Looking for Recommended Resources on the Canon

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fredtgreco

Vanilla Westminsterian
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All,

I am looking for resources - preferably lay-oriented books - on the formation of the canon. I am trying to compile a list of such resources to hand out to people who have questions, not using them as resources for sermon or theology prep for myself. They should also be available for purchase now (so out of print material will not help). I am not looking for audio sermons, or internet articles.

Please give me any recommendations that you have found helpful and that meet that criteria. Thank you.
 
Mike Kruger from RTS Charlotte is doing a series on his blog called the 10 facts every Christian needs to memorize about the NT. It looks like he's only written five so far, but you can find them here.

Here's an interview with him on "Who Chose the Books of the Bible and Why?"

Of course, he explains this in more depth in his book Canon Revisited, but it's probably a higher level than you're looking for. For anyone a little more advanced, though, it was one of the better books I read last year.
 
When I say that a lay-person can understand a book, I have in mind a literate lay-person.

I have a few books on the canon. My favorite is F.F. Bruce's "The Canon of Scripture." It is definitely more accessible than Metzger's book, which I also possess. I also recommend the aforementioned book by Kruger - Canon Revisited.

However, if by "accessible to laypeople" one really means, that "even an illiterate, drooling, occasionally soils himself, lives in his parents' basement, dummy can understand it," then I've got nothing that fits the bill. Sorry.
 
A smaller and perhaps more accessible work by FF Bruce, "The New Testament Documents, are they Reliable" is a good focus on the NT. He is perhaps not as "stalwart" as we would like, but it is a good book, and faithful in the main.
 
I liked Ridderbos' Redemptive History and the New Testament Scriptures enormously; but it is probably on the more difficult end of the scale.
 
I think John Sailhamer as something. What has actually benefited me is Canonicity by R.B. Thieme. His wacko stuff doesn't come out in it and it is really small and condense (like only 100 pages if that with larger print) , I would think perfect for a layman.
 
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=814064119

http://www.sermonaudio.com/playpopupvideo.asp?SID=814064119

Dr. David Murray on the Canon of Scripture in the first links on sermon audio. video download and pdf

http://www.christianbook.com/why-66-the-canon-of-scripture/pd/309235


Why 66? The Canon of Scripture DVD. by Brian Edwards.

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=51709837233

http://www.sermonaudio.com/playpopupvideo.asp?SID=51709837233

The above video was also helpful at one point Fred.
 
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Fred,

I've just finished Kostenberger/Kruger's 'Heresy of Orthodoxy' which in general I would not class an easy read, however the second half of the book is about the finest explanation of canon and textual criticism issues I've read and that part of the book is fairly readable, though necessarily technical at points. I have not read Canon Revisted but it appears to me that Kruger is a very good, plain writer.
 
Word to the wise: I would not give Lee MacDonald's book on the canon to a layman. He does a great job on the history of it but he trashes inerrancy.
 
I also recommend F. F. Bruce's The Canon of Scripture. I am just a retired guy in the pew and Bruce's book is very accessible and informative for the layman.
 
and avoid Geisler's articles in various study bibles seeking to defend the Protestant canon. Geisler unwittingly proves the papist canon.
 
Fred, this is one of the classics:

This is a Wipf & Stock reprint (guess it went out of print): Inspiration and Canonicity of the Scriptures: R. Laird Harris: 9781556358876: Amazon.com: Books

This (check the used) is the latest edition from when it was in print: Inspiration and Canonicity of the Scriptures: R. Laird Harris: 9781884416101: Amazon.com: Books

They would both be the final edition. I've used this book a lot (I liked it better than Bruce's). Ridderbos (noted above) is also good, but quite scholarly.
 
Word to the wise: I would not give Lee MacDonald's book on the canon to a layman. He does a great job on the history of it but he trashes inerrancy.

Lee is a funny guy. Go to dispensational Biola/Talbot (B.A., M.Div.) + Fuller (ThM) + Harvard (ThM) + University of Edinburgh (PhD), resign from a seminary rather than sign an inerrancy statement, and spend a good bit of your ministry objecting to creedal statements of all kinds and you get an American Baptist with great great street cred in those circles.
 
One of the most liberal of writers/scholars, had the most conservative of views on the dating of the writing of the NT, and wrote a book on the subject: Bishop John A.T. Robinson, of '60s "Death of God" infamy. He believed that all of the NT was written before A.D.70. His book is cited approvingly by Edwards.

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Word to the wise: I would not give Lee MacDonald's book on the canon to a layman. He does a great job on the history of it but he trashes inerrancy.

Lee is a funny guy. Go to dispensational Biola/Talbot (B.A., M.Div.) + Fuller (ThM) + Harvard (ThM) + University of Edinburgh (PhD), resign from a seminary rather than sign an inerrancy statement, and spend a good bit of your ministry objecting to creedal statements of all kinds and you get an American Baptist with great great street cred in those circles.

He did a great job on the history of the canon, but he concluded by saying, "If you accept inerrancy of the text, then you must accept inerrancy of the Fathers who gave the canon." But that argument doesn't follow. If I am asking a crack-head for directions, and he happens to give me good directions, does that mean I should think of him as inerrant?

Lee also spent a lot of time attacking this book. If Beckwith's thesis stands, then the papist use of the apocrypha is overthrown.
 
One of the most liberal of writers/scholars, had the most conservative of views on the dating of the writing of the NT, and wrote a book on the subject: Bishop John A.T. Robinson, of '60s "Death of God" infamy. He believed that all of the NT was written before A.D.70. His book is cited approvingly by Edwards.

Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk 2

I love Robinson's book for its writing and his conclusions but for lay readers he often goes into so much detail that one can lose the forest for the trees.
 
I have not read this booklet, part of 29 book series, in our PCA Basics of the Reformed Faith series.
CEP Bookstore - WHY GOD GAVE US A BOOK: BASICS
Contents
Preface
1. How God Communicates with Us
2. Meeting God in the Bible
3. The Authority of the Bible
4. Why the Bible Is Enough
5. Feeding on the Word of God
For Further Reading

Some of these (29) booklets are outstanding about basic topics of biblical and reformed theology, suitable to give out or sell at low cost through church.CEP Bookstore - BASICS OF THE FAITH BKLET SET
 
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