Dallas Wolf
Hesychastic hermit
Homepage: https://firstthoughtsofgod.com
Ancient Christian Wednesday and Friday Fasts
Posted in Ekklesia and church, First Thoughts on April 10, 2026
The first-century “The Teaching (Greek: Διδαχὴ) of the Twelve Apostles”, anglicized as Didache, is usually considered a “church manual” or a “church order”, the first of its kind to survive. The Didache admonishes Christians that, “… you should fast on Wednesday and Friday.”
Contemporary fasting practices vary by tradition (Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, some Protestant groups).
The Eastern Orthodox continue to observe the ancient Wednesday and Friday fasts. They start the fast at sundown the evening before and continue until the evening of the fasting day, with fasting during the day. In practice, they stop eating after sunset Tuesday for a Wednesday fast, and after sunset on Thursday for a Friday fast.
Wednesdays: Fast in remembrance of Judas’ betrayal — no meat , dairy, eggs, fish, wine, or oil; (shellfish are allowed).
Meals: usually two small meals; often one light meal before evening (with olive oil/wine allowed on certain feast days).
Fridays: Fast in remembrance of Christ’s Passion — same rules as Wednesday (Great Lent Fridays can be stricter).
Fasting Exceptions: feast days, health issues, children, pregnant/nursing women, elderly.
The fasting discipline may be relaxed, if necessary, when one is travelling, ill, or receiving another’s hospitality.
Overview of fasting, in general:
Fasting is not the act of “self-denial” so many seem to think it is. We do not fast to bring suffering on ourselves because it “pleases God.” Fasting is not some “law” that wins us favor with God if we endure it. Nor does it bring guilt if we choose to ignore it.
On the contrary! Fasting intimately concerns itself with giving, not giving up. It involves exercising discipline to regain positive control over things we have allowed to rule over us. Things like love of food or money, inclinations toward anger or pride, etc.
Editorial Note: Shellfish, salads, pasta, rice, nuts, berries, fruit and vegetables, etc., are all allowed in these fasts. Don’t worry, you won’t starve!
Divine Encounter
Posted in New Nuggets, The Holy Trinity on April 8, 2026
Below is my testimony, as I recorded it at the time.
Last night, 01 Feb 2023, I was sleeping soundly at about 2 AM. I slowly and calmly awoke and became aware of someone standing over me to my left. It was a woman, dressed in plain light tunic and darker cloak. She seemed small and slight, but strong. She said nothing and did not acknowledge my awakening. She was bent slightly over my chest and, with arms extended, focused intently as she slowly kneaded and rolled something in her hands. The object of her attention was red, a little larger than a soft ball, but very elastic and pliable; like a dark lump of raised bread dough. wondering what she was doing, then came to realize that she was holding my heart in her hands. There was no incision, blood, or pain; just this quiet woman intently and gently kneading and squeezing my heart in her hands. This seemed to go on for a time. At some point she stopped, motionless; still leaning slightly over my chest, heart in hand. In that instant, she was gone. I returned to a peaceful sleep thinking, “That was strange!”.
I thought, at the time, that my visitor might be the Holy Spirit or perhaps a favorite Saint, like St. Macrina, the Younger. But, only She knows.
What Does an ‘Ecclesía’ of ‘The Way’ Look Like?
Posted in Ekklesia and church, First Thoughts, Theology, Women in Early Christianity on April 8, 2026
Words
A Word of Wisdom from my brilliant college roommate, dear friend, and Christian brother (and lawyer), John Holt:
“Words Matter. The World We Make With Words is always before us in both law and theology because words create worlds. Words matter because they have also created the theological world of every faith.”
Examples:
“The Way”, ἡ Ὁδός , (hē Hodós), was an early term used to describe the Christian movement, emphasizing the teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus as the path to transformation and salvation, and experience of God. Members of The Way formed assemblies or congregations called “ecclesía”.
