Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky) on the formation of the canon of the New Testament

Contents The authority of the apostles in the Church The significance of the Church of Ephesus in the history of the formation of the New Testament canon The main heretical movements of the 2nd century that distorted the Holy Scriptures The Church of Lyons as the successor of the Church of Ephesus General conclusions Under the close guidance of the Church of God, the formation of the canon of sacred books of the New Testament took place. As Hieromartyr Hilarion notes, many of the books that made up the subsequently adopted canon of sacred books of the New Testament were already in apostolic times actively used by the Church and collected by it for their preservation. Hieromartyr Hilarion’s study of the canon of sacred books of the New Testament, already formed in apostolic times, is largely based on the article of Archpriest Alexander Gorsky “The Formation of the Canon of Sacred Books of the New Testament,” and therefore it can be considered belonging to Russian theological thought 1 . The authority of the apostles in the Church Hieromartyr Hilarion begins his discussions about the history of the formation of the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, like Archpriest Alexander Gorsky, with the significance of the apostolic ministry in the life of the Church, and also talks about the reason for the appearance of the holy books. The Apostles, as successors and disciples of the Lord, were sent by Him to preach: “... as the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you” (John 20:21), “go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). For this reason, the apostolic ministry must be recognized as exceptional, since the Lord Himself placed them in this ministry. The Book of Acts of the Holy Apostles tells of the election of another man instead of the fallen Judas, who was with the apostles the entire time the Lord was with them, “beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up...” (Acts 1:22). The choice was made not by human voting, but by lot, with the following words to the Lord: “You, Lord, knower of the hearts of all, show of these two one whom You have chosen to accept the lot of this ministry and Apostleship...” (Acts 1:24–25). Hieromartyr Hilarion explains this by saying that if the Lord chose the number twelve for this exclusive service, it means that it had to be filled by someone after the fall of Judas. And one more point, noticed by him and confirming the special election in this service, is the resort to the lot, through which it is not man who chooses, but God. The young man Saul, who persecuted the Church of God and then became the “chosen vessel” of God to preach the Gospel, often told the pagans about his chosenness by Jesus Christ Himself: “Paul is an apostle, chosen not by men, nor through man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father...” (Gal. 1:1). There are places in the Holy Scriptures in which the Lord speaks of his apostolic mission: “Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles” (Acts 22:21). That is why in iconography we so often see the image of the Apostle Paul together with the twelve apostles during the Last Supper, as if he was with them at that moment, although historically his presence is impossible. In accordance with their purpose and calling from God, the apostles taught and preached to people about the Coming into the world of Christ and the Son of God, through whom our sins are forgiven and every person is given the opportunity to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In addition to oral instructions, there were also written ones: “Brothers, stand fast and hold to the traditions that you were taught either by word or by our message” (2 Thess. 2:15); “let such a one know that, as we are in words in letters in absentia, such are we in reality in person” (2 Cor. 10:11); “I adjure you by the Lord to read this letter to all the holy brothers” (1 Thess. 5:27). The apostolic epistles have as much authority as those who wrote them. Or as Hieromartyr Hilarion says, “there is no difference between the personality of the apostle and his message” 2. It is simply physically impossible to be in all the Churches at once, so we had to send messages. And, probably, the apostles understood that they could not live forever, and the verbs of truth that they learned from the Lord were to instruct subsequent generations of Christians. If anyone disobeyed the message, then the apostle did not even allow communication with such (see: 2 Thess. 3:14). False teachers, seeing such importance and seriousness of the messages and the corresponding attitude of Christians towards them, more than once tried to replace them. In this regard, the Apostle Paul writes to the Thessalonians not to immediately accept any word or message, since there are many deceivers who used the apostolic authority for their own needs (see: 2 Thess. 2:2). Protecting church communities from such “epistles,” the Apostle Paul writes the final words in his own hand, which he often communicates to the recipients of the message: “Greetings with my hand, Paul’s, which serves as a sign in every epistle; I write this: the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen" (2 Thess. 