The church is a very complex structure with its own laws, dogmas and traditions. They are difficult to understand without awareness of the origins. So what is a church canon?
For the first time, this word appears regarding scripture. What is a canon in the context of the Bible and hermeneutics? This is a rule that is used to define some standard for books. It must be remembered that all the books of the New and Old Testaments were absolutely canonical at the time of their writing. Understanding that Scripture is the main authority of the Christian Church and will make it possible to separate the truth from theological error.
What is a canon in the Bible, and what measures and standards were used to determine if a book could be classified as canonical and become part of the scripture? An explanation of this question was given in the Epistle of Jude (1: 3). It affirms such a moment that faith was granted by the Lord God once and for all. Consequently, faith is defined by Scripture, and, according to the apostle Judas, it was one for all. The Psalter states that Truth is the foundation of the Sacred Word. Based on this statement, theologians and apologists compared individual books to the limit of generally accepted canonical Scripture. The main books of the Bible support the claim that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. However, most non-biblical texts that claim canonicality deny the very idea of Christ's divinity. This is one of the main features of the so-called apocrypha.
What is canon from a more metaphysical point of view? In the era of the early Christian Church, individual societies recognized this or that text as “inspired”, which in the end was the criterion of its canonicity. Throughout the first few centuries, active controversy was conducted only over a few books, the main list of which was already approved before the III century AD. For example, the so-called penitential canon (or touching) of Andrew of Crete is recognized canonical.
When considering the books of the Old Testament, the following factors were fundamental:
- the presence of quotes or references in the New Testament to the books of the Old Testament (with the exception of two);
- as described in the Gospels, Jesus Christ supported the Old Testament traditions and even quoted some narratives and texts;
- the Jews themselves very carefully approached the preservation of the writings of the Old Testament. Roman Catholic apocrypha does not correspond to these points, therefore they were never accepted by the Jews.
Many liturgical texts relate to orthodox texts solely because of their "spirituality." An example is the canon of penitence. It combines a huge number of holy images for Christians and is saturated with the Christian spirit and spirituality.
Answering the question: “What is a canon?” - One cannot fail to mention one of the important criteria of the early Church: whether the person who wrote this or that text was an “eyewitness” of the acts of Jesus Christ. Thus, we can conclude that the church canon was formed in the first centuries of the birth of Christianity and has not undergone any special changes since then.
