The synod of 393 is best known for two distinct acts. First, for the first time a council of bishops listed and approved a Christian Biblical canon that corresponds to the modern Catholic canon while falling short of the Eastern Orthodoxcanon. The canon list approved at Hippo included books later classed by Catholics as deuterocanonical books and by Protestants as Apocrypha. The canon list was later approved at the Council of Carthage (397) pending ratification by the "Church across the sea", that is, the See of Rome.[1] Previous councils had approved similar, but slightly different, canons.
The council also reaffirmed the apostolic origin of the requirement of clerical continence and reasserted it as a requirement for all the ordained, in addition requiring that all members of a person's household must be Christian before that person can be ordained.[2][3] Rules regarding clerical succession were also clarified at the synod,[4] as well as certain liturgical considerations.[5]
Canonical scriptures
The canonical scriptures are listed in Canon xxxvi as follows:
In the De doctrina christiana, Augustine explains the relation between the two books of Ezra/Esdras and its separation with the Chronicles (partly included in the Septuagint's 1 Esdras): "... and the two of Ezra, which last look more like a sequel to the continuous regular history which terminates with the books of Kings and Chronicles."[8]
Notes
^Francis, Havey (1907), "African Synods", The Catholic Encyclopedia, New York: Robert Appleton Company, retrieved 1 March 2013
^Schaff, Philip; Wace, Henry, "Cannon XXXVI", The Seven Ecumenical Councils, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Second Series, vol. XIV, Grand Rapids: William B Eerdmans Publishing Company, retrieved 1 March 2013