3:17–18), or, for example, in the Epistle to the Colossians: “Greetings with my hand, Paul’s ..." (Col. 4:18). Apparently, not only the Apostle Paul encountered substitutions; The holy Apostle John the Theologian writes similar words: “... if anyone takes away anything from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the book of life and from the holy city and from what is written in this book” (Rev. 22:19). The same fact is noted by Archpriest Alexander Gorsky: “Some even abused this meaning of the apostolic epistles; the name of the apostle was attached to writings that did not belong to him. So, after the very first epistle that we have from the Apostle Paul, those written under his name by others had already begun to appear, and he found it necessary in the second of his known epistles to show a clear sign by which his genuine epistles can be distinguished from inauthentic ones. “In every epistle I usually write with my own hand the greeting: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all” (2 Thess. 2:2 and 3:17)” 3. The New Testament books were written for the entire Church. It happens that one letter is sent to several Churches, for example, the letters of the Apostle Peter. But even if the message was written to one community, it is known how the Apostle Paul commanded that they be exchanged so that the whole Church could learn through them. “When this message is read to you, then order that it be read also in the Laodicean church; and that which is from Laodicea, read ye also” (Col. 4:16). We are not talking about the Gospel, which, according to the commandment of the Savior, must be preached throughout the entire earth. From this, Hieromartyr Hilarion concludes that different Churches collected sacred scriptures. The Apostle Peter writes: “...count the longsuffering of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you, just as he speaks about these things in all his epistles...” (2 Pet. 3:15-16). From these words the basic principle of the exchange of messages between the Churches is derived. The Apostle Peter wrote this message to the Christians of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia (1 Pet. 1:1; 2 Pet. 3:1). The Apostle Paul did not send his messages to all of the areas listed. It should also be noted how the letters of the Apostle Paul are called. Along with the sacred Old Testament books, they are called “scriptures.” The word “scripture” in ancient Greek Grafh is the term used in the New Testament to designate the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament (see, for example: Luke 24:27: 32). It is very important for us that the Apostle Peter uses the same word to refer to the letters of the Apostle Paul. Despite the great significance and authority among all Christians of the epistles of the Apostle Paul, it seems that other apostolic epistles were treated with the same respect and reverence. True, due to the long distances, the apostolic letters did not reach all Churches immediately. Therefore, a complete set of them could be collected in one area, but not in another. The significance of the Church of Ephesus in the history of the formation of the New Testament canon Hieromartyr Hilarion, through logic and study of the Holy Scriptures, tries to identify the church community in which the most favorable conditions existed for the collection and preservation of the maximum number of New Testament writings, which later formed the canonical corpus of the sacred books of the New Testament. On this issue, Hieromartyr Hilarion agrees with Archpriest Alexander Gorsky, who considers the Church of Ephesus 4 to be such a place, where the disciple of the Apostle Paul Timothy and the beloved disciple of the Lord, the Evangelist John the Theologian, lived and worked. Timothy, as the Apostle Paul writes, while still a child he learned and was interested in the Holy Scriptures (see: 2 Tim. 3:15). The same chief apostle, speaking about the piety and unfeigned faith of Timothy’s mother and grandmother (see: 2 Timothy 1:5), thereby shows how close their relationship was, if he even knows the family from which Timothy came. Maybe that’s why Timothy became the closest disciple of the Apostle Paul. The first mention of Timothy can be found in the chapters of the Acts of the Holy Apostles, which tell about the second missionary service of the Apostle Paul. First, it talks about his origins from a Jew and a Greek. Later, the Evangelist Luke mentions Timothy as a person who directly helps the Apostle Paul in evangelizing. Having learned about the misfortune of the Thessalonian Church, the Apostle Paul sent Timothy there so that on his behalf he would strengthen their faith and console them in love. Already being in Corinth, the apostle received good news about the Thessalonians from Timothy, who came (see: Acts 18:5; 1 Thessalonians 3:6). Therefore, it is not surprising that the Epistle to the Thessalonians begins with a greeting not only from the Apostle Paul, but also from his disciples Timothy and Silvanus, whom they already knew in those places (see: 1 Thess. 1:1; 2 Thess. 1:1). After some time, while the Apostle Paul was preaching in Ephesus, Timothy went to the Corinthians: “I have sent to you Timothy, my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church” (1 Cor. 4:17), and again: “If Timothy comes to you, see that he is safe with you; for he is doing the Lord’s work, just as I do. Therefore let no one despise him, but see him off in peace, so that he may come to me; for I am waiting for him with the brethren” (1 Cor. 16:10–11). The Second Epistle to the Corinthians also mentions Timothy: “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy brother, of the church of God which is in Corinth, with all the saints throughout all Achaia...” (2 Cor. 1:1). The same letter mentions the preaching of Timothy and Silvanus in Corinth (see: 2 Cor. 1:19). Around the same time, the Epistle to the Romans was written, where the Apostle Paul calls Timothy his collaborator (see: Rom. 16:21). Timothy was also present in Rome, during the imprisonment of his teacher, who soon sent him to Philippi: “I hope in the Lord Jesus to soon send Timothy to you, so that I, having learned about your