Church canon and scripture are quintessential to protecting and sharing the authentic teachings of Christ. While there has never been unanimity among Jews and Christians about what books should be considered scripture, A.D. both Jews and Christians largely followed and read the same Hebrew scriptures until the first century. During the first century, The Apostles began to share the Gospel across the world, focusing on sharing the message of Christ more so than on codifying the teaches within an organized church. Ultimately, The Church has developed criteria to aid in canon scripture development to ensure Holy Scripture and Traditions remain consistent with the Word and will of God.
"During the first century A.D., and prior to the emergence of the New Testament as part of Holy Scripture, Jews and Christians largely shared the same sacred writings deriving from the Jewish tradition (Stylianopoulos, p. 19)." By the end of the first century A.D., Hebrew scripture was organized into three sections: The Law, The Prophets, and The Writings (Stylianopoulos, p.21). Despite Jews and Christians sharing the majority of the Hebrew scriptures, there were differences among the two groups in regards to what books should be considered scripture:
"The early Christians..retained the Hebrew scriptures...with two important differences. The first was the adoption of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures called the Septuagint...the second difference is that the early Christians adopted a larger number of Jewish writings than the official list compiled by the rabbinical teachers at Jamia or later (Stylianopoulos, p. 22)."
Because the Apostles were focused on spreading the good news of Christ defeating death:
"for the Apostle Paul and the early Christians the 'new covenant was neither a book nor a collection of books but rather the dynamic reality of the new bond between God and Christian believers based on the person and saving work of Christ."
Today, Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Orthodoxy have selected different scriptural books to include in their Old and New Testaments. Since the Apostles were evangelizing in hostile nations around the world, the New Testament was not an official canon scripture in The Church until the third century A.D., when St. Athanasios the Great listed the 27 books of The New Testament which were accepted by the Church as the writings of the New Testament (Stylianopoulos, p.27). Scripture must meet four criteria to be accepted as canon within The Church: apostolic origin, universal acceptance by Christians, message consistent with Scripture, and liturgy (Stylianopoulos, p. 26).
The first criterion, apostolic origin, requires the identity of the author and the author and writings being connected to the Apostolic Fathers of The Church. The Church was founded by Christ with the Apostles, with the New Testament including the teachings of Christ. These new teachings required verification to ensure they were authentic, otherwise, the teachings of Christ would be obfuscated and manipulated (as heretical movements, like Arianism, distorted teaching by the early Church Fathers). For several centuries after Christ's resurrection, Christians debated which books should be included in the New Testament. By the second century, most agreed and recognized 22 of the 27 books included in the Orthodox New Testament (Stylianopoulos, p. 27). Several books, including 2 Peter and the Book of Revelation, were contested. One of the main arguments to exclude the Book of Revelation was premised on the unconfirmed identity of the author:
"In the ancient Church, the authorship of a number of the New Testament books, such as the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Book of Revelation, had already been freely debated for several centuries...The Church embraced writings in its sacred canon and thus affirmed their value as multiple testimonies to God and His saving message. The essential value of biblical documents lies in their theological content rather in the historical circumstances of their composition (Stylianopoulos, p. 42-43)."
Ultimately, Revelation was included in Orthodox bibles.
The second criterion for canon scripture development is that the writing and scripture must be universally accepted by Christians. When the First Ecumenical Council met in the 4th century A.D. at the request of Emperor Constantine, it was the first time Christendom met formally to establish consensus on canon, scriptural, and doctrinal issues. Over 1,800 bishops were invited, with several hundred ultimately attending. The First Council of Nicea was partially in response to issues caused by the Arian heretics, who contested God the Son's full divinity, as the Council implemented the Nicaean Creed and promulgated 20 Canons which repudiated the Latin heresy of the filioque and solidified the ethos of the Orthodox Church. The books to be included in the Orthodox New Testament were finalized in the 7th century A.D. during the Council in Trullo (Quinisext Council), where 27 books were added to the New Testament. The use of Ecumenical Councils is necessary to decide whether a teaching or writing is accepted by Christians as a whole. This ensures all Christians are bound by the same foundational principles and beliefs.
