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.

Scoring the books of the canon: Athanasius' 39th Festal Letter

This post builds on the previous ones outlining a system for evaluating early Christian writings and an initial evaluation of the canon lists I will be reviewing. This post continues with a review of the canon as set out by Athanasius in his 39th Festal Letter. This is the earliest document we have which lists the New Testament canon with the same books as we have today. It also comments on some of the other works. This work dates from the 300's A.D., placing it in the 300-399 A.D. range for the purposes of this evaluation system and giving a weight of 1.0 to the list as seen in the calculations of the right column of the table.

Early Christian writing	Classification in current list	Raw score	List weighted score
Matthew	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Mark	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Luke	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
John	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Acts	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Romans	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
1 Corinthians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
2 Corinthians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Galatians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Ephesians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Philippians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Colossians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
1 Thessalonians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
2 Thessalonians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
1 Timothy	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
2 Timothy	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Titus	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Philemon	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Hebrews	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
James	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
1 Peter	Accepted without reservations	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
2 Peter	Accepted without reservations	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Jude	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
1 John	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
2 John	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
3 John	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Revelation	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Acts of Paul	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.00 = 0.00
Acts of Peter	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.00 = 0.00
Apocalpyse of Peter	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.00 = 0.00
Epistle of Barnabas	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.00 = 0.00
Letter to the Alexandrines	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.00 = 0.00
Letter to the Laodiceans	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.00 = 0.00
Shepherd of Hermas	Suitable reading but not authoritative	0	0 x 1.00 = 0.00
Teachings of the Apostles	Suitable reading but not authoritative	0	0 x 1.00 = 0.00

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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.

Scoring the books of the canon: Codex Sinaiticus

This post builds on the previous ones outlining a system for evaluating early Christian writings and an initial evaluation of the canon lists I will be reviewing. This post continues with a review of the canon as reflected in the Codex Sinaiticus. This codex dates from the 300's A.D., placing it in the 300-399 A.D. range for the purposes of this evaluation system and giving a raw weight of 1.0. However, as it is a codex, it makes no effort to evaluate the books but simply either contains a book or does not. Because it does not discuss comparative evaluations of the books, the weight is adjusted to 0.75 (see criteria for evaluating the lists themselves in the previously-linked posts). The weight adjustment of 0.75 is seen in the calculations of the right column of the table.

Early Christian writing	Classification in current list	Raw score	List weighted score
Matthew	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
Mark	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
Luke	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
John	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
Acts	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
Romans	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
1 Corinthians	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
2 Corinthians	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
Galatians	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
Ephesians	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
Philippians	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
Colossians	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
1 Thessalonians	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
2 Thessalonians	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
1 Timothy	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
2 Timothy	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
Titus	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
Philemon	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
Hebrews	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
James	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
1 Peter	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
2 Peter	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
Jude	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
1 John	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
2 John	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
3 John	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
Revelation	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
Acts of Paul	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
Acts of Peter	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
Apocalpyse of Peter	Not listed	0	0 x 0.75 = 0.00
Epistle of Barnabas	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
Letter to the Alexandrines	Not listed	0	0 x 0.75 = 0.00
Letter to the Laodiceans	Not listed	0	0 x 0.75 = 0.00
Shepherd of Hermas	Included (unevaluated list)	5	5 x 0.75 = 3.75
Teachings of the Apostles	Not listed	0	0 x 0.75 = 0.00

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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.

Scoring the books of the canon: Eusebius' History

This post builds on the previous ones outlining a system for evaluating early Christian writings and an initial evaluation of the canon lists I will be reviewing. This post continues with a review of the canon as discussed by Eusebius in his History of the Church. This work dates from the 300's A.D., placing it in the 300-399 A.D. range for the purposes of this evaluation system and giving a weight of 1.0 to the list as seen in the calculations of the right column of the table.

