Editor’s note: The final installment in a series about the foundations of Easter.

I concluded the second part of this trilogy by referring to a very important letter written by a bishop living in Egypt. It was written in 367 A.D. and has affected Christianity ever since. Let us begin.

Athanasius, who had been present at the first ecumenical council in 325 A.D. was a major opponent of Arianism as described in Part 2. Because of his opposition to Arianism (remember Arianism opposed the concept of the Holy Trinity), he was banished five times during his tenure of 45 years as Bishop of Alexandria.

You may ask why Athanasius would be banished for his opposition to Arianism since Arianism “lost-out” in Nicea in 325 A.D. as explained in Part 2 of these articles. Good question. In reality, Arianism would remain strong in Egypt in the 4th century and would continue until the 7th century in certain parts of the Christian world.

Athanasius first became the Bishop of Alexandria, Egypt in 328 A.D. As discussed in Part 1 of this trilogy, the date for Easter changed every year and therefore the Bishop of Alexandria would write letters every year to his brother bishops relating the date for Easter for that particular year. These letters were known as festal (feast) letters and Athanasius would write 45 of these during his role as Bishop of Alexandria from 328 A.D. until 373 A.D. On Jan. 7 of 367 A.D., he wrote his 39th of the 45 festal letters relating the day for Easter to be celebrated. But he added something else, he listed the books that should be considered canon (scripture) for the Old Testament and New Testament. And, very importantly, his list for the New Testament is the very first one that reflects the New Testament of today (Source and for more in-depth study: www.gci.org, the article is entitled “Church History: Athanasius lists the New Testament Writings”).

You may ask “Why the need for a list of the books for the Bible?” Well, because there were different opinions on what should be considered canon (scriptural).

Scripture: What should be included?

Why the different opinions? Let me explain. I have a book in my study that contains many of the ancient scriptures that did not become canon (that is, these manuscripts did not make it into the Bible).

The book is over 700 pages and contains the Gnostic Gospels, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Visionary Wisdom Texts, the Christian Apocrypha, the Jewish Pseudepigrapha, and the Kalibalah (Source: The Other Bible, Edited with Introductions by Willis Barnstone, Harper One, 2005).

Due to the brevity of this column, I cannot come close to listing all of them. As for those of “Old Testament” writings, there are many Psalms, The Odes of Solomon, The Martyrdom of Isaiah, and other Jewish writings. As for “New Testament” offerings, the list of the “Gospels” alone numbers 14. This list includes The Gospel of the Hebrews, The Gospel of Thomas, The Secret Gospel of Mark, The Gospel of Nicodemus, The Gospel of Bartholomew, The Gospel of the Ebionites, The Infancy Gospel of James, The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, A Latin Infancy Gospel: The Birth of Jesus and five other Gospels. I have read all of these and they are very interesting.

As for other “Acts” that did not become canon there is the The Acts of John, The Acts of Peter, The Acts of Paul, The Acts of Andrew and The Acts of Thomas. Again, very interesting reading if you are a student of early Christianity.

All in all, this book contains over 80 manuscripts that did not get into the Bible that most Christians use. There are even more ancient manuscripts than those in this book that are not included in the Bible. Notice I just wrote that these texts “did not get into the Bible that most Christians use.” Why would I write that, because different Christian groups use Bibles that list different books.

Athanasius’ list for the Old Testament

I searched for a copy of the 39th festal letter of Athanasius written in 367 A.D. and found one at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (www.ccel.org). The following is his pronouncement of what books should be in the Old Testament translated into English:

“There are, then, of the Old Testament, twenty-two books in number; for, as I have heard, it is handed down that this is the number of the letters among the Hebrews; their respective order and names being as follows. The first is Genesis, then Exodus, next Leviticus, after that Numbers, and then Deuteronomy. Following these there is Joshua, the son of Nun, then Judges, then Ruth. And again, after these four books of Kings, the first and second being reckoned as one book, and so likewise the third and fourth as one book. And again, the first and second of the Chronicles are reckoned as one book. Again Ezra, the first and second are similarly one book. After these there is the book of Psalms, then the Proverbs, next Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. Job follows, then the Prophets, the twelve being reckoned as one book. Then Isaiah, one book, then Jeremiah with Baruch, Lamentations, and the epistle, one book; afterwards Ezekiel and Daniel, each one book. Thus far constitutes the Old Testament.”

So, were Athanasius’ instructions followed completely and uniformly in “…their respective order…”? Simply no. Whether you read a Protestant Bible, Catholic Bible, or Orthodox Bible check the order. For instance, according to Athanasius, Job should follow the Song of Songs (Solomon), Daniel should be very last and there are other discrepancies.

Also, of the three branches of Christianity; the Catholics, the Protestants, and the Greek Orthodox; none of the three have the exact same books in their respective Old Testaments.

The Catholic Old Testament contains the following books: Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch and the following additions to the Book of Daniel: The Prayer of Azaria and The Song of the Three Jews; Susanna; and Bel and the Dragon.

The Canon of the Greek Orthodox has all of the additional books of the Catholic Old Testament and adds five more. Those five are: 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, Prayer of Manasseh, Psalm 151 and 3 Maccabees. Moreover, 4 Maccabees is in an appendix to the Orthodox Greek Bible.

The Old Testament of the Protestant Bible has none of the additions of the Catholic Bible or Orthodox Bible and does not contain Baruch as prescribed by Athanasius (Source: New Revised Standard Version of the Harper Collins Study Bible including Apocryphal Deuterocanonical Books, Student Edition, General Editor, Harold W. Attridge, Harper One, 1989).

Athanasius’ list For The New Testament

The following is Athanasius’ proclamation for the New Testament translated into English:

“Again it is not tedious to speak of the [books] of the New Testament. These are, the four Gospels, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Afterwards, the Acts of the Apostles and Epistles (called Catholic), seven, viz. of James, one; of Peter, two; of John, three; after these, one of Jude. In addition, there are fourteen Epistles of Paul, written in this order. The first, to the Romans; then two to the Corinthians; after these, to the Galatians; next, to the Ephesians; then to the Philippians; then to the Colossians; after these, two to the Thessalonians, and that to the Hebrews; and again, two to Timothy; one to Titus; and lastly, that to Philemon. And besides, the Revelation of John.”

So were Athanasius’ instructions for the New Testament followed? Not immediately, there would still be differences of opinion for decades about which books should be in the New Testament. Those books, which became canon that created the strongest differences of opinion were; Hebrews, James, Jude, 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John and the Revelation. Those that created strong convictions that did NOT get in the Bible were Shepherd of Hermas, Epistle of Barnabus, The Acts of Paul, and Apocalypse of Peter among others (Source: Funk and Wagnalls, New Standard Bible Dictionary, 3rd edition).

The Greek Orthodox Church would break away from the Catholic Church in the Great East – West Schism of 1054 A.D. The Protestant movement would begin in Europe in 1517 A.D. But owing to the beginning influence of Athanasius’ letter, all three branches as of today have identical New Testaments. For those of you who are students of early Christianity, however, you will notice the books do not follow the order as listed by Athanasius.

This concludes this trilogy of articles about the foundations of Easter. These foundations; starting with the moon and Passover, then the spring equinox and Easter, then the first Ecumenical Council in 325 A.D., then Athanasius’ festal letter of 367 A.D. and then finally to what is considered scriptural. Are all distinct events, yet connected.

— Durm is a professor of psychology at Athens State University in Athens. His areas of specialty are critical thinking, statistics, physiological psychology and is a student of early Christianity.