Canon of the New Testament

When Jesus ascended into Heaven, He left a body, not a book.

The gospel came first. The gospels came later. Oral tradition produced the communities that produced and preserved the scriptures of the New Testament.

The 27 books of the New Testament

The canon ("official list of books") of the New Testament was not settled until 382-419 AD. Up until then, there were disagreements about which books to include and which to exclude from the official list of books inspired by God. It took time for the Church to decide which books to include in or exclude from the New Testament. The Church reached agreement on the four gospels and the seven undisputed letters of St. Paul early in the second century; other books were disputed for the next three centuries.

The first column in this table, the Biblical order of the books, follows the Catholic canon rather than the Lutheran, which puts Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation at the end as apocryphal works.

All of the other columns are illustrative, not definitive. The Church has no dogmatic teachings on the date, author, or genre of the books of the New Testament; scholars disagree on these things. The more you learn about Biblical criticism, the more you may enter into these debates, if you wish to do so. I have followed the Jerome Biblical Commentary and the New American Bible in constructing this table, for the most part.

Biblical order	Date	Author	Genre	Luther
01Matthew	1370s to 80s	23 Jewish scribe?	17Gospel	undisputed
02Mark	0860s	15 disciple of Peter?	16Gospel	undisputed
03Luke = Luke vol. 1	1470s to 80s	24 Syrian Gentile	18Gospel	undisputed
04John	2090-100	26 The Beloved Disciple	20Gospel	undisputed
05Acts = Luke vol. 2	15after Luke	25 author of Luke	19History	undisputed
06Romans	0657-58	06 Paul	06Epistle	undisputed
071 Corinthians	0454-57	04 Paul	04Epistle	undisputed
082 Corinthians	0554-55	05 Paul	05Epistle	undisputed
09Galatians	0254	02 Paul	02Epistle	undisputed
10Ephesians	17after Colossians	10 not Paul?	23Treatise?	undisputed
11Philippians	0354-58	03 Paul	03Epistle	undisputed
12Colossians	1670-80	09 not Paul?	22Treatise?	undisputed
131 Thessalonians	0150-51	01 Paul	01Epistle	undisputed
142 Thessalonians	1851-100?	08 not Paul?	09Epistle?	undisputed
151 Timothy	26circa 100	12 Author of Titus	25Pastoral epistle	undisputed
162 Timothy	27circa 100	13 Author of Titus	26Pastoral epistle	undisputed
17Titus	25circa 100	11not Paul	24Pastoral epistle	undisputed
18Philemon	0756-63	07 Paul	07Epistle	undisputed
19Hebrews	10before 70?	14 Jewish Christian?	21Treatise	disputed by Luther
20James	1960s to 90s?	17 James of Jerusalem	10Epistle	disputed by Luther
211 Peter	0965?	16 disciple of Peter?	08Epistle	undisputed
222 Peter	29after Jude	22 Not Peter	15Epistle?	disputed by others
231 John	22circa 100	18 Not John the Apostle or Beloved Disciple	11Epistle	undisputed
242 John	23circa 100	19 Not John the Apostle or Beloved Disciple	12Epistle	disputed by others
253 John	24circa 100	20 Not John the Apostle or Beloved Disciple	13Epistle	disputed by others
26Jude	28circa 100	21 Not the apostle Jude	14Epistle?	disputed by Luther
27Revelation	2195-96	27 Not John the Apostle or Beloved Disciple	27Apocalypse	disputed by Luther

Development of the Canon of the New Testament

Early controversies

• imitations
• counterfeits
• later writings

Sequence of decrees

In 382 AD, Pope Damasus and the Council of Rome (a local, not worldwide or ecumenical council) listed the books of the Old and New Testament exactly as they appear in today's Catholic bibles. This decision was reaffirmed four times over the next forty years and again in two ecumenical councils of the Church.

date	authority
382	Council of Rome under Pope Damasus
393	Council of Hippo
397	Council of Carthage
405	Pope Clement I
419	Carthage
1442	Ecumenical Council of Florence
1546	Ecumenical Council of Trent

Luther's Attempt to Discard New Testament books

Luther treated four books of the New Testament as "antilegomena," literally, books that had been "spoken against" or disputed in the patristic era. By contrast, Luther called books that were spoken of with the same reverence "homologoumena." The four disputed books that Luther separated from those that he thought were undisputed were:

• Hebrews
• James
• Jude
• Revelation

These books were placed at the end of the New Testament, lacked page numbers, and did not appear in the index. This is exactly how Luther denigrated the seven extra books of the Septuagint. Luther's rejection of the Septuagint material caught on with most Protestants; his rejection of the four New Testament books did not. Some Protestants add 2 Peter and 2 and 3 John to the list for a total of seven "doubtful" books of the New Testament.

Early Non-canonical Christian Writings

date	work	comments
1st or 2nd century	The Didache	"The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles." Catechism, Baptism, Eucharist.
1st or 2nd century	Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians	"The epistle was publicly read from time to time at Corinth, and by the 4th century this usage had spread to other churches. It was included in the 5th century Codex Alexandrinus, which contained the entire Old and New Testaments."
1st or 2nd century	The Shepherd of Hermas	"The work comprises five visions, twelve mandates, and ten parables. It relies on allegory and pays special attention to the Church, calling the faithful to repent of the sins that have harmed it."
1st or 2nd century	The Epistle of Barnabas	After destruction of the Temple (70 AD) and before Bar Kochba Revolt in 132 AD. "In no other writing of that early time is the separation of the Gentile Christians from observant Jews so clearly insisted upon. The covenant promises, he maintains, belong only to the Christians (e.g. 4.6-8), and circumcision, and the entire Jewish sacrificial and ceremonial system are, according to him, due to misunderstanding."
4th century	Pseudo-Clement	Alleged first-person account of a companion and disciple of Peter. Not quoted until the 4th century by Eusebius, who notes that it was unknown among the ancients.

Links

• Canon.
• Canon of the Old Testament.