The Muratorian Fragment

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last page of the Canon Muratori, as published by Tregelles 1868

The Muratorian fragment is a copy of perhaps the oldest known list of the books of the New Testament. The fragment, consisting of 85 lines, is a 7th-century Latin manuscript bound in a 7th or 8th century codex from the library of Columban's monastery at Bobbio; it contains features suggesting it is a translation from a Greek original written about 170 or as late as the 4th century. Both the degraded condition of the manuscript and the poor Latin in which it was written have made it difficult to translate. The beginning of the fragment is missing, and it ends abruptly. The fragment consists of all that remains of a section of a list of all the works that were accepted as canonical by the churches known to its anonymous original compiler. It was discovered in the Ambrosian Library in Milan by Father Ludovico Antonio Muratori (1672–1750), the most famous Italian historian of his generation, and published in 1740.^[]

Characteristics

The text of the list itself is traditionally dated to about 170 because its author refers to Pius I, bishop of Rome (142—157), as recent:

But Hermas wrote The Shepherd very recently, in our times, in the city of Rome, while bishop Pius, his brother, was occupying the chair of the church of the city of Rome. And therefore it ought indeed to be read; but it cannot be read publicly to the people in church either among the Prophets, whose number is complete, or among the Apostles, for it is after their time.

A few scholars^[] have also dated it as late as the 4th century, but their arguments have not won widespread acceptance in the scholarly community. For more detail, see the article in the Anchor Bible Dictionary. Bruce Metzger has advocated the traditional dating.^[]

The unidentified author accepts four Gospels, the last two of which are Luke and John, but the names of the first two at the beginning of the list are missing. Also accepted by the author are the "Acts of all Apostles" and 13 of the Pauline Epistles (the Epistle to the Hebrews is not mentioned in the fragment). The author considers spurious the letters claiming to have Paul as author that are ostensibly addressed to the Laodiceans and to the Alexandrians. Of these he says they are "forged in Paul's name to [further] the heresy of Marcion."

Of the General epistles, the author accepts the Epistle of Jude and says that two epistles "bearing the name of John are counted in the Catholic Church", 1 and 2 Peter and James are not mentioned in the fragment. It is clear that the author assumed that the author of the Gospel of John was the same as the author of the First Epistle of John, for in the middle of discussing the Gospel of John he says "what marvel then is it that John brings forward these several things so constantly in his epistles also, saying in his own person, "What we have seen with our eyes and heard with our ears, and our hands have handled that have we written," (1 John 1:1) which is a quotation from the First Epistle of John. It is not clear whether the other epistle in question is 2 John or 3 John. Another indication that the author identified the Gospel writer John with two epistles bearing John's name is that when he specifically addresses the epistles of John, he writes, "the Epistle of Jude indeed, and the two belonging to the above mentioned John." In other words, he thinks that these letters were written by the John whom he has already discussed, namely John the gospel writer. He gives no indication that he considers the John of the Apocalypse to be a different John from the author of the Gospel of John; indeed, by calling the author of the Apocalypse of John the "predecessor" of Paul, who, he assumes, wrote to seven churches (Rev 2–3) before Paul wrote to seven churches, he most likely has in mind the gospel writer, since he assumes that the writer of the Gospel of John was an eyewitness disciple who knew Jesus, and thus preceded Paul, who joined the church only a few years after Jesus' death.^[]

In addition to receiving the Apocalypse of John into the church canon, the author remarks that they also receive the Apocalypse of Peter, although "some of us will not allow the latter to be read in church." However, it is not certain whether this refers to the Greek Apocalypse of Peter or the quite different Coptic Apocalypse of Peter, the latter of which, unlike the former, was Gnostic. The author also includes the Book of Wisdom, "written by the friends of Solomon in his honour" in the canon.

Latin Text of the Fragment

The Latin text of the fragment, which is believed by most scholars to be a translation from Greek, is full of barbarisms and obscurities. Various scholars have published emended texts, as for example Westcott in his General Survey of the History of the Canon of the New Testament (London, 1870). For a critical edition and commentary see S.P. Tregelles, Canon Muratorianus: The Earliest Catalogue of the Books of the New Testament, Edited with Notes and a Facsimile of the MS. in the Ambrosian Library at Milan (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1867). I give the original text below, without any alteration, and with the original line breaks, as printed in Henry M. Gwatkin, ed., Selections from Early Writers Illustrative of Church History to the Time of Constantine (London: MacMillan and co., 1937), pp. 82-88. The horizontal line put over some letters is the scribe's mark of abbreviation.

