Canon Formation: Tracing the Role of Sub-Collections in the Biblical Canon

by W. Edward Glenny (editor), Darian Lockett (Editor)

Contributors to this volume examine the various collections of canonical sub-units in the canon, considering the state of the question regarding each particular collection. The chapters introduce the issues involved in sub-collections being accepted in the canon, summarize the historical evidence of the acceptance of these collections, and discuss the compositional evidence of “canonical consciousness” in the various collections. The contributors consider paratextual evidence, for example, the arrangement of the books in various manuscripts, the titles of the books, and also include evidence such as the presence of catchwords, framing devices, and themes.

The book begins with a consideration of the two overarching collections – the Old and New Testaments. Next, several sub-collections within the Hebrew Bible (OT) are considered, including the Torah, Prophets, the Megilloth , the Twelve (both in their Masoretic Text and Septuagint forms), and the Psalter. In addition, sub-collections in the New Testament include the four-fold Gospel, the Pauline Collection (usually with Hebrews in the early manuscripts), the function of Acts within the New Testament, the Praxapostolos (Acts along with the Catholic Epistles), and the function of Revelation as the end of the canon.

370 pages, Paperback

Published August 22, 2024

Reviews

[Ched Spellman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I contributed the final essay for this volume.

[Clark Bartholomew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a tough one to give a grade to. There’s a lot of interesting historical, textual, and ecclesiastical data in here and some of the chapters are really good about how subgenre’s impact the “formation” of canon (shoutout to Greg Lanier’s chapter on the Gospels). And while it is helpful to have a variety of authors with different research emphases contribute to the end product, occasionally the differences in thought on canon or hermeneutics made me feel like Michael Scott’s experience with a certain procedure - snip, snap, snip, snap (especially the chapters on the prophetic books).

All-in-all, this one is definitely for the text and canon nerds.