This is not entirely true. To say there was no official canon until Damasius’ canon is true, but the writings of the canon were already in use by most Christians long before that.
My post was entirely true. The writings that became the canon – plus many others – were read aloud during the Church’s liturgy (now called “Mass”) in the early centuries of Christianity. No one knew with certainty which were Scripture and which were not. Some were more certain than others. The canon was defined precisely to declare officially which writings were “Scripture,” and thus should be read at Mass, and which were not, and therefore should be excluded.
From the Council of Rome, A.D. 382: “Likewise it has been said: Now indeed we must treat of the divine Scriptures, what the universal Catholic Church accepts and what she ought to shun.” (The list of canonical writings follows.) Source:
Denzinger
From the Council of Carthage III, A.D. 397: "[It has been decided] that nothing except the Canonical Scriptures should be read in the Church under the name of the Divine Scriptures. But the Canonical Scriptures are: (the list follows). Source:
Denzinger
The canon was still in flux throughout the fourth century. Eusebius of Caesaria, in his
History of the Church (A.D. 324) reported that Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Thirteen of Paul’s Epistles, 1 Peter, 1 John and 1 Clement were “Recognized.” Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and Revelation were “Disputed.” (He also had a “Rejected” category which is not relevant here.) By the end of the fourth century, all the “Recognized” writings – except 1 Clement – and all the “Disputed” books were accepted into the canon. Clement, which had been considered “Scripture,” didn’t make the cut.
Codex Sinaiticus, from the mid-fourth century, found in 1844, contains the entire Catholic OT and the NT – including the Epistle of Barnabas and part of the Shepherd of Hermas, which obviously were considered Scripture at the time this Codex was written.
And even Popes and Catholic theologians had criteria for canonicity–namely, apostolic source, gospel affirming character, and such–it was never a matter of “because I said so” even when the canon was first established, as continuing Catholic debate over canonicity continued until the Council of Trent.
The canon of the Catholic Church has never changed since it was defined by the Council of Rome. Pope Damasus commissioned St. Jerome to translate into Latin what became known as the Vulgate (the common Bible). The canon of the Vulgate was based on the canon established by the Council of Rome. Trent merely affirmed officially and infallibly what the previous local councils had decreed and Popes Damasus I, Innocent I. and Boniface, among others, had approved – it affirmed the canon of the ancient Vulgate.
Most Protestant Bible scholars I have ever heard of consider canon to be determined based on apostolic source, universal acceptance by the very first Christians and even the Jews of Jesus’ time in the case of the OT, and gospel affirming character. To say that the Bible comes from the Roman Catholic Church is a problematic statement.
I believe yours to be the “problematic statement.”
If that were so, Protestant Bible scholars would accept the Catholic canon. When the Church was nearly 400 years old, she selected 27 of her own writings, canonized them, and named them the New Testament. At the time time, in the same councils, she canonized 46 writings from the Greek Septuagint which she inherited from Jesus and the Apostles and named them the Old Testament. Her entire collection of Sacred Scripture, she named
Tá Biblia, the
Little Books, in English “
the Bible.”
The canon is similar because the criteria for determination of Canon were valid (at least Jerome’s first canon–the Deuterocanonical books are of course a matter of debate for Protestants).
St. Jerome’s first “canon” was the Vulgate. Protestants debate the so-called Deuterocanonical books (a term applied to the disputed writings in the 16th century). But they were accepted by the Jews continuing into the first Christian century, Jesus, the Apostles, the sacred writers of the NT, the early Christians, and they were canonized by the Catholic Church. They are as just as canonical as Isaiah and Matthew and stand on the same authority.
An infallible effect (the Scriptures) requires an infallible cause (the Catholic Church).
Jim Dandy
Those of us who are faithful accept that the Church is not a salad bar; we can’t just pick and choose which beliefs to accept, even if some are personally inconvenient. That would be going against God, just as violating an explicit rule in the Bible would be for a Protestant.