Another criterion for the development of Church canon scripture is consistency with the message and word of God:
"The Church fathers taught...that readers should be attentive to the...comprehensive aim or purpose of Scripture, so that its parts can be seen in terms of the whole and the whole in terms of its part (Stylianopoulos, p. 33)."
Because the Bible is Holy Scripture, it is:
"called 'the oracles of God (Rom 3:2) and the word of God (Lk. 8:21; Jn 10:35) because it communicates the knowledge God has chosen to make known through inspired authors (Stylianopoulos, p. 32)."
Thus, Canon must be consistent with existing scripture and the word of God, otherwise, it cannot be considered an essential truth or practice of The Church. The teaching of one book cannot conflict with teachings from another book, otherwise, Christain doctrine would be contradictory and no longer absolute truth. Since scripture is divine revelation and the Word of God, books presenting opposition to established traditions, scripture, and doctrine would challenge the infallibility of the Word of God. The Old and New Testaments are ultimately about God's choice to save humanity and how mankind can do God's will. For example, Arian texts cannot be canon scripture because they contradict an essential teaching of scripture: God became man so man could become God. Christ was God incarnate and any doctrinal or scriptural arguments questioning Christ's divinity would contradict the narrative that God became Christ, died on the cross, and resurrected on the third day. In short, because Christ resurrected, He must be God, as God is the only deity or god that has sovereignty over life and death in this world. The sovereignty over all of life and death is what makes God unique from all other deities worshiped. Arianism created division within the Church, demonstrating it was not consistent with prior Church teachings nor with Christ's testimony in the New Testament, which validated He was God.
One of the reasons liturgy is such an important element of canon scripture development is because it is a bridge that connects the Old and New Testament:
"Readings from the Old Testament are integral to the worship of the Church. The hymnology and liturgical prayers are filled with the language of the Old Testament and references to God's savings actions on behalf of His people (Stylianopoulos, p. 31).”
While the Old Testament has erroneously been rejected by heretics, including Marcion and Martin Luther, Orthodox liturgical worship combines references to the Old Testament with the New Covenant established by God with the Apostles. It includes the celebration of post-Old Testament traditions, such as the celebration of Our Savior’s resurrection. Although the law of the Old Testament is "no longer a criterion of salvation for Christians," according to St. Paul (Rom. 7:12-14), the Law of Moses "is God's revealed Law, holy, good, and spiritual (Stylianopoulos, p. 30)." While it is not the method in which Christ will use to judge man, the Laws of Moses were divinely given to the children of Israel and are inseparable from the history of the children of God. The liturgy includes the implementation of canon scripture from the time of Adam and Eve until the evangelizing of mankind by The Apostles, creating a connected story from man’s creation to mankind’s salvation. Liturgy thus eliminates the need for Orthodox Christians to question the role of the Old Testament, as liturgy demonstrates how Old and New Testament teachings converge in readings, worship, and communion.
Overall, without a clear process to adopt canon scripture, the Church would not be able to preserve a unified and consistent set of doctrines and writings. Challenges like the Arian movement demonstrate The Church must be prepared to defend against heretics and apostates. In order to do so, The Church needed to agree upon the core traditions and scripture of Christianity, such as which books to include in the Old and New Testament and what canon laws to adopt. Canon establishes how The Church is to respond to heretical conduct and renovationism. The Church had to address the Arians because it was creating schismatic behavior within the Latin West and Christendom as a whole. Establishing what the agreed-upon teachings of The Church were was essential to ensuring the teachings of Christ remained unaltered, authentic, and consistent within the existing Holy Scriptures.
Stylianopoulos, Theodore. (1997). The New Testament An Orthodox Perspective. Brookline: Holy Cross Orthodox Press.