The ascension of Christ, the passing away of apostles and the spreading of the Christian faith left many of the churches teaching only the faith which was passed down to them. Over the first two centuries this lead to many discrepancies among churches and believers in relation to application and interpretation. The typical transfer of information relied on oral transmission but by 100 A. D. many of the apostles had passed away with only their original autographs remaining. This scattering of apostolic autographs amongst the early church made it difficult to maintain textual unity and integrity. The need to collaborate these apostolic autographs and have a common authority initiated with heretical teachings and to provide a defense for the church and the faith. The need for canonization lead to many splintering issues, some of these issues will be addressed in this paper and the solution in which it was resolved by the church.
As mentioned above heretical teachings enlightened the need for canonization.
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The Council of Athanasius incorporated the first canon that resembles the modern New Testament. Athanasius, being well respected with all the believers from the east and west, was very specific and opinionated during the finalization of the canonical scriptures. In his assurance Athanasius stated “These are fountains of salvation that they who thirst may be satisfied with the living words they contain. In these alone is proclaimed the doctrine of godliness. Let no man add to these, neither let him take ought from these.” (Metzger 1987) It can be said that the Council of Carthage did not create the canon but only recognized earlier council’s decisions and thus incorporated the accepted canon as scripture. They also listed books of Apocrypha which were not to be included in scripture but were considered traditional