Deciding on the canon Introduction It fell to a few European clerics of the time to decide which of existing documents should be considered the inspired books of the Bible - a highly arbitrary and undemocratic decision, especially as the decision was binding for all time and all cultures. This is what led some Third world theologians to ask for a review of the composition of the Bible. For example, Professor Canaan Banana advocated the re-writing of the Bible: "The Bible is a product of a specific culture... The entry of Jesus through a specific race, the Jews, was a mere accident of history...The Bible (in its present form) continues to be an oppressive instrument, maintaining the status quo rather than fully liberating all people. A re-written Bible, embracing the rich plurality of human experience, would be a more authentic and relevant document in today's world... " [Ref 9:Voices from the Margin] But for now let's look at the historical highlights. The Marcion Challenge The writings of the early Church Fathers and the church historian, Eusebius (c.263-340) indicate that with the appearance of  the Gospels, the Book of Acts and the letters of the apostles the identity of the emergent Christian churches was taking shape. The question was what material to include in order to define the official body (canon) of Christian writings.   Around the middle of the second century, an influential church leader named Marcion advocated that the Jewish scriptures should be excluded from the Christian canon. In his work Antithesis, Marcion claimed that “the God of the Jews was quite different from God and Father of Jesus”. Hardly surprising considering the violence and vengeful acts that the God of the Jews advocated. Marcion believed that Jesus was a new incarnation of God and could not have been born of a woman. Marcion proposed a canon made up of an edited version of the Gospels (mainly Luke) and ten edited letters of Paul (the Pastoral letters were excluded) whom he considered the foremost evangelist. As Paul did respect the Jewish scriptures and prophesies, Marcio edited out the Jewish bits to make Paul's message sound anti-Jewish. [Ref 7 adds: Marcion after studying the Old Testament decided that the OT God was "fickle, capricious, ignorant, despotic, cruel (and) had nothing in common with the God of Jesus Christ." He therefore rejected the OT entirely and also much of the NT because he felt that most of the apostles were still 'tainted' by belief in the Jewish God. he proposed reduced Bible above. He died about 160 CE. Ref 8: Having compiled his version of the scriptures, Marcion invited influential churchmen at a council meeting, made a generous donation and presented his ideas to them. These were rejected, his donation was returned and he was excommunicated. However, his influence lingered. By the end of the third century, there were 20 -30 gospels, numerous letters attributed to different apostles and various texts recording the life of Jesus and his followers - nearly 80 in all. ]   The Marcion controversy jolted church leaders into deciding on what constituted the sacred writings. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon (178-200) played a major role. In his own town, the Christians were severely persecuted. In his important work, Against Heresies, he defended the Jewish scriptures, declaring the God whom Jesus called Father was none other than the God of the Hebrews. He recommended that the Christian canon should include the Acts, John’s Gospel and not only Paul’s writings unedited but other pastoral letters, including more recent (mid-second century) ones like 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus and James. The material formed the bulk of the Christian canon, though the term New Testament was not yet used.   Irenaeus opposed the Gnostic texts, especially the gospel of Judas. It was found in about a 1000 fragments and much of this gospel was recently restored in Switzerland. Only about 15% was irrevocably lost. This gospel says that Jesus was a joyful figure with humour who laughed often, even at a sacred meal with his friends. He often appeared as a child among his disciples. Judas was his favourite and Jesus told Judas to stay away from the others. "I'll reveal to you the mysteries of the kingdom." In keeping with Gnostic beliefs, the Judas gospel asserted that people have a spark of the divine in themselves. [eastern religions can understand this intuitive aspect but Greek-led early church fathers suppressed it]. The Judas gospel has no crucifixion scene. It ends abruptly with the Judas betrayal, considered a necessary act. The gospel does not tell us about the historical Jesus - the Gnostic text dealt with mystical aspects.]   The early scriptures were not bound together in a book but existed as a collection of separate scrolls - arranged in a certain sequence. The Hebrew Scriptures are believed to have been compiled in the period 450-250 after Ezra's return in 458 BCE (Ref 2). Since many Jews could not understand Hebrew, a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures called the Septuagint was made in the period 250 - 150 BCE. When Christianity spread westward, it was the Septuagint that was virtually the only Bible known to the Greek speaking Christians.   