Canonical Epistles of the Fathers

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Assyrian412

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I’m confused. I’m currently reading the council of Chalcedon and I’m wondering what these are and where I can find them…

“the Canonical epistles and ectheses of the holy fathers Gregory, Basil, Athanasius, Hilary, Ambrose, and according to the two canonical epistles of Cyril, which were confirmed and published in the first Council of Ephesus”

Are the above epistles considered infallible?

Please help! Thanks.

newadvent.org/fathers/3811.htm
 
I could be wrong but I’ll take a swing at it. It’s possible the council wasn’t saying the writings were Inspired, because only writings which were thought to be Apostolic Writings and were not pseudonymous could be. And if you research New Testament Apocrypha , there were many books written in the name of Apostles. Some books in our New Testament were disputed and barely made the Canon, while others were disputed and barely didn’t make it. Prior to Constantine wanting a set list of books, Churches really tended to have regional Canons. Some books that are not in our Bibles but in the first centuries were read in Church were The Shepherd of Hermas, 1 Clement. Epistle of Barnabas in Rome; The Apocalypse of Peter was popular in Alexandria, and the Didache was popular in many eastern churches.

In regard to your question, maybe the council was affirming that these epistles were genuinely written by the Saints and were not forgeries. Such as the collection called the Apostolic Fathers. They are not considered scripture because they were written by disciples of the Apostles such as Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, etc. They are deemed very important church writings and are favorably promoted to be read however they are not considered the word of God but of human origin. This is just a theory so I’m not sure but that’s all I can think of.
 
Assyrian412 said:
I’m confused. I’m currently reading the council of Chalcedon and I’m wondering what these are and where I can find them…

“the Canonical epistles and ectheses of the holy fathers Gregory, Basil, Athanasius, Hilary, Ambrose, and according to the two canonical epistles of Cyril, which were confirmed and published in the first Council of Ephesus”

Are the above epistles considered infallible?

Please help! Thanks.

newadvent.org/fathers/3811.htm
Click to expand...
I believe it is because the word “canon” has more than one meaning. “Canon” can mean list – when we talk about the “canon of Scripture,” we’re talking about a list. “Canon” can also mean rule – when we talk about “canon law,” we’re talking about rules. The “canonical epistles” contained disciplinary and doctrinal material that was intended for the dioceses of their authors. Gregory, Basil, Athanasius, Hilary, Ambrose, and Cyril were all bishops who issued letters containing rules for their dioceses, and these letters are sometimes called “canonical letters” because they were somewhat similar (on the local level) to “canon law” (on the universal level). Also, I believe that some of the material from these canonical letters ended up getting included in Canon Law, once it was created, which took a long time.
 
Also, the pronouncements of an Ecumenical Council are sometimes called its “canons,” the rules or laws that Christians are subsequently expected to live by.

Your quotation mentions that the letters in question were “published” at the earlier Council, so it is possible that they were considered to express the mind of the Church at that time and were considered part of that Council’s teachings. A later Council will frequently spend time affirming its agreement with everything laid down at the previous Councils, so this may have been a case of the bishops at Chalcedon doing that for the documents promulgated by the bishops at Ephesus.
 
I had just read over the council of Ephesus; I realized there were long letters read and took note of Cyril’s letters but I did not notice the rest.

Are the epistles that were mentioned here read at Ephesus?

Can I access them somewhere if they were not?

If they were I probably read them without realizing.

Thank you guys 🙂
 
Assyrian412 said:
I’m confused. I’m currently reading the council of Chalcedon and I’m wondering what these are and where I can find them…

“the **Canonical **epistles and ectheses of the holy fathers Gregory, Basil, Athanasius, Hilary, Ambrose, and according to the two **canonical **epistles of Cyril, which were confirmed and published in the first Council of Ephesus”

Are the above epistles considered infallible?

Please help! Thanks.

newadvent.org/fathers/3811.htm
Click to expand...
Notice how one version of “Canonical” is capitalized and the other is not?

The “Canonical Epistles” is an early synonym for the 7 Catholic Epistles of the New Testament: James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude

It’s my guess that “Catholic Epistles” (also called “General Epistles”) became the preferred name vs “Canonical Epistles” due to this very confusion that you are having.

“canonical epistles” (lower case) refers to epistles from early Church fathers regarding canons of the councils. I also also believe that “canonical epistles” could also be commentary regarding a canon.

Here are some examples of the “canonical epistles” mentioned:

St. Basil - newadvent.org/fathers/3202188.htm
St. Gregory - newadvent.org/fathers/0603.htm
St. Athanasius - newadvent.org/fathers/2806039.htm
St. Cyril - newadvent.org/fathers/3810.htm

I pray this helps, because my understanding is limited, as I’m not an expert on the Church Fathers nor the Ecumenical Councils.

God Bless.
 
Thank you 🙂 Athanasius sounds pretty protestant there with his attitude towards the deuterocanonicals and scripture no? :o
 
The deuteroconical books were not exclusively accepted by people in the Church. Neither were some New Testament books. James, Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Hebrews, and Revelation to John were very disputed in the early church. As for the Deutedocanonical books of the Old Testament; even Jerome while translating the Greek Septuagint and Hebrew Bible into the Latin Vulgate had questioned their authority as being scripture.Martin Luther was not the first to question these books, not by a long shot. And , ironically Luther also originally wanted to take the New Testament books i listed; but his followers generally weren’t in favor. Why to this day when a Protestant refers to one of those books to try to prove a point to me I always let them know the guy who got the reformation going didn’t even want those books in the Bible so why use it on me.
 
Assyrian412 said:
Thank you 🙂 Athanasius sounds pretty protestant there with his attitude towards the deuterocanonicals and scripture no? :o
Click to expand...
Are you referring to his comment “… in these alone are the true doctrines of Godliness”?

I suppose this does seem to be Sola Scriptura.
 
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