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Which books were removed from the New Testament in AD 367 by Athanasius of Alexandria, in AD393 by the Council of Hippo and in AD397 by the Council of Carthage?

• IT IS MISLEADING to talk of books being "removed" from the New Testament; not until well into the fourth Century AD was there agreement on what the canon of the New Testament actually was. This came about after a long and gradual process, and was in the form of an accepted consensus rather than a formal statement. In fact, no Ecumenical Council ever made a definitive pronouncement on the subject, reflecting the fact that this was one issue in the early church which was singularly free of controversy. Before this time, various lists of books had been in circulation in different areas. From these we can identify five principal "fringe" books later omitted from the canon proper. They are: the Didache (or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles), the Shepherd of Hermas, the Apocalypse of Peter, the Epistle of Barnabas and the Epistle of Clement. Their eventual exclusion was not because they were regarded as heretical, but because they either lacked apostolic authorship or were thought to be too shallow in spiritual content. Athanasius, in his Easter Letter of AD367, set out his list of books which were to be regarded as Scripture. His is the earliest extant list which corresponds with the canon of the New Testament as we now know it. In addition, he states that the Didache and the Shepherd, while not to be regarded on this level, were still worthy of study by catechumens. The respect Athanasius commanded was such that his list was accepted in Rome in AD383, and adopted by the Council of Carthage in AD397. The Council of Hippo in AD393 was more concerned with the status of the Old Testament Apocrypha, and appears not to have discussed the canon of the New Testament at any length. The Athanasian canon thus came to be gradually accepted throughout the church. M. R. James, of ghost story fame, published a translation of all the significant post-apostolic writings in 1924, which is still in print (The Apocryphal New Testament, Oxford University Press).

  Alan M. Linfield, Tring, Herts.