I recently finished a review of Michael Bird’s recent contribution to Gospel scholarship, The Gospel of the Lord: How the Early Church Wrote the Story of Jesus. Overall, I found that he offered a fresh voice to some of the critical … Continue reading
Michael Kruger (blog: Canon Fodder) currently resides as campus president and professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, NC. The Question of Canon, his sixth book, was published this past week through InterVarsity Press. Kruger is establishing himself as a conservative voice in canonical and text-critical scholarship. One would think the “canon issue” has been settled throughout the past 1700–1800 years? But as history informs us, each generation produces men articulating new answers to old questions and so, history has brought us Kruger.
As Kruger’s canon books articulate, the canon conversation is alive and seems to progresses with each generation. He seeks to demonstrate how early Christianity and the Scripture organized rather quickly, as opposed to the view that the Scriptures formed later in the midst of theological and ecclesiological diversity. Kruger brings refreshing scholarship to the Patristic value within the NT discipline.
Here is the chapter division to his new book: Continue reading
Few fathers of the Christian faith appear after the death of John that have extant literature. Very little is left of Papias or Polycarp; some of which exist as quotes in other early literature. Iranaeus may be one of the first richest and earliest theologian in the proceeding decades after John.
Irenaeus (130–202), in Against Heresies, set forth a deafening blow to Gnostic Christianity. Calling it heresy, Against Heresies is a massive 5-volume tome. Half (Book 1–2) is devoted to critiquing Gnosticism and the other half (Book 3–5) is devoted to describing the Christian faith.
In preparation for the SBTS Greek Reading Group (Click here and here for more details), I wrote a basic introduction highlighting elementary information about the Didache. Over the next two weeks, I’ll be posting portions of that text.
The Didache Pt. 1: Why Read the Didache
The Didache Pt. 2: Modern Discovery and Textual Status
For more information about the Didache reading group email swilhite at sbts dot edu
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Canonicity
The Didache makes no internal claim to possess authoritative scripture. There are many allusions to the canonical gospels and seeks to highlight a number of their teachings. “The Didachist, while sometimes creatively re-arranging canonical material, knew that authority lay in those scriptures, and not in himself. There are no attempts to present himself as a channel of divine revelation.”[1]
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Yesterday, I received Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books in the mail from a journal editor! Having provisionally read and watching the waves of discussion concerning this book, I couldn’t be more excited to read, to critically interact with, and to participate in this conversation. The canonization of the text, in my estimation, will be revisited as newer revisions and discussions of inerrancy continue to exist in the coming years.
Michael Kruger, NT RTS professor, will be a name to watch as study of canonization and textual criticism continues. He recently edited The Early Text of the New Testament, along with Charles Hill, that will be considered one of the top NT text criticism books. I find Part II: The Manuscript Tradition of this book the most helpful for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it’s lasting value will be for how it traces the history of early textual traditions in each book of the bible (or corpus of literature). I hope to add it to my library soon and will be required reading for any text critical class I proctor.
Doctrinae Coram Deo 