Issues relating to Scripture existed at each of the Seven Ecumenical Councils (q.v.). The primary theological debate over Scripture at the First Council had to do with its use within a common creed, later called the Nicene Creed. Gnosticism and Arianism (q.v.) had created a crisis that only the Greek word “homoousios” or “consubstantial”—a non-Biblical word—could address. The Church Fathers (q.v.) maintained that the description of Jesus Christ as “homoousios” or “of one essence with the Father” was in fact “Biblical,” though the word itself does not appear in the Bible. Other canons from the Ecumenical Councils relate to Scripture: Apostolic Canon #85 is the earliest canonical reference to a list of the books of Scripture. The Orthodox Church’s list of books is the longest of all the churches, containing all the “apocryphal” (in Protestant terminology) books or deuterocanonical books found in the RSV or NRSV. The Metered Poems of St. Gregory the Theologian (mid–4th c.), the Iambics of Amphilocius, Bishop of Seleucus, and African Code, Canon #24 all give advice as to which are the “genuine books” of Scripture. Quinisext, Canon #2 (7th c.) gave blanket approval to all canons previously recognized in the Church. The Seventh Ecumenical Council (787) in its first canon accepted all the canons of the Sixth Ecumenical and the Quinisext, reinforcing the same view.
I would like to see the canon, i.e. the books with a Bible datatype, expanded even further in Logos 10 to account for more of the historically important canons outside the Western Church. I am pleased with the current breadth of the canon but would appreciate being able to accommodate the progressive Protestants and the Oriental Orthodox canons.
Items of particular interest to me include Shepherd of Hermas, Jubilees (Little Genesis), . . .