circumstances, may be comforted in spirit. For I have no one equally zealous who would so sincerely care about you: because everyone is looking for their own, and not what is pleasing to Jesus Christ. And his faithfulness is known to you, because he served me as a son to his father in the gospel” (Phil. 2:19–22). In the welcoming part of the Epistle to the Philippians, in addition to the name of the apostle of tongues, the name of his disciple Timothy is also found (see: Phil. 1:1). Similar references, where the Apostle Paul, together with his colleague Timothy, greets Christian communities, are in the Epistle to the Colossians (see: Col. 1:1) and to Philemon (see: Phil. 1:1), written in the same period as the Epistle to the Philippians. Writing the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Apostle Paul speaks about the release of Timothy, and if everything goes well, then he will come to them with him (see: Heb. 13:23). As for the Epistles to the Ephesians and Timothy himself, we can definitely say that these letters were found in Timothy. The very fact that the Apostle Paul placed Timothy at the head of the Ephesian Church (see: 1 Tim. 1:3), and also gave him the right to ordain priests (see: 1 Tim. 4:14), gives us reason for such a conviction. And the two Epistles to Timothy could not escape their addressee, for whom they were especially valuable and important, showing all the fatherly care and love of the Apostle Paul for his disciple and helper. Hieromartyr Hilarion does not find serious evidence in the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament for the exact statement that Timothy had the Epistles to the Galatians and Titus, but makes the following assumption: “The Epistle to the Galatians could also have been known in Ephesus. After all, it was written to one of the Churches neighboring Ephesus, and given the mutual exchange of messages that existed between the Churches, it could not have been unknown in Ephesus, this center of all Asia Minor life” 5 . And about the Epistle to Titus, he writes in continuation: “There remains one epistle to Titus. But this message in its content is very close to the First Epistle to Timothy and contains very important instructions for Timothy on how to act in the house of God. Being himself in a position similar to that of Titus, Timothy could not help but be interested in the instructions that the Apostle Paul taught in his Epistle to Titus" 6 . The relationship of Timothy to the Apostle Paul was, as the Epistle to the Philippians says, equivalent to the relationship of a son to his father (see: Phil. 2:22), so it is not surprising that Timothy could have all the letters of the apostle. Every word coming out of Paul’s mouth had a special meaning for him, to which he was motivated by his love for his teacher and their common service to the Church of Christ. Priest Alexander Gorsky came to the same conclusion, noting that the Apostle Timothy’s love for his teacher leaves “no doubt that the shepherd of Ephesus collected for his Church everything that was possible from the writings of the Apostle Paul” 7 ​​. The above gives us the right to assert that the Ephesian Church, led by Timothy, had all fourteen letters of the Apostle Paul. In addition to Timothy, it is necessary to note other people who were close to the Apostle Paul and helped him in carrying out his difficult apostolic ministry. Of all the people close to him, Hieromartyr Hilarion is especially interested in the personalities of the Evangelists Mark and Luke. People who had gone through the school of writing and were sufficiently educated gathered around the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul calls the Evangelist Luke in his Epistle to the Colossians “the beloved physician” (Col. 4:14), and Philemon as his fellow worker (see: Phil. 1:23). Evangelist Luke, like Timothy, was faithful and devoted to the Apostle Paul even when everyone abandoned him: “Demas left me, loving the present age, and went to Thessalonica, Crescent to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me” (2 Tim. 4:10). Two books from the New Testament canon were written by Luke to the Venerable Theophilus, as the evangelist himself writes about this (see: Luke 1:1–4; Acts 1:1–5). Since the first centuries, these books have been considered authoritative by Christians. What gave them this significance in the Church was that they were associated with the name of the Apostle Paul. In a letter to Timothy, the Apostle of Nations writes: “Remember the Lord Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, who rose from the dead according to my gospel...” (2 Tim. 2:8). According to the testimony of Hieromartyr Hilarion, in this place there is a mention of the Gospel written by Luke 8. And the extensive book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles consists more than half of the biography and sermons of the Apostle Paul. All the above arguments make it possible to say that Timothy knew these books. There are passages in the Holy Scriptures confirming the communication of the Evangelist Mark with the Apostle Paul and Timothy: “Try to come to me soon... Take Mark and bring him with you; for I need him for my ministry” (2 Tim. 4:9:11). From these words we can conclude that Timothy and the Apostle Mark were together in Ephesus. Knowing about the friendly relations between Timothy and Mark, one cannot help but assume that the Ephesian Church had the Gospel written by Mark. But besides the Gospel, the Ephesian community also had two letters of the Apostle Peter. In his First Epistle, the Apostle Peter calls Mark “my son” (1 Pet. 5:13), just like the Apostle Paul did to Timothy, and it was written by Silvanus, with whom Timothy preached together in Corinth (see: 2 Cor. 1:19). These