Amphilochius of Iconium
Amphilochius is known especially for his close friendship with St. Basil of Caesarea during the fourth century. There is a poem of his, known as the Iambi ad Seleucum, which has survived to the present day (though many used to think it was by Gregory of Nazianzus). The total poem is composed of 340 lines, in which Amphilochius discusses things such as the rule of faith (lines 181-319), and how to live a godly life in the service of Christ (lines 8-180).
“Besides this, it is most important that you know this also: not everything is to be considered certain which offers itself as venerable Scripture. For there are those written by false men—as is sometimes done. As regards books, there are several which are intermediate and near to the doctrine of truth, so to speak, but there are others, however, which are spurious and extremely dangerous, like false seals and spurious coins, which do indeed have the inscription of the king, but which are counterfeit, and made out of base material. On account of this, then, I shall enumerate for you the individual books inspired by the Holy Spirit, and in order that you may know the thing clearly, I will begin with the books of the Old Testament. The Pentateuch contains Genesis, then Exodus, Leviticus, which is the middle book, after that Numbers and finally Deuteronomy. To these add Joshua and Judges; after these Ruth and the four books of Kings, Paralipomenon equal to one book; following these first and second Esdras. Next I will recall to you five books: the book of Job, crowned by the struggles of various calamities; also the book of Psalms, the musical remedy of the soul; the three books of the Wisdom of Solomon, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, and the Canticle of Canticles. I add to these the twelve prophets, first Hosea, then Amos, and after that Michah, Joel, Abdiah, and Jonah, the type of the three days of the Passion, after these Nahum, Habacuc, then the ninth Sophonias, Haggai and Zachariah and the angel with two names, Malachi. After these, know the other prophets thus far to be four: the great and undaunted Isaiah, Jeremiah, inclined to mercy, and the mystic Ezechiel, and Daniel, most wise in the happenings of the Last Things, and some add Esther to these.” (Iambi ad Seleucum, ln. 251-288)
None of Gary Michuta’s usual ways of explaining away canonical lists will work here to serve his purpose. It is obvious that Amphilochius is addressing the Christian canon here, since he is enumerating the books for the purpose of Seleucus being able to know which books are inspired, which leads to the next point: this is most likely an exhaustive canonical list, rather than a descriptive list (categories coined by Michuta). Amphilochius does have an intermediate category of books that are indeed non-canonical but still useful for reading and instruction. He does not specify in any way what books are included in this “middle” category.
Amphilochius’ list is quite close to the Protestant canon, with the possible book of Baruch, which he may have thought was part of the inspired book of Jeremiah, since he cites it in a few places elsewhere in his writings. His view on Esther is a bit ambiguous, but he does seem to clearly place it in the first category of inspired and canonical books, since he does not ever say it spurious or merely “useful for reading”, but not inspired in and of itself.
“Amphilochius's canon list of the books of the Old and New Covenants essentially reflects the contemporary Protestant Bible except for the probable inclusion of Baruch and the Epistle of Jeremiah, since these works were considered to be from the prophet himself. He did not include any of the deuterocanonical books in his list. Amphilochius drafted his canon list for two purposes: (1) to teach one the useful way of life and how to worship God, and the converse, how to escape from the traps of the world; and (2) to teach which books only appear to bear the king's inscription but actually are forgeries and very unsafe. Amphilochius believed that this exclusive list of books was vital to promoting piety and protecting the church from heresy and therefore he called it 'the most truthful canon of the divinely inspired Scriptures'.” (Gallagher and Meade, The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity: Texts and Analysis, pg. 157)
Epiphanius of Salamis
Epiphanius is an interesting case when it comes to his views on the OT canon, since he includes three different lists throughout his writings (and also a fourth passage which, though it is not a list strictly speaking, is also of value here). These lists disagree with one another on a couple of the books and their canonicity. The lists do, however, agree in numbering the canon of the OT as being composed of twenty-seven books (though Epiphanius notes that the Jews say that there are twenty-two).
The first list of Epiphanius, from Panarion 8.6, is listing the canon of the Jews (at the time of the return from the Babylonian exile), rather than the canon of the Christians (as Michuta rightly states). It is therefore not as relevant as the other three passages are for our discussion here.
It appears to be uncertain whether or not Epiphanius accepted the books of Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon. He explicitly states that they are “useful and beneficial, but they are not offered up to the number of the specified books. Therefore neither were they placed in the ark, that is, in the ark of the covenant” (De mensuris et ponderibus 4-5), but also numbers them among the “divine scriptures” when arguing against the Arian heretic Aetius (Panarion 76.22.5). It is probable that Epiphanius considered the book of Baruch to be canonical, since it is listed as part of Jeremiah in two out of three of his canon lists.
No comments:
Post a Comment