Canon Debate, The

2001·31.78 MB·English

by  Lee Martin McDonald

THE.
CANON
DEBATE
LEE MARTIN McDONALD
JAMES A. SANDERS
EDITORS
L\
~HENDRICKSON
~~PUBLISHERS
THE M.\S:Frr5 COLLEG£
!';{)'I"J;.: ;j_ l.i3R!IR1'
Copyright© 2002 Lee Martin McDonald and James A. Sanders
Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.
P.O. Box 3473
Peabody, Massachusetts 01961-3473
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any pro
cess or technique without the written consenJ of the publisher, except for brief quotations
embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Printed in the United States of America
First printing-November 2002
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The canon debate : on the origins and formation of the Bible I edited by
Lee Martin McDonald and James A. Sanders.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-56563-517-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Bible-Canon. I. McDonald, Lee Martin, 1942- II. Sanders, James A., 1927-
BS465 C335 2002
220.1'2-dc21
2002015966
Contents
List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IX
Part One: Introduction
1. Introduction . . ; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......... 3
Lee Martin McDonald and ]ames A. Sanders
Part Two: The Old/First Testament Canon
2. The Notion and Definition of Canon . . . . . . . . . .21
Eugene Ulrich
3. The Jewish Scriptural Canon in Cultural Perspective ......... 36
Philip R. Davies
4. The Formation of the Hebrew Bible Canon: Isaiah as a Test Case. 53
Joseph Blenkinsopp
5. The Septuagint: The Bible of Hellenistic Judaism . . . . . . 68
Albert C. Sundberg ]r.
6. Questions of Canon Viewed through the Dead Sea Scrolls . 91
]ames C. VanderKam
7. Josephus and His Twenty-Two Book Canon .. 110
Steve Mason
8. Origins of a Tripartite Old Testament Canon . 128
Julio C. Trebolle Barrera
9. ]amnia Revisited ................ . 146
jack P. Lewis
10. The Rabbis' Bible: The Canon of the Hebrew Bible
and the Early Rabbinic Guild. . ............... 163
jack N. Lightstone
vi The Canon Debate
11. The Scriptures of Jesus and His Earliest Followers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Craig A. Evans
12. The Old Testament Apocrypha in the Early Church and Today . . . . . . . . . 196
Daniel f. Harrington, 5.].
13. The Pseudepigrapha in the Early Church ...................... 211
William Adler
14. The Codex and Canon Consciousness . . . 229
Robert A. Kraft
15. The Status of the Masoretic Text in Modern Text Editions of the Hebrew Bible:
The Relevance of Canon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Emanuel Tov
16. The Issue of Closure in the Canonical Process . 252
fames A. Sanders
Part Three: The New/Second Testament Canon
17. The New Testament Canon: Recent Research and the Status Quaestionis. . . 267
Harry Y. Gamble
18. Factors Leading to the Selection and Closure of the New Testament Canon:
A Survey of Some Recent Studies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Everett Ferguson
19. Reflections on Jesus and the New Testament Canon ................ 321
William R. Farmer
20. Marcion Revisited . . . . . . . . . . . 341
John Barton
21. Gnosticism and the Christian Bible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Pheme Perkins
22. Evidence for an Early Christian Canon (Second and Third Century) . 372
Peter Balla
23. The New Testament Canon of Eusebius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Everett R. Kalin
24. The Muratorian Fragment and the Origins of the New Testament Canon 405
Geoffrey Mark Hahneman
25. Identifying Scripture and Canon in the Early Church: The Criteria Question 416
Lee Martin McDonald
26. The Problem of Pseudonymity in Biblical Literature and Its Implications
for Canon Formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
Kent D. Clarke
Contents vii
27. The Greek New Testament as a Codex. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Daryl D. Schmidt
28. Issues in the Interrelation of New Testament Textual Criticism and Canon. 485
Eldon Jay Epp
29. The Canonical Structure of Gospel and Apostle ........... . 516
Franr;ois Bovon
30. The Significance of a Canonical Perspective of the Church's Scripture 528
Robert W Wall
31. The Once and Future New Testament .. 541
Robert W Funk
32. Has the Canon a Continuing Function? . . 558
James D. G. Dunn
Appendixes
A. Primary Sources for the Study of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible . 580
Lee Martin McDonald
B. Primary Sources for the Study of the New Testament Canon . . . . . . ..... 583
Lee Martin McDonald
C. Lists and Catalogues of Old Testament Collections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
Lee Martin McDonald
D. Lists and Catalogues of New Testament Collections 591
Lee Martin McDonald
Select Bibliography . . . . . 599
Subject Index . . . . . . . . 625
Index of Modern Authors . . 633
Index of Ancient and Medieval Sources . 643
1. Old Testament I Hebrew Bible .. . 643
2. Apocrypha of the Old Testament. . 647
3. New Testament . . . . . . . . . . . 648
4. Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament . . 652
5. Writings from the Judean Desert. . . 653
6. Rabbinic Literature and Targumim .. . 653
7. Writings from Nag Hammadi ..... . 655
8. Other Ancient and Medieval Writings . . 655

