Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/724

 714 CANON believed to be divine," and quotes or uses all but Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Canticles, de- dares that "during so many ages as have already passed, no one hath been so bold as either to add anything to them, to take any- thing from them, or to make any change in them." Christ and his apostles ascribe divine authority to the Old Testament Scriptures, and the New Testament quotes all but six or seven of the 39 books of the Old Testament. The Septuagint or Alexandrine version of the Old Testament contains indeed most of what is known to us as the Apocrypha, including Es- dras, Tobit, Judith, nearly seven chapters of Esther, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Song of the Three Children, Susannah, Bel and the Dragon, and 1, 2, and 3 Maccabees. These compositions were not, however, em- braced in the Hebrew canon; were not con- sidered by Philo, Josephus, and other Greek- speaking Jews, who used this version, as of equal authority with the law, prophets, and hagiographa; and were not quoted in the New Testament as authoritative. Those early Christians who were unacquainted with He- brew, and used only the Greek version, some- times quoted and mentioned the apocryphal books as canonical ; but when the subject be- came one of serious study, scholars generally accepted the judgment of the Jews. The most ancient Christian list, the Greek one of Melito, bishop of Sardis (about A. I). 177), mentions as the books of the Old Testament all but Ne- hemiah, Esther, and Lamentations, the first and probably the second of these being inclu- ded under Ezra, and the third under Jeremiah, while he omits all the Apocrypha. With this catalogue agreed that of Gregory Nazianzen. That generally referred to Amphilochius names the same books, and says, " Besides these some admit Esther." Origen's list includes Esther and Lamentations with the other books, and (according to the present Greek text) the apocryphal Baruch. With him agree Cyril of Jerusalem and the council of Laodicea, about 363, though the canon of this coun- cil lacks authenticity. Epiphanius mentions Esther as well as "the 22 books" of the Old Testament. Athanasius puts Esther in the second rank, and retains Baruch. The apostolical canon, of uncertain date, admits three books of Maccabees, one of Judith (in some MSS.), and Esther, and recommends in- struction in Ecclesiasticus. The catalogues of the Latin church exclude no books reckoned as canonical by the Hebrews ; but the canon of Augustine embraces the books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, 1 and 2 Maccabees; and the council of Hippo (393), with the third and fourth councils of Car- thage (397 and 419), adopted the same enume- ration. Jerome, however, followed by a con- tinued succession of the more learned fathers in the western church, adhered strictly to the Hebrew canon, and rejected these " ecclesias- tical " or " denterocanonical " books. " The church," said Jerome, "may read these for the edification of the people, but not to establish the authority of the doctrines of the church." But the Roman Catholic church, following the old Latin and Septuagint versions, and the canon of Augustine, accepted as canonical, by a decree of the council of Trent (April 8, 1546), all the "ecclesiastical" books, embracing all the Apocrypha of the English Bible, except 1 and 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasses. The Protestant churches, on the other hand, unanimously agree with Jerome in adopting the Hebrew canon of the Old Testament, and refusing to allow any dogmatic authority to the Apocrypha. The canon of the New Testament was formed upon substantially the same prin- ciples as that of the Old. A late and improb- able tradition ascribes to the apostle John the work of collecting and sanctioning the writings worthy of being regarded as sacred ; but it is now generally agreed among those who re- ceive the Scriptures as authoritative, that the original churches, especially the larger and abler ones, collected, each for itself, a complete set of the writings that it found to be properly authenticated as the productions of apostles and other inspired men, the general accord- ance with one another of these numerous col- lections thus proving the correctness of our present New Testament canon. That John had before him copies of the other three gos- pels is highly probable, his gospel being sup- plementary to them. That the epistles of Paul, or most of them, were early collected together, is naturally inferred from 2 Peter iii. 16, which speaks of "all his epistles," and places them on an equality with "the other Scriptures." The apostles expected their writings to be publicly read and received as of divine authority. Cle- ment of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp, and others, called "apostolic fathers" because contempo- rary with apostles, quote reverentially the gos- pels and all the epistles, except Jude, 2 Peter, and 3 John, though the quotations from 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Colossians, Titus, and Phile- mon are not decisive. The epistle to Diogne- tus, regarded as one of the earliest of un- inspired Christian writings, mentions the law, the prophets, the gospels, and the apostles. Marcion's canon embraced ten Pauline epistles and a gospel mutilated from Luke's, rejecting the rest on doctrinal grounds. Theophilus often calls the New Testament writings the "holy Scriptures" or "the divine Word," and mentions the law, the prophets, and the gos- pels as alike divinely inspired. Tertullian speaks of "each Testament," and distinguishes the "New Testament," made up of the "Gos- pels" and "Apostles," from the "Old Scrip- ture." Irenaeus also calls the New Testament writings "the holy Scriptures," or the "ora- cles of God," argues that there must be four gospels, and puts the evangelical and apostolic writings on an equality with the law and the prophets. The Muratorian canon (about 190), mutilated at the beginning and end, recognizes