The Muratorian Fragment on the Canon of the New Testament

Yet he was present at these things, and so he set them down. Third, the book of the Gospel according to Luke. This Luke, a physician, after the ascension of Christ, when Paul had taken him along as one devoted to legal study, according to his own judgment composed it in his own name. Yet he himself had not seen the Lord in the flesh, and likewise, as far as he was able to ascertain, he begins his account from the birth of John. Fourth of the Gospels, that of John, one of the disciples. When his fellow disciples and his bishops urged him, he said: Fast with me for three days from today, and then let us relate to one another whatever shall have been revealed to each of us. On that same night it was revealed to Andrew, one of the apostles, that John should set down all things in his own name, with all of them reviewing it.

And therefore, although the individual books of the Gospels teach different opening matters, nevertheless nothing differs in the faith of believers, since all things in all of them have been declared by one and the same leading Spirit—concerning the nativity, the passion, the resurrection, the conversation with his disciples, and his twofold advent: the first in lowliness and contempt [lacuna], the second glorious in royal power, which is yet to come. What wonder is it, then, if John so consistently sets forth individual matters even in his Epistles, saying of himself: What we have seen with our eyes and heard with our ears and our hands have handled, these things we have written. For in this way he professes himself not only a witness but also a hearer, and indeed a writer of all the wonders of the Lord in order. Now the Acts of all the Apostles are written under one book.

Luke most excellently sets them forth for Theophilus, because the individual events took place in his presence; just as he also clearly declares the passion of Peter from afar, but the departure of Paul from the city as he set out for Spain. The Epistles of Paul, moreover, declare by their own content to those willing to understand from what place, or for what reason, they were sent: first of all, forbidding the schism of heresy among the Corinthians; then, circumcision among the Galatians; to the Romans, however, he wrote at greater length, indicating that the order of the Scriptures and their very beginning is Christ. Concerning each of these it is necessary for us to discuss them, since the blessed apostle Paul himself, following the order of his predecessor John, writes to no more than seven churches by name, in this order: to the Corinthians the first, to the Ephesians the second, to the Philippians the third, to the Colossians the fourth, to the Galatians the fifth, to the Thessalonians the sixth, to the Romans the seventh.

Yet although the letters to the Corinthians and Thessalonians are repeated for the sake of correction, one Church spread throughout the whole world is nonetheless recognized. For John also in the Apocalypse, although he writes to seven churches, nevertheless speaks to all. Truly, one to Philemon, and one to Titus, and two to Timothy, written out of personal affection and love, are nonetheless hallowed in honor of the Catholic Church for the ordering of ecclesiastical discipline. There is also said to be one to the Laodiceans, another to the Alexandrians, both forged in the name of Paul for the heresy of Marcion, and several others which cannot be received into the Catholic Church. For it is not fitting to mix gall with honey. The Epistle of Jude indeed, and the two bearing the name of John, are held in the Catholic Church. And the Wisdom written by the friends of Solomon in his honor, the Apocalypse also of John and of Peter alone we receive, although some among us are unwilling for the latter to be read in church.

The Shepherd, however, Hermas composed very recently, in our own times, in the city of Rome, while Pius his brother was occupying the chair of the bishop of the church of the city of Rome. And therefore it ought indeed to be read, but it cannot be published to the people in church, neither among the Prophets, whose number is complete, nor among the Apostles, at the end of time. Of Arsinous, however, or of Valentinus, or of Miltiades, we receive nothing at all; those who also composed a new book of Psalms for Marcion, together with Basilides, the founder of the Asian Cataphrygians.