The Apostolic Canons List
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 else had ever given us before. If you take the claims of the Apostolic Constitutions too seriously, you end up with New Testament Scripture (the Constitutions, as they claim themselves to be) clearly identifying Judith, Tobit, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, Susanna, and 1 and 2 Maccabees as Old Testament Scripture.
Of course, no one takes the claim that the Book was written by the Apostles seriously today. But it is a list and it shows what someone thought at the time—and shows how claims of Apostolicity are not to be accepted without corroborating evidence to prove them.
Arguably, the Apostolic Canons put Sirach in a third category by itself (it says “And besides these, take care that your young persons learn the Wisdom of the very learned Sirach”). But the Book that the list is part of (the Apostolic Constitutions) quotes from Sirach as Holy Scripture. It can be debated as to whether that should be seen as evidence of the intent with the canon list, or contradictory, which depends on whether the same person wrote both.[2]
[1] www.bible-researcher.com/apostolic.html
[2] In addition, textual variations for this work are severe and, sometimes, conflicting. Sirach, in particular, is set out as educational for children, almost like Athanasius’ categories, but there is also a reference to the Five Books of Solomon as canon. Such a reference usually means Sirach is included as one of those Books (along with Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Songs, Wisdom)—so maybe it is to be seen as both, or maybe two different people wrote those sections, etc.; moreover, the Ethiopic version specifically lists Sirach as one of the Solomon Books. So, for my purposes, it is included as full Scripture, but it can be debated if you wish. Tobit has a similar debate about it, but is specifically listed as canon in the Ethiopic and Syriac versions of the text.
