1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians [which he called
Laodiceans], Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and
Philemon). He revised these books, removing as later interpolations
the passages that suggested continuity with the Old Testament.
Marcion was expelled from the Roman church in 144, but he gained
many followers and his movement flourished for centuries.
Probably in response to Marcion, Christian church leaders began to
put the New Testament together. It's likely that they would have
done something like this sooner or later, for virtually every
religion has its sacred books. But the decision to recognize all
four Gospels, and to add the other Epistles, may have been directed
against Marcion and his followers. And the decision to recognize
this body of Christian writings as the "New" Testament and to join
it with the "Old" Testament may well have been a response to
Marcion's rejection of the Hebrew Scriptures. The oldest non-
Marcionist Christian list of Scriptural works we possess is the so-
called Muratorian Canon, apparently written in Rome in the 170s.
(Canon means rule or standard, and can refer to the body of writings
accepted as authoritative by a religious group.)
During the second and third centuries, there were disagreements
about the acceptance of Hebrews (because of doubts that it was
written by Paul), James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Jude. The Book
of Revelation was also controversial. But the canon gradually became
fixed.
NEW TESTAMENT: TEXT TRANSMISSION
Before the invention of printing, books had to be copied by hand.
Copyists introduced differences, either by making errors or by
trying to correct what they thought to be errors in the manuscripts
from which they were working. As a result, any two copies of the
same work are likely to differ slightly and scholars must compare
manuscripts to try to recover the original text. Many sources help
modern scholars determine what the original New Testament authors
wrote. These include:
1. Papyri, which were written on papyrus (an ancient writing
material made from a marsh plant). More than 70 papyri containing
parts of the Greek New Testament, written between the second century
and the eighth, are known.
2. Uncial manuscripts, which were written, usually on vellum (made
from animal skins) in large, unconnected letters. About 300 uncial
manuscripts of all or part of the Greek New Testament, written
between the fourth and tenth centuries, are known. Some are famous,
such as the fourth century Codex Vaticanus, the fourth century Codex
Sinaiticus, and the fifth century Codex Alexandrinus (a codex is a
