Evidence for God from Science

Why weren't the Epistle of Barnabas and The Shepherd of Hermas considered Canon?

It is my understanding that both books appear in the Sinaiticus manuscript in the fourth century.

Why were they dropped out of the Canon?

Thanks.

Christian2 wrote:Why weren't the Epistle of Barnabas and The Shepherd of Hermas considered Canon?

It is my understanding that both books appear in the Sinaiticus manuscript in the fourth century.

Why were they dropped out of the Canon?

Thanks.

The Epistle of Barnabas and Shepherd of Hermas were never really a part of the NT Canon. There were some portions of the Church who highly regarded those books and considered them beneficial to read. But these books did not meet the criteria of apostolic authority and authenticity that were required to be universally recognized across the Church.

Barnabas and Hermas are grouped in with the 'Spurious' books, which means they are rejected but are still considered to be orthodox. Which is different from the 'Heretical' books like the Gospel of Thomas which are rejected and unorthodox.

So it's not that Barnabas and Hermas were dropped out of the Canon. A more accurate statement is Barnabas and Hermas never made it into the Canon in the first place.

DBowling wrote:

Christian2 wrote:Why weren't the Epistle of Barnabas and The Shepherd of Hermas considered Canon?

It is my understanding that both books appear in the Sinaiticus manuscript in the fourth century.

Why were they dropped out of the Canon?

Thanks.

The Epistle of Barnabas and Shepherd of Hermas were never really a part of the NT Canon. There were some portions of the Church who highly regarded those books and considered them beneficial to read. But these books did not meet the criteria of apostolic authority and authenticity that were required to be universally recognized across the Church.

Barnabas and Hermas are grouped in with the 'Spurious' books, which means they are rejected but are still considered to be orthodox. Which is different from the 'Heretical' books like the Gospel of Thomas which are rejected and unorthodox.

So it's not that Barnabas and Hermas were dropped out of the Canon. A more accurate statement is Barnabas and Hermas never made it into the Canon in the first place.

Thank you.

The canonical process was a complicate done BUT what must be understood is that no one or no one group decided what was canon, they simply confirmed it.
The sheppard of Hermas was viewed as an important NT era document but it was never of the status of the Gospels or the Epistles or viewed as such.
The Epistle of Barnabas is an interesting document and, IMO, I think that the reason it was never viewed as canoical was because the authorship was in question AND it was a bit "inflammatory" at times. That said it was indeed included in the Codex Sinaiticus and, IMO, a very important read to understand the Christian though process of the time.