Thursday, April 27, 2023

Wilhelm Schneemelcher on the so-called Decretum Gelasianum

  

The so-called Decretum Gelasianum

 

In the so-called Decretum Gelasianum de libris recipiendis et non recipiendis, which upon the whole is probably of South Gallic origin (6th century) but which in several parts can be traced back to Pope Damasus and reflects Roman tradition, we have in the second part a canon catalogue, in the fourth part an enumeration of recognised synods and ecclesiastical writers, and in the fifth part a catalogue of the ‘apocrypha’ and other writings which are to be rejected. The canon catalogue gives all twenty-seven books of the NT, the canon being therefore settled definitely in this form. The list, already outwardly and sharply separated from it, of the ‘apocrypha’, i.e. of the writings to be rejected, as given here in identification of the several writings that are cited is dispensed with (cf. on this Dobschütz in his edition). (Wilhelm Schneemelcher, “General Introduction,” in New Testament Apocrypha, ed. Wilhelm Schneemelcher, 2 vols. [trans. R. McL. Wilson; Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 1991], 1:38)