Development of the New Testament canon a heretic and in the early 4th century Bishop Theodoretus of Cyrrhus and Bishop Rabbula of Edessa (both in Syria) rooted out all copies they could find of the Diatessaron and replaced them with the four canonical Gospels (M 215). As a result, no early copies of the Diatessaron survive—although a very early fragment suggests it would have been crucial evidence for the true state of the early Gospels (see IX). By the 5th century, the Syriac Bible, called the Peshitta, was formalized, accepting Philemon, along with James, 1 Peter and 1 John, but excluding 2 John, 3 John, 2
Jan Lambrecht (New Testament scholar) Jan Lambrecht (New Testament scholar) Jan Lambrecht (born in Wielsbeke, 1926) is a Belgian Roman Catholic priest of the Society of Jesus, Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Biblical Greek at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium and former member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. As a theologian, biblical scholar, and prolific author, he has contributed numerous studies on almost all the books of the New Testament, but focusing especially on the Gospels and the Pauline letters. His publications include books and articles written in English, Dutch, and French. Lambrecht joined the Society of Jesus in