Scoring the books of the canon: cumulative scores

After all of the previous work scoring various early Christian writings, here are the cumulative scores. This uses the system for evaluating strength of attestation and an initial evaluation of the canon lists reviewed. The canon lists included in this initial project were:

• The Marcionite prologues
• The Muratorian Canon fragment
• Eusebius' History
• Codex Sinaiticus
• Athanasius' 39th Festal Letter

Here are the cumulative rankings showing the combined scores for each book across those five lists for how strongly each book was attested:

Early Christian writing	Cumulative score
Matthew	28.75
Mark	28.75
Luke	36.25
John	28.75
Acts	28.75
Romans	36.25
1 Corinthians	36.25
2 Corinthians	36.25
Galatians	36.25
Ephesians	36.25
Philippians	36.25
Colossians	36.25
1 Thessalonians	36.25
2 Thessalonians	36.25
1 Timothy	28.75
2 Timothy	28.75
Titus	28.75
Philemon	36.25
Hebrews	9.75
James	9.75
1 Peter	13.75
2 Peter	13.75
Jude	24.75
1 John	28.75
2 John	24.75
3 John	9.75
Revelation	23.75
Acts of Paul	2.75
Acts of Peter	2.75
Apocalpyse of Peter	2.00
Epistle of Barnabas	2.75
Letter to the Alexandrines	-15.00
Letter to the Laodiceans	-15.00
Shepherd of Hermas	2.75
Teachings of the Apostles	-1.00

Again, I do not consider this evaluation to be the final word but a starting point. It is a move towards a more objective way of discussing the books of the canon, towards measuring rather than merely asserting the relative strength of historical attestations. Further work remains to be done. Additional canon lists could be evaluated. The history of citations by early authors could be evaluated. The scoring system itself was simply based on what seemed to me the most even-handed way to give greater weight to earlier writings, to writings which showed interest in historical value, and to early writings which discussed the relative historical merits of the different books. I would welcome comparable studies of other materials -- or the same material with other scoring systems -- to continue the discussion.

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Note on the list of books: the list here contains all of the books named on any of the five canon lists I am reviewing in this series, regardless of whether the mention is positive or negative. The order of the books is for the convenience of the reader: since the books are listed in different orders on the various lists, the books are listed here in common canonical order for the canonical books, followed by an alphabetical listing of the non-canonical books mentioned.