Why did it take time for the New Testament canon to be agreed upon?

Answer 1

The impetus for the Church Fathers to agree on a canon of Christian scriptures was the decision of the Marcionite group of Christians to create their own canon of Christian scriptures around 150 CE. The Church Fathers did not want the canon to be decided for them by default.

Well before the end of the second century, there were literally dozens of gospels, as well as various epistles and other books that could potentially have been included in the New Testament.

The most important issue was for the Church Fathers to decide which of the gospels were, in their view, actually written by the early apostles. They also had to decide just how many gospels was the right number to include in the New Testament canon. A consensus on these matters was not really achieved until late in the second century. The Church Fathers also had to decide which epistles they believed to be genuine.

There also needed to be a cull. First, a book proposed for inclusion must support the Catholic-Orthodox Church's teachings on Christian belief, rather than the teachings of another branch of early Christianity. Another issue was whether the New Testament should include books such as the Didache, which was really a book of instruction.

It was readily agreed that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were written by the apostles to whom they had been attributed, and it was also agreed that these gospels were in accordance with the Church's teachings, although Origen had to mount a spirited defence of John. Thirteen epistles were attributed to Paul, although scholars now say that he wrote no more than seven of them. At the relevant time, Hebrews was also attributed to Paul, so it had to be included. The Book of Revelation could easily have been omitted, but for the fact that it was signed by a person called John, and it was finally decided that this John was the apostle John.