The Muratorian fragment is a remarkable find to the Christian faith. Most Christians look to Athanasius (367 CE) or the councils in North Africa and Carthage (390 CE) to see a completed list of the New Testament (Ferguson, 2013). The Muratorian fragment, dated around 180 CE, gives believers an ancient record of 22 of the 27 New Testament books; this is a fantastic discovery (Caius, 1886)! This discovery means that, within just 150 years of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the core writings of the New Testament were already being circulated, accepted, and deemed authoritative within the universal catholic Church. In just these New Testament books, doctrines of Jesus’ deity, His human nature, His death for sinners, His resurrection, and forgiveness for sins found in Him alone can easily be justified (1 Cor. 15:3; Acts 1:3; 2:24-36; 13:38-39; Gal. 2:15-16; John 1:1-3; 6:47; Phil. 2:6-8; Romans 10:9). Furthermore, this fragment also shows us what the Church did not deem authoritative, and it warns believers to stay away from specific letters and teachers (e.g., Marcion, Arsinous, Valentinus, and Miltiades).
In addition to the Muratorian fragment, Apostolic Fathers quote the New Testament as well. For example, Clement of Rome (95 C.E.), uses material from almost all of the New Testament with the exception of Philemon, James, 2 Peter, and 2 and 3 John. Ignatius from Rome (110 CE), quotes Matthew, Luke, Acts, Ephesians, Romans, 1 Corinthians, Colossians, and 1 Thessalonians. Then there is Polycarp who is Ignatius’s successor, who quotes at least 17 N.T. books!
Christians should feel confident that God through the influence of the Holy Spirit, allowed the early Church to discover all the books that He wanted to be in the completed Canon of Scripture. It is no accident that some letters were included and some were left out, it all happened through the sovereign hand of God. From this fragment, we can see that God was already working in the hearts and minds of His children and that soon, the Canon would be finalized and completed so that the whole world would have no doubt who Jesus truly claimed to be, the Son of God/Man.
References
Caius, P. of R. (1886). Fragments of Caius. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), S. D. F. Salmond (Trans.), Fathers of the third century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Novatian, Appendix (Vol. 5). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.
Ferguson, E. (2013). Church history: From Christ to the pre-Reformation (2nd ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Roberts, A., Donaldson, J., & Coxe, A. C. (Eds.). (1885). The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Vol. 1). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.
St. Clement of Rome and St. Ignatius of Antioch. (1946). The Epistles of St. Clement of Rome and St. Ignatius of Antioch. (J. Quasten & J. C. Plumpe, Eds., J. A. Kleist, Trans.) (1st ed.). New York; Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press.