messages could not pass by Ephesus, since they were written to Christians living and scattered throughout Asia Minor; it also mentions Asia, the region where this city was located (see: 1 Pet. 1:1). The Epistle of James was written specifically to the Jews in the dispersion. Having become acquainted with the activities of the Apostle Paul in Ephesus, where he preached to the Jews in the synagogue for three months (see: Acts 19:8), it can be argued that this message was also known to the Ephesian community, because it consisted of a sufficient number of Jews, including, probably, Christian believers: “... all the inhabitants of Asia heard the sermon about the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks” ( Acts 19:10). And from the fear that arose after the beating by demons of certain seven sons of the Jewish high priest Sceva, who used the name of the Lord Jesus, but were not in the true sense Christians, among the inhabitants of Ephesus - both Jews and Greeks - according to the testimony of the Evangelist Luke, “the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified” (Acts 19:17). Hieromartyr Hilarion, seeing a certain similarity between the Second Epistle of Peter and the Epistle of Jude, writes: “The small Epistle of the Apostle Jude comes very close in content to the Second Epistle of Peter, where the same false teachers are exposed as in the Epistle of Peter. Perhaps it was intended for approximately the same circle of readers as the Second Epistle of Peter. Consequently, in its spread it did not pass through Ephesus” 9. Hieromartyr Hilarion also took this idea from the work of Archpriest Alexander Gorsky 10. The Ephesian Church stands out not only because it was led by Timothy, a colleague and disciple of the Apostle Paul, but also because the beloved disciple of the Lord, John the Theologian, had close communication with this community of Christians, as evidenced by church writers. Saint Irenaeus speaks of the stay of the Apostle John in Ephesus before the Emperor Trajan, where Polycarp of Smyrna studied with him, whom, according to Tertullian, the apostle of love himself ordained a bishop. Blessed Jerome tells about the stay of the Apostle John in the Ephesian Church and at the same time edifying the Asian Christian communities. According to the conviction of this same saint, he was buried by his disciples near the city of Ephesus. The same can be heard from Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius of Caesarea and Polycarp, Bishop of Ephesus. If the Apostle John lived in Ephesus, then, accordingly, all four Gospels, three of his messages and the Apocalypse were there. Eusebius of Caesarea writes that after writing the Gospel of Matthew, Mark and Luke, the Apostle John, seeing the absence of works accomplished by the Savior before the imprisonment of the prophet of God John, decided to supplement the three Gospels with his fourth. Blessed Jerome finds the reason for writing the Gospel of John in the desire of John the Theologian, at the request of local bishops, to expose heresies, and especially the false teachers of the Ebionites, who claimed the non-existence of Christ before the Most Holy Theotokos. Three epistles were also written for Christians in Asia Minor. The first contains the exhortations and instructions of the Apostle John, who cared for his spiritual children, whom he calls with all love and tenderness “my children” (1 John 2:1). The second and third messages were sent to special persons who lived, as one might assume, not far from Ephesus, if he, being already in old age, was going to come to them (see: 2 John 1:12; 3 John 1:14). The last book of the New Testament canon, which was also written by the Evangelist John, was directly related to the Ephesian Church, since it contains instructions addressed to this community from the Lord: of the seven Churches mentioned in this book, the Lord, not without reason, is the first to address the Ephesian Church. Summing up some results, Hieromartyr Hilarion makes the following conclusion: “So, considering the various circumstances of the apostolic time, with a very high degree of probability we can talk about the formation of the New Testament canon in Ephesus back in the apostolic time. This education began there under Timothy, who had the closest relations with the most important New Testament writers - the Apostle Paul, the evangelists Luke and Mark. The compilation of the New Testament was completed in Ephesus under the Apostle John the Theologian, who himself was the last writer of New Testament books... After him, no one could write anything that with equal right could become one of the books of the New Testament” 11. From Ephesus, the sacred books of the New Testament could be distributed to all other Churches. Hieromartyr Hilarion recalls the apocryphal monument “The Teaching of Addai,” where Addai, bidding farewell to his disciple Ageus and other Christians, commands them to read “The Acts of the Twelve Apostles, sent from Ephesus by John, the son of Zebedee” 12. Addai says that it is one of those books in which the truth is proclaimed, and through it, for this reason, people in the Churches should be instructed. This information, despite the fact that it is taken from apocrypha, appears to be true. At the conclusion of the study, Hieromartyr Hilarion himself notes the merits of Archpriest Alexander Gorsky, who published the article “The Formation of the Canon of the Holy Books of the New Testament” 13. Particular attention should be paid to it, since it reveals the instability and inconsistency of Western theological science in this matter, where it is generally accepted that the formation of the canon of the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament took place in the 