“Ecclesía”, Ἐκκλησία (Ekklēsía) used exclusively for Christian assemblies or congregations of believers. In the first century, the ecclesía was primarily a gathering of early Christians who met in private homes or public spaces, functioning as a community rather than a formal institution. These assemblies were characterized by their adaptability to local cultures and their focus on communal worship, fellowship and service, and the mission of spreading the teachings of Jesus. Ecclesía was never used to refer to a physical building, and certainly not to any temporal hierarchical institution (read: Church).[1]
“Words are thus the records of things, and a change of a single term is a kind of signal to sceneshifters that we have closed one act and entered another in the five-act drama of Church history. During the whole of Act I., as we may call it, the keynote is always διδαχή [teaching]; it is a doctrine, and those who preach or teach it are followers of the “way” [ἡ ὁδός], witnesses of the “word” [λόγοσ], or stewards of the “mystery” [μυστήριο]. Such is the apostolic keynote …
But a change came over the Church, which explains all her later “afterthoughts” in theology, as soon as the note διδαχή was dropped, and δόξα [private opinion] at first, and finally hardening into δόγμα [dogma], took the place of διδαχή. It is dogmatic theology, in all its forms, early and later, which we identify with that departure from the faith which the apostle (1 Tim. iv. 1) distinctly refers to as an apostacy.
Faith [πίστις] in the New Testament church [ecclesía] meant trust or affiance in the living God. It did not mean, “the faith” of the later dogmatic Church. If πίστις retains its primitive simplicity of meaning as trust or affiance in the living God, and the term διδαχή the equivalent phrase for those teachings which make up the body of revealed truth, then we have what we need: “faith” in a person, and “teaching” concerning his work.”
“This fusing of morality and religion into one, is indeed that return to primitive New Testament Christianity which the age asks for, but does not see its way to.”[2]
The goal of the discussion below is to help the reader see what the age asks for: the return to primitive New Testament Christianity.
In the light of these circumstances, the total absence of any temporal institutional dogma in the following discussion is wholly intentional.
Ecclesía Structure
The earliest Christian communities were charismatically structured, not institutionally structured.
- Charisma Was the Organizing Principle of the New Testament Ecclesía
- The earliest ecclesías were held together by charismatic authority, meaning:
- Leadership emerged from spiritual gifting, not appointment.
- Apostles, prophets, and teachers were recognized because the Spirit was believed to speak through them.
- Communities were small, fluid, and dependent on Spirit‑empowered individuals.
- The early church didn’t have offices — it had gifts.
- The earliest ecclesías were held together by charismatic authority, meaning:
- Apostles and Prophets Were Central — Not Peripheral
- Apostles as foundational witnesses
- Prophets as Spirit‑filled interpreters
- Evangelists as itinerant emissaries
- In the New Testament Ecclesía:
- Charismatic gifts were common and expected.
- Leadership was fluid and Spirit‑driven.
- Prophecy, tongues, healing, and visions were normal parts of worship.
- Authority was personal and experiential.
- Beginning in the 2nd century, Charisma began to decline as Institutional Authority rose
- As charismatic eyewitnesses died, ecclesías needed stability.
- Bishops and presbyters emerged to provide continuity.
- Written texts (eventually the NT canon) replaced charismatic speech as the norm of authority.
- Prophets and itinerant charismatics became viewed as destabilizing.
Apostles and Prophets built the Ecclesía; Bishops and Presbyters later managed it into the Church.
The Bible
We must understand that in the first century ecclesía, there was no Bible, as we know it. They had the Septuagint (Greek translation of Hebrew Scriptures), but there was then no settled canon of Scripture of the Hebrew Old Testament; and the New Testament would not be assembled and closed for another 250 years. Jesus himself quoted from some of the books which became part of the Hebrew canon, so we can assume that he considered them authoritative “Scripture”. Jesus’ followers considered his (Jesus’) own teachings to be authoritative. Near the end of the first century, Christians were citing Jesus’ words and calling them “Scripture” (e.g., 1 Tim 5:18). The book of 2 Peter includes Paul’s own contemporary letters among the “Scriptures” (2 Pet 3:16). Scripture was mainly oral (from Apostles. Prophets, and Teachers) in the “New Testament” ecclesía.
The Word of God was a Person, Jesus Christ, the Son, the Logos (λόγος). The Christ of history was the Eternal Logos, the light of all humanity. The later developed New Testament Bible canon contains the word of God and became the principal book of modern Christian devotion.
However, we should be reminded that in the ecclesía divine revelation was considered continuous and experiential. The idea that divine revelation would end at some point (e.g., with the closure of the Christian Canon in 367 AD, or at the end of the Apostolic era), would not have occurred to the ecclesía.
Creed
Examples from the New Testament Ecclesía:
From 1 Cor 15:
Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is plain that this does not include the one who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all.[3]
From Phil 2:
Though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied [ἐκένωσεν] himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.[4]
The current universal Nicene Creed would not be formulated until 325/381 AD.