Early Christian writing	Classification in current list	Raw score	List weighted score
Matthew	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Mark	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Luke	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
John	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Acts	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Romans	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
1 Corinthians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
2 Corinthians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Galatians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Ephesians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Philippians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Colossians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
1 Thessalonians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
2 Thessalonians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
1 Timothy	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
2 Timothy	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Titus	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Philemon	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Hebrews	Accepted with reservations	1	1 x 1.00 = 1.00
James	Accepted with reservations	1	1 x 1.00 = 1.00
1 Peter	Accepted without reservations	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
2 Peter	Accepted without reservations	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
Jude	Accepted with reservations	1	1 x 1.00 = 1.00
1 John	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.00 = 5.00
2 John	Accepted with reservations	1	1 x 1.00 = 1.00
3 John	Accepted with reservations	1	1 x 1.00 = 1.00
Revelation	Mixed/neutral	0	0 x 1.00 = 0.00
Acts of Paul	Rejected with reservations	-1	-1 x 1.00 = -1.00
Acts of Peter	Rejected with reservations	-1	-1 x 1.00 = -1.00
Apocalpyse of Peter	Rejected with reservations	-1	-1 x 1.00 = -1.00
Epistle of Barnabas	Rejected with reservations	-1	-1 x 1.00 = -1.00
Letter to the Alexandrines	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.00 = 0.00
Letter to the Laodiceans	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.00 = 0.00
Shepherd of Hermas	Rejected with reservations	-1	-1 x 1.00 = -1.00
Teachings of the Apostles	Rejected with reservations	-1	-1 x 1.00 = -1.00

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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.

Scoring the books of the canon: the Muratorian Canon fragment

This post builds on the previous ones outlining a system for evaluating early Christian writings and an initial evaluation of the canon lists I will be reviewing. This post continues with a review of the Muratorian Canon fragment. The most likely date for the Muratorian Canon fragment is in the late 100's A.D., placing it in the 100-199 A.D. range for the purposes of this evaluation system and giving a weight of 3.0 to the list as seen in the calculations of the right column of the table.

Early Christian writing	Classification in current list	Raw score	List weighted score
Matthew	Accepted without reservation*	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
Mark	Accepted without reservation*	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
Luke	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
John	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
Acts	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
Romans	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
1 Corinthians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
2 Corinthians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
Galatians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
Ephesians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
Philippians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
Colossians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
1 Thessalonians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
2 Thessalonians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
1 Timothy	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
2 Timothy	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
Titus	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
Philemon	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
Hebrews	Not mentioned	0	0 x 3.00 = 0.00
James	Not mentioned	0	0 x 3.00 = 0.00
1 Peter	Not mentioned	0	0 x 3.00 = 0.00
2 Peter	Not mentioned	0	0 x 3.00 = 0.00
Jude	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
1 John	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
2 John	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
3 John	Not mentioned	0	0 x 3.00 = 0.00
Revelation	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 3.00 = 15.00
Acts of Paul	Not mentioned	0	0 x 3.00 = 0.00
Acts of Peter	Not mentioned	0	0 x 3.00 = 0.00
Apocalpyse of Peter	Accepted with reservations	1	1 x 3.00 = 3.00
Epistle of Barnabas	Not mentioned	0	0 x 3.00 = 0.00
Letter to the Alexandrines	Rejected without reservations	-5	-5 x 3.00 = -15.00
Letter to the Laodiceans*	Rejected without reservations	-5	-5 x 3.00 = -15.00
Shepherd of Hermas	Suitable reading but not authoritative	0	0 x 3.00 = 0.00
Teachings of the Apostles	Not mentioned	0	0 x 3.00 = 0.00

^* Matthew / Mark: Probable; the list is fragmentary. While the beginning of the list is missing, the book of Luke is listed as "the third book of the gospel". Other lists from the same century naming the four gospels typically list them in the order Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, so it is a reasonable supposition that if the third was Luke, the first two were Matthew and Mark. If anyone considered that to be in doubt, it would be possible to adjust the score accordingly.

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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.

Scoring the books of the canon: the Marcionite prologues

This post builds on the previous ones outlining a system for evaluating early Christian writings and an initial evaluation of the canon lists I will be reviewing. This post begins the first review of an actual canon list according to the system outlined: a review of the Marcionite prologues. As mentioned before, the Marcionite prologues are dated somewhere between 100-199 A.D., which gives a raw weight of 3.0 to a list. However, the Marcionite prologues show less interest in history than in whether a writing conforms to certain theological preconceptions, and accordingly has a lower weight than the base value for its date of origin. The adjusted weight for the Marcionite prologues is 1.50, which will be used as the multiplier in the final column below to determine each book's weighted score for this particular canon list.

