The Canon of the Bible:
Its Formation, History, And Fluctuations
By
Samuel Davidson, D.D.
Of Halle, And LL.D.
From the Third Revised and Enlarged Edition.
New York
Peter Eckler Publishing Co.
1877
CONTENTS
Preface.
Chapter I. Introductory.
Chapter II. The Old Testament Canon From Its Beginning To Its Close.
Chapter III. The Samaritan And Alexandrian Canons.
Chapter IV. Number And Order Of The Separate Books.
Chapter V. Use Of The Old Testament By The First Christian Writers, And By
The Fathers Till The Time Of Origen.
Chapter VI. The New Testament Canon In The First Three Centuries.
Chapter VII. The Bible Canon From The Fourth Century To The Reformation.
Chapter VIII. Order Of The New Testament Books.
Chapter IX. Summary Of The Subject.
Chapter X. The Canon In The Confession Of Different Churches.
Chapter XI. The Canon From Semler To The Present Time, With Reflections On
Its Readjustment.
Footnotes
PREFACE.
The substance of the present work was written toward the close of the year
1875 for the new edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_. Having been
abridged and mutilated, contrary to the author’s wishes, before its
publication there, he resolved to print it entire. With that view it has
undergone repeated revision with enlargement in different parts, and been
made as complete as the limits of an essay appeared to allow. As nothing
of importance has been knowingly omitted, the writer hopes it will be
found a comprehensive summary of all that concerns the formation and
history of the Bible canon. The place occupied by it was vacant. No
English book reflecting the processes of results of recent criticism,
gives an account of the canon in both Testaments. Articles and essays upon
the subject there are; but their standpoint is usually apologetic not
scientific, traditional rather than impartial, unreasonably conservative
without being critical. The topic is weighty, involving the consideration
of great questions, such as the inspiration, authenticity, authority, and
age of the Scriptures. The author has tried to handle it fairly, founding
his statements on such evidence as seemed convincing, and condensing them
into a moderate compass. If the reader wishes to know the evidence, he may
find it in the writer’s _Introductions to the Old and New Testaments_,
where the separate books of Scripture are discussed; and in the late
treatises of other critics. While his expositions are capable of
expansion, it is believed that they will not be easily shaken. He commends
the work to the attention of all who have an interest in the progress of
theology, and are seeking a foundation for their faith less precarious
than books however venerable.
It has not been the writer’s purpose to chronicle phases of opinion, or to
refute what he believes to be error in the newest hypotheses about the
age, authority, and composition of the books. His aim has been rather to
set forth the most correct view of the questions involved in a history of
the canon, whether it be more or less recent. Some may think that the
latest or most current account of such questions is the best; but that is
not his opinion. Hence, the fashionable belief that much of the
Pentateuch, the Book of Leviticus wholly, with large parts of Exodus and
Numbers, in a word, that all the laws relating to divine worship, with
most of the chronological tables or statistics, belong to Ezra, who is
metamorphosed in fact into the first Elohist, is unnoticed. Hence, also,
the earliest gospel is not declared to be Mark’s. Neither has the author
ventured to place the fourth gospel at the end of the first century, as
Ewald and Weitzsäcker do, after the manner of the old critics; or with
Keim so early as 110-115 A.D.
Many evince a restless anxiety to find something novel; and to depart from
well-established conclusions for the sake of originality. This shows a
morbid state of mind. Amid the feverish outlook for discoveries and the
slight regard for what is safe, conservatism is a commendable thing. Some
again desire to return, as far as they can, to orthodoxy, finding between
that extreme and rationalism a middle way which offers a resting-place to
faith. The numerous changes which criticism presents are not a symptom of
soundness. The writer is far indeed from thinking that every question
connected with the books of Scripture is finally settled; but the majority
undoubtedly are, though several already fixed by great scholars continue
to be opened up afresh. He does not profess to adopt the phase of
criticism which is fashionable at the moment; it is enough to state what
approves itself to his judgment, and to hold it fast amid the
contrarieties of conjecture or the cravings of curiosity. Present
excrescences or aberrations of belief will have their day and disappear.
Large portions of the Pentateuch will cease to be consigned to a
post-exile time, and the gospels of Matthew and Luke will again be counted
the chief sources of Mark’s. It will also be acknowledged that the first
as it now exists, is of much later origin than the fall of Jerusalem. Nor
will there be so great anxiety to show that Justin Martyr was acquainted
with the fourth gospel, and owed his Logos-doctrine chiefly to it. The
difference of ten or twenty years in the date of a gospel will not be
considered of essential importance in estimating its character.
The present edition has been revised throughout and several parts
re-written. The author hopes that it will be found still more worthy of
the favor with which the first was received.
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.
As introductory to the following dissertation, I shall explain and define
certain terms that frequently occur in it, especially _canon_,
_apocryphal_, _ecclesiastical_, and the like. A right apprehension of
these will make the observations advanced respecting the canon and its
formation plainer. The words have not been taken in the same sense by all,
a fact that obscures their sense. They have been employed more or less
vaguely by different writers. Varying ideas have been attached to them.
