Council of Laodicea

Council of Laodicea (about A.D. 363).

Council of Laodicea. The authenticity of this list of canonical books has been doubted by many scholars because it is absent from various manuscripts containing the decrees of the regional (Galatian) Council. The list may have been added later. On the omission of Revelation see Cyril of Jerusalem. The English text below is from Metzger.

Canon 59. Let no private psalms nor any uncanonical books be read in church, but only the canonical ones of the New and Old Testament.

Canon 60.^(a) It is proper to recognize as many books as these: of the Old Testament, 1. the Genesis of the world; 2. the Exodus from Egypt; 3. Leviticus; 4. Numbers; 5. Deuteronomy; 6. Joshua the son of Nun; 7. Judges and Ruth; 8. Esther; 9. First and Second Kings;^(b) 10. Third and Fourth Kings;^(c) 11. First and Second Chronicles; 12. First and Second Ezra;^(d) 13. the book of one hundred and fifty Psalms; 14. the Proverbs of Solomon; 15. Ecclesiastes; 16. Song of Songs; 17. Job; 18. the Twelve [minor] Prophets; 19. Isaiah; 20. Jeremiah and Baruch, Lamentations and the Epistle [of Jeremiah]; 21. Ezekiel; 22. Daniel. And the books of the New Testament: 4 Gospels, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; the Acts of the Apostles; seven catholic epistles, namely, 1 of James, 2 of Peter, 3 of John, 1 of Jude; fourteen epistles of Paul, 1 to the Romans, 2 to the Corinthians, 1 to the Galatians, 1 to the Ephesians, 1 to the Philippians, 1 to the Colossians, 2 to the Thessalonians, 1 to the Hebrews, 2 to Timothy, 1 to Titus, and 1 to Philemon.

^(a) The absence of Canon 60 from a variety of manuscripts makes it probable that it is a somewhat later addition, clarifying Canon 59.

^(b) That is, what we call First and Second Samuel.

^(c) That is, what we call First and Second Kings.

^(d) That is, Ezra and Nehemiah.