Who Chose the New Testament?

Before We delve into the writers of the early church, I want to spend a Sunday or two on some basics of early church writings. I also want to encourage anybody with serious questions to message me at my Google+ page (attached to this blog to the right) with any questions that you might have; I may just use them in the next blog!

Why were these writings not included in the NT if they were read so much and viewed so highly?

For the early church, there began to form a standard for which writings could be considered for inclusion in the NT and why. What were these qualifications? Though there are quite a few qualifications, here are the three most important for the study of early church writings:

1.      Apostolic Authorship: The book or letter in question needed to be authentically written by one of the Apostles or by a disciple who was very close to an Apostle. For example, Mark was very close with the Apostle Peter; he was probably a “scribe” for Peter, and thus his Gospel was most likely influenced by the Apostle. Another would be James the Just; All together, there are five different James in the NT (four, if you exclude the father of Jude in Acts 1:13) – two were Apostles, and a third the writer of the Epistle of James, the brother of Jesus and Bishop in Jerusalem.

2.      Widely Used: Just because a book or letter was very popular in one city or region in the Christian world, and maybe even used in early liturgy, does not make the writing eligible for the early church’s “Dream Team.” (Forgive me; football season is around the corner and I am ramping up my fantasy team!). Gospels - such as the four we hold near and dear to our heart - were widely used all over early Christendom: from Alexandria Egypt to Roman Byzantium to Rome itself. Other relatively early Gospels, such as the Gospel of Peter (we will discuss this writing in detail), were used for a short time in certain regions, but not others; however, the Gospel of Peter – and others like it - also fail our next qualifier:

3.      Coherency with existing Scripture and Rule of Faith: Even if a book were used throughout Christendom without issue, and could be argued was written by someone close to an Apostle (or even attributed to an Apostle, many times falsely), this would still not be enough. The writing in question must also be coherent with the Scriptures (in our era of study, this mainly describes the Old Testament – OT), and the Synoptic Gospels that were very quickly accepted as authentic and true. Using the Gospel of Peter as an example yet again, this writing caused concern with the local Bishop after he approved its use in liturgy; after which he deemed it unsuitable for use by the church due to it not measuring up doctrinally or theologically with the Scriptures and the Known True Gospels at the time. To many local bishops if it didn’t sound right it probably wasn’t – thus investigation ensued. This was the early church’s way of making sure what was being put out there by Christians, monks, priests, was in-tune with what the Apostles had thought the church; this is often called the “Rule of Faith,” which included the Apostles writings in the NT, their oral teachings that were not captured in writing but carried on by their students in tradition, and the orthopraxy (write practice) of the church through prayer, fasting, scripture reading, and taking part in the sacramental life.

           These three are some of the most common criteria for having a letter or book made canonical, but they are by far not the only – that would take another year of blogs. What we should take away from this is the fact that over time the church (its bishops, priests, and each communal Christian) was able to narrow down and Identify which letters and books were to be used in liturgy as part of the worship of God. It took a span of 4+ centuries for the united church to finally agree as to which of the letters and books on the suggested lists would make the cut. 

            One of the last lists to suggest a list of proposed NT cannon letters and books was that of (my Patron St.) Saint Athanasios in his Festal Letter in 367 ad. In which he includes proper OT books, proper NT Gospels and letters, books and letters that are good for instruction and godly encouragement, and books that were to be considered “apocryphal” and cast out of the assemblies of believers as heresy. 

            I have included a link to St. Athanasios’ Festal Letter (so maybe we will get to some early church writings today after all!!!). pay close attention to sections 5-7. Enjoy until next time! 

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf204.xxv.iii.iii.xxv.html

 
Also, a VERY good read about the Early Church and the Canon is "Who chose the Gospels?" by C.E. Hill 

http://www.amazon.com/Who-Chose-Gospels-Probing-Conspiracy/dp/0199640297/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408342428&sr=1-1&keywords=who+chose+the+gospels+hill

 

Blessings,
Devin (Athanasios) Green

The Early Christian Reader

 In a world full of commentaries by modern evangelical theologians/pastors (such as John MacArthur, Warren Wiersbe, John Philips, J. Vernon McGee, Jon Courson, and the list goes on), and top notch publishers (such as IVP, Baker, Crossway, and Eerdmans), something has been sorely lacking on the Commentary shelves of LifeWay, Family, and Mardel Christian Stores across the county: The writings of the Early Church Fathers.

Who are these Early Church fathers, what did they write, why do they even matter, and why would I bother to take the time to write a blog completely devoted to their writings? 

To answer these questions we will first go back to the earliest days of the Christian Church. In the early First Century the 11 Apostles of Jesus Christ (and possibly the 120 “brethren” mentioned in Acts 1) stood on a hill and watched as the Lord of Glory ascended into heaven before their very eyes. Christ had promised them that He would send the spirit to them from the Father and that they would reach out to all the world and spread the news of the defeat of death and the life of Christ. From this point forward, witnesses to this event - as well as those who knew those who were witnesses - began to do just that: spread the Good News around the word, proclaiming that the scriptures had been fulfilled. They began to set up communities and write letters to each other for encouragement, as well as to kings and emperors trying to explain to them what all the ruckus was about.

