What is the canon of the Christian Church?

The church is a very complex structure with its own laws, dogmas and traditions. They are difficult to understand without understanding the origins. So what is the canon of the church?

For the first time this word appears concerning the Holy Scriptures. What is the canon in the context of the Bible and hermeneutics? This is the rule that is used to determine some standard for books. It must be remembered that all the books of the New and Old Testaments were absolutely canonic at the time of their writing. Understanding that Scripture is the main authority of the Christian Church and will make it possible to separate the truth from theological delusion.

What is the canon in the Bible, and what measures and standards were used to determine whether this or that book could be classified as canonical and become part of the Holy Scriptures? An explanation of this question was given in the Epistle from Judas (1: 3). There affirms such a moment that faith was given by the Lord God once and for all. Therefore, faith is determined by Scripture, and, according to the statement of the apostle of Judah, it was one for all. The Psalter asserts that Truth is the foundation of the Sacred Word. Proceeding from this statement, theologians and apologists compared individual books in the limit of the generally accepted canonical Scripture. The main books of the Bible support the assertion that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. However, most non-biblical texts that claim canonicality deny the very idea of the deity of Christ. This is one of the main features of the so-called apocrypha.

What is the canon from a more metaphysical point of view? In the era of the early Christian Church, individual societies recognized this or that text as "inspired," which ultimately was the criterion for its canonicity. During the first few centuries active polemics were conducted only about several books, the main list of which had already been approved before the 3rd century AD. For example, the so-called penitential canon (or touching) of Andrew of Crete is recognized as canonic.

When considering the books of the Old Testament, the following factors were fundamental:

- the presence of citations or references in the New Testament to the books of the Old Testament (with the exception of two);

- as described in the Gospels, Jesus Christ supported the Old Testament traditions and even quoted some narratives and texts;

- the Jews themselves very carefully approached the preservation of the Old Testament writings . The Roman Catholic apocrypha does not correspond to these points, therefore they were never accepted by the Jews.

Many liturgical texts refer to orthodox solely because of their "spirituality". As an example, the canon is penitential. It combines a huge number of sacred images for Christians and is imbued with Christian spirit and spirituality.

Answering the question: "What is the canon?" One can not fail to mention one of the important criteria of the early Church: was the person who wrote this or that text "witnessed" the deeds of Jesus Christ. Thus, it can be concluded that the canon of the church was formed in the first centuries of the birth of Christianity and has not undergone any special changes since.