back to apostolic times (see p. 157). While Irenaeus used the list
of bishops of Rome as a way of guaranteeing the doctrinal truth
of orthodoxy, he also saw the error of heresy as possessing its
own tradition and succession, albeit a corrupt one. Thus the false
teachings of the Gnostics were argued to stem from the errors of
the magician Simon Magus described in the New Testament (Acts
8.9–20). Deviation from the apostolic tradition became, for the
fathers of the church, the hallmark of heresy.
The debates on orthodoxy and heresy had one further, and
very basic, repercussion. While Irenaeus and others might stress
the truth of their doctrinal position and their direct succession to
the age of the apostles, there was only one criterion by which
orthodoxy could be judged: according to which scriptures were
authoritative and true. Although arguments about what should
constitute the New Testament canon dragged on until the fourth
century at least (see chapter 3), it was in the context of these early
debates on orthodoxy and heresy that the first arguments were
made for closing the canon of Christian scripture. Thus Irenaeus
condemned the proliferation of gospels used by his opponents and
asserted that only four gospels – those attributed to Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John – should be regarded as true. Although
Irenaeus seems to have ignored or passed over certain texts that
came to be included in the canon (namely Philemon,2 Peter, 3
John, and Jude), he quoted from or alluded to all the others. In
particular, the fourfold gospel was central to his argument. That
there should only be four gospels could be proved from scripture
(the four creatures mentioned at Revelation4.9; and the four
covenants between God and humanity made through Noah,
Abraham, Moses, and Jesus) and from nature (the four points of
the compass, and the four winds) (Against Heresies3.11.8).
However subjective we may regard such arguments, they became
widely accepted by the majority of Christian groups in the course
of the next century (Stanton 2004: 63–91). For all that, the battle
for orthodoxy, ecclesiastical order, and the New Testament canon
was not won quickly. In many parts of the Christian world, other
gospels continued to be read, sometimes for centuries afterwards.ORTHODOXY AND ORGANIZATION IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY
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