Ministries within the New Testament Ecclesía
| Ephesians 4:11 |
| Apostle |
| Prophet |
| Evangelist |
| Pastor |
| Teacher |
Charismatic Gifts of the Holy Spirit within the New Testament Ecclesía
| Romans 12:6-8 | 1 Corinthians 12:1-14 |
| Prophecy | Word of Wisdom |
| Ministry | Word of Knowledge |
| Teaching | Discernment of Spirits |
| Exhortation | Speaking in Tongues |
| Giving | Interpretation of Tongues |
| Leadership | Prophecy |
| Mercy | Faith |
| Working of Miracles | |
| Gifts of Healing |
Women in the New Testament Ecclesía
In an interview, Christian theologian and philosopher David Bentley Hart stressed that Paul’s letters—setting aside later pseudo‑Pauline additions—have a “remarkable egalitarianism” that is “almost historically inconceivable” for the time.
“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Gal 3:28
Powerful Women in the New Testament Ecclesía
| Woman | Reference | Comment |
| Phoebe | Romans 16:1-2 | “a deacon [minister] of the ecclesía” |
| Priscilla (or Prisca) | Rom 16:3-5, 1 Cor 16:19 | Founded at least two house ecclesías with Aquila |
| Junia | Rom 16:7 | Named as “prominent among the apostles” |
| Nympha | Col 4:15 | Started ecclesía in her house |
| Lydia | Acts 16:14, 15, 40 | Started ecclesía in her house |
| Apphia | Philem 2 | Started ecclesía in her house |
| Mary, Mother of Jesus | Acts 1:14 | Present at first meetings of the ecclesía |
| Euodia, Syntyche | Phil 4:2-3 | Co-workers: “for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel” |
| Four daughters of Philip | Acts 21:8/9 | Prophetesses |
Worship Patterns of the New Testament Ecclesía
The Christian ecclesía usually met in private homes for worship and instruction (Acts 2:46; 16:40; 18:7; Philem. 1:2). It appears that, in commemoration of the resurrection, the congregation assembled on the “Lord’s Day,” Sunday, the first day of the week (Acts 20:7See Eucharist, below; 1 Cor. 16:2). Writing to the ecclesía in Corinth, Paul describes two types of Christian gathering. One is the Lord’s Supper (Eucharist)(1 Cor. 10:16-17; 11:20-29) or ceremonial community meal. Paul goes on to describe a second type of charismatic gathering, the prophetic assembly, which includes both singing and thanksgiving in unknown languages, with interpretation, and prophecy (14:1-33). These were likely two aspects of the same gathering.
The order of worship in the Didache[5] [ca. 100 AD] allows Jewish forms for “grace” before and after meals. The leader’s prayer does not refer to the body and blood of Jesus; instead, the emphasis is on the gathering of the ecclesía body (see 1 Cor. 10:17). It is noteworthy that the prayer and thanksgiving are interlaced with doxologies; the event is a praise-celebration of the congregation of God’s people. The role of prophets is significant; the Didache calls them the ecclesía’s “high priests,” and gives instructions on how to welcome prophets and discern true from false teaching. The document does not specify what sort of ecclesía official is to preside over the Eucharist.
Worship patterns varied widely by location. Paul’s Gentile ecclesías were not as structured as those of the Jewish Christian ecclesías who came from a background of Synagogue/Temple worship (e.g., as described in the Didache). Diversity was the hallmark of New Testament Christianity.
Sacraments (Mysteries)
Jesus himself instituted the Lord’s Supper (Eucharist) as part of his last Passover celebration with his disciples (Matt. 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:14-22.) His words on that occasion (“This is my body . . . ,” “this is my blood . . . ,” “do this in remembrance of me”) suggest a close identification between the elements of bread and wine and the continuing presence of Jesus with his Ecclesía.
Two other sacramental actions established by Jesus were Baptism and Foot Washing. The Gospel of John records that Jesus washed the feet of his disciples on the night of his arrest, as a symbol of the loving servanthood they were to show toward one another (John 13:1-15). However, the rite is not specifically mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament.
Regarding Baptism, Jesus himself had been baptized by John the Baptizer as a sign of his role as the Messiah or Son of God (Mark 1:9-11). The Didache tells us: “But with regard to baptism, baptize as follows. Having said all these things in advance, baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in [cold] running water.”
