Jerome Canon Lists 391 AD, 398 AD, 404 AD: Jerome. Jerome’s personal views are pretty clear: he thought the Jewish canon and the Hebrew versions of those books should be the Christian Old Testament as well. Exactly who agreed with him, if anyone, is unclear. He had some high-level support,…

Epiphanius Canon Lists 385 AD:[1] Epiphanius. Epiphanius is the Romaniote Jewish Christian mentioned earlier. He gives us multiple Jewish canons and one Christian list. For my purposes, Baruch and Susanna are accepted (by both Christians and Jews, per Epiphanius[2]); Wisdom and Sirach, I will discuss momentarily; and the other four…

Gregory of Nazianzus and Amphilochius of Iconium Canon Lists 380 AD: Gregory of Nazianzus;[1] and 380 AD: Amphilochius of Iconium[2] Gregory and Amphilochius were cousins, and both left poems on the canon (it was once thought that Gregory had written them both). They are similar in that they include Baruch…

The Apostolic Canons List 380 AD: The Apostolic Canons.[1] The writer of the Apostolic Constitutions—whoever he was or they were—does Athanasius one better: rather than pass on what came from the Fathers, he just pretends to be the Apostles themselves, as “they” give us another unique canon that no one…

Hilary of Poitiers Canon List 367 AD: Hilary of Poitiers.[1] An interesting list because it seems copied from Origen’s list for the Jews (as given to us by Eusebius), but with a few changes. Hilary implicitly accepts Baruch and Susanna (as discussed above), and explicitly says that “some add” Tobit…

Athanasius of Alexandria Canon List 367 AD: Athanasius of Alexandria.[1] “Because Athanasius’ canon is the closest canon of any of the Church Fathers to the one used by Protestant Churches today, many Protestants point to Athanasius as the Father of the Canon.”[2] Note that it says “the closest”—and even he…

Cheltenham Canon List 360 AD: Cheltenham List.[1] Another stichometric list. Between names and verse counts, it is clear enough to me that all the Apocrypha are included. However, the canonical Books of Ezra-Nehemiah are notably missing. [1] www.bible-researcher.com/cheltenham.html

St Catherine Syriac List MS 10 Canon List 350 AD: St. Catherine’s Syriac List MS 10.[1] A stichometric list, but one with known errors that make the stichometry hard to rely on. The list specifically includes 1 and 2 Maccabees, Judith, Wisdom, and Sirach. Susanna seems to be included in…

350 AD: Cyril of Jerusalem 350 AD: Cyril of Jerusalem[1] gives us a canon list, which expressly accepts Baruch and implicitly accepts Susanna. The other Apocrypha are not mentioned, and exactly what Cyril intends with them is debated. He says, “[b]ut let all the rest be put aside in a…

COUNCILS Also, there were six Church councils that may have produced canon lists: The Nicene Council (325 AD)[1] occurred, with 318 Bishops attending. But with respect to the canon, we only know of a determination from Jerome, writing much later, and he only indicates that they voted to include Judith—and…