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Early Christian Authorities
An early Christian authority is included in this survey if he or it gives important evidence on the development of the canon of the New Testament (perhaps even having some influence on it) and did so before ~400 CE, when the first complete manuscripts of the Vulgate were
issued. The
early 'authorities' fall into these categories:
- early Church fathers (Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr,
Irenaeus,
Clement, Tertullian, Origen, Eusebius, Didymus the Blind)
- early heretics and their followers (Marcion and Marcionites,
Valentinus and the Valentinians)
- lists of canonical books (Muratorian Canon, Athanasius'
Festal
Epistle)
- a single manuscript collection (codex Sinaiticus)
- series of manuscripts (Peshitta, Vulgate)
| Authority |
Date CE |
Form of evidence provided on the development of the canon
of the
New Testament |
| Ignatius
of
Antioch |
~110 |
7 letters with quotations and allusions to Christian
writings as
scripture. There are no citations by name. |
| Polycarp
of
Smyrna |
~110 |
1 letter with ~100 quotations and allusions to Christian
writings as scripture. There are no citations by
name. |
| Marcion |
~140 |
founded a sect with its own "New Testament" collection.
There
was one Gospel, based mostly on the Gospel according to
Luke |
| Valentinus |
140-150 |
Valentinus and his followers - Heracleon, Ptolemy, Marcus
- were
Gnostic heretics so their doctrines mostly survive in the
writings
of the orthodox, such as Irenaeus,
who
summarized the Valentinian views before attacking them. The
Gospel
of
Truth from Nag Hammadi probably derives from the
Valentinians,
but this is not certain. |
| Justin
Martyr |
150-160 |
many of his writings survive; he was the most prolific
Christian
writer up to his time. |
| Irenaeus |
~180 |
two of his writings survive in translations (Latin and
Armenian). There are quotations and allusions to Christian
writings
as scripture, and citations by name. |
| Clement |
180-200 |
many of his writings survive; in them are about 8000
citations -
over 1/3 of them from pagan sources. There are citations by
name. |
| Tertullian |
200-210 |
Tertullian was the most prolific writer of the Latin
Fathers in
pre-Nicene times (before 325 CE). There are citations by
name. |
| Muratorian
Canon |
200-300 |
a manuscript discovered in the Ambrosian Library in Milan
with a
catalogue (in Latin) of the New Testament writings with
comments |
| Origen |
220-350 |
only a small part of his works survives, but this fills
volumes
There are citations by name. |
| Eusebius |
300-330 |
much of the works of Eusebius survives, but here we only
use his
famous classification in [Eusebius] |
| codex
Sinaiticus |
~350 |
a manuscript discovered in 1859 containing a 4th-century
New
Testament |
| Athanasius |
~367 |
his 39th Festal Epistle of 367 CE has a list of canonical
books |
| Didymus
the
Blind |
350-398 |
some of his exegetical writings have survived, including
six
commentaries discovered in 1941 |
| Peshitta |
~400 |
a series of manuscripts of the Bible in Syriac including
22 New
Testament books |
| Vulgate |
~400 |
a series of manuscripts (over 10,000) of the Bible in
Latin,
whose New Testament coincides (more or less) with the
present
one |
For a summary of the authorities' opinions on New Testament
writings,
see the Cross
Reference
Table. |