Prayer
“pray without ceasing” 1 Thess 5:17 (this is the foundational direction of hesychasm)
“But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you [openly].” Matt 6:6
The Didache specifically quotes the text of the Lord’s Prayer (akin to Matt 6) and directs us to “Pray like this three times a day”.
Giving
Early Christian communities practiced notable acts of mutual aid and pooled collections, and giving was encouraged and commended by Paul. But Paul did not prescribe a universal rule that all goods and money be held in common. Early Christian fellowship and service was fundamental and sometimes expressed in radical generosity, but giving was practical, voluntary, and contextual rather than a uniform economic communalism.
Fasting
Again, from the Didache: “And do not keep your fasts with the hypocrites [i.e., Jews]. For they fast on Monday and Thursday; but you should fast on Wednesday and Friday”.
I quoted Rev. John B. Heard at the beginning of this post when he said, “This fusing of morality and religion into one, is indeed that return to primitive New Testament Christianity which the age asks for, but does not see its way to.” I hope we have clearly pointed out “The Way”.
[1] Theodore Beza, a Presbyterian follower of reformer John Calvin, was the first person to translate Greek “Ekklesía” with the modern English word “Church” in his 1556 translation of the New Testament canon. To equate the first century Ecclesía with the 16th century context of “Church” may be the worst Bible mistranslation ever made in English. Worse yet, the translators of the 1611 King James Bible copied Beza’s mistranslation; and so it goes with most subsequent English translations. With translation alternatives of “assembly” or “congregation” readily available and historically used, I hardly think the mistranslation was innocent. Words matter.
[2] Heard, John B. Alexandrian and Carthaginian Theology Contrasted. T & T Clark, Edinburgh, 1893. (pp. 229-230)
[3] 1 Cor 15, Harper Bibles. NRSV–New Testament.
[4] Ibid., Phil: 2.
[5] The Apostolic Fathers. “Didache: The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” (Bilingual English-Greek Edition). Translated and edited by Bart D. Ehrman. Vol. 1 of two volumes. Harvard University Press. 2003. The Didache was likely written in the first century by Jewish Christians living in the Egyptian, Palestinian, or Syrian region.
Note: All comments in brackets [] mine.
The Holy Spirit as the Feminine Emanation of God
Posted in Ancient Christian Manuscripts, Ekklesia and church, First Thoughts, The Logos Doctrine (series), Theology, Women in Early Christianity on April 2, 2026
In Greco-Roman Christianity, probably because of 2nd century proto-orthodox battles against Gnosticism, the biblical images of God as female were soon suppressed within the doctrine of God. God as Wisdom, Chokmah in Hebrew, or Sophia in Greek, both feminine forms, was translated by Christianity into the Logos concept of Philo, which is masculine and was defined as the Son of God. The theology of God’s mediating presence as female, was de-emphasized. This suppression of the divine feminine went on to include Shekinah, a feminine noun in Hebrew, which uniquely conveys the immanent, relational aspect of the Divine. God’s Spirit Ruach, a feminine noun in Hebrew, took on a neuter form when translated into Greek as Pneuma. The Vulgate translated Ruach into Latin as masculine, Spiritus. God’s Spirit, Ruach, which at the beginning of creation brings forth abundant life in the waters, and makes the womb of Mary fruitful, is now made male.
In spite of the reality of the comforting, compassionate, caring, consoling, healing aspects of divine activity, the dominant patriarchal tradition has prevailed, resulting in seeing the female as the passive recipient of God’s creation; and the female is expressed in nature, church, soul, and finally as Mary, the prototype of redeemed humanity.
Because God as Father has become an over literalized metaphor, the symbol of God as female is eclipsed. The problem lies not in the fact that male metaphors are used for Trinitarian God, but that they are used exclusively and literally. Because images of God as female have been suppressed in official Church formulations and teaching, they came to be embodied in the substitute human figure of Mary, the only exemplar left to reveal the unfailing female love of God.
It is well attested that revelation is experiential. With that proviso, I can tell you that I experience the Holy Spirit (whether as Chokmah, Sophia, Shekinah, Ruach, or Pneuma) as a distinctly feminine presence.
To me, it is much like the meaning of the Greek word dóxa (δόξα); its definition as “personal opinion” in Greek philosophy morphing into “Glory” as it passed into the Septuagint. So too the Holy Spirit; She is my dóxa, in both respects.
This dóxa also serves to restore a proper biblical balance to existing Christian male-only metaphors for the Trinitarian Godhead.
