James and the history of the canon

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I have a Protestant friend who teaches Sunday school. He mentioned the other night that he was teaching on James and was reading a bunch of commentaries about how James wasn’t really accepted into the canon until late. And of course Luther’s famous statement about it being an epistle of straw.

I know the canon was not dogmatically defined until Trent, but I was under the impression that there were earlier, non dogmatic canons at councils such as nicea 1, etc. not to mention James being in the vulgate.

Can someone clue me in as to the history of the book of James, especially with regard to the canon? My suspicion is that the commentaries my fiend was reading were quite Protestant, although he himself is pretty close to the church.

Thanks!
 
The Muratorian canon does not include James (it also includes Wisdom as an NT book, excludes 1 and 2 Peter, and accepts only 2 Epistles of John; it includes the Shepherd of Hermas as apocryphal and the Apocalypse of Peter as “questionable”). It is from ca. 170 AD. The fragment containing the Muratorian canon is damaged and incomplete, so it is not assured - these that I have stated, are “scholarly consensus”.

The Canon of Athanasius - written by that great defender of the Trinity - is the earliest complete listing of the NT canon that has survived to this day intact, includes all 27 books as we currently find them. It was written in 367 AD, in the 39th Festal Letter of Athanasius. The Third Council of Carthage in 397 (Denzinger 186/92) confirmed this canon, along with the canon of Pope Damasus I of 382, which was identical to the Athanasian canon, and to our modern New Testaments.

So, the NT of 27 books was definitively settled by, at the latest, 400 AD. 1100 years before the Reformation. Probably 1200 years. The OT canon took longer to be settled dogmatically - only the Council of Trent did such, and dogmatized the list of books for both OT and NT - but it was accepted much earlier. The aforementioned Canon of the Third Council of Carthage (397 AD) enumerates the books of the Bible, including the Deuterocanonical books (listed as “Tobias, Judith, Five books of Solomon, Two books of Maccabees”), as Catholics have it today.

Here is the canon adopted by Third Carthage (397), as listed in Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum 186/92 (translation is mine):

Denzinger 186/92 said:
" … ut praeter scripturas canonicas nihil in ecclesia legatur sub nomine divinarum Scripturarum. Sunt autem canonicae scripturae: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numeri, Deuteronomium, Iesu(s) Nave, Iudicum, Ruth, Regnorum libri quatuor, Paralipomenon libri duo, Job, Psalterium Davidicum, Salomonis libri quinque, duodecim libri Prophetarum, Esaias, Ieremias, Daniel, Ezechiel, Tobias, Iudith, Hester, Hesdrae libri duo, Machabaeorum libri duo. Novi autem Testamenti: Evangeliorum libri quatuor, Actus Apostolorum liber unus, Pauli Apostoli epistolae tredecim, eiusdem ad Hebraeos una, Petri duae, Ioannis tres (comp. DS 180), Iacobi una, Iudae una, Apocalypsis Joannis.(Additur in quodam cod.: )…ut de confirmando isto canone transmarina Ecelesia consulatur."
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"…except for the canonical Scriptures, nothing in Church is to be read under the name of “divine Scripture”. Now, these are the canonical Scriptures: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua son of Nun, Judges, Ruth, Four books of Reigns [Kings, called Reigns in the LXX], two books of Paralipomenon [Chronicles, called Paralipomenon in the LXX], Job, the Psalter of David, five books of Solomon [Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Wisdom, Proverbs*], twelve books of Prophets [the Minor Prophets], Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Tobias, Judith, Esther, two books of Ezra, two books of Maccabees:

“For the New Testament: four books of the Evangelists, one book of Apostolic Acts, the Apostle Paul’s thirteen Epistles, one by the same to the Hebrews, two of Peter, three of John, one of James, one of Jude, the Apocalypse of John…confirming that this is the canon of all Churche [lit. “overseas churches”] consulted.”

*Ecclesiasticus, the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach, is probably included under the “five books of Solomon”, as wisdom literature, as there’s no other possible contender for “fifth book of Solomon”.
 
James is in a variety of early canons, including the council at Rome in 382 (see here in Latin, James is where you see “Jacobi”) or Carthage in 397 (where it says Iacobi), etc… Here are some other early canon lists.