2nd century in Rome. On this occasion, Hieromartyr Hilarion writes: “Such a presentation of ancient church history is unacceptable for an Orthodox member of the Church, and without this presentation, almost all meaning and opinion loses that the New Testament canon was originally formed in Rome, where there was not such a favorable combination of circumstances as it was in Ephesus in apostolic times” 14. The arguments of Archpriest Alexander are much more natural and convincing than the arguments of Western scientists who do not have sufficiently serious facts and grounds for their beliefs. Having determined the place where the sacred books of the New Testament, subsequently accepted by the Church as canonical, were located during the apostolic period, Hieromartyr Hilarion examines their further fate in the 2nd century. To do this, he takes the works of church writers who actively opposed heretics who distorted the Holy Scriptures and tried to adjust it to their false teachings. Major heretical movements of the 2nd century that distorted the Holy Scriptures In the 2nd century, three main movements can be distinguished: Marcionism, Montanism and Gnosticism. The heresy of Marcionism takes its name from its founder, Marcion. The Church recognized the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament and, after the appearance of the New Testament books, did not abolish it in any way. Marcion, on the contrary, argued that the Old Testament was unnecessary and even spoke of its contradiction to the New Testament. Marcion had to redo many words from the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, since little was said there about the enmity of the two testaments, which he tried to prove with such insatiability. For example, Marcion remade the words of Christ that He did not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them: “What do you think, that I came to fulfill the law or the prophets? I did not come to fulfill, but to destroy” 15. Therefore, according to Tertullian’s description, he ordered his disciples to read the Gospel, guided by his works (“Antitheses”). Of all the books of the New Testament, he recognized only those written by the Apostle Paul, since, according to Marcion, other writers of the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament introduced many Jewish and Old Testament concepts into the Gospel preaching. Of the four Gospels, he recognized only the Gospel of Luke as a collaborator of the Apostle Paul, and even then he omitted 300 verses and 60 redone. Regarding Paul's epistles, the first in Marcion's list is the Epistle to the Galatians, where, in his opinion, a quarrel occurred between the Apostle Peter and Paul due to the Apostle Peter's observance of Jewish customs. Here is what the complete version of the sequence of letters of the Apostle Paul according to Marcion looks like: “first - Epistle to the Galatians, second - Epistle to the Corinthians, third - Epistle to the Second Corinthians, fourth - Epistle to the Romans, fifth - Epistle to the Thessalonians, sixth - Epistle to the Second Thessalonians, seventh - Epistle to the Ephesians, eighth - Epistle to the Colossians, the ninth is the Epistle to Philemon, the tenth is the Epistle to the Philippians. He also accepts in parts the so-called Epistle to the Laodiceans” 16. About the Epistle to the Laodiceans, Hieromartyr Hilarion makes a reservation that in fact it coincides with the Epistle to the Ephesians (for example, Ephesians 4:5 completely coincides with one of the quotes from the Epistle to the Laodiceans). Therefore, Hieromartyr Hilarion singles out ten epistles from Marcion, and not eleven. Tertullian also mentions this, saying that by the letter to the Laodiceans Marcion means the letter to the Ephesians, based on Colossians 4:16. In addition to Marcion's heresy, another serious heretical movement appeared during this period - Montanism. Its founder is Montanus, a native of Phrygia. Montanism was called a new prophecy, since people who belonged to this heretical movement “prophesied” in ecstasy, without control of their feelings. Tertullian defended the Montanists, speaking of a certain darkening of the mind when God speaks through them or one of them sees the glory of God. To which the church writer Miltiades rightly notes that a prophet should not speak in a frenzy, and this opinion is shared not only by him, but also by other church writers 17 . This is the main reason for calling their “prophecy” new. One only has to look at what they said to understand how mistaken they were and how delusional they were. Here are the words of Montanus during ecstasy: “I am the Lord God Almighty, abiding in man,” or: “I am the Father, and the Son, and the Paraclete,” and his prophetess Maximilla: “Do not listen to me, but listen to Christ” 18. According to the Montanists, through Montana the Paraclete spoke much more and even more excellently than Christ Himself in the Gospel, and his followers, accordingly, are higher than the apostles. This new prophecy, in their opinion, should replace the revelation of Christ and the apostles found in the books of the New Testament. It is impossible to assert the existence of sacred books among the Montanists, but we can still talk about the authority of their words, which were considered higher for them than the truths of Holy Scripture. Although the historian Eusebius, telling about the dispute between the learned man Gaius and the Montanist Proclus, speaks of Gaius’s mention of new writings that arose among the Montanists, for which he denounced Proclus. The 2nd century church writer Apollonius writes about a certain Montanist Themison, who imitated the apostles and, like them, composed his “epistles” for instruction. If Marcion recognized the canon of the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament partially, cutting out from it what he did not like, then, probably, the Montanists would like to replace all Scripture with their new revelations in written form. Another heretical movement of this period is Gnosticism. Unlike Marcionism and Montanism, it often spread not only within Asia Minor, but also in other territories. This movement was divided into various branches. In this case, we will not focus on individual opinions about these fractional communities, but will highlight their general attitude towards the Holy Scriptures. The Gnostics called themselves true Christians, to whom special knowledge was opened for understanding and interpreting the Holy Scriptures. “The Gnostics approached the New Testament books with their own, already formed systems...” 