I am trying to settle in my mind the canon of the Bible. The hang up for me is not the NT canon, but the use and inclusion of the Apocrypha in the early church.
Philip Schaff says:
Soon after the middle of the fourth century, when the church became firmly settled in the Empire, all doubts as to the Apocrypha of the Old Testament and the Antilegomena of the New ceased, and the acceptance of the Canon in its Catholic shape, which includes both, became an article of faith.
The first Council which expressly legislated on the number of canonical books is that of Laodicea in Phrygia, in Asia Minor (held between A.D. 343 and 381, probably about 363). In its last canon (60 or 59), it enumerates the canonical books of the Old Testament, and then all of the New, with the exception of the Apocalypse"¦
In the Western church, the third provincial Council of Carthage (held A.D. 397) gave a full list of the canonical books of both Testaments, which should be read as divine Scriptures to the exclusion of all others in the churches.
http://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc2.v.xiv.ii.html
The Council of Laodicea (about A.D. 363) and the Third Council of Carthage (A.D. 397) canon lists are not the same.
The Carthage list includes Tobias, Judith, and the two books of the Maccabees. Was the canon closed in 397 or not? If it was, did all the known Church accept it?
I know the WCF says, "The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of the Scripture, and therefore are of no authority in the church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings", but did the Church go from 397 A.D. to 1546 A.D. with this view?
Philip Schaff says:
Soon after the middle of the fourth century, when the church became firmly settled in the Empire, all doubts as to the Apocrypha of the Old Testament and the Antilegomena of the New ceased, and the acceptance of the Canon in its Catholic shape, which includes both, became an article of faith.
The first Council which expressly legislated on the number of canonical books is that of Laodicea in Phrygia, in Asia Minor (held between A.D. 343 and 381, probably about 363). In its last canon (60 or 59), it enumerates the canonical books of the Old Testament, and then all of the New, with the exception of the Apocalypse"¦
In the Western church, the third provincial Council of Carthage (held A.D. 397) gave a full list of the canonical books of both Testaments, which should be read as divine Scriptures to the exclusion of all others in the churches.
http://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc2.v.xiv.ii.html
The Council of Laodicea (about A.D. 363) and the Third Council of Carthage (A.D. 397) canon lists are not the same.
The Carthage list includes Tobias, Judith, and the two books of the Maccabees. Was the canon closed in 397 or not? If it was, did all the known Church accept it?
I know the WCF says, "The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of the Scripture, and therefore are of no authority in the church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings", but did the Church go from 397 A.D. to 1546 A.D. with this view?