608 THIRD PERIOD. A-D. 311-590.
free iuvestigation in the interpretation of the Scriptures, than the lioraan or even tlie Niceno clinrch.'
I. In respect to the Holy Scriptures :
At the end of the fourtli century views still differed in regard to the extent of the canon, or the number of the books which should be acknowledged as divine and authoritative.
The Jewish canon, or the Hebrew Bible, was universally received, wdiilo the Apocrypha added to the Greek version of the Septuagint were only in a general way accounted as books suitable for church reading," and thus as a middle class between canonical and strictly apocryphal (pseudonymous) writings. And justly ; for those books, while they have great historical value, and fill the gap between the Old Testament and the New, all originated after the cessation of prophecy, and they cannot therefore be regarded as inspired, nor are they ever cited by Christ or the apostles.^
Of the New Testament, in the time of Eusebius, the four Gospels, the Acts, thirteen Epistles of Paul, the first Epistle of John, and the first Epistle of Peter, were universally recognized as canonical,* while the Epistle to the Hebrews, the second and third Epistles of John, the second Epistle of Peter, the Epistle of James, and the Epistle of Jude were by many disputed as to their apostolic origin, and the book of Revelation was doubted by reason of its contents.' This indecision in reference to the Old Testament Apocrypha prevailed still
' On this point compare the relevant sections in the works on Symbolic and Polemic Theology, and SchafTs Principle of Protestantism, 1845.
^ Bi/8Aia 6.vayiv(ii<TKoiJiiva (libri ccclesiastici), in distinction from xavoviKo, or Kavovi^ofxiva on the one hand, and a.ir6Kpv(pa on the other. So Athanasius.
' Heb. xi. 35 ff. probably alludes, indeed, to 2 Mace. vi. ff. ; bnt between a historical allusion and a corroborative citation with the solemn ?; ypa(pi] Ae^fi there is a wide dilTercnce.
* Hence called 6iu.o\oyo{ifieva.
' Hence called a.t'Ti\€y6fi.ei/a, which, however, is by no means to be confounded with airoKpvcpa. and vu^a. There are no apocrypha, properly speaking, in the New Testament. The apocryphal Gospels, Acts, and Apocalypses in every case differ greatly from the apostolic, and were never received into tlie canon. The idea of apocrypha in the Old Testament Is imiocent, and is applied to later Jewish writings, the origin of which is not accurately known, but the concents of which are usefij] and edifying.
§ 118. S0CKCE8 OF THEOLOGY. 60\f
.onger iu the Eastern church ; but by the middle of the fourth century tlie seven disputed books of the New Testament were universally acknowledged, and they are included in the lists of the canonical books given by Athanasius, Gregory Nazianzen, Amphilochins of Iconium, Cyril of Jerusalem, and Epi plianius ; except that in some cases the Apocalypse is omitted.
In the Western church the canon of both Testaments wa?'? closed at the end of the fourth century through the authority of Jerome (who wavered, however, between critical doubts and the principle of tradition), and more especially of Augustine, who firmly followed the Alexandrian canon of the Septuagint, and the preponderant tradition in reference to tho disputed Catholic Epistles and the Revelation ; though he himself, in some places, inclines to consider the Old Testament Apocrypha as deutero-cunonical books, bearing a subordinate authority. The council of Hippo in 393, and the third (according to another reckoning, the sixth) council of Carthage in 397, under the influence of Augustine, who attended both, fixed the catholic canon of the Holy Scriptures, including the Apocrypha of the Old Testament, and prohibited the reading of other books in the churches, excepting the Acts of the Martyrs on their memorial days. These two African councils, with Augustine,' give forty-four books as the canonical books of the Old Testament, in the following order: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, l^umbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, four books of Kings (the two of Samuel and the two of Kings), two books of Paralipomena (Chronicles), Job, the Psalms, five books of Solomon, the twelve minor Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Tobias, Judith, Esther, two books of Ezra, two books of Maccabees. The New Testament canon ia the same as ours.
This decision of the transmarine church, however, was subject to ratification ; and the concurrence of the Roman see it received when Innocent I, and Gelasius I. (a. d. 414) repeated the same index of biblical books.
This canon remained undisturbed till the sixteenth century,
' De doctr. Christ. 1. ii. c. 8.