19. The Gnostics distorted the Holy Scriptures with their teaching, or, better said, they adjusted it to their myths and fables. Each Gnostic branch transmitted and received the New Testament books in different ways. For example, for the Ebionites only the Gospel of Matthew was authoritative, but the Valentinians accepted only the Gospel of John. Each of them chose the Gospel that best suited their heretical ideas. We find the same thoughts in Tertullian: “Heretics do not accept some Scriptures, and those they do accept, they distort with insertions and omissions, adapting them to their teaching. Heresy, if it accepts the Scriptures, does not accept them in their entirety...” 20 . The Gnostics claimed about Christ and the apostles that everything they said about important and lofty things was from the Demiurge, and somewhere, in another case, from the middle, and sometimes from the heights. About this, Vladyka Hilarion, perplexed, writes: “What guided the Valentinians when dividing the Scriptures into these three parts is completely unknown; obviously, only by his own arbitrariness” 21. Apparently, the Gnostics “start from the same thing” when presenting the theory of accommodation. If you follow this theory, Christ and his disciples did not speak directly in some places, since the situation itself was not always favorable for this, or, in other words, the listeners were not ready for these revelations. Based on this theory, the Gnostics began to apply an allegorical method of interpretation to the Holy Scriptures, where they could just substitute the meaning that was more suitable for their false teachings. By ambiguities that need to be interpreted, Gnostics mean parables and images in the Holy Scriptures. Christ, according to the Gnostics, with the words “Seek and you will find” (Matt. 7:7; Lk. 11:9) indicates the search for mysterious knowledge in the Scriptures, and this can only be found through allegory. Saint Irenaeus laments: “Wherever the word “age” or “age” is used... everywhere they find an indication of this eon” 22. And indeed, using the allegorical method of interpretation, they see everywhere in the Holy Scriptures an indication of aeons. For example, 30 years, when the Lord did not create anything, among the Gnostics means 30 eons; or the conversation of the Savior at the age of twelve with the scribes and elders is understood by them as an allusion to twelve aeons, and the falling away of Judas means the falling away of the twelfth aeon, and the like. Hieromartyr Hilarion writes on this occasion: “The examples given, which are not among the worst, show how far the Gnostics went in the allegorical interpretation of the New Testament books, and one can fully agree with Tertullian that such an interpretation harmed the truth no less than the corruption of the text itself.”23 Although, speaking about the allegorical method of interpretation, it should be noted that the Church also used it, but everything depends not on the method, but on who uses it and for what purposes. It is in Saint Irenaeus that this method of interpretation is first encountered; he is not alien to Tertullian either. According to Hieromartyr Hilarion, “they did not consider the scientific study of the Holy Scriptures to be the highest, much less the only way to comprehend Christ’s truth; They did not think at all that living truth could be achieved by scientific methods. On principle, Tertullian even refuses to conduct a scientific dispute with heretics on the basis of Scripture... And in general, we must remember that faith saves, not the study of Scripture. The study of the Scriptures satisfies curiosity and brings glory to learning." 24 “Church writers had a double task: against the Marcionites to defend the belonging of the sacred books rejected by Marcion to the New Testament, and against the Montanists - to count more accurately the New Testament books and to protect their composition from the invasion of the newest works of false prophecy” 25. And against the Gnostics - both. While polemicizing and denouncing heretics, church writers mentioned passages of Holy Scripture from which one can judge the New Testament canon in the 2nd century. They are the ones who let us understand which books were accepted by the Church and included in its composition. True, they did not mention such epistles as Philemon, Jude, the Second and Third Epistles of John the Theologian, but this does not give reason to talk about their absence in the Church; there was simply no need to quote them in polemics with heretics. Lyons Church as successor to the Ephesian Church For a better idea of ​​what the canon of the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament was like in the Church in the 2nd century, Hieromartyr Hilarion considers the works of St. Irenaeus of Lyons, who headed the Lyons Church during this period. Hieromartyr Hilarion already mentioned the Church of Ephesus, which was the