At the beginning of the third century CE, books began to be used instead of scrolls and new writings appeared. the church was forced them to decide which books to include and in what order as canon. It had lost touch with the books in the Hebrew Bible and their order. As a result, other Jewish writings which the church valued were added and the original arrangement forgotten.   [Ref 8: Certain material was judged to be inappropriate for the general congregation. Thus only the four gospels were included in the canon and not the gospels of Peter, Mary, Thomas, Philip or Judas. Given the brutal Roman persecution of the early Christians, a gospel that did not related to the people's suffering was rejected. For example, Peter's gospel asserted that Jesus never really suffered - he was considered wholly divine. So although Peter was close to Jesus, his gospel was rejected. Texts that carried the name of an apostle were generally included, such as the letters of Paul and the four gospels, even though Matthew and John did not claim authorship which was attributed by tradition. John's revelation was controversial. Bishops had difficulty interpreting its complex symbolism but in the end, especially as john was Jesus' close disciple, it was included. Gospels written at a later date had a smaller chance of being included. Gradually, a consensus emerged and there were political considerations. If the canon contained a large body of the Jewish scriptures, it would not have appealed to the gentiles. The canon also had to claim antiquity and Marcion's canon was too recent. The Gnostic texts were more philosophical and could only be understood by an elite. They were opposed by the early church fathers. The canon had to have a wide appeal within the Roman empire. When Emperor Constantine converted in 312, he was looking for a religion that could unify his fragmented empire. Without Constantine, there would be no western Christianity. Now this version could confront the Roman empire. It was the Roman churches that led the compilation of the canon and gospels like Thomas, though popular but with an eastern appeal, was rejected. Mark's gospel was written in Rome and was accepted. Bishops travelled widely to exclude 'heretical' works and the canon came to include works that were at home to  Greek and Roman ideas. On example is the very beginning of St John's Gospel that introduces the notion of Logos (the Word) The early Church fathers ]   About 400 CE, the Pope commissioned St Jerome to prepare a new Latin translation of the Bible. The Jewish books added by western Christians were called Apocryphal (hidden or secret) and Jerome recommended that only the Hebrew scriptures be regarded as authoritative. St Jerome's Latin version called the Vulgate became the common Bible of the western church - though access was mainly to clerics. It is also about this time that the practice of dividing the Bible into the Old and New Testaments began. In the 16th century reformation, the Apocryphal books were rejected by the Protestants. The Roman church retained them, with the Council of Trent (1546) declaring them to be as inspired as the others. [How curious that one body of Christians declare the Apocrypha to be inspired, another rejects them!]   According to Gareth Lloyd Jones (Scripture Bulletin, 2001), "when the ecclesiastical authorities decided in about AD 384 what the foundation documents of the faith were to be, they formed the canon of Scripture... a collection of writings which were regarded as authoritative. It was forbidden to take out any book out of or add any book to the collection. The contents of the Bible had been decided for all time." (Ref 3) Likewise, Prior says that "the Bible reached the final stage of canonisation in the 4th century AD..." (Ref 6, pg 269)   What the Catechism of the Catholic Church says Para 120 states: “It was by the apostolic tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list if the sacred books. This complete list is called the canon of Scripture…”. This vague statement does not explain anything as to who or what group was responsible and what criteria were used to select one document and reject another. The whole issue is shrouded in mystery - what, for example, was the entire body of writings examined for possible inclusion? [But Ref 8 did throw some light - passages in blue.] Para 121: "The Old Testament is an indispensable part of Sacred Scripture. Its books are divinely inspired.. Para 122: " even though they contain matters imperfect and provisional..." Para 123: "The Church has always vigorously opposed the idea of rejecting the Old Testament under the pretext that the New has rendered it void (Marcionism)."   Books of the Bible According to Miller (Ref 2), the nucleus of the book of Deuteronomy (together with the books from Joshua to Kings) was composed by the Levites after the Assyrians invaded the region and destroyed the northern kingdom Israel in 721 BCE. To this was added the four prophetic scrolls (Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah and the Twelve), next the Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and finally the Genesis. A rival priesthood, the Zadokites or Aaronites feature prominently in the first four books (the Tetrateuch). Some more dates: the Zadokite priest Ezekiel was deported to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar after he conquered Jerusalem in 597 BCE. The Babylon rulers destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BCE. An  exiled 'remnant' returned in 537 and the temple rebuilt in 515. The return of Ezra and the beginning of his reforms took place in 458. It is reasonable to conclude that the Hebrew scriptures were assembled soon after 450 BCE.   