Talk:Canonical Gospels

Introduction

I posted a short introduction in three parts for the topic. Curiously, the actual events and particular history of the canonical scriptures is hard to find. Most sources I have read over the years start by assuming they are simply a given and provide very little discussion about process of selection. Interesting. Thomas Simmons 31 March, 2007 (EPT)

Vocabulary changes Question: "conflated" was changed to 'merged" in

• The Gospels of Matthew and of Luke contain nativity stories, which are often conflated for popular commemoration.
• The Gospels of Matthew and of Luke contain nativity stories, which are often merged for popular commemoration.

Why? --Thomas Simmons 18:40, 28 April 2007 (CDT) +17 hours

I changed the headers to comply with current usage. --Thomas Simmons 20:28, 23 June 2007 (CDT)

Hey-- I just removed the mention of the Edict of Milan at the beginning of the Intro. I could not see how it was really relevant to the canonization of the gospels at Nicaea. (It's not as though Constantine and Licinius said: "Stop persecuting those Christians, with those four gospels of theirs!") It's certainly relevant to the topic of early Christianity, just not relevant to this article. Brian P. Long 16:34, 13 April 2008 (CDT)

The stuff about the Council of Nicaea is just mediaeval legend. No up-to-date scholarly source repeats it. No ecumenical council defined a canon of scripture before the Council of Florence in 1439. The earliest source in which the standard canon of the NT appears is dated 367, & alternative canons continued to appear in diminishing numbers of sources for centuries. All this is stated in any respectable modern scholarly account. Peter Jackson 16:59, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

Discuss so-called "legends" and reach consensus rather than arbitrarily dumping them

Let us discuss this sort of thing before it is deleted wholesale. It is not appropriate to simply label things legends and then arbitrarily delete them. So, if anyone insists on deleting again, this must first be taken up with an editor. I found the idea that Constantine had offered to buy the collection intriguing. I have never heard of that before, Is there a source for it?Thomas Simmons 02:00, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Hey all--

Just thought I'd jump in here. Thom, I am frankly having trouble finding any reference to the Council of Nicaea in the canonization of the gospels in any of the standard sources I use. The closest thing I can come up with (from the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd ed.) is the mysterious Council in Rome under Damasus in 382; the same list of scriptures was repeated by Gelasius and the Council of Trent. I don't know anything about this council at Rome, or whether it had any impact outside of the West...

Might I suggest that we work on incorporating this material (about the various canonical lists-- Eusebius, Athanasius, the Muratorian-- and the Council of Trent) into the text of the article? Arguing on the talk pages is not going to bring us any closer to a better article. Thanks, Brian P. Long 07:07, 20 December 2008 (UTC)