Canon list of Hippo
Conciliar · Decree · 393 · Latin
An African provincial council listing the books to be read in church as scripture, and listing exactly the twenty-seven of the received New Testament — the earliest surviving conciliar list that does. Augustine was present, still a priest. The acts of Hippo are lost; the list survives because Carthage restated it four years later.
Received it
- 397 — The Council of Carthage of 28 August 397 (Affirms). Bishop Epigonius moved that in the Breviarium adopted at Hippo nothing should be amended nor anything added except the announcement of Easter — so the African bishops carried the Hippo canon of scripture forward untouched. Henry R. Percival (ed.), The Seven Ecumenical Councils (NPNF series 2 vol. 14) · African Code canon 34 (Greek 37), 'That nothing of those things enacted in the Synod of Hippo is to be corrected'; Percival's note there identifies it as the beginning of canon 5 of Carthage, 28 August 397
- 691–692 — The Council in Trullo (Affirms). Trullo's second canon set its seal on the canons 'of Carthage' — the African code that carries the Hippo list — giving the African enumeration standing in the East. Henry R. Percival (ed.), The Seven Ecumenical Councils (NPNF series 2 vol. 14) · Council in Trullo, canon 2 ('we set our seal likewise upon all the other holy canons … In like manner those of Sardica, and those of Carthage')
Refused it
- 1900 — Henry R. Percival (Doubts). Percival counts four canons of Holy Scripture — five if the Laodicean list is genuine — all of them carrying Trullo's and the Seventh Council's approval, and concludes that the approval given was not specific but general. Henry R. Percival (ed.), The Seven Ecumenical Councils (NPNF series 2 vol. 14) · NPNF2 XIV, note following the canonical epistles gathered under Trullo canon 2: 'We have thus four [five if we accept the Laodicean list as genuine,] different canons of Holy Scripture … the approval given was not specific but general.'
What it formulates
- Which books are scripture The canonical scriptures are the books the council enumerates, and nothing else is to be read in church under the name of divine scripture.