Contributors
William Adler is professor of early Christianity and Judaism in the Department of Philos
ophy and Religion, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina.
Peter Balla is professor of New Testament studies at the Faculty of Theology, Karoli
Gaspar Reformed University, Budapest.
John Barton is Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture in the
University of Oxford.
Joseph Blenkinsopp is John A. O'Brien Professor of Old Testament Studies emeritus at the
University of Notre Dame, Indiana.
Franjj:ois Bovon is Frothingham Professor of the History of Religion at Harvard Univer
sity, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Kent D. Clarke is associate professor of New Testament at Trinity Western University,
Langley, British Columbia.
Philip R. Davies is professor of biblical studies at the University of Sheffield and editorial
director of Sheffield Academic Press.
James D. G. Dunn is Lightfoot Professor of Divinity in the University of Durham.
Eldon Jay Epp is Harkness Professor of Biblical Literature emeritus and Dean of Human
ities and Social Sciences emeritus at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland,
Ohio, and currently resides in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Craig A. Evans is Payzant Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Acadia Divinity
College, Wolfville, Nova Scotia.
The late William R. Farmer was professor of New Testament at the University of Dallas,
Irving, Texas.
Everett Ferguson is distinguished scholar in residence at Abilene Christian University,
Abilene, Texas.
Robert W. Funk is director of the Westar Institute in Santa Rosa, California.
Harry Y. Gamble is professor of religious studies and chair of the Department of Religious
Studies at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia.
Geoffrey Mark Hahneman is an Episcopal priest currently serving as interim rector at St.
Andrew's Church, New London, New Hampshire.
X The Canon Debate
Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., is professor of New Testament at Weston Jesuit School of Theol
ogy, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Everett R. Kalin is professor emeritus of New Testament at Pacific Lutheran Theological
Seminary, Berkeley, California.
Robert A. Kraft is the Moritz and Josephine Berg Professor in Religious Studies (early
Judaism, early Christianity) at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.
Jack P. Lewis is professor emeritus of Bible at Harding University Graduate School of Bible
and Religion, Memphis, Tennessee.
Jack N. Lightstone is professor of religion, provost, and vice-rector for research at Con
cordia University, Montreal, Quebec.
Steve Mason is professor of humanities (classics, religious studies, and graduate history) at
York University, Toronto, Ontario.
Lee Martin McDonald is principal and professor of biblical studies at Acadia Divinity
College, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia.
Pheme Perkins is professor of New Testament at Boston College, Boston, Massachusetts.
James A. Sanders is president of the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center and professor
emeritus of biblical studies at the Claremont School of Theology and the Claremont
Graduate University, Claremont, California.
Daryl D. Schmidt is professor of religion and chair of the Department of Religion at Texas
Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas.
Albert C. Sundberg Jr. is professor emeritus of New Testament interpretation at Garrett
Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois.
Emanuel Tov is J. L. Magnes Professor of Bible at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
Julio C. Trebolle Barrera is professor in the Department of Hebrew and Aramaic Studies
at the Complutensian University, Madrid.
Eugene Ulrich is John A. O'Brien Professor of Hebrew Scriptures at the University of
Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana.
James C. VanderKam is John A. O'Brien Professor of Hebrew Scriptures at the University
of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana.
Robert W. Wall is professor of the Christian Scriptures at Seattle Pacific University, Seattle,
Washington.
Part One
Introduction