Bible Books
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The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance
Bruce M. Metzger
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987) 336 pp., $55.00
Metzger’s book on the New Testament canon, with his earlier works on the text and early versions,a completes a trilogy of studies on the formation of the New Testament.
The strength of the book lies in the great amount of historical data it collects into a modest amount of space. The book appears to cover virtually every aspect of the subject one could expect. It also gives the impression that the historica1 data have been looked at afresh. Nothing seems to have been taken from secondary sources. Metzger’s vast knowledge of the manuscript tradition of the New Testament and the ancient versions enriches the material substantially. The book is well written and arranged in such a way as to offer the maximum benefit to the reader.
The Canon of the New Testament is divided into three parts. Part one, an overview of literature published on the subject of canon from the 17th through the 20th centuries, presents a broad, very thorough survey that sometimes resembles a lengthy annotated bibliography. Arranged chronologically and according to the country of each author, the material comes from such major sources as England, Europe and the United States, and from minor sources as well, such as South Africa and Japan.
Part two, the longest section of the book, concerns the formation of the canon. In chapter 3 we learn what light each Apostolic Father shed on the canon. Chapter 4 discusses the influences of Gnosticism, Marcion, Montanism and persecution. In chapter 5 the development of the canon in the East is considered, including the areas of Syria, Asia Minor, Greece and Egypt. A lengthy discussion of the second-century Church father and exegete Origen concludes the chapter. Chapter 6 turns west, to Rome, Gaul and North Africa. Chapter 7 is devoted to apocryphal literature, including apocryphal Gospels, Acts, Epistles, Apocalypses and miscellaneous writings. Chapter 8 analyzes two early lists of books, those in the Muratorian Canon and in Eusebius. Chapter 9 discusses attempts in the East to close the canon during the fourth through the 12th centuries; it surveys the Syrian, Ármenian, Georgian, Coptic and Ethiopian churches. Chapter 10 discusses attempts in the West to close the canon during the fourth through the 17th centuries.
Part three deals with “Historical and Theological Problems Concerning the Canon.” The first chapter addresses such thorny issues as 1) the criteria used for determining canonicity, 2) the issue of inspiration, 3) which section of the New Testament was recognized first as authoritative and 4) the problem of plurality of the Gospels. The second chapter raises questions concerning the canon today, such as 1) Which form of the text is canonical? and 2) Is the canon open or closed?
The book concludes with four useful appendixes: 1) History of the Word Kanon, 2) Variations in the Sequence of the Books of the New Testament, 3) Titles of the Books of the New Testament and 4) Early Lists of the Books of the New Testament.
A few conclusions that Metzger reaches may surprise or enlighten the reader who has not previously considered questions of canonicity:
1. The concept of “inspiration” was not used in the early Church as a basis for distinguishing canonical books from noncanonical (p. 256).
2. The Gospels seem to have been recognized as authoritative before the Pauline Epistles (p. 262).
3. Although theoretically the way is open for the addition or deletion of documents to and from the New Testament canon, it is unlikely, from a practical point of view, that any further changes will take place (p. 275).
Moses: Heroic Man, Man of God
George W. Coats
(Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series #57; Sheffield,
England: JSOT Press, 1988) 255 pp., $35.00
George Coats is uniquely qualified to write this study of the figure of Moses in the various biblical traditions. Two decades ago he published Rebellion in the Wilderness on the Israelites’ revolts before their entry into the Promised Land, and in subsequent publications he has gradually broadened his focus to cover the figure of Moses Within the larger biblical narrative. Well schooled in the traditional biblical methodologies, Coats brings these assets to bear on the biblical 007narratives dealing with Moses.
Most biblical scholars have concluded that the stories in the Pentateuch represent the historical experiences and memories of various clan and tribal sub-groups that eventually became part of the Israelite nation. The Pentateuch is not a unified document written by a single narrator. Not only does it have several sources, but it also can be divided into separate blocks of material (for example, “wilderness wandering” and “Exodus”). One scholar, Martin Noth, has divided the Pentateuch into five clusters of tradition: the promises to the Patriarchs, the Exodus, Sinai, wilderness wandering and conquest. Each of these blocks, theorizes Noth, represents the historical experience and literary contribution of a separate Trible sub-group. And to compound the difficulties, the earliest material in all of these separate blocks makes no mention of Moses. To give one example, the song of Moses in Exodus 15:1–18 is a poetic description of Israel’s escape at the Sea of Reeds. All the credit is given to God; no role is ascribed to Moses.
Now the problem that Coats is tackling becomes more clear. If the story of Israel marching out of Egypt as a united nation of twelve tribes is an oversimplified retrojection created by later tradition—if in fact historical Israel came into being through the unification of tribal groups whose separate experiences have been pulled together in the Pentateuch, what role did Moses actually play? According to Noth and others, there is no way that Moses could be involved as leader in all the separate parts of the Pentateuch. Noth, for example, sees the Moses tradition rooted in the conquest stories, where his death and burial are recorded. And from this nexus of traditions the figure of Moses secondarily spread out and became the means of unifying the various experiences of the separate tribal groups into one great story.
Coats does a fine, careful job of analyzing all of the Moses traditions. He finds two elements that have been carefully intertwined. There is cultic material that focuses on God’s mighty acts on behalf of the people of Israel and that contains secondary narrative elaborations incorporating Moses. But, says Coats, just as strong in the earliest sources—and not as well noted by scholars—is evidence of a popular saga that depicts Moses as the hero. Thus Coats’s thesis is that Moses traditions, structured as heroic saga, have merged with narrative traditions concerning God’s mighty actions (structured around confessional themes) to form the present biblical text.
Contrary to Noth, Coats concludes that the figure of Moses did not originate with the conquest stories and spread secondarily to the rest. If anything, the conquest stories are the one point where original traditions of Moses are most tenuous. Coats theorizes instead that the original place in which the Moses stories developed was the Sinai stories. Granted that the earliest Sinai poetry (for example, Deuteronomy 33:2–5) makes no mention of Moses. But this material describes God’s theophanic appearance as a warrior to lead Israel. The situation is different when it comes to the Sinai law. The giving of law and the making of covenant between God and Israel demand a mediator. The figure of Moses is firmly rooted at this point. Coats goes on to insist that the figure of Moses did not later spread to the other segments of the Pentateuch; that all of the themes were interconnected so that there was no secondary spreading. This latter conclusion, though very intriguing, needs more extensive argument.
This book is chock full of sensitive literary analysis and sound critical insight. Not only has Coats covered the wide range of issues related to the study of the Moses traditions, he has made major strides to advance the discussion.
The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance
Bruce M. Metzger
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987) 336 pp., $55.00
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Footnotes
The Five Scrolls has been published in three editions: The congregational edition (reviewed here) includes both the translation of the five books and prayers to accompany the reading of the books in the synagogue on the holidays when it is traditional to do so; the next version, without prayers, in a larger format than the congregationnal ($60), and the special limited edition in large format printed on rag paper with a hand-pulled Baskin etching, signed and numbered by the artist ($675). In all three versions, Baskin’s 37 watercolor illustrations are included.