Here’s My Answer to One of the Most Common Questions I Get about My Books
“What’s the difference between Canon Revisited and The Question of Canon?”
When it comes to my books, this is one of the most common questions I get. I have answered it so many times over the last few years, that I thought it might make a useful blog post.
While both these volumes are about the origins of the NT Canon, they are primarily distinguished by the fact that they are answering different questions. Canon Revisited is answering questions like, “How do we know if we have the right 27 books?” or “Why these books and no others?”… Continue reading...
What Do Manuscripts Tell Us About the Origins of the NT Canon? A Response to John Meade
Over at Evangelical Textual Criticism, John Meade has posted an article reviewing chapter seven of my book, Canon Revisited. In particular, he challenges a number of the arguments I use to show how NT manuscripts may illumine our understanding of the development of the NT canon.
Meade focuses his comments on two issues, namely the number of manuscripts and the use of the codex. Before offering a response to those issues below, let me begin by making a simple observation about the purpose of this chapter. If one understands the flow of the argument in the book, and sets chapter seven in the larger context of the prior … Continue reading...
My @RTSCharlotte Class “The Origins and Authority of the NT Canon” Is Now Online @RTSGlobalEd
Over the last decade, I have taught an elective here at the RTS Charlotte campus entitled “The Origin and Authority of the NT Canon.” We cover a variety of subjects related to the origins of the NT, including definition of canon, theology of canon, epistemology of canon, the historical reception of the canon, and so on.
It was this class that gave birth to my book, Canon Revisited (Crossway, 2012). I was unable to find a book on canon that answered the questions my students were asking. So, I decided to write one that did!
On of my favorite parts of the class has been a section where we explore … Continue reading...