center for the collection and storage of the books of the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament. However, in the 2nd century there is little information about the fate of this Church. Therefore, Bishop Hilarion is trying to identify a Christian community that could carry out the same functions in the 2nd century as the Ephesian community in apostolic times. He puts forward the idea of ​​a connection between the Church of Ephesus and the Church of Lyons, which for this reason could have the same books of the New Testament. Thus, one can trace the further fate of the holy books. The connection between the Christian communities of Asia Minor and those of Lyon can be seen in the letters they sent to each other. When persecution of Christians took place in Lyon in 177, the Lyon community informed the Churches of Asia Minor about the martyrs who suffered during these terrible events. And Saint Irenaeus of Lyons himself was born and lived for some time in Asia Minor. There is an assumption about his stay in the city of Smyrna, where he listened to the teachings of Saint Polycarp of Smyrna, a disciple of the Apostle John the Theologian. You can find evidence of St. Irenaeus’s communion with the Roman Church. There is a known case in the history of the Church when a dispute arose between Pope Victor and the Christians of Asia Minor about the celebration of Easter, and Saint Irenaeus tried to reconcile both sides. Consequently, according to the works and letters of Saint Irenaeus, where he, of course, mentions passages from the Holy Scriptures, we are given reason to judge the position of the canon of the New Testament not only in the Lyon Church, but also in the Roman and Asia Minor. Hieromartyr Hilarion singles out the work of Saint Irenaeus, “The Exposure and Refutation of False Knowledge,” written by him in the second half of the 2nd century. From this polemical work one can clearly trace how many books of the New Testament St. Irenaeus accepted. The work, according to the calculations of Hieromartyr Hilarion, contains “more than a thousand” passages taken from the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament 26. From this work we notice the acceptance of only four Gospels. He talks in some detail about the symbolism of the four Gospels and their writing history. By focusing on the number four, he thereby denounces and reproaches the Ebionites, who accepted only the Gospel of Matthew; Marcion, who accepted only the Gospel of Luke; Valentinians, who wanted to use the Gospel of John, and other heretics, “who separate Jesus from Christ and say that Christ remained unaffected by suffering, but Jesus suffered,” and for this reason prefer the Gospel of Mark 27. Saint Irenaeus writes: “Without any fear they offer their writings (conscriptiones) and boast that they have more Gospels than there are. They have reached such insolence that they title their recent work “The Gospel of Truth,” although it in no way agrees with the “Gospel of the Apostles,” so they don’t even have a Gospel without blasphemy.”28 Particularly important is the idea of ​​Saint Irenaeus that the evangelists handed over their writings to the Church, and the Church, in turn, protected and preserved them, without reducing any of them and without adding anything to them. The Apostles, as the saint writes, “gave us in the writings as the future foundation and pillar of our faith... Thus, Matthew published the Gospel Scripture with the Jews in their own language when Peter and Paul preached in Rome and founded the Church. After their departure, Mark, Peter’s disciple and interpreter, himself, conveyed to us in writing what Peter preached. And Luke, Paul’s companion, set out the Gospel he preached in a book. After John, a disciple of the Lord and reclining on His chest, he published the Gospel while staying in Ephesus in Asia” 29 . The book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles was not accepted by Marcion. To this, Saint Irenaeus says that Luke, who wrote this book, was an assistant and close person to the Apostle Paul, as the Apostle himself says about this (see: 2 Tim. 4:10–11). And secondly, if you do not accept the book of Acts, written by the Evangelist Luke, then you must also reject the Gospel of Luke, which Marcion, as you know, recognized as true. Despite the fact that St. Irenaeus does not name the exact number of epistles of the Apostle Paul, looking through the text, one cannot help but notice the abundant citation of epistles, as well as indications to whom they are sent. For example: “Paul explained this when he wrote to the Romans,” or: “Paul said it openly in 2 Corinthians.” 30 Of all the passages relating to the epistles of the Apostle Paul, cited by Saint Irenaeus, Hieromartyr Hilarion counted “up to 78 from the Epistle to the Romans, up to 78 from the First Epistle to the Corinthians, up to 15 from the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, up to 28 from the Epistle to the Galatians, up to 26 from the Epistle to the Ephesians, up to 10 from Philippians, up to 15 from Colossians, 2 from 1 Thessalonians, 9 from 2 Thessalonians, 5 from 1 Timothy, 5 from 2 and 3 from Titus." 