One thing that I have noted in my reading; including several novels, is the popularity of the lead character doubting the value of the Scriptures of the Bible. They are more inclined to give credence to the numerous writings that are not in the Bible and to regard the canonical scriptures as being the result of church politics.
The church in the time of Irenaeus (130-170) had not quite settled on what scripture was and what wasn’t. There were numerous writings floating about. However, we get a hint of how the writings that are in our scriptures came to be there through a letter that Irenaeus wrote to his friend Florinus. Irenaeus reminded Florinus that when they were children, they had both heard Polycarp. I wrote of Polycarp back on February 23rd. Polycarp had known the apostle John. Thus Polycarp was the link in the chain which through John bound Ienaeus and his friend to Christ.
Irenaeus writes, “I can describe the place where blessed Polycarp sat and talked, his goings and comings in, the character of his life…I remember how he spoke of his intercourse with John and with the others who had seen the Lord; how he repeated their words from memory, and how the things that he had heard them say about the Lord, his miracles and his teachings, things that he had heard direct from the eye-witnesses of the Word of life, were proclaimed by Polycarp in complete harmony with scripture. To these things I listened eagerly at that time, by the mercy of God shown to me, not committing them to writing but learning them by heart. By God’s grace, I constantly and conscientiously ruminate on them, and I can bear witness before God that if any suggestion had come to the ears of that blessed apostolic presbyter he would have cried out and stopped his ears.”
Thus when Irenaeus came into contact with the various writings that arose in the second century, he compared them to what he had heard and learned from a disciple of the apostle John. On that basis he accepted only the four gospels we now have in our bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and no more. He also recognized Paul’s letters, the first letter of Peter, Acts, Revelation and John’s three epistles. On the other hand there was still hesitation on such works as Jude, Revelation, and II Peter,
He was also one of the first to use the term, “catholic”, by which he meant that congregations did not exist by themselves but were linked to one another in the whole church. Furthermore, the message of the church is one that has been passed down from the apostles to him and through him to the next generation.
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