- Nov 26, 2019
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This is essentially correct from a chronological perspective. However, before Protestant members are needlessly alarmed, it must be stressed that once the Gospels and the canonical Pauline epistles existed, the early Church used them as the center of Holy Tradition, and admitted no doctrine contrary to them, and this remains the approach of the Eastern churches.
I should add, also, once the canon of the New Testament was fixed by St. Athanasius in the mid 4th century, the rest of the New Testament as well; everyone always agreed on the four Gospels and other parts of it but it was St. Athanasius, the defender of the doctrine of the Trinity against the heretic Arius, who also defined for us which books definitively are and are not canon, in a manner that the entire church would accept for the New Testament.
His proposed Old Testament canon was less successful, and indeed the ancient churches never agreed with each other on exactly which books were canonical and which ones were not, but the relative importance of some books that some people regard as deuterocanon might surprise people.
For example, the early church and the Orthodox church have always greatly valued the book known as Wisdom, or the Wisdom of Solomon, which was compiled from various sources around 60 BC, and which is remarkable, because chapter 2 is a stunning Messianic prophecy in the manner of the Songs of the Suffering Servant from Isaiah, and chapter 3 expresses what would be the Christian doctrine of eternal life. This book thus became more important than, for example, Numbers, which while interesting, holy and important, is not arguably as important to Christians as some of the other portions of the Pentateuch, which are doctrinally vital, for example, Genesis and the first half of Exodus, and parts of Deuteronomy, the canticles of Moses.
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