Episode 5 continues the study of the Canon of the Bible.  That concept "canon" is a term to describe what is and what is not officially part of X thing, such as "the Shakespeare canon" or "the Star Wars canon." Others may write or contribute things if they wish (so, like fan fiction), but those works are not usually part of the canon. So last episode we examined the concept of "canon" for the Jewish Scripture (what Christians talk about the Old Testament). This episode we turn around attention to the writings about Jesus, the central figure of the Christian faith.  There are 27 official ancient manuscripts contained in that collection, what they called "the New Testament," but are those the correct writings?  Should there be less?  Should there be more? On what criteria did the decision get made?  Was that decision made early (say within the lifetimes of Jesus' disciples) or was it made later, worse 100s of years later? We talk through the history of the composition of these writings, and consider the early ideas of the second generation of "Jesus-followers" who started to quote from these first writings.  Then we discuss the crucial moment of the man Marcion who did first comprise a list, his thoughts about the canon. His list was smaller than the traditional 27, but why? And what did other Christians think about his list? Ultimately, the Christian leaders of the 2nd and 3rd century will describe the official canonical list of writings that were created in the first century, during the life of the original disciples.

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