Rufinus.
Rufinus.
§ 88. When Jerome went to the East, his companion was Rufinus, presbyter of the Church of Aquileia, whom Jerome calls in his letter to Florentius “my brother, joined by an indivisible love of brotherhood.” Therefore we are correct in connecting him to Jerome. Rufinus often spoke against Jerome, especially in defense of Origen, but in this question he does agree, which adds weight to Jerome’s testimony. He writes in his Expositio symboli (which is not correctly attributed to Cyprian): “Those are the volumes of the Old and New Testaments that, according to the testimony of our forefathers, are believed to have been inspired and given to the churches of Christ by the Holy Spirit Himself. Here it appears fitting to designate them with a specific number, just as we received this from the writings of the fathers.” Then he presents the list of the canonical books, a list that coincides exactly with that of Jerome. Rufinus also adds: “These are the books that the fathers included within the canon from which they wanted the declarations of our faith to be established.” Later he says: “It should be known that there are other books that are not canonical but that our predecessors called ‘ecclesiastical,’ such as the Wisdom of Solomon. Of the same class also are Judith, Tobit, and the Books of the Maccabees; and in the New Testament the book called ‘the Book of the Shepherd.’ All of these they wanted to be read in the churches, but they did not want them to be advanced to confirm the authority of the faith.” He finally concludes: “It seemed opportune here to designate those books that, as I said, the fathers handed down to us to instruct those who are receiving the first elements [of the faith], that they may know from what springs of God’s Word they must fill their cups.” Melchior Canus (Locor., bk. 1, c. 11) accuses Rufinus of ignorance under the charge that he did not know the traditions of the fathers of the Council of Carthage. We shall, however, speak about the opinion of the Carthaginians later.