jan 1, 367 - Athanasius' Canon {in his Festal Letter)

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Athanasius, in his Festal Letter 39, for the occassion of Easter, prescribes the contents of the NT canon and condemns "apocrypha" as heretical possibly prompting the hiding of other books (e.g., Nag Hammadi codices). His list of the texts in the "Old Testament" and the "New Testament" canon corresponds to the current canon in the Western churches.

As argued by David Brakke, "Athanasius’s promotion of a biblical canon supported a parish-based, episcopally-centered spirituality in opposition to other forms of Christian authority, namely, the teacher and the martyr." Indeed, he promoted his canon "not only to support one form of Christian piety, social formation, and authority in opposition to others, but also to refute the specific teachings of persons and groups that he deemed 'impious' and 'heretics.'" (Brakke, HTR 103:1 [2010])

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