collection of Christian writings, of which we know, consisting of ten
letters of Paul and an abridged version of the _Gospel according to
Luke_, was put forth by Marcion in the Second Century to defend his
interpretation of Christianity--an interpretation which the majority of
Christians did not accept. It was inevitable that a fuller collection of
writings should be made to refute those whose faith appeared incomplete
or incorrect.

In the last quarter of the Second Century we find established the
conception of the Bible as consisting of two parts--the Old and the New
Covenant. This meant that the Christian writings so acknowledged would
be given at least the same authority as was then accorded to the Jewish
Bible. Early in the Fourth Century the historian, Eusebius, tells us how
the New Testament stood in his day. He divides the books into three
classes--those acknowledged, those disputed, and those rejected. In the
second division he places the epistles of _James_ and _Jude_, the
_Second Epistle of Peter_ and the _Second_ and _Third_ of _John_; in the
first all our other books, but he says of the _Revelation of John_, that
some think that it should be put in the third division; in the third he
names a number of books which are of interest to us as showing what some
churches regarded as worthy of a place in the New Testament, and used as
they did our familiar gospels and epistles. By the end of that century,
under the influence of Athanasius and the Church in Rome, the New
Testament as it now stands became almost everywhere recognized.

The reason given for the acceptance or rejection of a book was its
_apostolic authorship_. Only books that could claim to have been written
by an apostle or an apostolic man were considered authoritative. We now
know that not all the books could meet this requirement; but the
Church's real reason was its own discriminating spiritual experience