Bruce - The Canon of Scripture

The

Canon

of
Scripture

F.F. Bruce

Downers Grove, Illinois

InterVarsity Press
P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426
World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com
E-mail: mail@ivpress.com

1988 F. F. Bruce

Published in the United States of America by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, with permission from Chapter House Ltd., Glasgow, Scotland.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Press is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, a student movement active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept., InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895, or visit the IVCF website at www.intervarsity.org.

The Scripture quotations quoted herein are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible , copyright 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Design: Cindy Kiple

Images: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY

ISBN-10: 0-8308-1258-X

ISBN-13: 978-0-8308-1258-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bruce, F. F. (Frederick Fyvie), 1910

The canon of scripture/F. F. Bruce

p. cm.

Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8308-1258-X
1. BibleCanon. I. Title.

BS465.B78 1988

220.12dc 19 88-29206

CIP

TO THE DEPARTMENTS
OF HUMANITY AND GREEK
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
FOUNDED 1497
AXED 1987
WITH GRATITUDE FOR THE PAST
AND WITH HOPE
OF THEIR EARLY AND VIGOROUS RESURRECTION

Abbreviations

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

HOLY SCRIPTURE

PART TWO: OLD TESTAMENT

THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS

THE GREEK OLD TESTAMENT

THE OLD TESTAMENT BECOMES A NEW BOOK

THE CHRISTIAN CANON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT:
A. IN THE EAST

THE CHRISTIAN CANON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT:
B. IN THE LATIN WEST

BEFORE AND AFTER THE REFORMATION

PART THREE: NEW TESTAMENT

WRITINGS OF THE NEW ERA

MARCION

VALENTINUS AND HIS SCHOOL

THE CATHOLIC RESPONSE

THE MURATORIAN FRAGMENT

IRENAEUS, HIPPOLYTUS, NOVATIAN

TERTULLIAN, CYPRIAN AND OTHERS

THE ALEXANDRIAN FATHERS

EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA

ATHANASIUS AND AFTER

THE WEST IN THE FOURTH CENTURY TO JEROME

AUGUSTINE TO THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES

THE NEW TESTAMENT CANON IN THE AGE OF PRINTING

PART FOUR: CONCLUSION

CRITERIA OF CANONICITY

A CANON WITHIN THE CANON?

CANON, CRITICISM AND INTERPRETATION

Appendix 1 THE SECRET GOSPEL OF MARK

Appendix 2 PRIMARY SENSE AND PLENARY SENSE

Bibliography

When I taught in the University of Manchester I lectured in alternate years on the Text and Canon of the Old Testament and the Text and Canon of the New Testament. My lectures on the text, I hope, served the needs of the students who listened to them, but they do not call for further publication. The subject-matter of my lectures on the canon, however, has continued to engage my attention, as regards both its historical aspect and its relevance today.

It will be plain in what follows that I am more concerned about the New Testament canon than about the Old Testament canon. The collapse of the century-old consensus on the Old Testament canonnamely, that the process of canonization is indicated by the traditional threefold division of books in the Hebrew Biblehas been underlined in two important works of recent date: Roger Beckwiths The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and John Bartons Oracles of God . Attacks have been made on the consensus on the New Testament canonnamely, that its main structure was substantially fixed by the end of the second century. It continues to stand, however, because it is supported by weighty evidence, as is shown in Bruce Metzgers magnificent work on The Canon of the New Testament . When a consensus is attacked, it has to be carefully reassessed, and that is all to the good: there is no point in pretending that we know more than we do.

With works like those mentioned now available, it may be asked, what need is there for this book? Perhaps the author needs to get it out of his system, but it may justify its appearance as an attempt to communicate the present state of knowledge to a wider public.

I am most grateful to the University of London for permission to reproduce my Ethel M. Wood Lecture (1974) as Appendix 1, and to the Epworth Review and its editor, the Revd John Stacey, for permission to reproduce my A. S. Peake Memorial Lecture (1976) as Appendix 2.

My first introduction to this subject was effected through the original edition of The Text and Canon of the New Testament , by my revered teacher Alexander Souter, Regius Professor of Humanity in the University of Aberdeen. My indebtedness to him and to the Department over which he presided with high distinction, together with its sister Department of Greek, is acknowledged in the dedication.

f.f.b

GENERAL

ANF The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Eerdmans)

av/kjv Authorized/King James Version (1611)

BJRL Bulletin of the John Rylands (University) Library

CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly

CHB Cambridge History of the Bible , IIII (Cambridge, 196370)

Cod(d). Codex (Codices)

CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (Vienna)

DB Dictionary of the Bible , IIV, ed. W. Smith (London, 1893)

DCB Dictionary of Christian Biography , IIV, ed. W. Smith and H. Wace (London, 187787)

EQ Evangelical Quarterly

E.T. English translation

FGNTK Forschungen zur Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons , IIX, ed. T. Zahn (Leipzig, 18811929)

GCS Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller (Berlin)

Hist. Eccl. Ecclesiastical History (Eusebius, Sozomen)

HTR Harvard Theological Review

JBL Journal of Biblical Literature

JBR Journal of Bible and Religion

JTS Journal of Theological Studies

LXX Septuagint (pre-Christian Greek Version of OT)

Mart. Pal. Martyrs of Palestine (Eusebius)

MS(S) manuscript(s)

MT Masoretic text (of Hebrew Bible)

NCB New Century Bible

neb New English Bible (1961, 1970)

NIGTC New International Greek Testament Commentary

niv New International Version (1978)

NovT Sup Supplement(s) to Novum Testamentum

NPNF Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (Eerdmans)

n.s. new series

NT New Testament

NTS New Testament Studies

OT Old Testament

PG Patrologia Graeca (ed. J.-P. Migne)

PL Patrologia Latina (ed. J.-P. Migne)

rsv Revised Standard Version (1952, 1971)

Strom. Stromateis (Miscellanies) , by Clement of Alexandria

Sup. Supplement(s)

s.v. sub vocabulo = under the word

TB Babylonian Talmud

TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament , IX, ed. G. Kittel and G. Friedrich, E. T. by G. W. Bromiley (Eerdmans, 196476)

TNTC Tyndale New Testament Commentaries

TS Texts and Studies (Cambridge University Press)

TU Texte und Untersuchungen

UCCF Universities and colleges Christian Fellowship

VTSup Supplement(s) to Vetus Testamentum

ZNW Zeitschrift fr die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft

ZTK Zeitschrift fr Theologie und Kirche

MANUSCRIPTS

A Codex Alexandrinu s (in British Museum, London)

Aleph Codex Sinaiticus (in British Museum, London)