parent allusions to
the Pauline epistles, but how far he possessed and used a collection of
the New Testament writings, we have no means of judging. Towards the
middle of the second century, however, events occurred which had a
powerful influence, not indeed, for establishing the _authority_ of the
apostolic writings (since that existed from the beginning), but for
bringing home to the consciousness of the churches their _supreme
importance_ as an authoritative rule of faith and practice, and also the
necessity of carefully defining their extent as well as their true
interpretation. Heretical teachers arose who sowed in the Christian
church the seeds of gnosticism. Of these some, as Marcion, rejected on
dogmatical grounds a portion of the apostolic writings, and mutilated
those which they retained; others, as Valentinus, sought by fanciful
principles of interpretation to explain away their true meaning. Chap.
2, No. 12. The reaction upon the churches was immediate and effectual.
They set themselves at once to define and defend the true apostolic
writings as well against Marcion's false and mutilated canon, if canon
it may be called, as against the false interpretations of Valentinus,
Heracleon and others. The _occasion_ had now come for the recognition of
a New Testament canon cooerdinate in authority with that of the Old
Testament, and from this time onward we find the idea of such a canon
clearly developed in the writings of the church fathers. What aided
essentially in this work was the execution, about this time, of
_versions_ of the New Testament books, such as the Old Latin and Syriac;
for the authors of these versions must of necessity have brought
together the writings, which, in their judgment, proceeded from the
apostles and their companions.

6. We find, accordingly, when the _age of the early church fathers_
opens, about A.D. 170, a clearly recognized canon--sometimes described
in two parts, the _gospels_ and the _apostles_--which is placed on a
level with that of the Old Testament as the inspired word of God, and
cited in common with it as _the Scriptures_, _the divine Scriptures_,
_the Scriptures of the Lord_, etc. Both canons are mentioned together as
_The entire Scriptures both prophetical and evangelical_; _The prophets,
the gospel, and the blessed apostles_; _the law and the prophets, with
the evangelical and apostolical writings_; _the Old and the New
Testament_; _the entire instrument of each Testame