The Early Text of the New Testament Now Available (in the UK)
I just heard from the folks at Oxford University Press this week and they indicated that the volume edited by Chuck Hill and myself, The Early Text of the New Testament, is now available in the UK. Unfortunately, like many Oxford volumes, it is a bit pricey at 90 pounds ($175). Ouch. But, hopefully some major research libraries will pick it up (and some scholars with a generous book budget!). The book is available in the US in August.
Here is a blurb from the back cover and the table of contents:
…The Early Text of the New Testament aims to examine and assess from our earliest extant sources
Continue reading...
10 Misconceptions about the NT Canon: #5: “Early Christians Disagreed Widely over the Books Which Made It into the Canon”
This is the fifth installment of a blog series announced here.
1934 was a big year for Germany. It was the year that Adolf Hitler became the Führer and complete head of the German nation and the Nazi party. And, as we all know, it wasn’t long after that time, that Germany invaded Poland and began World War II.
But 1934 was a significant year for another reason. Very quietly, behind the scenes, a book was published that would change the landscape of early Christian studies for years to come. Walter Bauer published his now famous monograph, Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity. Compared to Hitler’s rise, this … Continue reading...
10 Misconceptions About the NT Canon: #4: “Books Were Not Regarded as Scripture Until Around 200 AD”
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 … Continue reading...
Were the Earliest Christians Only Concerned About Oral Tradition?
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 … Continue reading...
Isn’t it Ironic…Ehrman attacked by Scholars on the Left
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 … Continue reading...