Early Christian writing	Classification in current list	Raw score	List weighted score
Matthew	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
Mark	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
Luke	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.50 = 7.50
John	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
Acts	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
Romans	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.50 = 7.50
1 Corinthians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.50 = 7.50
2 Corinthians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.50 = 7.50
Galatians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.50 = 7.50
Ephesians*	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.50 = 7.50
Philippians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.50 = 7.50
Colossians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.50 = 7.50
1 Thessalonians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.50 = 7.50
2 Thessalonians	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.50 = 7.50
1 Timothy	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
2 Timothy	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
Titus	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
Philemon	Accepted without reservation	5	5 x 1.50 = 7.50
Hebrews	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
James	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
1 Peter	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
2 Peter	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
Jude	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
1 John	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
2 John	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
3 John	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
Revelation	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
Acts of Paul	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
Acts of Peter	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
Apocalpyse of Peter	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
Epistle of Barnabas	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
Letter to the Alexandrines	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
Letter to the Laodiceans*	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
Shepherd of Hermas	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00
Teachings of the Apostles	Not mentioned	0	0 x 1.50 = 0.00

^* Ephesians: If F.F. Bruce's judgment is correct that what we know as Paul's letter to the Ephesians was, in this list, mistakenly identified as being to the Laodiceans. Anyone interested can re-run the evaluations in question with the appropriate score being moved from the letter to the Ephesians and placed instead on the letter to the Laodiceans.

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A quick 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.

Scoring the books of the canon: part 2, early canon lists

In the previous post I showed how I think it would be fair to evaluate the books of the New Testament canon based on their history while the canon was still being formed. In this post, I actually show how early Christian writings are evaluated according to several early canon lists. First, the lists:

Canon list	Century of origin	Raw weight
Marcionite prologues	100-199 A.D.	3
Muratorian Canon fragment	100-199 A.D.	3
Eusebius' History	300-399 A.D.	1
Codex Sinaiticus	300-399 A.D.	1
Athanasius' 39th Festal Letter	300-399 A.D.	1

I will say more on the use of these particular lists shortly. First, there is another level to evaluating the lists themselves: how the list itself views the question of how a book becomes authoritative. In the previous post on scaling the scores, I'd set adjustment factors so that a list that evaluated a work's historical connection to Christian origins would be scored differently from a list that evaluated a book according to how well its portrayal of Jesus and the church suited his group's ideological preconceptions apart from any historical concerns. So the next step is to adjust the weights of the works according to how they evaluated the books and how that affects the list's value as a historical witness.

Canon list	Evaluation of books listed	Adjustment factor	List final weight
Marcionite prologues	Evaluates the sources for conformity with group's theology	0.50	3 x 0.50 = 1.50
Muratorian Canon fragment	Evaluates the sources by historical criteria (e.g. date of origin, known author or forgery)	1.00	3 x 1.00 = 3.00
Eusebius' History	Evaluates the sources by strength of attestation	1.00	1 x 1.00 = 1.00
Codex Sinaiticus	Lists sources without evaluating	0.75	1 x 0.75 = 0.75
Athanasius' 39th Festal Letter	Evaluates the sources by historical origin (antiquity; authorship by apostles or those known to them; or a later work laying a false claim to antiquity)	1.00	1 x 1.00 = 1.00

Why these particular lists? Here I owe a debt to F.F. Bruce's book The Canon of Scripture. As I figure him to be a greater New Testament scholar than I am likely to become, as he has done appreciable work in the field, and as I have enjoyed his works, I want to give him a nod by beginning with the lists he thought worth including in his book. I do not expect this list to be the end of the project; I have not even included all of F.F. Bruce's work from the book mentioned but only those canon lists of the New Testament up to the point of Athanasius' letter, the first known list that matches our modern list.

I do not consider that I have made any contribution of content at all, but perhaps of method. In this system -- or the beginnings of a system -- we have a framework for giving meaningful comparative scores to the sources. It is my hope that those more knowledgeable than I am about the sources would take up such a method and work towards a more comprehensive evaluation of the books. I would enjoy seeing much more material evaluated, not only additional canon lists but also the history of each work's citations in the early church.