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chapter four

CHRISTIANS OF THE BOOK?

And now without hesitation I should speak of the books of the New Testa- ment. For they are as follows: The four according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; then after these the Acts of the Apostles and the seven books by the apostles called the Catholic Epistles: one of James, two of Peter, then three of John, and after them one of Jude. In addition to these are the four- teen epistles of the apostle Paul, written in the following order:  rst to the Romans, then two to the Corinthians, and after these to the Galatians and next to the Ephesians; then to the Philippians and to the Colossians, two to the Thessalonians and then to the Hebrews; after these are two to Timothy, one to Titus, and,  nally, one to Philemon. In addition is the Apocalypse of John … But for the sake of greater accuracy I add the following, indicating out of necessity that there are books other than these that are not, on the one hand, included in the , but that have nonetheless been designated by the fathers as books read to those who have recently come to the faith and wish to be instructed in the word of piety: the Wisdom of , the Wisdom of Sirach, , Judith, Tobit, the book called the of the Apostles and the Shepherd. Nonetheless, brothers, while the former are in the canon and the latter (only) read, there should be no mention at all of apoc- ryphal books created by heretics, who write them whenever they want and try to bestow favour on them by assigning them dates, that by setting them forth as ancient, they can be, on false grounds, used to deceive the simple minded. Athanasius, Festal Letter 39.5–7 (367ce)1 When Athanasius returned to in February of 366ce after his  fth and  nal exile he forthwith resumed his episcopal responsibilities and for the next eight years until his death in 373ce attempted to impose Nicene in Alexandria and throughout the rest of .2 Over the course of his  rst year in o ce (366/67ce) he became aware that certain Christians in Egypt were reading a number of “unauthorised” texts. To remedy this

1 The translation is my own and is based on the Greek text given in J. Theron, Evidence of Tradition: Selected Source Material for the Study of the History of the Early , Introduction and Canon of the (London: Bowes and Bowes, 1957), 118. 2 On Athanasius’ eforts to promote Nicene orthodoxy in Egypt during his  nal years see Alberto Camplani, Atanasio di Alessandria. Lettere festali; Anonimo. Indice delle lettere festali. Intoduzione, traduzione e note (Milan: Paoline, 2003), 498–518; Brakke, Athanasius and the Politics of (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), 100–102. 164 chapter four problem, in the spring of 367 he issued his now famous 39th Festal Letter in which he listed the books deemed “canonical” and therefore  t for scriptural reading by Christians in Egypt.3 What is especially signi cant with the canon laid out by Athanasius in this letter is that this is the  rst time the twenty-seven books that make up the New Testament in both the Western and Eastern branches of Christendom are listed together and are speci cally de ned as “canonical,” while other works are either relegated to an inferior status, only to be read for edi cation, or are altogether eschewed and dubbed “apocryphal.” Though Athanasius was limited in his ability to efectively enforce this canon, even within Egypt, it gradually caught on and by the end of the century had been provisionally rati ed in other areas.4 Nevertheless, “apocryphal” books continued to circulate in Egypt and some within Athanasius’ own circle continued to hold that the New Testament “canon” was actually larger than the one Athanasius had prescribed.5 Even if it took many years before Athanasius’ canon gained widespread acceptance within Egypt, his concern with establishing a  xed number of books by which to establish orthodoxy and regulate church doctrine (reg- ula dei) raises a number of interesting questions concerning the use and

3 According to the hagiographical Life of Theodore it appears that Athanasius’ 39th Festal Letter was primarily directed to the in the . See Griggs, Early Egyptian , 175–176; Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity, 304. On the other hand, it has also been argued that the letter was principally directed against various groups such as the Arians and particularly the who were using alternative scriptural texts like the Martyrdom and Ascension of and the Testament of . See David Brakke, “Canon Formation and Social Conict in Fourth-Century Egypt: Athanasius ’s Thirty-Ninth Festal Letter,” HTR 87, no. 4 (1994): 395–419. Cf. David Brakke, “A New Fragment of Athanasius’s Thirty-Ninth Festal Letter: , , and the Canon,” HTR 103, no. 1 (2010): 47–66. 4 Bruce M. Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Sig- nicance (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 315, who notes that it was at the third council of Carthage in 397ce, which summarised the proceedings of an earlier council held in Hippo in 393ce, that there is  rst evidence for a church council ratifying the twenty-seven book NT canon. Nevertheless, there is evidence that in other regions this canonical list of books was not followed. When the Church in Syria  nalised its NT canon in the early  fth century it excluded the books of 2Peter, 2 and 3John, Jude, and Revelation. Likewise, the Ethiopic church, which in the fourth century technically fell under the jurisdiction of the Alexandrian See, came to accept the twenty-seven book NT but added four more works (Sinodos, Book of Clement [not to be confused with 1 or 2Clement], Book of Covenant, Didascalia). More generally it was not until the fourth session of the Council of Trent (April 8, 1546) that the Roman prescribed that the twenty-seven book NT was the scriptural canon. 5 Bart D. Ehrman, “The New Testament Canon of ,” VC 37 (1983): 11– 18. It is also interesting to note that both Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus, possibly produced in Alexandria about the same time as Athanasius’ letter, have expanded New Testament Canons. Sinaiticus includes and the Shepherd and Alexandrinus adds 1 & 2Clement.