to finalize the canon; from the beginning of the 2nd Century to the mid-4th Century, no book in the final canon was ever declared spurious or heretical, except for the Revelation of John which the Council of Laodicea in 363–364 CE rejected (although it accepted all of the other 26 books in the New Testament). This was possibly due to fears of the influence of Montanism which used the book extensively to support their theology. See Revelation of John for more details. Athanasius wrote his Easter letter in 367 CE which defined a canon of 27 books, identical to the current canon, but also listed two works that were "not in the canon but to be read:" The Shepherd of Hermas and the Didache. Nevertheless, the early church leaders in the 3rd and 4th Centuries generally distinguished between canonical works and those that were not canonical but 'useful,' or 'good for teaching,' though never relegating any of the final 27 books to the latter category. One aim with establishing the canon was to capture only those works which were held to have been written by the Apostles, or their close associates, and as the Muratorian fragment canon (ca. 150–175 CE) states concerning the Shepherd of Hermas: ...But Hermas wrote The Shepherd very recently, in our times, in the city of Rome, while bishop Pius, his brother, was occupying the chair of the church of the city of Rome. And therefore it ought indeed to be read; but it 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. Published collections See also Apostolic Fathers Authorship of the Pauline epistles Biblical apocrypha Biblical canon Books of the Bible List of early Christian writers History of Christianity Historicity of Jesus List of Gospels Nag Hammadi library The Q document, a hypothetical document underlying much of the text of the canonical gospels of Matthew and Luke Textual criticism References Sources (6th German edition, translated by George Ogg) External links New Testament Apocrypha texts New Testament Apocrypha resources New Testament Apocrypha histories New Testament Apocrypha - Tabulation includes Gnostic Gospels (23) and Gnostic Acts (29), linked to English translations. fi:Apokryfiset kirjat