Biblical canon

====Earliest Christian communities====
The [[Early Church]] used the [[Old Testament]], namely the [[Septuagint]] (LXX)<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=McDonald |editor-first1=L. M. |editor-last2=Sanders |editor-first2=J. A. |year=2002 |author-last=Sanders |author-first=J. A. |title=The Canon Debate |chapter=The Issue of Closure in the Canonical Process |publisher=Hendrickson Publishers |page=259 |quote= ... the so-called Septuagint was not in itself formally closed.}} Attributed to Albert Sundberg's 1964 Harvard dissertation.</ref> among Greek speakers, with a canon perhaps as found in the [[Development of the old testament canon#Bryennios List|Bryennios List]] or [[Melito's canon]]. The [[Apostles in the New Testament|Apostles]] did not otherwise leave a defined set of new [[scriptures]]; instead, the [[New Testament]] developed over time.

Writings attributed to the apostles circulated among the earliest [[Christians|Christian]] communities. The [[Pauline epistles]] were circulating in collected forms by the end of the 1st century AD. [[Justin Martyr]], in the early 2nd century, mentions the "memoirs of the Apostles", which Christians (Greek: Χριστιανός) called "[[gospel]]s", and which were considered to be authoritatively equal to the Old Testament.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=McDonald |editor-first1=L. M. |editor-last2=Sanders |editor-first2=J. A. |year=2002 |author-last=Ferguson |author-first=Everett |title=The Canon Debate |chapter=Factors leading to the Selection and Closure of the New Testament Canon |publisher=Hendrickson Publishers |pages=302–303 |postscript=none }}; cf. Justin Martyr. ''[[First Apology]]''. 67.3.</ref>