Many of these letters and writings later on became recognized as divinely inspired to such a point as to be considered Scripture and became what we know of today as the New Testament (NT). Other writings did not become part of the NT, but were none the less read for spiritual encouragement and edification. Some non-canonical letters were written to encourage believers to endure till the end, such as the letters of Ignatius; others were written to rebuke disorder, instruct new believers, and to build up the body of Christ, such as the letter known as 1 Clement and the Didache.

Traditionally, the “Church Fathers” are considered those Christians, Priests, Bishops, and Monks who played a major role in the development and defense of the faith through pastoral leadership, writings, or martyrdom up until the Seventh Ecumenical Council (about the first 800 years of the Church). They are usually divided into eras: The Apostolic Fathers (those trained and taught by the Apostles themselves), Anti-Nicene Fathers (pre-325), and Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers (Post-325). Most of the writings we will be discovering will at first involve the first two categories. We may reference some from the Post-Nicene Fathers occasionally, and hopefully move on to greater things in the future.

These image can show us just how close some of the Apostolic Fathers lived in conjunction with the Apostles themselves. This is why their writings are of great interest to us.

Why is it important for Christians to learn about the Early Church Fathers and their writings?

The answer is two-fold. First, because WE ARE NOT SPIRITUAL ORPHANS! As a Christian you have a heritage that reaches back 2000 years. Think about it. Were any of your relatives – grandparents, great-grandparents – Christians? Were they preachers? Missionaries? My Great-Great-Grandfather was an Assemblies of God preacher in Missouri. This had an interesting historical impact on my family. Our heritage is important, and when we become Christians we usually use language like “welcome to the family of God!” However, we forget – or were never told – that part of that family are those who have lived and died for Christ 100, 300, 800, 1500, 2000 years ago! And guess what! They aren’t dead! They are standing before the throne room of God worshiping and praying as we speak. What an amazing family we have. We are not spiritual orphans.

Secondly, the writings of the Early Church Fathers gives us as Christians (and church historians, theologians, and pastors) the ability to peer back in time and not only see what it was like to be one of those first Christians in the First Century, but to see and understand how they acted, talked, believed, loved, grew, prayed, worshiped, fasted, read scripture, died, lived… in essence, we get a first glimpse at what it meant to BE a Christian. What did the Apostles teach a Christian was? What did they teach about how to act, worship, pray, all the things listed above? We have some writings in the NT from them (keep in mind, mostly from Paul, but there were 12 others), but we don’t have everything written down that they ever spoke. We do however have writings from people who were disciples of these Apostles (as mentioned before, called Apostolic Fathers); more about this in later posts. These two things can really impact how we view those who have gone before us, and how we can improve our Christian walk today.

Why devote an entire blog to this topic?

Well, for one, I am a Church Historian and I LOVE Historical Theology (The study of doctrinal changes over time). Secondly, reading the Early Church Fathers changed my own personal devotion to Christ in very significant ways; and I hope to share them with you along the way. And lastly, there has been a steadily increasing interest in the area of Patristic Studies (what we’ve been talking about this whole time) in Evangelical circles and Colleges over the past 10 to 15 years, if not more. You do not have to be Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox to gain wisdom and appreciation from the Church Fathers; remember, this is our common Christian Heritage (there were no denominations during the patristic era, just one Church). I would also like to make it clear, that though I am an Eastern Orthodox Christian, This blog is in no way designed to trick you into the Orthodox Tradition. As I have stated, many other Christian traditions are beginning to see the value in Patristic studies, and I want to help because I love the Church Fathers, and so does my Tradition – so we have a lot to offer.

I may start with posting every other Sunday, but if it works out I would push that up to every Sunday. Not all posts will be as long as this one - Promise! I am not a professional blogger, but I do enjoy learning and helping others with resources needed. I will be re-reading the Church Fathers alongside you as we take this journey together. I will do my best to post helpful resources for you to follow along. To start with, here is a very good project going on by a few fellows. These folks have divided up the readings of the Church Fathers in such a way that if you read each daily devotional according to their calendar, you will read the entirety of the Church Father’s writings in 7 years. That sounds like a long time, but when you consider how many books and letters there really are, this is amazing. This will also allow you free access to all the writings of the Church fathers. It’s a great tool, and it’s FREE!!!   
http://readthefathers.org/

Here is another great resource: http://www.ccel.org/

 

Hope you will join me in this journey, and have fun discovering our Christian Heritage. Next post we will discuss the importance of NT Canon, and why the Church Fathers are not included in Canon. Then we will dig into our first writings (possibly the Didache and The Shepherd of Hermas). 

Blessings, 

Devin (Athanasios) Green