Comments by "" (@neutronalchemist3241) on "The Book that Almost Made it into the Bible" video.

  1. The Muratorian Fragment, that's roughly contemporary to the Sheperd (it states the Sheperd had been written by the brother of Pope Pius I, and so it could not be considered canonical, as it was too recent) already estabilished a canon that's practically the modern one. The deciding factor was the age of the texts that had to be included. Not first century material=not canon (roughly obviously, since modern dating had yet to be invented).
    3
  2.  @ikengaspirit3063  For early Christians "gnostic" was mainly related to the intention of the teacher, that, in case of gnostics, was mainly that to sell "very special revelations, not destined to common people" to rich widows (a common occurrence in Rome, since old rich men often married young girls) in exchange of money. Several Church fathers made jokes about it.
    3
  3. The Muratorian Fragment, that's roughly contemporary to the text, clearly states it had been written by the brother of Pope Pius I (and so it could not be considered canonical, as it was too recent). It could have been at least mentioned. Also the Sheperd is not included in the Codex Vaticanus, that's roughly contemporary to the Codex Sinaiticus. The fortune of the Sheperd seems to have been mainly in the periferal areas of the Empire, while in Rome, where it had been written, it had always been considered suspect, exactly because people could remember it was not first century material.
    1