Athanasius (296-373 AD) had a remarkable but tumultuous life. His physical appearance was apparently quite striking: he was very short with a dark complexion and black hair. His opponents dubbed him “the black dwarf.” As a young man, Athanasius attended the Council of Nicea (325 AD) while serving as the secretary for Alexander, the bishop of Alexandria.
The roughly 300 or so bishops who attended the Council of Nicea could celebrate the end of the Great Persecution which had raged from 303 until 311 under Diocletian and Galerius. Now that Constantine had assumed sole power over the empire, Christianity was not only permitted but openly favored.
The Council of Nicea was called by Constantine himself in order to address the pressing issue of Arianism. Arius was a pastor in Alexandria & therefore under the jurisdiction of bishop Alexander. Arius denied the full divinity of Jesus. He argued that only God the Father was eternal. Jesus was the first and most exalted creature but did not share the divine nature of the Father. Arius famously asserted, “The Son has a beginning, but…God is without beginning.”
Bishop Alexander had already called a regional synod in order to condemn Arius and his teachings. But Arius had quickly gained many followers throughout the empire, including Eusebius, the powerful bishop of Nicomedia. The church was sharply divided.
The bishops assembled at Nicea denounced the doctrines of Arius. They endeavored to craft a creed which would make it very clear that they had rejected his heresy. After much wrangling, they settled on the following formulation: “We believe…in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds. God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance (Greek: homoousion) with the Father; by whom all things were made…”
The Nicene Creed is the most universally accepted statement of Christian faith throughout the world, acknowledged by Roman Catholics, Protestants and Eastern Orthodox believers. By using the Greek word homoousion, the Nicene bishops emphasized that Jesus shares the same nature as God the Father; he is the fully divine word (logos) of God and has existed for all eternity.
The vast majority of the bishops who attended the Council of Nicea assented to this creed. The small handful who refused were deposed & sent into exile.
Alexander the bishop of Alexandria died in 328 and was succeeded by Athanasius, who assumed leadership for the Nicene position against Arianism. Athanasius saw that the incarnation of God in Jesus the Messiah was central to the Christian faith.
But the struggle between Arianism and the Nicene faith was far from over. The emperor Constantine would later soften his stance against Arius and his followers, allowing them to return from exile. Shortly before Constantine died in 337, he was baptized by Eusebius of Nicomedia, the bishop who advocated for Arius before the Council of Nicea! Moreover, several of the emperors who followed Constantine openly supported Arianism and showed hostility towards the Nicene Christians.
Athanasius would spend the rest of his life fighting against Arianism. For his troubles, he would be exiled no less than five times! And Athanasius never lived to see the triumph of the cause which he championed. It was not until the reign of the emperor Theodosius in 379 AD that Nicene orthodoxy prevailed throughout the empire. And even then, thanks to the work of an Arian missionary named Ulfilas, large swaths of Europe were converted to Arian Christianity. These Arian churches persisted for centuries.
During the time of Athanasius, it was customary for the bishop of Alexandria to compose a letter early in the year setting the dates for Lent and Easter. These festal (feast) letters were often used to address pressing issues of the day.
Athanasius’ 39th Festal letter was written in 367 AD. In his epistle, Athanasius listed those books which should be considered canonical. His list matches the 27 books included in our New Testament today – the first time in history that the NT books were stated without qualification. Thus, historians consider Athanasius’ festal letter to be the closing of the NT canon. After this moment, there was no significant disagreement regarding the contents of the New Testament.
We’ve now traced the development of our New Testament. Let’s review some of the things that we’ve learned.
(1) The books of the New Testament were all written by the end of the 1st century. Mark, the first gospel, was likely composed in the mid 60s. John – the last of the canonical gospels – was written around 90 AD. Historically speaking, the gospels were written very close to the events which they describe.
The Apostle Paul wrote his epistles between 48 and 65 AD, the year he was beheaded in Rome during the persecution under Nero. The book of Revelation was perhaps the last NT work, composed during the latter years of Domitian’s reign (81-96 AD).
(2) The primary criterion for inclusion in the New Testament was apostolicity. The early church believed that the authority of Jesus himself had been invested in the twelve apostles, his closest followers. Two of these apostles (Matthew & John) authored gospels.
However, the criteria of apostolicity allowed some flexibility. Although Mark was not one of the twelve, he was a close associate of the Apostle Peter, and his gospel draws heavily upon Peter’s eyewitness testimony. Likewise, Luke was a close friend and traveling companion of the Apostle Paul.
(3) The emphasis on apostolic authority meant that the New Covenant documents had to be completed within the lifetimes of the Apostles themselves. Therefore, in one sense, the NT canon was effectively closed by the end of the 1st century, since later writings could not claim apostolic authority. This dynamic is nicely illustrated by the author of the Muratorian Fragment (~180) who rejects the canonicity of the Shepherd of Hermas because it was written “recently, in our own times.”
(4) The vast majority of the New Testament was recognized as sacred scripture very early in the church’s history. We know that by the middle of the 2nd century there was a “core” of the New Testament (four gospels and the letters of Paul) which was universally accepted as authoritative throughout the early church. Acts was also acknowledged very early as a companion work to the gospel of Luke.
Among the catholic epistles, 1 Peter and 1 John had strong support. But some Christians had reservations about 2 Peter, 2/3 John, James & Jude. Although these small letters were felt to be orthodox in content, there was lingering uncertainty about authorship. The church wanted to be absolutely certain that these letters really did come from the Apostles, or from the brothers of the Lord Jesus.
Some Christians might be bothered by the fact that the New Testament canon wasn’t fully settled until more than 3 centuries after the time of Christ. I hope that this survey of history can allay such concerns & inspire confidence in our scriptures. The entire contents of the New Testament were well known and widely used in the early church. Yes, there was some amount of debate, particularly regarding the smaller catholic epistles. But this process shows that the early Christians were very careful; they wanted to be absolutely certain that the contents of their scriptures truly bore the authority of the risen Christ transmitted through his apostles.
