From Revelation to Canon


Book Description

The essays collected in "From Revelation to Canon" include several studies of passages in the Hebrew Bible, the history of the high priesthood, calendars and festivals, 1 Enoch, and the Book of Jubilees. A previously unpublished paper examines the evidence for the development of a canon of scripture in Judaism. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.




Revelation


Book Description

The final book of the Bible, Revelation prophesies the ultimate judgement of mankind in a series of allegorical visions, grisly images and numerological predictions. According to these, empires will fall, the "Beast" will be destroyed and Christ will rule a new Jerusalem. With an introduction by Will Self.




Revelations


Book Description

A startling exploration of the history of the most controversial book of the Bible, by the bestselling author of Beyond Belief. Through the bestselling books of Elaine Pagels, thousands of readers have come to know and treasure the suppressed biblical texts known as the Gnostic Gospels. As one of the world's foremost religion scholars, she has been a pioneer in interpreting these books and illuminating their place in the early history of Christianity. Her new book, however, tackles a text that is firmly, dramatically within the New Testament canon: The Book of Revelation, the surreal apocalyptic vision of the end of the world . . . or is it? In this startling and timely book, Pagels returns The Book of Revelation to its historical origin, written as its author John of Patmos took aim at the Roman Empire after what is now known as "the Jewish War," in 66 CE. Militant Jews in Jerusalem, fired with religious fervor, waged an all-out war against Rome's occupation of Judea and their defeat resulted in the desecration of Jerusalem and its Great Temple. Pagels persuasively interprets Revelation as a scathing attack on the decadence of Rome. Soon after, however, a new sect known as "Christians" seized on John's text as a weapon against heresy and infidels of all kinds-Jews, even Christians who dissented from their increasingly rigid doctrines and hierarchies. In a time when global religious violence surges, Revelations explores how often those in power throughout history have sought to force "God's enemies" to submit or be killed. It is sure to appeal to Pagels's committed readers and bring her a whole new audience who want to understand the roots of dissent, violence, and division in the world's religions, and to appreciate the lasting appeal of this extraordinary text.




The New Testament Canon


Book Description

This careful evaluation of the Òproblem of the New Testament canonÓ engages historical, literary, and theological questions often not raised by the general reader. How did this collection of writings come into being? What assumptions and intentions contributed to its formation? Who or what determined its contents? On what basis did special authority come to be attached to these writings? How does the character of this collection bear upon its interpretation? In what ways does this collection claim or exercise religious authority? After grappling with these basic questions, Gamble concludes: ÒThe history of the canon indicates clearly enough that the contents of the New Testament were determined by the church on the basis of tradition...one cannot have scripture without also having tradition.Ó




The Canon of Scripture


Book Description

How did the books of the Bible come to be recognized as Holy Scripture? After nearly nineteen centuries the canon of Scripture remains an issue of debate. Adept in both Old and New Testament studies, F. F. Bruce brings the wisdom of a lifetime of reflection and biblical interpretation to bear in addressing the criteria of canonicity, the canon within the canon, and canonical criticism.




From Revelation to Canon


Book Description

Scholars who actually shape the fields they work in remain few and far between. University of Notre Dame professor James VanderKam, renowned for his writings on the Dead Sea Scrolls, is one of them. This volume represents the best of Professor VanderKam’s non-Qumran articles covering Second Temple Judaism, Hebrew Bible, apocalypticism, and key essays on 1 Enoch and Jubilees. Researchers and students will welcome having all of these readily available. Anyone working in these areas will appreciate VanderKam’s contributions to discussions concerning calendars and festivals, the high priesthood, and prophecy and apocalyptic in the ancient Near East. A new essay on the development of Scripture’s canon rounds out this essential collection. This publication has also been published in hardback, please click here for details.




From Revelation to Canon


Book Description

From Revelation to Canon is a collection of essays that offers studies of texts, traditions, and themes from the Hebrew Bible and from the extra-biblical literature of the second-temple period. Included in it are studies of apocalypticism, the high priesthood, calendars and festivals, and a series of essays on aspects of 1 Enoch and the Book of Jubilees. There is also a previously unpublished essay on the development of a canon of scripture in Judaism. The volume gathers in one place, papers that were originally published in several journals, volumes of essays, and Festschriften. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.




Canon Revisited


Book Description

Given the popular-level conversations on phenomena like the Gospel of Thomas and Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus, as well as the current gap in evangelical scholarship on the origins of the New Testament, Michael Kruger's Canon Revisited meets a significant need for an up-to-date work on canon by addressing recent developments in the field. He presents an academically rigorous yet accessible study of the New Testament canon that looks deeper than the traditional surveys of councils and creeds, mining the text itself for direction in understanding what the original authors and audiences believed the canon to be. Canon Revisited provides an evangelical introduction to the New Testament canon that can be used in seminary and college classrooms, and read by pastors and educated lay leaders alike. In contrast to the prior volumes on canon, this volume distinguishes itself by placing a substantial focus on the theology of canon as the context within which the historical evidence is evaluated and assessed. Rather than simply discussing the history of canon—rehashing the Patristic data yet again—Kruger develops a strong theological framework for affirming and authenticating the canon as authoritative. In effect, this work successfully unites both the theology and the historical development of the canon, ultimately serving as a practical defense for the authority of the New Testament books.




When the Man Comes Around: A Commentary on the Book of Revelation


Book Description

"Though St. John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators." ~ G.K. Chesterton The book of Revelation was written to do just that: reveal. But most commentaries nowadays either engage in bizarre speculations about the future, or they keep an embarrassed distance from all the apocalyptic events that the apostle John says will “shortly take place.” In this commentary, Douglas Wilson provides a passage-by-passage walkthrough of the entire book, showing how John’s most notorious prophecies concern the Fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Explaining symbols and characters as he goes, Wilson shows from the text that not only is this book not an elaborate code, but that Revelation is not even ultimately concerned with the end of the world as we know it. Revelation is about the triumph of the Church, which always happens when the Man comes around.




The Question of Canon


Book Description

For many years now, the topic of the New Testament canon has been the main focus of my research and writing. It is an exciting field of study that probes into questions that have long fascinated both scholars and laymen alike, namely when and how these 27 books came to be regarded as a new scriptural deposit. But, the story of the New Testament canon is bigger than just the "when" and the "how". It is also, and perhaps most fundamentally, about the "why". Why did Christians have a canon at all? Does the canon exist because of some later decision or action of the second- or third-century church? Or did it arise more naturally from within the early Christian faith itself? Was the canon an extrinsic phenomenon, or an intrinsic one? These are the questions this book is designed to address. And these are not micro questions, but macro ones. They address foundational and paradigmatic issues about the way we view the canon. They force us to consider the larger framework through which we conduct our research - whether we realized we had such a framework or not. Of course, we are not the first to ask such questions about why we have a canon. Indeed, for many scholars this question has already been settled. The dominant view today, as we shall see below, is that the New Testament is an extrinsic phenomenon; a later ecclesiastical development imposed on books originally written for another purpose. This is the framework through which much of modern scholarship operates. And it is the goal of this volume to ask whether it is a compelling one. To be sure, it is no easy task challenging the status quo in any academic field. But, we should not be afraid to ask tough questions. Likewise, the consensus position should not be afraid for them to be asked.