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Canonicity

9/20/2018

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Thursdays are for the New Testament
9/20/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353

What is the “canon”? At first the word referred to a standard of faith. By the fourth century the term “canon” came to refer to a list of books that were considered authoritative Scripture. An important consideration in the study of canonicity is whether the canonical status or the functional authority came first. Carson and Moo explore that question first considering whether there was an authoritative list of canonical books of the Old Testament agreed upon by Jews prior to the first century. It does appear that there were canonical collections of the Torah and Prophets, though there seems to have been some doubt about identification of some canonical books. This suggests that canonicity is a matter of recognition of authority, rather than presentation of an authoritative list which will then be accepted because of the authority of those presenting it.

In studies of the New Testament books as referred to by patristic authors we see that the gospels and major Pauline letters are quoted very frequently, the rest of the New Testament is quoted less frequently, and other works that we know about are hardly ever quoted. We find a summary in Eusebius of Caesarea, who lived about 260-340.
p. 734 “In discussing the New Testament canon, Eusebius deploys a tripartite classification: the recognized books (homologoumena), the disputed books (antilegomena), and the books put forward by heretics in the name of the apostles but rejected by those Eusebius regards as orthodox. In the first category, Eusebius includes the four gospels, Acts, fourteen Pauline epistles (Eusebius includes Hebrews, though he is aware that the church in Rome did not hold Hebrews to be Pauline), 1 Peter, 1 John, and, apparently (though with some reservation) the Apocalypse. Eusebius subdivides the disputed books into those generally accepted (James, Jude, 2 Peter, and 2 and 3 John) and those that are not genuine (Acts of Paul, Shepherd of Hermas, Apocalypse of Peter, Epistle of Barnabas, the Didache, and, perhaps, the Apocalypse). The third category, embracing clearly heretical writings, including gospels such as those of Peter and Thomas, acts of Andrew and John, and similar writings (H.E. 3.25).”

How were writings recognized? First and foremost by conformity to “the rule of faith” (Latin regula fidei). Does the book conform to orthodox Christian truth? A second mark is “apostolicity, which as a criterion came to include those who were in immediate contact with the apostles” (p. 736). Wherever early Christians suspect a pseudonymous work they reject it. Finally, canonicity is recognized by widespread, continuous acceptance and usage. If the text is not generally accepted as Scripture, even if it fits the two other criteria, it is not recognized as canonical.

Carson and Moo conclude that canonicity is generally recognized, then codified in lists. We recognize canonical texts because of their long and consistent use within the Christian tradition, by their authorship, and by their apostolic content.

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Old Testament Canonicity

11/28/2017

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Tuesdays are for the Old Testament
11/28/17

Lessing, R. Reed & Andrew E. Steinmann. Prepare the Way of the Lord: An Introduction to the Old Testament. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2014. Chapter 1 “The Old Testament Canon” pp. 1-12.

The term “canon” indicates an authoritative listing. Lessing and Steinmann note that the Old Testament canon is recognized by many groups, though there may be some variations in the order or in how some additional resources are viewed (Lessing 2014, 1). By the second century B.C. there seems to be recognition of such a collection of writings. Though canonicity may not have been formally stated in Judaism until the fourth century, the common acceptance and use of the canonical books seems to reach considerably earlier (Lessing 2014, 2).

The idea of binding scrolls together in books was unknown at the time of Jesus (Lessing 2014, 3). Therefore we would not expect to see an earlier example of an entire Old Testament. Lessing and Steinmann observe that other books were read, especially by some Christians, alongside the Old Testament books which Jews rather universally accepted. In the West, these books tended to be accepted as part of the Old Testament (Lessing 2014, 3). In the Reformation, while those additional books were noted, they were normally removed from the group Jews would recognize as canonical (Lessing 2014, 3). As a reaction to the Protestant Reformation, the Roman church tended to adopt and hold to those books. Protestants referred to them as “apocryphal” while Roman Catholics called them “deuterocanonical” (Lessing 2014, 4).

Lessing and Steinmann continue with a comparison of the Jewish, Protestant, and Roman Catholic canonical lists (Lessing 2014, 4-5). The Jewish canon is largely arranged in an order useful in the liturgy, quite possibly developed in the first century or after (Lessing 2014, 6). The Protestant Old Testament is the same in content but is arranged differently. The books are also divided differently, resulting in a different number of documents (Lessing 2014, 6). The Roman Catholic Old Testament is similar to the Protestant arrangement, but inserts the deuterocanonical books in logical locations (Lessing 2014, 7). Lessing and Steinmann walk through the deuterocanonical books, giving a very brief summary of each and its likely time of composition. They then observe that in Eastern Orthodoxy there are differing customs about the Apocrypha (Lessing 2014, 10).

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