Lead Article

To keep things clear, early church history will be divided into seven stages so that we can focus upon what was happening at a particular stage regarding the question of the limits of the New Testament canon.

The reader will discover that the church did not arbitrarily decide which books should be in the New Testament; early Christians simply acknowledged the
books that were apostolic and orthodox.

Stage 1: 30s-50s

After Jesus’ resurrection, the stories about Jesus and his teachings were passed along orally by the apostles, who were committed to guard the message they proclaimed. From the very beginning of the church, these oral teachings of Jesus were viewed alongside the Old Testament Scriptures as authoritative and binding on all followers of the “Way,” as early Christians were called. Furthermore, the apostles’ own teaching was authoritative and binding. Acts 2:42 says that the new believers “were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching.” The apostles functioned not only as transmitters of the teaching of Christ, but also as prophets in their own right.¹ Thus, from the very beginning, orthodox Christians accepted three streams of authority: 1) the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament), 2) the teachings of the Lord, and 3) the teachings of the apostles.²

Stage 2: 50s-70s

During this period, the first written documents of the apostolic circle (e.g., Paul, James, Peter) mediated the authoritative instruction of these apostles to particular congregations or groups of congregations. Soon, the first written Gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke) and Acts were written down as the apostles began to die off. The gradual loss of guardians of the oral tradition necessitated preserving written records.

There is a self-authentication represented in these writings that is tied to the authority of the apostles who wrote them (cf. Eph 3:5; 2 Thes 2:15; 1 Cor 14:37; and 2 Pet 3:16 which refers to Paul’s letters as “scripture”; cf. Rev 22:18-19). The authority of these writings was not transferred back onto the documents by later church decisions; the original recipients of these writings were expected to understand that the authority conferred upon the apostles—who were prophets in their own right—meant that the readers should obey the instructions they received.

Stage 3: 70s-90s

Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed in A.D. 70 and Jewish Christians were scattered. Thus, people who had heard the teaching of the apostles were more likely to reside not in Palestine, but in such places as Asia Minor and Rome. John, who was apparently the last living apostle, composed the last apostolic books to be written: the Gospel of John, 1-3 John, and the Revelation. But even though written records now existed, the oral teaching of Jesus continued to play an important role for those who had known the apostles and had been trained by them.

Stage 4: 90s-150s

By the end of the first century and beyond, although there were still a few around who felt connected to the apostolic period and who valued the orally-mediated teachings of Jesus (e.g. Papias³), written documents played an increasingly important role for Christians. Christians began extensively using the new technology of the day, the codex (book) format, rather than scrolls when they copied their writings. The codex allowed collections more easily to be gathered together than did scrolls.⁴

It has been common for critical scholars to assert that orthodox Christians only began to form collections of Christian writings after Marcion formed a “canon” consisting of a truncated version of Luke and the Pauline letters (except the Pastorals) some time around A.D. 150.⁵ But most scholars—including more critical scholars—now consider this idea to be overly skeptical and to be an exaggeration of Marcion’s role in the process.⁶

During this period of the “apostolic fathers,”⁷ there is evidence that Paul’s letters were already circulating as a collection⁸ and were regularly being referred to by Christians authoritatively, as were other writings of the apostles. Separately, the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) were probably already circulating together at this time.⁹