You can also find a number of Church Fathers citing James as Scripture in the early centuries, for example, St. Irenaeus in Against Heresies (ca 170-180 A.D.) quotes James 2:23; or Clement of Alexandrea in his Stromata, writing around the same time, cites James 5:12; etc… Those are just examples I found with a quick search. You can find more here at Litteral’s Christian Library.

Anyway, many of the earliest canonical lists were not identical. A certain region would identify what they had received as Scripture, but that didn’t mean something not in their list was not-Scripture, it just means that region X got X books at X moment in time.

If your Protestant friend wants to single out certain early texts, he/she may be referring to something like the “Muratorian Fragment,” (around 170) which is a partial document that does not mention James. It neither mentions Hebrews or 1 or 2 Peter either. The problem your Protestant friend has is identifying by what authority is he/she claiming something is Scripture. Would they reject Hebrews, 1 and 2 Peter, and James based on their lack of mention in an ancient fragment? If so, why is that fragment the authority? You see, unless the Protestant is willing to concede that the Spirit speaks through a visible body, such as the Church, they will end up causing all kinds of theological contradictions or arbitrarily giving authority to certain post-apostolic fathers which they are historically against doing—and they will do so in opposition to other post-apostolic fathers.
 
Errata:
  1. The Muratorian fragment also omits Hebrews.
  2. “Two books of Ezra” probably means Ezra and Nehemiah, as presented in the Vulgate, but could mean 1/3 Esdras and Ezra-Nehemiah (as one book) as presented in the Septuagint and present in Eastern Orthodox Bibles.
 
=gdgross;10266938]I have a Protestant friend who teaches Sunday school. He mentioned the other night that he was teaching on James and was reading a bunch of commentaries about how James wasn’t really accepted into the canon until late. And of course Luther’s famous statement about it being an epistle of straw.
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I know the canon was not dogmatically defined until Trent, but I was under the impression that there were earlier, non dogmatic canons at councils such as nicea 1, etc. not to mention James being in the vulgate.
Click to expand...
Can someone clue me in as to the history of the book of James, especially with regard to the canon? My suspicion is that the commentaries my fiend was reading were quite Protestant, although he himself is pretty close to the church.
Click to expand...
Thanks!
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Three things we need to know:
  1. God’s in Charge 2Tim. 3:16-17 is either true or the bibles is completely worthless
  2. James has been a part of the Canon since the concept of Canon was introduced at the First Council of Nicia; and the Canon from the CC has never erver been changed
  3. Truth is singular. If your friend wants biblical proof of this have him look up in the sequcnce given the following Teachings>
**Mt. 10;1-8
mt.16: 15-20
Mt. 18:18
Jn.14:16-17 completed in John 20;21-22
Jn.17;15-19
John 20:19-23
Mk. 14;15-17
Mt. 28: 18-20 **

Each and every one of these Is our God Jesus relating commands and authority to** ONLY His Apostles from who the CC today retains the Key’s and authority by virtue of Mk 14 and Mt. 28 above; commnading them alone and their successors to teach to the entire world.**

Further, Jesus passes on His very own Powers and Authority as God in the following passages directly to and exclusively to His Apostles and todays CC.👍

**Mt. 10:1-8
Mt. 16;18-19
Mt. 18:18
John 17:15-19
John 20:19-23
Mt. 28:19-20 **

If your friend is a bible believer: ask him to belive what the bible really teaches:)

God Bless, pat/PJM

OH; here a site you can use to look these us easily:

http://www.drbo.org/
 
Thanks for the replies guys and girls.

Good references here. My instinct was to to go the councils, in particular, it sounds like the 3rd council of carthage is where the “list” is. I had thought that was at Nicea.

THanks!
 
gdgross said:
Thanks for the replies guys and girls.

Good references here. My instinct was to to go the councils, in particular, it sounds like the 3rd council of carthage is where the “list” is. I had thought that was at Nicea.

THanks!
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The council at Rome in 382 predates Carthage by about 15 years or so. From that point, you can see a certain consistency in the majority if not all councils addressing the canon thereafter.
 
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