The development of the canon continued in the third and fourth centuries: material was renamed, rearranged and added. For example, the books of the prophets (Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah and the Minor Prophets) were moved from their older place following Kings to the end of the Jewish scriptures while Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles now followed Kings. Here are the books of the Jewish and Christian scriptures.   Jewish Scriptures (39 books) TORAH (The Law) 5 books Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.   PROPHETS (21 books)    Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings,    Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the Twelve Minor Prophets.   WRITINGS (13 books)    Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Song of Songs, Ruth,    Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel,    Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 & 2 Chronicles.   Christian Old Testament THE LAW or PENTATEUCH   (5) The same five books of the Jewish scriptures   HISTORICAL  BOOKS  (12 Cath & Protestant) Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Judith, Tobit, 1 & 2 Maccabees. (Catholic 4)   WISDOM BOOKS (5 Cath & Prot) Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesistes, Song of Songs, Eccesiasticus (Sirach), Wisdom of Solomon (Cath 2)   PROPHETS (17 Cath & Prot + Cath 1) Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, the Twelve Minor Prophets.   Note: The seven books in bold are the Apocrypha (secondary canon, hidden from the public) and are found in the Catholic Bible only. The Old Testament consists of 39 books (Protestant) and 39+7 (Catholic). There are 27 books in the New Testament, both Catholic and Protestant.   New Testament: James written out Revisionist theologians are challenging traditional beliefs. The London Times [25 Feb 1997] reported that Dead Sea Scrolls scholar Robert Eisenman's book James the Brother of Jesus is a 1000-page study of the disciple's role in the founding of Christianity. Eisenman argues that James was the principal leader of the early church to whom both apostles Peter and Paul owed their allegiance. Most ordinary Christians are unaware that Jesus had brothers or that James even existed. Orthodox traditional refers to Jesus' brothers as cousins. James' teachings were apocalyptic and xenophobic while Paul was more cosmopolitan. James prescribed vegetarianism, daily bathing and abstention from blood, including Christ's in the Eucharist. The Catholic Church maintains that Mary had only one son and that was Jesus. He had cousins but not sublings. Dr Tom Deidun, a NT scholar at London University's Heythrop College said that Eisenman's thesis is supported by most NT scholars. In another book, Paul, the Mind of the Apostle (1997), novelist A N Wilson argues that Jesus was a visionary Jewish leader who had intention of founding a new religion. It is Paul who put forward the view of Christ as Saviour and the Cross as the gateway to salvation.   Has God's revelation ceased or should the canon be revised? Rev Canaan Banana of the Dept of Religious Studies (University of Zimbabwe) suggested that the Bible needs to be re-written for our times (Ref 4). The events described in the Bible were written down from oral tradition and the process went on for centuries with many editions and revisions in order to connect the past to the present. What appears in the Old Testament (OT) was selected from a much larger body of national literature. It appears that passages were selected for their 'literary beauty or national appeal, because they helped keep alive the worship of Jehovah.'   Jesus and his disciples used the Hebrew Bible while Paul and his converts the Septuagint (Greek). The Jewish canon was closed 'for all time' in AD 90 in the belief that prophetic inspiration had ceased. Canaan Banana asks: "Has God's revelation finished? Isn't there more to be added to (and subtracted from) the Bible to make it more appropriate for our times and for different cultures?"   It appears that one reason for the closure of the Jewish canon was the fear that Judaism was in danger of yielding to Hellenistic influences. The Bible was available to the Christians in Greek and then in Latin. Gradually Christianity came to be swayed by Greek thought and Roman legal idiom - an issue that will be considered in a separate article.   References 1. Bishop J S Spong, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism (Harper 1991) 2. J W Miller, The Origins of the Bible (Paulist Press 1993) 3. Catechism of the Catholic Church (Chapman 1994) 4. Canaan Banana, Case for a new Bible, Voices from the Margin (Orbis 1995) 5. Gareth Lloyd Jones, Scripture Bulletin, pg 93, vol 31 (July 2001) 6. Michael Prior, The Bible and Colonialism (Sheffield Academic Press 1997, 1999) 7. Anthony Milner, The Bible and Conflict, Scripture Bulletin, vol35 (July 2005), pg 86 8. BBC4, the Lost Gospels, 20 & 23 December 2006 9. Canaan Banana in Voices from the Margin (RS Sugirtharajah [Ed], Orbis/SPCK 1993)