Scriptural Figures And The Fringes Of The New Testament Canon
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Scriptural Figures and the Fringes of the New Testament Canon
Author: Kelsie G. Rodenbiker
language: en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date: 2025
The formation of the Christian biblical canon remains a contested and mysterious subject, complicated by the dating of ancient texts, disagreement among ancient writers, and questions of the authenticity (or not) of various scriptural works. The Catholic Epistles -- James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2, 3 John, and Jude -- are a significant wrench in the gears of the process that formed the New Testament collection, not least because of issues like authorship and references to other Jewish and Christian scriptures. This book explores the use of characters in the Catholic letters originating from the Jewish and Christian scriptural pasts who serve as both exemplary models of behaviour and authorial mouthpieces. Such figures and their textual afterlives maintain links to both now-canonical works and noncanonical tradition.
Scriptural Figures and the Fringes of the New Testament Canon
"In the Catholic Epistles, canonicity and exemplarity are intertwined. Chapter one defines the concept of exemplarity as the use of a model-figure as representative of virtue or vice but argues that this can also be extended to the construction of tradition surrounding a pseudonym, concluding that the use of scriptural exempla from the Jewish and Christian scriptural past(s) as both illustrative exempla and authorial figures is compellingly unique. Chapters two and three address the fraught role of the Catholic Epistles in the formation of the New Testament, emphasizing that pseudonymity was the key factor that influenced the ancient hesitance around their canonical inclusion. Chapter two offers context antecedent to the shaping of a Catholic collection, while chapter three highlights the decisive role of the Catholic Epistles in the dynamic shape of the New Testament well beyond the late fourth century, when it is commonly claimed that the canonical process was complete. Alongside the suspicion of their pseudepigraphal nature, another aspect of the Catholic Epistles that defies common conceptions of a closed Christian canon is the use of exempla from the Jewish scriptural past. Chapters four and give demonstrate how these exempla not only represent the composite accumulation of tradition in their characterization, but they also reveal links to both now-canonical and paracanonical material, beyond an intracanonical conception of "the New Testament use of the Old Testament." In the Catholic Epistles, then, scriptural exempla serve as apostolic authorial figures as well as illustrative models, and these exempla contribute to a sense of canonical porousness that cannot be overcome by closure-even a fixed canonical boundary cannot seal of the permeability that results from the tethers between texts that become, for some, "canonical" and those that do not. Scripture receives scripture; scripture begets scripture"--
The Canon of the New Testament
This book provides information from Church history concerning the recognition of the canonical status of the several books of the New Testament. Canonization was a long and gradual process of sifting among scores of gospels, epistles, and other books that enjoyed local and temporary authority - some of which have only recently come to light among the discoveries of Nag Hammadi. After discussing the external pressures that led to the fixing of the limits of the canon, the author gives sustained attention to Patristic evidence that bears on the development of the canon not only in the West but also among the Eastern Churches, including the Syrian, Armenian, Georgian, Coptic, and Ethiopian. Besides considering differences as to the sequence of the books in the New Testament, Dr Metzger takes up such questions as which form of text is to be regarded as canonical; whether the canon is open or closed; to what extent a canon should be sought within the canon; and whether the canon is a collection of authoritative books or an authoritative collection of books.