The Living Tradition An Orthodox Archive of the Church Fathers and Early Church

Formation of Scripture

How the Bible came to be

A witness-by-witness explorer of the formation of the canon of Scripture — and a direct answer to the claim that a council chose the books.

  • Historical consensusBroadly agreed among historians working from the surviving evidence. Consensus can shift when the evidence or the method changes.
  • Received Orthodox teachingTaught consistently and received throughout the Orthodox Church, though not necessarily formulated in a conciliar definition. This is not a claim that no Father ever wrote differently.

Primary evidence verified Content last reviewed 2026-08-29

What still needs checking (2)
  • Confirm the Orthodox account of the canon against the OCA's material on the canon of Scripture.
  • Add sourced pages for the North African councils and the later Eastern canonical lists.

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The canon of Scripture was not decided. It settled.

Books were written, copied and sent between churches. Some were read aloud in worship and some were not. Some were quoted as authoritative by teachers whose judgement other churches trusted. Some were disputed for centuries. Lists appear late in this sequence, and when they appear they record what has already happened rather than causing it.

How to use this explorer

The witnesses below are in chronological order. Each page says what that witness actually attests, what it cannot tell us, and — where the witness names particular books — how it treats each one.

Read them in sequence and the shape of the process becomes visible: a core that is not in question early, edges that stay unsettled for centuries, and lists that arrive after the substance has been decided by use.

The Orthodox Old Testament

The Orthodox Church received its Old Testament through the Greek transmission — the septuagint — rather than through the Hebrew canon, and reads the books Greek usage calls the anagignoskomena. Printed Orthodox Bibles differ from one another in contents, order, book names and numbering. That variation is a fact about the tradition and this site does not tidy it away.

The witnesses, in order

Each witness below tells you what one person, list or council actually attests — and what it does not. No single witness created the canon; the explorer is arranged chronologically so you can watch reception settle rather than watch a decision get made.

  1. Justin Martyr: the memoirs of the apostles around 150-155 — Justin tells a Roman emperor that the memoirs of the apostles are read at the Sunday assembly. He does not say how many there are.
  2. Irenaeus: the Gospels are four around 180 — The earliest surviving argument that there are four Gospels, neither more nor fewer — made in defence of something already settled.
  3. The Muratorian Fragment date contested: late second century or fourth — A damaged, anonymous Latin list of accepted writings — the earliest of its kind if the traditional dating holds, which is disputed.
  4. Eusebius sorts the writings around 325 — A historian's report on which writings were universally acknowledged, which disputed, and which rejected — including his own inconsistency.
  5. Cyril of Jerusalem instructs catechumens around 350 — A bishop telling candidates for baptism which books the Church reads — catechesis rather than controversy, which is what makes it valuable.
  6. Athanasius, Festal Letter 39 367 — The earliest surviving list of the twenty-seven New Testament books — in a bishop's annual letter to his own churches, not a decree.
  7. Jerome on the Hebrew canon around 391-405 — A Latin scholar who knew Hebrew argues for distinguishing the books of the Hebrew canon from the rest — and the Church did not follow him.
  8. Canon II of Trullo confirms the collections 692 — The canonical index of the Orthodox tradition — which confirms canons that themselves list the Scriptures, without the council issuing a canon of Scripture.

Sources for this page

  1. Tier C Eusebius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.); Arthur Cushman McGiffert (trans.) Eusebius, Church History, Book III, Chapter 25 translated edition of primary texts Source record
  2. Tier C Athanasius: Select Works and Letters Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.); Archibald Robertson (trans.) Athanasius, Festal Letter 39 translated edition of primary texts Source record
  3. Tier C The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (eds.); A. Cleveland Coxe (American ed.) Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book III, Chapter XI.8 translated edition of primary texts Source record
  4. Tier C Fathers of the Third Century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (eds.) The Muratorian Fragment translated edition of primary texts Source record
  5. Tier C Cyril of Jerusalem and Gregory Nazianzen Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.) Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 4 translated edition of primary texts Source record
  6. Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Henry R. Percival (ed.); Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (series eds.) The Canons of the Council in Trullo, Canon II annotated edition of conciliar texts Source record

Tiers are explained in the methodology. No page on this site has been reviewed or approved by any bishop, priest, synod or seminary.