African Councils List the Books of Scripture

On 8 October 393 the bishops of the African provinces met in council at Hippo Regius (Council of Carthage (397) African Code, notice of the council of Hippo), where Augustine of Hippo, then a presbyter, addressed them on the creed (Augustine, Retractations 1.17). Their decisions survive in a summary that was read and confirmed at Carthage on 28 August 397, at a council presided over by Aurelius of Carthage and signed by Augustine, by then a bishop (Council of Carthage (397) Breviarium Hipponense, preface and subscriptions) (Council of Carthage (397) African Code, canon 34).

One canon rules that “besides the Canonical Scriptures nothing be read in church under the name of divine Scripture” (Council of Carthage (397) African Code, canon 24), and lists them. Of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, four books of Kingdoms, two of Chronicles, Job, the Psalter, five books of Solomon, the twelve prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Tobit, Judith, Esther, two books of Ezra and two of Maccabees. Of the New: four Gospels, Acts, thirteen letters of Paul and one “of the same” to the Hebrews, two of Peter, three of John, one of James, one of Jude, and the Apocalypse of John. The accounts of the martyrs may also be read on their anniversaries (Council of Carthage (397) canon 47). Some manuscripts end the canon with a direction to consult the churches across the sea (Council of Carthage (397) canon 47, with variant readings).

The New Testament is the twenty-seven books that Athanasius had named in 367 (Athanasius, Festal Letter 39.4–7). The Old Testament is longer than his, for he set Wisdom, Sirach, Esther, Judith and Tobit outside the canon as books to be read by beginners (Athanasius, Festal Letter 39.4–7). Augustine, in a list that matches the council’s, counts Wisdom and Sirach with the three books of Solomon as ascribed to him (Augustine, On Christian Doctrine 2.8.12–13). Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach and Maccabees are not among the twenty-two books of the Hebrew canon as Jerome lists them (Jerome, Preface to Samuel and Kings). They are among the books that Protestants call the Apocrypha.

Jerome, translating from the Hebrew in the same years, drew the line differently. Wisdom, Sirach, Judith and Tobit, he wrote, “are not in the canon” (Jerome, Preface to Samuel and Kings). In another preface he says that the church reads Judith, Tobit and Maccabees “but does not admit them among the canonical Scriptures”, and Wisdom and Sirach may be read “for the edification of the people, not to give authority to doctrines of the Church” (Jerome, Preface to the books of Solomon).

The council of 419 repeated the list, counting fourteen letters of Paul, and asked that it be sent to Boniface, bishop of Rome, for confirmation (Council of Carthage (397) African Code, canon 24). The Catholic Church at Trent in 1546 named Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch and Maccabees among the books to be received as sacred and canonical (Council of Trent session 4, decree on the canonical Scriptures). The Orthodox Synod of Jerusalem in 1672 declared Wisdom, Judith, Tobit, Maccabees and Sirach genuine parts of Scripture (Confession of Dositheus question 3 (p. 155)). The Church of England’s Articles of 1571, a Protestant statement, list the books of the Hebrew canon and say, citing Jerome, that the others are read “for example of life and instruction of manners” but not to establish doctrine (Thirty-Nine Articles article 6).