Primary source · Koine Greek
Festal Letter 39 (the canon of the New Testament)
Athanasius of Alexandria · Easter letter, AD 367
What this text is
The first list in history to name exactly the twenty-seven books of the New Testament — 'in these alone is the teaching of godliness proclaimed; let no one add to them.'
Profile of Athanasius of Alexandria →
Interlinear passages
Word-for-word glosses of the original; the complete public-domain translation is linked below.
The fountains of salvation
ταῦταtheseπηγαὶfountainsτοῦofσωτηρίουsalvation
Public-domain translations
A. Robertson (NPNF, 1892)
These are fountains of salvation, that they who thirst may be satisfied with the living words they contain. In these alone is proclaimed the doctrine of godliness. Let no man add to these, neither let him take ought from these.
Manuscript witnesses
Syriac corpus (BL Add. 14528) & Coptic fragments
Syriac ms 6th–7th c.The festal collection survives mainly in Syriac, found in the Nitrian desert; the canon letter (39) partly in Greek.
Provenance
Alexandria, AD 329–373 — the yearly Easter letters, no. 39 fixing the canon
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- The Festal Letters of AthanasiusWilliam Cureton (ed.), 1848Editio princeps of the Syriac.
- Athanasius: The Festal Epistles (LFC / NPNF II/4)Henry Burgess & Archibald Robertson, 1854/1892Public-domain English with the canonical letter.