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To: dangus
Another odd thing about citing the Muratorian fragment is that its author is plainly defining the canon not by which books are doctrinally authoritative, but which are fitting to be used in public worship.

???

52 posted on 03/25/2016 5:50:59 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie
???

Why do you think a canon had to be made exactly? The Bible was compiled for the purposes of what could be read in church.

54 posted on 03/25/2016 5:53:34 AM PDT by Legatus (I think, therefore you're out of your mind)
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To: Elsie

I’m not sure if what confused you was “public worship.” I mean church service, but I was avoiding debate on the nature of church service. (As a Catholic, I read that as mass, but others don’t believe similarly.)

The apocalypse of Peter is honored, but not included in church worship; it is not canonical.

“We receive only the apocalypses of John and Peter, [7b] though some of us are not willing that the latter be read in church.”

7b. The Apocalypse of Peter describes with some imaginative detail the torments of hell and the blessings of heaven. It was read with respect and used for admonition throughout the churches in early times.

Here again, the fragment’s author upholds the Shepherd of Hermas as something Christians should read, but as unfit for mass:

“But Hermas wrote the Shepherd very recently, in our times, in the city of Rome, while bishop Pius, his brother, was occupying the [episcopal] chair of the church of the city of Rome. And therefore it ought indeed to be read; but it cannot be read publicly to the people in church either among the Prophets, whose number is complete, or among the Apostles, for it is after [their] time.”


67 posted on 03/25/2016 12:44:48 PM PDT by dangus
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