Development of the New Testament canon somewhat similar to the twenty-seven-book NT canon, which included four gospels and argued against objections to them. Thus, while there was a good measure of debate in the Early Church over the New Testament canon, the major writings are claimed to have been accepted by almost all Christians by the middle of the 3rd century. In his Easter letter of 367, Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, gave a list of the books that would become the twenty-seven-book NT canon, and he used the word "canonized" ( "kanonizomena") in regard to them. The first council that accepted the present canon of the
Rossano Gospels small Old Testament prophet portraits below, prefiguring and pointing up to events described in the New Testament scene above. The now incomplete codex contains the text of the Gospel of Matthew and the majority of the Gospel of Mark, with only one lacuna (Mark 16:14-20). Probably it had companion second volume which is apparently lost. Like the Vienna Genesis and the Sinope Gospels, the Rossano Gospels are written in silver ink on purple dyed parchment. The large ( by ) book has text written in a square block with two columns of twenty lines each. There is a prefatory cycle