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10 - THE NEW TESTAMENT CANON

from IV - THE NEW TESTAMENT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

R. M. Grant
Affiliation:
Carl Darling Buck Professor of Humanities, Divinity School, Chicago, Department of New Testament and Early Christian Literature
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Summary

The Canon of the New Testament was the result of a long and gradual process in the course of which the books regarded as authoritative, inspired, and apostolic were selected out of a much larger body of literature. Such a process of selection necessarily involved both selectors and grounds on which the selection would be made. As far as we know, the early selectors were anonymous. We may suppose that they were leaders in the Christian churches, but we do not know their names or the dates at which selections were made. Only in the late second century does it become clear that such leaders as Irenaeus of Lyons and Serapion of Antioch are consciously discussing questions of canon, and when they do so they are relying primarily on older Church traditions. This is not to say that such individuals lacked influence upon the process of selection; it is to say that their influence was exerted in favour of prior views and contemporary consensus. When we speak of selection it is clear that the process involves comparison between one book and another or among collections of books. The fact that the gnostic ‘library’ at Nag Hammadi includes books which may not have been gnostic in origin probably means that non-gnostic books were interpreted in gnostic ways by those who collected them. Similarly, the early Christian canonical collection implies that those who assembled or accepted it understood all the books as conveying essentially the same message.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1970

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References

Aland, K., The Problem of the New Testament Canon (London, 1962).
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Blackman, E. C., Marcion and His Influence (London, 1955).
Campenhausen, H. Von, The Formation of the Christian Bible. Transl. Baker, J. A. (London, Philadelphia, 1972).
Cross, F. L. ed., The Jung Codex (London, 1955).
Goodspeed, E. J., The Formation of the New Testament (Chicago, 1926).
Grant, R. M., The Formation of the New Testament (London and New York, 1965).
Grant, R. M. (with Freedman, D. N. and Schoedel, W. R.), The Secret Sayings of Jesus (New York and London, 1960).
Grant, R. M., A Short History of the Interpretation of the Bible (rev. ed. New York, 1964; London, 1965).
Knox, J., Marcion and the New Testament (Chicago, 1942).
Köster, H., Synoptische Überlieferungen bei den Apostolischen Vätern (Texte und Untersuchungen 65, Berlin, 1957).
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Ruwet, J., ‘Clément d'Alexandrie, Canon des Écritures et apocryphes’, Biblica, Rome. XXIX (1948).Google Scholar
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  • THE NEW TESTAMENT CANON
    • By R. M. Grant, Carl Darling Buck Professor of Humanities, Divinity School, Chicago, Department of New Testament and Early Christian Literature
  • Edited by P. R. Ackroyd, C. F. Evans
  • Book: The Cambridge History of the Bible
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521074186.011
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  • THE NEW TESTAMENT CANON
    • By R. M. Grant, Carl Darling Buck Professor of Humanities, Divinity School, Chicago, Department of New Testament and Early Christian Literature
  • Edited by P. R. Ackroyd, C. F. Evans
  • Book: The Cambridge History of the Bible
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521074186.011
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • THE NEW TESTAMENT CANON
    • By R. M. Grant, Carl Darling Buck Professor of Humanities, Divinity School, Chicago, Department of New Testament and Early Christian Literature
  • Edited by P. R. Ackroyd, C. F. Evans
  • Book: The Cambridge History of the Bible
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521074186.011
Available formats
×