Meaning of MURATORI (Fragment)

This is an ancient writing discovered by Ludovico Antonio Muratori (1672-1750), founder of historiographic science in Italy. The discovery took place in the Ambrosiana Library in Milan.

It was found in a Latin codex of the 8th century, and Muratori himself later published it in "Antiquitates Italicae Medii Aevi", III (Milan, 1740, PP. 851-854).

Later, four small fragments of the same writing from codices from the 11th and 12th centuries were discovered in the library of the Montecasino monastery.

This writing gives a list of books of the New Testament, with valuable indications about several of them. 85 lines of the text are preserved, with the first or first missing.

This explains why there is no reference to the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. On the other hand, Luke, John, Acts, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Galatians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Romans, Philemon, Titus, 1 and 2 Timothy, 1, 2 (3?), are mentioned. John, Revelation, and 1 Peter?

Hebrews, James, and 2 Peter are not mentioned (see corresponding articles). On the other hand, the Apocalypse of Saint Peter and the Wisdom of Solomon are mentioned as part of the NT canon.

On the other hand, they reject the Letter to the Laodiceans, which purported to be a letter from the apostle Paul, but which was nothing more than a forgery to support the Marcionite heresy, which participated in dangerous Gnostic characteristics.

In this fragment the Shepherd of Hermas is mentioned, recommending it as a private reading, but denying that it had canonicity. This gives us clues to evaluate the character of Christianity at that time.

The Shepherd contains, among other openly heretical passages, a defense of an immoral asceticism. This doctrine had been accepted in Alexandria, and the habit of cohabiting and sleeping with single women, also consecrated to celibacy, but being above all passion, above that evil nature to which pure souls had descended, spread among the clergy. .

This state of things should not cause surprise, but it should cause surprise that it, coming from pagan practices and a philosophy that did not know God, was incorporated into the Church, and that Hermas was read.

However, the example of Corinth is enough to see the deviations that could occur, even when the full and corrective authority of the apostles was exercised.

Thus, although Muratori's Canon is historically an important testimony, it cannot be accepted in the establishment of the canon as a decision-making authority.

Due to the internal evidence it offers (when talking about Hermas, and relating him to the bishop of Rome, his brother Pius), the writing of this document had to take place in the second half of the 2nd century.

Regarding his paternity, opinions are very conflicting. The highest probability is assigned to Hippolytus of Rome (Lightfoot, Zahn and Lagrange); other proposed authors are Melitón de Sardis (Bartlet); Polycrates of Ephesus (Kuhn); Clement of Alexandria (Chapmann) and even Rodón (Erbes); Muratori thought it was Gaius Romanus.

However, there are no well-founded reasons for any of these identifications, so this is an unresolved issue. Another issue is its original language.

There are supporters that it was originally written in Greek and later translated into Latin (Zahn, Merck), while others claim that it was originally written in Latin (Harnack, Altaner).

However, nothing can be stated with certainty either. Latin, however, is very deficient. It presents many barbarisms and, in some places, it is difficult to understand its meaning.