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Title: The Canon of Scripture by Frederick Fyvie Bruce ISBN: 0-8308-1258-X Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: November, 1988 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Scholarly with plenty of resources
Comment: Bruce is a great biblical scholar, and The Canon of Scripture is an excellent book. He deals with the historicity/veracity of both the Old and New Testament documents and why our Bible can be trusted today. Not a book to be skimmed, Bruce concentrates on early church history, showing the background of how our Bible came to be, all the way through the age of printing. His conclusion and 2 appendices are also very valuable. I might suggest "From God to Us" by Geisler/Nix as well as Bruce's "Are the New Testament Documents Reliable?" as additional sources. I am glad to have read this book and have a better understanding of textual criticism.
Rating: 5
Summary: Very well written survey of how the Bible came to be.
Comment: FF Bruce does a great job of explaining how the books of the Bible were canonized. I was surprised to learn how many people had different opinions on which books should be canonized. Many people had mized feelings about the book of Revelation because of it being a difficult book to understand. Others felt that James should not be included because it only mentions the name of Jesus twice. Similarly, the books of esther and Song of Songs in the Old Testament barely made it in.
And right up to the present day, there are those who feel that the Apocrypha should be included in the canon of Scripture, and the Roman Catholic church regards them as such today.
Bruce takes the time to discuss individual theologians such as Jerome, Origen, Tertullian, Augustine, Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus, Athanasius, and many others and whenever possible, he furnishes their choices for books whoch were deemed fit for the canon of Scripture. Apparently, Athansius' trip to Rome in 350 AD was decisive for helping the western church decide on the 27 books of the New Testament that we now have today. Before this, they were hedging on Hebrews, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, Revelation, James and 2 and 3 John.
The book concludes with a couple of the author's lectures on the subect of the secret gospel of Mark (which he rejects) and the difference between the plenary meaning of scripture and the meaning in context.
Rating: 5
Summary: History of Canonical Traditions of Holy Scripture
Comment: The Canon of Scripture:
The dean of evangelical biblical scholars did a great service when he decided to get this work out of his system since he made a very successful attempt indeed to communicate the state of knowledge (Preface) on this tricky and sensitive subject. This book stands my Criterion: If I only have one book on the subject, I would buy this book. This book is methodical, written basically to Seminarians, still tickles your curious bone, but don't get tricked by the smoothness of his elaboration, being a master exegetist and lecturer in biblical criticism.
Preface & Chapter one:
Read the condensed preface attentively, it highlights Prof. Bruce strategy where he left more controversial issues on the OT canon to R. Beckwith and J. Barton. The short chapter defines terms that became the vocabulary of the subject, their meaning and roots. People of the Book conveys his cultural standing, but he avoids elaborating on the concept of the two testaments but will not but mention Jeremiah 31:31, and later mentions Origen as the First to use and propagate this Alexandrine terminology (p. 192 : on First Principles 4.1.1)
TaNaKh and the Wider Canon
Bruce who said will shy from OT canon, masterfully instructs you in his own way, starting from the authority of OT for a Christian: Jesus appeal to TaNaKh going from the threefold division to the closing of the Hebrew canon in Jabneh. Now, with a firm foot, he delves into the Alexandrine wider Canon starting with Septuagint origin, order of books, and adoption as Ancient Churches OT, through NT evidence, but does not give the citations and allusions to Apocryphal books (K. & B. Aland: The text of the NT, Eerdmans, 1979) that he mentions (p. 51)
OT Christian Canon: Prevalence of Alexandria
The Rylands chair for two decades starts to preach how one Church was the light for all others. He starts by stating authority of the early Uncials, Alexandrinus, Sinaiticus, and Vaticanus are all fruits of the Alexandrine Scriptorium, and are the most reliable (with the exception of Ehrman). Along side other easterners, elaborates on Origen, and Athanasius, the first to use the term: Canon in relation to scripture.
From Tertullian to KJAV
The canon in the West: Tertullian, Jerome, Augustine,to the reformation: Luther, Erasmus, and Tyndale through Trentine Council to KJAV. Very interesting is his review of 17th and 18th centuries accomodation of canon, and Biblical societies.
New Testament
If I would propose any clarification to this enjoyable treatise, it would be to copy the names and order of the bible in Orthodox, Catholic, and protestant traditions from a good study Bible, say the Harper Collins NRSV, with Apocrypha. Although differences exist in OT books, NT books are the exact 27 books.Only that the order of books in a genuine Orthodox Bible follows the Order of St. Athanasius in his Pascal letter of 367, the Catholic Epistles precede the Pauline letters.
Hebrews and Apocalypse
The authority of Dionysius the Great, on the Apocalypse of John, followed by all the Orientals (p. 213)in spite of their Canonical diversity was never challenged by Athanasius letter. He persauded the Romans to accept the book of Hebrews, next only to John's Bible in the Alexandrine NT theological structure of both the Didaskalia and Catechetical School, compromising for the Apocalypse, then considered a liturgical text in the East.
Great Chapters to enjoy
The Alexandrian Fathers*
NT canon in the Age of printing
Criteria of Canonicity
A Canon within the Canon**
Canon ,Criticism and interpretation
Further Readings
1. Barr, J. "Holy Scripture: Canon, Authority, Criticism,
Westminster press, Philadelphia, 1983
2.Beckwith,R. "The Old Testament Canon of NT Church,..."
Eerdmans, Gr. Rapids, 1985
3.Blenkinsopp, J., "Prophecy and Canon", notre Dame Press, 1977
4.Metzger,B. "The Canon of the NT, its origin, development, and significance",Oxford U. Press, 1987
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Title: The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? by Frederick Fyvie Bruce, N. T. Wright ISBN: 0802822193 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance by Bruce Manning Metzger ISBN: 0198269544 Publisher: Clarendon Pr Pub. Date: April, 1997 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: New Testament History by F. F. Bruce, F.F. Bruce ISBN: 0385025335 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 15 March, 1983 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Formation of Christian Biblical Canon: Revised and Expanded Edition by Lee Martin McDonald, Helmut Koester ISBN: 1565630521 Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. Pub. Date: 01 December, 1995 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Canon Debate by Lee Martin McDonald, James A. Sanders ISBN: 1565635175 Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. Pub. Date: 01 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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