Page "Athanasius of Alexandria" Paragraph 63

St Athanasius is also the first person to identify the same 27 books of the New Testament that are in use today.

Up until then, various similar lists of works to be read in churches were in use.

A milestone in the evolution of the canon of New Testament books is his Easter letter from Alexandria, written in 367, usually referred to as his 39th Festal Letter.

Pope Damasus I, the Bishop of Rome in 382, promulgated a list of books which contained a New Testament canon identical to that of Athanasius.

A synod in Hippo in 393 repeated Athanasius ' and Damasus ' New Testament list ( without the Epistle to the Hebrews ), and a synod in Carthage in 397 repeated Athanasius ' and Damasus ' complete New Testament list.