What Books Belong in The Canon?

The canon of Scripture has been a long-debated subject in the history of the Christian Church. Many ideas have arisen about what books we consider holy and what to do with extra-biblical books. Turmoil and anxiety are still here today as many have questions regarding what to do with texts like the book of Enoch and the Gospel of Thomas, among others. Here I will propose an answer to this struggle in the form of a categorization that ancient Christians used for these books.

Some church fathers held to a three-tiered canon of writings. The first tier was the inspired and infallible text. The second tier was “Ecclesiastical” in that it was used by and useful for the faithful to learn. However, this tier had several qualifications. Firstly, The texts were not inspired. They also could not be used to confirm Dogma. The final tier was the Apocrypha. These were texts that were blasphemous to God and contained heresy. To highlight this, consider these quotes.

"These are the books which the fathers have included in the canon; on which they would have us establish the declarations of our faith … it should also be known that there are other books which are called not "canonical" but "ecclesiastical" by the ancients … They were willing to have all these read in the churches but not brought forward for the confirmation of doctrine. The other writings they named "Apocrypha," which they would not have read in the churches," [Rufinas, Exposition of the Creed].

"Therefore, just as the Church also reads the books of Judith, Tobias, and the Maccabees, but does not receive them among the canonical Scriptures, so also one may read these [Wisdom and Sirach] two scrolls for the strengthening of the people, (but) not for confirming the authority of ecclesiastical dogmas," [Jerome, Prologue to the books of Solomon].

"There are other books besides these, indeed not received as canonical but having been appointed by our fathers to be read to those just approaching and wishing to be instructed in the word of godliness … But the former, my brethren, are included in the Canon, the latter being merely read; nor is there any place a mention of secret writings. But such are the inventions of heretics …" [Athanasius, 39th festal letter, Para. 7].

This distinction is extremely practical for us today. For example, the books Solomon wrote are Scripture. But what about a text like the Book of Wisdom? I make the case that we should not see it as inspired but instead as a second tier due to its theological and historical inaccuracies. Texts like Genesis and Jude are inspired. The book of Enoch, however, is heretical (3rd tier) because of its claim that Enoch is the messiah (71:14). So how do we decide what goes into what tier? Here are some criteria, though it is not definitive.

1: Did the text have widespread popularity in the early church? If so, why was it popular? The Didache and 1 Enoch were both very popular. Those texts had very different journeys regarding how long the text was popular and why.

2: Does it contradict Scripture? The Church can at least agree that there are 66 inspired texts. So, using that as a baseline, we can judge other books by it and see if they contradict the biblical witness. We do not want to make the scriptures contradictory and thus false. One example is when the Gnostic Gospels teach that the material world is evil, which is against scripture.

3: Is it historically correct? This question deals not only with whether the books in question have an accurate account of whatever they are portraying but also with the person who claims to be writing this text wrote it. So if the author of the gospel of Thomas claims to be Thomas but it dates till after his death, then the book is false and at least not inspired.

4: Does it contain heresy? By heresy here, I mean a belief or idea that cuts someone off from salvation and leads to destruction (Galatians 1:6-10, 2 Peter 2:1, 1 Jn 4:3). An example of this is 1 Enoch arguing that Enoch is the messiah or some Gnostic texts stating that the OT God is bad.

This categorization can help decipher what to do with the extra-biblical books. It allows the Christian who has anxiety over these books to confidently research these texts to see if they should believe in them or not. Personally, it has been helpful for me. I hope this gives the reader tools to think about these texts in light of their faith.

References:

Church Fathers: Letter 39 (Athanasius). (n.d.). Retrieved June 14, 2024, from https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2806039.htm

Church Fathers: Commentary on the apostles’ creed (Rufinus). (n.d.). Retrieved June 14, 2024, from https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2711.htm

Jerome, prologue to the books of Solomon (2006). (n.d.). Retrieved June 14, 2024, from https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/jerome_preface_solomon.htm#:~:text=Therefore%2C%20j ust%20as%20the%20Church,the%20authority%20of%20ecclesiastical%20dogmas.

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