The Biblical canon
It’s easy to pin the Canon on Constantine (and/or the various early councils), especially if you refuse to accept the idea of “Development”. While I blame the triumph of the Roman State over the Church for many things – doctrine is not, per se, part of the package. We were discussing the development of the Christian Canon at Church this week. And, since none of us had the internet to hand, we didn’t look up the Wiki Article on the Development of the Christian Biblical canon. If we had, there wouldn’t be much blame to pin…
Thus, from the fourth century, there existed unanimity in the West concerning the New Testament canon (as it is today), and by the fifth century the Eastern Church, with a few exceptions, had come to accept the Book of Revelation and thus had come into harmony on the matter of the canon. However, the official finalization of the canon was not made until the Council of Trent of 1546 for Roman Catholicism, the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1563 for the Church of England, the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1647 for Calvinism, and the Synod of Jerusalem of 1672 for the Greek Orthodox.
What amuses me tonight is that last phrase noting that the “Synod of Jerusalem of 1672″ provided the canon of Scripture for the Greek Church. That’s interesting: for since – as every true convert knows – only an council, summoned by an divinely-anointed emperor and validated by a second council (also so summoned), can have any real, lasting authority in Orthodoxy. That means the canon is still open. Clearly, I’m citing the wiki and not an Œcumenical Council. But it’s still an amusing idea.
Category: other geekery
Discussion: You came too late to this party
Share:
With respect to the Orthodox Church, the passage you cite from Wikipedia is quite wrong. The canon of Scripture, including all of the “deuterocanonical” books of the Old Testament and all 27 books of the New Testament (including the Apocalypse) was adopted by a council at Carthage in 419; the canons of this council were recognized as having ecumenical authority by the Quinisext Council (692) and confirmed by the 7th ecumenical council in 787. Thus the Synod of Jerusalem (1672) has nothing to do with it.
It is true that Quinisext itself was not ecumenical, and its canons are not recognized as ecumenical by Rome. But from the Orthodox point of view its canonical legislation was incorporated and given ecumenical authority by Nicaea II. All of the canons accepted by Quinisext (including the decision of Carthage 419 on the canon of Scripture) are found in the Orthodox code of canon law (the Rudder).
So sorry, the Orthodox canon of Holy Scripture is not open. Take heart, though. The canon of Scripture is still open for the Lutheran Church. The Lutheran Confessions, alone among Reformation-era doctrinal statements, pointedly omits to specify the canon of Holy Scripture.
I thank you for the correction – get an account and edit the wiki article! Be sure and provide footnotes, though! The CCEL version of the council of Trullo seems to skip over the “the decision of Carthage 419 on the canon of Scripture”: but that could be because I’ve had no coffee yet this AM.
God save us all from having the Rudder in the hands of laity – especially two no-longer-Orthodox laity such as you and I.