155.


3 Eduard Lohse, The Formation of the New Testament (Nashville: Abingdon Pr, 1981), 18


4 Du Toit, Guide to the New Testament, 186.


5 Lohse, The Formation of the New Testament, 19.


6 Bruce M. Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, USA, 1997), 41.


7 Du Toit, Guide to the New Testament, 189.


8 Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance, 42.


9 Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance, 45.


10 Du Toit, Guide to the New Testament, 193.


11 Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance, 59.


12 Du Toit, Guide to the New Testament, 194-7.


13 Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance, 93.


14 Du Toit, Guide to the New Testament, 208.


15 Du Toit, Guide to the New Testament, 210-11.


16 Lohse, The Formation of the New Testament, 23.


17 Lohse, The Formation of the New Testament, 21.


18 Lohse, The Formation of the New Testament, 23.


19 Du Toit, Guide to the New Testament, 83.





20 Lohse, The Formation of the New Testament, 25.