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Cited by 61Biblical Studies and InterpretationByzantine Studies and HistoryHistorical and Linguistic Studies

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A New Fragment of Athanasius's Thirty-Ninth Festal Letter: Heresy, Apocrypha, and the Canon

Brakke, David·2010·Harvard Theological Review
DOI 10.1017/s0017816009990307
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Abstract

Athanasius of Alexandria's thirty-ninth Festal Letter remains one of the most significant documents in the history of the Christian Bible. Athanasius wrote the letter, which contains the first extant list of precisely the twenty-seven books of the current New Testament canon, in 367 c.e., during the final decade of his life. Like many of his annual Easter letters, the thirty-ninth was fairly long, but only a small portion of the text survives in Greek.1 The Greek excerpt contains Athanasius's lists of the books of the Old and New Testaments, which he calls “canonized,” and a list of a few additional books, like the Shepherd of Hermas, which he says are not canonized, but are useful in the instruction of catechumens. Most studies of the formation of the Christian canon, including very recent ones, examine only this Greek fragment and so discuss only the contents of the lists. But already in the late-nineteenth-century fragments of the much more extensive Coptic translation had been published, and a few scholars, such as Carl Schmidt and Theodor Zahn, used them to write penetrating studies of the letter.2 In 1955 Lefort published all the then-known Coptic fragments in his book of Coptic Athanasiana, and then in 1984 Coquin published another long fragment.3 These served as the basis for my 1995 translation and my 1994 article in this journal on the social context of canon formation in fourth-century Egypt.4

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Metadata

Authors
Brakke, D.
Affiliations
Indiana University (US)
Corresponding author
Brakke, David
Venue
Harvard Theological Review
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Published
2010-01
Volume
103
Issue
1
Pages
47-66
ISSN
  • 0017-8160 (ISSN-L)
  • 1475-4517
DOI
10.1017/s0017816009990307
OpenAlex
W2148381168
Cited by
60
References
0
Citations by year
2025: 12 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 1
FWCI
38.95
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified)
Locations
Harvard Theological Review (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Biblical Studies and Interpretation
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Classics › Byzantine Studies and History
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Historical and Linguistic Studies
Keywords
Athanasius of Alexandria, New Testament canon, canon formation, Coptic fragments, apocryphal literature, Shepherd of Hermas, heresy, catechumens

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