When in a.d. 364 the Council of Laodicea ordained that no other book

should be read in the churches but the canonical Scriptures of the Old and

New Testaments, there was no idea that there they had for the first time the

conception of a canon; on the contrary, it was the enforcement of a principle

already established in the church.

We will now consider a little more carefully the witness of three of

those cited above, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian.  First of

all, in order that these names may represent to the reader real persons, we

give a brief biographical note:

Irenaeus (a.d. 120-200).  Born in Smyrna, educated under Polycarp, who

knew the apostle John personally.  He became Bishop of Lyons in 177, and his

writings make a folio volume of about 500 pages.  He was martyred under

Clement of alexandria (a.d. 150-215).

Became master of the

Catechetical School at Alexandria in 190.

Tertullian (a.d. 155-230).  A Roman, born at Carthage.  His writings

fill a large folio.  Vincentius said, 'What Origen was for the Greeks, that

is to say first of all, Tertullian has been for the Latins, that is to say

incontestably the first among us'.

These three men, representing three great areas, Greek, Coptic and

Latin, are witnesses that cannot be denied.

The testimony of Irenaeus.  Irenaeus is the most voluminous of all

ancient writers who quote the New Testament Scriptures.  The New Testament

could almost be reconstructed from his works, so full are his citations.  He

was born only seventeen years after the death of the apostle John.  No amount

of extracts or lists of quotations can give the same effect as the perusal of

a few pages of this man's writings.  Many of his citations are without

reference, as, for example, the following:

'For in that blessed dwelling place, heaven, there will be that

distance placed by God Himself between those who have borne fruit, some

a hundredfold, some sixty and others thirtyfold, and this is the reason

why our Saviour said, that in His Father's house there are many

We cannot, of course, fully quote Irenaeus, but must be satisfied with

a summary.  He speaks of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as 'the

gospel with the four faces', from which it is evident that there were four,

and no more, at the time.  He quotes the Acts of the Apostles over sixty

times, and shows the harmony of the Acts with Paul's epistles.  He cites 1

Corinthians over a hundred times, Romans over eighty times, Ephesians over

thirty times, Galatians nearly thirty times, Colossians twenty times, 2

Corinthians eighteen times, Philippians eleven times, 1 Peter eleven times, 2

Thessalonians ten times, 1 Timothy five times, 2 Timothy four times, Titus

three times, 1 John three times, and 1 Thessalonians twice.

Clement of Alexandria.  Clement himself says in the first book of his

Stromata that he 'approached very near the days of the apostles'.  Kirchhoper