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.

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