The Greek original of _canon_(1) means primarily a straight rod or pole;
and metaphorically, what serves to keep a thing upright or straight, a
_rule_. In the New Testament it occurs in Gal. vi. 16 and 2 Cor. x. 13,
15, 16, signifying in the former, a measure; in the latter, what is
measured, a _district_. But we have now to do with its ecclesiastical use.
There are three opinions as to the origin of its application to the
writings used by the church. According to Toland, Whiston, Semler, Baur,
and others, the word had originally the sense of _list_ or _catalogue_ of
books publicly read in Christian assemblies. Others, as Steiner, suppose
that since the Alexandrian grammarians applied it to collections of Old
Greek authors as _models_ of excellence or _classics_, it meant
_classical_ (canonical) _writings_. According to a third opinion, the term
included from the first the idea of a regulating principle. This is the
more probable, because the same idea lies in the New Testament use of the
noun, and pervades its applications in the language of the early Fathers
down to the time of Constantine, as Credner has shown.(2) The “canon of
the church” in the Clementine homilies;(3) the “ecclesiastical canon,”(4)
and “the canon of the truth,” in Clement and Irenæus;(5) the “canon” of
the faith in Polycrates,(6) the _regula fidei_ of Tertullian,(7) and the
_libri regulares_ of Origen,(8) imply a _normative principle_. But we
cannot assent to Credner’s view of the Greek word for _canon_ being an
abbreviation of “Scriptures of canon,”(9) equivalent to _Scripturæ legis_
in Diocletian’s Act(10)—a view too artificial, and unsanctioned by usage.
It is true that the word _canon_ was employed by Greek writers in the
sense of a mere _list_; but when it was transferred to the Scripture
books, it included the idea of a regulative and normal power—a list of
books forming a rule or law, because the newly-formed Catholic Church
required a standard of appeal in opposition to the Gnostics with their
arbitrary use of sacred writings. There is a lack of evidence on behalf of
its use before the books of the New Testament had been paralleled with
those of the Old in authority and inspiration.
The earliest example of its application to a catalogue of the Old or New
Testament books occurs in the Latin translation of Origen’s homily on
Joshua, where the original seems to have been “canon.”(11) The word itself
is certainly in Amphilochius,(12) as well as in Jerome,(13) and
Rufinus.(14) As the Latin translation of Origen has _canonicus_ and
_canonizatus_, we infer that he used “canonical,”(15) opposed as it is to
_apocryphus_ or _secretus_. The first occurrence of “canonical” is in the
fifty-ninth canon of the Council of Laodicea, where it is contrasted with
two other Greek words.(16) “_Canonized_ books,”(17) is first used in
Athanasius’s 39th festal epistle. The kind of rule which the earliest
fathers attributed to the Scriptures can only be conjectured; it is
certain that they believed the Old Testament books to be a _divine_ and
_infallible guide_. But the New Testament was not so considered till
towards the close of the second century when the conception of a Catholic
Church was realized. The latter collection was not called _Scripture_, or
put on a par with the Old Testament as _sacred_ and _inspired_, till the
time of Theophilus of Antioch (about 180 A.D.) Hence, Irenæus applies the
epithets _divine_ and _perfect_ to the Scriptures; and Clement of
Alexandria calls them _inspired_.
When distinctions were made among the Biblical writings other words(18)
were employed, synonymous with “canonized.”(19) The canon was thus a
catalogue of writings forming a rule of truth, sacred, divine, revealed by
God for the instruction of men. The rule was perfect for its purpose.
The word apocryphal(20) is used in various senses, which it is difficult
to trace chronologically. Apocryphal books are,—
1st, Such as contain _secret_ or _mysterious_ things, books of the higher
wisdom. It is thus applied to the Apocalypse by Gregory of Nyssa.(21) Akin
to this is the second meaning.
2nd, Such as were _kept secret_ or withdrawn from public use. In this
sense the word corresponds to the Hebrew _ganuz_.(22) So Origen speaking
of the story of Susanna. The opposite of this is _read in public_,(23) a
word employed by Eusebius.(24)
3rd, It was used of the secret books of the heretics by Clement(25) and
Origen,(26) with the accessory idea of _spurious_,
_pseudepigraphical_,(27) in opposition to the canonical writings of the
Catholic Church. The book of Enoch and similar productions were so
characterized.(28)
4th, Jerome applied it to the books in the Septuagint which are absent
from the Hebrew canon, _i.e._, to the books which were _read_ in the
church, the _ecclesiastical_ ones(29) occupying a rank next to the
canonical. In doing so he had respect to the corresponding Hebrew epithet.
This was a misuse of the word _apocryphal_, which had a prejudicial effect
on the character of the books in after-times.(30) The word, which he did
not employ in an injurious sense, was adopted from him by Protestants
after the Reformation, who gave it perhaps a sharper distinction than he
intended, so as to imply a contrast somewhat disparaging to writings which
were publicly read in many churches and put beside the canonical ones by
distinguished fathers. The Lutherans have adhered to Jerome’s meaning
longer than the Reformed; but the decree of the Council of Trent had some
effect on both. The contrast between the canonical and apocryphal writings
was carried to its utmost length by the Westminster divines, who asserted
that the former are inspired, the latter not.