How did the meaning of the Greek word δόξα (dóxa) shift from “private opinion” to “glory”?
Posted in Ancient Christian Manuscripts, First Thoughts, Patristic Pearls on April 1, 2026
The Greek word dóxa shifted from “opinion” to “glory” through a historical semantic expansion driven largely by the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. In classical Greek it meant “what seems,” “appearance,” or “belief,” but in Jewish and early Christian Greek it came to express the radiant, weighty presence of God.
Here’s how that transformation happened:
1. The Original Meaning: “What Seems / Opinion”
In early and classical Greek, δόξα comes from the verb δοκεῖν (“to seem, to appear, to think”). It referred to: personal opinion, common belief, reputation (good or bad). Philosophers like Plato used dóxa to contrast mere belief with true knowledge (epistēmē).
2. The Septuagint Shift: Translating Hebrew kavod
The decisive change occurred between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE, when Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek (the Septuagint).
Hebrew כָּבוֹד (kavod) means: “weight,” “substance,” and metaphorically “glory,” “honor,” “radiance,” especially of God.”
The translators chose δόξα as the Greek equivalent.
This was a semantic leap: kavod had no connection to “opinion.” But dóxa was the closest Greek term that could express public esteem or reputation, which overlaps with “glory.” As a result, dóxa absorbed the theological weight of kavod.
3. Early Christian Usage: “Glory” Becomes Primary
Because the Septuagint was the Old Testament Bible of the early Church, the new meaning spread rapidly. In the New Testament and Christian liturgy: dóxa overwhelmingly means glory, especially divine glory. It becomes associated with: radiance, majesty, honor, praise.
This usage became so dominant that the older sense (“opinion”) nearly disappeared from religious Greek.
Philological sources note that dóxa came to mean “glory” especially in Hellenistic and Christian Greek, while still retaining its older philosophical sense in some contexts.
J.B. Heard: The Basis for the Ultimate Reunion of Christendom
Posted in Ekklesia and church, First Thoughts, Theology on March 28, 2026
Rev. John Bickford Heard (28 Oct 1828 – 29 Feb 1908) was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was a British clergyman and graduate/lecturer at Cambridge University (M.A. 1864). His series of lectures at the Cambridge Hulsean Lectures of 1892-93 served as the basis of his book, Alexandrian and Carthaginian Theology Contrasted, published by T&T Clark, Edinburgh, in 1893. Excerpt below is from this work (p. 294):
“If the keynote of religion be God’s general fatherhood, and the keynote of morality be man’s general brotherhood, why may not an accommodation be made on these terms, and an accommodation which will prove the basis for the ultimate reunion of Christendom, on the simple basis of love and loyalty to one Master?”
Never Fully Trust a Translation
Posted in Ekklesia and church, Theology, Ancient Christian Manuscripts on March 28, 2026
Never fully trust a translation of Scripture, regardless of the skill and/or good intention of the translator. “… ἐφ᾽ ᾧ…”.
Fully Understanding Scripture
Posted in Ekklesia and church, Hermeneutics, New Nuggets, Theology on March 28, 2026
For their lack of understanding of Greek, the Romans never fully understood the New Testament; for their lack of understanding of Hebrew, the Greeks never fully understood the Old Testament; for our lack of understanding of both, we fully understand neither.
The Frankish Papacy
Posted in Ekklesia and church, The Holy Trinity, Theology on March 28, 2026
The Frankish Papacy, which lasted from 756 to 857, was a period marked by the dominance of the kings of the Franks over the Roman Papacy. Pepin the Short, Charlemagne, and Louis the Pious played significant roles in the selection and administration of popes, leading to the establishment of the Papal States. This period was crucial in the transformation of Rome’s authority and the establishment of the Papacy as a central institution in medieval Western Christendom.
Bart Ehrman: Short Intro to the NT Canon
Posted in Ancient Christian Manuscripts, Ekklesia and church, First Thoughts, New Nuggets, Theology on March 23, 2026
Bart D. Ehrman (born October 5, 1955) is an American New Testament scholar whose research focuses on the textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity. He is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author or editor of more than 30 books, including six New York Times bestsellers, and has created nine lecture series with The Great Courses. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why, HarperCollins, 2005, is his most popular New York Times bestseller mass-market book on Christian textual criticism.
