Canon

Nichael Cramer nichael at sover.net
Thu May 27 09:22:08 EDT 1999


Pace, John wrote:

> Dear B-Greekers:
> 
> I am a pastor in Southern Oklahoma and will soon be doing a study on
> Wednesday nights about the formation of the Canon.  I have read "How We Got
> Our Bible" by Smith and am currently reading "The Canon of Scripture" by
> F.F. Bruce.  My question is this.  It seems that in the course of
> canonization, some books (1 Clement, Didache, etc) were taken to be not
> inspired.  Is there a book or a website that lists the different
> books/writings that were considered for the canon but did not make it and
> why they did not make it?  I have a pretty thorough list of the books that
> were excluded but I have not found many good reasons why.  I am particularly
> interested in the Apocryphal books.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi John

I would also strongly recommend that you look at Bruce Metzger's book on
the Canon as well.  This will address all of your questions (and much more
besides).

> Also, is it true that some Apocryphal books are included in Codex
> Sinaiticus? 

Yes, Sinaticus contains "The Shepherd of Hermas" (in fact the only
complete copy that we have).

> ...  What ramifications would that have our canon today?

It seems to have had none.  ;-)

Also, bear in mind that the canon is not the same across all branches of
the church today.  Aside from the most obvious examples of the
deutro-canonical books held by the Catholic church, the canon of many of
the Eastern and Orthodox churches differ from that found in the west.

Nichael

--
Nichael Cramer
work: ncramer at bbn.com
home: nichael at sover.net
http://www.sover.net/~nichael/





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