Category Archives: Gospels

10 Misconceptions About the NT Canon: #4: “Books Were Not Regarded as Scripture Until Around 200 AD”

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irenaeus

Note: This is the fourth installment of a blog series announced here.

The date of the NT canon is one of the most controversial questions in biblical studies today.  As a prior post indicated, part of the answer to the question of date is dependent upon one’s definition of “canon.”  But, even if we take the functional definition of canon—books are canonical when they are being used as Scripture—there is still debate about how early this took place.   In recent years, however, somewhat of a quasi-consensus has been building that the canon was first regarded as Scripture at the end of the second century (c.200).  McDonald is representative of …

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Were the Earliest Christians Only Concerned About Oral Tradition?

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I’ve spent the last week or so diving deeply (again) into the writings of the Apostolic Fathers.  The Apostolic Fathers are an informal collection of early Christian writings, roughly 95-150 AD, which include books like the Didache, 1 & 2 Clement, the Epistle of Barnabas, and letters from Polycarp and Ignatius.  In recent years, scholars have expressed increased skepticism about whether these writings can inform our understanding of the development of the canon.  What appear to be citations of and allusions to New Testament books are not that at all, we are told, but instead are best explained by these authors drawing upon oral tradition.  This preference …

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Morality and Unbelief: Bart Ehrman’s New Blog

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I just discovered today that Bart Ehrman has a new blog (which may be old news, but it is new to me).  If you are not familiar with Ehrman, he is a NT Prof at UNC-Chapel Hill, specialist in early Christian texts, former evangelical, outspoken critics of evangelical Christianity, and author of many bestselling books.  Ehrman promises quite a few interesting things on this blog: to present his latest ideas, interact with reviewers and critics, and to continue discussions that have begun in his public debates.  All that sounds great.  But, here’s the catch:  you have to pay to join the site.  Of course, the blog makes it very clear …

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Isn’t it Ironic…Ehrman attacked by Scholars on the Left

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For most of his academic career, Bart Ehrman has busied himself with attacking the beliefs of evangelical Christians.  Having come out of an evangelical background, Ehrman seems bent on fixing what he sees as the major theological, historical and biblical problems in the evangelical world. I have reviewed some of his books, here, here, and here.  However, after the publication of his most recent book, Did Jesus Exist?, Ehrman has begun to experience something that I would imagine is entirely new to him—attacks from scholars on the left.  Indeed, Ehrman is now the recipient of scholarly attacks from those more radical than himself.   As Ehrman defends …

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