The following is excerpted from: A Brief Introduction to the New Testament, © Bart Ehrman, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Note: With reference to the Bible, the term canon denotes the collection of books that are accepted as authoritative by a religious body. [p. 3]
Jesus and his followers were themselves Jews who were conversant with the ancient writings that were eventually canonized into the Hebrew Scriptures.
Thus Christianity had its beginning in the proclamation of a Jewish teacher, who ascribed to the authority of documents. Moreover, we know that Jesus’ followers considered his own teachings to be authoritative. Near the end of the first century, Christians were citing Jesus’ words and were calling them “Scripture” (e.g., 1 Tim 5:18). It is striking that in some early Christian circles the correct interpretation of Jesus’ teachings was thought to be the key to eternal life (e.g., see John 6:68 and Gosp. Thom. 1). Furthermore, some of Jesus’ followers, such as the apostle Paul, understood themselves to be authoritative spokespersons for the truth. Other Christians granted them this claim. The book of 2 Peter, for example, includes Paul’s letters among the “Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16).
Thus by the beginning of the second century some Christians were ascribing authority to the words of Jesus and the writings of the apostles. There were nonetheless heated debates which apostles were true to Jesus’ own teachings, and a number of writings that claimed to be written by apostles were thought by some Christians to be forgeries.
It appears then that our New Testament emerged out of the conflicts among Christian groups, and that the dominance of the position that eventually “won out” was what led to the development of the Christian canon as we have it. It is no accident that Gospels that were deemed “heretical” (i.e., false) – for instance, the Gospel of Peter or the Gospel of Philip – did not make it into the New Testament. This is not to say, however, that the canon of Scripture was firmly set by the end of the second century. Indeed, it is a striking fact of history that even though the four Gospels were widely considered authoritative by proto-orthodox Christians then – along with Acts, most of the Pauline epistles, and several of the longer general epistles – the collection of our twenty-seven books was not finalized until much later. For throughout the second, third, and fourth centuries proto-orthodox Christians continued to debate the acceptability of some of the other books. The arguments centered around (a) whether the books in question were ancient (some Christians wanted to include The Shepherd of Hermas, for example; others insisted that it was penned after the age of the apostles); (b) whether they were written by the apostles (some wanted to include Hebrews on the grounds that Paul wrote it; others insisted that he did not); and (c) whether they were widely accepted among the proto-orthodox congregations as containing correct Christian teaching (many Christians, for example, disputed the doctrine of the end times found in the book of Revelation).
Contrary to what one might expect, it was not until the year 367 c.e., almost two and a half centuries after the last New Testament book was written, that any Christian of record named our current twenty-seven books as the authoritative canon of Scripture. The author of this list was Athanasius, the powerful bishop of Alexandria, Egypt. Some scholars believe that this pronouncement on his part, and his accompanying proscription of heretical books, led monks of a nearby monastery to hide the Gnostic writings discovered 1,600 years later by a bedouin near Nag Hammadi, Egypt. [p.7]
We have seen that the New Testament did not emerge as a single collection of twenty-seven books immediately, but that different groups of early Christians had different collections of sacred books. In some ways, however, the problem of the New Testament canon is even more complicated than that. For not only did different Christian communities have different books – they had different versions of the same books.
This is because of the way books were transmitted in an age before internet access, desktop publishing, word processors, photocopiers, and printing presses. Books in the ancient world could not be mass produced. They were copied by hand, one page, one sentence, one word, one letter at a time. There was no other way to do it. Since the books were copied by hand, there was always the possibility that scribes would make mistakes and intentional changes in a book – any and every time it was copied. Moreover, when a new copy was itself copied, the mistakes and changes that the earlier scribe (copyist) made would have been reproduced, while the new scribe would introduce some mistakes and changes of his own. When that copy was then copied, more changes would be introduced. And so it went. [p.8]
Most of these differences are altogether minor and unimportant (misspelled words, changes of word order, the accidental omission of a line, etc.). But some of them are of immense importance. Were the last twelve verses of Mark’s Gospel original, or were they added later (they are not found in any of our oldest and best copies)? Was the story of the woman taken in adultery originally part of John’s Gospel (it does not start to appear regularly in copies until the Middle Ages)? Was the famous account of Jesus “sweating blood” originally found in Luke (some of our oldest and best copies omit it)? [p.9]
Unfortunately, we do not have the originals of any of the books of the New Testament, or the first copies, or the copies of the first copies. What we have are copies made much later – in most cases hundreds of years later. [p. 8]
First Thoughts 