Blog (1) William Stegbauer

In the formation of an early Christian orthodoxy, church fathers try to move past the idea of having accepted yet non-canonical sources for supplementary materials in the moral and spiritual lives of the Christian community.  The goal in this endeavor centers on the early church’s need for a unified coalition of leaders able to stand under one banner.  Yet while not espousing the continued circulation of non-canonical texts Christianity’s sister religions, Judaism and Islam, do keep the idea of accepted non-canonical works integrated within their traditions. 

One can find Jews living during the Babylonian exile striving to keep their oral traditions alive in a very real sense with the Talmudic elaborations on the Genesis stories.  Out of that tradition we derive the fall from grace story of Lucifer which doesn’t get touched on until Toledo some two thousand years later or accepted as part of Christian tradition until Milton publishes Paradise Lost.  The idea with this is those stories keep growing like a movie franchise as Divine Inspiration strikes the reader.  This actually keeps with the idea of apostolic tradition where the Holy Spirit strikes an individual empowering them to carry out divine acts which the book of Acts centers around. [1] Voices in the church loved this idea finding it a valid argument for the making a work part of the accepted orthodox cannon. 

Even the Qur’an has their non-canonical portions kept in Islamic traditions where the Sunnah or a Hadith can be sited for legal precedence or moral guidance.  The Ottoman Turks were famous for their collections of Hadiths attributed to any of the major characters found in the Qur’an, even the angels, written centuries after death.  The reasoning behind this we attribute to the want of authors to view those people as dramatis personae from whom they draw authority as well as to make larger than life.  We see this with Paul’s letters.  While the Qur’an might not cover oral hygiene, one of the most valid Hadiths does citing Mohammed having a habit of chewing on roots that were used as a precursor to the modern day toothbrush or plaque pick. 

Bibliography

Thomas R. Correlation of Revelatory Spiritual Gifts and NT Canonicity. Master's Seminary Journal [serial online]. March 1, 1997;8(1):5-28. Available from: ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, Ipswich, MA. Accessed January 26, 2012.

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[1] Thomas, R. L. (1997). Correlation of Revelatory Spiritual Gifts and NT Canonicity. Master's Seminary Journal, 8(1), 5-28.