Biblical canon

====Alexandrian Fathers====
[[Origen of Alexandria]] (184/85–253/54), an early scholar involved in the codification of the biblical canon, had a thorough education both in Christian theology and in pagan philosophy, but was posthumously condemned at the [[Second Council of Constantinople]] in 553 since some of his teachings were considered to be heresy. Origen's canon included all of the books in the current New Testament canon except for four books: [[Epistle of James|James]], [[Second Epistle of Peter|2nd Peter]], and the [[Second Epistle of John|2nd]] and [[Third Epistle of John|3rd epistles of John]].<ref>Prat, Ferdinand (1911). [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11306b.htm "Origen and Origenism"]. ''The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 11''. New York: Robert Appleton Company. According to Eusebius' Church History [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.xi.xxv.html 6.25]: a 22 book OT [though Eusebius does not name Minor Prophets, presumably just an oversight?] plus 1 deuterocanon ["And outside these are the [[Books of the Maccabees|Maccabees]], which are entitled S<ph?>ar beth sabanai el."] and 4 Gospels but on the Apostle "Paul ... did not so much as write to all the churches that he taught; and even to those to which he wrote he sent but a few lines."
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He also included the [[Shepherd of Hermas]] which was later rejected. The religious scholar [[Bruce Metzger]] described Origen's efforts, saying "The process of canonization represented by Origen proceeded by way of selection, moving from many candidates for inclusion to fewer."{{sfnp|Metzger|1997|p=141}}

In his Easter letter of 367, Patriarch [[Athanasius of Alexandria]] gave a list of exactly the same books that would become the [[New Testament]]–27 book–proto-canon,<ref name="Lindberg 2006 15">{{cite book|title=A Brief History of Christianity |url=https://archive.org/details/briefhistorychri00lind |url-access=limited |author-first=Carter |author-last=Lindberg |page=[https://archive.org/details/briefhistorychri00lind/page/n26 15] |year=2006 |publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing]] |isbn=1-4051-1078-3}}
</ref> and used the phrase "being canonized" (''kanonizomena'') in regard to them.<ref>
{{cite journal |author-last=Brakke |author-first=David |title=Canon Formation and Social Conflict in Fourth Century Egypt: Athanasius of Alexandria's Thirty Ninth Festal Letter |journal=[[Harvard Theological Review]] |volume=87 |issue=4 |date=1994 |pages=395–419 |doi=10.1017/s0017816000030200|s2cid=161779697 }}
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