Scripture and God in Christianity

hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,
even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers
of the word; it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the
very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent The-oph-i-lus, that thou mightest know the
certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed." (Lk. 1:1-4) There were quite a few
other gospels, like the Gospel of the Hebrews which according to Jerome, some called it "the true
Matthew", the Gospel According to the Egyptians, the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Thomas 149
and the Gospel of Philip, The Gospel of the Ebionites, and others, 150 which were in circulation
too. Helmut Koester summarized the situation in the following words: "the number of gospels in
circulation must have been much larger, at least a good dozen of which we at least have some
pieces, and everybody could and did rewrite, edit, revise, and combine, however he saw fit." 151
Some of these Gospels were frequently quoted by the early fathers like Clement and Papias and
were later declared Apocryphal or unlawful. Fox observes that "At the turn of the century, the
Christian intellectual Clement of Alexandria still cited the Gospel of the Egyptians and interpreted
a saying of Jesus from it, although he knew very well that it was not one of four." 152
On the whole, then, it can be stated that during the first half of the second century, the four Gospels
of our present New Testament and other Christian literature like Paul's epistles were there,
but the idea of a close canon or New Testament was not present. No doubt the traces of the idea
of a Christian Scripture steadily became clearer during this period and the presuppositions of the
formation of the canon can be evaluated. But the crystal clear idea of the Christian canon was not
the work of orthodoxy but a reaction and response to the pressure of heretics like Marcion, Montanists
and Gnostics and their heretical teachings. As B. M. Metzger observed: "Various external
circumstances assisted in the process of canonization of the New Testament books. The emergence
of heretical sects having their own sacred books made it imperative for the church to determine
the limits of the canon." 153
The great majority of New Testament scholars, especially since the last century (after the works
of D. de Bruyne and A. von Harnack were published), have argued that Marcion was responsible
for creating the canon. Marcion in his book 'Antitheses' contrasted his own ethical dualism (as
has been discussed earlier in chapter 2), as based on New Testaments texts, with other New Testament
texts and with passages from the Old Testament. He rejected the Old Testament altogether
and set up a list of writings to be recognized as Scripture by his followers. It was comprised
of a form of the Gospel of Luke and 10 of the Pauline Epistles (excluding the three Pastoral
Epistles). The mainstream Church could not accept this short canon and as a reaction was
forced to define more carefully the list of books that it recognized as Divine Scriptures.
J.N.D. Kelly, on the other hand, disagrees with Harnack and others by observing that "The significance
of Marcion's action should not be misunderstood. He has sometimes been acclaimed
(e.g. by the great German scholar Harnack) as the originator of the Catholic canon, but this is an
extravagant point of view. The Church already had its roughly defined collection, or (to be more
precise) collections, of Christian books which, as we have seen, it was beginning to treat as
Scripture. The Lord's sayings, as the use of them by St. Paul and the early fathers testifies, had
been treasured from the beginning, and about 150 we find Justin familiar with all four gospels
(the 'memoirs of the apostles', as he calls them), and mentioning their use in the weekly service.
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