• 1. ...quibus tamen interfuit et ita posuit
• 2. tertio evangelii librum secundo lucan
• 3. lucas iste medicus post ascensum XPi
• 4. cum eo paulus quasi ut juris studiosum
• 5. secundum adsumsisset numeni suo
• 6. ex opinione conscripset dnm tamen nec ipse
• 7. vidit in carne et ide prout asequi potuit
• 8. ita et ad nativitate iohannis incipet dicere.
• 9. quarti evangeliorum iohannis ex decipolis.
• 10. cohortantibus condescipulis et eps suis
• 11. dixit conieiunate mihi odie triduo et quid
• 12. cuique fuerit revelatum alterutrum
• 13. nobis ennarremus eadem nocte reve
• 14. latum andreae ex apostolis ut recognis
• 15. centibus cuntis iohannis suo nomine
• 16. cuncta describeret et ideo licet varia sin
• 17. culis evangeliorum libris principia
• 18. doceantur nihil tamen differt creden
• 19. tium fidei cum uno ac principali spu de
• 20. clarata sint in omnibus omnia de nativi
• 21. tate de passione de resurrectione
• 22. de conversatione cum decipulis suis
• 23. ac de gemino eius adventu
• 24. primo in humilitate dispectus quod fo
• 25. it secundum potestate regali ... pre
• 26. clarum quod foturum est quid ergo
• 27. mirum si iohannes tam constanter
• 28. sincula etia in epistulis suis proferam
• 29. dicens in semeipsu quae vidimus oculis
• 30. nostris et auribus audivimus et manus
• 31. nostrae palpaverunt haec scripsimus vobis
• 32. sic enim non solum visurem sed et auditorem
• 33. sed et scriptore omnium mirabiliu dni per ordi
• 34. nem proftetur acta aute omniu apostolorum
• 35. sub uno libro scribta sunt lucas obtime theofi
• 36. le comprindit quia sub praesentia eius sincula
• 37. gerebantur sicuti et semote passione petri
• 38. evidenter declarat sed et profectione pauli ab ur
• 39. be ad spania proficiscentis epistulae autem
• 40. pauli quae a quo loco vel qua ex causa directe
• 41. sint volentibus intellegere ipse declarant
• 42. primu omnium corintheis scysmae heresis in
• 43. terdicens deinceps b callaetis circumcisione
• 44. romanis aute ordine scripturarum sed et
• 45. principium earum ... esse XPm intimans
• 46. prolexius scripsit de quibus sincolis neces
• 47. se est ad nobis disputari cum ipse beatus
• 48. apostolus paulus sequens prodecessoris sui
• 49. iohannis ordine non nisi nominati sempte
• 50. ecclesiis scribat ordine tali a corenthios
• 51. prima ad efesius seconda ad philippinses ter
• 52. tia ad colosensis quarta ad calatas quin
• 53. ta ad tensaolenecinsis sexta ad romanos
• 54. septima verum corintheis et thesaolecen
• 55. sibus licet pro correbtione iteretur una
• 56. tamen per omnem orbem terrae ecclesia
• 57. deffusa esse denoscitur et iohannis eni in a
• 58. pocalebsy licet septe eccleseis scribat
• 59. tamen omnibus dicit veru ad filemonem una
• 60. et at titu una et ad tymotheu duas pro affec
• 61. to et dilectione in honore tamen eclesiae ca
• 62. tholice in ordinatione eclesiastice
• 63. discepline scificate sunt fertur etiam ad
• 64. laudecenses alia ad alexandrinos pauli no
• 65. mine fincte ad heresem marcionis et alia plu
• 66. ra quae in catholicam eclesiam recepi non
• 67. potest fel enim cum melle misceri non con
• 68. cruit epistola sane iude et superscrictio
• 69. iohannis duas in catholica habentur et sapi
• 70. entia ab amicis salomonis in honore ipsius
• 71. scripta apocalapse etiam iohanis et pe
• 72. tri tantum recipimus quam quidam ex nos
• 73. tris legi in eclesia nolunt pastorem vero
• 74. nuperrim e temporibus nostris in urbe
• 75. roma herma conscripsit sedente cathe
• 76. tra urbis romae aecclesiae pio eps fratre
• 77. eius et ideo legi eum quide oportet se pu
• 78. blicare vero in eclesia populo neque inter
• 79. profetas completum numero neque inter
• 80. apostolos in fine temporum potest
• 81. arsinoi autem seu valentini vel mitiadis [?]
• 82. nihil in totum recipemus qui etiam novu
• 83. psalmorum librum marcioni conscripse
• 84. runt una cum basilide assianom catafry
• 85. cum constitutorem ...

Notes

Other sources

According to The Catholic Encyclopaedia, lines of the Muratorian fragment are preserved in "some other manuscripts", including codices of Paul's Epistles at the abbey of Monte Cassino.

Further reading

• Metzger, Bruce M., 1987. The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance. (Clarendon Press. Oxford) ISBN 0-19-826954-4
• Jonathan J. Armstrong, "Victorinus of Pettau as the Author of the Canon Muratori," Vigiliae Christianae, 62,1 (2008), pp 1–34.
• Anchor Bible Dictionary
• Bruce, F.F. The Canon of Scripture. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1988.
• Verheyden, J., "The Canon Muratori: A Matter of dispute," Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium (2003), The Biblical Canons, ed. by J.-M. Auwers & H. J. De Jonge, p. 487–556.

External links

• Text of the Muratorian fragment.
• "The development of the canon of the New Testament": The Muratorian Canon
• Henry Wace, A Dictionary of Christian biography: Muratorian fragment
• Earlychristianwritings.com: Original and amended Latin and English translation of the Muratorian fragment.
• Muratorian Fragment in the Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible
• C. E. Hill, “The Debate Over the Muratorian Fragment and the Development of the Canon,” Westminster Theological Journal 57:2 (Fall 1995): 437–452(PDF)
• Encyclopædia Britannica: Muratori