LIBERTY UNIVERSITY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
Book Review – Canon Revisited
Submitted to LBTS Faculty & Students, in partial fulfillment
Of the requirements for the completion of this course
CHHI 520 – B01_201440
History of Christianity I
By
Travis Mann
21 September, 2014
Canon Revisited Michael Kruger, a professor of New Testament and academic dean at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte North Carolina, presented a new and refreshing point of view in the publication of Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books. Opposite popular tactics, Kruger focused his attention towards discussing evidence the Christian religion has to definitively state which books belong in the canon
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By providing fair descriptions of each model and well-reasoned opposition when he disagrees, Kruger allows the reader to see each model clearly and follows with his theme in his ideas of the criteria of canonicity, appealing to most evangelicals.
Kruger explains the historically-determined model as a focus on history’s role in the decision of a book’s canonicity while community-determined states that a response from a community, such as the early church and scripture, decide canonicity. The problem Kruger finds with both models is that there is some external determinant that authenticates a book’s canonicity, which leads into his argument for the self-authenticating model that describes the attributes of canonicity as mutually
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While Kruger does use his evidence to state that the early church had their own canon, the Old Testament, and had no problem accepting this without any external authority making the scriptures it contained self-authenticating, there is little talk of how this model affect the Old Testament.
Another issue of Kruger’s argument came in his self-authenticating model. Although he does stand behind his opinion with scripture and by highlighting the extremes in all three models, he also points out, while describing Roman Catholicism, that the community does affect the definition of the canon. This pokes a very large hole in his primary argument that the scriptures are self-authenticating which makes the reason behind the canon self-authenticating.
Kruger challenges Christians to reevaluate why they believe that the Bible is the word of God. While he gives his answer by quoting scripture it employs the reader to dig deeper to understand not only the canon but also the Bible as a whole text. He is careful when making his claims to have fact behind them from scripture and his studies. Kruger paints a clear picture of the canon and addresses the controversies of each model. This book earns its place among relevant and important works in the study of the canon both now and in the foreseeable
The claims for canonicity put forward by the Roman Catholic Church are thoroughly disputed using historical and biblical facts. The Council of Trent whe...
Theological objections, treated at length in the current volume, cut to the heart of the
...e to the study of the bible instead of all the doubts that was created by the other criticism. To them all the odd parts and repeated phrases or parts all add to a strikingly beautiful tale. They see the bible as a literary masterpiece in which the authors used gorgeous imagery to strike at the heart of the reader to show them God’s greatness. In essence rhetorical critics want you to see the big picture instead of all the little side pictures. The J story of Genesis as well at times the P story is filled with imagery that is meant to show God’s power.
Writings of historical scholars, Josephus, Aristotle, and Plato, to name a few, are taken as truth and fact, yet the writings of the Scripture are constantly disputed. Why? Perhaps because of the ethical imperatives imposed to which people do not want to adhere. Perhaps because of man’s ego and pride that disallows them to submit to a Higher Authority. Nonetheless, The Bible has been, and still remains, the most widely read and revered book of all
Metzger, B. (1997). The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance. New York.
—. The Unity of the Bible: Exploring the Beauty and Structure of the Bible. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2003.
New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997. Osborne, Grant R. Revelation. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002.
For centuries now Christians have claimed to possess the special revelation of an omnipotent, loving Deity who is sovereign over all of His creation. This special revelation is in written form and is what has come to be known as The Bible which consists of two books. The first book is the Hebrew Scriptures, written by prophets in a time that was before Christ, and the second book is the New Testament, which was written by Apostles and disciples of the risen Lord after His ascension. It is well documented that Christians in the context of the early first century were used to viewing a set of writings as being not only authoritative, but divinely inspired. The fact that there were certain books out in the public that were written by followers of Jesus and recognized as being just as authoritative as the Hebrew Scriptures was never under debate. The disagreement between some groups of Christians and Gnostics centered on which exact group of books were divinely inspired and which were not. The debate also took place over the way we can know for sure what God would have us include in a book of divinely inspired writings. This ultimately led to the formation of the Biblical canon in the next centuries. Some may ask, “Isn’t Jesus really the only thing that we can and should call God’s Word?” and “Isn’t the Bible just a man made collection of writings all centered on the same thing, Jesus Christ?” This paper summarizes some of the evidences for the Old and New Testament canon’s accuracy in choosing God breathed, authoritative writings and then reflects on the wide ranging
Race can be interpreted into a variety of forms. Among those forms that I found intriguing were discussed in my Introduction to Ethnic Studies course. They included biological race and the social construction of race. Both of these concepts gave their own way to understand race. By considering these two concepts and my views on both of them, one can understand how they place an impact on how race was developed and integrated into our society.
For example, they explain that the first four trumpet judgments in Revelation do not have to have a literal fulfillment. This is improper because it is the author’s opinion and should not be reflected, especially in a book dealing with hermeneutics. Aside from these weaknesses, the book has much to offer the Bible student. Conclusion The Bible student, layman, or pastor will find the principles presented by Fee and Stuart helpful despite the weaknesses presented. The author’s contribution on how to interpret each of the different genres is especially beneficial.
Thus, an effort is made to highlight how Bible interpretation – through its publication – has developed in the history of Christianity.
The historical reliability of the Bible is the first matter that needs to be discussed. There are three criteria that the military historian C. Sanders lists as principles for documentary historical proof: the bibliographical test, internal evidence test, and the external evidence test (McDowell 43). The bibliographical test is the examination of text from the documents that have reached us. The reliability of the copies of the New Testament is tested by the number of manuscripts (MSS) and the time intervals between the time in which the piece of literature was written and our earliest copy. There are more than 5,300 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament and 10,000 Latin vulgate manuscripts, not to mention the other various translations.
In this paper, there will be a discussion about the canonization of the New Testament. Along with an investigation into who was involved in this process. The people and institutions looked at will include the following: Marcion, Irenaeus, Origen, Synod of Hippo, and God. First, let us look at the canonization of the New Testament. The first available list of the New Testament books is called the Muratorian Canon and it dates somewhere around A.D. 150.
Thiselton, A. C. (1980). The two horizons: New Testament hermeneutics and philosophical description. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, xix.
Carson, D.A., and Douglas J. Moo. An Introduction to the New Testament. 2nd Edition. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2005.