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A list of the NT canon, in poor Latin and copied by a none too able scribe, included in a collection of later material found in 1740 by Ludovico Antonio Muratori in the Ambrosian Library in Milan. It describes, or more precisely, justifies, each item listed. Both the beginning and ending lines were lost before the text was copied into the Muratorian collection, hence the alternate name Muratorian Fragment. For the text, see Metzger Canon 191-201. Date. Probably c170, in Rome. A 4c date and an Eastern provenance was argued by Sundberg and defended by Hahneman (with supporting reviews by Elliott and Grant), but nothing there advanced overcomes the absence of anyone later than the 2c in the list of excluded heretics, the sense of urgency about countering Marcion (who was not necessarily heretical in the East), and above all this reference to Hermas: But Hermas wrote the Shepherd very recently, in our times, in the city of Rome, while Bishop Pius [157], his brother, was occupying the chair of the Church of the city of Rome. And therefore it ought indeed to be read, but cannot be read publicly to the people in church, either among the Prophets, whose number is complete, or among the Apostles, for it is after their time. The inclusion of some later rejected texts, and the omission of some that were accepted only late in the formation process (the epistles of James and Peter) shows a canon still in the process of being worked out. The contents of the list (with excerpts from its comments), in its order, are: [Mark] . . . at which nevertheless he was present, and so he placed [them in his narrative]. Luke the well known physician John one of the disciples 1 John Acts omits Pauls departure from Rome when he journeyed to Spain Corinthians first of Pauls letters Ephesians Philippians Colossians Galatians Thessalonians [the presence of 2 Thess is not excluded; cf Corinthians] Romans seventh [compared to the seven letters of John in Revelation] Philemon Titus 1-2 Timothy There is current also one to the Laodiceans, and another to the Alexandrians, forged in Pauls name to further the heresy of Marcion, and several others which cannot be received into the Catholic Church.

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Jude two of John The Book of !Wisdom written by the friends of Solomon in his honor Apocalypse of John Apocalypse of Peter though some are not willing that the latter be read in church Hermas [see comment quoted above] But we accept nothing whatever of Arsinous or Valentinus or Miltiades, who also composed a new book of psalms for Marcion, together with Basilides, the Asian founder of the Cataphrygians . . .

The missing beginning evidently was an entry for Matthew. The ending seems to have contained texts not included in the canon, so that our fragment includes a complete listing of that canon. Despite the mangled sentences at its beginning and end, then, the writer has evidently completed his list of the canonical texts proper, and concludes by mentioning, as a caution, some items which, though current and popular, are not to be admitted into the circle of what is allowed to be read in church. The original is assumed to have been in Greek, the Muratorian text seems to have been derived from something worn to shreds at both its head and tail. It may have consisted of a single sheet of papyrus, plus the ravages of time, and thus may have been a separate text in its own right. At any rate, it is not very easy to imagine what longer text it might have been part of, or appended to. The threat of Marcion, and of several writers who like him were classed as heretics, seems to be very present in the writers mind. It has been suggested that !Laodiceans was Marcions name for Colossians, but this writer evidently distinguishes them. A likelier possibility is that the epistle to the Alexandrians is our !Hebrews, whose affinity with Alexandrian thought is manifest, whose Pauline credentials are unconvincing (which would explain why it is not here grouped with the Paulines), and whose insistence on a Covenant only with Gentiles, and no longer with Jews, is in line with Marcions extreme Paulinism. Order. No NT manuscript8 groups any of the Johannine Epistles with the Gospel of John. The almost universal order of the Johannines in later manuscripts is 2 Peter / 1-3 John / Jude. The Muratorian order is obviously uninfluenced by this trend. In agreement with modern analysis, it puts 1 John next to the Gospel (with which it shares many doctrinal details) and only later lists two [epistles] of John. These are probably our 2-3 John, which may be biographically related, and are in any case similar in size and in message; the Muratorian order seems to agree with later practice in putting at least these two epistles next to Jude. Nothing in this arrangement makes unlikely an early date for the Muratorian canon.

Of those listed in Swanson Acts 509-513.