Tertullian Canon

In the early Christian church the canon was developed over a period of 250-300 years. Before the written canon was developed the majority of the gospel was shared by word of mouth through teachers. This was not uncommon for this period. One of the main reasons why the gospel was spread through oral tradition is because writing was clumsy and expensive to produce. Once papyrus became economical, and widespread use began, written texts exploded much like the internet has done to knowledge today. Furthermore, the use of the oral tradition allowed for creation of multiple canons by different individuals. Several councils where convened to settle the false heresies and canons, however, there was a need to have one canon that is widely accepted …show more content…
A wonderful example, is he recognized all four Gospels, all be it he rewrote them to fit his theological beliefs. The next major players in history that played a part in developing the New Testament that we know of today is Clement of Alexandria (150-215 AD), and Tertullian (205-225 AD). Both Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian where affluent writers who wrote about scriptures, their philosophical writings where used as a reference to major church leaders. Due to their prolific writings many “church leaders would ask, ‘Did Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian cite from this …show more content…
However, there is ample evidence that the canon that we use today was widely accepted in the early Orthodox Church. In the early history of the Christian church and its struggle to define what is to be considered as truly inspired biblical text. There have been many influential individuals who have made a lasting impact on the New Testament canon that we use today. Some of the individuals pointed out the need for a divinely inspired text through there heresies, such as Marcion and the Gnostic movement. Both the Gnostic movement and Marcion played a pivotal role in pushing the Orthodox Church to develop the canon that we know of today. Mainly due to the way they twisted, removed, or added to the scripture to fit their needs, and not nessasaraly the needs of the Christian church. There have also been a few church councils that briefly discuss what meats the requirements to be considered as a God inspired text. Such as the Synod of Hippo and the Synod of Carthage. Even though there is not very much information available as to what occurred at these councils they are referenced to the point where historians can say with confidence that they played a role in the development of the modern canon. The best example I can think of that shows that referenced work is an acceptable form of apologetics to confirm that a certain event, or text is accurate is this;