31 The Epistle to Philemon could not help but be in the possession of Saint Irenaeus, since it was used quite often in the Western Churches. Apparently, there was no need to quote him in polemics with heretics. Saint Irenaeus does not have the Epistle to the Hebrews, although much of it could be used in the fight against false teachings. True, there are passages similar to the text from the Epistle to the Hebrews, for example: “God, by the Word of His power, creates and creates all things visible and invisible” 32 . These words cannot help but recall the quote found in the Epistle to the Hebrews: “…holding up all things by the word of His power...” (Heb. 1:3). And there are about ten such similar places. Eusebius of Caesarea says that St. Irenaeus mentions the Epistle to the Hebrews. Also, the work of Stephen Gavar talks about this message, which Saint Irenaeus did not accept as the message of the Apostle Paul. Accordingly, there were thirteen epistles for him, and he knew the Epistle to the Hebrews, but did not put it among the canonical books, since he did not consider it written by the supreme apostle. The birth of Saint Irenaeus in Asia Minor, as well as his training in Christian principles from Polycarp of Smyrna, a disciple of the Evangelist John the Theologian, gives us reason to talk about the presence in the Lyons Church of scriptures written by the hand of the Lord’s beloved disciple. And indeed, he contains two epistles of the Apostle John, and about the third, Hieromartyr Hilarion makes the following assumption: “... it can be assumed that all three of John’s epistles were there. The third epistle of John, in its content, like the Epistle to Philemon, gives too little reason to quote texts from it; Moreover, it is so short. The absence of texts from the Third Epistle in Saint Irenaeus may be a simple coincidence. Meanwhile, it is difficult to admit that Saint Irenaeus in his New Testament had the Second Epistle of John and did not have the Third; in the history of the New Testament canon, as we will see many times later, these two epistles seem to be inextricably linked: they are either absent together, or together they are included in the New Testament of one or another Church” 33 . The book Apocalypse is cited by him 29 times. He calls it “Revelation”. In letters to the Lyons and Vienna Churches, the book of the Apocalypse is ranked by Saint Irenaeus among the books of Holy Scripture, but in addition he tells the history of its writing, noting the best copies of this book. From the Epistles of the Apostle Peter in St. Irenaeus one can find nine references borrowed from the First Epistle, but nothing is said about the second. At the same time, making a serious conclusion about the absence of this message is also not entirely correct. Despite the absence of the Epistle of Jude in the work of the Right Reverend Irenaeus, Bishop Hilarion believes that this message was familiar to him: “About the Epistle of Jude, it can still be assumed that Saint Irenaeus knew it. This can be assumed on the basis that, as we will see, this message was generally known in the West (in Rome and Carthage) among the New Testament books” 34. The Epistle of James, the brother of the Lord, was not known to the Lyon Church, as well as to other Western Churches, for quite a long time. Saint Irenaeus, in his work “Against Heresies,” also mentions the book “The Shepherd” of Hermas, placing it on a par with all other books of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. As we know, this book was not further included in the canonical corpus of New Testament books. The reviewed works of Saint Irenaeus of Lyons give Hieromartyr Hilarion reason to conclude that the Lyons Church had all the books of the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, except for the Second Epistle of Peter and the Epistle of James. She had the Epistle to the Hebrews, but was not recognized as canonical. But among other things, it recognized the book “The Shepherd” of Hermas, which was not subsequently accepted by the Church as canonical. Thanks to the Lyon Church, one can see what books were available and protected by the Church in the 2nd century. The research carried out by Hieromartyr Hilarion in the field of isagogy to study the history of the formation of the New Testament canon convincingly refutes Western scholars who have put forward various theories on this issue. He cites historical evidence proving that the Church of Ephesus in the 1st century was the most convenient place for concentrating the entire corpus of books of the New Testament. Ideally presenting the material, supported by excellent argumentation, Hieromartyr Hilarion with his work strengthened the position of Russian theology in this direction, and for the first time this idea was expressed by our learned Archpriest Alexander Gorsky. Hieromartyr Hilarion in some places complements the work of Archpriest Alexander. For example, it is very important from the point of view of philology that the Bishop noted how the epistles of the Apostle Paul, along with the Old Testament holy books, begin to be called “scriptures,” which in ancient Greek is denoted by the word Grafh. This shows the authority of the apostles and their messages. It is interesting to note how the apocrypha of the “Teachings of Addai” speaks of the book “Acts of the Twelve Apostles” sent from Ephesus by the Apostle John the Theologian, which reflects the significance of the Ephesian Church. Based on the same idea, Hieromartyr Hilarion begins to study the history of the formation of the New Testament already in the 2nd century, where, through certain conclusions, he comes to the conclusion that it is the Church of Lyons, as the successor of the Ephesian Church, that can be considered the keeper of the set of canonical books accepted by the Church in the 2nd century. See: Hilarion (Troitsky), martyr. Creations: In 3 volumes. M., 2004. T. 2: Theological works. P. 315. Gorsky A. Formation of the canon of sacred books of the New Testament. B. m., B. g. P. 2–3. Hilarion (Troitsky), martyr. Creations. T. 2. P. 308. Gorsky A. Formation of the canon of sacred books of the New Testament. P. 20. Hilarion (Troitsky), martyr. Creations. T. 2. P. 309. Gorsky A. Formation of the canon of sacred books of the New Testament. P. 30. Hilarion (Troitsky), martyr. Creations. T. 2. pp. 314–315.