The canon was not handed down by a council in a closed room, and it was not a free-for-all either. The documents earned their place across three centuries, and this is the paper trail: sixteen events across six stages, opening with Marcion in 144 and closing with Athanasius in 367.
It runs through the writings themselves, their collection and use by the apostolic fathers, Marcion’s cut-down canon and the reaction to it, the fourfold Gospel and the Muratorian fragment, the long sifting into accepted, disputed and rejected, and the councils at Hippo and Carthage.
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New Testament Canon Timeline · PDF
9 pages · 0.9 MB · US Letter
Free to print, copy and share for teaching, classroom and personal study. No signup, nothing to buy, and no attribution required. There is also an interactive version that is searchable and links every reference through to the text.
What is on the sheet?
16 events across 6 sections, carrying 22 chapter-and-verse references.
- IThe Writingsc. AD 48 – 100 · The documents exist before any list does
- IICollected & Usedc. AD 95 – 140 · Authority in practice before authority on paper
- IIIMarcion’s KnifeAD 144 – c. 170 · The first fixed list is a hostile one
- IVThe Fourfold Gospel & the First Orthodox Listc. AD 170 – 200
- VSifting — Accepted, Disputed, Rejectedc. AD 200 – 325
- VIFrom Nicaea’s Deacon to the 27 BooksAD 325 – 397
Who is it for?
The shortest sheet here at nine pages, and the one most often wanted in a hurry. Print it when somebody asks who decided what went in the Bible and you would rather show them the sequence than summarise it.
How does it print?
It is laid out for US Letter at 9 pages, portrait, on a light background so it does not drink a toner cartridge. It prints cleanly in black and white, though the section colours carry meaning and are worth having in colour if you can. Every page footer carries the source, so a copy handed round a class can always be traced back.