For the last 3-4 months I have been working through a blog series entitled “10 Misconceptions About the New Testament Canon.” This series exams some common beliefs out there in the academic (and lay-level) communities that prove to be problematic upon closer examination.
Although the series is not quite finished (two more to go), I have received several requests to have it all one place. So, here is the list. I will update this list as we go along. Also, there will be a link to this list under the “Blog Series” heading in the left margin of my website.
- The Term “Canon” Can Only Refer to a Fixed, Closed List of Books
- Nothing in Early Christianity Dictated That There Would be a Canon
- The New Testament Authors Did Not Think They Were Writing Scripture
- New Testament Books Were Not Regarded as Scriptural Until Around 200 A.D.
- Early Christians Disagreed Widely over the Books Which Made It into the Canon
- In the Early Stages, Apocryphal Books Were as Popular as the Canonical Books
- Christians Had No Basis to Distinguish Heresy from Orthodoxy Until the Fourth Century
- Early Christianity was an Oral Religion and Therefore Would Have Resisted Writing Things Down
- The Canonical Gospels Were Certainly Not Written by the Individuals Named in Their Titles
- Athanasius’ Festal Letter (367 A.D.) is the First Complete List of New Testament Books