Development of the New Testament canon a novelty in Irenaeus's time. "Against Heresies" 3.11.7 acknowledges that many heterodox Christians use only one gospel while 3.11.9 acknowledges that some use more than four. The success of Tatian's Diatessaron in about the same time period is "...a powerful indication that the fourfold Gospel contemporaneously sponsored by Irenaeus was not broadly, let alone universally, recognized." Irenaeus apparently quotes from 21 of the New Testament books and names the author he thought wrote the text. He mentions the four gospels, Acts, the Pauline epistles with the exception of Hebrews and Philemon, as well as the first epistle of Peter, and
The Secret of the Way Things Are Testament gospels, the book of James, and especially the book of Daniel. Although there is no literal dependence between Daniel and the Sapiential Works, it is likely that they emerged from the same, or similar, scribal circles. Many phrases and ideas from Daniel pertaining to wisdom, revelation, and the elect recur in "The Secret of the Way Things Are." Similarly, both books reflect scribal activity with "a quest for divine communication," and "neither are concerned with the sacrificial cult of the Temple" (Elgvin 1996 : 131). The Work is also analogous to New Testament scripture, with recurring similarities found in